Chapter 82 - The Gossip Is All True (2/2)

“It’s probably the people from the headquarters that ran over to the mayor’s residence for free lodging,” Roland muttered amusedly.

In reality, he guessed right. John was the one who held the banquet going on at the castle right now. The purpose of this was to welcome Bard and the others.

A n.o.ble and a mage, such an ident.i.ty was well regarded anywhere… except with players.

The banquet at the castle was joyous, harmonious, and lavish. Countless cups, ten times the price of the untouchables, contained red or yellow fruit wine. The n.o.bles took delicate sips and feigned expressions of pleasure, and then bragged with each other.

Meanwhile, on the balcony of the second floor, John and Bard were overlooking the group of people inside the banquet hall, their expressions somewhat ruminative.

Bard sipped on fruit wine and said, “These people have n.o.ble ident.i.ties but don’t have n.o.ble souls. They’re not interesting at all.”

“What is considered a n.o.ble soul?” Bard asked laughingly.

“One like Mr. Bard’s,” John said, “with the status of both a mage and a n.o.ble. Only a soul like this is considered n.o.ble, whereas they are just empty sh.e.l.ls, feeble souls, puppets with no self, inferior to even commoners.”

Bard swayed his own wine cup lightly. “Mr. John, your standards are too strict. I think they’re quite all right.”

“If it were one month ago, I would also have been able to accept their incompetence.” John sighed. “However, after seeing what true talent looks like, I discovered that these people really are of no use. They can’t protect the city or campaign for the country, and now they don’t even want to pay taxes.”

Bard laughed lightly. There weren’t many n.o.bles who wanted to pay taxes. This was quite normal.

Then, he asked curiously, “What exactly caused your views on them to change?”

A hesitation. He didn’t seem to want to speak about this, but after a while, he still said slowly, “Recently, two people came to our city, and a later investigation found that they were both Golden Sons.”

“Wait, what are Golden Sons?” Bard asked in surprise.

Eyes wide, John stared at him. “You don’t even know the background of the Golden Sons?”

Bard shook his head then smiled. “Mr. John, can you tell me about the Golden Sons?”

“Golden Sons are undying humans from another plane.” John laughed and said, “They’re inclined toward neutral good…”

Bard was greatly surprised. “What did you say? Undying—that’s impossible. This is probably unconfirmed information.”

John instead looked at Bard with a strange gaze. “How’s it impossible! I saw with my own eyes, even after those two guys were diced into mincemeat, their bodies could reappear from the Church of Life. I find it rather strange—logically, the capital should be quicker to catch on and more abundant with news, how come you guys don’t know about the advent of Golden Sons?”

Bard still felt that this information was absurd, but John didn’t seem to be lying to him and had no need to do so.

“Mr. John, can you explain to me in detail about the Golden Sons?”

After roughly half an hour, John finished explaining. Bard stayed silent for a long while, and then he abruptly gulped down all his fruit wine, his posture and expression no longer appearing graceful but more nervous.

“Is one of the Golden Sons called Roland?”

John nodded.

Bard was stunned. He slowly sat down on the chair and seemed to be pondering something.

John looked at his appearance and grinned slightly, “I also heard gossip that some n.o.bles secretly hid the corpses of the Golden Sons after they died. It’s rumored that some tried the taste of them—they seemed to have special effects!”

Bard’s eyes froze. “What effects?”

“They became younger by several years!”