NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46: Wine
Garth returned with 2 bottles of red wine.
I wasn’t the only one smiling. Terrie was happy to see the wine too. “Is that a Fuertion Puertogeno?” Terrie asked, taking one of the bottles from Garth’s hands. “Wow, this is 13 years old.”
I didn’t think it was that amazing, but it looked like she was impressed by it. Spending a silver on wine isn’t something adventurer’s on a budget would be able to do.
“Oh, really?” Benard asked.
“Yeah, look.” Terrie pointed it out. “This is from 351.” The Fuertion Puertogeno brand is sort of well known in this world.
“Can we really drink this?” Benard licked his lips.
“Yeah, let’s go out to the patio. It’ll taste a lot better in the night air.” I said and picked up the wine glasses.
“Okay.” She grabbed a few wine glasses too.
With our wine, we went out into the patio. Then I took the other bottle from Garth’s hand, uncorked it, poured the wine out for me, Sterling, and Otto before passing it over to Nikola.
“Can I uncork it too?” Terrie asked.
“Yeah, go ahead.” It was kind of annoying how amazed she was by it.
“Okay, thanks.” She said and uncorked the bottle and poured some out for herself and her boys.
We had a moment of silence to enjoy the wine…
Then Nikola asked, “So how long are we going to… When are we going to go adventuring again?” I was still trying to enjoy the wine. “When are we going into a dungeon?” Terrie put down her wine glass and looked at me as well.
They both waited for my answer. One looked annoyed that I hadn’t answered her yet, and the other was seriously waiting for my response.
I saw no reason to hide my future plans from them… Well, there were certain parts they didn’t need to know, but for the most part, I wanted to let them know of everything we’ll be doing for the next few months.
“We have to buy a house, and I want to go to the Delaron auction house.”
“You’re going to sell another bracelet!?” Nikola exclaimed. Halit put down his wine glass to listen.
“No,” I said. “I’m going to auction aphrodisiacs like the ones I used to sell back home.” I was making around 1 platinum per month selling aphrodisiacs back home, I wanted to restart the business again. I also wanted to hire alchemists and expand my business. Maybe sell some other potions as well. I just wasn’t sure about which potions I should sell…
“Oh, okay,” Nikola said.
Auctioning too many of the bracelets would only garner the church’s attention. The Demon Queen is enough; there’s no hope for me if I make the church an enemy too.
“Anyway, that’s just the start. We’ll probably need to hire people like Garth suggested and… We have a lot to do here in Delaron. So just level up for now.”
“I’m always trying to level up,” Nikola said.
“Right.” And I told Terrie, “You should come to my room after; I’ll give you a bracelet too.”
“Huh?” Terrie had question marks on her face.
When I give her one, that’ll be all the ones I already made. I have 3 more charm steel bracelets I can work on, then I’ll need to make more of Mohini’s red charm-fluid. Thankfully, I have enough materials. “I don’t know when we’ll go adventuring yet. There’s a lot to do before that.” I shook my head and took a sip of the wine. “But after everything’s set up here, we’ll go to Gwawleon.”
“Gwawleon? Where’s that?” The foreigner, Nikola, asked.
“It’s a dungeon north of here in Gwawl village,” Terrie answered her.
I nodded. “Yeah. And we’ll go there by going up the river, and we’ll stop at Greinne and Pallad. Then we’ll go through Blaine to Gwawl.”
“What? Why?” Terrie couldn’t understand it. “It’s not even half a day’s journey if we take the 43rd road.”
“Trust me, there are handsome boys there.” And more importantly, there are boys with high experience points. I smiled.
“For that… Okay.” Terrie nodded understandingly with a serious expression.
With the boys drinking, the wine was almost gone. I took out a gold coin from my pouch and said, “Garth, get us a few more bottles.”
“Should we be spending this much on wine, master?”
What, is he my financial adviser now? “Yes, it’s fine. Just listen to your master.” I said. He took the gold coin and went off to get us wine. Woodie was happy to hear more wine was coming. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their drinks. “After Gwawleon, we’ll go to Brynhildmar and trek west to the Forest of Horn.”
“We’re going to Elven territory?” Nikola asked.
“The borders.” I shrugged. “We won’t be meeting any elves. We’ll stay in unoccupied territory. We’ll just be trekking up the mountains near Kunti.”
“There’s an undiscovered dungeon there. We’ll be taking its treasures.” I said.
They looked unconvinced. “And how do you know that?” Halit asked. He seemed strangely interested in our conversation, more than the other boys.
“I just do,” I said. I can’t tell them I have memories of another world where this world was a game. It doesn’t make sense. They won’t believe me even if I tell them.
“Is it from Perfect Half, master? Did you have them investigate it? You used to send them to Kunti for herbs, right?” Garth asked.
Perfect Half was an adventurer group I used to hire while living with my mother. I used to send them all over the continent (mainly within the Minkin Queendom) to gather materials. “Yeah, kind of.” I decided to go along with it.
“I thought so.” Garth nodded. “But they really discovered a new dungeon?”
“Kind of,” I said.
“How much did you pay them, master? I’m sure the adventurer guild would’ve paid them gold coins for that kind of information.” Garth said.
“Yeah, that doesn’t matter. What’s important is that I know of the location of an undiscovered dungeon. And we’ll be the first ones to explore it.” I said. Everyone nodded except for Halit, who looked at me with a strange expression I couldn’t quite read.
“Will that be safe?” Terrie asked.
“Yeah, don’t worry. I wouldn’t go in if I thought we couldn’t conquer it.” I said. “But that’s why you two need to level up. We got to be ready by the time we get there.”
“Hmm. But how-” Terrie still had doubts.
“Trust me. We can do it.”
“Hmm. Okay.” She understood it wasn’t good to question the leader too much.
“For now, you guys focus on leveling up, then we can think about other things,” I said.
“So, when are you guys leaving?” Halit asked.
I looked around the table at the other boys. Otto had his head on the table; he looked asleep. Sterling’s face was red. “Hey, take Otto and go to bed,” I told him.
“Oh, okay.” He put down his drink and helped Otto up. “Come on, Otto. Don’t sleep here. Let’s go to bed.”
“Hrmm.” He groaned. I handed the key to our room to Sterling.
Sterling put Otto’s arm around his shoulder and helped him back into the hotel.
“Maybe you guys should go back too,” Terrie told her boys.
“Em steel good,” Benard said.
Terrie smiled. “Yeah, I don’t think you’re still good.”
“Ah.”
“Theo, take him upstairs.” She said and gave him the key.
Nikola said, “You guys can go back to bed too.”
Woodie stretched and said, “Okay, I’m getting tired.”
“Can I go too, master?” Garth asked. He looked tired.
“Ah, yeah. Have a good night.” I said.
While Garth, Woodie, and Dixon left the table, Halit said, “I want to stay and listen. I’m not sleepy.”
“Okay,” Nikola said.
“You still haven’t answered me. When are you guys leaving?” Halit brought up the topic again.
“Didn’t I already say I don’t have an exact date? There’s a lot to do here in Delaron. When that’s done, we’ll leave.” I said.
“You don’t know at all?” He pressed.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’ll take a month. Hopefully. But it could take longer.” It depended on many things I had no control over.
“I see.” He said.
“Why are you so curious?” I asked.
“Can’t I be? I’m part of your group too, aren’t I?” He asked.
Technically, it was Nikola that was part of the group. “I guess,” I said and poured myself more of the wine.
“So… I don’t want to press… I’m not impatient.” Terrie fumbled with her words. “But when do you think you can make the cure for my father-in-law?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll get working on that too.” I can make it right away, but then she’d want to go back to Haneul. I can’t have that happen right now. “I’ll make it after we return from the dungeons. Like I said.”
“But… When’s that?” She was worried.
“Don’t worry, I know your father-in-law’s condition. I’ll make it in time. You have nothing to worry about.” I said.
“Okay.” She nodded.
“I guess I should get my armor repaired,” Terrie said, changing the topic.
“Oh, I saw a repair shop in the address book. Ah, but I didn’t jot it down.” I had jotted down a carriage craftswoman’s address but not the repair shop’s. “I’ll show you later.”
“Yeah, if we’re not going to adventure for a while, there’s no rush.” She said.
“And I feel like I had something else to tell Garth… But I forget now. Maybe I had nothing. I don’t know.” I said as I became drunk.
***
We sat around and talked for a while about this and that.
Halit got bored with us and went to his room.
Finally, we were tired, and we wanted to sleep too. But as the two girls got up, I said, “Wait.” I slurred my words. “You guys got to come with me… I have to give you guys your bracelet.”
“I already have the bracelet,” Nikola said, drunkenly slurring her words.
“Oh, then nevermind,” I said.
“No, you promised me 50 silver.” She said.
“Oh, right. Yeah, let’s go to my room. Help me up.” I said.
They helped me up, and we wobbled back to my room.
The boys were asleep, so I said with one finger over my lips, “Shuu. Don’t wake them up.” I went to the space expansion bag and took out a box. I opened it and saw 3 unworked bracelets and 1 finished bracelet. “Here.” I handed it to Terrie. “It’ll help you get men,” I said.
“What is it?”
“The Bracelet of Eros. Shuu. Don’t show it to anyone.” I said.
“Okay.”
“But use it… discreetly!”
“Okay.”
“My 50 silver?” Nikola was hell-bent on getting my money.
“Right.” I took out another pouch from the expansion bag and brought out a gold coin. I didn’t want to count to 50. I need to sleep. “Here. Give me back 50 silver… later.” I said, handing it to her. I was too drunk to realize I could’ve just given her the gold from my other pouch.
“Hmm. Okay.” She said.
Then I put everything back in the space expansion bag and went to bed. I crawled under the sheets with all my clothes on and said, “You guys can go now.” To the girls.
“Shuu. Alright.” Nikola said with a finger on her lips and tip-toed out the room. Terrie followed behind her and closed the door.
