The group decided to rest for a while in the overly boisterous Satyr village.
As the sun began to set, the woman reappeared at the hut.
“How are you doing? I see you’ve come through the Elf forest, but you seem to have made it alright.”
“Not exactly. I regret not listening to your advice back then.”
The Satyr woman’s gaze fell upon Elana and Cecilia.
“But it’s all’s well that ends well, right? I don’t know what happened, but it seems it went well.”
“Keep Elana a secret.”
With that, the woman laughed.
“Hahaha, I understand. We don’t want to make enemies of the Elves either. They buy a lot of our wine. How about a drink? Your unwell companion will surely perk up with a glass.”
“Brother, what’s your name? I’m Karbenessa, Karbene is fine.”
I told her everyone’s names.
“I see, Arisugawa. That’s an unusual name. Well, this must be fate or something. Pleased to meet you, brother.”
Karbene extended a hand towards me. As I reached out to shake it, she dodged playfully and lightly punched my shoulder.
“Heh, well, come with me. I’ll show you our pride and joy, the wine cellar.”
Leaving everyone else sleeping, I followed her.
As Karbene said, the wine cellar, built underground, was magnificent, with numerous wines stored on the walls.
“Wow, you have something like this? That’s amazing. Is this village famous for winemaking?”
“Well, yes. When you speak of noble wine families, it’s the Satyrs. And when you speak of Satyrs, it’s wine. Wine runs in our blood. Long ago, the gods taught our ancestors how to make wine that mimicked their own blood.”
According to her story, each family has such wine cellars.
“There’s even some here that we send to the kingdom. Ours is quite impressive. I’ll show you specially.”
She then led me further into the cellar. The depths of the cellar, where light could not reach, were illuminated by a faint lantern light.
“Look here. This one bottle alone is worth at least a hundred gold coins… It’s…”
Karbene, who had been chattering away until now, suddenly fell silent. The lantern light trembled slightly.
“Ah, where is it… It should be here, but it’s not. The wine is gone!”
On the wall illuminated by the lantern, there was only a gaping hole; the bottles could not be found. I checked other areas as well, but an entire section of the wall was missing.
