"That's right."
Lernen nodded in agreent, sowhat lost in thought.
Even without considering their personal friendship, as a combat hero who annihilated demon generals at the Empire's border and the nominal protagonist of this celebration banquet, it would be hard to find anyone more suitable than Denken.
While Lernen was in a daze, Denken had already torn open the wax seal at the top of the wine bottle, exposing the cork.
Seeing this, Lernen ca to his senses and stood up to walk to the reception room's wine cabinet, searching for a corkscrew.
But just as he found a somlier knife, a light "pop" ca from behind him, like a lady's gentle sigh.
Turning around, he saw Denken gripping the cork with his hand, forcibly pulling it out with brute strength.
Lernen: ...
After a long silence, Lernen had no choice but to put down the somlier knife and bring over two wine glasses instead.
"Glug-glug-glug—"
Deep red wine flowed slowly from the bottle mouth into the gorgeous crystal glasses.
As a fine wine stored in the underground cellars of an Imperial-ranked winery and aged for countless years, even just briefly touching the air during pouring, the wine in the glasses began emitting intoxicating floral and fruity aromas.
No need for the troubleso decanting process.
Decanting Magic, an accidental discovery by human mages during the winemaking process, was sufficient to handle this.
Under its effect, the tannin components in the wine would rapidly oxidize and soften in an extrely short ti, making the wine's taste incredibly smooth while activating various aromatic substances, bringing the red wine to its optimal drinking state.
As a folk (court) magic with high refinent and so practical utility, this was a mandatory subject for almost all court mages.
So that when His Majesty the Emperor or his direct royal relatives wanted to taste fine wines with longer cellaring periods, these court mages could have the opportunity to serve at their side.
Therefore, both Denken and Lernen were extrely proficient in using Decanting Magic.
As the magic's glow gradually infused into the glasses, the wine's quality visibly improved.
However, unlike Denken's thod of directly using magical power to catalyze it to optimal condition, Lernen only carried this process halfway before stopping.
Because compared to tasting a wine's optimal richness and aroma on the first sip, Lernen preferred to experience the gradual changes of the wine's tannins on his palate.
Even if it wasn't so wonderful when first entering the mouth, and might even be sowhat astringent.
But as the wine glass gently swirled, under the dual oxidation of air and ti, it would present more flavor sensations.
"Tsk—"
After quickly finishing the red wine in his glass, Denken clicked his tongue lightly.
Looking at his old friend's intoxicated expression across from him, he couldn't help shaking his head.
Denken knew that at this mont, Lernen had imrsed himself in the world of wine, unaware of heaven and earth.
It was just sowhat regrettable that he himself had always been indifferent to wine. Even when occasionally drinking, it was mostly to cater to others in social settings.
After all, wine appreciation had its thresholds, requiring long-term training of the palate.
Unlike Lernen, this nobleman's son who grew up in the Imperial Capital, Denken, who ca from a declining rural noble family, obviously lacked such environnt and atmosphere.
Whether it was his father-in-law who raised him to adulthood, or the military where he achieved rit after leaving ho, they always preferred beer.
But it didn't matter anyway, since... this old friend of his only had a tolerance of two or three glasses.
At worst, he'd accompany Lernen in finishing this bottle first, then go to a tavern for a couple of drinks after eting with the great mage Serie later.
As for Lernen, as he gradually finished his glass of red wine, his tense nerves visibly relaxed, no longer as constrained as before.
Just as Denken had said earlier, their teacher was on the way.
And his old friend was just drinking and chatting with him, showing no intention of taking advantage of this window period to make difficult requests.
"Denken, thanks."
Taking advantage of the gap while pouring wine, Lernen suddenly spoke softly.
"Mm." Denken responded, obviously understanding why his old friend was thanking him.
"No need to thank ."
"Anyway, this trip wasn't my idea."
"However..." Denken suddenly pondered for a mont, then said:
"If you really want to show your appreciation, then invite Lektüre and to visit your ho soti later."
"After all, soone got married too suddenly and didn't even send an invitation to invite us."
"Haha." Lernen apologetically touched his hair, his gaze unconsciously glancing at the gleaming white silver wedding ring on his ring finger, showing a mont of tenderness.
"No problem. After this celebration banquet of yours ends, I'll imdiately write to invite you both."
"Actually, I had thought about inviting you both back then."
"It's just that information from the border has always been poor. I wasn't clear about the battlefield situation, so I thought I'd wait and not—"
"Junior brother, you got married?!!"
At this mont, a third person's voice suddenly ca in.
Then a pair of large hands pushed open the tightly closed doors of the reception room, and Gut strode forward, too rushed to say anything else, his gaze first looking at Lernen's left hand.
Sure enough, right on his ring finger, a silver ring inlaid with a gem was quite eye-catching.
"It really is..."
Seeing this, even though Gut's mind was still sowhat confused, he had to believe this fact.
Actually, based on the manga's later plot, Gut knew that Lernen would have a lovely granddaughter—Elle—in the future.
Working backward from this, his marriage was naturally inevitable.
It's just that Gut never imagined that the introverted Lernen could complete the entire process from eting to falling in love to marriage in just a few short months...
This was simply too abnormal.
Although he knew it wasn't good to maliciously speculate about his junior brother's other half, the cautious Gut couldn't help but overthink.
Could this be a spy specifically arranged for Lernen by the Empire to gather intelligence on their teacher?
After all, with special agencies like the Shadow Warriors and Magical Intelligence Corps around, such actions wouldn't be surprising.
Having vaguely guessed what this chief disciple was thinking, Denken couldn't help shaking his head, standing up from his chair and extending his hand:
"We et again, Mr. Gut."
"Thank you again for bringing back a hat for my wife previously."
Denken brought up past events in his routine pleasantries.
First, to help Gut recall this past encounter, and second, to use this to draw closer and avoid creating an adversarial impression from the start.
"Oh, hello Mr. Denken." Gut also politely extended his hand, apologizing while shaking hands: "Sorry, I was too surprised just now and neglected you."
Gut naturally saw through Denken's little sches, but this court mage's efforts were destined to be wasted.
As the "elderly hot-blooded mage" who occupied considerable space in the plot, even if Denken didn't specifically emphasize it, Gut's impression of him was extrely vivid.
"No matter." Denken spoke with a calm expression, not minding the earlier neglect.
But in his heart, he felt the sa strange sensation as when he first t Gut.
He always felt this person knew him, and quite well at that.
Although his inner depths weren't calm, Denken still maintained his composed expression.
He glanced at the door unobtrusively, and after seeing no one else coming in for a long ti, he spoke:
"May I ask, didn't Lady Serie co with you?"
"Mm." Gut nodded in response. "Teacher and the others went to dine at a restaurant. She specifically sent to bring you two over."
"I see." Denken nodded slightly, understanding.
It seed that person had detected their magical signatures when probing the branch and chose not to return directly, instead sending her disciple to notify them to co over.
This way, their side, which had been waiting at the destination, beca the latecors instead—a common psychological ploy in negotiations.
"Then I'll trouble Mr. Gut to guide us later."
"But please forgive for leaving montarily to retrieve a special gift that the Empire has specifically prepared for Lady Serie outside."
After speaking, Denken bowed slightly and walked toward the Imperial delegation gathered outside the reception room to retrieve that gift.
After Denken left, only Gut and Lernen, the senior and junior brothers, remained in the room.
Gut looked at his junior brother whose steps were sowhat unsteady. Knowing Lernen's poor alcohol tolerance, Gut didn't let him continue standing but helped him sit down to sober up, taking this ti to ask about the branch's recent situation and how this flash marriage had co about.
First was the abnormally fast construction speed of the branch.
What Lernen described was basically completely consistent with their teacher's guess.
In his cultivation of Stone Magic, he had indeed made so progress, thus providing considerable assistance to the construction process.
But what truly played the decisive role was Gumi.
According to Lernen's recollection, over two months ago, junior sister received a letter from a rchant association sent to their ho.
He didn't know the specific contents, only rembering that when he saw junior sister the next day, her eyes were red and swollen, as if she had cried all night.
In the following days, Gumi used her family's rchant connections and paid out of her own pocket to invite several construction teams from different regions of the Northern Nations to help.
Among them were carpenter teams from the Lant Region, who, backed by the Alt Forest, had top-tier skills and lumber.
There were fabric and ornant teams from Neutrall Bay, who, guarding the harbor, used fabrics and ornants rarely found inland.
There were also blacksmith masters and stonemasons escorted by the Nokamm Knights...
These high-quality construction teams would be difficult for even the association to arrange nearby work schedules, yet they all ca rushing over at once.
I advised junior sister that this wasn't necessary.
But junior sister said that whether it was her or the Dalemons rchant Association behind her, they should do sothing for the association, for teacher and senior brother, and she instructed not to report the situation to teacher.
Under the joint efforts of several tis the original craftsn and masters, the Äußerst branch's construction changed daily, finally completing inspection and acceptance a few days ago.
Whether the building's quality or interior decoration, everything t and exceeded preset standards.
And junior sister Gumi left without saying goodbye on the day of completion, only leaving a ssage that she was going ho to pay respects to relatives.
After hearing Lernen finish, Gut sighed.
Although his questions were answered, so lancholy ford in his chest.
Junior sister Gumi's family affairs—Lernen probably wasn't clear about them, but Hero Himl who brought back all the corpses, Gut who helped junior sister's steward collect and piece together headless bodies, and their teacher who used magic to help the deceased transcend—all rembered that scene vividly.
"Sigh..."
This world was ultimately not a peaceful human realm.
But at least, this butterfly from outside the world hadn't made it worse by flapping its wings.
Hopefully in this life, junior sister who could pay respects to her parents would have so of the gloom in her heart dissipate.
"Alright, let's talk about sothing lighter."
"Lernen, how did you end up with your wife?"
"This... this..."
Senior brother's sudden topic change caught Lernen off guard. Suddenly having to discuss this, his cheeks couldn't help but flush red.
The flush that had already appeared from drinking was further catalyzed by this, becoming even redder, and his speech beca stuttering, unable to squeeze out a complete sentence for a long ti.
"Bang—bang—"
"Mr. Gut, Lernen."
"I'm ready here."
Denken's knocking ca from outside the reception room, interrupting the brothers' chat and rescuing Lernen.
Gut secretly lanted his bad luck—just when he was about to hear gossip, soone interrupted.
Lernen breathed a long sigh of relief and was about to stand up from his chair to join his old friend and senior brother in eting their teacher.
But unexpectedly, as soon as Lernen stood up, he felt the air under his feet was as soft and ethereal as clouds. With one misstep, he was about to fall to the ground.
Fortunately, Gut was quick-eyed and fast-handed, stepping forward to support him and settling him onto the reception room's sofa.
"Ugh..."
"Senior brother, I feel a bit dizzy..."
Gut silently looked at the red wine bottle that wasn't even "severely damaged" and couldn't help shaking his head.
"Amazing."
Junior brother's "light drinking" was quite economical—less than two glasses could knock him out.
"Ugh..."
Lernen seed to want to argue sothing, but his earlier emotional excitent had apparently fully activated the alcohol, and he could no longer speak coherently.
Seeing junior brother in this state, there was no way to take him to see teacher. Might as well let him rest here.
Gut called an association staff mber to look after Lernen, then glanced at the cork inverted on the table, picked it up and re-corked the bottle, taking this opportunity to scan the wine label.
As expected.
"Mr. Gut, shall we go?"
Looking at Denken holding a small gift box, Gut nodded and led him away from the association.
Both harboring their own thoughts, the two tacitly chose not to take a carriage, but instead walked on foot toward Lecker's restaurant with Gut leading the way.
On the road, Gut spoke first, asking Denken:
"This wine wasn't easy to choose, was it?"
"It needed to be a precious Imperial vintage with excellent taste, while also being strong enough to quickly knock out Lernen."
"I have to say, junior brother really has a good friend."
"To prevent him from being caught in the middle during negotiations, you deliberately used alcohol to remove him from the equation before it even started, allowing him to stay out of it and avoid difficulty."
Hearing his thoughts exposed, Denken smiled slightly, essentially acknowledging it.
"Anyway, this trip wasn't my idea."
"Besides, Lernen already thanked for it."
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