Chapter : 57

Yan Yunqing watched as those pitchers of wine were consumed one by one.

He couldn't help but glance at the other party's lower abdomen.

Why wasn't it bulging at all? Did this person's stomach for drinking, like Lilian's, contain a black hole?

Did the wine and food enter the stomach and get sucked into a black hole?

It was really hard to understand.

If this were on Blue Star, if they were to draw Adrien's blood, would they detect 1% blood in 99% alcohol?

After drinking two-thirds of it, Adrien finally slowed down, not drinking as eagerly as he did at the beginning.

The young man who was serving the wine also breathed a sigh of relief.

He was really afraid that this scarred swordsman would get drunk and start a drunken brawl on the spot.

Yan Yunqing pushed the snacks in front of Adrien, "Eat something."

Hurry up and eat some peanuts. He was also afraid that this person would go on a drunken rampage.

A level 100 swordsman on a drunken rampage would be too terrifying, he might just tear down the entire city.

Adrien was very obedient. He put down the wine pitcher, picked up a piece of crispy fried meat, and threw it into his mouth.

Yan Yunqing didn't even see him chew twice before he swallowed it whole.

Yan Yunqing: ...

Yan Yunqing couldn't help but ask: "You don't have the blood of another race in your ancestry, do you?"

The way he ate was too much like the dragon race.

They ate with such wild abandon.

Adrien was startled and shook his head.

No.

That's true. The dragon race was a proud race.

Let alone the human race, they didn't even look up to their own kind.

Within the race, if a male dragon wanted to court a female, he not only had to defeat the other male competitors, but also the female he was courting.

Only the strongest warrior was qualified to pass on their lineage.

Because of this trait engraved in their genes, the reproduction of the dragon race had always been very difficult, but they still did not change their desire for strong genes.

But then Adrien replied: "I can't tell you."

Yan Yunqing: "...Oh."

Yan Yunqing found that when facing Adrien, he was speechless and choked up far too often.

The way you said that... you might as well have just admitted that your ancestors were indeed related to other races.

Yan Yunqing couldn't help but look at Adrien with a hint of 'loving care'.

Whose silly son was this?

He really felt suffocated for the old General Sawyer. Could such an offspring really revitalize the family?

Oh, he was a level 100 great swordsman, then it's fine.

All those who disobeyed him, or tried to deceive him, would probably be killed by him first.

With this kind of martial strength, he really didn't need a brain, huh.

Adrien paused, "Do... you know me?"

Yan Yunqing was puzzled, thinking that this guy was going to bring up that acquaintance argument from the inn again.

He said listlessly and casually: "I do, didn't we just meet in the corridor, and I even treated you to so much wine."

"...No, I didn't mean that." Adrien was a bit conflicted, "Did you, know me before?"

Yan Yunqing: ?

Yan Yunqing's fork paused above a small piece of crispy meat, and he asked strangely:

"I don't. Did you know me before?"

"Hmm..."

Yan Yunqing was shocked. What was going on, this guy knew him before?

How come he didn't remember meeting this person anywhere before?

He had only been here for a little over a month, not a year, and certainly not ten years!

"Hmm, I don't."

Yan Yunqing: "...Don't pause so dramatically when you speak in the future."

Adrien shook his head, feeling a little confused, "But, I feel, you're a bit familiar."

"Hmm?"

"Don't you feel the same way?" Adrien asked, "I felt it, at the city gate... the way you looked at me was not the look of a stranger."

Yan Yunqing's mouth opened. He had never expected Adrien to be so perceptive.

They were so far apart, and his face was completely hidden by his hood.

How did Adrien, who was on horseback, notice that there was something wrong with his gaze?

"You... must have seen wrongly." Yan Yunqing explained dryly.

Adrien didn't continue the conversation along Yan Yunqing's words, but instead stared at Yan Yunqing for a while longer, "We really don't know each other."

Before Yan Yunqing could let out a breath of relief, he heard Adrien continue:

"But we both feel that the other is very familiar, right?"

"No... I don't feel that way at all." Yan Yunqing denied.

He finally explained the reason why he had shown that expression at the city gate before, "I just vaguely saw the shadow of an old acquaintance in you."

Adrien was startled and was about to speak when he was interrupted by Yan Yunqing.

"Actually, you're not alike at all, even your auras are different. I just inexplicably made a mistake. Looking at you now..."

Yan Yunqing looked Adrien up and down, "You really are not alike at all."

Adrien: "Is that so?"

He said thoughtfully: "Can I ask, what is his relationship with you?"

Yan Yunqing was surprised.

He didn't expect someone with Adrien's personality to get to the bottom of things.

He pondered for a moment and described it vaguely: "Both a friend and an enemy."

"We once walked a journey side by side, only to discover later that we had always been on opposite sides."

Adrien was in a daze for a moment, "I see... and what happened later?

Are you still in contact now?"

"...No contact." Yan Yunqing said coldly, "He has already been killed by me."

Adrien: ...

The once relaxed atmosphere solidified again.

Even the young man who came to deliver the wine was careful not to make a sound, for fear that these two, who seemed to be arguing, would start a fight and trash their tavern.

He had said that drinking so much would easily cause trouble!

If he had known, he wouldn't have been greedy for that little tip QAQ.

Yan Yunqing didn't want to continue talking, and Adrien also continued to drink his wine mouthful after mouthful.

Fortunately, he wasn't drinking as fiercely as before, and the movement of his Adam's apple was also clearly visible.

Time passed bit by bit, and Yan Yunqing was getting a little restless.

He looked at the time on the system panel.

Lilian had already sent several messages asking when he would be back.

He also felt that it was not worth continuing to waste time with Adrien here.

Just as he was about to say that he had something to do and then immediately get up and leave, Adrien seemed to have anticipated his thoughts and spoke first: "I think I've seen you before."

Yan Yunqing's butt, which had just moved a little, sat back down on the chair, "Oh?

How come I don't have any impression?"

How could that be? This appearance of his was just created.

His original appearance had no connection to this Edward mage whatsoever.

Adrien: "In a dream."

Yan Yunqing did a tactical lean back.

He savored this sentence and belatedly realized: Wait... could this guy be hitting on him?

Yan Yunqing, who had been confessed to by all his retainers in turn when he played "Demon King" and had experienced countless shurabas, had become somewhat desensitized to this kind of thing, to the point that he couldn't even judge Adrien's true intentions now.

But saying to someone 'I have seen you in my dreams before', how did this sound so similar in nature to Jia Baoyu saying to Lin Daiyu 'I have seen this little sister before'?

Yan Yunqing tried to superimpose Lin Daiyu's image onto himself, and then Jia Baoyu's cynical image onto Adrien... No, no, it was too eye-searing!

Mai-aisu! Mai-aisu!

"Then it must be your illusion." Yan Yunqing talked nonsense, "'I feel like I've seen this person somewhere before' is one of the three major illusions of life.

You have obviously fallen into this illusion."

"Your senses have deceived you.

Because we met at the city gate and happened to meet in the corridor of the inn, you have an illusion that we have met before."

"But this is just a coincidence."

Adrien was led astray by Yan Yunqing's long-winded reasoning, "Is-is that so?"

Yan Yunqing was very certain: "Yes."

He didn't know what kind of fetish this General Sawyer had.

He could actually develop feelings for him now when he was in the guise of a gloomy, sinister-looking mage. Could he be a pervert too?

Yan Yunqing, who was well aware of his own frequency of encountering perverts, speculated as such.

Adrien fell into deep thought.

He did feel that this mage in front of him gave him a very familiar feeling, but it was not in terms of appearance.

Adrien's Sawyer family had always been guarding the borderline between Bartovita and the Netherworld.

He had also grown up there. He had picked up a sword almost as soon as he could walk, ready to go to the battlefield at any time.

And when he was five years old, the borderline was almost breached by demonic beasts once.

All of his clansmen took up their weapons and rushed to the front line to fight.

Only he and a few other young children of the clan were left in the main camp.

At that time, it was unknown which squad's left flank was broken through.

A few demonic beasts rushed into the Sawyer family's main camp.

One of Adrien's older female cousins led all the children to flee, and Adrien was among them.

He carried the wooden sword that had been with him since he was a child and was protected by his cousin as they ran into a collapsed ruin.

The demonic beasts were very sensitive to the aura of humans.

For some reason, they let go of the other refugees they passed on the way and pursued them relentlessly.

In order to protect them, that cousin rushed out alone, trying to lure the demonic beasts away, but instead angered them.

Right before Adrien's eyes, that cousin was torn to pieces, and warm blood splattered all over his face.

At that time, he seemed to have been frightened and completely lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he was already back home.

The children who had fled with him told him that at that time, he had killed the demonic beast with a wooden sword, looking extremely terrifying.

The clansmen at home found this very incredible, but at this time, Adrien was tested and found to have an unparalleled swordsman talent.

In the end, this matter was attributed to Adrien witnessing his cousin's death, which stimulated his latent talent.

From then on, the name of Adrien the genius swordsman spread, and he did not disappoint, advancing all the way to become one of the youngest great swordsmen.

Also from that day on, he had always had the same dream. In the dream, there was a person with an indistinct face talking to him.

He couldn't hear what that person was saying, but he could feel waves of joy coming from the bottom of his heart.

Adrien had never felt that anyone gave him a familiar feeling before.

Even when he was at the city gate and saw this black-robed mage from afar, he didn't feel anything familiar, so he turned and left.

And when he was sitting on the bed in his room, preparing to rest for a while, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

He instinctively walked to the door, opened that door, and when he saw this black-robed mage up close, his heart contracted wildly, and his mind buzzed.

It seemed like a voice was screaming at the top of its lungs: It's him! The person you've been looking for, it's him!

Adrien couldn't help but fix his gaze on this person with an indistinct face.

That sense of familiarity did not let him let go of the other party even when he understood the other party's implied meaning. Instead, like an ignorant child, he pestered an adult for a piece of candy.

In the end.

Adrien raised the wine pitcher, hiding the slightly upturned corner of his mouth behind it.

He had successfully obtained that sweet candy.

"Perhaps I really was mistaken." Adrien said, "You're probably not from the capital, are you? Where do you plan to go next?"

Yan Yunqing didn't expect the topic to change so quickly. He hesitated for a moment, "I'm indeed not from the capital... actually, I'm looking for my younger brother."

He briefly told Adrien the story he had made up for the identity of Edward, "I don't think my younger brother is dead, he's just waiting for me to find him in some corner of this continent.

So I'm now traveling, practicing the alchemy blueprints left by my teacher, while looking for my younger brother."

Adrien suddenly realized: "No wonder... you have so much money."

Yan Yunqing was choked. What kind of thought process was this? He couldn't quite understand it.

"Uh... is it okay? Because my teacher spent his whole life studying alchemy, he never married and had no descendants, so he gave all his property to me."

Adrien nodded and said with concern: "Then you have to be careful.

Many cunning swindlers like to cheat people like you.

They will first get close to you, then ask you out for a drink, and then make you pay for the expensive drinks."

Yan Yunqing: ...Are you talking about yourself?

He admitted to the second half, but as for the first half, this 'cunning'... with all due respect, this General Sawyer in front of him looked more like a somewhat foolish psycho than a cunning swindler.

Adrien didn't feel there was anything wrong with what he said at all, because before he left, his family elders had warned him just like this.

He was just repeating the original words.

"If you are too kind and treat everyone who approaches you with sincerity, you will get hurt." Adrien said with great conviction.

Yan Yunqing was shocked to find that Adrien was actually speaking very seriously.

He typed a series of ellipses. He really wanted to tell Adrien:

No, you are the one who is easily deceived, the kind of fool who might even count the money for the swindler after being sold.

Yan Yunqing endured and endured. After hearing Adrien's nagging again, he chose to leave decisively.

He stood up, "Sorry, I just remembered that I have something to do next.

You can continue to drink here.

I believe the gold coins I paid to the tavern in advance are enough for you to drink here for another three days and three nights."

Yan Yunqing experienced the joy of looking down on others for the first time in a long while, even though the other party was sitting and he was standing.

"Then, I'll be leaving first."

This time, Adrien did not continue to stop him, but nodded and said to him: "See you tomorrow morning then."

Yan Yunqing was choked. When did he say he would see him tomorrow morning?

But he really didn't want to stay here and listen to Adrien's nagging, which was even more long-winded than an old man's.

He turned and left, pretending not to hear Adrien's 'see you tomorrow morning'.

He snorted in his heart. It wasn't even certain if you could find me tomorrow morning.

Yan Yunqing spoke to the young man who was busy at the bar, "Is the money I paid before still enough?"

The young man saw him and quickly stopped wiping the glasses in his hand, answering, "It's completely enough, sir, and there's even a lot left over."

Yan Yunqing nodded, "Whatever that table over there orders next, just deduct it from that bag of money. You can keep the rest as your tip."

The young man's eyes immediately lit up.

This was a huge tip. Even if that scarred swordsman in the corner could drink a lot, how much could he possibly drink?

A person couldn't really be like a bottomless pit and drink all the wine in their tavern, right?

The rest would all be his!

"Thank you so much, great Your Excellency Mage!"

The young man was beyond excited, "Praise the Goddess of Light! May the Goddess of Light bless you!"

Yan Yunqing, who was about to leave, paused, "...I don't believe in the Goddess of Light."

The young man immediately changed his tune: "Okay, great Merlin be praised, may Merlin bless you!"

Could a mage refuse Merlin's blessing?

Yan Yunqing was at a loss for words: ...Forget it.