The splashing pale-gold liquor hung in the torchlight like a fine drizzle, raining down over the neatly trimmed lawn of the Twilight Manor and soaking the air with a rich, heady fragrance.
Half an hour later.
This revel, billed as a pre-battle rally, finally reached its entirely predictable and thoroughly disastrous end.
Bodies lay sprawled across the lawn in every direction.
"Snrrk… snrrk…"
Loki had long since abandoned every scrap of dignity a goddess might possess, splayed out spread-eagle on a wide wicker lounge chair, her chest rising and falling in time with snores loud enough to shake the sky.
That head of short, pale red hair was as messy as a bird's nest. Now and then she smacked her lips and mumbled out something half-swallowed from a dream: "Haimer… you brat… don't run… pour me another barrel…"
And not far off.
Tiona had dropped straight onto the grass.
She hugged a mid-sized oak keg that had long since run dry, big blotches of red across her healthy tan cheeks, her grin stretched all the way to her ears.
"Heh heh heh… booze… I want more booze…"
Giggling like an idiot, Tiona knocked her forehead against the rim of the barrel in a steady rhythm.
Watching all this, Haimer let out a long sigh, set down his cup and stood up.
"All right. Looks like tonight ends here."
Haimer swept his gaze over the wreckage.
Apart from the few he had told in advance not to drink too much, most of the main force was flat on the ground.
He rubbed his temple and turned toward Riveria, who was holding herself together better than the rest.
"Miss Riveria."
Haimer called out to Miss Riveria, who was pressing a hand to her aching forehead.
"And Miss Anakity, Miss Alicia."
At their names, Anakity and Alicia straightened up.
"These girls have drunk themselves senseless. I'll have to trouble the three of you to take some care of them."
Haimer pointed at the babbling Tiona, and then at the few girls of his own Familia who had accidentally gotten into the fruit wine and were now pressing their cheeks together, grinning at nothing.
"Get them back to their rooms or settle them somewhere comfortable, and keep an eye on them. Don't let them roll under the bed in the middle of the night and catch a chill."
"Of course. Forgive us for troubling you with it, Lord Haimer."
Weariness surfaced on Riveria's usually composed face, and she nodded lightly.
Then she beckoned, and together with Anakity and Alicia,
she began moving the swaying, tumbling girls one by one toward the dormitory wing.
So the women's side was taken care of.
As for the other side.
It was rather a grim sight of its own.
Raul was clinging to a table leg and bawling his heart out, pouring forth all his bitterness about his mediocre talent, tears and snot everywhere.
"I'm just an ordinary man… waaah… so what if I'm Lv.4… I'll never catch up to those freaks…"
The rest of the Second Corps comrades who had gone with him to haul the barrels lay sprawled across the grass in every direction.
"Bete. Gareth."
Haimer glanced at the two who could still stand steady.
The alcohol had turned Bete's face scarlet and bared his fangs, and his temper had gotten sharper by the minute, but he still had a shred of reason left.
As for the seasoned dwarf Gareth, his race's constitution meant this much drink was nowhere near enough to put him down.
"I'll leave them to you two."
"Tch. Useless bunch of good-for-nothings. Two cups and they end up like this."
"Howl one more time and I'll pitch you over the wall!"
"Hahaha! Bete! Quit scaring the boy, he's got enough weighing on him already!"
Bete barked at Raul and the others and raked a rough hand through his gray hair.
For all the cursing and grumbling under his breath,
he still walked over, seized Raul by the collar and hauled him up off the ground.
Gareth, for his part, threw back his head and laughed heartily at Haimer.
"Don't you worry, Lord Haimer. Young men only toughen up by losing face a few more times. Leave them to us."
With that,
Gareth briskly shouldered the remaining drunks.
Meanwhile, Haimer turned toward a scene that was equal parts comedy and disaster.
"Captain~! Why are you running away!"
The drink had left Tione's eyes swimming, and giggles bubbled out of her.
"Come down! It's windy up there! It's warm down here! I'll come get you!"
From where Finn stood, this was, frankly, terrifying.
Haimer stood a dozen or so paces from the tree.
He watched Finn, cornered like a startled bird, fold his arms across his chest in resignation.
"Lord Haimer! Save me!"
The instant he spotted Haimer below, Finn grabbed at the lifeline and shouted for help.
"Just make some noise, anything at all, and lure her off. That's all it takes!"
Listening to Finn's plea,
Haimer shrugged helplessly, his eyes narrowing into a smile.
"I'm afraid I can't help you with that one, Captain Finn."
"They say a beauty's affection is the hardest gift to bear. Since this is an internal matter of your Loki Familia, how could an outsider like me get involved?"
"Hang in there. Perhaps when the branch snaps, this little farce will resolve itself."
With that said,
Haimer sighed and turned away without the slightest hesitation.
Leaving Finn in the tree with resignation written all over his face.
Finn had nothing to say to that.
After all.
Lord Haimer had a rather large burden of his own to deal with right now.
Haimer strolled over to the drinking table.
And looked down at Loki, sleeping soundly.
Whatever posture she had started in was long gone. Every so often she muttered a slurred curse, with the occasional "damn Haimer" mixed in.
"Drinking herself into this sorry state. Several hundred million years, and that shameless drunk of hers hasn't improved one bit."
Haimer bent down with a sigh.
He had no expectation that Riveria would come handle a Loki whose terrible drinking manners were the stuff of legend.
After all.
Haimer knew.
Drunk, Loki got handsy.
So.
Haimer simply grabbed hold of her, quick and clean.
And slung her over his left shoulder like a sack of grain, without the slightest courtesy.
"Mgh… lemme go… I can still drink… gimme a cup!"
Hanging upside down over Haimer's rock-hard shoulder,
Loki immediately started squirming.
Her liquor-soaked face rubbed straight into his coat.
Her limbs thrashed, two thin arms swinging wildly through the air with no rhyme or reason to it, a fist thumping against Haimer's back every few seconds.
There was no strength behind it, only the stubborn persistence of the very drunk.
Not only that.
Hanging head-down was apparently squeezing her stomach.
"Urk—"
Loki retched, and the sharp reek of fermented mash sprayed across Haimer.
"Behave yourself. Vomit on me and I'll eat your Divine Power right here and now."
Haimer brought his palm down on Loki's backside without mercy.
"Yeek!!!"
Loki yowled at the sting, like a cat with all its fur standing on end.
And the physical sanction really did keep her in line for a while. Her head hung limply against his back, and she stopped clawing and biting.
Seeing that,
Haimer shook his head with a wry smile.
"After everything we've been through, even this drinking habit hasn't changed a bit. The same as ever."
Memories overlapped for a brief moment.
Haimer carried Loki into the Twilight Manor, down the corridor and straight up to the second floor of the main building, where he dropped the muttering, sleep-talking lump of mud onto a guest bed with a thud, showing no tenderness whatsoever for the fair sex.
He dragged the blanket over her without looking.
Task complete.
By the time the cleanup — which had left everyone thoroughly run ragged — was finally over,
the night over Orario had grown deep.
The Twilight Manor, so uproarious before, had returned to its proper silence.
Haimer loosened the collar he had crumpled while carrying someone, the thick smell of liquor still clinging stubbornly inside his nose.
Originally,
Haimer had been rounding a corner in the corridor, meaning to ask Riveria for a fresh guest room.
"Lord Haimer."
Instead, coming toward him were his own girls, fresh from their baths, chatting and laughing.
At the front were Onigawara Rin and Mary Kikakujou, their hair still damp.
They were wrapped in new clothes that had clearly come from the upscale residential district, and the steam had left their cheeks glowing with the tender pink of cherry petals.
Behind them.
Came Rei Fei.
By the look of it,
while he had been dealing with Loki, they had used Rei Fei's flight to make a quick trip back to the grand residence on North Main Street.
There they had packed everything the girls needed — underclothes, bath and grooming supplies — into a bundle and carried it all back.
"Kami-sama!"
The moment they saw Haimer, Onigawara Rin, Mary Kikakujou and the others greeted him in bright, clear voices.
"Mm. All washed up?" Haimer stopped where he was.
"We just finished, Kami-sama."
"Miss Riveria has already arranged everything for us."
The Holy Emperor nodded lightly.
And having said that,
the Holy Emperor immediately caught the small motion of Haimer frowning as he adjusted his collar.
She also caught the far from pleasant smell of stale liquor hanging around Kami-sama.
So.
The Holy Emperor turned at once, thoughtful as ever,
and pointed toward the bronze-colored wooden door at the far end of the corridor.
"Kami-sama, Miss Riveria mentioned earlier that the bath for the men is over that way."
"Since nearly all the men have drunk themselves unconscious, it happens to be empty right now."
"You've been on your feet all night. While the water is still hot, go soak and work off the tiredness."
"That does sound good."
"The rest of you get back to your rooms and rest early."
The sticky reek of alcohol on him had been grating on Haimer's nerves.
So he nodded readily and gave them a faint smile.
…
The Twilight Manor's wealth was nothing to scoff at.
Separate baths for men and women, pool walls built from great blocks of smooth blue-green stone, with water-spouting beast heads carved into the corners.
Vent windows had been set into the ceiling above, but the water ran so hot that the heavy steam filling the air year-round was nearly too thick to part; even ten paces out, everything blurred.
The Magic Stone lamps along the walls were sealed inside specially made waterproof glass housings.
They gave off a soft, faintly dim halo of light.
Haimer stripped down efficiently at the wooden stand in the changing room.
He picked up the white cloth towel he had slung over his shoulder.
Long legs carried him across the damp, warm cobblestone tiles.
And step by step down the stone stairs, until he had sunk into the wide, steaming basin of stone.
"Haaa—"
The water, hot at exactly the right degree, wrapped around his tensed body all at once.
Haimer leaned back against the edge of the pool and let out a long, contented sigh.
His arms rested loosely on the flat stone ledge, and he let the warm current wash away the exhaustion and grime he had picked up hauling Loki around.
He closed his eyes and settled into this rare stretch of quiet, private time where nobody would disturb him.
Just as his mind slipped into a comfortable blank and his breathing evened out.
"Pat… pat…"
Faint, slow footsteps.
They carried through the heavy door panels outside and rose, badly out of place, in this vast bath where the only sound left was circulating water.
There was a floating wobble to them, a dull unsteadiness.
Haimer's shut eyes snapped open.
His keen perception swept out along the direction of the sound.
At this hour?
Who could it be?
That soft, side-to-side lurching.
Haimer raised an eyebrow, and the first name that surfaced in his mind
was that of the drunk he had just tossed into a bedroom to sleep it off — Loki.
At the thought, he decided not to bother about it. His own girls had all finished bathing, so even if Loki turned up she would come up empty.
However.
Who could have guessed.
Along with a stretch of muttering.
"This is so humiliating…"
"Why did it have to be… of all people, in front of Miss Ais… and Miss Marie… why did I get drunk and make a fool of myself…"
Hearing those two forms of address, "Miss Ais" and "Miss Marie",
Haimer's body went still against the pool wall.
By the sound of it.
It was the [Loki Familia]'s own "Thousand Elf" — Lefiya Viridis!
There came the thin rustle of cloth, as if she couldn't manage the complicated fastenings.
Driven on by the drink.
With a rip.
After the sound of fabric torn apart by force,
came the muffled thump of a heap of clothing dropping carelessly onto the wooden floor.
Haimer could only sigh.
It seemed he wasn't getting out of here.
And a few minutes earlier.
Lefiya had been following along behind Riveria.
Seeing Lefiya reeking of drink and befuddled, Riveria had brought her to the bath so she could rinse off.
"There's no change of clothes for you inside. Stand here and don't wander off. I'll go fetch them from your dormitory."
Riveria gave the instruction with a sigh.
But who could have guessed.
The moment Riveria's back was turned,
whatever string in Lefiya's head kept track of direction snapped clean through.
She leaned against the wall, turned a circle, and saw nothing but a row of swaying doors in front of her.
In her muddled state,
she shoved open the door on the right — the wrong one entirely.
And stumbled her way into the passage of the men's bath.
And now.
Lefiya had stripped bare and was hugging her naked shoulders.
Her long elf ears had flushed pink from the heat of the alcohol, twitching restlessly up and down.
Her normally silky golden hair hung loose and tangled across her pale, soft back.
Her toes came down lightly on the row of smooth cobblestones along the warm pool's edge, and with a splash she dropped into the water.
"Mm… so warm…"
Lefiya narrowed her eyes in bliss.
The mist over the pool left the whole great stone basin looking like an endless sea of milk.
It made the figure on the other side truly hard to see.
____
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