Chapter 13

An inn was always bound to be crowded with all kinds of people.
The inn in the Navigatou territory was no different.
In particular, this inn located in the center of the territory was a place where even more people gathered.

“To ask us to meet in a place like this. That’s not very noble-like.”
“…….”

Serpens and Lucas stood in front of the inn’s entrance and looked around.
Since it was right after killing monsters, their bodies felt unpleasant from sweat and blood.
The two were already used to it, so they didn’t pay much attention to it.

“A drunkard here. A drunkard there. And…… over there too.”

Serpens looked at one place.
A person who repeated laughing and crying.
The man, who looked more than a little pathetic, had a rather familiar face.

“Sir Rail. How much alcohol did you drink?”
“Shir Serpensh, you’ve come?”

Serpens’s face crumpled.
Both his smell and his speech were filled with the scent of alcohol.
He had expected it, but he had not thought it would be this bad.

“……What happened with the investigation I asked you to do?”

Lucas asked quietly.
Serpens could read the emotion at the end of his words.
Contempt.
It was not exact, but it was roughly something similar to that.

“Ah! That, you mean? I found it all out. This! Rail Navigatou found it all out, I tell you!”

Serpens made a vow.
That even when he became an adult, he would not drink alcohol like this.

“There was no one, no one. They say not even a low-classh magician visited, let alone a high-class one. Hahaha! There are magicians who originally live in the territory! But they are all low-class! They are not at a level that could make such a massive monster!”
“……I see. Thank you for your trouble.”

It was different from his first thought, but it was what he had expected.
Demonic energy was not something humans possessed.
He had wondered if it might be black magic, but demonic energy was…….

‘This matter will grow larger.’

If it was a demon capable of handling demonic energy, that would be troublesome.
If it was a demonic human beyond even a demon…….
No. Now was not the stage to worry about that.

“For now, let us move to the territory. It will be troublesome if the young lord is like this.”
“Huh? It’s fine, Sir Lucas. No one caresh. Aside from you two, no one will know I’m Rail, right? Euhehe.”

He was laughing while drunk, but he did not look happy.
Rather, the laughter highlighted his loneliness.
Lucas quietly helped him to his feet.

“They may not know now, but they may come to know someday. You must conduct yourself properly in all matters to live without shame.”
“Yeshe……. I undershtand.”

Lucas paid for the alcohol.
Because Rail couldn’t maintain his senses.
Because he kept trying to pay not the price of the alcohol, but a price that seemed like it could buy the entire inn.

Step. Step.

‘Alcohol really is scary. The person drinking it looks happy, but the people around him look like they have it rough.’

Serpens looked at the two people walking ahead.
Rail, supported by Lucas because even walking on his own was difficult.

“Lucas, are you all right?”
“…….”
“If it’s tiring, could we not just call Rail’s subordinates?”
“We could.”
“Then why not call them?”
“Look at Rail’s state.”
“Ah……. That is true.”

He looked like a mushroom that had grown out of Lucas’s body.
Of course, he didn’t look nutritious either.
At the very least, it was not the appearance of a normal human.

Such an appearance would be embarrassing even in front of someone he had just met.
If he showed that appearance to acquaintances, especially his subordinates, he might die of shame.

“Euak!”

Rail opened his eyes amid an uneasy softness.
An uneasiness that did not suit the languid sunlight entering through the window.
A throbbing head, a stomach that felt overturned, and last night, which he could not remember.
Combining each of the keywords he felt, he had no choice but to quickly get up from the bed.

‘Damn it! This is bad.’

He dragged his staggering body and left the room.
Waking up in his own room after blacking out was a problem in itself.
How had he come to his room while heavily drunk?
If his father had seen him in that state…….

“Uaaak!”

A tragedy he did not even want to imagine had come right up to his doorstep.

Smack!

Rail slapped his own cheek.
To think he wanted something to cure his hangover even in the middle of this.
It was more than a little pathetic.

Tadadadak.

He hurried down the stairs.
The butler Albastian should be somewhere on the first floor.
If he asked him, he would be able to understand the whole situation.

“Albastian! Albastian!”

Rail shouted.
No answer came back.
With his heart becoming even more urgent, he blindly ran toward where he sensed people.

Bam!

“Albas—”

The moment he opened the door to the reception room.
Rail’s body froze for an instant.
There,

“Sir Rail! Did you sleep well?”

Serpens was waving his hand with a broad grin.

“…….”

Lucas was quietly looking at him.

“You’re awake.”

Kerel Navigatou was there, drinking tea with an unreadable expression.

He could not understand why those people were together.

“You were heavily drunk.”
“……I apologize.”

Rail tightly shut his eyes.
Whatever rebuke came would be natural.
The Kerel he knew might even drive him out of the family.

“I am truly sorr—”
“Well done.”

That was why the words from Kerel’s mouth struck him with even greater shock.

“……Pardon?”
“I hear you contributed to dealing with the monsters. I grew angry without knowing that. I am sorry.”
“……!”
“I heard it from these people. They said that you came to find me in order to search for the mastermind behind the unsavory incident.”

Rail looked at Serpens and Lucas with widened eyes.
Lucas quietly drinking his water and Serpens showing him a bright smile.
He could quickly understand the situation.

‘I received help.’

Rail knew that he himself had not actually been of any help.
Even so, they gave him the credit.
He was grateful, but he couldn’t understand it.
At the very least, he was certain he would not have been able to do that.

“I have seen your face and apologized, so that is enough. I should get back to my overdue work.”

Kerel rose from his seat and looked at Lucas.

“Thank you for your help.”
“It was nothing.”

The two exchanged greetings with simple nods.

“Please go ahead, Father.”
“Yes.”

A little while after Kerel left.
Rail looked at the remaining two with a twitching face.
His eyes were tearful with emotion, and the corners of his mouth rose with happiness.

“I will surely repay this favor. Whether it is money or help, please tell me anything you need.”

Tears gathered in Rail’s eyes.
At his tearful voice, Serpens could not help but burst into laughter.

“It’s all right. The compensation for our help has already-”

Serpens hurriedly cut off Lucas’s words.

“……?”

Serpens conveyed his meaning with an intense gaze as the signal.
It was probably an action meant to create another benefit.
Lucas hated himself for understanding that signal.

“It’s fine for now, Sir Rail. If there is something we need on the day we meet again someday, I will ask you then.”
“Of course! Whenever you need help, please visit the territory.”

His sparkling, pure eyes were soaked in emotion.

“……Serpens.”
“Haha……. Let it slide, Lucas. It’s all for our own good.”
“…….”

Lucas silently drank water once more.
Thinking, What a relief, Serpens continued speaking.

“We’ve already finished speaking with the count. We’ve also finished preparing to leave this place. We stopped by to say goodbye before we head off.”

During the fairly long time Rail had been out cold.
The two had finished preparing to leave the Navigatou territory through their conversation with Kerel.
The only reason they had stayed until now was purely to say goodbye to Rail.
Of course, it was entirely Serpens’s idea.

‘In one way, he is a frightening brat. Once he picks someone, he milks them for every benefit he can get.’

Lucas let out a small sigh.
It had been a long time since he realized Serpens was no ordinary brat.
For his own benefit, he did his best without caring about means or methods.
But if it wasn’t a situation that benefited him, he didn’t want sacrifice.
Even if that sacrifice was meant to cut off future trouble.

Was it because he hadn’t yet experienced anything major? That was probably not it.
There was no way he hadn’t felt it through his life as a beggar.
And yet, the reason he didn’t want sacrifice was…….

‘Is it his nature?’

The name of such a nature was goodness. Or humanity.
Lucas sometimes saw these things as foolish.
Not leaving future trouble behind was just as important as securing present benefit.
Perhaps it might be even more important.
If Serpens continued to stay with him, this nature would surely become poison to the boy.

‘However……’

Lucas dared to think.
It was certainly a flaw for a boy who had taken up the sword, but even so, could he not carry this flaw to the end?
Could he not nurture the nature known as goodness alongside strength?

But this thought was only his wish.
He could not drive the boy who had taken up the sword into a corner because of his own wish.

“I see……. I am truly grateful. Sir Lucas, Sir Serpens.”
“Uhaha. Not at all! We live by helping each other, after all.”

For the boy not to lose the pure smile fitting a boy.
That was Lucas’s personal wish, and a new goal that had begun to bloom deep in his heart.

Clatter. Clatter.

The carriage carrying Serpens and Lucas moved along a forest path.

“Ah, what a shame. It would’ve been nice if Sir Rail traveled with us too.”
“……He will be busy with the territory’s affairs.”
“Would you have allowed it if he said he would follow us?”
“…….”
“I knew it.”

Serpens looked up at the sky between the leaves through the window.
It wasn’t because he had been overcome by sentiment.
It was merely a way to reduce his motion sickness even a little.

“Hoo……. Still, it’s exciting. To think we are going to Oratio.”

Oratio. It was the capital of the Oratio Empire.

Until only about a month ago, it was a place he had only heard the name of.
For a beggar busy living day to day, it was also a place he’d never even thought he could go to.

The more fascinating point was that they were going to meet an acquaintance of Lucas.
To think even this blunt human had a friend.
He became curious what kind of person it would be.

“It’s not greatly different from other places. It’s merely bigger, more splendid, more crowded, and more developed.”
“Isn’t that greatly different?”
“It is a difference in perspective.”
“……Yeah, yeah.”

According to the rumors Serpens had heard, Oratio was like a city of dreams.
A city of dreams where meals were distributed for free, where education was provided without charge for the poor, and where there was no discord among people.
Of course, he did not completely believe the rumors.
Because, as always, rumors were bound to be distorted.

But even distorted rumors were ultimately based on small facts.
Whatever those small facts were, he had an expectation that they would be better than his own life.

“How long will it take to reach the territory?”
“Long.”
“……That wasn’t the kind of vague answer I wanted.”
“If we go quickly, one week. If something happens along the way, it may double.”

Serpens found Lucas strange.
Lucas had maintained indifference from the beginning.
Aside from very few, subtle changes, there were many times when he felt as if Lucas had no emotions.

It was like that even now.
When talking to someone, he didn’t meet their eyes or show changes in expression.
Serpens no longer even expected him to respond properly.

But even so, he took good care of Serpens.
The standard for taking good care of someone differed from person to person.
There were people who said that only taking care of someone physically, or only mentally, was not a good action.
But Serpens was in a position where he would be grateful even if someone did only one of the two.
Objectively speaking, Lucas was helping the boy grow well, both physically and mentally.

Though it was to the point of overworking his body, he was helping him grow quickly and efficiently.
And he had become a mental pillar that allowed him not to worry when something happened.

So what if a person was a little indifferent?
Indifference was far better than the neglect the boy had lived with his whole life.

“Lucas. I don’t know if I’ve said this before.”
“……?”
“Thank you. Truly.”
“……It feels as if I chewed a poisonous mushroom. It would be better if you didn’t say such things.”
“Oh, come on! I mustered up my courage and said something nice, and this is how you treat me?!”
“I never told you to muster up your courage.”
“Ahh! Just watch what I do from now on!”

For the first time, Serpens began to trust someone.