The tavern owner's sudden change in attitude struck Xia Nan as strange.
It was not that he was angry.
He simply felt that the man's behavior was, somehow, faintly similar to Horako's.
One of them had been extraordinarily generous, able to casually give away expensive jewelry and accessories to Adventurers he had only just met for the first time. Yet when the thing Xia Nan and the others were interested in became the Pastel Gemstone on his person, he had rarely even taken it out to show them. The only time he had, he had held it in his own palm, maintaining a safe distance and allowing everyone to view it only from afar;
The other was especially enthusiastic toward guests visiting the tavern for the first time, treating them to lemonade and giving them tangerines to eat. No matter what they asked, he answered everything he knew, looking every bit like a warmhearted, good-natured tavern owner. Yet the moment the rumored gemstone was mentioned, he abruptly seemed to become a different person, turning incomparably cold and even revealing a trace of hostility and distance.
Xia Nan was not stupid.
With only a little thought, he noticed the common point between the two:
—the Pastel Gemstone.
Then, recalling the fleeting glimpse he had caught of it in Horako's hand that night, Xia Nan could not help but show a pensive expression.
In his heart, his doubts about the mine Horako had said might exist, as well as the gemstones produced from it, had deepened by several degrees.
However, in the end, they were only guesses.
Without a physical object to study and judge, with the sample size far too small, and with an even greater lack of crucial evidence and clues, it was difficult for him to draw a conclusion.