It didn’t take long before the other girls joined in on the drinking. The bottle passed from hand to hand faster than Nico expected, glass clinking against glass under the dim light of the living room.
Mira was the second to ask for a glass. It happened just when it seemed like she was nowhere close to convincing Nico of the risk he was taking, her warnings trailing off mid-sentence as she reached for the bourbon instead.
Nira followed lastly, as expected. Maybe she wanted to be like her sisters, or she just wanted the taste of the bourbon. Either way, Nico knew it wasn’t because she was moved by worry.
Unlike the two sisters, Nira wasn’t the kind of person to drown her worries in alcohol. She embraced more therapeutic hobbies like gaming, or learning a vish-tok dance whenever a new trend came around.
But alcohol? That was Kira’s thing. She drank like it was a switch someone flipped, uncontrolled the moment the cork left the bottle. Mira was the opposite, controlled and conscious, drinking mostly so she could sleep.
Tonight, though, whether it was for his sake or not, all three of them drank.
The room had gone quiet in that particular way rooms did whenever people didn’t know what to say but didn’t want to leave either. Ice cubes clinked against glass, the only sound filling the gaps between words.
Nico watched them from his spot on the couch, arms loose at his sides, the low light catching the amber in his own drink.
"You know, if Silas were here, he’d probably be taking your advice, Mira."
Nico said, breaking down the silence after gulping down a third shot. He was pacing himself deliberately, careful not to slip past the edge of drunk.
"But it’d be more of a negotiation." He continued. "My father tends to turn everything... every word spoken to him, to a business opportunity."
"Well, at least your brother handles things like this better." Mira replied and gave Nico a side eye. "Unlike someone I’m looking at right now."
"Silas mostly lived his life as a negotiator."
Nico looked towards the window.
"Sometimes, I usually wondered whether he forgot he had deal breaking powers. But then, I figured, his ability was never his backing. His motive was. Impartiality."
Kira scoffed, the sound sharp enough to cut through the low hum of the room. She set her glass down a little too hard, the base clacking against the wooden table.
"That sounds like an impossible motive, especially for a mafia boss."
"I know right?" Nico pointed out. "Silas was well aware of the nature of our job, yet, he refused to back down on his supposed impartial identity."
The girls listened to him with attentiveness as they drank, their glasses tilting slower now, matching the pace of the story instead of the pace of the night.
"To him, it didn’t really matter what the sealed terms and conditions were. As long as the other party was going to do it, he also was."
Nico continued.
"One time, he asked me to come with him to complete a contract operation, and I barely asked for the details."
Mira leaned forward slightly, elbows on her knees, the way she always did whenever a story was about to get good.
"I’m guessing it turned out bad." She said.
"Bad is an understatement. I’d assumed we were going to protect a small town from it’s underground raiders. The operation sounded pretty understandable. We got to the location before I realised then and there that we had to crawl through a tunnel of sewage pipes to get to the raider’s hideout."
The girls laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls, loud enough that Nico had to wait a beat before continuing.
"Trust me, it wasn’t funny back then." Nico said. "I was drenched with shit from waste to feet."
"Ewwwww."
The girls chorused mid laughter. Their faces burrowed immediately into disgust, like somehow, the picture behind his words had been planted in their heads.
"And of course, Silas didn’t regret coming." Nico continued. "His only regret was that he took the deal without getting specific details first. But he thought it was nice that we were having a quality brotherly time together. Obviously, he wasn’t looking at the mirror then."
They laughed again. Short giggles that dissolved quickly into utter silence when Nira asked.
"Do you miss him?"
The question caught him off guard. It wasn’t the kind of thing either of them usually asked out loud, and for a moment he just looked at her.
Nico didn’t say anything at first. The question landed heavier than the joke before it, settling into the room like a weight nobody had asked for.
He grabbed the drink bottle, refilled the girls’ glasses, dropped it, and rested his back on the couch. The cushions gave under him, and for a second he just stared at the ceiling.
"Everytime." He said, finding the words. "Most especially whenever my life starts to match the plot of a ripoff webnovel character. Weak. Rejected by family. You should know the niche."
The girls didn’t say anything, probably lost. Mira was the only one who looked like she made sense out of his words, which was expected, as she read those kind of books.
"Silas was the only one who’d decided not to play along with my family’s neglectful mentality towards me."
Nico explained further, his voice quieter now, less like a story and more like something he’d never said out loud before.
"He’d particularly tell me never to position myself as the main character of all that family hate. He sold his side character belief to me. A character whose whole world revolves around himself and the people he cares about only."
"He sounds really cool." Nira said.
"He was."
Nico let the words hang there for a second, watching the way the lamp light caught the edge of his glass, the liquid inside barely moving.
The silence lingered for a while again, rather uncomfortably this time. Nico noticed their gazes on him, then shifted his pondering look to a brighter one, although the fake smile wasn’t anywhere close to convincing them.
"You girls should get some sleep."
He said, standing up. The bourbon had loosened something in his knees, and he steadied himself against the armrest before finding his footing properly.
He moved towards the door, footsteps unhurried across the wooden floor, about to reach his hand for the door knob when Kira called back.
"Hey..."
Nico turned to her and noticed her cheeks, red from drunkenness, her eyes half-lidded but still fixed squarely on him.
"For what it’s worth, you’re not a bad husband."
Nico caught his breath for a split second, then he smiled briefly at her, the kind of smile that didn’t quite reach the rest of his face but wasn’t fake either.
"You can tell me that again in the morning, when you’re not drunk."
With that, he walked out and closed the door behind them. The hallway outside was colder than the living room had been, and the sound of his own footsteps felt louder than usual.
He shut the door softly behind him and leaned against it for a moment, letting the quiet of his own room settle around him after the noise of theirs.
He’d barely reached his room when the system screen appeared, flickering into existence in the empty air like it always did, uninvited but familiar by now.
[Investment Detected]
[Investment Objective: Support emotional comfort and presence for his wives during a tense evening, using liquor as the catalyst item.]
[Returns Multiplier: 300X]
Returns Calculated:
→ Mafia Gang Immunity (+1000):
Greatly reduces the effects of enemy mind spells, coercion, and corruption attempts, making your gang far harder to manipulate or control.
→ Bottle Relic Acquired — Corkbound Sovereign Seal:
A rare relic forged from cursed glass and sealed bottles. It amplifies social influence, stabilizes volatile emotions, and helps you keep the room under control.
• Overuse drawback: repeated use dulls judgment, increases dependence on the relic’s aura, and can cause emotional numbness.
→ Shadow Abilities Upgrade: +100 points each.
• Shadow Domain: UPGRADED! ↑LV. 3
• Shadowform: UPGRADED! ↑LV. 2
[Total Return Value: 220X]
[Unused Value: 80X]
[Returns Would Be Completed by Increasing Category Amount Temporarily]
[Calculating More Returns...]
→ New Territory Gained: Beer Parlor: A controlled social hub for influence, meetings, and quiet negotiations.
[Territory Cost: $80,000]
____________
Nico stared at the last line for a moment, the numbers still glowing faintly against the dark of his room.
"Finally, some territory."