08

About two hours had passed.

Just as Talidge had imagined, Darius returned to the room with his face flushed bright red.

“Hey, Talidge! Did you come up with a way to recover your evaluation yet!? I got chewed out by my father because of you! This won’t be settled with something half-baked!”

Darius shouted at Talidge the moment he stepped inside.

Talidge, however, did not so much as flinch.

“For what it’s worth. My companions say they found a holy relic. I don’t know the details, but it’s probably something valuable to you, Darius-sama, right?”

Talidge himself barely understood what a holy relic truly was, but upon hearing this, Darius’s expression shifted from fury to delight.

“What!? A holy relic!? You had information that important? Indeed, holy relics are extremely valuable here in the Santia Kingdom!”

“…So if I bring back that holy relic, I can still stay under you, Darius-sama?”

Talidge spoke not with pleading eyes, but with the air of someone resigned to necessity.

“Hmph! Well, if that relic is genuine, it should preserve appearances before my father. So? When will you obtain it?”

“I plan to meet up with my companions now. We’ll make our move in earnest tomorrow, so I’ll have it by then.”

Darius listened with his eyes closed, nodding thoughtfully.

No doubt he was calculating something in his head.

“Well, after what happened today, I won’t get my hopes up.”

Darius said so with a hint of sarcasm, but as he imagined what would happen after acquiring the holy relic, the corners of his mouth were already loosening.

Watching him, Talidge thought what a simple young master he was, and offered a perfunctory word of thanks.

After Darius returned to his own room and Talidge was alone again, Talidge left the estate.

The sun had already set, and the surroundings were dark and silent.

Being a residential district, there was none of the daytime bustle of the general wards, nor were there any people walking about.

The moon hung in the night sky, and streetlamps brighter than the moonlight cast their glow onto the stone-paved road.

Passing through the residential district and entering the general ward, noise began to rise. Unlike the daytime, it was the raucous clamor of people emboldened by alcohol.

Talidge felt the urge to dive in and drink immediately, but he restrained himself and passed through the general ward.

He arrived at the commercial district.

Though quieter than the general ward, the southern part of the commercial district still held some bustle. Near the area the kingdom called the slums stood the building where Talidge’s companions gathered.

Talidge opened the wooden door and stepped inside.

“Boss! Good work today!”

Seeing Talidge enter, the men greeted him in turn.

Talidge gave a brief “Yeah” in response, walked deeper into the room, and sat down in the finest chair present.

It was Talidge’s personal chair.

“So, Boss. What brings you all the way here today?”

One of the men asked, carrying over a mug filled with red wine chilled by chunks of ice.

“Well, things went a bit south at noon. I need to smooth things over with the Sobi house’s young master.”

“…Boss, that sounds rough as always.”

“Well, because of that, we all get to enjoy the benefits.”

Talidge was able to pursue what he wanted without inconvenience, indulge in luxury, and take his ease.

The men standing before him shared in those benefits by following Talidge. They, too, had gained freedom and indulgence within the kingdom, and lacked for nothing.

“…You need something from us?”

“Yeah. That holy relic you mentioned earlier seems to be just the medicine needed to fix the young master’s mood.”

“Nobles across the kingdom would trip over themselves to get their hands on it.”

“…So it seems. Well?”

Talidge’s question was vague, but his long-time companions understood what he meant.

“Yeah. We were planning to grab it as soon as tomorrow.”

“I see. That’s perfect. It’d be a problem if you’d already converted it to gold coins before I knew.”

Talidge joked lightly without changing his expression.

The man laughed in reply.

“That young master wouldn’t be pleased even if you piled gold in front of him. Rich folks really are hard to understand.”

“Yeah. If we said, ‘This is the money from selling the holy relic,’ we’d probably end up out on the streets ourselves.”

Talidge tilted the mug.

The ice-cold wine slid down his throat. The room, packed with men, was stiflingly hot, and the chilled wine sank in deeply.

“Boss, you just wait here. We’ll go get it. …In return, you’ll give us a reward, right?”

“Of course. Give and take. I’m counting on you.”

“Got it. How about we drink for now? The others are fired up since you’re here.”

“Sounds good!”

They drank until they had emptied five large barrels of wine.

There were no women, making the gathering rather lacking in flair, but once the alcohol flowed, that hardly mattered. They made a ruckus over trivial things, traded punches among themselves, and others egged them on from the sidelines, raising the excitement even further.

After such an unsatisfying day, even cheap wine tasted good to Talidge when gulped down amid foolish revelry.

Talidge drank himself into a stupor, and it was near dawn, as the sun began to rise, when he finally lost consciousness and fell asleep.