“Well then, please stop by later. I will always welcome you.”
Riley had Nainiae take the gift that Rebethra put forward. At the same time, Riley made a gesture with his hand.
It meant he roughly understood the meaning.
“Well, if I feel like it, I will.”
The attitude Riley had toward Rebethra was very rude. It would have been no surprise if someone saw this and cringed.
Despite that, Rebethra didn’t even flinch an eyebrow. Instead, through his entire stay here in the mansion, he maintained the respectful attitude.
“Please be safe on your way.”
“Young master, I’ll be praying for your well being as well.”
They exchanged farewells in the form of formalities. After seeing the Holy Temple’s carriage leave the mansion, Riley turned around and snorted as he glanced at the gift box that Nainiae received from Rebethra.
“He is making it way too obvious. Too obvious.”
Following Riley, Nainiae also looked below to see the gift box. She asked as she tilted her head to the side,
“What’s so obvious?”
“His official story is that he is here to check up on my mother’s illness, but the actual business is something else. What did you think it was?”
“Ah.”
It seemed Nainiae got what Riley was saying.
Nainiae, who was looking at the gift box, opened her mouth with a blank stare.
“Is it about that thing that Priesia… I mean Priestess Priesia said last time?”
Back in the Temple, Nainiae and Priesia became friends, so she had been calling Priesia by the name without the title. Out of habit, Nainiae casually called her by the name, but she corrected herself and looked at Riley.
“Right. It’s about that.”
Riley nodded and responded.
It was about the divine message.
Riley was thinking about the favor that Priesia asked. It was about slaying a dragon that was going to appear in Solia Castle soon.
“The real reason he came to the mansion yesterday is probably not about checking up on my mother’s illness. He probably came to give me that gift. What I’m saying is that this is a bribe.”
“Bribe…”
“Since you were fed, pay us back by working as much as you had been fed by us. Well, that’s probably what he is thinking.”
Riley was walking with his fingers locked between two hands and having them placed on the back of his head.
Nainiae carefully asked,
“Excuse me, young master, by any chance…”
“Are you insane?”
Riley felt like he knew what she was going to ask, so he cringed. He found the question unpleasant.
“Obviously, I won’t do it. Why would I bother with something that troublesome?”
“As I thought. That would be, right?”
Nainiae smiled awkwardly as she mumbled.
“He dares to think I’m a tool… He must be thinking I could be talked into being taken advantage of if he served up a few bribes. He doesn’t realize I’m a bastard who has seen it all.”
It seemed that the nobilities of this world had a pride of a specific kind.
It was about being sure to return the favor after receiving help.
It appeared that the Temple, hence Rebethra, had a plan to invoke that sense of obligation out of Riley and lead him to act… However, unfortunately, the person they were trying to do it to was Riley.
“Tell them this. Over my dead body. Tell them to gut my stomach.”
Actually, Riley was thinking about taking advantage of the Temple as if it was a tool. He was going to suck the honey right out of it. He cracked a smile and mumbled.
“Gut…stomach?”
It sounded pretty violent. Nainiae was concerned because of it, so she asked as she looked at Riley’s stomach.
“The Lower Solia doesn’t have a phrase like that about gutting stomach?”
“…?”
“It means I don’t care what happens afterwards although I received something.”
“Ah.”
Having heard Riley’s explanation describing it in plain words, Nainiae thought about what he meant as she coughed out a word of exclamation.
It was to make sure she does not forget what it means later and get confused again when Riley uses the phrase again.
“The divine message was definitely about a dragon, right?”
Having finished memorizing the phrase about gutting stomach, she nodded and then mumbled about the dragon.
“It turned out to be something that should not have been asked to you.”