Chapter 54

He flinched, eyes snapping back to mine. After a long silence, he finally forced himself to speak.

“Have you… given up on me now…?”

“Yes.”

“How can you give up so easily?! You stayed by my side even after knowing about those bets, so why now…!”

I replied with an indifferent expression.

“Do you remember when we used to sneak into your father’s wine cellar?”

“I remember. There was that oak barrel with father’s favorite wine. I broke the edge of it.”

“That’s right. We tried to fix it. We found some wooden planks and nailed them over the crack.”

Ulysses let out a short, bitter laugh.

“We both wrecked our hands, smashed by the hammer and splinters from the planks. Is that how Father found out we’d broken the barrel?”

“No.”

I replied, my face expressionless.

“We tried to patch it up with planks, but the wine kept leaking out. When your father opened it and found the barrel empty, that’s how we got caught.”

“Ah. That’s right. I’d forgotten about that.”

“I haven’t.”

“…What?”

“No matter how hard I tried, how much I patched up the wounds you and your friends gave me, nothing could stop it all from seeping out. That’s how I ended up completely empty.”

“….”

“That’s why you can’t be my friend anymore.”

Ulysses’s eyes began to waver again.

The gentle curve of his lips, softened by childhood memories, had grown hard once more.

“So stop worrying about my safety. Even caring about someone requires a certain right.”

“I…”

“Just like you always thought it was ridiculous for me to worry about you, since I was nothing more than your fool.”

Ulysses could only lower his head.

And after a while—

“Twice a week. Once it’s past nine, that tavern turns into a den for drug traffickers.”

He revealed the true nature of the tavern.

‘A drug den?’

I was dumbfounded.

He’s a drug addict, too, on top of everything else?

He really does it all, doesn’t he—’

“You’ve got that ‘what next?’ look on your face, Nike.”

‘Sharp as ever.’

Tch.

I crossed my arms and turned my head away.

“I was your perfect doormat in the past, wasn’t I? So consider this you paying me back for taking advantage of me. Let me inside, I don’t care whether you spread rumors or not.”

Being known as a mad troublemaker sure came in handy at times like this. Even if I walked into a den of addicts, people would just say, ‘Now Nikaearsha is doing drugs too,’ and that would be the end of it.

“If I don’t spread any rumors… then will you come back to me?”

“What?”

“Your feelings for me.”

“Just go shout at a magical device if you need to get something off your chest.”

I kept walking without looking back.

‘Since Ulysses said we’re with him, the doormen shouldn’t stop us this time.’

I’d better get inside and find out whatever I could about Cleas and Brown before Ulysses had a chance to say something stupid.

Lost in these thoughts as I walked, Leonard hurried after me. Just as we were about to leave the alley, Ulysses’s voice called out from behind us.

“That ‘what next’ look, isn’t that basically the same as worry?!”

“Oh, honestly.”

“You could still come back…”

“It’s not worry, it’s disgust. The very thing you’ve always shown me.”

“I… I regret it…”

“….”

“I regret everything I ever did to you…”

“No, you don’t even know the half of what you’ve done.”

With that, I shot Ulysses a final glare and completely left the alley.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ୨ৎ ໒꒱ ‧₊ ୧‿︵

This time, getting into the tavern was surprisingly easy.

The doormen were exceedingly polite.

“How much of this stuff has Ulysses taken to be treated like royalty here?”

As I muttered in disbelief, Leonard replied.

“I doubt he’s a buyer.”

“Huh?”

“People who use have a certain look about them. But Lord Ulysses didn’t show any of those signs.”

“Then…”

“Yes, he must be connected in another way—”

“You mean he’s a dealer?!”

I recoiled in horror.

“If he’s involved in distribution, that’s even worse. Ugh.”

“…There could be other connections, but you really don’t think much of Lord Ulysses.”

“You heard the stories yourself. Do you really think there’s anything good to say?”

“I suppose it’s a miracle you haven’t killed him.”

Even though the tavern looked shabby from the outside, the basement was like a labyrinth of ant tunnels.

‘How many levels underground does this place go?’

We must have descended at least seven floors when, all of a sudden, Leonard clapped a hand over my nose and mouth.

“Mmm-ph!”

“It’s Kable. Please hold your breath as much as you can.”

“Hable? (Kable?)”

“It’s a type of drug that’s inhaled through its scent. Originally, it’s a refined mineral used for mental attacks in magic, but it’s highly addictive.”

“Hem hwherh hen? (Then what about you, Leonard?)”

“Kable is so rare and difficult to transport that the profit margins are outrageous. I’d actually considered handling it as a magical ingredient at Rosarabbit, so I’ve taken an antidote.”

Well, that was a relief.

I scanned our surroundings. The further down we went, the worse people looked. On this floor, most of them were sprawled about, barely conscious.

“Are we going further down?”

At Leonard’s question, I hesitated.

‘It’s getting dangerous. People high on the drug are starting to show signs of aggression.’

I pulled Leonard’s hand away and spoke.

“We’ll go down just one more floor, and if we don’t find anything, we’ll turn back… Wait, did you say refined?”

“Pardon? Oh, yes. Kable has to be refined from the raw mineral.”

“Who does the refining?”

“Well, a mage, of course…”

A mage!

‘It’s Brown. Brown is the one doing the refining.’

Leonard seemed to realize it, too, as his eyes lit up.

We wandered through the floor and soon discovered a strange passageway.

‘There aren’t any addicts on this side.’

Some of the addicts who had been crawling this way actually turned around and started inching back the way they came. I watched them for a moment and muttered,

“Neutralizing incense. Someone’s sprayed neutralizer along this corridor.”

“So the addicts instinctively turn back, searching for the scent of the drug.”

‘Right. That must mean there’s something important here.’

As Leonard and I immediately slipped down the passage, we found a door at the end of the corridor. Voices drifted out from inside.

“My head is killing me. Ease up on the neutralizer.”

“If we ease up, the addicts will make it all the way here. That incense is heavy for a reason. Do you have any idea how sharp the Tower Master’s nose is?”

“That’s why I keep telling you to just leave the Tower Master’s side. No matter how close you are to him, you’ll never make it to the Central Circle. What will that experiment-crazed maniac ever do for you?”

I whispered softly to Leonard.

“That’s Brown’s voice. Sounds like there are only two people inside, who’s the other one?”

“I recognize him.”

“You do? Who is it?”

“It’s the mage who came to treat you when you collapsed. His name was… ah, right, ‘Bluewin’.”

The moment I heard that, I pulled back my hood.

“My lady?”

“How convenient.”

“Pardon?”

Before I regressed, when I was married to Cleas, I saw the people he commanded.

Among them, there was one who used magic.

His name was…

‘Bluewin.’

When I kicked the door open with a loud bang, Leonard’s eyes went so wide they almost popped out.

“My lady! There are two mages in there, what are you thinking?!”

“There are only two of them.”

“What if they attack?!”

“They won’t.”

“Yes?”

See?

They didn’t attack. Both mages just stood there frozen like statues, wide-eyed.

I smiled thinly.

“Hello, Bluewin.”

“The Lady of Delosif? How did you…”

“So you know me. I know you as well.”

And I know your weaknesses, too.

“Abrakita Trap Davia. (Let pain befall those who’ve lost their reason.)”

“Gaaaaahh—!”

Bluewin collapsed to the floor, writhing in agony.

Because this was the curse trigger Cleas used to control Bluewin!

‘After hearing it so often during my marriage, I ended up memorizing the trigger word.’

But then—

“Gkhhuuuk—!“

Brown, why are you suffering too?