The food was good. The service, even better. The price? Not that expensive. I mean the bread were still technically on the expensive side considering they cost 5 coppers a piece, aka, 50 bucks a pop. Considering the quality, not a bad deal. For this world at least. Though I had a feeling, they were up charging us because we were supposedly rich.

True to her word, Nisa paid up and for all three of us too. I figured this would be a recurring theme but pledged to not let her pay for things in the future.

On our way back, we somehow went through the back alleys of the fish market; not the actual fish market mind you, just the back alleys. And yet, it was as shit as I remembered. No, it was worse. The fish markets I was used to only had dead fish smell. This place had way worse stuff.

I tried my best to not think about it and walk as fast as I could without running. At the very end though, I caught a glance of Nisa and Shia. Both were pretending to be fine but their complexions were pale and I had a feeling they could throw up any moment now.

Precisely why we walked further away from that place and located a lemonade vendor. Cool lemonade on a warm sunny day… ah, delicious!

Fucking hell, it’s still here! I could still smell that wretched stench on my damn clothes.

“Whose bright idea was it to take that route,” I said.

“Forgive me my lord, I was under the impression the smell wouldn’t be so intense,” Sibrian said. Dude was definitely messing with us.

Anyway, we caught our breath and although I felt better, the other two were desperately trying to hide their occasional urge to unload everything on the streets. Noble woman had to put up with a lot of shit apparently.

We booked a carriage and quickly rode back to the mansion and both ladies excused themselves. Meanwhile, Sibrian took the opportunity to corner me in my room.

“My lord, we have to talk.”

“Be frank, I don’t have much time.” I needed to take a shower badly.

“How much did you sell your potions for.”

I knew he was there the first day. But wasn’t supposed to on the second day. And Shia wasn’t the type to go rattling about it either. Meaning, it was his hunch.

“What are you talking about?”

“The Duke had vials of po-” he snickered. “Elixirs today. I’m sure you were the provider.” Oh, he was dropping the act. “How much did you sell them for?”

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“And why do you think I will tell you?”

“Because my job is to keep you safe, my lord. I need to know how much money you’re carrying and-”

“Nothing. All I requested was his protection.”

“Surely we’re not inadequate for you to ask for-”

“Besides, he gave me his daughter,” I said. “And if he does give me money, he will give it to me when I need it. Not when I’m asking for it. So, I’m not carrying much of anything you see.”

I could see his veins bulging but he still maintained a smile. I did too.

“Then what about your remaining elixirs?”

“What makes you say I have more?”

“I know not to underestimate his bloodline.”

I narrowed my lips, like I was kissing the air or something. “Let’s just say, they are where they belong.”

Seriously, dude was starting to get pissed. “But my lord-”

“As I said, I don’t have much time. Get out.”

“Of course, sir,” he went out. But I could have sworn the dude was giving me ‘I’m going to kill you on the road’ vibes.

Sigh. I keep getting myself into weird shit again huh?

And almost all of them were my fault. If only I wasn’t so stupid and paid more attention, half of these things wouldn’t go badly like this.

***

The rest of the day went by smoothly. I didn’t see Shia or Nisa and I didn’t want to either. I hung in the garden, occasionally walked and jogged. The fish were… still alive.

Few people interacted with me and those few were Counts and Earls and the like. Most lower or middle ranked nobles steered clear of my way. It seemed like the idea of me carrying pure elixirs wasn’t really anything but a rumor among them. Sibrian knew for sure though and I had a feeling some other nobles probably caught onto something as well. Despite that, I didn’t see any attempts to persuade me or even threaten me. I suppose people weren’t that stupid.

Evening came, I ate with the rest just like the day before. Today the Duke didn’t join us but the Duke’s son did. His name was Niv something and he wanted to congratulate me, or I think he did at first but the moment he noticed Shia, he just… started acting weird.

Dude was like twenty something and he was hitting on a thirteen-year-old? The fuck is wrong with this picture? Shia absolutely ignored his existence though.

“This is really good,” she said. “Maybe we should start making this too.” She was talking about a peculiar style of frying bread in butter. It was basically just toast but… extra buttery.

“Ah, that is-” The Duke’s son went on. But now even I ignored him but he never seemed to understand. Which was fine and all but he was really starting to annoy me.

Once we were done, I bade him farewell and left with Shia.

“You could have at least said hello,” I said.

“Not to that asshole, I won’t.” She snorted and left for her room.

I wouldn’t either if I were her. Humoring playboys like that was a sure-fire way of them hitting on you harder. But reverse psychology is also a thing sis.

Oh well.

With my head in bed, some thoughts started weighing on me. Tomorrow I’d be officially getting engaged with Nisa. Eventually we might get married, or she might just decide to leave me halfway. Either way, we were going to be together for a while.

I didn’t understand noble politics but I had a feeling our families would use each other and since we would too, this relationship was nothing but a farce. However, this was my grand chance to start a club and influence the church. The duke was quite influential himself and if his wife recovered, they’d be heavily indebted to me. Heck, even if she didn’t recover, he would still be grateful to me for the elixirs. And I could easily use that to my advantage.

What am I going to name the club though? The religious Club? Church is bad Club? Askavan sucks Club? Nah… something subtle, something… something like a cult. A place where people would give their lives for their ideals.

The Cult Of Askavan.