Sobriety Stopper

“Woody-dono, are you drinking!?”

“Yes, well, I am having some.”

“But your cup is empty. Let me pour you some.”

Vis-san, his face red and apparently drunk, saw that my cup was empty and poured more alcohol into it.

By dwarven custom, when someone poured you a drink, you had to drink it in front of them.

So I tightened my stomach, then drank down the liquor in one swift go.

Each time my throat moved with a gulp, my esophagus burned with heat.

The liquor dwarves favored, called fire liquor, was strong no matter how you looked at it.

Unlike wine or the like, it had no real flavor to speak of at all; it was simply alcohol meant to get you drunk.

I could feel the alcohol spreading through my entire body, and my face growing hot.

But somehow, I managed to finish it.

“Ahahaha, Woody-dono can really hold his drink too! Now then, enjoy the feast!”

Vis-san laughed happily as he disappeared back into the crowd of dwarves.

Whew, I somehow got through that.

But… I felt like I was starting to get drunk.

I was not all that strong when it came to alcohol.

But of course, there was a reason I had been able to keep drinking the liquor the dwarves poured for me.

“Woody-sama, here.”

“Ugh… thank you, Aira.”

Aira, hiding her presence behind me, waited until the other dwarves were no longer watching, then quickly slipped a certain pill into my hand.

I put the pill into my mouth and washed it down with the water she had given me as a chaser.

Then the spread of alcohol that had been running through my whole body subsided in the blink of an eye, and I was able to stop the drunkenness firmly just before it turned into nausea.

All dark elves possessed excellent physical abilities, and they had enough talent to work as warriors or capable hunters.

But the talents one possessed and what one wanted to do were two different things.

Among the women thinking about their futures, and among the children who could viscerally understand that their parents had lived hard lives, there were a certain number who wanted to pursue paths other than becoming warriors or hunters.

So that I could show them as many different paths as possible, I decided to prepare as many options as I currently could.

One of those was the pharmaceutical workshop jointly handled by elves and dark elves.

Both elves and dark elves were races that had lived alongside the forest for many years.

They were well versed in the properties of medicinal herbs from the forest, and could produce many highly effective medicines handed down from their ancestors.

In the elves’ case, because they had continued to use the abundant resources of the forest after it became a Sanctuary, they produced luxurious, high-end medicines with powerful effects, sparing no expense in materials, while in the dark elves’ case, they had produced relatively inexpensive yet highly effective medicines using monster organs and materials that could be obtained anywhere.

The pharmaceutical workshop I had created on a whim was, for the time being, operating smoothly.

One of the medicines they made there was the one I had just swallowed: “Sobriety Stopper.”

The effect of this medicine was exactly what its name suggested: it stopped drunkenness.

It was not very effective once you were already completely drunk, but if you took it beforehand, it had the effect of stopping your drunkenness at a certain point.

Until now, I had only known of its effects through hearsay… I never imagined I would end up testing it in practice at a time like this.

(But this works incredibly well…)

I had already thought this medicine would sell well, but that feeling had now grown even closer to certainty.

There were times in life when a person simply had to drink alcohol.

There were situations where, if someone above you urged you to drink, you had to do so no matter how bad you were with alcohol, and there were also times when the atmosphere of the place made drinking unavoidable.

For people who did not want to disgrace themselves by getting dead drunk in such moments, this medicine was bound to be a savior.

As a matter of fact, regarding this “Sobriety Stopper,” which was already included in the list of medicines we planned to supply in the future, several merchants had already asked us to tell them the detailed date for wholesale distribution.

I was sure it would sell even at a pretty high price… and so that the dark elves could properly earn money, I intended to steel my heart and sell it dearly.

“Woody-dono, I would be honored if you would share a drink with me.”

“Thank you very much.”

I drank down the liquor in one go, just as it was offered to me.

…Yes, no problem.

It really was all about stopping the drunkenness firmly at a certain point.

“Still, the dwarves really can drink alcohol with an incredibly high proof like that… ugh, I can smell that sharp sting even from all the way back here.”

Behind me, hiding her presence and skillfully continuing to avoid the dwarves’ offers of alcohol, was Aira.

At the place she was looking, the dwarves were gulping down fire liquor from transparent glass bottles.

And empty bottles were scattered carelessly all around them.

(The clarity of the glass feels leagues apart from what the kingdom has… maybe the sand they use is different?)

Probably, there was a dwarf in this group who was skilled at making glass.

The glass used for the bottles had such terrifying clarity that it looked like you could make a fortune just by secretly stealing and taking it away.

“Next! Bring the next drink!”

“Oho, Nadja-dono truly drinks magnificently! It would be a waste to leave you merely human!”

“Hah, then we cannot afford to take it easy either!”

And for some reason, the one at the center of it all was Nadja.

Her cheeks were flushed red, yet she kept emptying drinks at the same pace as the dwarves.

The drinking feast being held in the middle where everyone could see was clearly revolving around Nadja.

I had thought I knew that Nadja was strong with alcohol… but I had never imagined she could properly go drink for drink with dwarves…

I had discovered yet another new side of her.

And yet, strangely enough, my heart was not racing.

…What was this feeling?

“What is that idiot doing…?”

The words I heard from behind me from Aira might actually have been right on the mark.

Maybe it was the feeling of, what was my fiancée even doing?

Being able to become that friendly with dwarves might have been a kind of talent in itself.

As her fiancé, I would have appreciated it if she would show just a little restraint… but well, she looked like she was having fun, so it was fine.

That too was undoubtedly part of what made Nadja herself.

“Woody-sama, please protect me, all right?”

“Yeah, within the limits of what I can do.”

For some time now, Aira had been shrinking into herself, desperately avoiding the dwarves’ advances.

Incidentally, behind us already lay Miria-san, who had been defeated by the dwarves and was sprawled there in a groggy state.

As for Lulu-san, she seemed to have escaped disaster by skillfully slipping into the circle of female dwarves.

The way people associated with alcohol varied from person to person.

Maybe it really was true that a person’s character showed clearly at a drinking party.

“Oh, Woody-dono, that was splendid earlier! If possible, next time I would love to have some Magros Wrestling with you myself…”

“Ah, haha… when that time comes, I look forward to it.”

We did not have enough stock of “Sobriety Stopper” for Aira to keep drinking too.

So as her future husband, I had to do my best and become her breakwater.

As I continued interacting with the dwarves, I kept drinking.

And after going to the toilet an outrageous number of times, and drinking water whenever I had even a moment so I could desperately dilute the alcohol in my body… I somehow managed to survive the drinking feast.

As for Nadja, by then she had already passed out, and together with the dwarves around her, she slept on until morning.

“Munyaa, Woody…”

Seeing Nadja sleeping happily while hugging a bottle, a smile spilled across my face before I knew it.

I felt as though I understood, if only a little, the feelings of a wife who gently forgave her husband for coming home drunk.

Even so… for the sake of people who could not drink much alcohol, increasing production of “Sobriety Stopper” was an urgent matter.

The moment we returned to Wenti, I would increase the budget for the pharmaceutical workshop right away.

That was the vow I made in my heart—.