Chapter 185: Which Horse is Better?
Once again, it’s drinking party time. I follow the local rules for drinking, but I’m holding back on what I brought from the Food Storage and what I made myself. In a year, I’ll be twenty, so starting next year, I can drink without any worries.
I usually enjoy ginger ale with five or six slices of lemon, but today, Dean opened a fine bottle of wine for us.
This is a clear red wine without any skins mixed in, and it must be quite expensive here. Honestly, I still can’t appreciate the taste of alcohol, but it makes me happy nonetheless.
It’s a robust red wine with a strong astringency. In the basket for Retze, I packed three types of cheese, miso-marinated tofu, a baguette, and pork belly that I seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbs, dried for three days, and then smoked. Plus, some wine.
The Appraisal says that pairing aged wine with cheese is a safe bet, so I chose a saltier aged variety. I also included the miso-marinated tofu that looks like cheese.
While Retze cuts the cheese, I grill the pork belly over the fireplace. Since it’s just a snack this time, I slice it to a suitable thickness and arrange it on a plate, ready to go.
“Get drunk, get drunk!” Dean laughs as he pours a generous amount into my glass.
“Give me some bread!”
“Sure, sure.”
He asks for bread, so I pass the plate of baguette over to Dean.
“Still amazing as ever! Next time, I’ll prepare some white wine!”
I’ve gotten used to Chris’s exaggerated way of speaking, and I raise my glass to signal the start of the party.
“What’s that smell… cow? No, goat?” Retze pokes at the miso-marinated tofu with a puzzled expression. It’s miso, you know, miso.
I think the wine is good. Probably. To be honest, I usually only drink low-alcohol beverages for hydration, so I can’t really tell.
“What kind of brother is Chris to Reed?”
“Just a normal one.”
Normal. Given their personalities, I can’t quite picture what “normal” looks like.
“We’re neither on bad terms nor particularly close. He’s a well-behaved brother I’m proud of, except for one point. But calling him ‘cute’ would be a stretch since he’s already in his twenties!”
Yeah, Reed is around twenty-three or twenty-four, so calling him cute would be awkward for me too.
“Hmm. Actually, I saw the Spirit that’s attached to Reed.”
“Oh? Was my brother’s Spirit beautiful?” Chris asks cheerfully while tilting his wine glass.
“It wasn’t a unicorn. I’ve never seen Tina and Reed together, so I can’t say for sure, but maybe it’s something that needs to be addressed.”
“Ah, just like my case.”
Noticing my vague wording, Dean looks a bit uncomfortable and gazes off into the distance.
These three know that I touched a Spirit and that Dean had the influence of a Spirit removed from him.
Chris furrows his brow, deep in thought, while Retze silently drinks his wine, and Dean watches them with a somewhat sympathetic expression.
After a while, our eyes meet, and I tilt my head as if to ask, “What now?” He smiles and speaks up.
“I’ll take Reed to the Spirit’s Branch in the Fortress City when he returns. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Oh, you’re going to show him? They have some skilled mages there. It’s expensive, though.” Dean adds.
“Can they see Spirits?”
“It’s the main base for Adventurers heading into the Demon Forest. The Spirit’s Branch and the Guild have some talented folks. There’s a famous Magic Circle that can show the Spirit to the person it’s attached to, and sometimes they can even communicate!”
Looking at Retze, I see him smirk. He definitely knew about this!
“Usually, only the caster can see them. I’d love to see the Spirit attached to me, but I’m not willing to pay a fortune for it. Even if I could see and talk to it, it wouldn’t lead to a contract.”
Chris counts on his fingers, mentioning how much it would cost. It sounds like quite a hefty sum, and as an older brother, I wouldn’t want Reed to have to pay for it.
I almost suggest that I could try creating a Magic Circle, but I hold back. There’s still time, and I’ll decide after I give it a shot. It’ll be fine; I can just say it was something the legendary Gold Rank Adventurer picked up.
“Do you think just showing it will help?”
Normally, the influence of a well-meaning Spirit can be shaken off with a strong will, but I can’t help but worry.
When I looked into it, I found out that in the past, a god-level Spirit caused quite a mess, and from an outsider’s perspective, it was baffling how it happened! The entire country was affected, and it took a long time to fix until the Spirit got bored.
“If you admonish it now, it’ll back down. It’s just that it’s gotten a bit complacent because it’s attached to a unicorn. It’s a wish for a Knight to serve a worthy lord, but it’s a dream to offer a sword to a Maiden that a unicorn would be fond of. So I think my brother would change if he saw a different form of a unicorn.”
Ah, so he’s identifying with the unicorn. It feels a bit narcissistic, but I wonder if it’s okay to show him the horse’s head… I can’t help but look away.
“…Is it really a Bicorn?”
Chris asks softly, looking anxious.
Bicorns, with their two horns, are seen as the opposite of unicorns, which symbolize purity. So that’s what they were worried about! If I saw something like that, I’d definitely become more self-aware and try to hold back.
Also, since unicorns are white, I feel like I could tell the difference, but Bicorns are black, and I’m not so sure I could distinguish them from a Demon Beast. Or could it be a Demon Beast?
“It’s not a Bicorn. It doesn’t feel malicious, and when it was with Ruta, it didn’t give off any bad vibes.”
It’s a muscular, shiny horse head.