“Cheers!!”
The day after defeating the Great Serpent.
The village was holding an enthusiastic victory celebration.
I’d wondered whether celebrating the defeat of the Great Serpent — the village’s guardian, however nominally — was really appropriate, but……
Apparently the Serpent hadn’t so much actively protected the village as simply claimed the area as its territory.
On top of that, when it lost its mind it had eaten several of the warriors, so nobody was too broken up about it.
“Come now, Lord Viktor — have a drink!”
“What’s this?”
What the chief held out to me was a wooden cup filled with a purple liquid.
That smell, that color — could this be……
“Wine, imported from the Elves.”
“Ohh!! They have that in the Great Forest!”
“We only drink it at the harvest festival — it’s quite a precious thing. Please, go ahead.”
I took a sip as offered, and it was better than I expected.
This was something else — the kind of thing you’d rarely get even at a noble gathering!
A twenty-year vintage served on the occasion I’d visited a ducal house once. That had been the best wine I’d ever had.
This surpassed it without effort.
“Rich in aroma, deep in flavor, and the alcohol is so smooth. That’s Elven craftsmanship for you……”
“Quite something, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Can you import a lot of this?”
“Our village is far from Elven territory, and you have to pass through a dangerous place called the Bleached Bone Swamp to get there. We can only buy it when their trading caravans come to us.”
So it wasn’t something you could buy whenever you wanted……
I didn’t particularly think of myself as a drinker, but that was a little disappointing.
Eventually I’d like to put together our own caravan and go shopping over there.
Though that would have to wait until after dealing with the Goblin King.
“Hey, the main course is ready!”
“Draining the blood was an absolute nightmare, just so you know!”
Ganz and the others came carrying a massive slab of meat.
Great Serpent meat, carefully bled out and roasted to a beautiful golden-brown steak.
The savory aroma wafted over immediately — this was going to be something……!!
A small piece went into my mouth, and flavor flooded it instantly.
“Mmmmm!! Delicious! It’s almost like a really good chicken!”
“Remarkable! After so long without meat, this goes right to the bones……!”
“Incredible, this is incredible!!”
The Kobolds, a carnivorous species who had gone far too long without meat, were instantly lit up.
They threw piece after piece into their mouths and tore through it at tremendous speed.
Even Chief Mumul, who was surely getting on in years, was eating with remarkable gusto.
The steak, which had been cut into generous pieces, vanished in no time.
“……Oh. When you were breaking down the Serpent’s body, did anything seem out of the ordinary?”
“Out of the ordinary?”
“Right. I thought I’d investigate while I could — try to figure out why the Great Serpent went wrong.”
“Ah, that makes sense. Though we never knew it when it was normal, so it’s hard to say.”
“Nothing really struck me as strange……. Oh, but there was one thing I noticed.”
At that, Misha said it like something had just come to her.
She pulled a scale — presumably from the Great Serpent — out from her pocket.
“Lord Viktor, you make golems so you probably know what I mean. This scale looks like it’s been mana-scorched.”
Mana-scorching was what happened when a material underwent changes from prolonged exposure to intense mana.
The scale she produced was indeed stained a peculiarly vivid green in places.
Safe to say it had been exposed to extremely dense mana.
Even in the Great Forest, that level of mana concentration should be unusual.
“This……could there be a mana pool somewhere in that rocky mountain?”
“Maybe. Monsters going wrong when they’re affected by mana — that does happen sometimes.”
“Hmm……in that case, allow us to look into it. We have our mining operations on the mountain, so.”
The chief offered to handle the investigation.
For now, leaving it to them should be fine.
We could go ourselves, but we didn’t know the terrain, and there was plenty of other work to get on with.
“Anyway, let’s put the hard questions aside and just enjoy ourselves today.”
“Right! Ganz, would you like some of this wine?”
“Absolutely — thank you!”
With that, Ganz drained the wine in one go.
He held the empty cup with an expression of pure satisfaction.
“Ahhhh, nothing better! Alcohol really is the water of life!”
“Pour some for me too!”
“Here you go!”
And so Ganz and the others joined in the drinking properly.
Right then, Alicia, who had been standing guard at my side, began to wear an expression that could only be described as longing.
“Ugh……! If only I weren’t on duty……!”
“It’s fine if you have a drink.”
“It is not! With Makina out of action, if I drink I won’t be able to respond properly if something happens.”
She was completely right.
And yet her expression was, well……
How to put it — the struggle she was putting herself through was written plain as day across her face.
“The Lancelot-types are still out there. A little bit is fine.”
“Lord Viktor, but……”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Then……!!”
Alicia slowly raised the cup to her lips and drank the wine.
And immediately her expression softened, and……
“Ahhhhh!! That’s delicious!!“
Like throwing off the mask of a disciplined knight, Alicia broke into a radiant smile.
She knocked back the cup and immediately started pouring herself another.
“Ah yeah, our leader takes all the stress from a fight and dumps it into alcohol. This is going to get bad.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah. I’m going to step back a bit.”
Sensing the danger, Misha and Ganz promptly put some distance between themselves and her.
This was bad — I needed to get out too……!
Right as I thought it, a hand clamped firmly down on my shoulder.
“Lord Viktor, you’re drinking too — keep up! I’ll pour for you!”
“No, I’m not really——!”
“A lord must demonstrate his capacity!”
Spouting something vaguely authoritative, Alicia poured the drink on me.
By the end, I spent the rest of the day drinking until late and woke up with a hangover.