"Is this what they call a genius’s weakness?" the elderly man sitting below asked awkwardly, looking at Malin’s dispirited appearance. "I, I really do feel constrained, I’ve never been this nervous even on the battlefield," Malin replied with a bitter smile.
"You Farolians really have issues. It’s bad enough that a wedding officiant has to change into so many outfits, not to mention all the hand gestures and blessing words, but what’s worse is that after they found out Malin was the Bishop of the Goddess of Harvest Church, the local High Priest flatly refused to conduct the ceremony."
"Having Malin Your Excellency preside over the couple’s wedding would be the best,"
The best my ass, I’m a Cardinal, you know what they call a Cardinal? I’ve extracted myself from the thick of battle, carved my path through the mortal world; a Cardinal is someone who deals out death but does not tend to the aftermath, not some administrative bishop!
But the local bishop quickly excused himself citing old age and even told Malin that the Goddess would be pleased with Malin’s assistance to the church’s faithful.
Malin felt like he had truly boarded a bandit ship in his younger days.
But then again... ah well, forget it. Anthony was an old comrade in arms after all, it was only helping out.
It was also today that Malin finally met the bride for the first time.
To be honest, she was quite pretty, appearing at the venue with her bridesmaids surrounding her.
Malin passed a cigarette to the old man, and then took the script to continue reinforcing his memory.
Over there, Anthony was sweating profusely as he rehearsed his parts with the help of his childhood friend.
And at that moment, a slick young man entered the scene. He was looking for someone and as soon as he spotted Gallo’s old man next to Malin, he approached with a smile: "Grandpa."
"Ah, it’s Colson, you finally made it,"
"Yeah, I’ve been preparing a gift for cousin Anthony the past couple of days, a very nice revolver, and it’s top-notch goods from the North, from Malin Your Excellency’s workshop," the young man said vividly, finally noticing Malin in full ceremonial attire.
"Have we met somewhere before?" he asked with a curious smile.
Malin also smiled, and Fio flicked a branch, pulling out Blood Roar from the space.
"Big brother!" Colson immediately crouched down: "Big brother, you look so cool today! How could I not have recognized you!"
The old man of the Gallo family slapped his forehead: "Looks like you two know each other."
"When I was in Pozoli, this kid wanted to buy my axe," Malin replied with a smile to the elderly man.
The latter chuckled and shook his head: "It was very fortunate that it was Malin Your Excellency, instead of a Legendary. My grandson here would have been skinned if not killed if it were someone else."
Colson’s full name was Colson Tisser, his mother was the daughter of the Gallo family, the grandfather’s most cherished granddaughter.
Though he seemed to lack education, he was actually an Astrologer of the 4th Sequence, skilled in identifying rare items and people. That day he had sensed that Blood Roar was something exceptional, which is why he asked for its price.
"If I had known it was big brother, I wouldn’t have courted death like that," Malin felt that aside from this young man’s talent for recognizing people and objects, he was also extremely good at boasting and brown-nosing. Whatever he said or did, in Malin’s view, was quite clever.
Addressed as big brother, Malin felt somewhat fond of the kid and finally decided to let him try holding Blood Roar.
Of course, Malin warned Blood Roar to take it easy on the kid—just make sure not to throw out his back.
A thrown-out back is treatable and not scary; what’s truly frightening is if it injures someone, that would be bad.
After all, Anthony was about to get married.
So Blood Roar patiently held a Revolver for Colson as well.
Everyone saw him lift Blood Roar off the ground, and then with a snap, they saw the kid’s left leg involuntarily twist out of place.
Well, he didn’t hurt his back but broke his leg instead.
Malin had no choice but to cast a Healing Spell on the fracture on Colson’s leg.
After this incident, Colson praised Malin even more, making Malin quite embarrassed; it was the old man from the Gallo family who helped by driving his grandson to the side—Malin was about to go on stage again.
Colson came to the gathering area where the young men were, shaking hands with each of his old friends.
"Colson, you must be mad. I heard that was a Legendary weapon, the lost artifact of the Orcs, Blood Roar—it’s a divine weapon with a spirit inside. You’re lucky that axe didn’t chop you to death; the Tisser family must have had their ancestors’ blessings," a friend remarked on Colson’s foolishness.
"Hmph, Malin is my big brother; he healed my leg," Colson snorted and then sat down among his friends. "Speaking of which, I got lucky, let me tell you..."
In Colson’s telling, he met Malin in Pozzoli, riding on the back of that huge bear Spirit. He thought Malin must be an extremely powerful figure, so he paid his respects right away.
"If I told you half a month ago that I acknowledged Malin as my big brother, you would have said I was crazy. But let me tell you, Mr. Malin had previously crushed the Black Orc war tide in the North, beheading forty thousand. Now think about it, how far-sighted my vision was."
"Alright, Colson, you’re bragging again," a friend laughed and handed him a glass of water. "By the way, my cousin will be here soon. He’s not only a fellow Church member with Mr. Malin but also a business partner. You’ll have competition soon."
"Haha, anyway, Mr. Malin has already acknowledged me as his brother; from now on, I have a Legendary big brother," Colson said with a laugh.
"Damn, you brown-noser."
Having completed the rehearsal once more, Malin felt this time was much better; at least he didn’t make any mistakes this time, although there were still two instances of forgetting lines. But for Mrs. Gallo, in charge of the rehearsal, it was already good enough—her foolish son had just made two mistakes, one of which was putting the ring on his sparsely fingered pinky.
It elicited laughter from everyone.
"Anthony, my old friend, promise me, don’t just gauge by the thickness of fingers, okay? I’ve really come to appreciate how slender your fiancée’s fingers are," Malin had to say to cover for him, prompting Mrs. Gallo to follow Malin’s lead and chuckle a few times.
"Sorry, sorry," the young man said, extremely embarrassed.
His childhood friend gave him some words of comfort.
"Mr. Malin, please go down and rest for a bit," Mrs. Gallo suggested, and Malin was more than happy to take a break. As he went down with the script, he also took the opportunity to open his arms and embrace his girls from afar.
He playfully ruffled Rewo’s small head. "Rewo, come with me to meet our super cousin Logan."
Rewo said goodbye to her sisters, then followed Malin to where Logan and Miriam were standing.
"What brings you here?"
"Anthony is my cousin; I heard about your situation and rushed over," Logan said, patting Malin. "Man, you’re too strong! Your first time leading an army and you directly crushed the Black Orc war tide! If you had called me to carry a flag, I could’ve boasted too!"
"All you think about is boasting. Come on, let me introduce you to my new fiancée, Rewo. You should know her," Malin said with a smile as he introduced Rewo to them.