CHAPTER 40……
After giving his quiet instructions to the knight, Alfred returned.
“I’ll take Harfa, look around the plaza, and head to Kuna first. You rest, Alf. We’ll meet there this afternoon.”
“Aren’t you tired, sir? Why don’t you rest and go together?”
“I have to tell them to bring the debtor over if they’re not at Kuna.”
Alfred asked with a deliberately serious look.
“Lord Kyle, is that ‘debtor’ perhaps the lady owner of Kuna?”
Kyle’s face twisted instantly.
“I’m relieved to hear that’s not the case.”
Alfred let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s changed quite a bit since I was last here.”
Standing in front of Kuna, Kyle looked around.
“Looks like they’re using the building next door too.”
“Really? I can’t tell. They only serve drinks here, though.”
Kyle only nodded in reply.
“There’s a jewelry store over there. Doesn’t really suit this back alley. A women’s jewelry shop, of all things.”
“Why? It’s in exactly the right place.”
“A tavern and a jewelry store go together?”
“Think about it. Husbands who come home late after drinking Kuna will buy gifts for their wives out of guilt.”
“Oh… I suppose that makes sense. From that point of view, it’s actually a pretty good location.”
Kyle turned toward the jewelry shop.
“Let’s have a look at what they sell. Hmm… what color would suit black hair?”
“…Sorry? What did you say?”
“Just talking to myself.”
At that moment, the door to Kuna swung open.
“You’re here. I heard voices and was waiting, but what are you doing outside instead of coming in?”
Marsha’s gaze met Kyle’s as he turned his head.
He was wearing a hood as before, but she recognized him instantly.
“Oh! You’re the customer who saved our young lady last time. I told you, didn’t I? There are customers who don’t come at all, but none who only come once.”
Marsha laughed and patted Kyle’s shoulder.
Harfa, startled by the familiarity, glanced at Kyle—who was also smiling broadly.
Are they close?
“Come in. We’ve been waiting.”
“Hey! I’m here too!”
From a distance, Alfred waved energetically, his face lit with an uncharacteristically big grin—clearly excited at the thought of drinking iced Kuna again.
“You drank a lot yesterday. Are you sure you’re fine?”
“Please, that was nothing.”
Once inside, Harfa asked Marsha,
“Wasn’t someone else supposed to be coming too…?”
“They arrived, but something urgent came up and they stepped out. They’re nearby, so they’ll be back soon.”
Several dishes were already laid out on the table.
Alfred sat down and placed a leather pouch on top.
“What’s that, Lord Kiyor?”
Inside, the pouch was filled with gold and silver coins.
“That’s a lot of money… are you planning to buy the whole place?”
“Do you think you could buy it for just this much? It’s a deposit for the amount of iced Kuna I plan to drink today.”
Marsha peeked inside and clicked her tongue.
“You could drink iced Kuna every day for a month and still have money left over. It’s too much.”
“Let’s just pay in advance. Carrying money every time is a hassle.”
“My, my.”
The sum Alfred offered was enough to drink as much as he wanted for months. There had been customers who prepaid before, but never with such a large amount. Even receiving it felt burdensome.
Seeing her hesitation, Kyle said,
“Alf has spent his whole life working alone, so he’s rich. Just give him as much iced Kuna as he wants when he comes. Even if you run low, you can charge him extra.”
Alfred nodded.
“Thinking about it now, I feel like I’ve been saving money just to drink iced Kuna. Who knows when I’ll have to leave the capital—might as well drink to my heart’s content while I can.”
His dead-serious tone made Marsha burst out laughing.
Unable to hold back his curiosity, Harfa asked her,
“So… when did you start making Kuna?”
He was tempted to take out his notebook to record her answer, but worried it might seem like he was stealing trade secrets. Instead, he focused on listening.
While the two of them talked, Kyle and Alfred kept downing glass after glass of iced Kuna.
Kyle set down his empty cup and glanced around the deserted tavern.
They’d paid more than enough. The spacious shop was completely theirs for the moment—no one to watch them, no one to bother them.
Have I ever relaxed this comfortably before?
The unfamiliar sense of ease brought a faint smile to his lips.
Then he noticed a door leading into a tarot shop.
“Boss.”
“Yes?”
“I heard the tarot card master here is a really famous fortune-teller.”
“That’s right. That used to be their place over there.”
“Used to? So they quit?”
“No, they just moved upstairs above the jewelry shop next door.”
“Ah… I see.”
Kyle had briefly hoped he might meet the fortune-teller.
Just then, Harfa called his name in an excited tone.
“What? I told you I’m not interested in Kuna.”
“It’s not that—Kuna is made from fermented bette grain grown in our territory.”
“What do you mean?”
Kyle moved over to their table.
“Marsha says the grain used for Kuna—bette—is cultivated in the north, in our territory.”
“So they’ve been trading with Olbreno territory?”
Harfa nodded eagerly.
“Bette is cheap, but transport costs are high, and it’s not grown in large quantities. That’s one reason Kuna can’t be mass-produced.”
Harfa added to Marsha’s explanation,
“I’ve known for a long time that someone in the capital was importing bette. That’s why we never stopped growing it, unlike other territories.”
“And you didn’t know it was used for Kuna? The lord oversees all imports and exports.”
“It was traded through a middleman, so I didn’t know exactly what it was for.”
Bette—Kuna’s base and indispensable ingredient—grew only in the harsh northern soil. Its coarse texture made it unpleasant to eat, but once fermented into Kuna, its flavor multiplied.
Once, it had been grown in many parts of the north, but with no other uses besides Kuna, demand fell. Even attempts to use it for bread failed due to its rough texture.
Now, it was a small specialty crop grown only in Olbreno.
“If it weren’t for the contract with my father, we would have stopped growing it too.”
Though Kuna sales had never been high, things had changed recently.
“With iced Kuna becoming popular, hasn’t demand gone up? But bette exports have stayed the same…”
“Oh, we’ve been using stock we stored from when it wasn’t selling well.”
“So you have a special storage method.”
Harfa’s eyes lit with interest.
“Since it’s hard to get outside the north, storage is important. If sales drop and trade stops, I worry we might never make Kuna again.”
To Marsha, Kuna was more than something sold for money—it was also a memory of her father.
“As I told you yesterday, my father created Kuna, but not iced Kuna.”
“Right.”
“So I can’t decide anything about iced Kuna on my own.”
“When will he be back?”
“Hmm, Daisy just went to tidy up a moment ago, so I think soon…”
At that moment, bright laughter came from outside.
“Oh, sounds like they’re here.”
Harfa stood with an eager look.
Kyle, uninterested, returned to sit beside Alfred and sipped more iced Kuna.
The door opened, and Everett stepped in first, smiling warmly.
“Miss, these are the people I told you about.”
“Daisy told me on the way here. Nice to meet you—you’re younger than I expected.”
The moment Everett smiled at Harfa, Kyle—seated with his back to the door—turned his head.
And locked eyes with Everett.
“Oh!”
Kyle let out a short, surprised exclamation.
Kyle?
The instant they recognized each other, the rest of the world seemed to vanish from view.
Time itself felt frozen.
Everett couldn’t drop her smile, and Kyle didn’t turn away.
It was Kyle who broke the suffocating silence—
Clang!
He set his pewter cup down too hard, unable to control his strength.
The sharp sound made Everett involuntarily take a step back.
When Kyle suddenly stood, everyone turned to stare in surprise. But in his eyes, there was only Everett.
Striding toward her, he stopped right in front, his breathing uneven, as though barely restrained.
In a low, steady voice—careful not to show too much emotion—he asked,
“You… could speak?”
Everett couldn’t bring herself to lift her head.
Too close.
If she raised her gaze, it felt like she would brush his face.
Watching his chest rise and fall only made her own breathing quicken.
He must think I deceived him. Looks like he’s holding back his anger…
Her mind raced, searching for a way out of the situation.
