Brewing Bad (Fantasy Isekai Light LitRPG)

Seconds later, the two men succumbed, and he and Lord Torvin were all but alone amidst the limp bodies of his rivals. "Going straight for the throat, huh?" Lucas asked as he set his glass down.

"I only did what I learned from you," Lord Torvin answered. "I'm surprised you noticed."

"Of course, I noticed. I smell that shit every day in my laboratory," Lucas lied. "I'm just surprised you waited until this late in the evening."

In that moment, he said whatever came to mind, but more than anything, he wished he'd brought an intelligence potion. He felt entirely outmatched by this devious opponent and wondered what further traps would await him.

"If I'd made a move earlier, someone would have suspected. Besides, it's better this way; I considered killing all of them, actually," Lord Torvin answered. "That would have been kinder, in a sense. I'll need your support, though, and as you showed me last year, there's a very easy way to get it."

"Yeah, well, I assume that's why you're not out to kill me after your daughter was… You know," Lucas answered.

"Her death should have ensured yours, I agree," the Duke admitted. "She was worth ten of you. Did our Prince ever tell you that I wanted your head for that? I practically begged the man for it, but he refused me."

"So why aren't you ordering your guards to kill me now?" he asked, very mindful that he didn't have potions on him that were as strong as he would have liked.

"Because the Prince let me torture your friend Adin for as long as it took to discover the truth," the older man sighed heavily. "Wanting to kill you was a natural reaction. Even after I received her letter the following day, I still wanted you dead, but that need became less urgent once I decided that Adin was much more at fault than you were. The fact that you've killed her for me now practically wipes the slate clean between you and I."

It was a twisted sort of logic, but Lucas would take it. Instead of following up on Adin's fate, he asked, "What letter?"

"The one she sent me the night she died. I didn't get it until the following day, after the furor had died down, but she told me…" his voice cracked had enough that the conversation paused, and he turned away for a moment to collect himself before he finished. "She told me that she'd guilted you into providing her an antidote for her addiction, and that she'd share it with me when she received it so that neither of us would have to endure what her husband did."

Lucas wasn't sure he'd call methadone a cure for heroin, but if that was how she'd wanted to interpret his words, that was fine with him. Just mentioning that night was enough to take him back to that burning building, and the fear that Danaria had gone up in smoke along with everyone else.

Eventually, when Lucas said nothing, Lord Torvin continued, for which he was grateful, because the silence was growing uncomfortable. "She condemned you as a fool, and at the time, I agreed. When someone has a child, you don't take pity on them; find a way to use that new bargaining chip against them as well. Now though… Well, after everything that's happened between us in the past year, I'm content to take out my vengeance on a different Parin, and so long as you supply me with what I need, both for myself and all of the new friends I plan on making, well… We will have a similar accord that you had with Prince Raston before his untimely demise."

As he finished speaking, he proffered his hand, and even though Lucas hadn't decided exactly what he was going to do, he shook it. It was better to appear to be onboard now and then betray the man later, than appear to be hesitant now and later decide working with him was in everyone's best interest.

"You should know I'm planning on dialing down the Blue," Lucas said as he gripped the man's hand and searched his face for a reaction. "I meant what I said to your daughter, but I mean it just as much for everyone else, especially the people who can't really afford the addiction."

Lord Torvin pursed his lips at that and paused a moment before answering. "I don't care what you do for the little people. It's probably in their best interest if you dial things back there so they can focus on more productive pursuits. That said, I will require sufficient supplies to give to those who matter in line."

Lucas shrugged and said, "As long as you're paying, that's fine with me."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

After the conversation, while everyone else still snored softly at the table, lost in drug-induced delerium, Lucas and Lord Torvin adjured to his smoking room for a brandy. There, Lucas expressed surprise that the older man didn't place getting cured of his own addiction at the top of his priorities.

"I've come to enjoy it, in moderation," the Duke confessed. "Though I resent the leash, now that I hold yours, it doesn't pose any challenges. Instead, it provides a balm for these troubling, chaotic times."

The two of them talked about a great many things that night, and while it was obvious that Lord Torvin didn't trust him completely, the fact that he'd decided he could control him trumped that in his noble mind. "Even valuable pawns are still just pawns," the noble said more than once as he outlined a number of his plans for the coming days and weeks, and how he planned to ride a wave of carefully controlled public sentiment all the way to the throne, ahead of his rival Dukes and Duchesses.

Lucas kept waiting for the hammer to drop and for some hidden assassin to try to drop a garotte around his neck, but it never happened. Instead, shortly after midnight, he was riding out of the city on his horse, only a little drunker for the wear.

"Bad choice of words," Lucas mumbled to himself as he recalled the Duke's line while he rode out the East Gate with only a cursory check from the guards. "Pawns that get far enough grow up to be any piece they want."

Lucas didn't want to be the King. He didn't want to be the front man on even the small scale that he sometimes had to be in this line of work. If Adin or anyone else would have been worth a shit, he would have happily passed that role on and retreated to his lab. However, as he sat there in Meadowin's tiny tavern that night explaining everything he'd just heard to Kar'gandin and Hura'gh, he couldn't help but feel like he was going to have to get more involved.

"The man said it's not your problem," Hura'gh agreed. "So we can get back to business, and start making money again, as far as I see it."

"Aye, he said that," the dwarf agreed. "But sayin' and meanin' seem to be pretty much opposites as far as that man is concerned."

"Yeah, my feelings exactly," Lucas agreed. "So what do we do? If we give him time to consolidate power, he'll be much harder to do anything about down the road."

"You got someone better in mind for the job?" Hura'gh asked. "You want to be the King? Might suit you."

"That's literally the last thing I want," Lucas insisted. "I just want to get on with my life, build a house, plan a wedding, and brew some shit."

"Aye, a good plan," the dwarf agreed, "Just remember that men burn down far more plans than dragons could ever dream of."

Despite their common misgivings, none of them could see what might be done about them, besides leaving the city, and given how badly Lucas had recently depleted their funds for his cloak, no one wanted that. Eventually, instead of talking about the Duke or even the Prince, they mostly just talked about the business and the dragon itself. Hura'gh wouldn't let go of that one, and Lucas had the feeling he'd be retelling that story for a long time to come, but he supposed he couldn't blame the guy. He'd been bathed in dragonfire after all.

Kar'gandin, too, asked about the dragon's gold more than once, and how it would be apportioned, but Lucas didn't know. "We blasted the entrance shut to keep people from getting greedy," Lucas explained. "That was a decision that Heisenburgle was going to leave for the Prince to decide."

That night, for the first time in what felt like forever, he came home to Danaria. While they didn't sleep in the same bed, because that would have been improper, he got to just sit quietly with her once they'd finished desperately making out, which was worth everything he'd been through as far as he was concerned.

"You're finally back, for good this time," she said again, repeating the same line she'd already said a dozen times as if she was willing herself to believe it.

"No more running, no more hiding," he said, adding I hope, silently to the end. While he wanted to believe that the whisperers had no further plans for him beyond a reliable product, he was far from convinced. How could he be? He'd watched the Duke drug his own guests after lulling them into complacency with a sob story.

For now, though, he was unwilling to taint an evening this special with worries or doubts. He was certain about one thing, and that was the woman in his arms. She'd been worth fighting a dragon for, and sometime soon, she'd be worth going straight for.

That night, Lucas had a little trouble sleeping because he was so used to being up at night. Fortunately, the booze and the exhaustion from his busy day helped with that, and after a little bit of tossing and turning, he passed out, still thinking of Danaria.

What a great way to end a rough week, he told himself as he fell asleep in the unfamiliar bed.

The best part of all of it, though, was that when he woke up in the morning, there was nowhere he had to be, no one he had to kill, and nothing he had to do. Sure, eventually he'd have to make more Blue, as well as a few more powerful boost potions in case something happened. Eventually, he'd have to worry about Lord Torvin's machinations. Those were all problems that needed addressing.

However, as he lay there, blearily considering the idea of ending the nocturnal structure he'd been forced to stick to at Heisenburgle's whim for so long, there was nothing he needed to do right now, and that made all the difference in the world. There was a peace to be found in a bit of sloth, and until this moment, he'd forgotten how good being lazy could feel as he pulled the down comforter a little tighter up to his neck.