“Oh, she definitely will,” smiled Nolan, who emptied his cup and then refilled it to the brim. “Thanks, buddy. This was really nice of you.”

Nyla shot him a momentary look that cautioned him about patience. “Thank you, Mr…?”

“Connick,” said the man. “Connick Sorus. I’m the owner of this restaurant, and of quite a few other businesses in the city. I don’t believe I’ve seen you before, so I took it upon myself to make an earnest introduction.”

“And why is that, I wonder?”

“To have reached the peak of Integration at your age is a very difficult thing to achieve. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that your name will likely become known throughout the continent in the coming decades, which is something that must be commended.”

Hearing this, a flurry of whispers set upon some of the surrounding tables, though these were tactfully muffled. Still, it was clear that those beneath the seventh level of Integration—the ones that couldn’t sense Nyla’s cultivation—were very surprised that someone with her level of talent had appeared in their midst.

She looked up at the man with feigned interest. “You flatter me, Mr. Sorus.”

“We at the Continental Merchant Association value talent very highly, so it’s only natural for a Merchant Lord’s Chamberlain such as myself to extend to you the most gracious of greetings.” One of the two men that Connick had walked in with glanced in his direction, a twitch of one of the chamberlain’s eyebrows hinting that he might have just received a mental message. “I wish I could stay and chat, but there’s much to do here in Tallgate these days, so I must be off.”

“Thank you for the drinks, Mr. Sorus.” Nyla gave a warm smile, which caused a desirous stir in the man’s eyes. “Do take care.”

“Ah, forgive me. I didn’t get your name yet, Miss.”

“It’s Nyla, and this is my cousin, Nolan.”

Nolan forced a smile, internally wanting to break out in honest, somewhat frustrated laughter.

“A pleasure to meet you both.” The man adjusted his cloak, along with a golden bangle that encased his left wrist. “Take care, Nyla. I’ll be seeing you around.”

With that, the man walked off into the kitchen area to speak with the manager of the establishment, leaving many gazes lingering on Nolan’s table. It wasn’t difficult for him to hear several whispered speculations that Nyla was the man’s mistress, some even deriding Nolan as a cuckold.

“What’s the deal, cousin?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a child. This could be very beneficial for us.”

There were a lot of things that he wanted to say, but most people in the room would be able to hear them considering the cultivation levels of the establishment’s patrons.

“Where the hell’s our wine, anyway? You think it’d be so goddamn hard to put twenty bottles in a bag when you can move things with your mind, fuck’s sake.”

“Since when did you care what people thought?”

“It’s not that, just…ah forget it.” There was no use placing his thoughts on the table, since it wouldn’t change how he felt.

Nyla gave him a knowing look that was laced with a bit of satisfaction, which further irritated him.

“If you say so.”

The two of them sipped at the sweet spirits in a sort of reclusive silence, Nolan lost in a deep train of thought as he weighed the cost-benefit ratio of the group striking up a relationship with Connick. He could already guess that Nyla was intending to lead him on in order to learn as much sensitive information about the CMA as she could manage. Still, now that he’d been away from Earth for several years he was no longer new to the show, and was very conscious of all of the risky possibilities that resulted from following through with this sort of scheme. Nyla wasn’t weak by any means, but that didn’t mean that she was invincible.

Why’s there always some skeevy scumbag lurking in the shadows?

Troublesome people seemed to covet the women around him everywhere he went. This included the ones that he wasn’t even involved with, such as Lyra, who was very beautiful in her own right. Now that Delia had joined them, she would surely draw a good number of lewd gazes as well. And who would be inconvenienced by it in the end? Doubtlessly, it would be him.

“Okay, this is getting ridiculous.” Over twenty minutes had passed since Connick had left their table and they had still not received their order. Instead, both he and Nyla had grown increasingly drunk under the powerful effects of the golden spirits that the man had gifted to them. “I’m just going to go get them.”

None of the other guests within the large dining hall were on their feet, which set the precedence that it was customary to remain seated while patronizing this restaurant. Even so, Nolan was positive that Connick was having their order held so that he and Nyla would have no choice but to stick around, likely so that the man could come over to continue socializing with her once the chamberlain was finished with whatever business had brought him here.

And I’m not having none of that.

Adopting a calm and confident demeanour, Nolan strode over to the kitchen area with the air of a person of power, hoping that the kitchen staff would take him seriously when he requested to immediately collect his order. Rich candlelight caused a myriad of beautiful reflections within the large room that was defined by an abundance of star gold, the gentle murmur of a leisurely crowd filling Nolan’s ears as he spotted the two girls that had served him earlier.

The fuck are you looking at? Still calm on the outside, Nolan smirked distastefully at the Haussian noble that he had connected eyes with earlier, though he refrained from speaking his mind. The man had been openly ridiculing him as an angry cuckold since the moment he'd risen from his seat.

“Excuse me, Miss?” he asked the more modest-looking one.

“Ah, distinguished guest, what brings you over from your seat?”

“I just came to collect the wine I paid for. Me and my cousin are expected elsewhere, so we really can’t stay any longer.”

The girls exchanged a reluctant look and then glanced over in the direction of Connick, his companions and the manager, all of which were talking to one another on the other end of the long countertop that separated the hall proper from the kitchen area.

“If you’ll please return to your seat,” said the one he’d addressed, “we’ll bring it right out.”

“If you can’t give it to me here, then just give me my spirit stones back. We really need to leave, so whatever’s faster is what we’ll do.” He glanced back at Nyla, who gave him a playful wave as she sipped at her drink, amused as she watched him try to navigate through the situation. “So what works best for you guys? Giving me the wine, or returning my stones to me?”

“I…that is…”

Nolan folded his hands behind his back and mentally rolled his eyes as he sensed the manager break away from the other three and then hurry over to where he was standing. “Distinguished guest, is there something that I can help you with?”

“Yeah, I just want the wine that I ordered. We’ve got somewhere to be and we’ve been waiting around for nearly half an hour.”

“I’m fine with just accepting a refund. Normally I’d wait, it’s just that we really need to go.”

“Of course, of course. Unfortunately, however, our establishment has a strict policy against refunds, so if you’ll please return to your seat I’ll have these two bring out your wine at our earliest convenience.”

Nolan wanted to start breaking things, but he merely let out a helpless sigh. “Then we have no choice but to leave without them.” He turned to go, casting a nonchalant glance over his shoulder and fixing the manager with a calm yet serious stare. “We’re staying at the Crystal Palace, in the city’s central district. We’re in the luxury suite, so just have them delivered there.”

"The luxury...?" The man glanced in Connick's direction. “I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t have any sort of delivery service. I’m afraid that you’ll just have to wait, but I promise that it won’t be—”

Nolan’s façade crumbled as he suddenly flung a finger in the manager’s face. “Listen buddy, I’ve had the patience of a saint this entire time, but even a saint will lose their shit when they stub a toe, you get me? If I don’t get my goddamn wine in—”

He was in turn interrupted by Nyla, who suddenly appeared at his back and grabbed one of his hands. “I apologize for my cousin,” she smiled, blushing. “He becomes angry when he drinks, so I think it best that we just leave.”

“I get angry when people scam me.”

“Yes, yes,” she said, pulling him along toward the door. “If you can’t deliver the wine to our room at the Crystal Palace, then just consider it a gift.”

Gift of my money…