C128: Unexpected invitation

‘What in the hell is this disgusting thing?!’

Arnold doubled over instantly, his body reacting before his mind could even process it. The liquid hit his throat like burning sludge, thick, foul, and unbearably pungent. He gagged violently, then vomited straight onto the straw-covered floor.

‘Does this even qualify as alcohol?!’ he thought frantically, his eyes watering beneath the bandages.

Beyond its burning strength, the drink was incredibly foul odor. It was so rancid it felt as though he were swallowing liquefied, rotten meat. The taste cloyed to his tongue like revolting oil.

“Hmm? Whatever has happened to your composure, little lord? Were you not brimming with such confidence but a moment ago?” The giant in front of Arnold chuckled in a deep, mocking voice. He seized his own tankard and, with a single breath, choked down the entire contents without so much as a flinch.

Arnold lifted his head, directed a tearful gaze of irritation and fury toward Danz.

‘No, no… calm yourself, Izzy,’ Izzy whispered within the shared mind, forcing her anger back. Arnold bite his lip, forcing an unnatural smile onto his face.

“My sincerest apologies, Boss Danz. I was simply… unprepared.”

The barn erupted into laughter.

Danz chuckled from atop his crate.

“If you are unable to drink it,” Danz said, wiping a stray drop from his lip with the sleeve of his crude shirt, “then our deal is void. Get out.”

‘Dammit…’ Arnold stared down at the tankard in his hands.

To him, the liquid was nothing short of poison.

Inside the Mindscape, Izzy winced in pure disgust, the sensory feedback from the vessel making her stomach churn.

‘Is this really the alcohol in this age?’ she wondered.

Was it because she hadn’t touched alcohol since her transmigration into this world? Or was it simply Arnold’s body fundamentally ill-suited for it?

In her entire life, she had only experienced something this revolting once.

Back when she had still been nothing more than a scavenger in her previous life, forced to survive off whatever she could find… even drinking sewer water when there was no other choice.

‘How can they enjoy something like this…’ Izzy grimaced, the memory alone enough to make her stomach twist.

Worse still, she couldn't sever the sensory connection with her living vessel without losing the control over it, meaning she was forced to endure every foul, rotting note of this liquid.

She cast a desperate gaze toward her younger mind, seeking any kind of assistance—

‘Isa has very important matters to attend to! Sorry, Izzy!’ The young mind’s voice chirped before her presence instantly vanished from the Mindscape.

‘You ungrateful brat—!’ Izzy snapped, irritation flaring for a brief second before she forced herself to calm down.

With Isa gone, she exhaled, steadying herself, then refocused entirely on Arnold’s body and the situation in front of her, bracing herself for the inevitable.

Arnold stared down at the tankard in his hand. The stench alone enough to make his throat tighten. At last, he squeezed his eyes shut, held his breath and tilted the tankard up.

In one go, he gulped the entirety of the liquid, forced every last drop down.

The liquid burned its way through him. It was beyond disgusting, the smell like rotting meat, the taste like foul sewer water mixed with the acrid tang of copper. It scraped down his throat like sludge, leaving behind a lingering aftertaste that made his stomach churn violently.

A wave of nausea hit him. Arnold staggered slightly, clutching his stomach as his face turned pale, his lips tightening as he fought the urge to throw it all back up.

‘Is this poison or what… are they trying to poison me?’ he wondered, casting a skeptical, pained gaze toward Danz. But when he saw the genuine surprise flickering in the giant's single eye, he reconsidered. ‘Or not?’

“There… Boss Danz,” Arnold forced his voice to remain steady, fighting the urge to collapse. He straightened his back, forcing his posture upright despite the nausea still twisting inside him.

He turned the tankard upside down as a silent declaration: ‘So we have a deal now?’

Danz’s lips curled upward into a smirk.

‘?’ Arnold tilted his head, unease creeping into his chest. He had a bad feeling about this.

The next second, the barn exploded with laughter.

Danz roared with mirth, slapping his knees, as everyone joined in. Men clapped their hands loudly, tankards slammed against tables, boots stomped against the floor, their faces lighting up with a boisterous energy. The sound rose all at once, synchronized, as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.

“Congratulations!”

“Huzzah! The lad finished it! Every last drop!”

“We have ourselves a new member!”

“???”

Arnold looked around, utterly bewildered. The hostile air had evaporated, replaced by a rowdy atmosphere of celebration and the rhythmic click of ceramic tankards.

Danz slapped his thigh and leaned forward, grinning widely.

“Congratulations on passing the ceremony, lad. Welcome to the Tear Drop.”

“What?” Arnold narrowed his eyes, the words failing to make sense in his mind.

Before he could react further, an arm suddenly wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him slightly off balance.

“Yo, kid! Congrats!” a middle-aged man laughed, his face flushed red from drink. “Here’s your badge. Welcome to the fold!”

“...?”

The man shoved something into Arnold’s hand. It was a crude metal badge, shaped like an irregular face and poorly polished. Etched on it was a simple symbol: a small teardrop.

“???” Arnold stared down at the badge, then slowly lifted his gaze back toward Danz, his expression blank with disbelief.

“Boss Danz, what is the meaning of this?”

Danz leaned forward, his grin widening. His single brown eye flared red, as if trying to intimidate him.

“Come now, little lord. Surely you didn’t believe I would accept a deal for a mere five Alan coins without a catch?”

‘...’ Touché.

Arnold grimaced.

Danz stood up from his crate, waving a massive arm to address the entire barn.

“From this moment forth, you are one of us! Come on, let us celebrate the joining of our newest recruit!”

“““Hurrrahh!!””” the barn exploded with shout.

“...”

Arnold’s gaze swept across the barn, at the laughing men, raised tankards, crude cheers, before returning to the grinning giant.

Finally, he blurted out.

“What the fu—”

—

Arnold clutched his stomach as he staggered toward a nearby tree, barely managing to brace himself against the rough bark. He bent forward and vomited, the burning liquid forcing its way up once more.

“Ugh… ah… this is so bad…” he groaned hoarsely, his throat raw, his eyes watering from the sheer intensity of it. His stomach churned, refusing to settle even after he had expelled most of it.

‘Is all alcohol in this era this bad?’

Arnold wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, his hand trembled from the lingering nausea.

‘Luckily… I got out of there quickly.’

It was a small mercy that he had made up an excuse to escape the barn before the thugs could force another tankard into his hand.

Inside the mind, Izzy shook her head, trying to steady herself while ignoring the creeping dizziness spreading through her consciousness.

“It’s pretty strong.”

Even after throwing up, the effect remained, making it difficult for Izzy to maintain her usual focus. She needed to remain vigilant and awake to return to the mansion, but the world started to tilt slightly.

Her gaze shifted within the mindscape, finding her young mind.

Isa had already collapsed in the middle of the amusement park, lying sprawled across the ground, completely unconscious. Her figure didn’t move at all, rising and falling with the slow rhythm of sleep.

“So drunkenness affects both minds. Noted.”

While the taste wasn't always shared between them, the negative ones clearly were.

‘I shouldn’t drink from now on,’ Izzy concluded.

She didn't want the girl to develop some kind of dependence or have her development stunted.

Izzy turned her attention back toward the barn, her expression complicated.

‘Suddenly, I became a member of a thug group. How is it even possible?’

They had tricked Arnold into partaking in the recruitment ceremony. Since he needed Danz's help, and was still in their territory, he couldn’t refuse.

Izzy looked down at the metal badge in Arnold’s hand. The rough, poorly crafted piece with a tear-shaped symbol etched into its surface.

‘I used all of my available funds...’

A hundred Alan coins just to kill a church priest? That kind of price still felt absurd to her.

‘No wonder Danz accepted so easily.’

At the time, she had been panicking. Altogether, she only had seven Alan coins and some scattered shillings and coppies scraped together from around the mansion. It wasn’t nearly enough for anything substantial.

Of course, she could sell items from the mansion: the furniture, the silver candlesticks, the expensive liquor in the cellar,... but she doubted the village would buy them. Their economy simply didn’t support it, and she doubted they even needed those exquisite things in the first place.

As someone who had never lived or worked in this era, Izzy’s understanding of its economy was limited. She only knew the basic information gathered from the black monument in her mindscape. However, after today, she realized one thing:

'Extraordinary things are expensive.'

More specifically, dealing with human life was expensive.

A wry smile tugged her lips. Oh well, what did she expect? Cheapstake extraordinary things? She should have guessed it.

Besides, they didn't know Victor’s exact Path or his current Stage, though Izzy assumed he belonged to the Harmony Faction.

Regardless, what was done was done.

She had secured an alliance with Tear Drop. There were… complications, certainly, but not a big deal in the long run.

‘I hope they can kill him before the Rite.’

Izzy didn't necessarily need Victor dead. Even minor injuries, a small disruption, anything to disrupt the timeline.

Victor might appear frail and unassuming, but Izzy had already formed a very bad impression of him. She hated the old man. It reminded her of a certain someone.

That said… she didn’t really expect Tear Drop to defeat him.

This was only a backup plan.

The real plan had already been set into motion.

Through Arnold's eyes, she looked up at the sky. The sun had kissed the horizon, and the warm colors of evening were taking over as the day faded.

Arnold’s stomach was still unsettled, and Izzy’s mind remained slightly foggy, her thoughts slower than usual.

‘I should rest for a bit.’

She needed to get Arnold back to the mansion first.

Tonight, the next step of the plan would begin.

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