Gray quietly stared at Pas, not saying a word, just watching.
"What, is there something on my face, Knight?"
"Could you tell me your name? Or maybe your title."
"You haven't had a single drink since you got here, though you did eat a fish... bones and all?"
"Not used to our wine?"
"Actually, I noticed you weren't wearing a badge, so I was thinking you might be a wandering knight. Our mercenary group just happens to need a vanguard. Maybe you could consider it. Of course, how much you can earn depends on your skills."
Pas talked for a long time, his mouth getting dry, but Gray didn't respond, sitting there like a statue, doing nothing. Pas felt a bit embarrassed.
Finally, out of options, Pas put down a silver coin and said, "This drink is on me. If you're interested, find me at 48 Lamu Street."
After he finished, he got up and walked away, muttering under his breath, "Is this guy even sane?"
After Pas left, a black cat quietly crept into Gray's helmet. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Didn't you tell me not to talk too much?"
"I said not to talk too much, but I didn't mean not to say anything at all. Oh my God... is my advice that hard to understand?"
"Should I go talk to him now?"
"No need, going now would be more suspicious. However, you should seriously consider his suggestion. Until you find a lord willing to accept your fealty, you must have some income. *In fact, I think you might never find a lord willing to accept your fealty, so income is more important than anything else.*"
"That's money. I was just wondering how you'd pay for what you ate. If I remember correctly, you don't have a single coin in your pants. Thankfully, he left a silver coin, enough to cover the bill."
Gray reached out and picked up the silver coin on the table, examining it by the firelight.
Small and the size of a thumb nail, silver-white and a bit tarnished, with a blurry portrait stamped in the middle.
"Is this the money and silver coin you were talking about?"
"Yes. Humans on the ground use these for transactions, you can buy anything you want with them, and everyone needs them. You don't need to eat, but it's not right to let a cat do things for you and then go hungry, is it? Being a mercenary is a good job, at least for you. You don't need to explain your past, and although some tasks are risky, you're dead anyway, so you don't care, right? Hahaha."
"All that matters is getting 'income,' right?"
"Yes, but if you have a better way..."
Before the black cat could finish, Gray stood up with a clang and walked towards the corner of the tavern.
"What are you doing?" the black cat asked hastily.
"I have a faster way to get 'income' than being a mercenary."
Squeezing through the crowd gathered around, Gray slammed the silver coin onto the gambling table.
Suddenly, the gamblers all looked at him.
At this moment, in the small town where Gray originally appeared, atop the hill where he planned to build his own castle, two milky white lights quietly emerged.
As the white lights gradually dissipated, what appeared was white wings, silver hair, stark pale, glittering, almost lifeless skin like a sculpture, armor too splendid for this world, delicate features... unlike other beings, each of their eyes had two pupils.
And of course, golden halos.
These were two angels, one male, one female.
After a simple glance at the abandoned, never-completed castle Gray had left behind, the male angel whispered, "A lich, headed south."
"Should we report it?" the female angel asked.
"It's just an immature lich, we can handle it ourselves."
With that, the male angel turned into a beam of white light and vanished into the air.
The female angel scanned the surroundings, then also turned into a beam of white light and disappeared without a trace.