Chapter 169. Does Your Liquor Taste Bitter?
A banquet hall where an orchestra’s symphony flowed softly.
“Ahem, excuse me. I am the second son of Baron Jerimin’s house—”
“By the way, have you seen the entries for this year’s Laura Competition? They say a huge number of newcomer painters submitted.”
“Did you hear? Not long ago, One Sword of Lortel—”
Young men and women wandered the banquet hall seeking connections, and nobles bloomed into talk about culture, art, and society at large—yet only one person.
Only Aster watched the scene alone, in solitude.
Aster had moved to the second-floor railing and stared down at the first floor with eyes that looked half-dead, and his insides couldn’t have felt more bitter.
‘Why?’
He found himself questioning the sheer beauty of it.
‘The nobles I know aren’t like this.’
What are nobles?
Vile, vicious, and malicious creatures. Creatures that look down on those of low status and idolize those of high status—creatures that, truly, bully the weak and fawn over the strong.
So what was this peaceful scenery, and what were these refined conversations?
Around then, Aster sensed someone approaching.
“Aster, why are you alone?”
“……It’s Chenbi.”
Aster turned with brightened expression, then slumped his shoulders as if the steam had been let out of him.
It looked like Chenbi had just arrived at the banquet hall, because down on the first floor, Chenbi’s family could be seen being guided by Ransi.
After watching that scene briefly, Aster glanced at Chenbi.
“Chenbi, does your liquor taste bitter?”
“We’re students.”
“Ah. Right.”
Now that he thought about it, they were students.
Of course, being a student didn’t mean you couldn’t drink at all, but like Aster, Chenbi was far from the kind of guy to commit delinquency.
Meanwhile, Chenbi tilted his head at Aster’s oddly deflated look.
He’d always been strange, but now he was even stranger.
Not that he’d been normal just a few hours ago… no, he hadn’t.
‘Thinking back, he was acting weird earlier too, but now it’s worse.’
Aster was usually strange enough that Chenbi had let it slide, but it looked like something was really wrong.
“Aster, do you have something you’re worried about?”
Aster, who’d been staring at the first floor with gloomy eyes, looked at Chenbi with a sigh right then.
“Chenbi, do you believe in fate?”
“Fate? Why are we suddenly talking about fate?”
At the sudden fate talk, Chenbi narrowed his eyes.
‘Did puberty hit him?’
A chill ran down his spine.
Even now, Aster already had a part of him that felt like it was going off the rails, and if he went further, Chenbi couldn’t even imagine what would happen.
If that happened, Chenbi would have to avoid him for a while.
As he made that resolve, Aster’s words rang in his ear.
“Let’s say you think there’s a fate you can’t refuse.”
First, Chenbi took one step sideways to create distance. When Aster’s gaze followed him in confusion, Chenbi changed the subject.
“So? Keep going.”
“You want to avoid it. So you try everything you can, but you just can’t avoid it.”
“Yeah.”
“Then what should we do?”
“Umm.”
Since he couldn’t understand what this was even about, he took another step sideways.
But he didn’t completely leave.
His body stayed still while only his neck twisted to stare—an oddly grotesque posture—but his eyes looked quite serious.
So Chenbi, too, thought about Aster’s words for a moment.
A fairly long silence passed.
At some point, both of them were standing side by side, looking down over the railing. Chenbi was the first to break the silence.
“I don’t know what it is, but if it were me, I think it’d be really hard.”
“Right?”
“But even so, I don’t think I’d give up.”
“You wouldn’t give up? Even though you can’t avoid it?”
“Yeah. Until it actually happens, you don’t know the outcome, right? Then shouldn’t you do as much as you can? For example—down there. Look at that hyung.”
“Hyung?”
Was he talking about the thug hyung?
But the person Chenbi pointed at wasn’t Paijin—it was some young noble who looked slippery.
But why that noble?
“Now, watch.”
Chenbi pointed with his chin at the noble and shut his mouth. Aster also silently watched the young noble.
But was he looking for something?
The noble stood stiffly in a corner of the banquet hall, scanning people.
After some time—
“What am I supposed to be—”
“Shh. He’s moving now.”
At Chenbi’s urgent whisper, Aster shifted his gaze again.
Just as Chenbi said, the young noble who’d been standing stiffly was now walking.
He stopped at a table of young ladies, and after clearing his throat—“Ahem”—he straightened his back, puffed out his chest, and spoke.
“E-excuse me. I’m Sirius, the second son of Baron Jerimin’s house. If you have time, perhaps—”
A brave approach, in its own way.
But the young ladies’ reaction was cold. No—cruel.
“Hohoho! And then—oh my. Goodness. What did you say? Who are you again?”
“I am Sirius, the second son of Baron Jerimin’s house—”
“Yes, and?”
“If you have time, perhaps—”
“Ah, ahh. Ah, yes. But what do we do? We’re in the middle of a serious conversation right now, so I don’t think we’ll have time.”
It was obviously a lie.
They’d been happily laughing and chatting just a moment ago.
If they really were in a “serious conversation,” then it would be one of two things: either they were abnormal people whose emotions flipped upside down, or lunatics lacking empathy.
Of course, the young ladies were neither abnormal nor lunatics.
They were simply rejecting him politely.
But Sirius of Baron Jerimin’s house didn’t give up there.
“Then—could it be a conversation I may listen in on as well? I may not look it, but I do have worries—”
“No, it’s fine.”
“……Ah. Yes.”
In the end, Sirius trudged back to where he’d been, shoulders slumped.
That was when Chenbi’s voice came.
“Just from what I’ve seen, that’s already the third table.”
“……That’s a crazy bastard. This isn’t some neighborhood matchmaking hall. No—if he did that even at a neighborhood hall, he’d get kicked out—”
Before Aster could even finish—
From somewhere appeared Brando’s deputy butler.
The deputy butler bowed politely to Sirius and whispered something into his ear.
Right after that, Sirius left the banquet hall with his shoulders drooping.
“He got got?”
“Mm… he got got.”
He probably hadn’t truly been expelled. They likely just asked for his understanding and suggested he go out for some air.
Anyway.
“But why that hyung?”
Aster looked at Chenbi in confusion.
But for some reason—
Chenbi avoided eye contact and stared at the upper-left sky at a forty-five-degree angle.
“Th-that… I wanted to say how beautiful it is to not give up.”
“What? What did you say?”
Aster tilted his head at Chenbi’s flat, monotone words without rise or fall. A moment later, Chenbi’s focus returned.
“Ahem. Ahem-ahem. That hyung’s fate was rejection. Maybe that hyung even knew.”
“……So you decided his fate?”
“But he didn’t give up. Isn’t the important thing a 모습 like that? You need at least that kind of effort to overcome fate, don’t you? That’s what I meant.”
“……He got kicked out.”
“That’s why I wasn’t going to say it.”
“Hah.”
Aster burst out laughing at Chenbi’s embarrassed face.
‘Yeah. That’s true.’
Everything returns to its rightful course (事必歸正)? What? The wyvern’s curse?
Honestly, it’s all a joke.
Where in the world would there even be a wyvern ghost?
Even if there were, wouldn’t that wyvern be in the “father” stage by now, not an egg?
At this point, Aster had no choice but to admit it.
‘There is no wyvern’s curse.’
Everything was nothing more than self-comfort made up to explain this strangely harsh present life.
Having thought that far, Aster straightened like he was seizing.
“Not bad.”
Chenbi took another step sideways and asked.
“……What isn’t?”
“That line. That it’s not over until it’s over. Not bad.”
“Ah, uh… yeah?”
The ending wasn’t rejection—it was expulsion—so what exactly was “not bad”?
Chenbi genuinely wanted to ask, but he forced down his curiosity.
‘Yeah. Sure. Yeah—whatever. As long as he got his spirit back.’
As Chenbi’s eyes started to go distant, Aster’s voice came right then.
“Chenbi, want to shove me?”
“No?”
The answer came out like a spinal reflex.
He didn’t know what it was, but his gut feeling was bad.
But Aster didn’t care about Chenbi’s reaction—if anything, he smiled as if he were enjoying himself.
“Yeah, sure. Then enjoy the banquet.”
With that, Aster started walking.
‘Right. It’s not over until it’s over.’
Going to Amera isn’t right.
Not “right” (正), but “crooked” (邪).
‘Only the path I walk is justice.’
That was how he felt.
As it turned out, until Demian—the banquet’s main figure—arrived…
Aster couldn’t even brush sleeves with a single person.
In the end, Aster took a seat at some table and grabbed the tablecloth with a fistful.
“……Fuck.”
Even now, not a single person came over.
No—at this point, even if someone did come, it wouldn’t help. He couldn’t ruin someone else’s birthday just for his own comfort—
That was when a voice came.
“Ransi, did you hear?”
“Yes, I heard, Young Master Demian.”
Aster’s eyelids trembled finely as he looked at Demian.
Unlike usual, his hair was neatly combed back, and his spotless white banquet attire suited his platinum-blond hair perfectly.
“You’re not going to say anything to a friend?”
“Aster-gun is fine.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think it would change anything if he doesn’t swear a time or two.”
Aster watched the two of them for a moment, then carefully opened his mouth.
“Demian, can you shove me once—”
“No. Whatever it is, I’m not doing it.”
At Demian’s firm refusal, Aster let out a deep sigh.
“Friend, what are you doing alone? Let’s go hang out with Chenbi. Did you know? Chensla draws really well. Let’s go ask him to draw something.”
Now, truly…
There was no way left.
All he could do was enjoy the banquet.
The next day, after the banquet ended.
Aster shut himself in his room, refusing food and drink.
On the table lay a picture he hadn’t seen before.
‘……A wyvern.’
Yeah. A wyvern.
A wyvern drawing he’d gotten by asking Chenbi’s younger sibling, Chensla.
No—strictly speaking, it wasn’t an actual wyvern.
Because what was drawn on the parchment was a round egg.
Aster lovingly folded the parchment with the egg drawn on it four times, tucked it into his chest, and found peace of mind.
‘Inside this is the wyvern I’m imagining.’
It just hadn’t been born yet.
Anyway, jokes aside.
“Kkeuuuh….”
Aster stretched long and looked out the window.
“How long have I been doing the breathing method?”
In truth, Aster didn’t shut himself in and refuse food because of the failed wyvern.
It was to observe his inner self through the Breath of Red Flower.
But why suddenly inner observation…?
It was because of Henji’s message magic that brushed past him at yesterday’s banquet.
- I will contact you tomorrow. Come at the right time.
It had been too hectic to ask why.
But he had a guess.
‘No way the New Thousand Origin Art is already organized. It’s probably a book related to core division.’
That was why he observed his inner self.
Core division.
Even if reading a book wouldn’t let him do it immediately, he still needed to prepare for any contingency.
In other words, with the Amera trip ahead, it was a bit of maintenance on the side.
That aside—
“He should be coming soon.”
The moment he thought that—
Aster spotted Dinner No. 1 standing outside the window.
Knock knock.
Dinner No. 1 tapped the window with an annoyed look.
Without hesitation, Aster left the room through the window.
‘Are you watching, wyvern?’
If you’re watching, look somewhere else.
The sky was gloomy.
