Chapter 14.2 – Forbidden Liquor

“Then first—the aroma that earned all that praise…”

Like a sommelier, he brought the wineglass to his nose.

He took a perfectly ordinary sniff—nothing more.

I swear, that was all he did.

Gaikaku hadn’t hidden behind any curtains or pulled any tricks.

In full view of everyone—and with no ties to Gaikaku whatsoever—Count Alhena did only that.

He never let a single drop pass his lips.

In that instant, his complexion changed.

A count, a grandfather, the party’s host—the man under every eye in the room—

stifled a strangled yelp as his face contorted.

“N-n… ah… ah?!”

He turned to Gaikaku with a stiff, wounded look—as if someone had stabbed him in the back—and the guests gasped.

“Y-y-you—!”

“Is something the matter, Count?”

Gaikaku alone played dumb—so convincingly it said everything.

He was laughing inside; the plan was unfolding perfectly.

“You there! All of you! This really came from the same cask, correct?!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“T-this can’t be!”

Shaking, he set his own glass on the table without spilling a drop, then—with every scrap of decorum gone—snatched glasses guests had already emptied and sniffed the lingering scent.

“Impossible, impossible, impossible?!”

He even jammed his nose into a lady’s glass—an act so crude no one dared scold him, because his behavior was too bizarre.

Anyone who knew the usual Count Alhena would call this earth-shattering.

“Impossible!”

“What has you so puzzled, Count Alhena?”

Gaikaku, of course, smirked.

“Shall I have that cask removed?”

“Don’t you dare!!”

It was… abnormal—far too abnormal.

Had he tasted the wine and then lost it, people might suspect a drug.

That would make sense.

But nearly every guest had already drunk the stuff—and nothing happened.

They exchanged worried glances, but none were even excited, let alone deranged.

Most telling, Count Alhena hadn’t drunk a single drop.

Just the aroma had driven him into this frenzy, as if dosed with some inhaled poison.

(Did he spike only the Count’s glass? Something so dangerous the smell alone drives you mad…?)

(No, impossible. The glasses are ours—the same we’re using. Not some special “Count-only” goblet.)

(And servants from this house poured from the cask and carried the drinks!)

(Bribed? But every servant here looks ready to faint.)

No one had the faintest idea what was happening.

No one except Gaikaku and…

“How are you feeling, Count? If you like, we could tap the other cask as well.”

…Count Alhena himself.

Yes—he hadn’t lost his sanity; aside from Gaikaku, only he understood the abnormality.

…

He forced himself to calm down.

Seeing that, guests and staff relaxed a little, waiting to see his next move.

“I… I must apologize for that disgraceful display.”

He tried to smooth things over—poorly, but at least he was regaining composure.

“Lord Gaikaku, about this wine… Might we—later—compare notes in a private room, one-on-one?”

“Ge-hee-hee-hee! But of course, Count!”

Servants and several guests couldn’t hide their shock: the Count himself requesting a secret talk with this shady man—right here, inescapably on record.

“With such a generous offering, I must open part of my collection as well. You there, bring down bottles from the upper shelf.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Oh—then adding my other cask would be excessive. A gentleman enjoys drink in moderation. I’ll leave mine sealed.”

Whatever was happening, no one but the two men grasped it—

and everyone present finally understood why they were called the Conjurer Knights.

(What kind of magic trick was that?!)

※

Amid universal bewilderment, the banquet ended.

Brushing off the worries of servants and family, the Count escorted Gaikaku to a private room.

Inside were only the empty cask, the still-full cask, Gaikaku, and the Count.

“Count… truly, I never dreamed you’d unravel that much. As a clown, I’m deeply honored.”

“Clown, honored? That joke isn’t funny in the slightest…!”

Smiling Gaikaku received a mix of anger and confusion.

“Who are you?! How could you stage such reckless generosity?!”

After sniffing his own glass, the Count had frantically compared others—certain his glass held a different wine.

Yet he confirmed every guest had been served the same.

“The wine you poured for everyone—and what remains in this cask! It’s one of the Three Lost Rarities, Carrara, isn’t it?!”

“Ge-hee-hee-hee! Indeed! A bootleg unheard-of precisely because the law forbids its very production!”

One of the Three Lost Rarities—Carrara.

Its secret lay in the cask.

A Carrara cask, made from the tree that gave the wine its name, enriched both taste and aroma far beyond ordinary oak.

“Anything banned from the world has its reason! Maybe not a reason everyone likes—but a reason all must accept! Carrara was outlawed for just such an undeniable cause!”

Carrara’s production was forbidden.

Why? Few would guess right away.

Addictive like a drug? No.

Toxic? No.

Conceived by an enemy nation? No.

Fermented with spit, dangerously unsanitary? No.

The truth was brutally simple.

“Of course—you know it! The Carrara tree itself went extinct!”

“Exactly! The wine exploded in popularity. Demand for Carrara-wood barrels skyrocketed, the trees were over-harvested, and before long the state outlawed production to protect the dwindling resource. Too late—scarcity only spurred illegal logging, until the species vanished entirely.”

The tree was gone; the ban remained.

The wine itself had committed no sin—unless being too delicious counted.

The real victim was the Carrara tree, stripped to oblivion for its wood.

“Still, the wine is perfectly drinkable and legal to possess. And wine keeps well. A few who know the flavor are still alive—apparently you’re one of them.”

“…My father let me try it when I was young. Said it was ‘something special.’ It was my first taste of alcohol.”

Count Alhena thought of his late father, then fixed Gaikaku with a glare.

“That was the only time I ever tasted it. Frankly, it should have been drunk dry ages ago. To be crude, if a single cask hit the market, the price would be… incalculable—in the good sense.”

“Ha-ha! People do love a frenzy. Rarity alone drives the bidding sky-high!”

“And you poured it out for everyone—without even naming the label. That’s insane.”

To anyone who knew its worth, the gesture was wilder than handing out fistfuls of gems.

Hence the Count’s shock—checking every glass in disbelief.

“Insanity aside—why do you have two casks? And young ones, at that. Don’t tell me you just found them in storage.”

“You can tell that much? Well, the evidence is right here.”

“…Surely you haven’t—”

“Ge-hee-hee-hee!”

Gaikaku laughed, delighted.

“I have seedlings of the Carrara tree.”

“—!”

“I even plan future plantings. Meaning those casks are, for me, replaceable. Not enough to flood the market, but plenty to share at parties.”

The kind of revelation that could spark murder—because obscene sums of money were in play.

“Ordinarily you’d call it a scam, but with the real thing before your eyes, doubt seems unlikely. And even if you doubt this one, surely you trust the other cask.”

“…”

“I’m willing to part with it, you know.”

At last, Count Alhena’s cool returned.

“…Let me be direct,” he said.

“Yes?”

“Plain speech: you aren’t about to say, ‘Confess and shoulder all the blame if you want this wine,’ are you?”

Back to the original issue—no matter how he loved the stuff, he wouldn’t throw everything away for it. He wasn’t that foolish.

“Hardly.”

Gaikaku exaggerated a shrug.

“Frankly, I have no interest in exposing the ‘truth.’”

Not sipping a mix of clear and muddy waters—he guzzled the sludge outright.

“All I want is the bandits’ whereabouts. We nab them, parade them, let the victims cheer, and if banditry quiets down for a while, mission accomplished. Dragging your role into the light isn’t on my agenda.”

“…So you want help locating them.”

“Yes. That was the plan from the start.”

Count Alhena asked, already half-decided:

“What if the captured bandits try to frame me?”

“Possible, yes. But—luckily—you have a brother in arms. And you have me, a third party.”

The Count suddenly remembered: this man had already visited Count Wasat, the other responsible party.

“If the three of us share a laugh, those rumors blow away on the wind.”

…

So this is the Conjurer Knight Commander.

Count Alhena sagged, overwhelmed by Gaikaku’s skill.

He sank into a chair.

“Commander of the Conjurer Knights, Lord Gaikaku Hikume.”