Part 2: Getting Drunk (1)

As usual, El opened the restaurant. So Rurin was also snacking lazily on her favorite treats while watching. But suddenly, Greek rushed hurriedly into the restaurant looking for El.

He must have been running, as beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

Seeing his frantic state, El came out of the kitchen and asked.

“What’s so urgent? Have you pawned off the lord’s dignity somewhere?”

“Huff, huff…! Th-that’s, Master! Huff, huff.”

Greek was out of breath and couldn’t form words, clearly having run nonstop. The knights assigned as guards were also panting alongside him.

Rurin thought it was a funny sight but didn’t intervene. She just watched while eating snacks. Judging by the situation, she was starting to get a little annoyed. Usually, in cases like this, El would leave her behind and go to the Lord’s castle.

“Rurin, I’ll be back soon.”

“……”

See? Just as expected.

Normally she would follow, but going to the Lord’s castle was now too predictable. Besides, even if she went along, there would be no fun—just exchanges of boring, uninterested conversation.

Rather, at that very moment, a brilliant idea came to her mind.

Rurin chuckled inwardly and nodded.

“Good. Go then.”

The moment El left, Rurin dashed to the storage room. The storage room where time-stop magic was cast. Because something was hidden there.

Only El and Rurin could use this storage. Time-stop magic could only be used by dragons.

So this was the perfect hiding spot. Especially since El stocked this storage with emergency ingredients and didn’t use it normally. Usually, he bought seasonal foods from the market.

“Where is ittt!”

However, since it was hidden rather carelessly, Rurin searched for the item for quite a while.

The item was another kind of mushroom obtained from the Kuns.

“It’s an ingredient for nourishing the body but just makes you feel drunk like from drinking alcohol?”

“Kukuukrurururukukun!”

“But neither El nor I am affected by this stuff.”

“Kun euruureurukukun kukun kun.”

“So it’s not harmful to the body, so it won’t try to detox it? Well, that makes sense. The Heart activates when detoxification is necessary.”

“Kunkukun kukunkukukun!”

Normally, in humans, detoxification is the liver’s job. The liver detoxifies alcohol in the case of drinking. The Dragon Heart purifies even harmful substances the liver cannot handle. Mainly, it deals with extreme toxins—types that can kill the body’s cells.

If it was just simple intoxication, the liver would handle it, so that’s beyond the Heart’s role.

That’s why Rurin accepted that mushroom.

When she first crash-landed here, the Kuns talked about this mushroom in front of the giant room.

Rurin immediately demanded it, but the Kuns said they didn’t have any now and were harvesting more. They only gave the mushrooms found in the giant room. So Rurin noted it mentally and promised herself to get it later.

Then after the honeymoon ended and she returned, and a while later, when revisiting the Kuns, she brought it without forgetting.

Soon after finding the mushroom, Rurin laughed strangely, “Hehehehe.”

Rurin wanted to see El drunk. They had drunk together many times, but she had never seen El intoxicated. When drinking, Rurin got drunk first. Moreover, El was not the type to drink excessively.

But how to make him eat it?

Rurin started pondering how to do it. After about two seconds holding the mushroom, she clapped her hands.

“That’s it!”

Just as the good idea came, Rurin immediately teleported to the Lord’s castle.

It would be convenient to have a phone, but it couldn’t be used here, so it was very inconvenient. With a phone, she could check El’s situation instantly, but here she had to go find him every time!

Still, with teleportation, Rurin was somewhat comfortable. Of course, she couldn’t appear by teleporting openly in front of people—El would freak out if that happened.

So she teleported behind the Lord’s castle and ran quickly.

The guards of the Lord’s castle spotted Rurin but she didn’t slow down.

Dada dada dada! (running sounds)

“Oh, that person is fine.”

“Oh, I know that person too.”

The soldiers guarding the castle did nothing.

Rurin ran in freely and looked around.

“Oh, Lady Rurin!”

“I’m busy right now!”

Ignoring even Berna, Rurin ran. Following the flow of mana, where at its end was El. Like a hunting dog chasing prey by scent, Rurin followed the huge amount of mana to the room where El was.

“You!”

“So, here…huh?”

El and Greek, along with armored knights, were gathered in a room in the Lord’s castle, even spreading out a map, engaged in a deep discussion when Rurin suddenly appeared.

Of course, Rurin barely glanced at the other humans and just trudged toward El.

“Rurin?”

“You!”

Everyone’s gaze suddenly focused on the appearing Rurin.

“I’ll make dinner today.”

“What? You…?”

El showed a very flustered expression at Rurin’s declaration. She was usually totally uninterested in cooking, so what sudden whim was this?

“That’s right. Know that and you can come back slowly. But don’t be too late!”

“I might be a little late. Hmm, probably around 7 o’clock?”

“Seven o’clock? Got it!”

After hearing that, Rurin just went her own way and ran out of the Lord’s castle again.

‘What on earth is this?’

Anyway, opening the restaurant because of this was hopeless. To open the restaurant, you have to prepare in advance.

Usually at times like this, a closed sign is hung below the hill. To prevent unnecessary climbing up the hill.

Today too, it was already hung while coming to the Lord’s castle.

So if someone was going to cook, that would be very good.

El blinked several times.

Greek and the others also only blinked at the space where Rurin’s back had disappeared, so it took two minutes for the meeting to restart.

After leaving the Lord’s castle, Rurin didn’t go straight to the restaurant but stopped by Knoll’s shop.

Because this couple was the only one Rurin knew.

Rurin spotted Rayne and bluntly asked,

“What do you think about a husband drunk on alcohol?”

“The worst. It’s a mess. Should I say I want to beat him to death? He reeks of alcohol and only talks nonsense… Ugh, I just want to kick him out.”

“Oh? That bad?”

“Yep.”

“When drunk, people usually become defenseless. They can’t tell front from back and spin around.”

“Spin around?”

Rurin nodded, focusing on Rayne with the eyes of a student listening to a pre-exam review lecture.

There was no doubt that the more she listened, the more curious she became.

Because she wanted to see El like that too!

She had seen herself drunk many times. When drunk, she seemed to cling tightly to El.

She does things she wouldn’t do sober.

Then.

What happens when El gets drunk!

‘I’m curious. Curious. I want to see it. I don’t care if he’s violent. Sometimes rough is good too. Actually, I don’t care, I just want to see a different side of him.’

Such messages flashed rapidly through Rurin’s eyes.

After finishing the conversation, she ran again, teleported from a safe place, and returned to the restaurant.

“That was tiring.”

Even though she wasn’t sweating, she wiped her forehead as if wiping sweat and washed her hands. Basic cooking is washing hands. She had learned that endlessly from El.

“So what are you doing? Hmm.”

Rurin’s specialty was grilling meat. That was about all the cooking knowledge she had.

Grilling meat properly. For high-quality uka meat, she grilled just the outside properly, but for uba meat, she grilled it thoroughly.

“Then just grill the mushrooms too. Hehe.”

Thus, Rurin’s struggle began.

Rurin was acting strange.

Suddenly, she barged into the meeting, made a huge declaration, and left. She declared she would cook dinner.

It was unbelievable.

Something that had never happened once until now.

First, he checked if the sun was rising from the west. But the sun was setting in the west, so that wasn’t it.

Then maybe she had walked into a parallel world? A world where Rurin is the restaurant owner?

No, if she had done dimensional travel or something, that would make sense, but if just going normally to the Lord’s castle causes dimensional travel, then daily life would be impossible.

An absurd hypothesis.

Then the conclusion was she suddenly wanted to try cooking, or someone egged her on?

Specifically, someone like Sereina.

That was the most realistic guess. After all, the last time Sereina provoked her, they went to an island for a cooking contest.

Though that island was very strange, so it got interrupted midway.

If not that, then maybe some other scheme?

He thought for a moment and gave up. Even if Rurin had some scheme, it wasn’t a big deal. Just a cute scheme.

Coming to that conclusion and returning to the restaurant, a surprisingly good smell was wafting.

“I’m home.”

Pretending for the first time in his life to be a husband returning from work, he entered the restaurant, and Rurin, her face darkened, ran to him.

“Why does your face look like that?”

“Face? What face are you talking about?”

“Yes. I thought you just came out of a coal mine.”

“Coal mine?”

Rurin tilted her head, grabbed tongs, and ran toward the mirror.

Then she looked into the mirror and screamed about a second later.

“Kuaaah, what is this? Whaaaat! Is this me?”

Rurin disappeared toward the bathroom like an arrow while screaming.

The tongs she threw flew through the air and fell onto the dining table. On that table, a meal was already prepared.

It was surprisingly ordinary.

And there was meat. But Rurin grilled meat pretty well. So her face wouldn’t be dirty just from grilling meat.

Getting closer, it wasn’t only meat; various mushrooms she must have retrieved from the storage were grilled too.

And among them were mushrooms he hadn’t seen before.

“Hmm?”

Black mushrooms. It seemed likely that these mushrooms caused Rurin’s face to look like that.

What’s this again?

Is it another hidden mushroom like last time?

The mushroom they added a lot to the broth, saying it was good for a man’s stamina. Maybe the same kind.

Whatever it is.

While looking at the meal, Rurin came running with her face still damp and shouted.

“Yooou! Hoo. I wiped my face. Dinner’s all ready. How is it? My skill.”

“Excellent.”

“Hehe, really? Come and sit!”

Rurin smiled happily, pulled out a chair, sat me down, then took the chair opposite me.

As soon as I sat, meat flew into my mouth—meat on Rurin’s fork.

“Eat!”

I accepted it and ate. It was well grilled. Delicious.

“Delicious.”

“Right? Then try this too!”

Then Rurin immediately brought the black mushroom I had never seen before to my mouth.

“That too?”

I nodded and ate this as well.