Episode 10. Pink Sun
Hawk looked puzzled.
"It's not that rare. If just a few more people want to buy coffee beans like that, merchants willing to sell them will pop up in no time."
Gray unfolded his arms and stood from his seat.
"That only holds if the buyers' ambitions are just that mediocre."
Hawk eyed Gray with a 'what do you mean?' look. Gray winked one eye as if it were nothing.
"Hawk. I've suddenly got the urge to play. Mind lending me a room?"
"With whom? That ship owner, maybe?"
"Yeah. From Yumen? Then he's got to have some very interesting stories."
"But that ship owner already has a room."
Gray laughed, saying even better.
"Then add me to his room."
"With what?"
"Liquor, women, men, something worse—whatever. Everything to his taste."
Gray had these moments sometimes. He seemed to have some scheme, but since he showed no other moves here besides enjoying himself, Hawk couldn't fully read his intentions.
In any case, it didn't matter what this refined noble young master did elsewhere. As long as Hawk got his sales and commissions handsomely, that was it.
Hawk laughed.
"Room 5."
Several hours later, Gray walked out of Room 5. His staggering body slumped into a chair at an empty table.
How much had he drunk in that tiny room?
Gray squinted his eyes. Damn Hawk. If you're making money, expand the facilities or something. The room was so cramped, damn it.
Gray hated tight spaces. He didn't know when it started, but ever since he was old enough to be aware, it had always been that way. Claustrophobia was his nemesis. Thanks to it, he had already stepped out twice to rest.
Staring blankly at the shop ceiling spinning round and round, Gray muttered.
"That mustached bastard. A real tough opponent."
The Yumen merchant had no business ethics, no shame, no tact, nothing. How much more did he want to drink and roll around?
Not a peep about the plantation owner for those chocolate-scented beans….
Gray grumbled and lightly shook his head to steady his vision. Chugging whiskey straight from the bottle had his mind flickering in and out. His stomach felt off too.
Unable to bear the dizziness, he leaned back. The wooden tabletop pressed against his nape, shoulders, and back. His hair flowed back, disheveled. The alcohol-heated haze in his head began to cool.
In the meantime, a door opened and closed somewhere close enough to feel no distance. Someone approached and sat right beside him, wafting a pungent smell. Likely a woman from that damn cramped room.
Gray's stomach churned more from the woman's perfume. He furrowed his brow deeply.
The moment he felt her grab his arm, Gray shook her off immediately. He couldn't control his strength in that instant, shoving her roughly.
Annoying.
He usually held back fine when sober, but when this drunk, his revulsion inevitably surged.
Gray hated women as much as tight spaces. Precisely, women who stripped anywhere. He got genuine goosebumps seeing them.
In truth, Hawk's words had been so spot-on that Gray was slightly startled.
"You, actually, don't like women much? I guarantee it—you're still a virgin."
Gray hated women undressing, and touching such bodies even more. In fact, he hated touching women at all.
Naturally, he'd never had a deep relationship with anyone. Just imagining it disgusted him.
The hand he'd shaken off crept back shamelessly. Taking advantage of his dazed state, it subtly groped his broad chest.
Gray gritted curses and seized the woman's wrist. Forcing his unsteady torso upright to give her a piece of his mind, his hazy vision suddenly caught a small boy. Name was… Ruan, was it?
Gray froze and stared at the boy as if drawn by a magnet. The kid was grinning from the shadowed nook by the main entrance. Clutching someone's hand tightly, cradling something like a white envelope preciously in his arms.
Like focusing a blurry camera lens, Gray concentrated on the boy's hand. He got the cradled thing was a pastry bag, and the hand he held….
"Hm."
He had a hunch whose hand it was, and a laugh escaped.
See that? All that sharp pretense, but deep down, so tacky.
Waiting until the hidden figure emerged, sure enough, the woman stepped out from the wall's shadow.
"Just one."
"I'm eating them all. I'm hungry."
"Then you should've asked Hawk to bake some."
"Why, when Addie bought them for me? Hehe."
Gray chuckled again. Gazing at the entrance with such relaxed eyes, he locked gazes with the woman about to slip out of the shop.
He wasn't sure if their eyes truly met. But those black glasses had definitely paused on him.
Her face was impassive as always. That midday moment when she'd shot back with words like bursting water droplets seemed like a lie.
That face, hating any flicker of agitation, left the shop unchanged. Staring blankly at the entrance where she'd vanished, a low voice suddenly pierced his ear.
"You like that lady?"
Gray slowly turned his dizzy head to the woman plastered beside him. One strap of her dress hung down, a sloppy sight. His stomach flipped suddenly.
"Fuck."
Unable to hold back, Gray spat the curse aloud. How had he only noticed now? Well, he'd never bothered looking closely.
He shook off the woman's hand he'd forgotten he was even holding, as if it were filthy. Again, poor strength control sent her body lurching back. The equally drunk woman giggled.
"Oh dear. That lady's already gone."
What the hell are you saying?
Gray grimaced from the vertigo. In his horizontally stretched vision, Ruan sat at the opposite table, happily munching apple pie.
Fuck. Why so dizzy today?
"Get lost."
Reading the thorn in his soft voice, the woman sourly muttered, "Figures face and temper match," before heading to a room.
Gray looked up at the ceiling. The roughly crossed thick beams spun round and round as expected. Unable to endure, he closed his eyes. Sleep poured over him.
Somewhere, savory pie scent and sweetly stewed apple aroma wafted. Though surroundings reeked only of the harsh liquor drooling from his mouth. Impossible, yet….
His head spun again.
Yumen plantation owner, chocolate-scented beans, Mocha port, that goatee merchant's Hario Ho.
Everything sucked today.
Damn goat bastard. How much more to feed before he spills on the plantation owner?
His swirling mind began sinking to the bottom like a vortex. Vision flickered gradually. Then in the center of blacking-out consciousness, an abrupt tiny ember ignited.
The ember grew to flame, then a blazing halo. It swelled further. Finally enormous like the sun, dazzlingly shimmering.
Gray chuckled. A vivid pink sun with a large black sunspot at the center.
***
Days later, Gray entered Carlo Palace for the first time in ages. He rarely set foot there, uninterested in family business or state affairs, but this time, the prince's summons left him no choice.
"Knox is reporting on key court matters as the clerks' representative today. So as his patron, shouldn't you come watch?"
"Knox who…? Oh, him. He still alive?"
"You punk. Who's asking whose subordinate's welfare? You raised him. Come see for yourself how well he works. Watch the speech, then stop by my office."
"Mm, then should I block out plenty of time?"
"Obviously."
The prince's brat even twisted play requests like that.
Gray laughed lazily and said sure. What could he do? The guy was a prince, after all.
Walking the central palace corridor, Gray half-listened to the chamberlain's guidance. He had no interest in court schedules or details.
On the thickly carpeted hallway, the golden rug undulated serpentinely. The liquor from last night hadn't fully worn off.
"Ah. Dizzy."
Last night at Full Moon, Gray's group received enough premium whiskey for a month. Sent by Grace's father, Herald Count, upon learning the full lake incident—as repayment for saving his daughter's life. With a card: 'To my dear Gray.'
Thanks to it, Gray and his friends had partied till dawn.
Gray shook his dizzy head and grinned brightly. What an appreciative world. Indeed, the unchanging principle: you reap what you sow. Of course, more surely if the sower is me, Gray.
Gray halted and leaned casually on the indoor railing. The chamberlain panicked, checking on him.
"Are you alright, young master?"
Gray swept his pale face with his palm and waved it off.
"When does the main hall finally appear?"
"Almost there."
Damn slow.
The chamberlain fidgeted, checking his pocket watch.
"Young master. At this rate, the speech might end…."
Damn our prince. Damn Knox.
"Yes, coming. Let's go."
Gray started walking again. A brief rest let him stride a bit more steadily than before.
He rather enjoyed the swaying world, but the rising-falling golden floor had been truly disorienting.
His mood lifted. Today seemed like it'd be quite enjoyable too.
And Gray's premonitions were never wrong.
