"Wow!"
Gavin was genuinely delighted for a moment when he heard that.
He couldn't help stopping and turning toward the elderly but smiling Selior. After a brief silence, he nodded firmly.
"I'll remember our friendship, Selior. After all, I once thought I'd have to pay quite a price to bring them back."
"Haha, of course you'll pay a price, Gavin. The price is one more friend, and one more debt on your conscience!"
Selior gently patted Gavin's shoulder and smiled.
"After all, you'll never forget that your people owe me ten lives. At least ten, right?"
"But my people's lives matter just as much as yours do. We've already lost ten people. Let's not lose any more."
"Besides, as I just said, even God didn't stop that family from reuniting in the apocalypse. So why should we go out of our way to make their legendary story harder?"
"What's more, you, me, all of us, and their family-we're all legends in one another's lives, aren't we? And legends ought to respect each other!"
At that, the Council Speaker's smile grew even broader.
So did Gavin's. Their right hands clasped tightly in the darkness, pumping vigorously up and down.
From that moment on, Gavin and Selior no longer needed to sit together wearing false smiles and discuss matters of self-interest.
Once a path to friendship opened, a great many things became easier.
Gavin barely drank that night. He no longer needed to consider how to make use of the Councilman's Son, much less how to drink the Council Speaker under the table.
After the Council Speaker put their past differences aside and offered his friendship, that evening's drinking session alone was enough for them to settle when Anglu and the others would be returned, as well as how the future profits