184 – Angela – 2
When I turned my head, a small figure caught my eye.
A silver-haired woman with her hands on her waist, wearing clothes that reveal some bare skin here and there.
She was looking at me with slightly angry eyes.
‘Are you an employee of the store?’
Her height is so small that she is at the same eye level as herself when she is sitting.
She was a woman who gave off the air of a silver squirrel whose acorn had been taken away.
“What business do I have?”
When Kay As asked, her woman opened her mouth as if questioning.
“What should I do if you don’t even order a drink and take up my seat?”
When her woman shot him, he realized the situation he was in.
‘Guy Gilbert…. ‘You’re leaving without doing anything.’
In the midst of her conquest activities, on days when she achieved good results, she fell for Gilbert’s temptation and occasionally visited her bar, saying she couldn’t just ignore it.
Every time that happened, the order was always Gilbert’s responsibility, and all he had to do was pay the money, so he was an outsider who knew nothing about these things.
“I’m sorry about this.”
He handed the apple to the waiter and looked at the wall with the store’s menu written on it to place an order.
‘Grilled goat tongue… ? Stir-fried pork intestines there? Why on earth would you eat something like that?’
For him, the emperor, food for the common people was difficult.
When I was having a hard time, I ate whatever was given to me, but because I didn’t know what it was, most of the food in the store seemed like it had strange ingredients that I couldn’t even guess.
As a result, he had difficulty ordering from her. After enduring the woman’s stinging gaze and looking around for a while, he was able to find the name of the drink that she remembered drinking.
“Then I would like two bottles of barley beer, please.”
As she looked away, feeling somewhat proud, a dissatisfied voice was heard again from next to her.
“…No snacks?”
When he turned around, the woman still had a pouting expression on her face and had not lowered her hand that was placed on her waist.
“You’re not just going to order a drink right now, are you?”
‘Do we have to do that here…? ?’
When I thought about it, I remembered that Gilbert always ordered food to go with his drinks.
He had no choice but to wander through the menu again.
“Goose liver? Please take that from me.”
When he finally found food similar to foie gras that came to her table from time to time and placed an order, the woman opened her mouth with a softened expression.
“Honestly, I can’t recommend that.”
“What?”
“Actually, it’s not a goose, but it’s made with a bird caught that day.”
When the waiter told him to order something else because it was unnecessarily expensive, Keas asked with a puzzled expression.
“Then isn’t that a scam? They’re selling completely unrelated food.”
“What’s the problem? It doesn’t sell well in the first place. And when you cook it and put it out, no one even recognizes it.”
He asked, feeling that there was a long way to go, as she spoke as if it was no big deal despite her obvious deception.
“But why are you telling me that fact? It would have been much more beneficial for the store if you had kept your mouth shut.”
Then she lifted her right arm and said.
“Would you like to help dress these shameless clothes and make them work?”
A brand of slave treatment was engraved on her exposed wrist.
“….”
When Keas saw the stigma, his eyebrows naturally furrowed.
Slavery was one of the things he wanted to eliminate for a long time.
Because the empire he truly wanted was an equal society not bound by class.
I hoped that one day we would become a country where even the title of emperor was nothing more than a title.
However, the abolition of slavery, which should have been the first step, was not easily accomplished due to strong opposition from those who owned slaves.
No matter how much he was an emperor, if he did what he wanted without justification, he was nothing more than a tyrant.
Noticing his gaze, she lowered her arms and said.
“You don’t have to look at me with such pitiful eyes. Almost all of my debts have been paid off, so my life as a slave will soon be over.”
Not all slaves were the same.
There were also slaves who were treated to a certain degree and could be revived by paying the ransom stated in the contract.
“What on earth happened at that age…?”
“My parents started a business with a lot of debt, but then they died in an accident. That debt was passed on to me.”
The employee calmly reveals his past, saying that he became a slave because he could not repay the money, and that he was working here because he was sold around.
“Why are you saying this in front of the guests? So you’re not giving it to me?”
I couldn’t talk about him anymore because I changed the subject.
“That is…”
When he started looking at her wall again, she opened her mouth in frustration.
“I just make stir-fried pork intestines. That’s the least quantity and is sold often.”
“No, I bought it with my own money, so why do they do whatever they want…”
“The person who works here recommended it, but are you ignoring it?”
“….”
He was speechless as he raised his eyes and pushed, so he decided to obey the waiter.
“All in all, it’s 25 silver.”
Kayas searched her own pocket, then took out one of her coins and held it out to her.
When he took the coin he held out to her, her eyes widened and her mouth hung open.
“Hey, this is a gold coin…?”
It was also a newly issued imperial gold coin following the recent currency reform.
Because it was a gold coin issued by the empire, which is said to be the most powerful nation in history, it was treated as more precious than gold of the same weight because it was reliable and had no impurities, and in some cases, it was traded for even more money.
“That’s all I have right now.”
Seeing her look of shock, he thought of the platinum coins in her pocket and felt fortunate that he had brought at least some gold coins with him.
Then a slightly different gaze returned than before.
“…Are you by any chance the son of a noble family?”
In a way, it was natural for her not to recognize his identity.
He currently had light brown hair and gray eyes.
It was thanks to a magic tool in the form of a bracelet that could change its appearance.
“Looking at me like this, I think he looks a little handsome…”
It wasn’t that he didn’t like hearing compliments on his appearance, but a wry smile appeared on his face, perhaps because he was hearing it after paying for it.
“But what should I do with this… I don’t think I’ll have enough change to give it back.”
The employee spoke with the nuance that he was in trouble.
Who would have guessed that someone would order food worth 25 silver and pay in gold coins in a shabby bar like this?
“Take care of the remaining money.”
Keias shows the emperor’s unusual distribution of change by saying, “Keep the change.”
“Yes…? Anyway, how can you get such a large sum of money?”
Embarrassed by the excessive tip, she waved her hand and refused, saying she couldn’t do that.
“I think they need it more than me.”
And she added one word.
“For example, pay off that person’s debt.”
If he can reduce the number of slaves even this much, it is not a bad thing for him.
“….”
She stared at the gold coins in her hand for a long time.
“It’s okay.”
After much deliberation, she handed the gold coin back to him.
“Are you sure you don’t mind not accepting it?”
She asked if she should think again, but the answer she received was stubborn.
“In the past, there were several owners who said that if I served physically, it would be over quickly, but I refused them all. I will take care of my own problems.”
“I didn’t mean it that way…!”
“I know. I’m not that type of person.”
By cutting him off, she clearly revealed her own beliefs.
“But in a way, I owe this to that person. I’m already going through all this trouble because of that, so I don’t want to owe anyone any more, right?”
“….”
Then he could not say anything more and had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.
She was shining so brightly that it made her feel ashamed of her own poor sympathy.
“…Then how about the cost of food?”
He got embarrassed and ended up risking the money for his food.
“This is the first time something like this has happened. It’s not that I don’t have money, it’s that there’s so much that I can’t pay…”
After thinking for a moment, she opened her mouth.
“But I can’t kick you out, so I have no choice. I’ll just live with it this time.”
“No, why did you do that…”
“Someone just bought it for me?”
She urged, poking his chest with her finger.
“You owe me something, so make sure to pay it back later. Don’t think about taking money.”
Then she turns around and walks away.
He stared blankly at the back.
I owe it to myself, the emperor of the empire that holds the continent under my feet.
Is there any other word that is more fitting than this?
“hehehe.”
But it didn’t feel all bad.
Because he thought he owed a debt to the people, he felt like he had to work that hard.
“Wow, how can there be only one bathroom here? There’s a long line.”
A familiar voice sounded in his ears.
“You came only after the order was finished… Are you doing this on purpose?”
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that.
Gilbert, who showed up late, joked that he could be like that in his life.
“So what did you order?”
“Stir-fried barley beer and pork intestines.”
“…What?”
When I told him the menu I proudly ordered, Gilbert looked at him with eyes full of suspicion.
“Can you eat that? You have such a sophisticated mouth?”
“It sounds as if I’m a picky eater.”
At that time, he was having such meaningless conversations and waiting for drinks and food to arrive.
-Clink!
I heard the sound of something breaking.
“Let go of this!”
Afterwards, a loud scream echoed throughout the store.