My Glasses Will Be Able to Conquer the Whole World, I Suppose

Chapter 108 – Glasses boy openly shows his distrust

 

“That’s all from me.
The rest is up to you.” After Glock said that, he ordered an additional bottle of alcohol, as his previous one had already been emptied… Isn’t he drinking too much?

While thinking about all this information that Glock told me about, I brought the salad to my mouth… Oh, the vegetables are fresh, and the crushed nuts are really well-complemented by the bacon.

I’m not sure how to describe the taste.
It’s not exactly sour, but also not fruity either…

So, there’s a person who tried to find me, and they paid a lot of money to do so.
And they were doing it because of my Glasses.

Mmmm… So, I guess the first question is, when did the client learn about my Glasses?

There are two possibilities that I can think of.

“Oh, hey.
Give me some additional sausages please.” I returned the empty salad plate and received a thick stew that was brought together with Glock’s sake.

Wow, this smells good.
It’s very different from the stews that I make… Or rather, this isn’t really a stew, it’s more like a soup.

Oh, what’s this? It’s sweet.
It tastes like sweet corn.

Since I made Glasses deliveries to the castle, there should be some glasses within the castle itself at the very minimum.

Even if all the requested glasses were distributed to people from faraway places, there is at least one pair of glasses in the castle, as I gave one to a woman that I met there.

The client must have seen one of those glasses, and also knew that I was the one who made them, so they’re looking for me.

In that case, the person looking for me might be a pretty high-ranked person.
A noble, possibly.
At the very minimum, someone who can enter and exit the castle.

The other possibility, is that this client also paid a bribe to the castle, so they obtained the information on my Glasses like that.

Mmmmm… This is still way too vague.
I can’t try narrowing it down with just this much.

… Wait, hold on.
I should be able to narrow this down.

At the very minimum, the client must be rich.

Because they have enough money to request a job of Black Swan of Dawn.

Moreover, even if they did get the information on my Glasses through bribery, then it must have costed them a lot.
I seriously doubt that this kind of information is cheap.

However… If they were just an ordinary rich person, then I feel like they should have enough people working for them that could handle this kind of search.
People who would be able to execute the job without even needing to worry about it being grey or not, differently from Black Swan of Dawn.

So, why would this kind of person go out of their way to hire Black Swan of Dawn for the search? Couldn’t they just ask their own private personnel?

Moreover, since they have only searched the capital itself, they don’t really need the help of an adventurer team.
It’s not like they’ll be fighting Demon Beasts or anything.
A group under this person’s direct employment should be more than enough.

In that case… The person being a noble might be more likely?

Or rather, a noble who lives outside the capital, perhaps?

If you’re a powerful person who lives in the capital, you wouldn’t limit your searches to just that city.
You’d use your connections to cover a much larger area.

Though wouldn’t they have already set up a bounty then? They have even asked for the help of Black Swan of Dawn, an extremely skilled group of adventurers.
Something that proves that they are seriously searching for me.

Perhaps… A bounty might not be used, because there is something getting in the way? Perhaps they want the search to be as secretive as possible?

… This is no good.

I just don’t have enough information to reach any conclusion.
I can keep on imagining all sorts of circumstances, but this isn’t really leading me anywhere close enough to guessing who the client might be.

And well, this has nothing to do with the fact that I’m fascinated by the smell of the beautiful sausage that is in front of me.
I have never seen such a big one before.

And it’s white, yet it’s meat? What kind of what meat is this? Let me try one.

The skin cracked with a pleasant sound.
Hot juice burst inside my mouth.
It was hot, but good.
It had a light citrus scent that complemented the strong fat smell well.

And this isn’t using just salt for its spice.
What is in here is a bit more complex, it’s a bit spicy, and fundamentally, it’s delicious.

As I slurped the dripping fat and chewed on the sausages, I came to a conclusion.

The expectations I must have regarding the client.

The most influential people are the people in power who have access to Nastiara castle.

I don’t have enough information available, so I should mentally prepare myself to dealing with someone that has this kind of outrageous power behind them.

Though ideally, I would never find out who this client is.

******

After I finished eating, the two female knights seemed to have run out of patience, because they came to our table and sat down on empty seats.

Me and Glock haven’t called them yet though…

They must have seen me finish my dessert… Or rather, I noticed their gazes upon me, so I’m sure that they saw it.

At this round table, I was sitting opposite to Glock, with the tanned knight at my left, and the fair-skinned knight at my right.

The tanned knight moved her chair slightly closer to me, but… Well, I guess this distance is still fine.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to drink something? How about corpse sickness?” Glock suggested.

“Can’t you choose a more fashionable drink?” The tanned woman asked him.

“Corpse sickness is a cheap and strong alcohol.
Its name means that even zombies can buy it and get drunk on it.
It’s not a drink that is appropriate to ladies.” The fair-skinned woman told him.

Glock’s proposal has been truly shot down… I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about alcohol and I don’t even drink, so I can’t really participate in this discussion in any way.

Oh, I’d like to get some more sausages though.

“I like its taste too, you know? Any full-fledged adventurer should be able to chug a bottle or two of those.” Glock told the women.

“Truly old customs, huh? I can see the mold growing on you.” The tanned woman told him.

“This kind of imposition from veterans is not well-received by young people these days.” The fair-skinned woman told him.

Sorry, I just can’t take sides here.
Why don’t we get some extra meat?

“… Please order what you see fit.” Glock sighed.

“Oh, is that alright? Then please, bring us a white snake incense.
It’s his treat.” The fair-skinned woman said.

“Hey…” Glock didn’t seem very happy.

“And a black butterfly to me.
His treat too.” The tanned woman said.

“Hey…” Glock repeated.

The two women quickly asked passing clerks to start bringing us drinks, and when considering Glock’s reaction, those drinks were probably quite expensive.

I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything, but can we get some more sausages, please?

******

The conversation was struggling to flow at first, but once the alcohol started coming, the talk of the adults quickly picked up momentum.

Like this, I ended up hearing that the knights were staying at the inn located in the floors above this tavern.

I think it’s a nice place for a knight.
It has delicious food, feels like a luxury restaurant, makes me feel absolutely out of place.
It’s the kind of establishment that scares me and that I would never come by myself.

“I see, so you’re already going back to your country tomorrow? You’re quite busy.” Glock said.

“What about you, Glock? You were talking about your next job?” The fair-skinned woman replied.

“Ah, there’s a merchant group who wants to bring materials of the Obsidian Wolf to the capital.

“If they win them at the auction tomorrow, then we’ll be escorting them to the capital.
The merchant group must be negotiating for the materials right now.” Glock replied.

“So, you’re leaving soon too?” I asked.

“Probably the day after tomorrow, in the morning.
The materials come from a living thing, and the path to Nastiara is long.
We can’t wait much for this.” Glock said.

I see.
So both the knights and Black Swan of Dawn are planning on leaving Haidiga much sooner than I expected.

The Obsidian Wolf was defeated just yesterday, yet they’re already planning on their leave.

“Uhn… Boy… What do you… Well, do you want something? His treat.” The tanned woman asked me.

Is she trying to be considerate? I’m not sure why she keeps trying to talk to me, and… It’s weird to try starting a conversation by saying Glock can pay for more food.

I mean, in the first place, it’s not like I’m bored because I’m not participating in the conversation.
I prefer to be on the side of listening, without the need to speak.

Also, I wanna go home already.
It would be nice if I could just find a quiet and inconspicuous timing to leave…

“I’m okay, I-” I was about to tell her that I was plenty happy with eating those sausages.

“You’re really bad talking, huh?” The fair-skinned woman told the tanned woman with a reproachful expression.

“I-I can’t help it.
I’m not used to this kind of thing…” The tanned woman replied.

You don’t really need to get used to it though? You’ll be leaving soon anyways.

“You.
You have a cute butt.” The fair-skinned woman said.

… Ah, was this directed at me? I had just forgotten about it, yet you had to remind me… Why did you have to do that?

“You’re an adult already, aren’t you?” She asked me.

“Yes, I am.” I replied.

“Then this a good opportunity.
Why don’t you have a drink?” The fair-skinned woman suggested.

Eh? A drink?

“Fortunately for you, we are here.
There are three people who can take care of you if you get drunk, so I think it’s a good opportunity to try it out.” The fair-skinned woman said.

Eh…?

“It may sound like advice from a moldy veteran, but there is a surprisingly high amount of occasions where you have to drink while socializing.” Glock said.

… It’s hard to take his advice on social drinking when he drinks the way he does though.

“You might struggle if your first time drinking alcohol is in front of a public, you know? It’s not a bad thing to get used to it.

“Today is my treat, remember? So why don’t you just give it a try?” Glock said next.

… Eh…?

More than drinking alcohol, I want to go home…

I do understand what Glock is saying though, to some extent.

My master did tell me about how there were some moments where he had to drink alcohol.

… And after those occasions, he returned home drunk, and crying.
His wife scolded him about it looked like he had relationships with men.

Truly.
I have seen a lot of bad drunkards.
I really, from the bottom of my heart, don’t want to be like that.

… But in this mood, it really doesn’t seem like I can refuse…

… I suppose it can’t be helped.
Let’s drink just one cup to please them, then I can go home.

“Alright.
Just one drink.” I said.

As soon as I said that, the tanned woman immediately moved her chair right next to mine, “How about this one? It’s a sweet and easy-to-drink sake.
It’s recommended for beginners!” She opened the menu and said, “This! This!” while pointing to a drink.

I’m not sure… “The… Flower dragon killer?” I read its name out loud.

“Hey, that’s certainly sweet, but it’s also kinda strong-” Glock started saying.

“Shut up.” The tanned woman glared at him.

… Both him and her stayed silent for a while.

“O-oh! I recommend that one! She’s right!” Glock said.

… What are they even planning on doing after getting me drunk?

Looking at what she just did, leaking out murderous intent to make Glock shut up… Does she really think I’ll just go along with what she suggested?

“I’ll take something that Glock chooses.” I decided.

“Eh? Why!?” The tanned woman asked.

Why else? Because I don’t trust you.