Chapter 3
The sight before me left me speechless.
I had expected Cesare to have suffered over the past fifteen years…
But I had never imagined he’d end up like this.
…No.
Calm down.
No matter what he looked like, he was still my disciple.
Even if my disciple happened to be drooling all over his beard…
“Cesare, it’s me. Your master, Dain. Do you recognize me?”
“Huh?”
Cesare looked at me with dull—no, muddy—eyes.
Then, without warning, he pulled me close and threw an arm around my shoulders.
“Ah, of course I do. How could I not recognize my master?”
He grinned, exposing his canine teeth.
So even after fifteen years…
He still recognized me?
Reeking of alcohol, he said,
“If I run into my master, we’ve gotta have a drink. You’re buying, right?”
…
Did he really recognize me?
It was hard to tell.
I decided I’d better talk with him first.
Supporting him under the arm, I helped him to his feet.
“Come on, Cesare. You’re far too drunk.”
“Drunk? Nah. I’m perfectly fine. Come on, let’s head inside.”
He staggered toward the Horned Whale Inn.
The man I’d mistaken for Cesare blocked the doorway.
“What kind of shameless bastard tries to come back in? You’re not setting foot in here until you pay your tab!”
“…Ha, fuck.”
Cesare cursed under his breath before turning to me with a goofy grin.
“Master. Mind paying my tab?”
…
Did he actually recognize me or not?
Suspicious as it was, I pulled out my coin pouch.
I still had plenty of money I’d taken from the brothel owner’s office.
Looking at the innkeeper, I asked,
“How much does he owe?”
“Three million baht.”
…
Had prices skyrocketed over the last fifteen years?
Three million baht was roughly a month’s wages for an ordinary person.
I emptied everything I had onto the counter.
“This is all I have. I’ll bring the rest later.”
“Fine by me.”
The innkeeper looked satisfied just to receive something.
Cesare immediately slung an arm over my shoulder again.
“Holy shit, Master. You’re loaded.”
“…Watch your language.”
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, let’s drink.”
Drink?
At this hour?
The smell of liquor pouring off him was already alarming enough.
Still, I found myself practically dragged inside the inn.
The first floor served as both a tavern and a restaurant.
Cesare dropped heavily into an empty seat.
“A big bottle of brandy.”
“And some stew.”
The innkeeper looked at him as though staring at a pile of garbage.
The man wasn’t even sober yet and was already ordering more alcohol.
I tried to stop him.
“Cesare, you’ve had enough. You’re still hungover.”
“It’s hair-of-the-dog. Hair-of-the-dog.”
…
Why was he speaking to me so casually?
No.
That wasn’t the important issue.
First, I had to prove that I really was Dain.
I showed him the necklace around my neck.
A necklace crafted from pearls and gold.
Its pendant was shaped like an acorn and an oak leaf.
“Cesare.”
“Do you remember this?”
“The necklace of Valanus.”
“Hm?”
He lazily glanced at it.
Then, completely uninterested, he started dozing off again.
Drool dripped from his mouth.
…
How had my disciple ended up like this?
A few moments later, the innkeeper returned with the brandy and the stew.
Cesare’s head immediately shot up.
“Ohhh… I puked everything up earlier. I was starving.”
The instant the bowl landed before him, he attacked it ravenously.
Earlier I’d thought he resembled a dog.
Watching him now…
A pig seemed more accurate.
He practically drank the stew instead of eating it.
His hands trembled violently.
A tremor?
After finishing every last drop, he immediately poured himself a drink.
His hands shook so badly that liquor spilled over the rim.
Not wanting to waste a single drop, he hurriedly pressed his lips to the overflowing glass.
“Ahh…”
“Sweet.”
“So damn sweet.”
His face practically glowed with happiness.
At this rate, there would be no meaningful conversation.
I took the bottle away.
Instantly, the expression in his eyes changed.
“Ah, fuck.”
“What the hell?”
“Watch your language.”
“Then give me the bottle back.”
“Let’s talk first.”
As he reached for it, I leaned back out of his grasp.
He glared at me before irritably sipping what remained in his glass.
“…Fine.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“You don’t believe I’m Dain, do you?”
“Obviously not.”
He snorted.
“My master died.”
“Fifteen years ago.”
“How’s a dead man supposed to come back?”
“Look at my face.”
“I may be younger…”
“But it’s still me.”
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then he ordered another bottle from the innkeeper.
While waiting, he answered indifferently,
“Yeah…”
“I guess you kinda look like him.”
“So?”
“So?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Let’s pretend you’re my master.”
“Then what?”
Then what?
…
What had I wanted after finding my disciples?
No.
The answer had always been obvious.
“I’m going to find everyone.”
“And rebuild the Valanus Domus.”
If someone lost their family…
Wouldn’t they want to gather them together again?
Wouldn’t they want to rebuild their home?
I was no different.
By then, the innkeeper had brought over another bottle.
As Cesare poured himself another drink, he said,
“Oh.”
“Good luck with that.”
“You need to come too, Cesare.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re Valanus too.”
“Come home.”
Cesare gave a short laugh.
He drained another glass before looking at me through alcohol-clouded eyes.
“Valanus?”
“I forgot about that place a long time ago.”
“It got completely destroyed fifteen years ago.”
“I became an orphan.”
“I wandered around.”
“I forgot all of it.”
…
“So rebuilding it?”
“If you want to, do it yourself.”
“I don’t care.”
He reached for the bottle again.
I took it away.
BANG!
Cesare slammed his fist onto the table.
“God damn it!”
“Enough already!”
“I put up with your bullshit because you showed up this morning acting like some weird kid.”
“But why the hell do you keep pushing it?”
“Cesare.”
“Sit down.”
“Fuck off.”
He spat onto the floor and stood.
“You buy me one damn drink and act like you’re doing me some huge favor.”
“Forget it.”
“I don’t want it anymore.”
Shouting angrily, he stormed upstairs.
I started after him.
The innkeeper stopped me.
“I don’t know what’s going on between you two…”
“But talk to him after he’s sobered up.”
“When he drinks, he’s completely impossible.”
“…Understood.”
The innkeeper placed a bowl of stew in front of me.
“I don’t know how you know that alcoholic…”
“But if you’re looking for a mercenary, find someone else.”
“Half the time he’s too drunk to know what’s going on.”
An alcoholic.
So that trembling in his hands…
It had been withdrawal.
I bit my lip before asking,
“Do you know Cesare well?”
“Well enough.”
“We live in the same neighborhood.”
“Could you tell me what happened to him after Valanus fell?”
After a moment’s hesitation, the innkeeper sat down in Cesare’s vacant chair.
“The story of Valanus is famous around here.”
“After the Domus collapsed, all the children scattered.”
“Cesare joined a mercenary company.”
Cesare…
A mercenary.
The boy who had once been terrified of fighting.
“His mana awakened early.”
“He became a fairly famous mercenary.”
“He left the city…”
“…then came back a few years ago.”
“As an alcoholic.”
So…
That was what had become of him.
I pressed a hand against my forehead.
The weight of it was overwhelming.
But I had no right to criticize the life he’d lived.
I’d been absent for fifteen years.
What could I possibly say?
First…
I’d wait until he was sober.
Then we’d talk.
For now, it was impossible.
I stood up.
“Please give Cesare a message.”
“When he’s sober, tell him to come to the Valanus Domus.”
“And tell him…”
“If he comes to see me, I’ll give him five hundred thousand baht.”
He clearly needed money.
Hopefully, that would lure him in.
Reluctantly, I turned to leave.
What had Cesare endured during those fifteen years?
How had he survived?
The fifteen years I had been absent settled heavily upon my shoulders.
“Haa… Damn…”
“My head…”
Cesare staggered upright in bed.
The setting sun streamed through the window.
After drinking himself unconscious, he’d slept the entire day.
Now he was hungry again.
Scratching his belly, he wandered downstairs.
The innkeeper looked at him with open disgust.
“You finally awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Just bring me something to eat.”
Flopping into a chair, Cesare waited.
The innkeeper tossed him some bread and cheese.
Without complaint, he stuffed the food into his mouth.
“Oh, right.”
“That guy who came this morning.”
“This morning?”
“Oh.”
“That lunatic.”
The crazy bastard who’d shown up claiming to be Dain and insisting he’d died and come back to life.
Scammers approached him all the time.
But this one had been especially ridiculous.
Still…
The drinks had been free.
So he wasn’t exactly complaining.
“He said he’d be staying at the Valanus Domus.”
“The moment you’re sober, he wants you to visit.”
“Oh…”
“And he said he’d give you five hundred thousand baht if you came.”
“Five hundred thousand?”
The amount was tempting.
Even so, Cesare frowned.
Whenever someone offered kindness that openly…
The first thing to do was suspect them.
Chewing his stale bread, he muttered,
“What a fucking lunatic.”
Could he really have been his master?
No.
Impossible.
Sure…
He looked a little similar.
But dead people didn’t come back to life.
What nonsense.
The innkeeper chuckled.
“He claimed he used to belong to Valanus too?”
“Guess he doesn’t know you’ve already been conned once.”
“Shut up.”
During his years as a mercenary, Cesare had searched everywhere for former members of Valanus.
He’d paid for information.
Every lead had been fake.
Still, he’d kept searching for his family.
Until…
One day, a man claiming to be from Valanus swindled him out of every coin he owned.
After that…
Cesare stopped believing.
The disappointment had been crushing because he’d truly believed he’d finally found one of his own.
That…
Was also when he started depending on alcohol.
“Fuck…”
“Why are there so many damn scammers?”
“You’ve got a filthy mouth.”
“But at least it doesn’t look like you’ll fall for another one.”
“It’s been fifteen years.”
“Time to let Valanus go.”
Fifteen years.
Yeah.
That much time had passed.
It was time to forget Valanus…
And live his own life.
So why…
Why couldn’t he stop thinking about that crazy man from this morning?
Was it simply because he’d heard the name Valanus again after so long?
He was still chewing his bread when someone entered the inn.
“Hey, Cesare.”
“You sober enough now?”
One of the mercenaries he knew.
Taking a drink of water, Cesare answered,
“I’m always sober.”
“What do you want?”
“A big job just came in.”
“Apparently some thug showed up last night and wrecked a brothel.”
A brothel.
The Valanus Domus.
Come to think of it…
That strange man had told him to meet him there.
“The brothel owner is hiring mercenaries.”
“The pay’s pretty good for such an easy job.”
The mercenary grinned.
“You coming?”
“Gotta earn money for your booze somehow.”
