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As the two of us came up with the menu and prepared a party-use table cloth and decorative flowers in a panic, two weeks quickly passed.

「We set the date at two weeks just to make sure, but somehow, it still felt quite quick.」
「I know, really. But yeah, I’m glad that the flowers made it in time.」

Since there aren’t really a lot of flowers in this season, the florist we rushed into even told us 「As this is somewhat abrupt, we may not be able to meet your expectations, alright?」.

But luckily, we didn’t need a lot, so they somehow managed to prepare them this morning. Man, that was cutting close. Thank you, random florist. We’ll be in your care this coming spring when we need seeds and stuff to fix up our garden’s flower bed.

「As I thought, having flowers really makes a huge difference.」
「Yeah. Oops, we probably should move the chairs and start preparing now or we might not finish in time.」
「Then I’ll go ahead with the preparations, so please handle the furniture arrangement, Natsuki.」

Today’s party is in a stand-up buffet style. At first, we thought of having seats, but we felt that it might make the party seem too formal, so we didn’t go with it. Besides, Ruti and I naturally don’t know if there are seating etiquettes or stuff like that.

After Ruti went to prepare, I moved aside the floral decors for now and arranged the tables and chairs by myself. After all, I’m the one more suited for heavy work.

But now that I think about it, we do the opposite when setting up camp, right?…… Why was it again? ……Ah, that’s right, I wanted to do the cooking so I can practice with my breath. Since we’re in a different situation now, we should do the opposite the next time we go out camping.

By the time we had a chance to breathe after finishing the preparations, I heard a knock on the door.

「Hm? Wait, it’s already this late? The preparations really took a lot of time, huh.」
「Hey now, no time for idling, let’s hurry up and welcome them in. We’re the ones that invited them, you know?」

Whoops, my bad. They even came here in the middle of this cold weather, we should hurry up.

「Good evenin~g. Than~ks for having us toda~y.」
「Good evening. Thanks for inviting Cain over too.」
「Yo. Thanks for today. Really looking forward to some good food. By the way, since we’re celebrating, take this.」

「Wow, thanks. Since we’re already here, let’s have some of this with everyone.」

The guys from the café just arrived. And since Ryzna-san didn’t come with them, it looks like he really is going to be late.
Cain brought with him some good-looking alcohol but this, this looks like distilled stuff……
Looks really tasty but it’s probably strong, I should be careful with this.

「It looks like we made it in time.」
「Please arrange your schedule so you can finish your work with more time to spare. We barely avoided being late, you know?」
「The leader is careless in some ways after all. Well, we got here on time, so no need to fuss on the details, right?」
「Yup, yup. And hey, we should greet the princesses now.」

「Good evening. Thank you for coming today. Come, it’s cold, isn’t it? Let’s hurry inside.」

Everyone from the Order of Mages arrived in a perfect time. With this, all that’s left is Ryzna-san. I feel a bit bad about it, but we should probably start now. It’s not good to make the others wait too, after all.

Still, the guys from the order brought a gift as well, but to think it would be alcohol too…… This one seems good too, so I might end up drinking too much and that will be scary.

I asked Ruti to introduce the café guys and the order people to each other, and I began bringing in the food. Really, who could have thought that my past experience with working part-time in dining halls would come in useful not only in the café but in my own home as well. You never really know what comes in handy.

「As expected of a professional. To think that one can carry that much. May I assist?」
「Ah, sorr~y. I’ll help out to~o.」

As I was bringing in the food, Nera-san and Chris went out of their way and called out to me.

「It’s fine, don’t worry about it. You’re the guests today, so make yourself at home. Also, Nera-san, I’m probably the only one that can carry things like this, you know?」
「That’s ri~ght, it’s probably impossible for m~e and Firu-san to d~o.」

Both of my hands carry, not plates but trays, three on each, while my tail carries an ice pail and a pot. It’s a power move made possible by my experience and physical capabilities.
Particularly carrying a tray between the pinky and the ring finger while keeping it balanced is something I’m confident that only I can do.

Soon enough, I finished bringing in the food and giving everyone a glass.

「Then once again, thank you for coming, everyone. We did our best with the food as thanks for every day, so enjoy.」
「Other than the alcohol, we prepared various other drinks as well, so please feel free to have a drink.」

Cheers!¹ With that, the party began.

「Mmmn! We tried buying the fruit wine that we were curious about for a long time ago, but it’s a jackpot!」
「It’s a bit expensive for casual drinking, so we didn’t buy it, you see?」
「So you used the party as an excuse then? Geez, how shrewd.」

「Ehehe. But it’s fine, isn’t it? You got to drink something good after all, leader. You haven’t had alcohol in a while since you’re busy with work, right? Then isn’t it great that you get to drink some good stuff?」
「Now that you’ve mentioned it, it really has been a while, hasn’t it…… Which reminds me, I’ve eaten some of the food already but it definitely tastes like something that would go well with a drink.」

「Well that’s because, you know, alcohol and food are best enjoyed together after all. Overall, we made them to go with the alcohol, so feel free to enjoy everything.」
「I see. Then I’ll do as you say and indulge myself on the food and drinks.」

Considering his standing, the leader definitely has had really good food before, so I was concerned that it wouldn’t suit his taste, but it seems like there’s nothing to worry about. The others seem to be enjoying the food too, so I’m really glad to see that.

As we were eating and drinking, Kerry was glared at by a smiling Nera-san when he was about to make a pass at Chris, Jeff and Cain surprisingly hit it off with each other and were making a racket, and we were enjoying all the amusing stuff happening when a knock resounded from the door.

「Good evening. I’m sorry for being late.」
「Ryzna-san, welcome in. That’s my line, sorry for starting ahead without you.」
「Ryzna-san, you’re late! Here! Guide the customer’s guest in!」
「Ye~s! With pleasu~re!」

Huh, before I realized it, Firu is already pretty drunk. Or rather, Chris…… Are you okay? I don’t really see her as someone good with alcohol.
Also, that exchange is a bit wrong, you know?

「This is…… I probably need to up my drinking pace if I want to catch up with them, don’t I?」
「Well…… But it’s fine even if you don’t push yourself, okay?」

Firu, Chris, and basically everybody else are pretty drunk, but as we introduced Ryzna-san, they quickly had another toast.

And as I went to get more food again, I noticed that the food got quite cold.
Just to be sure, we’ve taken this into account when we chose what to cook but it’s still true that these taste better when warm after all. Still, there isn’t really anything like a microwave here, so yeah. It can’t be helped, huh.

「H~e~y, Natsuki, what’s wron~g?」
「Nothing, it’s just that the food got cold…… Hm?」

Ruti rode on my back while asking me so. I nonchalantly replied to her but her tone is different from the usual. Besides that, even though she often puts her arms around mine, she’s never made me piggyback her before.
Feeling something off, I turned to look at her and right before me was her glazed eyes.

「Ruti, have you been drinking a lot?」
「Well of course I’m drinkin~g. It’s the first time I tasted it, but that distilled(?) fruit wine or whatchamacallit was deliciou~s.」

Ahh, so that thing Cain and the others brought was some kind of brandy then. I already expected it to be something distilled, but that’s pretty expensive……
Distilled alcohol, not just brandy, are delicious in general. They went on their way to bring it after all, so maybe I should have some too.

……Wait, the contents of the bottle decreased by a lot but how much did she really drink out of it?

「There’s only a third left in the bottle, you didn’t just drink all of that, right?」
「Of cours~e not, Cain drank some as well, so I likely had about half at mos~t.」

That’s still a third of it, isn’t it!? Nooo! Ruti already drank a lot of the fruit wine, so I really think that she already had too much. Still, I haven’t seen Ruti drink herself to her limit yet, so maybe she’s still unexpectedly fine? Well, I guess compared to Cain who can’t even speak straight anymore, she’s probably doing well.

Either way, there’s nothing I can do since it already happened, so I decided to try some too while still carrying Ruti behind me, who’s rubbing her horns with mine.

Gaah!? Since it had a gentle sweet smell, I swallowed it in one gulp and the next instant, my throat burned up. It’s delicious, but it’s damn strong.

「Uwhaha! Supaised, Natsukee? It’z pure frej cask, zo id’s goo bat trongg.²」

Seeing me reel back, Cain laughs at me. Rather, fresh cask? Is this the so-called cask strength stuff in whiskey? First time I had any.
Well with how strong this is, it’s no wonder that Cain and Ruti got this drunk……

「S~o, if the food is cold then you just need to heat them up, righ~t?」
「You say that like it’s simple, but how do we heat it up?」
「Just like thi~s…… Zoi!」

The food on the table immediately began letting out steam. Contrary to her hilariously dumb sounding yell, her precision is ridiculous. Is she really even drunk…… I’m somewhat losing confidence, in a lot of ways.
Ah, the order guys turned a bit sober. Well, that’s understandable.

「I’ve already thought of this before, but in what world did you two even come from, princess?」
「Even if you ask me…… I can’t do that much too, you know.」
「Even though you say that, somehow your standards feel different from ours to begin with, yeah?」

Jeff and Kerry are pretty mean. You say that but you two win more times during training. Geez.

After that, we continued drinking and chatting around until some of us gradually drank themselves unconscious.

「I get Cain, Firu, and Chris but I didn’t expect the leader to get knocked out.」
「It’s likely his first drink in a while after all and there’s his fatigue from work as well.」
「Even though it might be just paperwork, having a lot of it is still pretty tough. Should we have the leader stay overnight?」
「No, I’ll carry him home. Please prioritize the others instead.」

Nera-san is pretty red but she can still talk properly and is still clear-minded. In that case, it’s probably fine.

「We should probably have the café closed tomorrow. By the looks of it, Natsuki-chan is probably the only one that would be able to work properly after all.」
「Sorry about it. That’ll help out a lot. It might be best to have these three stays over tonight but what about you Ryzna-san?」
「I’m doing okay, so I’ll be going home. I also need to get in touch for tomorrow after all.」

Ryzna-san is fine too, so he’s going home. It seems like he’s going to put the café on a holiday tomorrow and I feel a bit bad about that. After that, the last ones still fine are Jeff and Kerry but just barely. Ruti is clinging onto me and mumbling something so I guess she’s anything but fine in her case.

「Well then, it’s about time, so let’s end it here. I’m really glad you all came today. Take care on your way home, okay?」

Today was pretty fun, see you! I saw everyone off as they went home.
I feel like we overdid it a bit, but I’m glad that everyone seemed to have enjoyed it.

Now then, I should carry the others that are left to the bedroom and the guest room. And maybe take care of their hangover tomorrow, I guess?

1. Fire: Kanpai!
2. “Surprised natsuki? It’s pure fresh cask, so it’s good but strong”