Chapter 19.1

“Tol, what are you doing? You’re leaving me here?”

Still, Tol was lucky. Her anger seemed to have calmed since earlier. Has the generous young woman forgiven him? Tol wondered. Then, what should I do to make her feel better? Tol, albeit hesitant, finally made up his mind and took his chance. His footsteps headed outside.

***

“Oh, Madam Heris. You’re here. I have been waiting.”

“The seat that I sit in every day is empty, right?”

“Of course, madam. It has already been reserved just for you.”

Sherri tilted her head at the manager, who greeted her exceptionally as she was led to her seat. There were no reservations in this place, but it seemed Sherri was an exception. The man from last time named Master seemed to have set it up that way.

Actually, Sherri had tried to come to this bar again. Her identity had been revealed, and she’d already been with that man named Master even though she still hadn’t seen his face. On top of that, she felt an unexplainable, leery feeling somewhere.

But there was no other place that sold fake alcohol and served its customers exhaustively with a good environment as much as this place. She was satisfied even with the skills of the bartender who prepared the cocktails to match her mood. And the reason she had chosen this place more than anything was that she had learned from the last time that there was a separate bedroom upstairs for VVIPs.

Following the manager to a seat deeper inside, Sherri gestured with her eyes at Tol to sit next to her. When their gazes met, his somewhat relieved expression was odd, but Sherri spoke nonchalantly like it was nothing.

“Are you a good drinker, Tol?”

“I haven’t tried anything except beer, but I can hold my own.”

Hmmm, Sherri thought. If he could hold his own when it came to alcohol, then he was quite a good drinker. Attractive people were prejudiced to be generally not good at drinking, but Tol seemed to be an exception. Well, perhaps because his physique was more outstanding than the average man, but didn’t all knights drink like a fish? Uh, then he’s a little tricky in his own way.

Sherri appeared worried. She had initially planned to break down Tol’s iron wall with the help of alcohol and the environmental change outside the marquis’s castle. However, when the handsome face of the escort knight, which was marred with distress because he had only come to a bar a handful of times, caught her eye, she immediately ordered from the bartender.

“Umm, please bring me what I had last time. On the rocks this time, not straight please.”

“Yes. Coming right out.”

Trading looks between Tol and Sherri, the bartender disappeared with a bitter expression before returning holding two cups of ice and a brown-colored bottle filled with liquor. Sherri popped the cork, filled the two glasses, then pushed one toward Tol. Naturally, he had a baffled expression on his face.

“What is this?” asked Tol.

“It’s alcohol, silly. Take your time with it, it’s strong.”

“Couldn’t you have given me this in the castle? Did we really have to come here?”

“How can we drink Drocona there? Try it, it’s pretty expensive.”

“…yes.”

Looking at the round ice cubes and the smooth liquor in the glass, he instantly gulped it down as if making up his mind. Sherri’s face was smeared with astonishment as she watched him.

“You shouldn’t drink it so quickly. It’s your first time drinking this type of alcohol,” she said.

“It’s f-fine,” Tol stuttered. “It’s not like I can’t handle it.”

Perhaps the liquid must have burned his throat, so he rubbed his neck. Come to think of it, even Tol’s neck was strangely sexy. Judging from his slight frown he seemed to have a stomach ache as he was used to drinking only beer, not liquor.

Sherri had been thinking about how to give him a drink if he couldn’t drink while on duty as her escort, but she felt relieved when he volunteered to drink like this. Now, she thought she could just take Tol upstairs after getting him drunk by drinking little by little at a moderate pace. It was greedy to seduce a drunken Tol, but now she was afraid she would become sexually frustrated.

And Tol didn’t seem to dislike her either, so there was a vague expectation that things would go smoothly somehow if he loosened up the iron wall of reasoning that he held so tightly.

Still, he was a 22-year-old male and didn’t seem to know how to build a relationship with a woman, and it may be difficult to manage him because he was drunk and it was his first time, but Sherri could help him because it wasn’t her first time. And she was on birth control, so there was no need to worry.