Chapter 148. Rich Man’s Drink (1)

(3rd person pov)

“So this is what we have to do every year in this way.”

“Okay.”

Braden was working hard to hand over the title to Ian.

It was a huge amount of work, but Ian quickly accepted everything without any complaints.

“Alright.”

“With this, you have informed me of everything you have planned for this week. I thought I would have to stay up all night, but I teach really well.”

Braden clapped proudly in his office. Ian responded bluntly while organizing the paperwork.

“Normal fathers say that their son is very smart at times like this.”

“Well, you hear a lot of stuff like that, so you don’t need me to tell you, right?”

Braden smiled and tapped Ian on the shoulder.

“Anyway, it was hard. In that sense…”

Then he took out a bottle of wine from inside the office and made a suggestion.

“Would you like to have a drink?”

“Hmm.”

Ian frowned as he looked at the bottle Braden was holding.

“It looks like it has a lot of alcohol.”

“Of course.”

Braden replied with a chuckle.

“Leslie would be terrified to see it. So it’s hidden here. Leslie hates it when I’m drunk… Your drinking habit of your mind wandering to the past is bizarre.”

“…It’s not bizarre.”

Ian sighed and said.

“But isn’t today a little special? Since we got our work done earlier than originally planned…”

Braden grinned and pulled the string, ordering a servant to bring him some simple finger food and two glasses of alcohol.

“There is neither Leslie nor Annabelle.”

At those words, Ian sat right down and took a glass of wine.

Today, Leslie and Annabelle went to an auction in the suburbs together.

They heard rumors that a pretty famous sword would come out at that auction.

Since it was quite a distance, they were going to spend one night there and return to the capital in the morning.

Braden said, ‘I get tired of chasing her too much, and pressed Ian to stay in the mansion.

As the logic unfolds, people became more affectionate when they spent some time apart for a day or so, and it was true so it would be nice to see each other again.

Even so, he asked Oscar for a special menu for dinner the next day so that Leslie would never leave for more than two nights.

“So tonight, we can deviate a little bit. I’ve been waiting for Leslie’s absence to drink this.”

Braden chuckled and poured a drink into Ian’s glass.

~*~

“Nonsense.”

At that time, on the border of the capital, Leslie and Annabelle’s carriage were returning to the duke’s residence.

“Canceling right before the auction, what is this again?”

The auction they decided to participate in was canceled due to the circumstances of the person concerned.

The word was ‘the circumstances of the person concerned’, which meant that it was simply the change of mind of the person who put out the product.

“Then what happens to those who were already on their way? They don’t know what it’s about.”

Leslie sighed and shook her head slightly, and Annabelle shrugged her shoulders in reply.

“It’s the normal mentality. In the first place, the facts only matter to one’s own circumstances. Just thinking about it in the light of my past.”

“Oh, that’s right. Uh-huh, it’s raining and I feel uncomfortable.”

To make matters worse, it was raining outside.

The carriage wasn’t fast enough, and Annabelle and Leslie sighed at the same time as if they couldn’t help it.

“I can’t help it. When you’re depressed, you should eat something.”

Leslie sighed and fumbled through the baskets in the carriage. It was the snack box that Braden gave her before she left.

“Ah… Would you like some lemon madeleine? Ian took care of me a lot.”

Annabelle also opened the snack basket Ian had brought, she said.

It was raining outside while their little snack party was held inside the carriage.

“Would you like to sleep at the duchy today?”

Leslie said, grabbing Annabelle’s hand.

“I am so sorry to leave like this. I thought we were going to have a night full of late-night snacks…”

Annabelle nodded her head resolutely.

“Yes. After these flour cookies, you have to eat something that presses the inside warmly. The location has changed, but everything can still go as planned.”

Annabelle also enjoyed being with Leslie.

The family, accustomed to Oscar’s cooking skills, always reacted bitterly about what to eat.

But Annabelle loved spending time with Leslie and her serious eating habits, since she’d been eating only bad food for 22 years.

“Because Braden and Ian aren’t really interested in food. I guess it’s because they’ve been living with everything since they were young. So eating together is no fun.”

“Oh my. How could that be?”

Annabelle sighed and answered.

“Then he doesn’t have any favorite foods?”

Leslie thought about Annabelle’s question before she said.

“Oh, he likes to drink. But I thought Braden’s habit was a bit odd… So I never let him drink until he gets drunk.”

“Hmm, maybe that habit… does he reminisce about the past?”

“Oh, Annabelle. How do you know that?”

It was impossible for Annabelle to forget that night at Caronda.

A very strange atmosphere began to flow between her and Ian after that night when he drank a strong liquor and his mind went out, calling her ‘Annabelle Nadit’ and muttering to her that he had fallen in love with her at first sight.

“It’s just that it’s also something Ian has done before, where he talks nonsense as he lives in his memory back some years.”

Leslie sighed and shook her head.

“I know it was weird. Oh, he often hid alcoholic beverages in the office and looked at them, but other than that, he never really showed any interest in food.”

“Ah. So, aren’t they having dinner tonight?”

Annabelle asked as if she was having fun.

“Today is the day Leslie announced that she would stay out after a long time. It’s the perfect day for a drink if he has been hiding…”

“Ah, maybe.”

Leslie smiled as she waved her hand.

“Braden is very busy telling Ian about this and that. He’s not in a situation where he can invite anyone, and that means he’ll have to drink alone. I don’t know at any other time, but for now, not tonight. It is raining more and more.”

As they got closer to the duchy, the rain gradually grew thicker and thunder and lightning started.

“Be careful when you get off the carriage, Annabelle. Why are you dressed in white?…It’s going to be messy if the rain splashes down there.”

Annabelle wore a white silk dress with little embellishment, so a design similar to a robe.

“I know. I didn’t expect the weather to be like this. It was clear up until now.”

They kept talking until they reached their destination.

Finally, their wagon stopped at the mansion.

“Oh?”

Leslie looked at a window and tilted her head.

“Why is the office light off? Are they done already? He said he was going to have to teach Ian all night.”

“Well…”

Annabelle quickly looked at Ian’s room and answered. Read only at pm tl.

“The lights are on in Ian’s room. I guess it’s over.”

“I see…”

Leslie smiled and tapped Annabelle’s hand.

“Then we have to give the kitchen time to prepare, so shall we meet at the dining room in an hour or so after hanging out with our men?”

“Yes.”

“Go to Ian then. See you later.”

Annabelle and Leslie decided to split up with their men for a while, in order to have fun.

When she got out of the carriage and entered the mansion, her hair was wet from the rain, but she was still excited at the thought of seeing her lover, so Annabelle hummed and headed towards Ian’s room.

~*~

Ian was so drunk that he barely managed to get into his room.

He had never been so drunk since that night at Caronda.

He must have thought that for some reason he would never get drunk, but he couldn’t remember.

By the time he barely washed up, the line between dreams and reality had already blurred.

He closed his eyes slowly and every time he opened them, thoughts were mingled.

To make matters worse, outside the window, it was raining and there was thunder and lightning.

All he had to do was go to sleep and wake up.

Barely holding on to his reason, he managed to put out the lights and stumbled down on the bed.

Then a cautious voice was heard outside the door.

“Ian?”

It was a terribly familiar voice that he had encountered every day since he was 14.

But there was no way the main character with this voice could come to his room like this.

The only place she could go in and out of was the gymnasium. It was a nonsensical story to even enter the mansion at night.

“Are you sleeping already?”

Amidst his limbs not hearing words, Ian managed to get up with superhuman mental power.

The moment the door opened, the dark room was instantly brightened by flashing lightning.

Boom-

Not long after, a loud roar of thunder shook the room. At the same time, Ian was so amazed by the sight he saw unfolding before his eyes and almost took his breath away.

Against the background of a long, dark hallway, a white dress without decorations fluttered.

Water was dripping from her droopy hair.

Ian unknowingly grabbed her and muttered.

“…Ghost?”

He added as he took his breath away with his sullen eyes.

“Annabelle Nadit, who passed away in some kind of accident… Are you still wandering around this world because of your obsession with me?”

At the same time, it was a reasonable inference.