Chapter 106 Horror and Honor
It did not take long for Komer, Bree and Evalia to reach the tavern one after another. Komer was actually the first one to come, as he only needed to take care of his business at the Merchant's guild followed by taking a leisurely stroll of the town while at the same time taking a look at what kinds of items were usually sold in this town and what there was a lack of.
When he entered the 'Drowned Sparrow', he was immediately surprised at the sight in front of him. Standing in front of the countless different types of alcohol covering the walls was a dwarf, handing small shots of each of these beverages over to a man sitting at the counter while trying to keep himself upright. At first, Komer didn't realize that this man was Eisen, as he truly did not look the same as he usually did. From his forehead, half a dozen spikes simply sprouted forward, while his usually white hair turned completely black while seemingly floating upward. His eyes were now completely white all the way through without even showing Eisen's pupils, and on a few different spots on Eisen's body, his skin seemed to be somewhat bubbling. It didn't look like it was painful or anything, just slightly bubbling up every once in a while at a slow speed.
The only reason that Komer was really able to know that this man was Eisen was because both Melissa and Caria were sitting next to him.
When Komer stepped closer, the transformed Eisen turned around and tried lifting his hand, but seemingly wasn't capable of doing so. Not because of being drunk, but it looked like his arm had completely lost function. Luckily, Eisen was still able to talk regularly.
"Ah, Komer… Erm, don't freak out. This is all just temporary." Eisen explained in a groggy way, while Gordon the dwarf behind the counter was laughing heartily, handing Eisen a large glass of some clear liquid.
"True that, but we've managed to go through quite a bunch of drinks, didn't we? Here ya go, it's gonna reverse all of that stuff and make you sober again, as promised. Might feel a bit weird, but it should undo everything in a few seconds." Gordon explained and Eisen slowly nodded while grabbing the glass and downing its contents near to instantly. And true enough, every transformation on Eisen's body soon disappeared, either simply fading or retreating into Eisen's body. And it felt just like that. Especially the horns disappearing were quite uncomfortable to Eisen.
But the feeling that was most awkward to him was to basically instantly go from being drunk over to being utterly sober. "Thanks, Gordon. That was a really… interesting experience." Eisen laughed lowly while standing up and patting off his suit, turning over to Komer, who was simply staring at him in confusion.
With a sigh, Eisen pointed over to a table in the corner of the room with enough space for everyone to sit down. "I'll explain it to you, don't worry. Gordon, can you give us two Beer? Regular ones, though."
"Here ya go! Be sure not to forget the book here!" Gordon laughed while pouring two large wooden cups of beer before handing them to Eisen and Komer before the two of them headed to the table.
Before actually asking any questions, Komer leaned in a bit and whispered something to Eisen. "Erm… I'm actually not 21 yet, Eisen. And it seems like you can actually get drunk of these, so it's like real alcohol…"
Eisen laughed lowly while drinking a bit of his beer and shook his head with a smile, replying in a low voice as well. "Komer, you're a 20 years old college student. You've had alcohol before, you can't tell me otherwise. Besides, this is a game, so it's not harmful to your real body, so I don't see any problem with you drinking. Of course, nobody is forcing you, so you don't have to if you don't want to."
With a chuckle, Komer nodded and began drinking his beer as well. "I guess you're right. I shouldn't see it so tightly. So… What was all of that about just there?" the young man asked, and Eisen only laughed lightly.
"You see, the reason that I said to meet here was that I needed to go here anyway. The owner of this place makes these amazing types of alcohol that can cause things like you've just seen. Although most of them have rather useless effects, some of them seem kind of useful. I was given an introductory letter by a friend back in Melroe, and he gave me a few recipes. But he said I should taste the drinks before making them, so… That's what happened." Eisen explained, causing Komer to begin laughing in response.
After all, seeing Eisen like that was definitely quite a funny sight if one thought about it. And since it wasn't harmful to him, Eisen simply laughed together with Komer for a bit and then changed the topic.
"So how did it go at the Merchant's Guild?" He asked at last, and Komer looked at Eisen proudly, holding forward a small porcelaine tag.
"I got the name 'Starlight' registered for my company, and rose to the second rank! I'm allowed to look at basic sales demographics about whatever town I'm in now." Komer explained happily and Eisen chuckled lowly. "I see, good job, Komer!"
"I know, I know! I'm amazing!" The young man laughed out with a smug grin, and Eisen chose to simply let him have that moment for now, before Komer continued talking. "That really was amazing today. The items you made were incredibly popular to begin with simply because of how amazing they were, and then with Nat- Sorry, Evalia singing and playing that song, everything was sold basically instantly! I'm kind of jealous, to be honest." He laughed with a light, somewhat bitter smile, but before Eisen could say anything someone else spoke up.
"Oh you don't have to worry 'bout that, sweetheart." Evalia asked with a smile while dropping down onto a chair at the table, leaning a few paintings and her guitar against it as well and both Komer and Eisen greeted her. "We're good at what we're doin' because we've been doin' it for a while. You only just started out, didn't you?"
Komer looked at the woman that took a seat next to him and laughed quietly. "I guess so. I just feel like I'll never be able to catch up to my brothers at this point. You heard about all the food from different villages being bought up recently, right? One of my brothers did that, and I have no idea how he managed to get that much money already."
"Wait, one of your brothers did? There's only a few ways he could do that. Either, he probably got some of the other people that took up seats from your father's company to help him and had them farm as much money as they could, or he himself managed to slay some large monsters or stumbled into a large sum of money coincidentally himself." Eisen muttered, and Komer instantly nodded.
"I actually think it's a mixture of both. I can imagine those executives trying to help him out so that he could take over the company and promote them, but I could also see him going out and fighting and things like that. He's… not a good person. Different to me, who was trying to scam people before, but he's still a bad person." Komer explained and both Evalia and Eisen looked at each other in confusion, trying to figure out what Komer was possibly talking about.
With a loud sigh, Komer began to explain. "My brother is the cliché rich asshole, to sum it up. Whenever he could, he would always insult or look down on others for them being poorer than us. And it didn't get any better when he started learning martial arts which my father made him do to teach him discipline. It actually just backfired and he turned into an outright bully, starting to beat those up that talked back to him and then paying them so that they keep their mouth shut. But in front of my father, he kept acting like a good son at some point to make it seem like he got better, so he never really found out about it. He would definitely be the kind of guy to do that." Komer explained, looking down at the table and fidgeting with his thumbs uncomfortably at revealing something like this.
"So he's that kind of person..? What about your other brother?" Eisen asked, and Komer seemed to feel only more nervous while thinking about this. But after a few seconds, he managed to overcome this and continued talking, as he felt comfortable these two people in front of him.
"My eldest brother is definitely better in some regards, but worse in others. He wouldn't do anything ruthless like what my other brother did like buying up everything, but he's very into 'honor' and something like that. He also thinks that he's better than anyone else, but in a different way. He doesn't put others down, but instead thinks that people of a 'higher standing' like us should behave like it and protect and help those below us, but not associate with them any further. He even tried buying out a childhood friend of mine to make them leave me."
Eisen sighed out loudly and looked at Kome with a soft smile, waving over to Gordon and telling him to bring another round of beer. "Listen, Komer, you're not like your brothers. You were doing some pretty bad things before, but you realized that it was wrong and changed how you act. Now let's just forget about that and move on. We should just wait for Bree, and then let's have fun for tonight. I actually have some good new as well." With a smile, Eisen took the jugs of beer from Gordon and handed one to everyone. The three of them continued talking for about twenty minutes before said Fey-Kin arrived.
"Heey~!" She exclaimed happily and rushed over to the table where Eisen, Komer, Evalia and Eisen's two tamed monsters were sitting and sat down next to them.
With a smile, Eisen chuckled at her and ordered her a beer as well, before looking at his young friend. "You seem pretty happy about something, did anything good happen?" He asked, and Bree nodded happily.
"Mhm~! I finally went to visit my father again, it's been so long since then~!" She chuckled, and both Komer and Evalia smiled heartily at this, and only Eisen had a bitter smile since he knew where she visited him.
"Shoulda brought him along, Bree! More people means more fun!" Evalia exclaimed, leaving Eisen worried at Bree's reaction for a second, but she simply kept smiling, although she was obviously struggling to find words.
Eisen laid his hand on Bree's shoulder and nodded at her, before she went on to explain. "Actually… My father is dead. I went to visit his grave… I was in Melroe for a long, long time, so when I went there, it was basically completely overgrown and I cleaned the grave up. But it was fine, I had more than enough time to make up at least a little bit for not being there for so long!" Bree exclaimed with a genuinely happy smile at the thought of finally visiting such an important place again, and Komer and Evalia's expression dropped immediately while the latter looked at Eisen in horror, considering what she just told Bree.
The old man sighed and held up his beer, looking at the group around him. "Let's not be so bitter, shall we? To Bree's father!" He smiled, and when Bree next to him nodded with a bright smile and held up her Beer as well, Komer and Evalia joined in and repeated after Eisen.
"To Bree's Father!"