Note: This side story is viewed from Brian’s view.

 

“Gosh, dang it, man. I am so fucked,” Brian muttered loudly as he entered the tavern. His airship had just landed at the labyrinth and finished unloading five crates of water crystals as well as other supplies such as lumber. He was covered in sweat as he helped others to unload them during which Duman and his team were merrily drinking or resting in the makeshift tavern which they had yet to name. The water crystals were only fist-sized but a whole crate of them was still heavy stuff.

“Bring the crates to the back of the tavern! Leave the rest just here at the platform!” He barked out an order. “And prepare to depart when I return! I am going to check on them!”

“Yes, sir!” Two men, carrying a crate on their shoulders, replied in union.

He didn’t have time to stay and had to return as soon as possible. The only reason he spared his time to pay a visit was because there hadn’t been a written report on their progress within the labyrinth. He didn’t specifically ask Duman to send a detailed report, either, so it wasn’t his fault. Taking a deep breath, he surveyed the area. The awkward-looking tavern, because it was constructed with a mix of lumber and bamboo, stood lonely on the plain not far from the giant crater. There were a few adventurers coming in and out of the crater. He recognized none of them, so they were just random adventurers. Those who were leaving the crater were full of loot, mainly rusted iron weapons which presumably orcs were carrying.

“We might need a local blacksmith and a smelter,” he whispered to himself while approaching the tavern.

 

“Yo, bossman. What’s up?” Duman casually greeted him from a table with an ale mug in his hand and foams around his mouth. Mezei was with him at the same table. They were a couple actually although they didn’t display affections publicly. They had been a couple for a while, and it was public knowledge within the guild, meaning no guys approached her. Even so, they weren’t always dispatched together. This was actually one of rare occasions where they were working together for an extended amount of time on field.

“Hey, Brian.” She threw in her greeting also. She, too, was having ale. There was a plate of boiled shrimp on a plate on the table along with red sauce.

“I see that you folks are having a good time, eh?” Brian fired back sarcastically while dangling his hands lifelessly as if trying to tell them that he had to lift heavy loads. He was working his butt off, and here they were, idly drinking ale in broad daylight. But then they had no drinking water, so it wasn’t their fault.

“Dude, you brought it upon yourself,” Duman retorted to which she chuckled. “Nobody told you to open a damned restaurant and then start a whole new fucking settlement in middle of nowhere.”

Sighing and shaking head, Brian approached a counter and asked Roseline for a mug of ale. Duman had a point, and he couldn’t argue back. He took down the whole mug in one shot and approached the table after grabbing another mug.

“Well, fuck, anyway, how was the duke? I heard good news but didn’t get any details.”

Duman and Mezei glanced at each other.

“He was good,” he replied curtly.

“Good? Just good?”

“Damn good,” she added curtly.

“Throw me a bone, will ya?” Having said so, he grabbed a shrimp, dipped it in the sauce, and threw it into his mouth. “I can’t get enough of this texture. So different from meat.”

“If it was possible, I would do anything to get him into the guild,” Duman said.

“Never seen a noble like that,” she added. “He was extremely down to earth and knew his role exactly. He didn’t even try to get the glory when a boss-type werewolf appeared.”

Duman nodded. “Indeed, he let us have it. Nobles in general would have tried to get the glory for it and then brag about that later.”

“I see. Not too surprised to hear that. I’ve dealt with him on numerous occasions. He was easy to work with.”

“He was easy to work with, yes, although commanding at times,” Mezei noted, explaining that he took control of the situation when the powerful werewolf appeared. “I’d say he is pretty much the perfect noble you could ever hope for. He’s there when you need but otherwise invisible.”

Nobles had a strong tendency to flex their authority, which was a quality commoners loathed the most. Kamil had no such quality. The only telling signs were his extremely calm demeanor and his formal speech.

“I don’t know what the lad has gone through, but he was a little too calm,” Duman added.

“Isn’t he young though? How old is he?” She asked.

“Fifteen, I believe,” Brian answered.

Duman was thirty two, and Mezei was twenty nine.

“Fifteen? Damn…, I knew he was young but not that young…”

Brian added, “Wanna know something funnier? His wife is nineteen.”

The couple blurted in unison, “Wow, damn…”

In a typical relationship, a man was almost always older than his counterpart. This applied in both commoner and noble relationships. Kamil being four years younger than Flora was pretty unique in that regard. In fact, their age gap was wide enough to be a firm reason for marriage refusal although the reverse wasn’t an issue at all. Case in point, Elias Hunt married Amy Wallen. He was in late 50s, and she was in early 20s. Now, this wasn’t being unfair to women. Unlike men who were able to procreate at any age, women had an expiry date on her womb. Essentially, age 30 was seen as a hard limit for women to give safe birth. Medically, women were able to procreate far older than that but that carried an equally higher chance of complications which their current medical technology, or the lack thereof, could not help them, should the need arise. Women still became pregnant at a later age than 30 if circumstances dictated it, like Loukia’s case. But overall it was greatly appreciated for women to give birth and be done with having children by age of 20 in nobility. There was no such a rule among commoners although the age 30 was seen as the ceiling even to them. The bottom line was that people wanted a smooth birth, and the younger women were, the less chance of complications. In a sense, by imposing the age limits, they were protecting women because the last thing people wanted was a loss of their wives and subsequent loss of the labor force ultimately for commoners. Therefore, a single parent was a rarity in this world.

“By the way, how is the kid?” Mezei asked. She was referring to Faro who was sent back to Ceres pronto after being severely wounded in the dungeon. His lung collapsed, and his ribs were cracked, not to mention that his left knee was shattered to pieces. He was lucky that Roseline, a water mage of affinity nine was available on site. Otherwise, he would have lost his leg for certain and even worse: death.

“He is in rehabilitation. It turns out that he cannot bend his left leg at all at the moment, so he is working on that right now.”

Faro had to work on it before his knee became irreversible. Even if only a little, his left leg needed to bend. The more he could bend his left leg, the less he’d limb visibly.

“I feel sad for the kid, but let’s be honest here. He asked for it.” Duman gave his honest take on the matter and both Brian and Mezei showed no strong reaction to his take, indirectly and silently agreeing with him.

“Anyway, once he recovers enough, I will take him as a receptionist at the guild. He’s got the looks at the least.”

“We should make sure that Amanda doesn’t steal his virginity,” Mezei joked with a chuckle. Amanda was twenty three year-old who was known to have slept with a lot of men. Basically, she got around.

“Well, the more experience he has, the better,” Brian replied indifferently. “Besides, he is disabled now.” He was indirectly implying that not many women would see him as a potential husband and that, if he can learn the joys of flesh, then perhaps he should.

“Well, that took a dark turn quickly,” Duman remarked and then drank his ale. “You ain’t wrong, though.”

“It’s just the reality of the situation, Duman.” Brian waved away, trying to clear the air.

“Isn’t his family pretty rich?” Mezei asked. “Surely, they would help him find a wife.”

Brian said weakly, carrying uncertainty in his voice, “It is hard to say. It depends on what kind of parents he has.”

Not every parent was caring and, for Faro’s family, they had three sons. If he was the only son, his future would have been more or less secured. He’d inherit the Macomaco farm and he would end up marrying a fine girl. Alas, that wasn’t the case for him. Given the fact that he was allowed to become a guild receptionist meant that he wasn’t in line to inherit the farm. It was questionable whether he would inherit anything.

“I did meet his mother a few times…,” he mumbled, “She didn’t look like a commoner … More like a noble lady who has fallen…”

It wasn’t unthinkable that a daughter of a fallen noble house ended up marrying the tea farmer. In his eyes, she was a bit different however. She acted way too dignified to be a fallen noble. A common trait shared among fallen nobles was resentment stemming from entitlement. She displayed no such trait. She was calm and corrected. In a sense, she was very much like …

“The duke.”

“Boss?” Mezei asked, waving her hands in front of his eyes. “You okay? You are spacing out.”

“I am fine. It’s just …”

The duke and she acted very much alike. Their mannerisms were so eerily similar that he felt like the duke learned his mannerism from her.

‘Could it be that the duke’s real family is the tea farmer? Is that why he is very protective of the farmer?’

Everyone understood that the duke was protective of the farmer due to the profit he brought in. It wasn’t unreasonable to think so. At the same time, he was really aggressively protective of them, stationing guards nearby and not allowing anyone at all to enter his estate unless approved. This was due to the fact that Grent didn’t like social interactions; He was an introvert, and only his close family knew this. Therefore, his wife, Vilma, was doing all business interactions. Besides, Grent couldn’t read or do complex math anyway. It was a miracle that he wasn’t taken advantage of when he was trying to sell the tea on his own in his younger days. Of course, that was how he met Vilma in the first place, so the lady luck graced him on more than one occasion.

‘As far as I know, the duke is a legalized bastard from the Lux Fenchel. It is entirely possible that the wife of the tea farmer is someone from the Fenchel family and that she is his biological mother.’

While he was putting the puzzle together, he realized that he wasn’t uncovering anything significant. It wasn’t a scandal or anything.

‘Just a little family history… I dare not disturb the peace he has created for the city.’

If Kamil was a corrupt noble, he might have been inclined to dig deeper and find the truth and then blackmail him because it looked certain that the duke wanted to cover the truth. Since that wasn’t the case, he had no reason to go further and decided to just let it go.

“Nevemind,” he said, beaming a weak grin. They looked at each other, wondering what he was thinking so deeply for a moment.

Duman said, “Anyway, I assume you are busy as fuck.”

Brian growled and took a long sip at the mug he was holding. “The restaurant is busy as hell. The single airship couldn’t keep up, so I ended up purchasing another second hand airship from the duke.”

He couldn’t wait for a new airship to be built, thus he purchased a used one again. Both parties benefited from this. Brian would get his airship faster, and Cezary would get a chance to replace an old model with a new one.

Mezei whistled. “Look at you, you own two airships now, you rich man.”

He clicked his tongue; He was not interested in being teased. “Anyway, I’ve brought a bunch of water crystals. They are -”

“I know what they do. The duke told me,” Duman interjected. “A single one is enough for a whole bathtub, yeah?”

“Good, that saves me time for an explanation then. They weren’t exactly cheap, but I couldn’t refuse.”

They weren’t cheap but cheaper than hauling water manually by a carriage, not to mention the amount of time required to haul a large amount of water since they couldn’t be hauled at once. The sea of this world was not salty, thus Tantan was able to provide water from the sea if they could. However, sea water, once stagnated, went bad quickly due to too many particles within. Water purification didn’t exist in this world, either, making sea water transportation possible but not feasible. 

“I’ve brought five crates which should be enough for at least two months by my own calculation.”

“I don’t mind drinking ale all the time, though,” Duman replied with a mischievous grin.

He replied stoically as if he couldn’t care less, “Sure, you do that.”

“Nah, I was just kidding. I don’t plan to die early. Back to water, it is.”

“How far have you gone down anyway?”

“We’ve gone down to the 6th floor,” Mezei reported. “We are currently taking a break from exploring.”

“I assume the 6th floor is full of werewolves?”

“Indeed,” Duman replied with a nod. “It’s getting harder for sure.”

She added, “Boss, we don’t know what is waiting for us on the 7th and 8th, but it will be tougher than just werewolves. We may be reaching the limit soon.”

“Meaning?”

“We are going to need the duke.”

“The duke? Why?”

“His command of magic… He casts magic that is simply unheard of. By borrowing Amanda and Roseline’s comments, it’s as if he is communicating directly with elementals and is telling them exactly what to do, and everything seems to be happening in his head.”

Roseline, who was casually overhearing them from a counter, approached them when she realized that they were talking about the duke’s magic.

She told them when close enough, “I swear to the God of Life: I’ve never seen anyone casting magic like that. The public knowledge is that he has a wind affinity of five. Realistically, he should not be able to cast chantless magic but he does anyway, not to mention the fact that he has dual affinity with fire.”

“The duke is not a normal person,” Duman added and then shrugged with a crooked smile. “Of course, that should be obvious by now.”

Mezei chimed in, “Boss, we are slowly reaching a point where we cannot physically proceed further. The 7th floor is probably going to be our limit. Beyond that point, we are either going to need an army or the duke.”

“Neither is easy,” said Brian while rubbing the bridge of his nose. “The duke is a busy man, and I am not saying that to decline politely. He is legitimately busy.”

He took a stroll every single day in the city to see the progress. Then there was the negotiation with Atra over this settlement. Then there were also business deals he was receiving pretty much daily. He was also doing some research of his own. His wife was also pregnant which he had to pay extra attention to. He was legitimately busy.

“We aren’t in a rush, though…, are we?” Roseline asked carefully.

Brian explained, “Well, if the negotiation breaks down, we must withdraw from here. At the moment, we are literally abusing the grace period. They are letting us stay here and do things only because the negotiation is going on.”

“How do you think the negotiation will go then?”

“I am not a hundred percent sure, but the Kingdom of Egra may have meddled in because I was informed that Isaac Knell paid the duke a visit. If so, I don’t expect it to go well.”

Duman, Mezei, and Roseline looked at each other at once, all of them donning a heavy look on their faces. It didn’t take a genius to foresee the outcome.

“In other words, time is of essence,” Duman concluded. “And, if we can finish exploring the place before the negotiation goes awry, that is going to be the ideal outcome, yeah?”

Brian nodded weakly without saying a word.

“Boss, can we send several more people then?”

“I will try…, but the whole guild is fucking busy. In fact, I want to recall some of you guys back, but that doesn’t look like an option.”

“We need more, not less, not a person less,” Duman fired back.

The ones gathered here were the best adventurers of the guild. Not having them back in Ceres was a big blow to the guild operations in general, and it was not in his best interest to recruit those from outside. That could complicate a lot of stuff, including loot distribution as well as leakage of information.

“I hear loud and clear. I suppose I will recruit more bodies soon. Anyway, good luck. I have to go back.”

“So soon?”

“Folks, you have no fucking clue how busy I am. Until I train a manager for the restaurant fully, I am so fucked.”

“Oh, shit, you are running the god damned place?” Duman uttered while snickering. “I wish I could see that. You running a food place?! You of all people?! Hahaha!”

Mezei and Roseline couldn’t resist smiling along.

“Yeah, yeah, see you, fuckers!”

What made them laugh their arses off was due to the fact that Brian looked like a brute. He was hardly suitable to be someone who would manage a restaurant where appearance mattered. Granted, being a manager, it wouldn’t be his job to show his face in front of the customers, still the very image of him working at a restaurant made them laugh.

“Damn them, making fun of me…,” He grumbled as he made his way toward the airship on a platform made of bamboo. “Yeah, yeah, I know I don’t look the part.”

He rolled his eyes up and pulled a few strands of his hair. They were still there. He wasn’t yet bald. In fact, his balding had apparently stopped. His hairline was nearly atop of his head, but he hadn’t lost the entity of his hair. With some creative hairdo, he could well hide his-now-vast forehead, which was what he had been doing. He thanked the warm climate for not becoming completely bald.

“Coming down to the South was the best decision I’ve ever made in my whole life,” He declared proudly. The dude really didn’t want to be bald and believed that it was the warm climate that saved his hair, which was probably not true but he chose to believe so anyway.