Chapter 81

When Gerario, who had apparently been preparing for the long journey to investigate the possibility of magic stone smuggling, returned, he needled me over the fact that I still had not made up with Kururu.

Gerario and Kururu were talking normally, and perhaps because I was conscious of it, they felt even more like master and pupil than usual, which depressed me even more.

I wondered if I should have ignored Iiria’s advice and spoken to her after all, but I could not imagine myself successfully making up with her either.

Besides, Iiria’s words strangely stuck with me.

“Big brother… huh…”

Not an older guy, nor elder brother.

The nuance of “big brother” in Iiria’s words made me feel even more unsettled.

In the end, it meant that a dirty joke that would have been nothing if Kengo or Gerario had said it had put her off because I had said it.

Even if I could not give off Gerario’s weary, seasoned masculine air, my self-image had been that I was only a little more reserved than Kengo.

It was not as though I particularly wanted to be seen as some macho man, but when I was clearly shown that I was not, that felt dishonorable in its own way. Perhaps that was what one called a complicated male heart.

I was certainly aware that dirty jokes did not suit me, but…

Because I kept repeating such agonizing thoughts, even when Ostro and the others gave us a lesson in table manners for tomorrow night’s dinner, I could not focus at all.

As with walking, Iiria handled it smoothly, Kururu made mistakes but learned quickly, and what was frustrating was that Gerario was perfect. Apparently, it was because he had fought in various places as a mage and often dealt directly with the lordly class.

With such a vulgar and rough appearance, being able to handle manners properly was cheating! That was what I thought, and I also understood that with that sense of reliability, Iiria might want to ask him for tobacco, and Kururu would look at him with respect as a pupil.

While struggling to neatly cut apart the white flesh of a fish with a dull knife, I suddenly thought.

Could it be that I was jealous?

At the unfamiliar emotion inside me, my hand slipped, and the fish’s flesh fell apart.

I certainly thought Kururu was cute, but I should have seen her as a comrade in battle.

No, was that itself just the self-deception of a coward, and had I not simply seen Kururu as someone of the opposite sex? Surely there had been times when I was captivated by her smile.

In other words, had I looked at Kururu that way…? Was that why I had been so shocked that she had not seen me as a man?

But then again, Kururu was clearly more at ease with Kengo and Gerario than with me… Just as I was about to sink into the swamp of unpopular-man thinking, a clink made me suddenly come back to myself.

When I looked, Iiria had knocked over a glass vessel.

“Excuse me.”

How to behave after making a mistake was also an important part of etiquette.

Iiria seemed to be waiting calmly, with her back straight, for the serving girls to clean it up, but something was strange.

Her face seemed oddly stiff.

“Is something the matter?”

When Ostro, as the host, asked in a manner suited to his role, Iiria shook her head, then lightly pressed her gloved hand to her forehead.

“The alcohol is a little…”

It was after a two-day voyage.

On top of that, during the day, she had shown her tomboyish side, inhaled tobacco smoke, and collapsed.

I thought it could not be helped, but immediately after that,

I noticed the face of Kururu, who was sitting across from Iiria.

“…Huh?”

Her eyes were wide open, and she was glaring at Ostro.

But when her right hand grabbed the knife, it stopped there, and when she tried to lift it, it dropped weakly onto the table with a plop.

Her shoulders trembled in small shudders, and though she was gritting her teeth, her delicate body began to tilt.

“You…”

The serving girls swiftly supported Kururu’s body as she slowly began to fall from her chair.

As if nothing had happened.

Yes.

As if they had expected it.

“I thought that even if they made a move, it would be tomorrow.”

The one who said that was Gerario, and he was looking down at the food we had been eating.

“I did think it was a strangely herb-heavy, fancy meal, but…”

Ostro looked at Gerario and coldly shrugged, then looked at Iiria, who was nearby, and nodded in satisfaction.

Iiria’s eyes were open, but her mouth would not close, and she was being held by the serving girls with a blank look on her face.

Something had been put in the food.

And since there were two girls with beastfolk blood, the food had been prepared with excessive caution.

So much so that even the battle-hardened Gerario had not noticed.

And before long, my own hands also began to feel like they belonged to someone else.

“We will not do anything rough.”

When Ostro clapped his hands, men entered the room.

They carried Iiria and Kururu, moved behind me and Gerario as well, and lifted us from our chairs.

As expected of Gerario, he threw a punch at the men, but only the first one swung properly, and the second was not even enough to swat a fly.

The men dealt with him calmly and pinned him down.

As for me, of course, I was already almost in a dreamlike daze.

Ostro, whom I looked at last, was wiping his mouth with cold eyes.

“Prepare some proper liquor to cleanse my palate. Good grief, being made to sit at a beast-stinking table is such an unrewarding role.”

Those words, spat out like that, were far removed from the pleasant innkeeper he had seemed to be.

This was a harsh world.

No smile could be trusted—.