Side Story: Daily Life in the Aiternum Empire – 2
“I’m the pathetic knight commander who drinks weaker than Delta…”
“97. Only three left.”
“I’m the pathetic knight commander who drinks weaker than Delta…”
“98. Just two more.”
“I’m the pathetic knight commander who drinks weaker than Delta…”
“99. Last one.”
“I’m the pathetic knight commander who drinks weaker than Delta…”
“Alright, that’s it. Good job, Claudia.”
I stood up from the sofa. Claudia was kneeling right in front of me, her cheeks flushed bright red like a tomato, trembling in embarrassment.
Was it the shame that was heating me up, or was it the sweat beading on my skin? Drops of sweat slid down along the well-defined abs that were spread in an 11-shaped line.
I handed her an iced juice. Claudia gulped it down instantly, crunching the ice right after. The glass was soon empty.
“See? You could have just done it three times. Why stubbornly hold on when you’re dying of embarrassment?”
“I said it was a hundred times. I have to keep my word.”
Since she was the one who wanted to do it, I couldn’t stop her. I finished off the last of the ‘Moon’s Kiss,’ letting its unique fragrance and taste slowly travel down my throat.
But I didn’t feel the harsh taste of alcohol at all. Instead, it felt much closer to a sweet beverage. Claudia stared blankly at me.
Her gaze was mixed with feelings of injustice and confusion.
“How come Delta is fine, while Lize… is like this?”
Claudia muttered in a disheartened voice. Her light pink eyes glanced at the bed behind me.
On the bed lay Lize, unconscious and exuding the smell of alcohol.
After I drank three glasses of ‘Moon’s Kiss’ and remained completely fine, it ended up being a catastrophe when Claudia snatched what I was drinking, thinking it might have gone bad, and downed it.
It was a tiny glass, and after stealing my half-finished drink, Lize effectively consumed only a pinky’s worth.
Just from that small amount, she became completely wasted. Meanwhile, I, who drank much more, was totally fine, which must have been confusing for Claudia.
“Is the bet over now?”
Just then, the door opened at the right moment. It was Iris and Erica, who said they would put the members to bed in their rooms.
Perhaps as a courtesy, the two had left after saying they’d return when Claudia had completed about ten punishments.
“…It’s over. I said it a hundred times for sure.”
“That’s a relief. From now on, don’t overestimate your drinking capacity, Claudia. As you just declared, you are indeed the pathetic knight commander who drinks weaker than Delta.”
“……”
Claudia blinked, seemingly shocked that Iris would mock her as well. Iris walked over to us with a sly smile.
“What should we do about that? Should we clear it out?”
Erica, who had just entered right after, made a disdainful expression upon seeing Lize sprawled on the bed, completely wasted.
Even the title she used to refer to Lize wasn’t even ‘Lize’ or ‘sis,’ but simply ‘that one,’ indicating how Erica regarded the current drunk state of Lize.
“As for Lize, we can just leave her here for the night, Erica.”
“What… well, I suppose that’s true. Understood.”
Iris pulled a bottle of wine from the fridge, popped the cork off with her thumb, and sat on the sofa holding the whole bottle. Her chest bounced with the motion.
Claudia also opened a new bottle of alcohol, looking gloomy. It appeared to be whiskey. Erica gently held a wine glass filled only to a quarter.
‘That’s what you call casual wear…’
Since each of them was wearing sleeveless tops that revealed rather prominent pink bumps through the fabric, I found it difficult to know where to look. If I looked down, my gaze would be captured by their extremely short dolphin shorts, which didn’t help either.
While I was searching for somewhere to focus my gaze, Iris, having drunk more than half the wine bottle already, was now staring intently at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“So, what was the secret you were hiding, Delta?”
“Secret? What secret?”
I dismissed her gaze as nothing significant. Iris smiled and downed the remaining wine in her glass.
“I’m confident that I know you to a certain extent. Given your personality, if you were that confident to accept the bet, there must’ve been something you were relying on. Now that the bet’s over, isn’t it time to share what that was?”
“From how you’re talking, it seems you have a good guess about what that reliance might be?”
“Perhaps so.”
We exchanged meaningful smiles. Claudia, who had already finished an entire bottle of whiskey and was picking up the next one, suddenly froze.
“Wait. I can’t follow the conversation? Reliance? Secret?”
“It’s simple.”
Iris pulled out a new bottle of wine from the fridge and twisted the cork to open it.
“After drinking ‘Moon’s Kiss’ in the Holy Kingdom, I researched a bit on my own. I was curious about what kind of drink could be that potent. Fortunately, there were records left by Minerva in the library.”
She lowered the bottle, revealing that more than half of its contents had vanished in an instant.
“‘Moon’s Kiss’ and ‘Radiant Sun’ are wines that become more potent inversely proportional to the divine power and faith of the person drinking them. The greater one’s divine power and faith, the lower the alcohol content, and the lesser it is, the higher the alcohol content. According to that book, it’s suggested that for the Pope, it’s only slightly stronger than this wine.”
Iris swirled the bottle with about one-third of its contents remaining.
“The reason only the Pope, Inquisitors, and Heretics can regularly consume ‘Moon’s Kiss’ is that those four possess the strongest divine power in the Holy Kingdom.”
Her silver eyes darted over to me, seeming to ask if her explanation was correct. I nodded. If it was from Minerva’s records, it wouldn’t be wrong at least.
There were no significant differences from what I knew.
However, since I single-handedly raised the average so drastically in the Holy Kingdom, how it would be affected now remained uncertain. I might expect more people to be able to handle it without getting drunk.
“……”
Claudia finally seemed to grasp the truth. Her mouth hung open in shock.
“If the strength of the wine is inversely proportional to the divine power, that means for Delta, the alcohol percentage was likely nothing significant. In other words, it means it was a bet that was impossible to win from the start. What do you think, Delta? Am I wrong in my explanation?”
“You got everything right—except for the part about it being insignificant to me. It wasn’t just insignificant; it was practically nothing. I only thought of it as a beverage.”
“I guess you heard that, Claudia?”
Iris grinned. Claudia’s expression began to turn into one of utter bemusement.
“Delta, you… knew? You knew and still took on the bet?”
“The one who suggested a real bet first was you, Claudia. It was you who should have let it slide when I said I don’t get drunk.”
“Ah, no, I—”
“Didn’t you really know that ‘Moon’s Kiss’ was that kind of drink? Or didn’t you know how strong Delta’s divine power was?”
While watching Claudia stutter, Erica, who had been sipping her wine, threw in a question.
“…I think you might have told me, but I don’t remember. Honestly, I thought I wouldn’t drink it again, so I didn’t pay much attention…”
Her voice gradually lowered. Thinking she wouldn’t drink it again really showcased Claudia’s character.
The shock of realizing it was a bet that was impossible to win seemed to have left her staring blankly at me for a while. Finally, she staggered to her feet and grabbed the glass containing ‘Moon’s Kiss.’
Before we could warn her, she downed it in one go.
“Forget, this… when I wake up, okay…?”
Her body slumped back onto the sofa. It seemed that she chose to escape reality, unable to bear the incoming feelings of shame and embarrassment.
With a sigh, Erica lifted Claudia and placed her beside Lize. Perhaps due to their height difference, Lize appeared even smaller than usual compared to Claudia.
Except for her chest.
“Now it’s just the three of us left.”
As the surroundings quieted, Iris calmly sipped her wine.
“That’s right. I heard everyone from the Silver Dawn Knights was attending this drinking party, so I thought it would get chaotic, but it ended up being chaotic in a different way. It’s actually quieter than usual.”
Not to mention Iris and Erica, even I lacked the ability to lead a conversation compared to Lize or Claudia. Thanks to that, an awkward silence hung in the air.
“……Is there anything left for us to do? Besides drinking?”
“Uh… I guess? Aside from just chatting a bit?”
While Erica and I fumbled to break the awkward atmosphere, Iris, who had been observing us while silently mumbling that there were only three of us left, finished off the bottle she had been holding.
The loud thud as the wine bottle met the table captured both of our attentions.
“Ugh, mmm…”
Then, she stood up, releasing an artificial moan that was painfully obvious and sat right next to me. Her thigh pressed tightly against mine.
“……What’s up, Iris?”
“Oh, I think I’m a bit drunk. I feel, um, a little dizzy…”
“Drunk?”
I scanned the surroundings. Iris had only drunk a few bottles of wine.
It was unlikely given the one monster-like Claudia was present; in objective terms, Iris also fell into the category of being quite strong when it came to alcohol. For Iris to get drunk off only a couple of bottles of wine? That’s absolutely absurd.
However, she was acting bashful while trying to feign drunkenness, subtly rubbing her chest against my arm, so her intent was obvious. I’m not someone who would miss such signals.
As Iris clung to me, continuously rubbing her chest and thighs, she turned her gaze to Erica.
“Hey, Erica, aren’t you drunk too?”
“Uh… I don’t think so? I haven’t drunk much.”
Seeing that Erica seemed to have picked up on Iris’s intent, she shook her head as if to draw a line. The hint of embarrassment on her flushed face indicated that she anticipated what might happen next.
“Really? Such an opportunity might not come around again?”
“…….”
My hesitations didn’t last long. After a brief pause, Erica glanced at Iris, who was rubbing herself against me, closed her eyes tightly, and emptied the glass in her hand.
“Ugh. Oh, I feel dizzy. I think I’m drunk.”
Then, she sat down next to me with a monotonous tone, her actions seeming strained.
I barely managed to stifle the laughter that threatened to escape me. Erica seemed to realize how poorly her performance was, her face trembling slightly.
“Both of you suddenly getting drunk is quite the event, isn’t it? What do you think the reason for that is?”
“……I didn’t plan to drink that much originally. But when I saw both Lize and Claudia pass out… I guess it just set the mood for it… No, forget it. I don’t know.”
“I… I feel the same… it felt like something ought to happen…”
So, they originally hadn’t planned on acting like this. But witnessing Lize and Claudia become unconscious led to this?
That was an entirely unexpected reason.
‘…Maybe they’re actually drunk?’
Iris wasn’t one to act purely based on atmosphere, and Erica wasn’t much different. Given that both of them were swept up in the ambiance, it felt like they had to be drunk.
“And, uh. Right. Didn’t we once say we would repay the favor from when you saved us with our bodies… well, that’s also on the table.”
“In this state? How are you going to do that?”
With her cheeks turned red, Iris began to carefully act.
