The Drinking Sage 37

A girl’s room is secretive.

When a daughter shouts “Dad! I told you not to come into my room!” it’s because there’s something intimate hidden there.

And that remains true even when the daughter grows from a girl into an adult.

For a maiden to reveal her room to an outsider man is like inviting him into her inner heart.

“…”

It’s inevitable that my actions become cautious.

“Hmm- hm hmm-“

A sound that feels full of excitement.

Adela was spinning in circles beside me while humming.

Watching her, I opened my mouth.

“Your room is tidy.”

“Isn’t it?”

Adela laughed with a “heheng-” nasal sound at my words.

Shoulders spread wide as if quite proud. Between them, her prominently raised chest flaunted its presence.

“When I left for the Academy, I didn’t know when I’d return, but shouldn’t the place one leaves be beautiful?”

“You’re neat.”

“Of course! A woman who only pretends to be neat on the outside is an amateur.”

Well, that’s probably why she came into the room with me.

Adela didn’t make me wait outside while she went in first to clean or do anything like that.

Very confidently, without hesitation. She led me directly into the room.

‘She’s overflowing with confidence.’

As Adela herself said, it must be due to her diligent character even in unseen places.

It’s also a way of radiating charm by guiding me with a completely unhidden attitude in front of the man she has in her heart.

Recognizing that fact, I smiled gently.

‘She is indeed an attractive woman.’

Almost too good for an emotionless human like me. She was a good woman.

Anyway, based on Adela’s confidence. I also turned my gaze around.

Since she revealed her room without hesitation, there’s no need to be reserved.

“…”

After looking around the room, the first words that came from my mouth were:

“There are many liquor bottles.”

A shelf filled with dark colors fitting for the Pitch-Black Tower covering one wall. And filling that shelf were all kinds of liquor bottles.

From the Long Island Iced Tea I had seen before with Adela. Cosmopolitan, White Russian, Tequila Sunrise… it was an endless array of cocktails to enumerate.

“It’s my collection.”

Adela said with a bright smile. In one of her hands was the magitech liquor bottle she had shown me before.

“It’s fine to drink from this bottle, but after all, alcohol should be drunk with real alcohol, not magic.”

“You really like alcohol.”

“Yes.”

She slowly headed toward the shelf. Lightly stepping, her slender white legs advancing.

Slender fingers tracing over the closed glass surfaces. Adela’s mouth opened.

“It was a gift on my coming-of-age day.”

“…”

“When I was tired from days of depression. One day, I woke up in bed and it was placed beside me.”

“It must not be an easy gift for a mother to give, how unexpected.”

“Indeed. You think so too, Your Highness?”

Kik kik- The sound of her laughing.

Adela didn’t specifically point out that the Tower Master was the gift-giver, but it was something that could be sufficiently inferred.

Mages around Adela’s age seemed to dislike her.

And there would be few elders who would celebrate the Sage, the authority of the tower, becoming an adult.

As a result, the only person likely to give such a gift would be her mother, the Tower Master.

Haah- Adela sighed. Rather than being forcibly exhaled because of hardship, it had quite a playful air.

“Well. Thanks to that, drinking became a hobby. Well, it makes me feel good, so it doesn’t matter.”

She finished her words with a beaming smile, but.

Even during the conversation, I was focused on what Adela had said earlier.

-When I was tired from days of depression.

‘Why did she deliberately say that?’

The fact that she made such a statement in front of me means she wants me to know.

Yet not explaining it clearly means it’s difficult for her to reveal her inner feelings easily.

There are secrets in a girl’s room. That remains true even when she’s no longer a girl but a maiden.

‘I’ll find it.’

Although it felt a bit awkward to think about uncovering secrets in front of the other person. But from the beginning, she seems to want me to examine her inner feelings.

Without reservations, it would be right to find out as much as possible.

“…”

My pupils scanned the room again.

‘Compared to Rinet’s room, it has quite a lived-in feel.’

Even considering that Adela had been away from her room for a long time, the sense of life was sufficiently felt.

Although it was a somewhat subtle feeling as the core seemed to have changed from cigarettes to alcohol.

‘But.’

At least Adela’s room wasn’t a desolate room with nothing but alcohol.

For one thing, there was a certain object that immediately caught the eye.

“Ah, is that bothering you?”

Adela notices where my gaze is directed and smiles.

The place both she and I are looking at is where Adela sleeps. The bed.

A dark-colored bed with soft bedding. However, the noteworthy point is.

“I didn’t expect you to have such taste. It’s surprising.”

A very large teddy bear.

My tone was calm, but the word “surprising” was quite sincere.

While Adela acts somewhat scatterbrained about alcohol or matters related to me. Her alias as the Sage wasn’t earned for nothing.

‘To think she had a girlish taste for teddy bears.’

It’s not unreasonable to find it unexpected.

“Hehe- Really?”

As she speaks, Adela slightly approaches my side. Extending her hand to grasp around my shoulder blade, she subtly whispers.

“Why? Seeing the pure side of a woman who seemed only mature, are you feeling something?”

Sweet breath like honey warming my ear, it seemed as if she was trying to seduce me.

Recognizing that, I first maintained silence.

“…”

‘At least a woman who says such things doesn’t appear pure.’

Setting aside the answer that would only earn me criticism for being insensitive if spoken aloud.

I pondered deeply inside.

‘Well.’

Honestly, I hadn’t strongly felt that Adela was “mature” throughout our meetings so far.

However.

‘Nevertheless, it’s true that I feel a different kind of charm.’

Having finished my contemplation, I closed my eyes for a moment.

I briefly struggled with whether to verbalize this conclusion or keep it to myself.

“Indeed. I do feel something.”

“Heheng- Of course I was joking… What?”

“I’m concerned that I seem to be increasingly swayed by Miss Adela.”

It didn’t take long.

Is it the influence of various experiences accumulating in my heart as I’ve been with the three women?

As if colors had slightly permeated my emotionlessness. I ended up making a choice that felt quite unfamiliar.

Honestly.

I expressed my feelings to Adela.

“Wha, what what. What what what….”

Adela immediately removes her hand from my body.

Pababak- Her backstepping footsteps were so fast. They were almost invisible to the eye.

Her cheeks were so red they looked like they might burst if touched. Adela stuttered.

“Re, really…? I thought with Your Highness’s personality, you’d never say such things…”

“Why are you reacting like that?”

I smiled slightly seeing her like that.

Perhaps feeling somewhat vexed about having teased me.

Now it was I who approached her, subtly breathing into her ear.

“Weren’t you the one who started it?”

“…!”

Adela inhales. As if she felt something from my voice heard at such close range.

Ziririr- Her body trembles, then settles.

“Haeu, haah….”

Her pitch-black pupils darting around, avoiding my gaze. They fluctuate as if disbelieving the current situation.

Seeing that, I smiled lightly again.

‘That should be enough teasing.’

Yes, even for me, this was exceptionally unusual behavior.

I spoke again to calm Adela down.

“It was a joke, Sage. Now, let’s…”

“…A joke?”

‘Hmm?’

It’s unfamiliar.

The tone coming from Adela’s mouth. At least until now, it was an emotion never directed at me.

Disappointed? No, slightly different.

Angry? No, similar but different.

It was.

“After setting fire to my heart as you please.”

Directed toward a man trying to slip away after heating up her heart.

“You’re going to stop as you please?”

A woman’s wrath.

“!”

Adela’s two arms spread wide. Wondering what she was trying to do, I didn’t react, which was a mistake.

Her two arms quickly rotated and returned to her embrace. However, my body was within that radius.

Yes.

“…?!”

Adela, without a doubt, firmly. Hugged me.

The soft texture felt from behind my back. The other’s soft chest pressing against my chest. And the sweet scent of a woman felt right before my nose.

To the storm of sensations ringing out as if to shatter my emotionlessness.

I urgently tried to dissuade her.

“Sage. The joke went too far. I apologize. So please don’t act rashly like this.”

“No.”

Gook.

Adela, not even pretending to hear my words.

Snapped her finger behind my back.

At that moment. An invisible force gently pushed us, entwined together.

Perhaps telekinetic magic. An intangible pressure overturning us and-

Plop.

Adela and I fell onto the bed.

“…”

“…”

Silence.

Her, lying on the bed.

Me, leaning over her as if pouncing.

At a distance where we could see each other’s eyes right in front of us. Seeing each other’s faces reflected in the other’s pupils.

Neither of us opened our mouths.

For me, it was bewilderment. Had I acted too much on my own? Had I behaved too emotionally? Was it right to act emotionlessly after all? Complex thoughts arose.

For Adela, well.

“…”

What could it be?

I can see intense emotions dwelling in her eyes as she looks at me.

Love.

Passion.

Greed.

…Lust.

Adela, lifting her hand and bringing it to her chest-

“Haa.”

As if stopping something in her own heart. She stopped her hand as well.

“No, no. This wasn’t how I meant to do it. Calm down, Adela.”

A voice whispering as if reminding herself.

She closed her eyes, took several deep breaths, and.

“Whew-“

With a deep breath, she opened her eyelids.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I got too excited.”

“…”

“Please forget this incident. I don’t want to connect with Your Highness in this way yet.”

I couldn’t easily open my mouth at those words.

Although she was the one who flirted first.

I was the one who returned it. I was also the one who didn’t answer despite receiving a confession. And I was the one not choosing anyone in this situation.

I just maintained silence.

Adela pushed my body slightly and rose. Naturally, my body also rose from the bed and stands upright.

“I’ll let you know where you’ll be staying, so please go there. Let’s end here for today.”

End what? It was truly hesitant to ask.

Is she saying to end today’s schedule here?

Or is she saying to end the mutual flirtation between you and me here?

“…”

In the end, fearing I might become like a fish caught on a fishing rod if I asked unnecessarily. I silently nodded.

The room atmosphere had become very awkward for some reason. I was about to leave the unsettled situation by opening the door.

“Your Highness.”

From behind me as I was about to turn the doorknob, Adela’s voice is heard.

Turning my head at that, what appears in my view is.

“Tomorrow, you must come to my room again?”

With fox-like smiling eyes. It was Adela’s face, smiling seductively.

“Ah, don’t worry too much? There won’t be an incident like just now. It’s just a date, a date.”

Even the words “just a date” were quite awkward for me, but.

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

I only return a plain answer.

It was an answer given while desperately recalling the original goal that was now beginning to fade in my mind.

‘Graduate from the Academy’s special class.’

“…”

Somehow that sentence is being erased. And a new sentence seems to be written over it.

‘Create a harem in the Academy’s special class.’

No, no. That can’t be. I’ve never once thought of myself as such a person.

Never, and yet.

“Oh, right.”

A voice that now I hesitate to hear.

In a tone dripping with honey, Adela Ciadellia whispered to me.

“About the confession I made before. It was drunk honesty, wasn’t it?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“So that’s why.”

Like that.

The Sage declared a statement that would surely break my ambiguous stance.

“On the last day of this party. I’ll confess to Your Highness clearly.”

Confession.

Not one made while drunk, but a sober proposal.

“By then, I’ll hear it. Your Highness’s true feelings.”

She had decided to hear my answer.

“…”

It was the beginning of a flow that would greatly transform my life.