"Eh?" That was Haley's response to my confession.
She looked at Nicole and Jessica on the sides and both of them nodded to confirm this.
She looked back at me with the same surprised look before suddenly bursting out in laughter. She pointed at me and said while laughing, "You're actually a baron at such a young age?"
I revealed a bitter smile before raising my hand to stop Nicole and Jessica from doing something.
It was clear by the look on their faces that they weren't happy about Haley's response, but I knew that there was a reason for this. The reason was the many different bottles of wine that were currently on the table.
We had only received our food midway through her story, but half of these bottles had been finished off before the food arrived. With all of the wine going in her stomach before she got any food in her, she must be quite affected by it.
But I also didn't blame her since she had been through a hard life and tonight had been hard for her as well.
Now that she finally felt safe, it didn't seem strange that she would want to drown the trauma that she experienced with alcohol.
After laughing for a bit and giving a few hiccups, Haley realized the mistake that she had made and she bowed her head suddenly before saying, "I'm sorry, I lost control there."
I just raised my hand to show that it was fine as I revealed a faint smile.
It didn't take long before she went back to drinking.
During this time, both Nicole and Jessica had been focused on eating the food that had been brought.
This was food that they would normally never get the chance to eat, so they wanted to eat as much of it as they could.
I just watched all of this with a smile before suddenly remembering something.
I turned to Haley and asked, "Your husband mentioned something about the count. Could it be that he is related to the count?"
That was the one worry that I had about this matter.
The count was the one person that I couldn't offend right now since this was his city. Even if it wasn't his city, the count was a much higher ranked noble than me and Baroness Rose, so if he wanted, he could destroy our town with his much larger army.
The higher the nobility rank, the larger the army was permitted by the king.
So there was a reason why we didn't have as many soldiers to deal with the monster wave.
Hearing this, Haley revealed a smile before saying, "He isn't related to the count at all. He just had one lucky deal with the count and he acts like he knows the count personally. There were many times where he tried to invite the count to our home for dinner, but he was always rejected."
Then her eyes dimmed a bit before she said, "That was the reason for what happened tonight…"
I gave a nod, but I didn't say anything since I knew that anything extra that was said here would just poke at her wounds.
I could tell that she was a woman who had many wounds in her heart and that she needed to be treated gently to slowly heal those wounds.
So I said, "Let's forget about all of that and just drink our problems away."
If it was Haley from before where she still had her senses, she might have stopped herself since she was drinking with someone that she had just met.
But not this time since she was already drunk.
She just happily lifted the glass of wine in her hand and said, "Let's drink our problems away!"
She was so loud that the other customers here couldn't help looking at us, but the waiter didn't do a thing.
Compared to them, I had the highest status in this restaurant.
What Nicole had told the waiter earlier was that I was a baron and had even shown proof of it.
That was why his attitude had suddenly changed earlier.
It didn't take long before Haley was too drunk to keep it together anymore.
Her face was completely flushed and she was slurring her words as she started singing.
There was even a time where she wanted to take some clothes off because it was too hot, but I had Nicole and Jessica stop her before she did anything. I could have stopped her myself, but in a public place like this…it would have been inappropriate.
In the end, they were able to stop her from stripping, but they had been dragged into the drinking by her.
Luckily, she didn't get the two of them too drunk before she knocked herself out from drinking.
As she laid there snoozing and holding the bottle of wine, I couldn't help shaking my head with a bitter smile.
Where did the beautiful and elegant woman that I had met in the store this afternoon go?
I couldn't see a single trace of her in Haley who was lying there drunk.
In the end, I had Nicole and Jessica take care of her.
The two of them were helping her into the carriage while I went to settle the issue of the bill.
When I received it, I was surprised to find that the prices that were listed on the receipt were lower than the actual price on the menu. Seeing this, I couldn't help looking at the waiter who was with me.
The waiter said with the same friendly smile as if he had guessed what I was thinking, "This is a special service for a VIP customer such as yourself."
I raised a brow in doubt, but in the end, since they were willing to offer this to me, I wasn't going to say no.
So I threw a gold coin over and left without even taking the change. I just simply said, "Consider it a tip."
The waiter's eyes lit up when he heard this and he gave a deep bow to me.
When we arrived at the carriage, I had the driver send us back to the inn that we were staying at.
During this time, I let Nicole and Jessica watch over Haley because there was something more important for me to pay attention to.
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