──────
Interlude, A Tale (5)
Roselin Ascalo liked to drink.
More precisely, she loved drinking with others. The slurred, booze-thick voices of people who had let themselves go for the night, the loose laughter, the stories traded back and forth without any pretense. Roselin loved all of that.
"Ahahaha! Noona, this guy today, you have to hear this!"
"Wel-, Wellet hyung, you promised you wouldn't bring this up!"
"Hey, kid. Where do secrets have any place in the Red-Eyed Mercenaries? If I know, Barger hyung knows, and if Barger hyung knows, Roselin noona should know too!"
The youngest member buried his face in his hands while the veterans burst out laughing, emptying their cups over his embarrassment. Roselin made a low sound in her throat and tilted her chin, urging them on.
The recruit's mortified yelp, the laughter that swelled louder in response. She didn't need anything else. Roselin tipped her cup back.
Cheap beer.
The table was covered in cheap bar snacks, the kind you'd find at any tavern in the city.
She preferred this to drinking with nobles. Looking around at her members raising their cups, Roselin smiled. They met her red eyes without flinching, without stiffening, without so much as a moment's hesitation before reaching for another drink.
A company made up entirely of people like that.
The family she had built for herself.
In drinking sessions like this one, Roselin didn't have to be "Red Eyes." She could dissolve into daily life the way ordinary people did. Years had passed since this had become her normal, and still she caught herself feeling like a stranger in it sometimes.
Barely a decade ago, she couldn't have dreamed of this. When she closed her eyes, the everyday life she had known back then came drifting back. The memories of being pointed at, humiliated.
"Hh."
With one eye half-shut on the past and the other fixed on what was in front of her, Roselin exhaled slowly. She was reaching for what had to be her dozenth cup when it happened.
A flinch.
Her body locked up. She stopped mid-raise and frowned.
Roselin Ascalo had sharp senses.
Her instincts had always been good at reading the current a truly powerful person carried with them. Right now, they were sounding an alarm. She set her cup down with a thud. Silence settled over the tavern.
"......"
Not everyone in the Red-Eyed Mercenaries was as perceptive as their captain. But they'd eaten enough meals at the edge of a blade to read her signals. Every one of them quietly shifted into readiness.
The rowdy drinking session went still.
Roselin's hand went to Echoing Swords, the masterpiece blade at her hip, eyes narrowing.
Clack.
Footsteps rang out from just outside the door. Then the door swung open.
Roselin's breath caught.
'Shit. We're done.'
A young man stepped through with his hat pulled low. The current rolling off him made her swallow.
A powerhouse. One who stood far, far above her.
That kind of pressure only came from Transcendents. Nobody in Cambria had ever made her feel that before. Roselin buried the alarm and kept her voice easy.
"Can I help you? We've rented out the whole place tonight."
She didn't drop her guard as she said it. The whole city knew the Red-Eyed Mercenaries drank here, that they rented the place out every night. Common knowledge.
Knowing that and still walking in meant he had business with her.
And coming in with his face covered on top of it? Not a good sign. Worst case, she was looking at an actual fight. That was the last thing she wanted.
'I can't win.'
She could put "absolutely" in front of that and it would still hold. While she signaled a senior member to keep the back door open, the young man's hand came up. He reached for the brim of his hat.
Rustle.
The grey hair pressed beneath it spilled loose. And beneath that brim, amber eyes.
"Cambria has the best drinks in any city I know. Figured I'd stop by for a cup while I was in town."
Najin shrugged.
A beat of silence. Then Roselin made a sound.
"Holy shit!"
"God, I actually thought we were done for. Why would you walk in with your face covered like that? Did you not see me sitting here? I was drenched in cold sweat, you know that?"
Roselin grabbed the back of her neck, where the cold sweat had gathered, and made a production of it. Though honestly, she really had been scared. Theatrics aside.
"If I go around with my face showing, things get loud. Too many people recognize me."
"Ha, look at you. Big celebrity now, are we?"
"I am somewhat famous, yes."
"Shameless but true. Nobody on the continent is as famous as you. Hey, new recruit!"
She called the new kid over.
Then she draped an arm around Najin's neck, pulled him into a side hug, and pointed at his face like she was presenting an exhibit.
"What did I tell you? That I've had drinks with the rising New Star himself, the once-in-a-generation genius, the youngest Free Knight in imperial history? That I wasn't lying?"
"Oh my god......"
The recruit locked eyes with Najin, gasped, then snapped into a clumsy salute.
"I, I have the honor of meeting Free Knight Sir Najin!"
He fumbled inside his jacket, pulled out a slip of paper, and held it out with trembling hands.
"W-would it be too much to ask for an autograph?"
"Of course. Your name?"
"Doris!"
Najin signed and handed it back. Doris received it like scripture. He shuffled back to his seat muttering that joining the Red-Eyed Mercenaries was the best decision of his life. Najin laughed.
"Am I really that well-known in this city?"
"Well-known? You basically doubled the number of rookie adventurers flooding into Cambria. By yourself."
"That many?"
"That many. Your reputation around here is something like a living legend. Cambria's own success story, Najin! Truly, what a magnifi-"
Roselin let the word trail off. She leaned close and dropped her voice.
"...Actually, should I be using formal speech with you? Sir Najin."
"Excuse me?"
"Well, you are a Free Knight, aren't you? And you have the backing of the First Horn of the Empire. That puts you at least a few levels above me in standing......"
She watched his face.
"I've been talking casually out of habit, but would that make you uncomfortable? Just say so and I'll switch."
A Free Knight held no fixed allegiance, but in administrative terms the rank sat just beneath the Five Pillars of the Empire. High enough that you didn't owe nobles a bow. On par with the high nobility, or a step above.
Even Cambria, a city that prided itself on being "free," had its tiers. Roselin was still trying to work out the right call when Najin laughed.
"What do you think?"
"......"
Her eyes wavered. Najin swirled his cup and cut it short.
"Joking. Be comfortable. Having you speak formally would feel stranger, honestly."
"R-right, yeah, good."
She sagged with visible relief. Najin bit back the urge to point out how quickly she'd taken him up on that offer.
"You've changed a lot since I last saw you."
"Have I?"
"You didn't used to talk this loosely. Didn't smile much either. Jokes weren't really your thing. You always had that face on, stiff all the time, barely any expression at all."
Roselin did an impression of the old Najin's face.
She wasn't wrong. He had.
"I had a lot going on in my head back then."
"Like what?"
"I had to do this, had to become that. Constant, like an obsession I couldn't put down. Looking back, I think I was wearing a mask that never fit me. This is actually closer to who I am."
"Yeah? I like this version better."
Roselin laughed.
"How did you change this much? Honestly, when you walked in just now, I thought that was it for us. I knew you'd been doing insane things out there, but seeing it with my own eyes makes it real."
Just a year ago there had been a wide gap between them. Now that gap had flipped the other way entirely. Najin's presence was brushing up against the threshold of Transcendence, and Roselin was still adjusting to that.
"Are you already a Sword Master? I haven't heard anything about it yet, so......"
"Not even close. I'm only just starting to reach for Blossoming."
"'Only just'? You said 'only just'? Wow!"
Someone calling an achievement others spent entire lifetimes chasing "only just
Reviews
All reviews (0)