episode_0136

000

Inside a bar illuminated by dim yet luxurious lighting, considering that most of the patrons who visit this place are fearless commoners stepping in out of curiosity about the back alleys, this interior seemed out of place no matter how much one thought about it.

The master, Suseu, too, isn’t the typical male master found in such bars, but a woman dressed in a dress like a noble lady, exuding a “I’m doing this as a hobby” atmosphere, making it truly a shop that deviates from the mainstream, both in terms of patrons and the central area it attracts.

Suseu herself enjoys listening to stories and drinking with her favorite customers, so she doesn’t really care even if sales aren’t great, but thanks to that, only her favorite liquors keep piling up in the cupboard and warehouse.

Suseu looked alternately at the liquor Rubera pointed to—a liquor named “Ifrit”—and at Rubera, with a troubled expression.

“Um… Rubera? I think this liquor is a little too much for Rubera to drink…”

Indeed, Ifrit was the strongest liquor in Suseu’s store. It wasn’t originally made for human consumption, after all.

Ifrit is a liquor made using a special method that utilizes fire spirit stones created by the snowfield dwarves.

This liquor, which could be said to be the legacy of those now-extinct dwarves, is equipped with various ingredients and effects to withstand the harsh cold, and was a potent brew (poisonous liquor) created by dwarves, who are incredibly strong against alcohol compared to ordinary humans, purely for the purpose of getting drunk.

Whether Rubera knew that or not. No, she could only say such a thing because she didn’t know. Suseu looked at Rubera, whose eyes held a venom even stronger than Ifrit’s alcohol content, and briefly pondered the reason for her sudden bad mood.

Even after getting a job at the Tromeia family, she would occasionally come to the store to complain about things she couldn’t resolve elsewhere, or to talk about the Black Magic Clan.

And, she looked completely different from when she showed a rare smile and talked about a man named Cleon.

Thinking that far, Suseu could internally realize, “Ah,” what it was that Rubera didn’t like.

“Haa. It can’t be helped. But not the undiluted form. A human could get a hole in their stomach if they drank it.”

Suseu said that, took out Ifrit, and simultaneously took out a blue bottle that had been stored elsewhere. Attached to the outside was wrapping paper decorated with an emblem in the shape of a blue fairy, making it impossible to tell whether the contents were water or some other liquor.

An even more powerful magical energy than the faint magical power of the spirit stone felt from Ifrit could be felt from that bottle.

But Cleon thought he had seen that bottle somewhere before.

Not only that, but also the red bottle he picked up first. Ifrit, too, was familiar somehow.

“This is kind of like a detoxifying liquor… If you mix it with strong liquor when you drink it, it can protect your body to some extent. In addition, it can strongly bring out the effects of the liquor. It’s called ‘Undine.’ Like Ifrit, it’s something made by the snowfield dwarves. Unlike other dwarves, they were masters of alchemy and spirit magic. Besides these, they say there are liquors named after nature spirits, such as ‘Gnome’ and ‘Sylph,’ but I’ve never seen them.”

Saying that, she took out two small glasses and carefully opened the lid of Ifrit first. Then, even from a short distance away, Cleon involuntarily covered his nose at the strong smell of alcohol that assaulted him, and Rubera made a sound like “Ugh…”

It was as if warning that it was definitely something that could kill a human if challenged on a whim.

Compared to those two, Suseu didn’t seem bothered at all, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the beautiful liquid with a slightly reddish-brown color flowing from the bottle.

She had a severe liquid fetish. Perhaps it was because her own original body was a form somewhere between a liquid and a solid, similar to slime.

“Is this… really liquor…? Isn’t it just pure alcohol…?”

Cleon expressed his doubt as he looked at Ifrit, which was so different in scent and appearance compared to the high-end wine Kuon had received from the academy not long ago, but Rubera spoke without even looking at Cleon.

“…Did you forget, living in a fancy mansion? That the liquor that adventurers originally drink has a high alcohol content so they can get drunk cheaply and quickly.”

“No, I know that, but… it wasn’t this much, even so.”

“Are you chickening out…?”

A vein popped out on Cleon’s forehead at Rubera’s words. Normally, he wouldn’t fall for such a cheap provocation, but Rubera’s mocking expression, which seemed to subtly scratch at people’s nerves, and the scent that naturally flowed out of the bottle, creating an alcohol that clouded judgment, chipped away at his self-control.

While the two were having such a meaningless war of nerves, Suseu closed the lid of Ifrit and this time opened the Undine side.

The liquid flowing out from inside was truly transparent. It looked just like “water,” as if one could see everything behind it between the flowing liquid.

However, the scent wafting from it was not just water, but something refreshing and sweet like fruit wine.

Similarly, as Undine entered the liquor containing Ifrit that had been poured out earlier, the two liquors mixed together as if they were one, thanks to the magical power they possessed, without any force being applied.

That sight was a phenomenon that one might see in a witch’s cauldron while watching Laila make magical potions.

The reddish-brown Ifrit, meeting the transparent Undine and becoming one, was now a pale copper-colored liquid.

“There. Done. Even though I’ve weakened the alcohol content, don’t drink it all at once.”

Suseu said that and placed two glasses in front of Cleon and Rubera, respectively.

“Well. Give me a moment to prepare something. I have something to prepare.”

Saying that, Suseu smiled and went through the door behind the counter. Cleon and Rubera stared at Suseu’s back for a moment, then, without either saying who would go first, reached for the glass in front of them.

“Why are you so angry?”

Cleon, who had regained a bit of composure with the glass in front of him, said that, and Rubera replied curtly. Her eyes were still not directed at Cleon, but were only looking at the liquor placed in front of her.

“Not really. I’m not angry. Does it look that way to you?”

“Well, it does. I mean, you wouldn’t be able to get along well with your coworkers if you were always like this.”

Rubera closed her mouth for a moment at those words.

“Could it be that there’s something I did wrong in the letter I sent before?”

“…I think it was a high-level ‘status report letter’ with sentence structure that wouldn’t be embarrassing to show anywhere and with an appropriate level of consideration for the other party.”

“Then why-”

As Cleon was about to continue, Rubera cut him off and inserted her voice.

“Is there any point in looking for a reason like that? People get upset and happy over trivial things. You’re the same, right?”

“Well, yeah. Humans are fickle, but I’m asking because if there’s something I did wrong, I need to fix it.”

“That’s… so you don’t repeat the same mistake in front of other people?”

“…I guess?”

“Then there’s no problem. It seems like there are many considerate people around you. So a strange person who gets angry while paying attention to your every action… there’ll only be me.”

“… …”

“I’m fully aware that my personality is strange. Well, that’s why I haven’t been able to make a single real friend even at this age. All the people at my current workplace are just weirdos, so I’m getting along reasonably well. I mean, what am I if I’m getting along well with weirdos?”

“…You’re a weirdo, I guess.”

Rubera’s eyes flashed, and she looked at Cleon. Cleon was just answering the question while looking at Rubera, but he wasn’t sure why she felt that way, even though they thought the same thing. He knew, vaguely, that she wasn’t hoping for that kind of answer.

Soon, Rubera sighed and looked down at the liquor.

“…You still haven’t been able to sleep in the royal capital, have you?”

“Well, yeah, I arrived this morning.”

“As you heard from Iona, there have been incidents happening in this royal capital where people have nightmares and have their life force absorbed when they sleep. The culprit is the red-haired half-succubus you’ve met. The new ruler of the back alleys, ‘Ishtal.’”

“That woman…”

Cleon frowned as he recalled her face, which had appeared at an important scene at the academy and interfered with them.

“Thanks to her, I’m staying up every night, too. Because of a certain someone who appears every night.”

“… …”

“Honestly. When I see your face, I remember the dream. They’re all blurry phantoms in the mist, but you’re definitely-”

Rubera paused there for a moment. Then, she lifted the glass and brought the liquor to her lips.

Perhaps she judged that she couldn’t possibly say the story that would come next while sober. Liquor was a blade that killed shame, and if she entrusted herself to its power, she could tell stories that she couldn’t normally tell.

The taste of the liquid entering her mouth couldn’t be called good, even as a euphemism. It was like torture to hold that liquid in her mouth, which seemed to burn her entire mouth, including the roof of her mouth.

Rubera somehow managed to swallow it without spitting it out, and she could feel all the hot heat passing through her throat and going down.

“Kuh…”

Cleon looked at Rubera, who was letting out a groan, with concern, but he also took a sip following Rubera and felt the same pain.

“Th, this is… definitely strong…”

As Cleon felt the alcohol rushing up, he muttered that. Rubera took a deep breath for a moment and then continued the story, looking at Cleon.

“…Have you ever seen someone in your dreams?”

“Well, yeah, I have. I mean, I can’t control my dreams. Using the power of the cursed sword to intentionally look into the past is also a kind of dream… Even without that, I sometimes dream of people I met in the past.”

“For example?”

“Well, enemies I met in the past… or people I adventured with for a while… or people I lived with like family. Things like that.”

“Then. What about dreams about your hometown?”

Cleon stopped talking for a moment at Rubera’s words. The hometown she was talking about was the village of the Black Magic Clan hidden in Dragon Valley.

That night. Cleon and Rubera were rescued from their burning village by Lesia and Duke Hughes, respectively, and lived opposing lives.

Now, these two were probably the only ones from that village who had free status.

However, that didn’t mean that the two had common memories.

Young Rubera hated the village. Cleon also hated the village, but.

They didn’t have any memories of being friends, and even if they had talked, they wouldn’t have been such memorable relationships.

For Rubera, childhood memories were filled with pain, despair, and anger.

A valley that blocked the sky. The wings of a flying wyvern. The sight of her mother being murdered in front of her flashes back, and she instinctively feels nauseous.

It had gotten a little better after she took revenge by killing Duke Hughes, but that didn’t mean she felt nostalgic when she thought about her hometown.

“Dreams of the village in Dragon Valley… I have them often, too. Most of the time, it’s the scene of looking up at the sky from inside the tower. I didn’t have any family or friends, after all.”

“…Then, doesn’t it become painful every time you think about things related to your hometown?”

“Well… I don’t have any memories to call good, but it’s still the place I was born… But thinking about things like that doesn’t change the present.”

“The present doesn’t change… Huh. That’s a great thought, Mr. Righteous.”

“Why are you being sarcastic again…”

“I wish I could shake it off like that, too.”

“… …”

“Recent dreams are even more terrible. I dream of someone being next to me.”

“…Are you talking about nightmares?”

“You have no delicacy. But, you’re right. While I’m apart from you. I’m dreaming every day in the royal capital of looking up at the sky with a boy.”

“Is that… a childhood friend?”

“…If only that were the case. I think it would have been nice.”

“Then…?”

“I don’t know. The boy’s appearance, what he says, it’s all just a product of my imagination. I don’t even know what your childhood self looked like, or what kind of personality you had as a child, or what kind of voice you spoke with. So, it’s all just disgusting imagination.”

“… …”

“It’s a strange story. Clearly, thinking about things related to that village is the worst thing, but the scene of the village that I see in my dreams with you is the opposite of what I remembered. Promising the future with him, even if I live in a dark and dangerous village, if I’m with him. It makes me have the same illusion. It’s really… really the worst.”

Had Rubera’s alcohol level risen enough? Gradually, a tendency to show emotions on the outside was appearing.

Rubera took another sip of liquor. What was left in the glass had now shrunk to almost a single sip.

She didn’t let out a groan like before, but Rubera closed her mouth for a moment and then looked at Cleon and said.

“Why are you trying to enter my heart without permission?”

“… …”

“If my revenge was over, I was going to live with the goal of freeing the other members of the Black Magic Clan. I didn’t think about creating a happy family with someone, or working to have a relaxed later life. I knew very well that such things weren’t suitable for me. And, I didn’t expect to be able to meet someone like that.”

“But after meeting a human like you, I start to have those expectations. So I tried to stay away from you on purpose. If I keep a little distance, my heart will cool down.”

“But. Yes. You were kind enough to send me letters of inquiry several times, telling me what was going on. What is it? Did you want to appeal yourself that much?”

“And the topics of the letters you send are mostly about women. That Laila did this, that Sasha made friends. That you became friends with Lady Aruru…”

“That’s nice. A life spent surrounded by women. The enemy of women. I thought I wanted to kill you. Honestly.”

“I’m dreaming of you every night, but the sense of alienation that you’re with other women messes up my head every day. It’s ugly jealousy.”

“For you, I might just be a fellow magic swordsman. A member of the same clan. A woman from the same hometown. And a relationship where we’ve mixed bodies twice. Maybe that’s all I am to you.”

“… …”

“I only know a man named you. No, I’m aware that a presence named you is special in me.”

“But you never try to cross the line on your side. In the letters you send, in the way you treat me. I can feel that clumsy consideration.”

“I don’t like that. Why is it that only I have to have this experience where my heart is burning-”

“I’ve never learned how to deal with this one-way feeling… Or anything…”

“Cleon… I… you… you…”

Cleon, who had been quietly listening to her story that had been continuing without end, looked at Rubera, who was slowly slowing down and suddenly burying her face in the counter and collapsing. She was like a body whose power source had been cut off. The cause was, without a doubt, the liquid in the small glass in front of her.

Chewing over what she had said, Cleon poured all of the liquid in front of him into his mouth as well.

Burning poison pierces through the inside of his body.

“That’ll mess up your body if you drink it all at once like that.”

Suseu, who had been listening to the story from behind the door and was timing when to come out, peeked out and revealed herself.

“I’m sorry. Rubera fainted…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. She does that sometimes. Even though she’s not that strong with alcohol.”

Suseu picked up the glasses of liquor that the two had drunk with a wry smile.

“…I’ll pay. It’s quite a rare liquor-”

“It’s okay. It’s not something I sell anyway. Let’s just say I gave it to a friend as a gift. More than that, I’ve prepared a place to sleep inside, so let’s move her there. If you want, Cleon can sleep over too. The royal capital doesn’t like people wandering around at night that much. It’s perfect for getting caught by the guards and being asked all sorts of questions.”

“Does Rubera often… stay here?”

“Hmm- once a week? Lisa- ah, Barisada comes to pick her up in the morning, though.”

Her magic sword must have had a hard time.

“…Then. I’ll take you up on your offer to stay overnight.”

“Okay. I’ll be here the whole time, so tell me if you need anything. Oh. The rooms are definitely well soundproofed, too.”

“… …”

Why was soundproofing necessary in the sleeping quarters? Cleon didn’t ask separately, but held Rubera in his arms and passed through the door that Suseu had opened and headed inside the building.

The prepared bedroom was a room similar in size to the mid-tier accommodation at Elesia’s inn that Cleon had used before.

Seeing that two single beds had been prepared, he breathed a sigh of relief, laid Rubera down, and laid himself down on the other bed as well.

Her face was slightly flushed and she was breathing heavily. She looked like a completely different lady from the one who had been spewing venom at him until just now.

[Sorry. I don’t think I’ll be going back today.]

When he sent telepathy to Laila, only a snort came back from Laila.

It was a matter of course, but Cleon was also unable to withstand the poison of the alcohol.

As soon as the string of tension was released, sleep rapidly rushed in.

His eyelids, which had turned into magnets, closed, and Cleon fell asleep.

001

Chuu… slurping… gurgling…

A completely darkened vision. His body’s senses should still be clearly dulled because of the alcohol remaining in his body, but along with a rustling sound, a smooth and soft sensation was felt from below.

Thanks to that, Cleon, who had been quietly asleep, slowly opened his eyes, and when he involuntarily raised his head at the strangely empty feeling in his lower body and the pleasant sensation felt from his penis-

Rubera was there, moving her hands and tongue in perfect order, serving Cleon’s still unaroused member, was what caught his eye.

“…Rubera…?”

“You’re awake, Cleon.”

Rubera, who had slightly checked Cleon’s face upon hearing her name called, continued the act as if nothing was wrong.

“Kuh…”

Cleon involuntarily gripped the sheet at the relentlessly pouring pleasure. Rubera, clinging to Cleon, was already completely naked, not wearing any clothes.

“You… were you sleeping… and mistaking this for a dream?”

“…Haa? There’s no way. It’s true that I was sleeping. In fact, I still have some alcohol left in me, too.”

But. Rubera added, sweeping her hair that was resting on her ear to the side while smiling.

“But. It’s only natural that I’d want to take it if I see an opening, right?”

Licking her lips with her tongue, she now gently stimulated Cleon’s glans with her tongue.

The electrifying pleasure that ran through him just from having his sensitive mucous membranes stimulated was enough to make his back flinch.

“I’ll make up for all the time we were apart for a month… with enough intensity to last.”

Saying that, she lightly flicked her index finger, hitting Cleon’s limp member.

“So get it up. You bastard.”