This Was Never What I Wanted...

"This was never what I wanted."

"I never meant to be angry with you."

"You once saved me from those relatives who had been eyeing me like vultures."

"You once swore to me that you would never gamble again."

"But you lied to me."

"You betrayed my trust!"

Apartment building, second floor.

The room was dark, lit only by the four moons hanging low outside the window. Their faint light streamed in, outlining the dust in the air and barely illuminating Tita, who sat in the center of the room.

Seeing that Tita had clearly waited for him all night, seeing her reddened eyes, Zhou Yun actually broke out in a cold sweat.

"I... went to collect some fish sauce." Zhou Yun held bread in one hand and fish sauce in the other as he awkwardly spoke to Tita.

"Professor Lucretius told me. You went to the Temple District to find his friend and ask him to help negotiate your debt."

With her arms folded and body leaning slightly forward, Tita stared at Zhou Yun's face with considerable pressure.

"I went to the Catholicism temple to look for you. They said you had left long ago and never discussed any debts—and you were even generous enough to give them one Denar!"

When Tita said the words "one Denar," she bit down on them so hard that they seemed to be squeezed out through her teeth.

"Professor Lucretius gave you thirty Denars. Where's the money?! Did you gamble it all away?!"

Zhou Yun said nothing. He merely set down the fish sauce and bread, stepped forward, pulled a small black plastic-covered booklet from his pocket, and handed it to Tita.

"Another IOU?" Tita took a deep breath, her fingers trembling as she held the booklet.

The cover bore embossed patterns made with copper plates, with a Broken Lighthouse at its center.

"This time, you owe the Broken Lighthouse Temple? Let me see how much you owe this time!"

"I'm telling you, no matter how much you owe, I won't help you again! Go be a debt slave, then!"

As she spoke, Tita clenched the booklet tightly, the sweat between her fingers dampening its edges.

She took several deep breaths, yet even after a long while, she still seemed unable to make herself open it.

"Actually..." Zhou Yun opened his mouth, wanting to tell Tita that it was not an IOU, but—

"Shut up!" Tita viciously snapped at Zhou Yun. Then she gritted her teeth. "I'll still give you my father's pension. Whether you use it to pay off your debts or gamble again, I won't care anymore."

"Consider it repayment for how you used to take care of me, for helping me escape those greedy relatives. From now on, we have nothing to do with each other..."

"...But I still have to tell you, that money was bought with my father's life. It's also my future dowry. If you have even a shred of conscience left, don't use it to gamble. Find a way to pay your debts... Even using it to escape Macragge would be fine."

Listening to Tita, Zhou Yun could not help letting out a breath.

Tita still could not bring herself to be cruel.

With her personality, with the way she did things, if Zhou Yun really had been a hopeless gambling addict, her whole life would have been ruined by him.

After saying all that, Tita seemed to have finally made up her mind. Her fingers gripped the cover tightly as she slowly opened it.

Tita had already prepared herself. She imagined that Zhou Yun might owe several hundred more Denars, perhaps even more—over a thousand Denars? Several thousand?

But when Tita opened it, she was still struck dumb by the enormous, dizzying number.

"Fifty-three thousand, two hundred and four Denars." Tita read the number in an almost calm voice.

She closed the booklet, glanced at Zhou Yun, and then—

Slap! Slap! Slap!

Tita slapped herself across the face three times, leaving Zhou Yun staring in astonishment.

Ignoring Zhou Yun, she lowered her head again, opened the booklet, and looked once more at the number.

"Fifty-three thousand, two hundred and four Denars. Two hundred and thirty-nine thousand, four hundred and eighteen grams of silver. A quarter ton of silver."

"Wow, Uncle, you're really something. Your niece admits defeat."

Tita looked at Zhou Yun with an empty, composed, calm, lifeless gaze.

"...It's not debt. Look carefully." Zhou Yun pointed at the booklet and spoke softly.

Tita blinked, lowered her head, and looked at the booklet again...

"A deposit?" Tita tilted her head, then closed the booklet again.

"Tita, our family is rich now." Zhou Yun smiled at Tita.

Tita blinked, then suddenly raised her hand and slapped herself hard across the face several more times.

Then light gradually returned to her eyes. They brightened, becoming animated. A somewhat foolish smile appeared on her lips as she pointed at the number in the booklet and stared wide-eyed at Zhou Yun.

Did this make the kid stupid...?

"Y-you, how did you get it? Are all your organs still intact?" Tita blurted out.

Zhou Yun could not help laughing and shook his head repeatedly.

"Actually, your uncle here is a gambling monster."

"I was deliberately pretending to be useless before. I was waiting for today, to fleece the house."

Tita's fingers slowly loosened around the booklet. She smiled with relief, and suddenly her eyes filled with tears that fell onto her thighs.

"Even if that's true, you're still not allowed to gamble again."

Tita lowered her head and spoke softly.

"Do you know? Every night these past few days, I dreamed that creditors broke into our home, dragged you out of bed, shackled you, stuffed you into an iron cage, whipped you as they took you to the slave market. Your head was half-submerged in mud while you waited for people to bid on you, and people wearing boots kicked you. I even saw you being gnawed on by a swarm of bugs, thrown into an arena, dying in the snow, tied to an altar wreathed in flames, with a sun hanging above it..."

Wasn't that dream a little too specific...? Zhou Yun reached out and patted Tita on the head.

"Everything is fine now." Zhou Yun used his Telepathy School psychic power to slightly strengthen the persuasiveness of his words.

"Mhm..." Tita lowered her head and obediently murmured in agreement. Then... "Tomorrow, let's withdraw all the Denars and scatter them across the courtyard downstairs. I'll jump down from the second floor and swim in them!"

Zhou Yun's mouth opened slightly.

He had noticed it before. Tita's thoughts jumped around wildly. She often went from zero to a hundred without warning, saying abrupt things and doing abrupt things.

Was there something wrong with this kid's mind?

"You'll die from the fall. They're solid pieces, not liquid."

As Zhou Yun poked Tita's head with a finger, he picked up the bread and fish sauce he had set down earlier.

"Hurry up and eat." Zhou Yun had been hungry all night, and Tita had probably not eaten or drunk anything either. "Try the fish sauce from the Catholicism church and see how it tastes."

Zhou Yun dabbed some fish sauce onto the bread from the Catholicism church.

He took a bite...

"How is it?" Tita asked.

"Better than Talassar's."

With a solemn expression, Zhou Yun set down the bread in his hand.

"This one tastes more like Mortarion's bathwater."

"Who's Mortarion?"

"A big stinky moth that's bad at math."