#070
“Where are you going without sleeping?”
It was fortunate I didn’t scream. The owner of the shadow wasn’t a monster but the owner of this mansion, Carlisle Lightinger.
“Wh-what a shock.”
I stepped back hesitantly to create distance, but Carlisle smoothly approached by that same distance.
“Why, why? Why are you here?”
“…Because I’m on my way to my room?”
“……”
Of course, Carlisle’s room was inside the corridor past my room… but wasn’t he standing too directly facing my door to say he was just passing by? But I shrank back, not knowing what kind of argument I might get into if I questioned him about it.
“Oh, then go ahead and pass… good night. I’ll be going now.”
I tried to enter my room and close the door.
Thunk.
But it wouldn’t close. Because the homeowner was holding the door. Even if he’s the homeowner, once he’s given me the room, don’t I have the right to close the door as a guest? Or not? Do I have it or not?
“Um… the door won’t close.”
“Weren’t you on your way out? What were you trying to do that you’re going back in as soon as you saw me?”
“Oh, just…”
I was about to honestly reveal my intentions of sneaking some alcohol, but suddenly the unfortunate incident that happened after drinking a few days ago came to mind. Then I wondered if this was something I should tell this bastard right now.
“Ta-take a walk?”
“At this hour?”
“The moonlight looked nice…”
Carlisle’s gaze turned toward the window at the end of the corridor. Through the large arched window, the sky was visible, but unlike the fairly clear weather during the day, it was completely overcast with no moon or stars visible. Just pitch-black darkness.
“Ah, it clouded over. Ahahaha…”
My awkward laughter spread eerily through the cold night corridor. Startled by the echo, I abruptly stopped laughing.
A crooked smile appeared on Carlisle’s face as he looked at me again.
“Why do you keep talking nonsense? You seem to have something on your mind – is someone else waiting outside again? You seemed to be behaving for a while, but now that the expedition departure day is coming, is your ass getting restless again?”
“What are you talking about, it’s not like that.”
“If it’s not like that, then what?”
“Just…”
“Just what?”
“…I can’t sleep.”
“You can’t sleep?”
“……”
I sullenly shut my mouth. I didn’t like the idea of him thinking I couldn’t sleep from fear, but he probably wouldn’t think I couldn’t sleep from excitement like the night before a school trip either. I roughly messed up my hair.
“I just have a lot on my mind. I thought it might help if I had some alcohol, so I was on my way to the dining room.”
Since I was being honest anyway, I confessed my intention to steal alcohol. But Carlisle shook his head at my words.
“I cleared all the alcohol from the dining room. Because you got drunk from just one glass of wine.”
Saying this, Carlisle gestured toward the inner corridor.
“Follow me. If whiskey instead of wine is okay, I’ll give you a glass or so.”
When I hesitated and looked around, he added one more thing.
“I have something to talk about too.”
When the homeowner, creditor, and technically expedition superior said he had something to say, I couldn’t not follow. Whether I should call it fortunate or not, the place Carlisle opened the door to after walking to the end of the corridor was his study. His bedroom was the room across from it. I might be called overly self-conscious, but since there was precedent of getting drunk on just one glass of wine and creating an ambiguous situation, I couldn’t help but be a little tense.
‘I’ll take the drink and bring it to my room… or drink it right before going back. As long as I don’t get drunk in front of Carlisle, that’s all.’
Thinking this, I followed him into his study. I had visited once before after entering the game world, but I didn’t have time to look around then, so I didn’t know there was a display case filled with liquor along one wall. There was a mini-fridge that didn’t look like a refrigerator at all and a small table placed side by side, set up to easily prepare drinks. These were things I hadn’t seen in the game. The Carlisle Lightinger I knew drank wine since he was also in the wine business, but he didn’t drink whiskey.
He gestured for me to sit on the sofa in the middle of the room and walked toward the display case, asking:
“Do you have any particular favorites?”
How would a trash drinker like me know whiskey brands? I shook my head.
“How do you drink it?”
“Uh, um… straight.”
Carlisle, who had been taking out ice, ginger ale, and soda water as if he planned to make a highball or cocktail, stopped moving. A crooked smile appeared on his face as he turned to look at me.
“Straight?”
His questioning voice also carried laughter. As if asking whether I really knew what straight meant and would drink it. Since I’d already shown a pathetic drunk state from one glass of wine, there was nothing to be damaged by mockery. He seemed to already know I was weak with alcohol.
“Will you be okay?”
I nodded.
“I prefer straight.”
“Well then, if that’s the case.”
Actually, it wasn’t bravado but really my preference. I don’t know why, but straight was rather better – when ice was added or it was diluted with water, whiskey’s distinctive aroma was strangely irritating. With my usual taste, I would have asked for a sour or highball, but then conversely I might drink too much because it was delicious.
Since sleep was the purpose anyway, rather than consuming a large amount of sweet alcohol, one glass of straight would be much more efficient. If I downed it in one shot right before returning to my room and went straight to sleep, it would be perfect.
Carlisle brought two glasses, a bottle of whiskey, and an ice bucket, set them on the coffee table, and sat down next to me. What he poured and pushed toward me was a small straight glass, and what he picked up for himself was on the rocks.
Carlisle gently swirled his glass, making the ice clink, and stared at me intently. It was an interested gaze as if observing whether I would really drink it straight.
I didn’t want to be misunderstood as showing off, and since I’d already accepted it, out of courtesy I lifted the glass. A rich aroma rose from the deep amber liquid. Even if you don’t like hard liquor, whiskey’s pure aroma without anything mixed isn’t too bad. After enjoying the scent briefly, I lightly held some between my lips. Rather than drinking, it was barely wetting my lips and tongue, but after the momentary fragrance, burning heat filled my mouth and throat. I unconsciously grimaced.
Carlisle’s low laughter could be heard.
“See, if you can’t even drink it, why be stubborn about strange things? I could make you something tasty.”
“This is better anyway since it’s a substitute for sleeping pills. More importantly, what did you want to talk about?”
Honestly, I was in a slightly anxious state. Earlier in the corridor, I was too startled to think about anything, but thinking about it now, this could be a serious situation.
While I’d been staying at this house the whole time, this guy who hadn’t shown his nose once suddenly came on the night before the expedition saying he had something to talk about?
My mind couldn’t help but become complicated.
Did some urgent problem arise? Is that why he was standing stubbornly in front of my door in the middle of the night? Would he have knocked on my door if I hadn’t come out?
Moreover, the last time I met him, Carlisle had been angry about me bringing Eira into the village. While I was also bewildered and snapped at the absurd misunderstanding Carlisle had, excluding that, I had actually committed illegal acts… so I was in no position to say anything even if Carlisle said he’d cancel the contract and expedition work.
“While we’re going on expeditions together in the future.”
Sure enough, Carlisle brought up expedition talk first. I nervously swallowed my saliva. Should I bring up Eira first and apologize, promising there would never be such a thing again? Honestly, it seemed clear that Carlisle was strangely concerned about my meeting with Eira. Unless I was an idiot, I couldn’t not know that.
To Carlisle, I was a philandering ex-husband who had unilaterally declared divorce and hurt him before parting. While I thought it was natural for Carlisle to hate me, being so on edge about me meeting someone else was a different story.
Contrary to his cold appearance, maybe he still had lingering feelings for me – that is, for the game character me.
If I thought that way based only on what happened at the guild that day, it might be a hasty judgment, but considering the incident at the desert dungeon lake and what happened the other evening when I drank wine, it didn’t seem like such a far-fetched speculation.
If that was the case, it would be better to show my will not to make him uncomfortable over the Eira issue, but since I couldn’t survive without Eira’s potions, I couldn’t say I wouldn’t meet Eira again in the future. It would be a lie anyway if I said it.
‘More importantly, is there any need to bring up Eira’s name first and create unnecessary trouble? He might be trying to talk about something else, and I might just make him feel bad for no reason.’
While I was groaning and pondering various things.
“While accompanying expeditions, no, until we collect all the Fragments of the Sacred Tree, I want you to sleep with me.”
For a moment, I couldn’t interpret what Carlisle had casually brought up. My mouth fell open like an idiot.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
