Barrett wanted to steer the conversation away from the unpleasant past. He casually asked about the captain of the Magical Gorgon squad, curious about his current situation. "How's the captain doing now? He's not an adventurer anymore, right?"
"The captain, he..." Hank straightened up and took a deep gulp of red wine. "The captain really isn't an adventurer anymore. He joined the Re-Estize's army and became a cavalry lieutenant. Then, in that war against the Sorcerer Kingdom, he died in battle. You must have heard about it—the one where the Sorcerer Kingdom's king slaughtered over a hundred thousand Re-Estize soldiers in a single go."
Barrett's heart sank, and his hand suddenly clenched the handle of the oak mug. He had no family or ties in the world. Though he'd vaguely heard about Ainz Ooal Gown's atrocities, he'd always been indifferent to them. He figured even if some demon lord ruled the world, it wouldn't affect him. But now, it seemed that wasn't the case.
"The captain took off his leather armor and put on the Re-Estize's standard plate—sure enough, his luck ran out. The Sorcerer Kingdom's king summoned a few black monsters as big as mountains, and the soldiers got trampled into pulp. Blood, flesh, shattered bones, and mud all mixed together—nothing could be told apart. Me and another old buddy wanted to collect the captain's remains, but we couldn't even do that."
Hank tilted his head back to stare at a copper candelabra on the ceiling, recalling the hellish sight from cleaning the battlefield. He seemed to lose all interest in drinking.
Barrett lifted the mug high with both hands, threw his head back, and chugged the red wine in one go, gulp after gulp, until it was empty.
Hank glanced at the drained mug in front of Barrett and waved it off. "Let's not talk about that depressing stuff. It's rare for us to meet up like this—this is my tavern, drinks are on me!"
He turned toward the counter and shouted, "Honey, my old friend's here! Do me a favor and bring out a bottle of wine, yeah?"
A middle-aged woman's voice grumbled from the counter. "Drink, drink—all you do every day is round up your no-good drinking buddies. You're lucky to have black rye beer, and you still want wine!"
Even so, the grumbling voice drew closer from afar, and a bottle of light red wine was plunked down in front of Barrett and Hank with a thud.
Hank forced a grin on his beefy face for the middle-aged woman who brought the wine, saying, "Thanks, honey!"
Once the middle-aged woman had walked off, Hank whispered to Barrett again, "Heh, women—they don't get it. If I didn't keep treating those wheat merchants to drinks and buttering them up, how else could we score such cheap malt for brewing?"
He popped the cork and poured the wine into Barrett's large oak mug. He eyed Barrett's gear and the sword at his side, then asked, "You're still adventuring, right?"
Barrett nodded and laid out his adventures from the past few years. He covered everything from his explorations in Mistwood to his first encounter with EeDechi, right up to being hired by the Re-Estize's Princess Renner to guard her safety. Of course, Barrett deliberately skipped over a lot of details.
"You're working for the Golden Princess?" Hank said in surprise.
"What's the matter? The pay's decent—she hands out 3 gold coins a day." Barrett noticed Hank's brows knitting together, his expression turning dead serious all of a sudden. And that was rare for the laid-back, hefty "wine connoisseur."
"If I'm not wrong, Princess Renner must have her eye on your captain. If those stories you told weren't blown out of proportion, your current captain's a real powerhouse!"
Barrett nodded in agreement. EeDechi was indeed a force to be reckoned with—fiercer than the entire old Magical Gorgon adventure squad put together—but that didn't mean the oddball girl could wander the world without a hitch.
Hank poured the wine into his own mug, where some red wine still lingered at the bottom. The light red wine blended with the deep red, looking like a mug of watered-down blood.
"I have to warn you—be careful around Princess Renner. When you get back, tell your current captain to stay on guard with Her Highness too." Hank set down the wine bottle, his expression unusually serious.
"Why say that?" Barrett asked in surprise. "Isn't Princess Renner known as the 'Golden Princess'? Everyone says she's kind, beautiful, and wise."
Hank shook his head slightly. "I've been running this tavern for three or four years now—got a wide network, hear all sorts of things. Don't buy into her good reputation; behind the scenes, she's got plenty of shady tricks up her sleeve. Think about it—if she were just some pure, innocent snowdrop, how could she still be standing tall after clashing with the second prince all this time?"
Precious gems can be priced, but a friend's advice is priceless. Barrett fell silent. His own impression of Princess Renner was indeed positive, and Captain EeDechi's was even better.
But as his old friend said, a royal girl who's at a disadvantage both by tradition and law—how exactly does she manage to hold her ground against her brother in the power games?
Just relying on her wise virtues? That'd be a joke. As the old saying goes, among nobles, only newborn babes have clean palms.
...
Barrett tucked a bottle of dry red wine under his arm and headed back to the residence in the Re-Estize's capital that Princess Renner had arranged for them. He stepped into the courtyard, pushed open the door, and entered the house.
The furniture inside was sparse—just a few wooden cabinets, a square table, several ornate leather chairs, and a thick gray wool carpet on the floor. Though the setup was simple, it carried a subtle air of royal elegance.
Sean and Stella were off somewhere playing or sightseeing, leaving only EeDechi in the house, pacing back and forth restlessly.
Barrett didn't dare interrupt his captain, who seemed deep in thought. He casually set the dry red wine on the table and sank into one of the leather chairs. EeDechi noticed him come in but didn't say a word, still pacing on her own, brows knitted tight as she mulled over something, looking a bit anxious.
Barrett watched as his captain paced back and forth in front of him—coming closer, then moving away, away then closer, over and over, making his eyes ache from the constant motion.
After a few minutes like that, Barrett couldn't hold back anymore. "Captain, stop pacing. If you've got some worry on your mind, talk it over with me. Even if you wear a hole in the carpet, it won't turn you into some great philosopher."
EeDechi finally halted her dizzying movements. She plopped down into the leather chair across from Barrett and let out a sigh. "Barrett, our path of adventure might not be as straightforward as we expected."
Wasn't that obvious? An adventurer's career had always been a thorny, muddy trail—when had it ever been easy? Barrett grumbled to himself inwardly but still asked in a serious tone, "Is there some trouble?"
"I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I finally realized—taking down Ainz Ooal Gown is harder than I imagined."
This was the first time his usually overconfident captain had said something like that, and Barrett was a bit surprised. He asked, "Aren't you really strong...?"
"Let me put it this way, so you can understand a bit." EeDechi sighed. "For example, say I'm a cheater..."
"Huh? Cheater?" Barrett scratched his head, confused. This analogy didn't help him understand at all—in fact, it just made him more puzzled.
EeDechi didn't explain and kept going on her own. "I'm a cheater, and Ainz Ooal Gown is a cheater too. We're evenly matched—if I push myself, I could still beat him. But ever since we went to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, I realized that Ainz isn't just a cheater himself—he's got several cheater underlings!
"Sebas, Shalltear, Cocytus, and probably a few other guys who haven't shown up yet—they're all cheaters." Afraid Barrett hadn't gotten it, EeDechi added that, but he still couldn't grasp the deeper meaning in her words.
"This is the problem—my strength alone is a bit too thin. Looks like I'll have to borrow power from others to take down Ainz Ooal Gown. Let me think... I wonder if there are any other cheaters in this world..."
Barrett mulled over EeDechi's words, about to say something. Knock~ knock~ knock~ A steady, unhurried knocking came from outside the door, interrupting his thoughts.