Chapter 37 Chapter 37: Like a Swan's Footprints on Snow
Chapter 37: Like a Swan's Footprints on Snow
"Whoa! This is good stuff!"
Sharp was already getting impatient.
Just by smelling the aroma, he could hardly contain himself, and the other operators felt the same.
They tacitly and intentionally ignored the abilities Kevin had displayed. Since he hadn't tried to hide them, they shouldn't be the ones to pry too deeply.
"Indeed. I once tasted a bottle of vintage red wine passed down from the late Gaul, but in terms of aroma alone, it couldn't even compare to what Kevin brought out."
Outcast was quite well-traveled. Before coming to Babel, she had been a candidate for Cardinal in Laterano, though she had left Laterano due to some regrettable incidents.
Still, she had experienced plenty of high-society life, and those memories and knowledge weren't forgotten.
Yet, such a precious wine... Kevin took out several barrels at once? This is really...
Outcast couldn't help but shake her head helplessly. She could already foresee the upcoming scene of wanton waste, but it wasn't something to regret. After all, isn't wine meant to be drunk?
"Well, these were gifts from an old friend. She's always been... generous like this."
Kevin fell silent for a moment, completely unsure how to describe his comrade's behavior.
"Try it."
The fluid, amber-like red wine poured into the cups was deep red and translucent, with a remarkably uniform color, showing no signs of separation even in the glass.
Everyone filled their own cups. At the very least, you couldn't expect these rough-and-tumble folks from the battlefield to sip slowly like those finicky young masters and misses, right?
Fortunately, everyone was the same, so no one found this behavior odd.
Many downed their drinks in one go. The mellow, delicate wine felt like a pair of gentle hands massaging their mouths and throats, with the rich, full-bodied aroma lingering in their mouths for a long time.
Despite being red wine, the delayed kick that followed made their entire bodies feel light as a feather, pulling their feather-light forms toward beautiful memories of the past, toward that golden age of prosperity!
All worries vanished. In their world, it seemed only this beautiful scene remained.
"Great wine!"
Ace's eyes sparkled as he praised it.
"Yeah, much better than the stuff Closure procures."
Sharp hadn't drunk much fine wine, so he couldn't find a good reference point and could only muster this comment.
Yet it made everyone nod in agreement. Having tasted this, they now realized that everything they'd drunk before was practically horse piss.
"Heh, if Closure heard that, she'd probably blow her top."
Outcast teased, perhaps because the alcohol had relaxed her a bit, smoothing out some of the wrinkles on her face.
"So what if she blows her top? That stingy Vampire deserves it."
Anton said irritably. Every time she went to buy something, she had to haggle for ages, and even then, she might not get the price down.
"This wine... must be very expensive, right?"
Logos hesitated, staring at his half-empty cup. The young male banshee clearly had reservations.
"No, I have plenty of this. It's just a negligible part of my stock."
Eden had once gifted him a bottle of this wine, so he remembered it. Moreover, the brewing method for this wine was stored within the Void Archives and the Elysian Realm, so reproducing it wasn't difficult.
In theory, as long as there was enough Honkai energy, the production of this wine was limitless.
"In that case, I won't hold back!"
Anton swiftly grabbed the wine barrel and poured herself another cup, a thrilled smile on her face.
"Hey, take it easy. No one's fighting you for it."
Everyone laughed and poured wine for each other. Ace, like a steady older brother, coordinated everything. They also hadn't forgotten Kevin and the original purpose of today's gathering.
"Come on, come on! Everyone, join me once more—"
Anton raised her filled glass with a smile, and everyone played along quite graciously.
"To Kevin!"
"To Kevin!" ×n
Everyone shouted in unison, faces beaming with smiles.
As the wine's aroma wafted through the air, Kevin seemed to catch a glimpse of the early days of Fire Moth, of his former comrades. They had been just like this—
He raised his glass.
"To Kevin."
——————
That gathering was already last night. In the end, almost everyone got quite drunk. Anton had such a strong delayed kick that she started talking nonsense.
Ace and Sharp got carried away and insisted on pulling Kevin into a sworn brotherhood ceremony like the people of Yan do. Unfortunately, they passed out right after saying so and never managed to pull it off—truly a pity.
Logos was the first to fall, earning him the playful nickname "little lightweight" among the elite operators from some troublemakers...
...And so on. It was... a rather nice memory?
Pozëmka stared suspiciously at Kevin's face. She thought she just saw... Kevin smiling?
She shook her head vigorously as if trying to drive some "illusion" out of her mind. When she looked again—what? She must have been mistaken after all.
Walking on the street, Kevin showed no signs of being drunk. Alcohol that could affect his body... probably didn't exist in this world at all.
That wine could make Eden drunk, but mostly because she wanted to be drunk.
"Is something wrong?"
Kevin found it strange. Pozëmka had been staring at his face the whole way. There shouldn't be any noticeable marks on his face, right?
"Oh... oh, n-no... nothing. Hehe."
Pozëmka showed a somewhat silly yet charming smile.
Today was Kevin's first day "clocking in for work." Because the duties outlined in the agreement were too broad—like ensuring Babel's security—they fell under special circumstances that usually wouldn't occur.
For example, situations like infiltration by assassination squads or massive military defeats leading to significant advances by Military Commission forces would create such extreme scenarios.
He couldn't just freeload without doing anything, right?
So Theresa later discussed with him whether Kevin could also serve as an instructor for the operators. After all, Kevin's displayed skills were evident for all to see. If they could learn even a little bit from him, that would be wonderful.
To Theresa's delight, Kevin agreed quite readily to this matter. However, he didn't specify how far he would teach or make any promises about doing his best. Even so, she was very happy.
Thus, Kevin was directly assigned as a permanent instructor for Babel's Guard operators.
But before that, he needed to take Fiammetta to do something.
"You've made up your mind, right?"
"Yes, I've made up my mind. Though I might not be of much help, I can still handle some paperwork."
Pozëmka's smile held determination. This was the decision she made after a night of thinking. She couldn't just hole up in her room writing books every day forever, could she?
"Oh right, right! Kevin, to become a Babel operator, don't you need to choose a codename?"
"Mhm."
Kevin nodded calmly.
"Then my codename will be—Fiammetta."
"'Like a swan's footprints on snow'—I read that in a Yan poetry collection. What do you think?"
isnt fiametta a diff character all together? seeing her called fiametta is weirding my brains out