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Within the darkness, I was awakened by an offensive smell that assaulted my nose. I was familiar with what it was… Alcohol.

“Bleh!? Eugh, cough!”

I could more or less handle it in the past life, but my current body was extremely repulsed by alcohol so even the very smell of it was akin to poison. I immediately opened my eyes and leapt up.

“Oh, she’s awake.”
“Nicole, you’ve really started developing that fainting disposition lately.”

Letina was worriedly looking down at me as I was lying on the bed, with Maria holding an alcohol bottle in her hands next to her.

I was supposed to be at the training grounds, but I could see the ceiling above… It seems that I was carried into the resting room in the barracks while I was unconscious.

Maria innocently crammed that luxurious bottle, clearly not suited for this trip, into her bag. Seeing that, one of the knight’s face turned indescribably sad.

“Mom, ish zat alcohol…?”
“That’s right. They gave me a spare from the barracks to bring you around.“
“Ah, no, It’s not like we gave it… No, nevermind…”

So basically, she sniped some alcohol from the knights under the pretext of resuscitating me, and then she just kept it with no questions asked. I felt bad for the knights, since they couldn’t even object to her, one of the Six Heroes.

Also, I was speaking kind of funny. It seems that the smell had intoxicated me quite a bit already.

“You can’t go taking other people’s things, you know?”
“It’s okay. This is simply a gift.”
“Ugh… I can’t even say anything.”
“You poor thing…”
”Since Maxwell asked them for a favor already, he’ll just treat them for some alcohol later.”
“Hey, I never said a word about that.”

She casually took out the booze from the bag once again and poured a cup for him. Then she pressed that cup at him, clearly not taking a no for the answer.

She was telling him to drink… Just to get him rolled up into this mess. Maxwell, of course, noticed that too. He did… But he just sighed and downed the cup in one go.

“Oh well, a few bottles should be within the margin of error. I do not mind that much. They even had to show concern to Nicole.”
“I’m shoorry about zattt…”

My vision was spinning around, perhaps as an after-effect of bumping my head. In the first place, I of past life wouldn’t have fainted from something like a rock.

It was unlike me to take so much damage from a rock that I disregarded as harmless. As Maria said, maybe I was growing accustomed to fainting.

“I’ll go bahh to shleep.”
“You probably should, yes. Seems like you are a little drunk as well.”
“Yeah.”
“But still, to get drunk from just the smell. It seems alcohol is no good for you. Probably best to educate you about it before you get ‘taken home’ by someone.”
“I’ll leave that to you, Cortina. I seem to have grown a bit tame in the countryside.”
“A black-hearted woman like you shouldn’t be saying that…”

Now that I think about it, I got smashed with a single gulp before, didn’t I? Looks like this body is really that weak against alcohol. Some guys could seriously get me drunk just like Cortina suggested.

I made a mental promise not to ever drink with men, and once again closed my eyes.

As the night came, my eyes shot open.

It was probably about 10 PM if I had to guess. Usually, it would’ve been noisier at this hour, but the students were already sleeping after tiring themselves out during the day.

Letina was no exception. As expected of the famous Sword Kingdom, making even children train to the point of fainting. I experienced their spartan methods more than enough.

“You are awake, right?”

In a room with no lights to let the children sleep soundly, an out-of-place, rough voice was heard. I was familiar with that voice.

“Is that you, Maxwell’s familiar?”
“Indeed. It seems you remember me.”

It was a high-ranking familiar that possessed an ego. It was sitting at the window-side. Next to it was Kabby looking quite tense. Its fur was weirdly ruffled up too.

“What’s up with its fur?”
“…Well, the kids…”

The pigeon answered with an unusually listless voice. If there were a giant hamster and a talking pigeon in a room with kids, they would naturally treat them as toys.

Either way, Maxwell probably would tell my parents and Cortina that I woke up now.

No, wait…

“Maybe he won’t…”

Tonight, I had to visit the blacksmith and have my trusty gauntlets fixed. Now that all the other kids were tired and in a deep sleep, it could be said to be a perfect chance for it.

The moment I judged that to be the case, I heard Maxwell’s voice through the pigeon.

“Nicole, are you awake?”
“Oh, Maxwell. Yeah, just woke up.”
“Good to hear.”

According to him, he was also alone now. Maria and Cortina were having their girls-only drinking party in their own room. Lyell and Gadius were hitting it off with the knights, having stormed the banquet hall and having a drinking bout.

“As such, this is your chance. The destination is close from here, right?”
“Yeah, we would need about 3 hours to get there.”
“In that case, we better move with haste. It seems like everyone is asleep on your side.”
“…Now that you mention it, you are actually peeking into the girls’ room through your familiar right now, aren’t you?”
“Don’t make it sound so improper!”

He’s been teasing me all the time, so I wanted to get back at him this once.