Ch.767It Was Because of the Alcohol

With his face flushed crimson, Nigel declared he could no longer ride unicorns.

It was as if a twenty-year-old daughter had just announced her pregnancy at a family dinner. The atmosphere froze in bewilderment at this unexpected confession.

Unable to bear the silence, Nigel turned so red that steam practically rose from his body.

Well… I suppose it would be embarrassing.

He had essentially confessed to having been intimate with someone recently in front of all these people.

Between riding unicorns in public and confessing you can no longer ride them, I’m not sure which is more embarrassing.

“Um… so… congratulations…?”

I reached out to Nigel, who looked like he might explode at any moment, and patted his shoulder while speaking haltingly.

I have no idea when he became unable to ride unicorns, but I suppose this is something to celebrate…?

“If you had a lover, you could have introduced them to me. I would have given you lighter duties and more breaks.”

“Really?”

I had said this hoping to comfort Nigel, who looked like he might run away crying, but Millia was the one who responded.

“No, you two need to show some restraint…”

I sighed and shook my head.

White Wolf—no, Demian has already had plenty of rest.

Until now, unless there were monster outbreaks requiring Master-level forces, I’d left him alone to do whatever he wanted in the mansion. What more could he want? At this rate, he’ll be bored before he turns thirty.

“Nigel, you have a lover? Congratulations!”

Finally understanding the situation, Lena clapped her hands lightly, then took Nigel’s hands in hers and offered her congratulations with a bright smile.

Faced with such pure congratulations, Nigel’s face turned from red to almost ashen with embarrassment.

“So, who is it? If they’re Nigel’s lover, they must be an excellent knight, right?”

“Yeah, I’m curious too. I thought you weren’t interested in that sort of thing.”

Lena and Ophelia began pressing for details about who he was dating.

Women showing intense interest in others’ love lives seems to be the same in this world as it was on Earth.

“T-that… um… well…”

Nigel, at a complete loss, hung his head and stammered.

“We’re… not… lovers…”

A bombshell statement even more shocking than the unicorn confession.

—-

I stared at Nigel with wide eyes, stunned.

Wait, what? Not lovers?

Then what was it?

A one-night stand?

Was Nigel that open-minded…?

Nigel, who was so obsessed with being “knightly”?

Good grief.

Even finding out that the childhood friend heroine secretly had a medical student boyfriend would have been less shocking than this.

“Um… Nigel? I don’t want to interfere with your private life, but that’s a bit…”

Could that be considered promiscuous by this world’s standards?

At my words, laden with that meaning, Nigel covered his face with both hands and trembled.

“It’s… not… like that… It was a mistake. Because I drank too much…”

…Drank too much?

“But you hardly ever drink. The only time you’ve been drunk enough to lose control was…”

Wait a minute. Come to think of it, recently…

“…only once…”

There was that one time when she drank heavily and seemed off the next day, wasn’t there?

“No way…?”

I gaped as I slowly turned my head.

Nigel’s statement.

The memory from a few days ago.

Two people who had been getting along suspiciously well.

Someone still staring into the distance in silence.

All the clues connected in my head, leading me to an unbelievable conclusion.

No way, could it be…!

“…Jahan.”

The muscular giant’s shoulders flinched at his lord’s voice.

“Eek!”

Nigel also flinched, as if struck at a vital point.

Feeling my suspicion turning into certainty, I released Nigel’s shoulder and turned toward Jahan.

“Jahan, Jahan… You’ve been awfully quiet. What are you looking at? Don’t you have something to tell me?”

Your neck is covered in cold sweat.

Why? While everyone else is shivering from the cold, why are you sweating so profusely?

[Why suddenly Jahan… wait. Could it be…?]

Hersella, having reached the same conclusion as me, groaned in disbelief.

“Jahan, why so silent? Have you decided to become a barbarian who takes advantage of someone else’s precious subordinate while drunk and then pretends nothing happened?”

That’s not it, right?

“If so, I might have to cut something off…”

I slowly circled around the sweating Jahan, interrogating him.

“Shall I prepare scissors? They’re still hot from cutting the fairies’ hair earlier, so they’ll cut cleanly!”

Asha pulled out scissors that were glowing red and emitting white steam, snipping them menacingly.

“…I’ll explain everything.”

Jahan, now as pale as an Imperial citizen, opened his mouth like a condemned man walking to the gallows.

======[A Few Days Ago, Airship]======

The drinking contest between Nigel and Jahan had started as a battle of pride. The duel, which began around evening, escalated and continued until midnight.

Empty bottles piled up like mountains on the table where only the two remained, with three times as many rolling around on the floor.

The smell of alcohol grew stronger over time until just breathing could make one drunk. In such circumstances, what state were the culprits in?

At first, the two had argued and fought emotionally, but now both Nigel and Jahan were just swaying with flushed faces and unfocused eyes.

“Why don’t you… ugh… give up now…? You’re clearly… at your limit…”

“Huuuugh… not yet! I… won’t lose…!”

Jahan still had some consciousness left, but Nigel was clearly at her limit.

Even Jahan, who had been burning with competitive spirit until just moments ago, tried to stop her out of concern.

“A young girl… who can’t even drink… pushing herself too hard…”

The problem was that Jahan was also drunk, causing his warrior’s bluntness to emerge without filtering through his brain.

“What…?! Young, girl…?”

“Is losing… that unbearable…?”

Nigel’s expression twisted in anger, but her face had been red from alcohol for a while, so Jahan didn’t notice and continued speaking with a smile as if soothing a child.

“Fine, I’ll… be generous… and say I lost… Satisfied…? Now go get some sleep…”

Of course, given Jahan’s naturally fierce appearance, his smile looked more like the sneer of a vicious bandit, contrary to his intention.

“How… many times do I have to tell you…! I am not a child, you tall bandit…!”

Nigel shouted incoherently in her rage, grabbing Jahan by the collar.

Though Nigel wasn’t short for a woman… she was slightly below average height for a knight, and with the massive Jahan sitting across from her, she truly looked like a child grabbing an adult’s collar, contrary to her insults.

“Ha… short-tempered and small—you are a child…”

Perhaps because his attempt at consolation was met with the insult “bandit,” Jahan abandoned his consideration and responded with overt mockery as blood rushed to his head.

“That’s it…!”

From that point on, the two abandoned their drinks and began a childish argument about who was an adult and who was a child.

“So—how dare you assume you know my—”

“It’s obvious, you’re just a stubborn child—”

They continued this for a good ten minutes, unable to imagine what the outcome would be.

And then.

“…Fine. Then I’ll prove it to you…!”

“Ha! If you can, go ahead and… wait, prove it…?”

Did he vaguely sense something ominous in that word?

As Jahan raised his head, momentarily regaining some of the reason that had evaporated with the alcohol,

– Whoosh!

Nigel, gritting her teeth and glaring, grabbed him by the collar and dashed toward an empty cabin.

“Ugh…!”

Her grip was so powerful that even Jahan couldn’t resist with his drunken body.

Perhaps his alcohol-soaked brain was too rattled to regain his senses.

Jahan finally came to his senses after his body had already been thrown onto a soft bed, barely managing to suppress the urge to vomit.

“No, wait, wait…! What are you trying to do! That’s not what I meant by child…!”

Having finally regained his senses, Jahan desperately tried to stop Nigel, who was looking down at him and removing her top, but… it was already too late.

“Shut up.”

Nigel threw all her removed upper garments at his face and pinned down his wrists as he tried to get up.

She looked down at him with a gaze reminiscent of a carnivore.

What followed was…

At the very least, it was a night that proved Nigel had the advantage in pure strength.

“Urrrgh… enough, enough already…!”

“Haa… haa… Is this… your limit…? You talked big… but you’re nothing special…!”

Five hours later, it was also proven that her stamina exceeded his.

—-

The next morning.

“Uuuugh… my head…!”

Nigel woke up clutching her temples, feeling as if her brain was being stabbed with an awl. Puzzled by the unusually vivid sensation of the blanket, she looked down at her body.

“Ah.”

And let out a dull moan.

Her naked body without a stitch of clothing.

The strangely sticky skin.

The oddly sore lower body and bloodstained sheets.

She wasn’t so ignorant about such matters that she didn’t understand the meaning. Lack of experience didn’t mean lack of knowledge.

Nigel turned her head stiffly like a wooden doll to look at the large bandit lying beside her.

As her consciousness, blurred by the headache, suddenly cleared, memories of the previous night gradually flooded back.

The shameful acts she had committed throughout the dawn unfolded in her mind like a panorama.

“…Elpinel have mercy.”

Her complexion turned as pale as a blank canvas.