...
{3rd Pov}
Alec Hoshin, the great inventor and one of the future founders of the nation of Kararagi.
Yet, at this point in history, he was merely a random man living in the small Kingdom of Charsis.
Who would have thought?
Even Flugel had never expected to meet this man here.
However, seeing him in person also cleared up several questions that had been bothering him about the original story.
At this point, he was no longer certain how closely his current timeline followed the Envy Timeline.
He still referred to it as the OG Route simply because that was his primary point of reference, but the more history unfolded before him, the more differences he discovered between his timeline and the OG Route.
Even so, he still remembered scattered pieces of information from the Re Zero franchise.
Fragments of the lore and small details that he had browsed casually back then, he remembered how a single book had changed Echidna's life.
He remembered how Alec Hoshin had practically worshipped the Flugel of the Envy Timeline, speaking of him with almost excessive admiration.
He also remembered that Hoshin had always seemed to carry a strangely depressed outlook on life despite his cheerful personality.
Back then, those had simply been isolated pieces of information.
Now, however, they were slowly beginning to connect.
He was also starting to understand why their group had once set out on a journey to save the world.
More importantly he was beginning to understand what "saving the world" had actually meant.
Piece by piece the scattered puzzles within his memories were finally starting to come together.
Yes, he still had a lot to learn about what had actually happened during the ancient journey of Flugel the Great Sage by experiencing it firsthand. But at the same time, he was finally beginning to understand many of its secrets, all while acting as if he already knew everything.
"So, Alec Hoshin, how does it feel?" Flugel asked in a calm tone, hiding his surprise at how naturally Alec had managed to use the chopsticks on his very first try.
"This is amazing!" Hoshin exclaimed. "You can stir food with them! You can eat with them, and..." He paused for a moment before frowning. "Well, they will have trouble with hard bread."
Almost instantly, he had already begun identifying the shortcomings of the design.
As expected of an inventor, rather than blindly praising the chopsticks, his mind immediately started analyzing both their strengths and weaknesses.
Meanwhile, the other customers in the tavern had begun staring at the two of them.
After all, none of them had expected anyone to approach the local weirdo.
Not to mention, the mysterious man sitting beside him was covered from head to toe in dark robes, making him look rather suspicious in the eyes of everyone present.
"Seriously, the weirdo seems to have found a friend of his own. Another weirdo," someone remarked from another table.
Flugel simply smiled as the very next moment, the man suddenly felt dizzy and pitched forward, planting his face straight into his bowl of soup.
"Cough! Cough!"
He immediately jerked his head back up, coughing violently as some of the soup had gone straight up his nose. The burning sensation in his nostrils made his face twist in pain.
"We have a weirdo eating with his nose over here," Flugel commented calmly.
For a brief moment, the tavern fell silent before everyone burst into laughter.
Even a few people who had been mocking Hoshin earlier could not help but laugh at the ridiculous sight.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate man continued coughing violently while wiping the soup off his face with the sleeve of his brown shirt. His face scrunched up in anger and embarrassment.
However, he was also confused.
He had no idea why he had suddenly become so dizzy.
Instead of suspecting Flugel, he immediately turned toward the friends sitting beside him, staring at them suspiciously as though one of them had secretly played a prank on him.
"Did you mix something into my food or what?" he accused, pointing at one of his friends.
The other man immediately scowled.
"Don't blame your weird habits on us."
It did not take long before the two grabbed each other's shirts and started throwing curses back and forth. The argument escalated so quickly that Maria had to rush over and separate them, loudly telling both of them to behave if they wanted to keep eating in her tavern.
Meanwhile, Flugel completely ignored the commotion.
Instead, he glanced toward Alec, who was quietly slurping down the last of his soup.
"Finished?" Flugel asked.
Alec nodded.
"Then why don't you show me the other bizarre inventions you've been keeping at your workshop?"
Alec Hoshin's eyes widened in shock.
'How does he know I have several inventions? And how does he even know I have a workshop... even if it can barely be called one?' he thought.
Naturally, he had no idea that Flugel had simply guessed.
After all, someone obsessed with inventing things was almost guaranteed to have a place where he worked on them.
As for the rest with his ability to analyze micro expressions, Flugel could determine whether a person was lying with nearly ninety nine percent accuracy, making educated guesses appear almost supernatural.
Though seeing Hoshin surprised he did realize that Alec's smartness was situational, he was smart sometimes, stupid other times.
"Listen... my friend from a faraway land," Alec said, scratching his cheek awkwardly. "You seem like an amazing guy. My inventor's instincts are telling me that much. But I honestly don't think I have anything noteworthy to show you," he admitted in a self depreciating tone.
Flugel looked at him speechlessly.
Did this guy invent depression in Re Zero before even Subaru came into existence or what?
He slowly stood up from his chair, his golden eyes faintly shining beneath the shadow cast by his hood.
"Whether your inventions are worthy of being shown cannot be decided until I see them myself, can it?" Flugel replied calmly. "After all, this is the first time we have met, Sir Hoshin."
As he spoke, he slipped one hand into the sleeve of his robe.
A moment later, he pulled out a small bag filled with coins as though it had been hidden there all along.
Then he calmly walked toward the counter and gently placed the bag on top of it.
"This is the payment for my meal," Flugel said. "And for all of his meals as well, including today's and his previous debt."
Maria froze as she simply stared at the bag of coins for a few moments, unable to believe that someone was actually willing to pay off all of Alec's debt.
The customers inside the tavern could not help but turn their heads toward the counter as well.
The entire tavern gradually fell silent.
"Please count the money," Flugel said softly.
Behind him, Alec slowly rose from his chair.
"My friend..." he said, his voice filled with hesitation. "I am grateful for your kindness, but I do not think I can accept this."
Flugel did not reply.
Instead, he calmly looked at Maria, who was both the waitress and the woman managing the counter.
"Count it," he repeated in the same calm tone.
Maria took a deep breath as her gaze shifted between the bag of coins, Alec Hoshin, and the mysterious man in the robe.
She could not help but worry whether this stranger had some hidden motive or bad intentions.
After all, nobody simply paid off another person's debt without expecting something in return.
Still, after a brief moment of hesitation, she decided to open the bag and begin counting the coins.
Once she opened the bag, it contained nothing more than copper coins.
As she counted them for a short while, she finally nodded.
"Yes, this covers both of your bills."
She did not find it strange.
After all, Flugel had not pulled out a bag full of gold coins and tossed it onto the tavern counter as if announcing, 'I am important,' or, 'I am a man with a daddy whose wealth and power is beyond your comprehension.'
To everyone else, it simply looked like someone paying a bill.
However, Alec Hoshin was completely stunned.
Unlike the others, he immediately realized something was off.
How had this man managed to pay the exact amount, like seriously, there wasn't even a single more or less coin?!
Even Alec had unconsciously started counting alongside Maria as she sorted through the coins.
When she reached the final coin, he found himself just as shocked as she was.
The amount matched perfectly.
It was perfect, perfect down to the very last copper coin , which should have been impossible considering he didn't know the amount for all the meals he had, considering he never asked about it from him or even Maria and somehow just knew?
"Now then, my friend," Flugel said calmly, "how about you show me your inventions? I am merely a wanderer who enjoys researching interesting things that catch my attention."
He smiled faintly before continuing.
"And do not worry. Do not think of that money as any sort of loan."
"It is simply one friend's help."
"You do not need to pay me back."
"You really are pushy..." Alec Hoshin muttered before quietly adding under his breath, "...and kind of arrogant."
Flugel naturally heard the last part but chose to ignore it.
After all, from Alec's perspective, he probably did seem rather arrogant.
The man in front of him acted as though everything would simply go according to his expectations.
Still, Flugel had already piqued the inventor's curiosity enough that Alec no longer minded showing him his prototypes.
After all, he had nothing of real value to lose.
Even if someone wanted to sell him to slave traders, his gaunt physique would hardly make him desirable as a laborer.
In fact, acquiring him would probably cost more than the value he could ever produce through physical work.
There was simply nothing worth stealing from him.
At least, that was what Alec believed.
After thinking it over for a few moments, he finally made up his mind.
He decided to do what every great inventor eventually had to do...take a leap of faith.
...
Flugel observed the strange objects scattered all around the room. There was nothing particularly impressive about the place itself. It contained only a handful of tools, an old wooden workbench, a worn out chair, and various half finished inventions lying around in different corners.
"You seem to live alone," Flugel commented.
Alec narrowed his eyes slightly before letting out a quiet sigh.
"My mother died when I was still a child," he replied. "My old man passed away about a year ago. We used to own a small piece of farmland, but it was acquired by the nobility. Thankfully, under the King's policy, I still receive ten percent of its grain harvest every year, so I can continue working on these inventions without starving completely."
Flugel was genuinely surprised.
After all, such a humane policy was rather uncommon for this era.
Then again, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
It seemed the King of Charsis was neither corrupt nor incompetent.
Considering the kingdom consistently produced an enormous surplus of grain and exported a major portion of it to neighboring nations, allocating a small percentage to former landowners or poorer citizens so they would not starve was entirely feasible.
It was a surprisingly sensible policy, especially for a medieval kingdom.
'The King's not half bad,' he thought before pausing as he realized that this nation was doomed to be destroyed in a few months.
He could not change it even if he wanted to.
It was a canon event.
Of course, he could risk the entire timeline being destroyed because its internal logic failed to hold together.
That meant the last person Alec cared about... his waifu, Maria was destined to die.
'Damn, why does this guy's past scream protagonist background?' he thought.
"I do not need pity," Alec suddenly said.
Flugel broke out of his trance before looking at him.
"Not at all, my friend," Flugel replied calmly. "A survivor does not need pity from anyone."
"A survivor, huh? I wish you had called me an inventor instead," Alec chuckled.
Flugel smiled faintly before picking up one of Alec's inventions and pointing out its flaws. Then he grabbed another one and did the same, repeating the process until he had gone through every single invention Alec had made.
By the time they finished, it was already evening.
Alec Hoshin was both excited and amazed.
For the first time, there was someone willing to look at his inventions for what they were. Someone who could understand what he had envisioned while creating them, point out the flaws they had, and even explain how those flaws could be improved instead of simply dismissing everything as useless.
"There really are a lot of things you can make," Flugel said with a smile. "But tell me, how would you solve the flaws of the chopsticks?"
Alec paused as he placed one hand on his chin and immediately began thinking about the question.
'Make them sharper? No, that would be dangerous! Give them spikes? Nah, that's even worse,' he thought.
Several minutes passed, but in the end, Alec could not come up with an answer.
After all, even chopsticks were not perfect.
"Already out of ideas?" Flugel asked with a faint smile. "Why not think out of the box?"
Alec stared at him in surprise.
"Out of the box?"
The phrase itself was completely unfamiliar to him.
However, he understood what Flugel meant almost immediately.
After all, Flugel was not speaking in some strange foreign language, and Alec was certainly intelligent enough to grasp the meaning behind the expression.
'Think beyond what is considered normal? But... what?'
He thought and thought and then continued thinking.
Half an hour passed in complete silence as Flugel remained standing where he was without making even the slightest movement.
Meanwhile, Alec also stood there like a statue, his eyes were wide open, yet completely unfocused as he stared blankly at the ground, his mind working at full speed.
Then, all of a sudden, Alec flinched.
"Sigh... Sorry to disappoint you, my friend," he said with a helpless smile. "But I really cannot think of any solution... unless the food itself was made to be eaten with chopsticks."
"Hands cannot be replaced, that much is true," Flugel replied with a pleased smile. "And it is also true that you answered correctly."
Alec froze. How the hell had he answered correctly? If nothing else... wait!
Alec's eyes widened considerably as he realized the implication behind his own words.
"You... friend from a faraway land..." he muttered in disbelief. "What an absurd claim... and a freakishly amazing idea!"
He did not even consider it a stupid suggestion.
Instead, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
After all, if the cuisine itself was designed around the use of chopsticks, then many of the shortcomings he had been worrying about would disappear on their own.
"Flugel," he suddenly said.
Alec raised an eyebrow.
"Is that some sort of special word for a special dish?"
Flugel chuckled.
"Nah, that's what you can call me."
"After all, as a friend, you ought to know how to refer me" Flugel said with a smile.
Alec scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Yeah, I got really carried away with that hypothesis," he admitted with a small laugh, feeling mentally exhausted after thinking so intensely for so long.
"It is already evening, and it just so happens that there are people waiting for me," Flugel said. "Why don't you join me for dinner?"
Alec Hoshin grinned.
"Got you, friend."
To be continued...