5

The old woman understood what Talidge was trying to say there.

“…Are you saying you’re someone he shouldn’t have caught? For a fool, it seems you at least have the wisdom to use that big body of yours to intimidate people. But sorry, I can’t listen to that request.”

However, the old woman did not take Talidge seriously and went back inside the house, then closed the shabby door.

Talidge sighed, slowly headed toward the house the old woman had entered, and stopped in front of the door.

The boy merely stared blankly, wondering what exactly Talidge was about to do.

In the next moment.

Talidge kicked the door down with his legs, which were like great trees.

The door blew away with a loud crash. The boy trembled in surprise with his small body.

“Wh-what is this!”

The old woman, who was holding the pouch, raised a panicked voice for the first time.

Talidge looked at the old woman’s face while grabbing the wooden wall of the house with his large hand. Holding back the urge to laugh at her panicked face, Talidge opened his mouth.

“This isn’t a request. If you don’t give that pouch back, the sea you’ll be swallowed by is going to be a sea of rubble, old hag. Are you confident you can swim through it?”

The pillar Talidge was gripping creaked loudly.

After snatching the pouch back from the old woman, Talidge stepped outside the dilapidated house.

Before him, the boy was looking at Talidge while anxiously gripping several coins.

“I won’t take them. Those are the results you obtained while taking a risk, right? The fact that the fool who got robbed is at fault doesn’t change.”

“…”

“I don’t know what purpose you have, but it doesn’t seem like this is just bread money to get through today.”

“…”

The boy continued to remain silent.

Talidge hated the kind of eyes the boy was directing at him.

“But this isn’t something you can keep doing forever. If you pick the wrong target, you’ll die one of these days. Well, I don’t intend to extend a hand to you, so how you live is up to you.”

Talidge walked past the boy and returned to where the sunlight reached.

“I pray I never see your corpse.”

Even so, the boy kept tightly gripping the coins as he stared at Talidge’s back until he disappeared.

After returning to the noisy crowd, Talidge headed to the restaurant where Ains and Sophia had likely gone ahead.

Since Talidge was taller than those around him, he could see ahead without any difficulty. With his own eyes, he found the restaurant Sophia had told him beforehand that Ains and the others were stopping by, then entered.

Ains and the others were already seated, but it seemed their order had not gone through yet, and no dishes were lined up on the table.

“So the food isn’t here yet.”

Talidge sat at the round table.

“Talidge, where did you go?”

Ains was happily looking down at the menu.

“Here. Your lost item.”

Talidge placed the pouch on the table.

“Huh!? Wait? It’s gone before I knew it.”

Ains looked at the pouch that had been placed down and put his hand to the waist where he had hung it. He tilted his head, wondering where he had dropped it, but it seemed he still had not noticed that it had been stolen.

“It was a crowded place, after all. It would not be strange if you had dropped it due to some chance movement.”

Sophia nodded as she checked the pouch.

“I see. So you were looking for this, Talidge. Wow, you saved me. If I had lost the medal with the Brandy family’s crest on it, I wonder what I would have been told…”

Remembering the long, nagging lecture he had once received from Kansas, Ains’s face turned pale.

“…This is strange.”

“Sophia, is something wrong?”

Sophia had noticed something. She was staring closely at the pouch while bringing a hand to her chin.

“I feel as if it is slightly less bulging than before. Talidge, I see. You pilfered some of its contents, did you not?”

“…You’re terrifying.”

Talidge shuddered, wondering how Sophia could tell that just by looking. Moreover, what the boy had stolen was only a few coins inside.

When it came to anything involving Ains, Sophia possessed terrifying powers of observation.

“You are the terrifying one, Talidge. What were you doing after pilfering Lord Ains’s money?”

“Talidge, is that true?”

Ains opened the pouch and checked inside, but he had no idea how much its contents had decreased.

“I bought a little something at a food stall. It’s fine, isn’t it? Rather than losing it because you dropped it, I picked it up and brought it back, so it’s not strange for me to get a small share.”

Talidge showed no sign of guilt, saying he was not some errand boy.

“That and this are separate matters. In the first place, what is with that attitude of yours?”

Sophia, too, had confirmed that Ains had not dropped the pouch, but that the boy had stolen it. She had signaled Talidge to retrieve it, but that did not mean she had intended to permit him to use the money.

Their usual argument seemed like it was about to begin, so Ains stepped between them.

“Now, now, Sophia. It’s fine. He really did help me. If he had used all of it, that would be one thing, but from the look of it, it was a small amount.”

“If Lord Ains says so…”

Sophia could not press strongly in front of Ains.

Talidge made an irritating expression as if to say, “See?”

“You… Be grateful for Lord Ains’s generous heart!”

“Yeah, thanks. Don’t drop it next time.”

Sophia immediately placed her hand on the sword at her waist.

Talidge raised both hands and made himself look frightened.

“Not inside the restaurant, Sophia. More importantly, the food we’ve been waiting for is coming. Right now is the time to look forward to the dishes that will be brought over.”

In contrast to Sophia’s stern expression, Ains took up his fork excitedly.

The inside of the restaurant was spacious, and many customers were enjoying the fish dishes in front of them. There was an appetite-stirring smell, and customers were enjoying conversation while eating. A peaceful atmosphere spread throughout the restaurant. Everyone was focused on the food before them, and no one noticed Sophia’s dangerous mood.

“Phew… That is true. This is the meal time Lord Ains has been looking forward to. Quarreling would be wrong.”

“I wasn’t planning to fight, though.”

After that, until the food arrived, the three of them chatted merrily while observing their surroundings and imagining what the food would taste like.

Just as the food was about to be brought to Ains and the others’ table, the restaurant door was thrown open violently.

“This is bad! Evacuate from here right now!”

A man who appeared to be one of the fishermen entered the restaurant. The man was pouring sweat like a waterfall and shouted while out of breath.