Just Us Party (2)
The delicious sizzle filled the air as the once-bright-red meat turned a perfect golden brown.
- Sssssss….
Occasional drops of fat would hit the flames and send sparks shooting upward, but even that was its own kind of fun.
After all, everything’s more enjoyable when you’re hanging out with close friends.
I wandered around energetically, poking my nose into everything.
“Claire! How long are you going to keep grilling meat?”
“Ah. I’m fine, so please eat first.”
“Huh? No, grill some vegetables too.”
Mushrooms, green onions, potatoes, carrots, and some fantasy vegetable I couldn’t even name were all tossed onto the grill.
Meat is great, but vegetables are delicious too.
Not because of some health lecture. Just because they taste good.
While we were all messing around, the Goddess quietly slipped out of her room and joined us.
“Goddess, you’re here?”
“Yes. It’s nice to see everyone having such a lively time.”
“Hehe. Right? Want a piece of meat? Oh, wait. Can you even eat, Goddess?”
“Yes. My current body is no different from a human’s. I don’t strictly need to eat, but I can if I want to.”
“Claire! Grill the best piece for her!”
Wait… if her body’s exactly like a human’s, does that mean she poops too?
The question flashed through my mind for a second before I shook it off.
Beautiful girls don’t use the bathroom. Same goes for goddesses. Got it?
- G-Goddess?! Please wait just a moment. I will devote my humble skills to grilling this perfectly!
- It’s alright. Take your time.
A small commotion broke out near the grill. Well, it was just typical Claire behavior, so there was no need to pay it any mind.
I took a sip from my cup and gazed out at the yard.
With Faye and the Goddess added to our party, we were only five people total.
It was a tiny gathering, but that made it feel all the more comfortable.
At the table set up in the middle of the yard, Theo and Faye sat facing each other, chatting away.
I wondered what they were talking about. Maybe I’d eavesdrop a little.
“Theo, thank you so much for yesterday!”
“Ah, you mean when I went to help? It was nothing. I wasn’t the only one.”
“But I heard you were the first one to step up and say we should help, right? If we’d been even a little late, things could have gone really badly. I was only safe because of you.”
“Huh? Wait. What are you talking about?”
“What? I’m saying your timing was perfect…”
“No, not that part. The part before that.”
“That you were the first to suggest helping?”
“Yeah. That. Who told you that?”
“Luna said so. She told me you didn’t hesitate at all and immediately said we should help, which is why we could get there so quickly.”
“Luna did?”
Oh? My name’s coming up now?
Theo turned his head and looked straight at me.
His gaze was full of suspicion, like he was asking what the hell I was scheming.
Ehehe. How rude.
I was carefully building up his favorability in these small ways to create an opening for him to pursue Faye, and here he was doubting my deep, thoughtful consideration. Am I supposed to be sad now?
I lightly waved at him and took another sip from my cup.
What kind of alcohol is this? It’s really good.
I picked up the bottle beside me and checked the label. Be…nos? Obviously not a brand I recognized from Earth.
Still, it gave off a luxurious vibe. Did Faye bring it?
I took another swig and picked up my fork.
But no matter how much I scraped the plate, nothing landed on the tines.
Oh. Did I already finish all the meat I brought over?
I glanced toward the grill.
Claire was staring at the cooking meat with such intensity it looked like she was trying to grill it with her eyes alone. Even though the rising smoke must have stung her eyes, she didn’t blink once.
She was probably concentrating because the Goddess said she’d eat some. If I went over now, I’d only get in the way.
Guess I have no choice. I’ll just keep drinking until that meat is done.
Lucky for me, this booze is subtly sweet, so it goes down easy even without snacks.
- Glug glug….
I refilled my empty cup. Back on Earth, people would throw a fit if you poured your own drinks, calling it bad manners, but it seemed like that custom didn’t exist here.
Sip.
Yep. Still delicious.
“So anyway, that’s when I…”
“Really? That happened too, huh.”
Theo listened quietly to Faye’s stories, nodding along.
Faye seemed a little tipsy, talking at least twice as much as usual.
Still, she was so cheerful about it that it wasn’t boring to listen to at all.
After chatting like that for a while, we realized the food had run out.
When Faye saw the completely empty plates, she said with genuine surprise, “Huh? The plates are empty!”
“Well, yeah. We ate everything, so of course they’re empty.”
“No, at normal social parties the plates rarely ever empty out. There’s more conversation than eating, and servants keep refilling them whenever the portions get low.”
“So an empty plate is surprising to you? The world nobles live in really is different.”
“Hehe. I say that, but I haven’t been to many myself. Our family didn’t get invited very often.”
Faye stood up, holding the empty plates.
“I’ll go get some more. There should still be plenty left… Huh? The Goddess came out?”
The Goddess usually stayed inside the hideout.
She wasn’t particularly avoiding people, and she often came out of her room even without a specific reason.
Still, for some reason she didn’t cross paths with others very often. I wasn’t sure if it was because she had nothing to talk about, but that was how it was.
“The Goddess comes to parties like this too! Theo! I’m gonna go talk with her for a bit!”
“Sure. You don’t need my permission.”
Faye ran over to the Goddess with a bright smile. Theo was left alone.
“Phew. Finally some quiet.”
As I’d said before, Theo wasn’t the type who particularly enjoyed socializing.
He’d grown close to Faye over time, so talking with her wasn’t burdensome, but today she had been even chattier than usual.
Theo lifted his cup, savoring the peaceful silence that felt almost nostalgic…
“Hey! What are you doing over there by yourself!”
…Or at least he tried to.
Whether she’d been waiting for Faye to leave or it was pure coincidence, the moment Faye was gone, Luna latched onto him.
Physically.
“…Hey. You’re touching me.”
Unlike Faye, who had been sitting across the table, Luna pressed right up against his side, practically hugging him.
The soft, squishy sensation against his arm. Because of the thin clothes Luna was wearing, he could feel the warmth of her bare skin directly.
“Hm? Oh, yeah. That is pretty close. I should move… Huh? Wait?”
When Theo spoke, Luna tried to put some distance between them, but her body wouldn’t listen.
The world was spinning strangely. She was swaying, unable to keep her balance. Anyone could see she was far from sober.
Only then did Theo notice the bottle in Luna’s hand. It was already completely empty.
“Just how much did she drink to end up like this?”
He took the bottle from her and checked the label, then froze in shock.
“This is Benos?”
Strictly speaking, Benos wasn’t a single brand but an entire label. Any alcohol made and sold by the Benos Trading Company was collectively called Benos.
Benos liquor was sweet and didn’t have much of that sharp alcoholic bite. It was made that way according to the company president’s preference, which led to extremely polarized opinions.
Sweet, with almost no alcoholic aftertaste.
Whether the president knew it or not, this characteristic made Benos famous by another name.
Because if you drank it without thinking, you’d get drunk before you knew it. So people called it ‘Lady Killer.’
In other words, it was basically just the real-world Lady Killer cocktail with some fancy fantasy lore slapped on top.
And Luna had been chugging it straight from the bottle. No wonder she was like this.
“Luna. How much of this did you drink?”
“Mmm? I dunno… One… twooo… Hehe. I don’t really remember.”
At first it had only been ‘you’re touching me’ level, but now she was leaning her full weight against him, pressing and squeezing.
“Move a little… Ugh. Seriously. Why do you have to be so strong for no reason?”
Theo grabbed her shoulders and tried to push her away, but it was hopeless.
Rabbit beastmen were known for their incredible leg strength, but that didn’t mean the rest of their bodies were weak. Luna’s arms, wrapped tightly around him, couldn’t be pried off by the strength of an ordinary human man.
“Ehehe~”
Seeing Theo’s troubled reaction, Luna grinned brightly and shoved her face right in front of his.
Her fluffy rabbit ears swayed back and forth, brushing against his face.
Those white, soft ears covered in silky fur carried a pleasant scent. Though right now the smell of alcohol was pretty strong.
“What the hell. What do you want from me?”
“Pet me!”
“Haa…”
When he’d been talking with Faye, she talked a lot but it hadn’t felt tiring.
But the moment drunk Luna showed up, exhaustion hit him like a truck.
Arguing with her would be even more exhausting. It’d probably be better to just do what she wanted.
His fingers slipped through her snow-white hair.
It was incredibly long and voluminous, yet silky smooth without a single damaged strand.
Every time he stroked her rabbit ears, they would twitch and tremble, but she’d only push her head closer. It didn’t seem like she disliked it.
“Mmm~”
A soft, satisfied hum escaped from Luna as he petted her.
There was some kind of melody to it, but it was a song he’d never heard before.
Luna hummed happily and tilted the bottle again.
“Wait, hold on. Where did you get another one?”
“Ah. My secret stas…”
Theo quickly snatched the bottle away. It was a completely different drink from the empty one she’d been holding earlier.
He had no idea where she’d gotten it from. He’d been watching her the whole time?
Already drunk, Luna’s condition grew even worse after pouring more alcohol into herself.
If her face had only been flushed before, now even her eyes were slightly unfocused.
“…This isn’t good.”
Theo hoisted Luna onto his back. He planned to toss her into her room and come right back.
It wouldn’t take long since he was just dropping her off. He didn’t bother telling the others.
He entered the building and headed for Luna’s room.
Her room was rather plain. She already had a dorm room anyway, and she’d never been the type to care much about decorating.
He laid her down on the bed, one of the few pieces of furniture in the room.
Doing his best not to notice how her dress had slipped out of place, he turned around.
But there was one thing Theo didn’t know.
Beastmen with superior physical abilities were naturally resistant to alcohol.
Unlike humans, beastmen had an extra stage before they reached total incoherence.
The ‘completely wasted’ state that humans usually showed was stage two.
Stage one was when instinct swelled up and overwhelmed reason. In other words, they would rationally pursue their instincts.
Stage One: Reason yields to primal desire.
The body moves according to instinct.
A sly grin.
In a spot where Theo couldn’t see, the corners of Luna’s mouth curled upward.
