novelAlta Chapter 197: There is nothing shameful about being honest.
Chapter 197: There is nothing shameful about being honest.
“Seriously, they’re out of their minds…”Arendt unbuttoned his shirt and slumped down on the sofa.
“Did you roughly get a look at the suspect?”
“Uh, uh… but are you okay? Did you drink too much? It was really strong.”
When Arthur stammered, he received the usual response.
“I’m not okay.”
“…”
That pitiful look he gave to his senior and the rude tone was definitely familiar.
The dispirited knights each sighed deeply and looked up at the ceiling.
Regardless, Arendt just grumbled in annoyance, dusting off his muddy trousers.
“I just rolled around on the dirty floor for no reason. Ugh, damn it.”
“What? What happened?”
Llewellyn, who suddenly came to his senses, asked.
Arendt shrugged.
“It seemed like the elder had made up his mind… so I filled a few bottles with water.”
It was a pre-planned move before the banquet got into full swing.
Arendt carried around water disguised as a bottle of alcohol.
Then, after starting a conversation with the elder, he secretly took a bottle of water and put it in front of him.
And in between conversations, he secretly poured water into his glass instead of alcohol and drank it.
He was a master of tricking the audience on stage.
Avoiding the elves’ gaze wasn’t that difficult either.
Richt asked sheepishly.
“…You didn’t get caught?”
“Everyone was so absorbed in listening to the story so how could they tell if it was a bottle of alcohol or a bottle of water?”
Indeed, it was strange that Arendt’s presence disappeared even for a moment.
He was the one who stood out wherever he went, for better or worse.
Laius, who had been silently looking down at Arendt, blurted out.
“But it looks like you drank quite a bit. Are you okay?”
“I told you I wasn’t okay. But I thought people would be suspicious if I didn’t drink at all, so I did it moderately.”
Arendt responded irritably.
That means, to some extent, he overcame it with his mental strength.
Judging by his reddened white face, it seemed that things were not as normal as they appeared.
Llewellyn stuck out his tongue.
“A really vicious bastard…”
“Give me some water. I feel like I’m going to die.”
Arendt shamelessly reached out to him, regardless.
Llewellyn sighed and poured water from the pitcher over to him.
Arendt drank the water in one gulp and spoke.
“Anyway, I heard a few things from the elder.”
“…”
They couldn’t believe that he had done his part in the midst of all that.
Arendt, who had drained another glass of water, continued speaking quickly.
“It seems like things aren’t as difficult as I thought. It seems like the elder is quite impatient.”
“Was he in a hurry?”
“Yes, I don’t think this incident has spread to other kingdoms yet.”
Arendt responded briefly to Richt’s question.
“I asked if there had been any incidents of spirit stone theft in other kingdoms. He simply said he hadn’t heard any news of it yet and quickly changed the subject.”
“Was that all there is to it?”
This time it was Laius who asked the question.
“No, an oblivious elf recently mentioned that they hardly had any contact with other kingdoms. But when the elder glared at him as if he was going to devour him, he quickly shut up.”
Arendt, having said this, turned his gaze to Llewellyn.
“Isn’t it true that the Second Kingdom is the only one in the elven nation that has ports where humans can interact?”
“That’s right. The territory on the sea side is almost entirely occupied by the Fog Forest race. The Second Kingdom has the largest population…”
“If the Second Kingdom blocks the port, will the other kingdoms be helpless?”
When Llewellyn gave his answer, Arthur took his word for it.
Arendt nodded.
“That’s right. I don’t know how the complaints from the other kingdoms were dismissed, but in any case, the incident of the theft of the spirit stones and the outbreak of the evil cult seem to be known only within the Second Kingdom.”
“Well, if that had been known, the elders of the other kingdoms would not have stayed silent…”
Llewellyn agreed with that with an ambiguous expression.
“That’s why the Elder is getting anxious. He’s using lethal methods against humans that he wouldn’t normally use… it’s only natural. He’s struggling to cover the sky with his palm.”
Arendt, with his voice trailing off, poured himself another glass of water and drank it.
Then he continued speaking expressionlessly.
“…First of all, it seems like they no longer think of humans as their enemies. They seem to trust the captain and Llewellyn quite a bit. But that doesn’t mean they have any intention of joining forces with us. Well, I did drop some bait though.”
“Bait? What? Did you do something?”
“There is something like that.”
Arthur tilted his head in puzzlement, but Arendt simply waved his hand.
“I’ll probably get a response in a few days. He’s the elven elder, so I don’t think he’s stupid enough to not know this. And… there’s something else.”
“What else is there?”
As Llewellyn’s eyes widened, Arendt responded naturally.
“At the end, the elder got drunk and talked about a lot of things. That’s only natural, since the elder drank a lot of liquor.”
“…”
Their faces became complicated.
Since ancient times, if you wanted to get someone drunk, you had to drink just as much yourself.
Because glasses of alcohol were originally meant to be exchanged.
Arendt would have just told a few facts that he had to tell anyway.
In the end, it seemed like only the elder was unilaterally stripped of information.
“Do you think the Elder could have guessed… that he was the only one who fell for your trick?”
“If he finds out later, he’ll probably hold his stomach in pain.”
As Arthur muttered in a trembling voice, Richt chimed in.
Arendt paused for a moment as if choosing his words, then lifted his head again.
“We haven’t told them about the dragon yet, have we?”
“…We told them that Jin’s laboratory was discovered in Dragon Lair.”
Arthur felt a strange sense of discomfort at the gesture, but still gave his answer.
“You didn’t mention anything about Lexion or Gilberte? I asked around, and it seems like there was a time when a human bard and an elf were close. Maybe that’ll give us a clue about Gilberte.”
Arendt reached out again and grabbed the glass of water.
Llewellyn noticed this and quickly tilted the pitcher to fill the glass.
Arendt drank another gulp of cold water and spoke again.
“And the Elder blatantly avoids the topic of the evil god. I actually expected that, but he also avoided mentioning other gods worshipped by the elves… Is that how it usually is?”
The last question was directed at Llewellyn.
Llewellyn frowned vaguely as he put down the pitcher.
“No, rather, it is better to talk about the myths first. In particular, the Fog Forest tribe worships the god of the sea, so there is a temple for the god of the sea on the coast.”
“Then there must be a reason…”
Arendt frowned slightly and trailed off.
“I should check that out too. It seems to be related to this situation. Anyway, the other elders are just watching the elder’s mood… Ah, this fucking shit… my head’s not working.”
Arendt, who had been muttering to himself, swore and rubbed his face.
Arthur felt uneasy once again.
“Hey, Arendt.”
“…What.”
After a brief pause, a clear answer came back.
But during that short gap, they finally realized something strange.
Arendt’s ears were bright red as he lowered his head and forehead on his hand.
It seemed hotter than when he was near the campfire earlier.
After a long while, Arendt straightened his posture again and reached out to the glass nearby.
After a moment of fumbling, Arendt picked up the glass and drank the cold water again.
Everyone was silently shocked at the hand waving in the air.
He put down his glass with a thud and eventually leaned his upper body against the sofa.
He didn’t move his hand from his forehead as the headache continued to mount.
“…”
The room suddenly became quiet because the guy who had been leading the conversation stopped talking.
When Arendt remained motionless for a while, Laius cautiously opened his mouth.
“…Arendt?”
“…”
But there was no answer.
This time, Richt reached out and shook his shoulder.
Still no response has come back.
Richt let go of his hand with an uneasy look on his face.
Then.
Shhh, thud.
Arendt was pulled by gravity and fell down onto the sofa.
“…”
Everyone just blinked blankly, unable to grasp the situation for a moment.
Arendt’s eyes, which had been sparkling brightly until just now, were tightly shut.
The mouth that had been babbling away at this and that was slightly open, its strength gone.
Anyone who looked at him would have thought he was drunk and had fallen asleep.
All they could hear was the breathing of the sleeping apprentice knight with a red face.
Llewellyn, who had been standing there blankly, licked his lips.
“…What, what is it? What is this bastard?”
The voice that had been mumbling in a daze soon changed to one of shock.
“No, he was fine until just now! Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? What, was this alcohol? It wasn’t?”
He checked the pitcher Arendt had been drinking from, but there was only clear water sloshing at the bottom.
Laius rubbed his temples and let out a deep sigh.
“Haaah… it seems it was true when he said he wasn’t okay. He was pretending to be okay until now.”
“What?”
“He’s reached his limit after holding out with both stubbornness and brute force. This damn fool. Something has been off since a while ago.”
When Llewellyn asked absurdly, Arthur answered with a frown.
They completely disappeared from the sight of the elves and he told them everything he found out.
Now that he’d completed all his assigned roles, he let go of all his tension.
Richt, who had briefly exited the room, found a blanket and threw it over Arendt’s body.
Meanwhile, Llewellyn blinked and looked at the fallen Arendt in bewilderment.
‘…Is that possible?’
This wasn’t something that could be explained by saying that one had strong mental strength.
It was absurd that he was talking nonsense to the elder in this state and that he was telling everything he wanted to tell his seniors.
“Isn’t this guy really crazy…?”
Arthur clicked his tongue after hearing Llewellyn’s monologue.
“Leave him be. This guy’s been like this for more than just a day or two.”
“Hah…”
A sigh came out on its own.
He felt it when they ransacked Jin’s laboratory last time, but now he thought he understood why the knights went crazy over Arendt’s actions every time.
Arthur ruffled Arendt’s hair with his rough hands, as if he was looking at a disobedient younger brother.
“Ugh, you little bastard.”
A brief scolding was an added bonus.