"It seems I caused quite a stir," Lim Miao said, standing behind him as he dug a hair dryer out from the second floor's storage.
Asher handed it to her with a shrug. "Not at all."
Lim Miao smiled. Though, as usual, her eyebrows didn't so much as twitch. "Alright. Thankies."
She drifted past him toward her room, a faint trail of steam and the scent of the inn's soap following her.
Yes, that soap. The 50-solen-a-night-inn kind. The sort of soap that politely whispered, you get what you pay for, and then left a filmy aftertaste of disappointment.
But on her, it somehow evoked a refined, elegant, and somber feeling.
Asher filed the thought away and headed back downstairs to the counter. The four men, still holding their precious elixirs, stood frozen in their little tableau of awkward hope.
He ignored them, flipping open a notebook and scribbling a few words before snapping it shut with all the ceremony of swatting a fly.
They shouldn't have cared, but of course they saw. And of course they read it.
"Buy better soap."
It didn't clear the accusation.
…if there was any.
"I can't remember," Asher began, lifting his gaze from the notebook toward the Thief King.
The black-clad man, young, from the unweathered way his voice betrayed him, flinched. "...Remember what, Master?"
"That I've saved your life," Asher said, deadpan. "I truly can't recall."
"...Y-you actually did. A few times, if I'm being strict."
"Hmm." Asher folded his arms, then nodded with the sort of acceptance that could mean yes, I believe you or I just stopped listening to you halfway through. "Okay."
Although the young man was swaddled in black from head to toe, when Asher said that, somehow, you could see him light up. Pure, almost childlike happiness radiating from someone whose nickname in underworld circles could double as a horror story title for the rich.
The Thief King pulled out his Ang Elixir again, offering it with almost reverent hands, only for Asher to lift a palm and stop him.
"You keep it," Asher said.
Immediately, the breakfast hall froze. Not a sound, except, maybe, for the faint creak of Eno's jaw hitting the metaphorical floor.
"What?!" Eno exploded. "What do you mean?! Don't tell me you're going to accept it from this old Kim guy, right?!"
Kim Hang, who had been marinating in his own disappointment, suddenly snapped upright, hope returned.
"My gratitude is still unneeded…" The Thief King, meanwhile, looked down at his elixir, his earlier bright aura leaking away as he murmured, disappointment coating every syllable.
"That's ridiculous! You are retired, remember?!" Eno barked, stepping forward in outrage. "You refused to fight me because you always said you're done with this business! Are you going back on your own words now?! You…!"
But Eno's rant was cut clean when Asher turned toward Giovan.
Without a word, he extended his empty hand. "I'll take yours."
Silence.
A silence so thick you could spread it on toast. The clink of porcelain stopped midair, chairs no longer creaked, even the morning light filtering through the windows seemed to hesitate.
Giovan stared at him, almost offended at the absurdity. Even he didn't think he had a shot. His deal wasn't immediate leverage, it was honestly a deferred headache. By every logical measure, even Kim Hang's offer was a far juicier piece of bait, with great lifetime moral reward.
Yet here was Asher… actually choosing him.
"W-why…?" Giovan finally asked, his voice catching somewhere between disbelief and suspicion. He knew his political instincts, normally sharp enough to skin a man alive in conversation, wouldn't be able to crack this one.
The fact that someone like him, a manipulatively calculative man who had just dismantled Eno's 'free' elixir offer and Hang's dignified desperation in neat, pretty words, could still end up confused? Yeah, that said a lot.
"Because your elixir has decent value," Asher replied, calm as a glacier.
…Huh?
Giovan blinked, like maybe his ears had misfired.
Asher turned to the other three. "Coming all the way here, I count it as all of you giving me a favor. Thank you."
The inn master actually bowed his head.
…you could literally hear someone's knuckle pop in the far corner now, and the air was almost humming with wait, what the hell did he just say?
"But I only need one, and Seventh's elixir has the most value out of all of yours. So, I'm taking his," Asher explained.
You were telling me… this guy was picking Giovan's because it was the most expensive? Well, yeah, if you count "future entrapment in a scam" as expensive. Asher, my boy, come on.
But then again… Asher had gotten two favors from Lim Miao.
…Wait. Hold up.
So this was how he was valuing those two favors? He deliberately chose the most troublesome elixir just to send a smoke signal to the world that Lim Miao's two favors were worth that much to him?
Oh, shit.
Oh, shit.
Damn, man. I see you now, you're a simp, aren't you? Ohhh, fuu—
"And because you three came all the way here for nothing, I'll only take your intention and pay you back for it," Asher said suddenly, slicing right through everyone's mental processing.
My guy! Stop it! You're bankrupting yourself! What???
And just like that, Eno, the Thief King, and Kim Hang froze in perfect sync, expressions ranging from open-mouthed to I'm-sure-this-is-a-prank.
There was a screw loose, or maybe the whole toolkit was missing from this man's brain.
"I'll give you all a favor, not only Seventh," Asher continued. "You came all the way here to offer me what's yours, but I only need one. So, either I take yours or not, you won't step out of my door empty-handed."
He turned to the Thief King first, tapping his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "Thank you for coming. That's enough gratitude you showed for me. If you don't want my favor, then my favor is accepting your gratitude."
The Thief King blinked twice.
Then Asher turned to Eno, sighing like a man about to start an unpleasant but inevitable chore. "I'll give you one too."
Eno's eyebrows shot up so high they were probably trespassing in the next county.
And lastly, Asher faced Hang. "Eleventh, I'll save your son. Give me ten minutes."
You could feel the breakfast hall tilt, the air suddenly heavy with did that just happen?
Holy shit.