Chapter 14

“Bring out the drinks, more drinks!”

In an instant, the calm, quiet atmosphere the inn had been so proud of transformed into a noisy, boisterous tavern. I had all the tables pushed together into a large circle so everyone could face one another, and lifted my highball glass.

“Still, shouldn’t we all drink the first toast together?!”

At my words, everyone flushed red and shouted out.

“Wooooah!!”

“Long live the young lady!”

“Fantastic. Excellent!”

Watching them cheer with a fervor that bordered on religious fanaticism, even I couldn’t help trembling slightly. If I pointed at a rock right now and swore it was pure gold, I figured they’d believe me.

Noticing that Carusien was included among the people who had lifted their glasses right along with me, I beamed brightly. The moment I smiled, the previously rowdy atmosphere fell silent in an instant, and feeling the awkwardness, I hastily raised my glass even higher and shouted.

“Drink up! The first glass is a bottoms-up!”

“O-oh-ooh!”

“Understood!”

Gulp-gulp.

“Hah!”

The taste of the beer I was drinking for the first time since coming to this world was surprisingly crisp and delicious. It made me want to have a second glass, even though I wasn’t usually one to enjoy alcohol. However, either because I was still an underage kid or because I wasn’t used to drinking, I could already feel a slight buzz creeping in, so I shook my head gently and looked around the surroundings.

Men and women alike were drinking, pouring for one another, having fun, and chatting away.

Commoner families who had brought their children were drinking while picking out tasty side dishes to feed their kids with affectionate smiles, and the mercenaries were busy forcibly dumping alcohol into each other’s mouths without anyone even prompting them.

The nobles had gathered together, clinking glasses and murmuring among themselves that this sort of thing wasn’t half bad, and before long, it seemed nobody even cared about the wager anymore.

That is, except for a few select individuals.

Bang!

Watching Carusien slam down yet another empty glass—who knows which round it was—alongside the men staring at me with eyes full of desperate yearning, I felt a trail of cold sweat run down my back.

‘Does this guy have an unexpectedly high alcohol tolerance?’

Surely Carusien, even if he wasn’t the exact same age as me, was still under twenty, and on top of that, he probably had zero prior experience drinking alcohol; yet he had already poured nearly ten mugs of beer down his throat.

The same went for the other men. In particular, the two fellows who had been shouting out for kisses and hugs earlier looked like they were putting their very lives on the line.

“Ha, as expected of a sword genius. But I’ve laid my life on the line today. I’m going to shake hands with the young lady and never wash my hand again for the rest of my life.”

“Heh-heh, that beautiful young lady’s handshake is going to be mine, young master.”

There was no way that kind of provocation would work on Carusien…… or so I thought, but it worked surprisingly well. I hadn’t expected Carusien to show this kind of competitive side, but catching his eyes—which had grown sharper than usual—I let out a soft exclamation of admiration.

Carusien darted a sidelong glare and growled at the men.

“Shut your traps, chug some more booze, and go pass out over there. Just so you don’t misunderstand, I couldn’t care less about the young lady. I simply hate losing.”

Damn, what a macho alpha-male, Carusien. If I were actually a girl, I might have fallen for him right then and there.

And on the flip side, I felt a wave of relief. So he really didn’t have any romantic interest in me. Seeing him flinch every single day made me wonder just in case, but I was glad it turned out this way. I wasn’t interested in guys either, after all.

Well, if you’re a guy, of course your competitive spirit is going to flare up over a trivial contest like this. I get it!

A little time passed, and everyone’s attention began to converge entirely on Carusien, who was right in the thick of the wager.

That was because the number of empty beer mugs piled up in front of them had already surpassed seventy, stacking into a miniature mountain that couldn’t be ignored even if you tried.

Even I was starting to feel a bit scared of them. Carusien, you jerk, to think you could hold your liquor this well! I was already feeling a buzz after just one cup, so this was completely unfair!

Grumbling slightly to myself, I turned my gaze back toward them.

Jolt.

By sheer coincidence, my eyes locked with Carusien’s, and reading the stubborn, unwavering resolve packed inside them, I found myself cheering him on before I even realized it.

“Carusien! You can do it!”

As soon as I cheered for him, all the other women in the vicinity who had merely been watching from the sidelines suddenly began cheering enthusiastically.

“Win this, Sir Carusien!”

“You’re the only one who can protect the young lady’s purity(?)!”

And, like some kind of joke, the only ones cheering for him were the women. No, if anything, watching those women only made the other men next to Carusien cheer for the male contestants even louder.

“Don’t you lose! You guys are our only hope!”

“If we lose even in drinking against a pretty face like that, we have no future left!”

“Give us our dreams!”

Fueled by voices packed with genuine resentment and earnest desperation, the atmosphere heated up even more, driving the drinking binge straight toward its climax.

“Ugh, u-ugh, I can’t take anymore… I lose. Carusien, I yield the young lady to you.”

The man who had been chanting about hugs and guarding Carusien’s flank until the very end finally collapsed, and the victor was, against all odds, Carusien. Wow, I honestly never thought he’d actually win, but he must have really, truly hated losing.

I stepped closer to congratulate Carusien, the victor, but then froze in place with a start.

“This bastard, he actually passed out.”

That day, I learned for the very first time that a human being could literally faint from drinking too much alcohol.

I had a dream that day. In the dream, I was teaching swordsmanship to Lady Armienne just like I always did, when suddenly, right in the middle of the lesson, the young lady tossed her wooden sword aside and grabbed my hand.

Startled out of my wits before I could even pull away, the young lady wrapped her arms around the back of my neck. Unable to do anything else, shivering and trembling, all I could do was stare straight into the young lady’s eyes.

Her pupils—simultaneously bold and mischievous, yet carrying a strange sense of maturity—beguiled my gaze and kept pulling me in. Sometimes she showed an air more manly than any man, and even that looked strangely charming.

I must have lost my mind. Yet, even knowing that, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.

“Heh-heh.”

Seeing her smile at me, my heart pounded crazily. And watching her lips slowly closing in on mine, I.

“Aaaaaah!”

Screaming out, I caught my breath in a rush and looked around my surroundings.

“Hah, hah, where is this?”

The place I was lying in was a twin room with two single beds. Whether the festival had already ended and morning had arrived, the outside was as silent as the grave.

“Hah.”

I let out a sigh and clutched my head. Even my breath seemed to smell like alcohol.

I definitely remembered drinking because of the young lady’s scheme yesterday, but how on earth did things turn out like this?

Armienne de Celion.

Back when I first became her swordsmanship instructor, I had talked back to my father, demanding to know why I had to teach that crazy, wicked bitch.

However, my father had kept persuading me—saying that he had a debt to repay to the ducal household of Celion, that Armienne wouldn’t last long at swordsmanship anyway, and that she’d give up soon enough—so, reluctantly and against my will, I boarded a carriage and headed to the Celion estate.

On the carriage ride over, I had recalled the image of Armienne I’d seen several times at various banquets.

Raising hell at parties was a given, and bullying the children of other noble houses without a second thought; she was essentially no different from a witch straight out of the storybooks I’d heard about as a child.

And I despised her with a passion. How could a human being act like that? When I had stepped forward to block her path, she had instead looked down on me with contempt, sneered, and, as if to rub it in, used her power as a ducal young lady to torment others in places where I couldn’t see.

Maybe she’d caught some kind of disease, because lately she seemed to have quieted down a bit, but even so, her true nature surely hadn’t changed.

That was what I’d thought…

The moment I saw her walk through the door for the first time, I couldn’t help flinching. Only a few months? No, barely a month had passed, yet the atmosphere around her was drastically different from when I’d seen her last.

Still, assuming it was just my imagination, I put on an even sharper, more abrasive front. That way, she’d throw a tantrum right on the spot about how she couldn’t possibly learn the sword from me, true to her nature.

[I am Carusien de Farba. From today onward, I shall teach the young lady swordsmanship. If you wish to give up, you may do so right now.]

Just as I expected, she wore an expression that seemed to find my words hard to believe. Born as a ducal young lady, when had she ever heard such rude words from anyone?

Yet, after seeming to ponder it for a brief moment, she balled her fists tightly and gave a disciplined, snappy bow the likes of which I’d never seen from her before.

[Pleased to meet you. I am Armienne de Celion. Teacher. I’ll do my best starting today.]

With those words, her eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled right up at me—making my heart race once again in defiance of my own will, filling me with both anxiety and anger.

Just as I’d told the Duke beforehand, I’d been granted sole authority over this first day to make her quit swordsmanship, so I quietly looked toward Capeldeor, the vice-master of the Magic Tower.

Seeing Capeldeor chuckle heartily and step back, I swaggered up in front of Lady Armienne with an air of triumph. Normally, a woman in this situation would avoid eye contact or turn away in startled surprise.

Naturally, I’d assumed Lady Armienne standing right before me would do the same. But instead, she stared boldly straight into my eyes and was actually smiling.

‘What is up with this woman?’

A growing sense of intrigue began to sprout deep within my heart.

[Are we not starting the lesson yet. Teacher?]

[Heh-heh, the young lady is quite an interesting person.]

It wasn’t me, but Capeldeor who had answered the young lady’s words. It struck me as a remark reflecting the seasoned experience and composure fitting of a Magic Tower’s vice-master. Who on earth could possibly look right at the wicked villainess Armienne and call her an interesting person?

By now, Lady Armienne would surely fly into a rage, looking utterly bewildered as usual.

But what in the world was this?

[Thank you. Grandpa. Oh, and you can speak to me comfortably, you know.]

I was utterly shocked by a reaction that once again shattered my expectations, not to mention her casually calling the Magic Tower’s vice-master ‘Grandpa.’ No matter how much she was a ducal young lady, the vice-master of the Magic Tower was not a position the kingdom could simply brush aside.

On top of that, Capeldeor was a man rumored to secretly despise nobles—likely because, despite his gentle appearance, he was originally of commoner birth. That was why I, too, kept my distance and minimized conversation with him as much as possible; Armienne was clearly a complete fool.

Yet the situation continued to unfold differently from anything I had anticipated. Capeldeor looked pleased, and Lady Armienne herself seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.

Annoyed for no good reason, I had demonstrated a completely nonsensical form in front of her, only to catch her lips moving ever so slightly where no one else could notice. Anyone else would have missed it, but to me—whose physical abilities far surpassed those of an ordinary human—it was crystal clear.

[Crazy bastard]

[……………….]

After that, a whole bunch of things happened…

Bang!

Before I could dredge up any more memories of the past, the door suddenly flew open, and a thoroughly wilted woman dragged herself into the room. Wearing a cute pair of rabbit-ear headbands, holding toy-like props in both hands, and wearing a mask slanting diagonally across her face, the woman who entered was, shockingly, Lady Armienne.

Judging by the looks of it, she’d gone out and thoroughly soaked in the festival. No wonder she’d gotten me drunk yesterday—it must have been purely so she could enjoy the festival all by herself.

Something about that felt strangely disappointing.

Jolt.

Startled by this sudden surge of feeling, I flinched, and Lady Armienne looked back at me just like she always did.

“Ugh, why are you shaking like that. Freezing?”

Speaking in informal speech? She hadn’t once used informal speech with me ever since I became her teacher?

“Ugh, what are you staring at? I’m gonna sleep. Wake me up at noon. Huh?”

“………….”

Taking a closer look, her face was flushed red—she was completely, thoroughly plastered. Even though she’d threatened just yesterday that if anyone drank alcohol, the Duke of Celion would slice off everyone’s heads, she’d clearly guzzled to her heart’s content in the middle of the festival.

“Hiccup, oh right. I forgot to give you your prize. Heh-heh.”

Her words snapped me right back to attention. And it made me wonder why on earth I’d put my life on the line drinking like that yesterday.

What was a mere handshake, anyway. Even so, the thought of watching her shake hands with someone else had rubbed me entirely the wrong way.

“Hey, hand it over. Hiccup.”

Without a word, I held out my hand.

And I felt a warm heat wrap around and clasp my hand.

“You worked hard, kid.”

What was a mere handshake, anyway…

What was this hand, anyway…

Why was my face turning this red over it?

While I was thrown into chaos by these incomprehensible emotions, the girl holding my hand suddenly pulled me into a fierce embrace.

For a second, it felt like my heart had stopped, causing me to tremble violently without even realizing it.

“Hey, I told you not to shake. Geez, are you cold? Huh? Heh-heh, since this body warmed you up, aren’t you good now? I’m sleeping now. Don’t make a racket.”

“……………”

Saying that, whether I was there or not, she flopped her body down onto the adjacent bed and drifted off to sleep almost immediately; watching Lady Armienne, I slowly placed a hand over my own heart.

A stray thought crossed my mind, wondering if it was about to burst right here and now.