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Chapter 185: Which Horse is Preferable?

Drinking party again — I usually drink this world’s alcohol according to how folks do it, but I don’t drink the ones I bring out of the『Pantry』and those I make myself. One more year and I’ll be twenty, so I’ll be drinking them grandly starting next year.

Ginger ale with five to six slices of lemon is usually what we drink, but today, we get to enjoy the nice wine that Dean opened for us.
It’s a clear red wine with no grape skin or anything else mixed in so it should be expensive. Honestly, I don’t really know how to enjoy wine yet, but this is making me quite happy.

It’s a full-bodied red wine with a strong astringent taste. My bribe basket for Retze has three types of cheese, tofu marinated in miso, baguettes, and a pork belly that had been rubbed with salt, pepper and herbs and dried for three days then smoked. Plus alcohol.

According to 【Appraisal】, I won’t go wrong if I combine cheese and wine with matching maturity levels, so I chose salty ripe cheese. The miso marinated tofu is also masquerading as cheese, by the way.

I fry the pork belly on the stove while Retze cuts the cheese. It’s for drinking so I sliced them appropriately, and once done, I transfer them to a plate. Preparations complete.

「Get drunk, get drunk. 」
Dean generously poured while laughing before handing it to me.

「Gimme some bread, gimme bread. 」
「Yes yes. 」
Dean’s asking for bread in exchange so I pass the plate of baguettes to him.

「This is simply marvelous as always! I will prepare the white wine next time! 」
I think about how I’m already used to Chris’s exaggerated way of talking while raising the cup for a toast, and the drinking party begins.

「Cow… no, mountain goat? What’s with this smell? 」
Retze pokes the marinated tofu with a dubious face. It’s miso, you know, miso.

The wine is delicious, I think. Probably. To be frank, I don’t actually know ‘coz all I’ve ever drank before is watered down wine with low alcohol content.

「Chris, what kind of brother is Reid to you? 」
「Just normal. 」

Normal. He’s too deep a character that I can’t imagine him being ‘normal’.

「We’re not on bad terms, but we’re not chums either. Except for one flaw, he’s actually an impeccable person and I’m proud of him, but he’s already past the age I can introduce him as my cute brother! 」
Yup, Reid should be a 23 or 24 old young man, so it’ll be creepy if he gets introduced as cute.

「Hmmm. Actually, I saw the spirit possessing Reid. 」
「Oh my, is my younger brother’s spirit beautiful? 」
Chris sips his wine and asks with a smile.

「It’s not a unicorn. It might sound off coming from me given that I haven’t seen Tina with Reid before, but I think you should do something about it just in case. 」
「Ahh, so it’s the same thing as what happened to me back then, huh. 」
Not sure if Dean noticed how vague I was talking, but he seemed awkward as he sat with a distant look in his eyes.

These three here knew that I dispelled the spirit’s influence exerted on Dean by touching it.

Chris turns pensive with a serious expression on his face. Retze quietly continues drinking his wine while peeking at Dean from time to time to check how he is.

After a while, Chris met my eyes so I tilted my head as if to ask ‘what will you do?’ without taking my eyes off his. He smiled.

「I’ll take Reid to 『Fae’s Bough』 in the citadel city when he returns. Thanks for telling me this. 」
「Ah, you’re going to show it to him? Yeah, they have some skilled magicians over there, after all. Quite expensive, though. 」
Dean said.

「They See spirits? 」
「Yeah, that city is the base for the adventurers who enter the Magical Woods, after all. The good guys from『Fae’s Bough』and the guild are all gathered there, you know? In the case of showing the spirit to the person it possessed, they’re also famous for doing some sort of magical circle that lets you talk to it, you know? 」
I looked at Retze and it hit me — he absolutely knew it all along!?

「Only the practitioners can see them most of the time. I also want to see the spirit possessing me even just once, but I can’t muster the will to spend a huge amount of money just to do so. After all, even if you can talk to it, it doesn’t mean it’ll agree to a contract with you. 」
Chris started counting on his fingers — paying a deposit, selling silver, and so on. He said it lightly, but it seems it would cost an arm and a leg. He grumbled that as the older one, he doesn’t want his younger brother to spend that much.

Was about to say ‘I can try making that magic circle’ but I stopped myself. There’s still time, so I’ll say that after I actually made it. It’s fine, let’s just pretend that a legendary Gold rank picked it up and that’ll solve most of the problem with the item’s class.

「Do you think he’ll improve just by showing that to him? 」
Generally, people that are mentally strong can shake off the influence of a spirit that didn’t hold any malice to a certain extent, but I’m still worried.

I got curious about this before and looked it up, and that’s when I found out about an incident where someone had been messed up big time by a deity-level spirit, making the onlookers baffled and questioning why it happened. It was quite unbearable and folks were helpless against that incident, and yet it caused quite a stir and affected the entire kingdom, with no one being able to do anything about it until the spirit lost interest.

「If he’s warned he’ll definitely lie low. I guess we spoiled him a bit thinking he got a unicorn spirit. Knights wish to have a master to serve, but for someone possessed by a unicorn, it’ll be his lifelong dream to offer his sword to a maiden. That’s why I believe my younger brother will change if he sees the spirit possessing him isn’t a unicorn. 」

Ahh, so he’s the type to project the unicorn to himself. It sounds a bit narcissistic, but will he be alright after seeing that horsehead…? I unwittingly averted my gaze.

「… Is it a bicorn then? 」
Chris quietly asks while looking worried.

Bicorns (not to be confused with the two horned monsters I call bicorns) are considered polar opposites of unicorns, which symbolized purity. Bicorns were considered something that tarnishes purity because of their two horns. Wait, wait, is that what worries you, Chris and Dean!? Really!? Well, I guess they have a point, if Reid did See that then he’ll be more self aware and control himself.

Also, unicorns are white but bicorns are black, and I don’t think I’ll be able to tell them apart from the blackened monsters that I encounter. I mean, maybe if it’s a monster?

「It’s not a bicorn. It doesn’t seem to be malicious, and I didn’t feel uneasy when we were with Ruta. 」
It’s a glossy, dazzling macho feminine-ish horse headed guy.