As for Erwin, he was speculating about Lia's intentions. In his mind, surely there was no way that Lia would introduce him to someone from the Farody Family for no reason, so there had to be a purpose behind his actions.

The same question was also present in Lucidy's mind.

The three of them weren't overly familiar with each other, so the conversation quickly petered out into an awkward silence. No one knew what to say, and they were all smiling at one another with polite expressions.

Onean wanted to laugh upon seeing this, but she refrained from doing so as she raised her head, pretending to examine the murals on the walls of the cathedral, paying no heed to what was happening behind her.

In the end, it was Lia who broke the silence, making up an excuse to leave before departing with Lucidy.

The good thing about being older was that one would've seen more than their fair share of awkward situations, so they would no longer be bothered by such events. Of course, it was Lia's fault for deciding to suddenly set up such an artificial meeting.

However, from the looks of it, he didn't seem to regret his own actions at all.

Even as Lucidy was bidding farewell to Erwin, he was still stealing subtle glances at Erwin's beautiful wife out of the corners of his eyes.

Onean merely pretended not to have sensed his gaze.

Erwin looked on in silence as the two of them departed from the cathedral.

"What was the meaning of that? That was such a bizarre arrangement," Erwin said as he turned to Onean with a puzzled expression, clearly wondering what Lia's intentions were.

"Who knows? Maybe Lia really did just want to introduce the two of you to one another. If you ask me, I think Lucidy just so happened to have paid Lia a visit, so Lia decided to introduce him to you," Onean said. "That Chahan from yesterday also mentioned the Farody Family, didn't he? It looks like that man is a member of the Farody Family."

"That's why I'm so perplexed. Did he really bring Lucidy here just to come and see us? Isn't there anything in particular that they wanted to say to us?" Erwin asked with a befuddled expression.

"Perhaps they already said everything they wanted to say," Onean said as she turned to Erwin with a meaningful expression.

"Are you saying that Lia is trying to tell us that the Universal Church has very close ties with the Tellier Wine Trade Guild?" Erwin asked. "But how does he know that we're even aware of the Farody Family? What if we have no idea who they are? Wouldn't this meeting have been completely pointless then?"

"I think he's most likely banking on the fact that even if you don't know about the Farody Family now, you'd definitely do some research on Lucidy Farody after your meeting," Onean said.

Erwin nodded in response. "In that case, what is he hoping to achieve by dropping me such a subtle hint? Why is it necessary for me to know that the Universal Church is close with the Tellier Wine Trade Guild?"

Onean looked up at the ceiling with a suggestive expression.

An enlightened look immediately appeared on Erwin's face upon hearing this. "You're saying that Lia wants me to consider this in the contents of my mural?"

"Perhaps," Onean replied.

"What a sly old fox. Yesterday, he was telling me that it was entirely up to the archbishop's opinion and that there are no restrictions on the subject matter of the mural, but he's already setting me criteria now," Erwin chuckled. "I knew he had to be a very important figure in the Universal Church, looks like I was right."

Of course, he made sure to lower his voice significantly in his concluding sentence.

"I'm afraid they're not going to get what they want," Onean chuckled with an amused expression. "You're not the type of artist who would comply with the wishes of the employer."

"Well, that's not entirely true," Erwin also chuckled upon hearing this. "I still want to dig more Loonies out of his pocket if possible."

Looking at the delicate dimples on Onean's face, he couldn't help but recall the song that she had just sung to herself, and a hint of sympathy appeared in his eyes.

He didn't know how he should mention that song as he knew that nothing he could say would be able to assuage the emotions in Onean's heart.

Onean was aware of what he was thinking, but she didn't want to speak about the subject matter, either, so she turned her face away and looked elsewhere, putting an end to the conversation.

Thus, Erwin continued to work in a silent environment until noon. Completely immersing himself in his creation seemed to be able to make him significantly more relaxed. At the very least, he was able to focus the entirety of his attention on his artwork.

Meanwhile, Onean was strolling back and forth through the cathedral, and neither of them were saying anything.

Only as Erwin was starting to grow a little dizzy from hunger did he realize that he still hadn't had lunch yet.

"Let's go get something to eat," Erwin called out toward Onean.

"I thought you were planning to starve me to death," Onean replied in an indifferent voice as she turned to look at him.

Erwin briefly cleaned up some of his art tools, then emerged from the side door of the church with Onean.

As soon as they emerged from the building, they immediately saw someone waving at them from the main entrance. As it turned out, it was Chahan, and only upon seeing him did Erwin recall that he had agreed to meet with Chahan.

"They wouldn't let me go in, Master Erwin," Chahan complained as he quickly rushed over to Erwin. "I've already been waiting here for the entire morning."

"I didn't think that the regulations of the Universal Church would be so tightly enforced," Erwin said with an apologetic smile. "Let's go and grab something to eat together."

"We won't be drinking again today, will we?" Chahan asked with a hesitant expression, clearly still a little fearful as he thought back to how much Erwin had encouraged him to drink the day before.

Onean couldn't help but clasp a hand over her own mouth and chuckle into her palm upon hearing this.

Erwin took a quick glance at Onean, then turned to Chahan with a serious expression as he said, "I think we've already had too much to drink yesterday, so we should skip on the alcohol today. However, you have to take us to the restaurant where we'll be eating. We're not familiar with this city at all, so we have no clue where good food can be found."

"You can count on me," Chahan replied with an enthusiastic smile. Even though he had gotten completely drunk and passed out the day before, he could still remember everything that had happened, and he recalled that Erwin had mentioned that he and his wife had only just arrived in Zans.

"We want to go somewhere with good food, but not too expensive," Erwin said with a smile. "As you already know, I'm running on a very tight budget at the moment."

Onean couldn't help but roll her eyes at him upon hearing this, thinking to herself that surely no such restaurant existed. She knew just how picky Erwin was when it came to food, and any place that served what he considered to be good food had to be quite expensive.

However, to her surprise, Chahan agreed to this request without any hesitation.

...

With Chahan leading the way, the trio passed through several streets, then drew to a halt in front of a small pub.

"This is it?" Erwin asked with an unconvinced expression as he raised his head to look at the establishment.

"That's right, Your Excellency, this is the place," Chahan replied with a smile. "The flavor of the food that they serve here is very authentic."

Erwin wore a grim expression as he looked at the surface of the wooden door, which resembled a relic from the ancient past. The door was so riddled with scratches from general wear and tear that the amount of timber that was exposed exceeded the area of its surface that still had black paint, and it was made to appear like the wizened and wrinkly face of an elderly woman. Furthermore, there was a sign hanging on the weathered door that read "Watching the Stars".

Of course, the sign was also looking very much like an antique, and as for why the shop had been given such a name, that was entirely up to speculation as far as Erwin was concerned.

Looking at the establishment, Erwin couldn't help but be reminded of the Old River Restaurant in Sarus. However, this restaurant was even more dilapidated than the Old River Restaurant. The only encouraging sign was that looking through the window, the business inside the establishment seemed to be booming, as had been the Old River Restaurant.

Perhaps restaurants like these are so confident in their food that they don't need good decor to attract customers, Erwin thought to himself, trying to assuage his own skepticism.

Looking at the series of emotions flashing across Erwin's face, Onean was finally unable to suppress her laughter.

"You wanted somewhere with good food, but also cheap, right?" she jibed as she raised an eyebrow.

Erwin put on a disgruntled expression, but he was actually also quite amused.

Chahan seemed to have already grown accustomed to the banter between the two of them, and he led the two of them into the restaurant with a warm smile. Due to the high number of customers in the establishment, they had to walk for quite a while before they found some empty seats.

Needless to say, a woman as beautiful as Onean naturally attracted a huge amount of attention along the way.

The three of them were greeted by a young and beautiful waitress, and it was clear from the smile on the waitress's face that Chahan had to be a regular at this place.

"We'll have three orders of the firevine snail, three orders of the spicy kale borecole, and a honey orange roast chicken." Chahan quickly completed his order in a well-rehearsed manner, then exchanged a smile with the waitress. He then turned to Erwin, following which a resigned smile appeared on his face. That was because Erwin was looking at him with a suggestive expression, clearly wondering if there was something going on between him and the waitress.

After the waitress departed from their table, she only took a few steps before turning around to look at Chahan again, and that only further convinced Erwin that his suspicions were correct.

It appeared that Chahan wasn't very faithful when it came to romantic relationships. He believed that Chahan's feelings toward that mysterious ex-lover of his were genuine, but that didn't mean that he couldn't have flings with other women.

As for why the word "fling" was being used here over something more serious like "affair", that was because with Erwin's seasoned and experienced eye, he could tell that the relationship between Chahan and the waitress could only be referred to as a fling at the very most. During that brief exchange just now, Erwin was able to clearly gauge the depth of the emotion harbored within the waitress's smile. If this type of thing could be quantifiably measured, then Erwin was confident that he would be able to gauge it accurately down to the nearest milligram.

Furthermore, in Erwin's eyes, there wasn't a single man who was faithful to only a single woman. Of course, his opinion was a little biased, but there was some truth behind it.

"You fell asleep yesterday in the middle of talking about the widow of Duke Silon," Erwin said with a smile. "Do you want to continue the conversation from there, or do you want to talk about that lover whose name you can't reveal instead?"

Erwin intentionally wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner as he uttered the word "lover".

Chahan almost choked on his tea upon hearing this, and a wry smile appeared on his face as he said, "Let's talk some more about the widow of Duke Silon."

Erwin nodded in response with a smile, having already anticipated this answer. "So what kind of person is she? She must be very promiscuous indeed if she has such a reputation even in a neighboring dukedom."

Thus, Chahan continued the story that he was unable to finish the day before. "The current widow of Duke Silon actually isn't Duke Silon's original wife. Instead, she is his second wife. Duke Silon's first wife passed away at a young age from illness, and prior to marrying Duke Silon, his second wife's name was Sanfesa Peroni. She is a younger cousin of Duke Eru, and back in her prime, she was a very renowned beauty. She and Duke Silon first met during a ball in Newfando, and prior to this, Duke Silon had been very attached to the memory of his first wife and was therefore unwilling to remarry. However, after meeting Sanfesa, it was love at first sight for him, and he immediately fell head over heels for her. He was determined to marry Sanfesa and take her as his second wife, but the problem is that Sanfesa was over 10 years Duke Silon's junior."

"I see. It is quite 'taxing' for an older husband to have a much younger wife," Erwin said with an amused expression, and he took a glance at Onean as he uttered the word "taxing", in response to which Onean glared at him with a cold expression.

"That's right. Only a few years after Duke Silon remarried to Sanfesa, he passed away," Chahan said. "As a result, rulership rights over the Delair Dukedom naturally fell into the hands of his widow."

"Didn't Duke Silon have any children?" Erwin asked with a curious expression.

"I think his first wife gave birth to a daughter, but she was no match for that ruthless stepmother of hers. During the few years in which they were married, everyone of importance in the Delair Dukedom had already been won over by her, either by charm or by force. In the end, it didn't even matter what Duke Silon said on his deathbed, the dukedom was always going to fall into the hands of his widow," Chahan explained.

"When you say she won people over by charm, do you mean by using this?" Erwin split his index finger and middle finger apart as he spoke, then made a scissoring motion with his two fingers to illustrate his point.

Chahan faltered slightly upon seeing this, but an amused look quickly appeared on his face at the sight of Erwin's sly grin, and he replied, "I'm sure that was part of her charm."