3-11

"Do you remember what I asked you?" Bossia said.

"What?" said Bassario, still lying on the sickbed.

"How many cups of poisoned wine you drank."

"I don't remember."

"Still unwilling to tell me?"

"I really don't remember."

Bassario's expression seemed sincere. Bossia found this answer acceptable. Even with simple drunkenness, one might forget things after waking up. The key was that she didn't believe Bassario would joke about this. He didn't have that kind of cunning.

"Why are you sighing?" he asked, looking at her.

"That guy collapsed three minutes before you did, but you woke up half a day later than he did."

"That's not true."

"I'm not lying to you."

"I know you came yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Yes. Around… three in the afternoon. I woke up for a bit, still felt very sleepy, so I didn't open my eyes and continued sleeping. Just before I drifted off, someone came in and sat beside me."

"That doesn't necessarily mean it was me."

"Who else would come besides you?"

This statement sounded somewhat self-deprecating. Bassario didn't seem to notice. Bossia knew he was someone who never paid much attention to subtle nuances in speech. If it were another man saying, "You came to see me yesterday too," it might carry some implicit meaning, but with Bassario, it didn't. He was simply stating a fact, like rain faithfully soaking into the soil without caring about the thoughts of the farmer constantly watching the weather. This saved Bossia from feeling embarrassed, but it also left her a bit dissatisfied because it sounded awkward.

"I don't know," she said.

"Nothing more."

She didn't want to continue this topic. "Did you actually have any plan beforehand?"

"I hadn't thought of using this method before deciding to gamble with him."

"You suddenly jumped in, suggesting to drink poisoned wine, and didn't have any preparation?"

"Of course, I wasn't completely unprepared. I knew my chances of winning were better."

"Explain it to me."

"He's someone who's easily agitated, and he had just won money and was angry about losing a scorpion. This makes the poison act faster and more noticeably in his body, so I could more easily detect which cup of wine he drank was poisoned. Standing three meters away, you might not notice, but face-to-face, I could easily sense changes in his breathing and such."

"What's the use of that? How much poisoned wine he drank has nothing to do with how much you drank."

"How can it not? When he took a cup, I first estimated its position by sound, and when it was my turn, I confirmed it. This way, I knew which cup he took. Each time a cup was taken from the table, I remembered its position and order. Since the dealer wouldn't cluster all the poisoned wine together, after many rounds, we could deduce which cups were likely safe…"

"What kind of method is that? The more poisoned wine you drink, the less likely you'll drink more. Get an idiot who doesn't understand this to see it."

"It's not just that. He's been winning too much money with scorpion fights these months, not doing any physical tasks. If he could endure three cups, I had no reason not to endure four."

"All this talk is nonsense. In the end, it's still about luck."

"You're talking nonsense. We were gambling, Agnes. Do you understand what gambling means? I was just saying my conditions were more favorable, with some methods to increase my chances. It's like when we go on a mission; you always think I take risks, but fighting these guys, can you guarantee absolute safety? Knowing your advantages is enough."

"That's all sophistry. I didn't ask for absolute safety, just relative safety…"

Bossia initially wanted to say, "That's not the same as your relative danger," but realized this semantic argument would be fruitless and off-topic. She frowned, looked aside, and lowered her voice. "Forget it. Lie back down. I didn't come to disturb a patient."

Three seconds later, Bassario, who had propped himself up in excitement, lay back down, staring at the ceiling.

"Have you ever thought," after a moment of silence, Bossia looked at him again, "what would happen if you lost the gamble?"

"I won't die."

"Of course, I'm not talking about that. That guy… initially came after me."

She didn't continue. From her standpoint, she couldn't make certain things clear. If Bassario couldn't understand, it wasn't because she didn't explain well, but entirely his fault. No matter how he grew up in a place lacking normal social structures, he still should have some understanding of certain female privileges. Bossia had to understand how Bassario viewed the whole situation. This was very important to her. If he insisted on arguing with her...

"Winning and losing are actually the same," he said.

"Why?"

"They already knew the two of us were together. They knew before this happened, and I stepped up to make it even clearer. As for winning or losing in the end, they won't remember. You coming here to see me is the same. Those people haven't seen a native and an outsider standing together for a long time, so let them see it."

"Does it matter that I'm an outsider?"

"It doesn't matter to me."

After a while, Bossia touched Bassario's right hand, which was resting on his chest, with her left hand, letting her fingers intertwine with his. She bent down and kissed him. During the kiss, Bassario's right hand slowly moved to the right, pulling her closer.

After rising, Bossia did not immediately open her eyes. She lowered her head towards her knees, then slowly turned towards him. The gaze after the kiss made her tremble more than the kiss itself, realizing she had done something very important—especially in this special situation, she needed some emotional buffer to face his gaze. Even after the sandstorms of Silithus, she could still see his gaze clearly.

Bassario stroked her hair. "I've never told you this. I've never seen such a color," he said. "I wonder what it will look like when it grows longer."

"Maybe you'll know."

Bossia remembered something and suddenly smiled slightly. She tightly pursed her lips, looking at him, without hiding the smile near her eyes, and shook his right hand with her left.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Nothing."

"Something must have happened."

"I remembered something. Almost said it to you, but never mind."

"What was it?"

"Don't ask."

After the kiss, she recalled something Bassario said the day they took on the task of burning the outpost. Still good, but not very experienced... Was that how he put it?

"Alright, then let me ask you something else," he said.

"Go ahead. I may not answer."

"You didn't know which cups had poison, right?"

"Obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked how many cups you drank."

"What were you thinking when I was gambling with that guy?"

"Many things."

"That's not an answer."

"For example... I really don't know. Although I had heard of it before, it was my first time seeing this kind of gambling... the first time I saw the whole thing. I didn't know how to figure out the situation, and I couldn't see your face."

"That's all?"

"Maybe."

Bossia indeed thought about some other things. She was quite surprised herself, as she wasn't prepared to share them with Bassario. However, she didn't want to leave the room now; the longer she stayed, the harder it was to suppress the desire to reveal. Maybe if this matter was revealed... it would be hard to keep anything from Bassario anymore. After all, she knew a lot about Bassario from Rahol, but he knew nothing about her.

"You're hiding something else," he said. "Tell me, Agnes."

At the sound of this syllable, Bossia felt a sudden oppression, like water with too much silt suddenly splashed on a too-tender leaf. Her thoughts sank, forcing her to lift her head, and the deliberately tightened line of her lips to hide a smile relaxed. His hand seemed to grip too tightly, and the calluses from long-term sword holding gave her the illusion of finger abrasions. His gaze was more relaxed than before, but also more urgent, losing some sincerity in an instant.

"Let's continue next time, Bassario," she said. "I have a mission to carry out later. I might be back tomorrow. I hope you'll be fine by then."

She withdrew her left hand, clearly rejecting his attempt to hold onto her fingers, and stood up. "See you tomorrow," she said, then turned and walked towards the door. There was no sound from behind her.

Out of the room, she closed the door.

—See you tomorrow! What does that mean?

She had never said that to him before. Saying it now wasn't to express any emotion but to convey its most basic meaning: today's meeting ends here. She didn't leave immediately but leaned against the door, her right hand pressed behind her; two mercenaries walked by, and she quickly stood straight, placing her hand on her sword hilt.

It wasn't Bassario's fault, she knew. But she couldn't calm herself. A simple syllable changed everything, making the recent kiss suddenly feel distant, like a dream she had forgotten when she experienced.

What made the situation worse was Bassario's last question. Strictly speaking, it was the answer to this question that made Bossia even more uneasy because it, like the name, represented something fundamentally important to her roots and understanding. She had left Stormwind for several years, abandoning both from the beginning, but now, for the first time, she strongly felt a true separation from them.

Bossia had also considered some of the methods Bassario mentioned to increase his chances of winning. From their experience completing tasks together, she knew Bassario would never enter a dangerous situation without some preparation. He knew what he was doing. However, this did not alleviate the intense unease that had arisen from her heart and spread throughout her body at that moment.

This unease, unlike a guilt-ridden fear, was straightforward but left no room for retreat—it was a judgment, not a torment. No matter what Bossia did, she couldn't suppress it; she couldn't see Bassario's face, but she could see the opponent's face, which made it even harder to bear. It wasn't until the end of the gamble, when Bassario removed the blindfold and stood up, that her mood finally calmed. The first thought that came to her mind was: Light bless.