NOVEL WEB Chapter 66: A Token of Friendship (1)
“So, what will you do with that necklace?”
Ceylon responded without hesitation to Mizu’s question.
“Eh? What do you mean, do with it? Well—”
Ceylon extended it towards Adryn.
Then, with a ‘Eek!’ Adryn gasped and stepped back in alarm.
“…?”
Ceylon looked at the necklace closely.
Had an Adryn-repelling effect been added to it?
“Why are you like this, Miss Adryn?”
“Why, why? Idiot. What about you?!”
“Eh?”
“Eh? It’s not about that! Knowing it’s a Grade 2 artifact, didn’t you have any thoughts?”
“Ah.”
It was then that Ceylon understood why Adryn was behaving that way.
The necklace was revealed to be a Grade 2 artifact during an appraisal commotion.
For Ceylon, who knew it was of heroic grade from the start, it wasn’t a big deal, but it was news to the other three who didn’t know.
“Hmm…”
To be honest, Ceylon still hadn’t fully grasped the value of the necklace.
And he didn’t particularly want to know. Once he had decided to gift it to Adryn, he thought knowing its value would only make it more difficult to give away.
“I did have some thoughts.”
“Is that so!?”
“Being able to gift something even better to Miss Adryn, I think it’s a good thing.”
So, having resolved to go through with it, Ceylon decided to earn as many points with Miss Adryn as he could.
He showed the freshest smile he could manage.
“Uh? Idiot…”
Looking at their interaction, Mizu muttered with a cold expression on her face.
“What are they doing?”
As Ceylon’s hand got close to give the necklace, Adryn again startled and retreated.
“Someone might think I’m trying to scare you with a toy, Miss Adryn.”
“But… Ceylon, no matter how I think about it, I can’t accept that.”
“This flow feels familiar. What conclusion did we reach last time?”
“Uh…”
Adryn took a pouch from her bosom and set it on her hand.
She had sworn not to take Ceylon’s artifact for free but to pay a fair amount for it with her confident gold-filled pouch.
“Oh. To purchase a Grade 2 artifact? Are there jewels inside there?”
“That, it’s gold coins…”
“Oh, perhaps magical coins from the Mountain Bank?”
“That, just plain gold coins…”
“Oh, perhaps—”
“That’s enough.”
“Sorry.”
“This amount won’t be near enough…”
Seizing the opportunity, Adryn who had been aggressively teased by Mizu, timidly murmured to herself while looking at the purse.
Her confident gold-filled pouch had vanished into thin air.
Although still full of gold coins, the lack of confidence made the pouch look pitifully meager.
Even Adryn’s shoulders seemed to shrink under its weight.
Mizu then raised her hand.
“Question~”
“Ah, yes. Mizu student, go ahead.”
“Didn’t you say you were giving that as a token of friendship to Adryn?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then why is this token of friendship being bought and sold?”
“That is—”
Ceylon was pondering over how to unravel this complicated situation and explain it.
“Could it be…!”
Before he could finish his thought, Mizu, as if she had stumbled upon a shocking truth, expressed her astonishment.
“Is this typical? Friendship, is it something to be bought and sold…!? Even—”
She alternated looking between the purse in Adryn’s hand and the necklace in Ceylon’s.
“So expensive…!”
Thump!
Mizu melodramatically flopped onto the floor, complete with sound effects.
“An amount clearly out of reach for Bauers. Ah, is that so… Are we Bauers unworthy even of basking in the glowing value of friendship…”
Shadows seemed to gather densely around Mizu.
“Miss Adryn, what should we do? It seems we’ve caused Miss Mizu to fall into a misunderstanding. A very deep and dark one at that.”
“Eh…!? Is it my fault!? Oh, what should I do…!?”
“Wouldn’t it be resolved if you just accepted the necklace for free?”
“A Grade 2 artifact!?!”
Adryn distanced herself even more.
“To contemplate purchasing such an expensive token of friendship…”
One digging a hole into the ground, and another continually drifting away.
“What a mess…!”
Yet, Ceylon seemed to find some joy in it.
There he was, a man with sly eyes reveling in the sight of everyone acting bewildered and frantic over a single necklace of his.
“Miss Adryn?”
At that moment, Drin spoke to Adryn.
“Eh? Yes?”
Startled by the sudden address from Drin, Adryn, already in a state of panic, fell deeper into disarray and barely managed to respond.
“So, are you saying that you have no intention of buying—this token of friendship?”
“Eh? No, it’s not like that… I’d want to… buy it, ideally, but, you see… I don’t have the money… I guess…”
Buying the token of friendship.
Despite the odd tone of Drin’s query, Adryn felt compelled to answer due to Drin’s forcefulness.
“Is that so?”
Drin nodded contentedly to some part of the rambling answer she had heard.
Her gaze turned towards Mizu, who seemed to be sinking even further into the ground.
“Then Miss Mizu. Do you intend to purchase this token of friendship?”
“Though my desire to buy it is great, the Bauer wealth does not afford such luxuries of purchasing friendship… Ah, what a poetic tragedy…”
“That is truly unfortunate.”
Drin replied, her face showing an expression far from regret, seemingly even delighted.
With that expression, Drin then turned her gaze upon Ceylon.
“Ceylon, then it can’t be helped.”
“Huh? What do you mean it can’t be helped?”
“This token of friendship you’ve created.”
“Created?”
Ahem.
Clearing her throat as if slighty embarrassed, Drin continued.
“I shall purchase it.”
“Heh.”
Ceylon let out a hollow laugh.
It seemed that our Miss Drin had made quite the vast misunderstanding.
But he decided not to correct her just yet.
“Eh!?”
Including Adryn’s shocked reaction, Ceylon found the entire situation entertaining.
Ceylon, grinning to himself, then asked Drin.
“But Miss Drin, do you realize what it means to buy and sell a token of friendship before you decide to purchase it?”
For the record, I am not sure.
Ceylon held back his words as he waited for Drin’s response.
“Of course—”
Interpreting Ceylon’s laughing demeanor somehow, Drin began to respond with defiance but quickly lost her confidence and averted her gaze.
“Truthfully, embarrassingly, I am not accustomed to the buying and selling of tokens of friendship… This would be my first time ever purchasing such a token.”
‘Of course it would be. If you were familiar with buying and selling tokens of friendship, that alone would be a concern.’
Ceylon wanted to promptly address Drin’s misunderstanding, but he chose to wait it out with superhuman patience.
Drin found her current state of misunderstanding quite amusing.
“However, I believe I have gained some understanding by observing everyone’s exchanges. A token of friendship is, as the name implies, a symbol that proves friendship. It certifies that the person who issued the token and the person who purchased it have a true friendship. I think it’s an interesting culture.”
Drin was recalling something Yena had said before.
‘When you enter the Academy, Miss, you will encounter many young people of your age. And you will come across various cultures popular among them. When you experience those cultures, Miss, you should assess them objectively with discernment—…’
Drin considered this token of friendship as another culture popular among her peers.
‘To buy and sell tokens symbolizing friendship with money…’
When she first encountered the culture of friendship tokens, Drin felt quite confused.
However.
Drin was aware that she was someone quite removed from the standard norm.
Her inability to understand this culture of friendship tokens stemmed from her lack of common touchpoints with her peers and having no equal relationship with them—
She believed it was a lack of understanding of her peers’ thought processes that caused her confusion.
Therefore, Drin had resolved to be as accepting as possible towards this culture of friendship tokens.
‘So the token of friendship is a Grade 2 artifact…’
As it symbolizes friendship, it couldn’t just be any item.
As much as one values friendship, one would gift something valuable.
But what if one values friendship to such an extent that one gifts something excessively valuable?
Then it would cause the recipient, like Miss Adryn there, to feel overwhelmed.
‘So that’s why it’s sold rather than given away.’
In other words.
The act of buying and selling a token of friendship rather than simply giving it away is a form of consideration to alleviate each other’s burden.
‘What a wonderful culture…’
And thus, Drin’s ridiculous misunderstanding was complete.
She became deeply interested in the necklace, the token of friendship, held by Ceylon.
“That necklace is the token of friendship you prepared for Miss Adryn, right?”
“Uh, yes…?”
“So Miss Adryn tried to pay a fair price for that token of friendship, but upon appraisal, it turned out to be worth more than either of you expected. Hence, both of you are now in an awkward situation where you can neither sell nor buy the token of friendship. Am I understanding this correctly?”
“Uh… That seems about right.”
“Right? So I did understand correctly?”
I’ve understood the culture of our peers!
With an expression full of pride, Drin continued.
“So, allow me to make a suggestion. I will purchase the token of friendship. And Miss Adryn, you can purchase the token of friendship that Ceylon has prepared for me. Surely, not all the tokens of friendship Ceylon prepared just happened to be Grade 2 artifacts, right?”
“Uh…”
Ceylon, hearing Drin’s words, muttered in confusion.
“Is there a problem?”
“Well, you see—”
There was.
Ceylon felt there were many problems with Drin’s suggestion, even aside from the misinterpretation of the artifact and the meaning behind it, and the current situation.
And the most serious problem, if you asked him, was Drin.
She assumed that Ceylon had naturally prepared a token of friendship for her too.
Why?
Because she distinctively remembered his words about her being a ‘precious connection made upon his arrival in Arienne.’
But Ceylon had not specifically prepared any token to commemorate their friendship.
He had inadvertently acquired a hero-grade artifact.
Thinking of a suitable owner for that meaningless hero-grade artifact, Adryn was the obvious choice as the recipient.
The term token of friendship was just an excuse he came up with on the spot to make it easier for Adryn to accept it.
So Ceylon decided it was time to correct Drin’s misunderstanding.
“Miss Drin, you seem to be under a certain misunderstanding. This buying and selling of the token of friendship we’re discussing is not the norm; it’s rather peculiar. It’s not necessary to exchange it for money.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Yes, that’s right. And since Miss Adryn is feeling reluctant to accept this gift, giving it to you, and then to give you what I prepared for Miss Adryn would be difficult because—”
Ceylon casually said, scratching the back of his head.
“I only have this one gift prepared…”
So, it seemed like giving presents to both would be difficult.
That was what Ceylon meant.
However, his words seemed to hit Drin differently.
With a face as if she’d been struck by a hammer, Drin replied.
“Is that so? Oops, I guess I made a misunderstanding.”
Ha ha.
Drin laughed awkwardly.
Yet her face stiffened, betraying a complex state of mind.
Ceylon prepared a wonderful gift for Miss Adryn.
And he didn’t prepare a gift for me.
What did that imply?
Drin, who seldom had equal interactions with peers, pondered the meaning behind his action.
The more she thought, the darker the shadows on her face grew.
Eventually, with a bitter smile that seemed more so because she tried to act like nothing was wrong, she said.
“Come to think of it, I don’t really have a reason to be here. I apologize for interrupting everyone. I’ll take my leave now.”
Drin, bowing courteously before leaving her seat, started walking away calmly but ultimately ran off as if escaping.
Adryn and Mizu were still unable to grasp what was happening.
However, as they watched a hurt woman walk away, their empathetic abilities kicked in.
They both glared fiercely at Ceylon.
“The worst, idiot.”
“Heartbreaker.”
“Eh!?”
Still not able to follow the unfolding events, Ceylon gave a baffled response to the barrage of scathing criticism.