Ria
I kept drinking and drinking, my world getting more and more blurry and moving faster with each glass I took to my lips.
At some point Rin decided we couldn't go on like that and took us both Allea and me back to our rooms in the castle through the back door, but by then I was almost out of it. All I could hear or see was that the world was moving around me.
Everything was funny. Rin's face changed to resemble an owl and I laughed.
Allea smiled by my side and held onto me as Rin sighed and pushed us forward.
My legs were so wobbly as I moved that I was barely able to reach my room and collapse into bed as soon as Rin let go of me.
When I fell into the soft matress I sprawled all over the bed. It was so comfy.
" Are you going to be okay?" I could hear Rin's worried voice coming from the door, but I didn't care. My mind was so out of it that I didn't even process his words. All I heard was a question, so I nodded.
" Just stay there" After saying that Rin and a laughing Allea disappeared and I was left all alone in my room.
A few hours later
Why the fuck did my head hurt so fucking much?
I woke up with a brutal headache and the urge to kill anything and everything around me. The sounds coming from outside my room were like booming attacks. Every single whisper made my head throb.
I groaned and turned around, covering my ears with my pillow and going back to sleep.
Why couldn't they be more silent? Did they have no mercy for the poor people who wanted to sleep a little bit?
I couldn't even sleep for a few more minutes before Arsheus burst inside, his gaze piercing as he took my covers from me and propped me straight onto the bed.
" What the fuck?" I cracked my eyes open slightly and glared at him. I was still sleeping. Why couldn't he understand that some people needed their sleep in order to survive?
" We have to go to work"
Really?
" Do we, really?" My voice was slurry as I begged for something to happen, even if it meant that the whole world was going down, just so that I didn't have to go to work.
Arsheus smiled mischievously and dragged me out of bed.
" If you're that bad then you shouldn't have drunk that much in the first place"
I scowled and didn't look at him. I knew he was right. I had gone a little bit overboard with the drinks, but I had had lots of fun.
" I won the battle. Allea didn't stand a chance"
Arsheus's eyebrows shot up and he chuckled.
" Sure, sure. Let's go"
I sighed and closed mye eyes as he dragged me outside, where Allea and Rin were calmly talking amongst themselves.
I stared at Allea. She looked perfectly fresh, as if she hadn't partied as hard as me during the night and had drunk over half the bar by herself.
" How are you okay?" My mouth was all but hanging open as I asked.
How the fuck was she not on the floor begging for mercy? My head was a big, red zone of pain as strange sounds around me increased the pounding in my head.
" I'm a professional" Allea smiled brightly, her eyes fully open as she rested her arms over my shoulder. " You'll learn in due time"
I stared at her. Whatever.
" What do we have to do now?" I pulled my eyes away from Allea and focused on Arsheus. He was wearing a grin as he looked at me and dropped a hamper into my hands.
When the thing landed in my arms I almost went down to the floor. The thing was so heavy that I could barely hold it. I looked up at Arsheus, amazed. I didn't know how he had managed to hold it and not go down with the weight.
" Let's go clean those"
I groaned and dragged the hamper through the floor as Allea followed me, carrying her own. Rin and Arsheus fell back and took another path. When I noticed they were gone it was already too late. They were nowhere to be seen.
" Where the fuck are they going?" The question escaped form my lips before I could stop it.
Allea smiled by my side.
" To do something important"
" Do you know what it is?"
Allea shook her head.
" No, but I trust them"
I guessed I could do that.
I just didn't want to clean. I groaned just imagining having to go to a nearby ravine and spend hours and hours on end taking the stains out of the clothes while my hands froze from the water.
Allea heard my groan and smiled.
" Don't you worry. After we finish these" She pointed at the hampers we were carrying " we can go get drunk again"
I groaned again. Just imagining it was awful. If I drunk I was going to have a headache again and it was the worst. As we moved through the castle being ignored by everyone I couldn't stop the pain pounding on my head.
Allea read my face like an open book and chuckled.
" I know the perfect cure for your hangover"
I stared at her. At this point I was willing to try out anything at all.
" What is it?"
Allea smiled as she leaned in real close, as if she was going to tell me a secret no one else should ever know.
" If you're drunk all the time then you can't get a hangover"
What the fuck?
What kind of three year old shitty math was that?
" It works like a charm" Allea seemed sure of her cure, but I was sceptical. How the fuck would the thing that had gotten me like this in the first place solve everything?
" Fine. I'll give it a try" The bar had been good and the drinks tasted good too.
" Just maybe this time ask for something that isn't as strong"
I stared at her. What did she mean by that?
" Have you forgotten?"
I frowned. It was possible.
" You asked for their strongest drink. " She smiled as she continued carrying her hamper while I dragged mine. I was still surprised about the fact that no one had even tried to stop me or questioned why I was dragging it instead of carrying it like a normal person. " As a piece of advice, never do that again "
Okay. Lesson learned.
" This time you're going down again " I smiled as I pictured my victory again. It had been fun.
Allea chuckled, her smile showing all her sharp teeth.
" You think you won? You lost espectacularly"
" No, I didn't"
" You did. Rin and I had to carry you to your room. I honestly thought I was done for"
" What do you mean?"
" Arsheus was waiting for us. You should've seen his face when he saw you that thrashed. He was fuming "
He was? When he had come to fetch me in the morning he hadn't looked annoyed. He hadn't even batted an eyelash, though it was true that my eyesight wasn't the best on a normal day and much less now that my whole world was rocking back and forth.
If Allea said so it had to be true. Arsheus cared about me. A grin I couldn't stop spread all over my face.
Allea smiled and turned to look up ahead.
" We'll finish this and then we'll get drunk"
I smiled. It seemed like a plan.
Getting to the ravine was fairly easy. After we dragged and carried the hampers to the edge I was faced with the cold, freezing water.
A few feet away the water had frozen into ice. Only the part of the ravine where were currently were with the other servants was clean of ice, no doubt by the action of someone that wanted us to clean everything.
The air was cold to the touch, but whatever magic Arsheus had cast to keep me warm was still going strong. I just wished it would work until I finished this.
My head pounded as the women and men surrounding us begun chatting happily as they plunged their hands into the ice cold water to clean the sheets and undergarments. Luckily Allea was by my side and although she didn't do anything special her mere presence was enough to give me strength. I would finish this and then get drunk with her until I couldn't tell right from wrong.
I took one of the sheets given to me and plunged it into the water. Fortunately the magic keeping me warm still worked and my hands didn't freeze as I begun cleaning the clothes.
Allea looked at my hands and what I was doing and copied me as naturally as she could.
A smirk spread across my lips when I saw her wincing. Just like I had thought she had never done a single chore in her whole life. I was sure this was new to her.
As she rubbed the clothes I could see she was being to forceful.
Being careful that no one else could hear us I leaned in and whispered into her ear that she was using too much strength.
She smiled at me and went at it softer.
Her smile got bigger when she finished one piece and begun with the second one.
I smiled as I looked at her. She seemed so proud of herself that I wanted to tell her she was doing very well even though she had barely managed to go through one sheet that would definitely have to be redone while the rest of us were on our tenth.
Luckily Allea didn't notice the stares coming from the other servants as she continued to try to clean a shirt without much success. I smiled and picked up the sheet she had just finished, cleaning it again. It took me nothing to do it again and make it spotless, but it meant the world to Allea. I could see she was proud by the way she showed me every piece she finished. They were all shit, but whatever.
" You're doing great"
Allea smiled brighter and kept at it with renewed energy. Well, at least she was happy.
I kept taking the pieces she did and cleaning them again until there was nothing left.
When we were finished we picked up the hampers filled again with clean sheets and clothes and walked back inside to give them to our manager, a woman I hadn't seen in my life and that apparently knew Allea.
She seemed to know everyone around here.
The woman smiled as she gave us both a cupcake and sent us on our way.
I smiled looking at it. It felt good to not be shun out just because you were different.
I smiled and bit into the cupcake.
" Oh, my God" My eyes got big and a silly smile spread across my face. It tasted sooo good.
Allea smirked and devoured hers in a single bite.
" They're good, right?"
All I could do was nod as I inhaled mine.
Once it was gone I felt hollow. I wanted more.
" Can I get one more?"
Allea chuckled and shook her head.
" If we work well tomorrow we might get one" There it was. My new motivation to live.
I smiled as Allea took me to my room to change clothes.
I picked one of the few dresses in the wardrobe, a plain piece of fabric that didn't make me stand out, and held onto Allea as we went to get drunk.
If I was being honest I could very well get used to this kind of life. It wasn't half as bad as I had originally thought.