Chapter 82: Drunken Confession

Viktor stared closely at the hair ornament. After examining it for a while, he gave Qiu Nuoya an awkward smile. "Nuoya, you’ve been fooled."

"Huh? Fooled?"

"That hair ornament doesn’t have any magic imbued into it. The magic stone itself is genuine, so I wouldn’t exactly call it a fake. But essentially, it’s just an unenchanted material. If you want defensive magic put into it, you’ll need to have a mage enchant it separately."

"...!?"

"Seriously? Can something like that really happen!?" Qiu Nuoya was stunned. He had never imagined that he could be fooled so easily by an ordinary shopkeeper. Then again, they had simply taken the shopkeeper at his word. In that sense, perhaps they had only themselves to blame for failing to notice the truth.

I should have used my Appraisal skill...

"Damn that bastard." Warren quietly clenched his fists, trembling with anger.

"Whoa, calm down. Calm down!"

"Come to think of it, I have something similar." As he said that, Viktor carefully took something out of his bag. It was a hair ornament wrapped in a beautiful piece of cloth.

It looked well worn. The metal fittings had lost their shine, and part of the stone was damaged, but there was no mistaking it. It looked remarkably similar to the one Qiu Nuoya was wearing.

"This is something my benefactor used to treasure and wear all the time."

It must have been extremely precious to him, because Viktor carefully wrapped the hair ornament back up in the cloth before putting it away.

When he looked at how carefully Viktor treated the old hair ornament, Qiu Nuoya found himself thinking. He could not deny that he was disappointed to learn that he had been deceived. Still, he gently touched the hair ornament that was currently fastened in his own hair.

"I like this hair ornament."

"Hm?"

A hair ornament with defensive magic imbued into it certainly would have been more valuable and appealing as an accessory. But this was something Warren had bought for him because he thought it suited Qiu Nuoya.

Qiu Nuoya did not think it was right to dismiss it as worthless simply because it lacked magical enchantment.

"It’s a little disappointing that it doesn’t have any magic imbued into it, but I likes this hair ornament. So I plans to take good care of it and use it for a long time."

When Qiu Nuoya smiled brightly and said that, Warren’s face turned bright red, and he quickly looked away.

Viktor smiled and gently stroked Qiu Nuoya’s hair and said, "I think that’s perfectly fine. It suits you very well."

...

Igor finally returned to the inn sometime after midnight after going out drinking with his old acquaintance.

Actually, Qiu Nuoya had no idea what time Igor had really come back. He had only discovered the drunken beastman at that hour because he had gotten up to use the bathroom.

Igor was sprawled out asleep beside the door outside their room and completely drunk.

Qiu Nuoya had never seen him this utterly wasted before, so he was thoroughly bewildered.

Igor generally drank in a cheerful manner. Even when he became more boisterous from getting caught up in the atmosphere of a drinking party, he had never drunk himself into a state like this.

"Igor, you shouldn’t sleep here. Come on, let’s go back to the room."

"Huh?"

Qiu Nuoya shook Igor’s shoulder while he was still half asleep. Igor’s breath reeked strongly of alcohol, and he suddenly wrapped his arms around Qiu Nuoya and collapsed onto him.

The sheer weight of Igor’s body nearly crushed Qiu Nuoya beneath him.

As a beastman, Igor was naturally quite large. He was probably over two meters tall, and his broad heavily muscled body was far too much for Qiu Nuoya’s smaller frame to handle.

"Wait... You’re crushing me! You’re crushing me! Igor, wake up!"

"...Why..."

"Hm?"

While still holding Qiu Nuoya tightly, Igor murmured something under his breath. "Why, Lilica... Why..."

Ah, so Igor had drunk this much because he was devastated by the news of his wife’s remarriage.

Igor must have truly loved his wife. Even though circumstances had prevented them from living together, he had continued to love her faithfully all this time. Thinking about that made Qiu Nuoya’s heart ache.

Igor was an incredibly affectionate person. He had helped Qiu Nuoya, a complete stranger and a child at the time, without ever asking for anything in return. He cared deeply about everyone in the share house, and he was always laughing and having fun with them.

Surely that same love had been given to his family as well. Even though they had been separated, Qiu Nuoya believed Igor’s feelings for them had never changed. But while Qiu Nuoya could understand Igor’s feelings, he could also understand his wife’s.

Igor had left the royal capital because he could no longer remain there. What had his wife felt as she watched him leave without following him?

Perhaps part of her had desperately wanted him to stay. She must have waited for him too. But still, ten years was a very long time.

Igor had apparently continued sending money to his family throughout those years, but Qiu Nuoya believed that there were feelings that could not be held together by money alone.

It would have been easy to condemn his wife as a cruel woman for remarrying without telling Igor and then comfort him. But Qiu Nuoya was in no position to say something like that.

"Maybe she simply took the first step before Igor did."

"Hm? Took the first step...?"

"We’re traveling right now. If we don’t keep walking, we won’t reach our destination. I think life is the same. If you stand still, you’ll never get anywhere. So maybe she simply started walking toward her own destination."

"Her own... destination..." Igor’s arms loosened slightly.

Taking advantage of the opening, Qiu Nuoya slipped out of his embrace and sat down beside Igor, who was still lying on the floor.