The Iudex's day off

Chapter 27 - Special tea

Wriothesely's POV

 So...

 How do we go about this?

 Having cuffed Mallory and thrown him downstairs by the door after Neuvillette pressured me that he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, we went back upstairs and sat down.

 This is awkward.

 I'm not sure how to start the conversation and Neuvillette doesn't look like he will.

 But, surprisingly-

 "Before anything else, I would like to correct an assumption you made just now." He spoke up suddenly.

 "An assumption?"

 Which one?

 "It wasn't him or whomever he works with that was sending you tea on a monthly basis. That was me." 

 "Oh."

 ...

 Wait-

 "What?"

 "I'm the one who has been sending you tea." He repeated.

 But-

 "Why?"

 Even if you beat me to death, I wouldn't be able to give you a single reason why Neuvillette would feel compelled to send me tea.

 "It started out with a request from Sigewinne. When she found out that I would be acquiring springwater from Liyue in the near future, she asked me if I could find a way to obtain some tea from Chenyu Vale for you as she thought you were sad about failing to do so yourself."

 Right.

 It did all start with Chenyu Vale tea.

 "But why didn't you just leave a note?"

 "I assumed Sigewinne would have informed you of this matter."

 And for once this was a completely fair assumption.

 Though...

 "What about the rest? This has been going on for years now."

 "After that first time, Sigewinne returned all excited about how you were, and I quote 'jumping in joy'. She also brought along a list of what I assumed were your favorite teas. She said she would pay me back if I managed to acquire them when I purchased my water."

 "So Sigewinne has been paying for my tea?"

 "No, of course not. I wouldn't take a child's hard-earned money."

 So you've been paying for my tea?

 That question, however, remained on the tip of my tongue.

 "I also took the liberty to send you some teas other than does on the list. I hope they still suited your taste."

 "Yes... Yes, they did..."

 What the hell?!

 If I added everything up, that was millions of mora spent on tea!

 Most of them were either teas sold in extremely limited quantities or incredibly expensive ones.

  Even I don't go that far.

 But the biggest question to me right now was:

 "How did you go about buying tea anyway?"

 I didn't need anyone to tell me that he had a dislike for tea.