A Night of Revelry

I looked up at the man, doubting my ears.
It was hard to believe that the words had come from his cold, tightly sealed lips.

“…Really? You’ll tell me, beforehand?”

“Sometimes.”

“Are you kidding me? Tell me always, always!”

The sorrow I had been holding back surged up.

“Do you hate talking to me that much? Even so, we can exchange a few words sometimes!”

I burst out in anger and felt relieved on my own, but then I flinched as I felt a steady gaze.

“……”

The corners of his lips, which always maintained a straight line, were curved up in a subtle arc.
As I shrunk my neck at the inexplicable sense of foreboding, he lowered his head slightly and approached, whispering as if telling a secret.

“If you get to talking with me, you’ll have to mix more than just words.”

“…What?”

“If that’s what you want. I’d be happy to…”

“No?! Let’s not mix anything. Pretend you didn’t hear that!”

Terrified, I hugged my knees tightly and desperately turned away, and I heard a faint whoosh from behind.
Thinking I had misheard, I turned back, but the man had already stood up and turned his back.

“If you go back the way you came, the Sura will be waiting at the edge of the forest.”

A cool voice came over his shoulder, as if nothing had happened.

“If they ask you how the trial was, answer that it was simple.”

Before I could even ask why, Karvan, who had spat out the words like an unfriendly tutorial, disappeared with a slither.

‘…He’s so selfish anyway.’
‘If he were an NPC, this game would have been ruined a long time ago.’

I looked reluctantly at the mist that was receding, leaving a long trail, and then got up to follow.
Beyond the towering trees, sunlight was streaming in.

“Stop!”

As I trudged out of the Forest of Trials, the Sura who were pacing back and forth looked at me with wide eyes.

“You, you, what are you!”

It was the expression of someone who had witnessed a corpse, who had already been mourned for three days, walking out of its coffin.
With his tail tucked tightly between his legs, he pointed a trembling iron sword straight at me.

“If you’re alive, speak!”

“…Speak?”

As I muttered after him blankly, his jaw dropped.

‘So beast-kin also get implants.’

As I was glancing at the sparkling gold tooth in his wide-open mouth, a scream erupted a beat late.

“D-did you really come back? From the Forest of Trials?”

“H-how…?”

Suddenly, Karvan’s words came to mind.

“If they ask you how the trial was, answer that it was simple.”

I shrugged my shoulders at the Varg who were asking me haltingly.
With a prim and pretentious expression as a bonus.

“Well, it was easy.”

I became the talk of the town in Bahalgras.
Actually, I always was, but this time it was in a positive sense.

They said I was the only outsider who had returned alive from the trial that even the previous Valta had struggled with.

“To have returned from that fiery hell of a forest without a single wound!”

‘…Is that fiery hell referring to that deer?’
I thought of the Fire Deer that had charged at me, swinging its flaming horns as if playing with fire.
It was a good thing Karvan had blocked the Observer; if it had been in a strengthened state due to their passive, I would have been roasted whole too.

“My name is Amundu. I’ve wanted to greet you for a while, but I didn’t have the chance…”

“I formally greet you, prospective Valtael.”

“You idiot, of course she will be, what’s with the ‘prospective’! Valtael, please forgive the words of an ignorant fool.”

Karvan’s words were accurate.

After going through their own objective and traditional certification of the ‘trial,’ they naturally gave me a place.
It felt like a past life when they had hissed and kept their distance like wary stray cats.

“Valtael! Please tell us the story one more time!”

“Again?”

“Ah, we haven’t heard it! So how did you roast those guys?”

As I told the story of the fight in the Forest of Trials with a bit of exaggeration, they were overjoyed, completely hooked.
They were stomping their feet, hitting the table, it was a commotion.

In any case, I was immediately accepted as a member of Bahalgras.

“Valtael. Please accept a cup of a warrior’s drink.”

“My cup too, please!”

As cups were offered from all sides, I accepted them without thinking.

‘…Isn’t this blood soup?’
I swallowed a scream at the sight of the bright red contents.
Unidentifiable lumps were floating around.

It was a horrifying visual, but I couldn’t resist the sparkling gazes and chugged it down.

They say that the Varg only recognize someone as a trustworthy kin after sharing a cup of drink.
So I accepted everything they gave me.

“Shinbi-nim, you don’t have to with the underlings…”

Tegen whispered disapprovingly, but when I smiled and said to let it go for just one day, he didn’t stop me anymore.

The visual was a bit much, but the taste wasn’t bad.
It was refreshing, like a drink made from crushed berries.

‘It should be fine.’
‘I’ve eaten all sorts of things to survive while on the run from the Observer, and I never got sick once.’

“…Hiccup.”

But I hadn’t expected to get drunk.

‘Ah, it’s spinning.’

The world was spinning, but it felt great.

According to Tegen, the alcohol content wasn’t high because they had to go hunting the next day even after drinking heavily.

“Oh, you seem to be drunk. It’s my victory!”

The aftertaste was certainly clean and good.
But I got caught up in the atmosphere and drank one after another, and ended up getting drunk.

“Ugh, I lost. Why are you so good at drinking.”

“This guy is actually the best drinker in Bahalgras!”

“What, you said you couldn’t drink. You tricked me!”

“Hahahaha! But it was a pretty good match!”

I chattered nonsensically with the Varg.

We were in the middle of a heated debate about whether the Fire Deer’s horns were cooked or raw.

“…Shinbi-nim.”

Just then, someone cautiously grabbed my shoulder.

It was Mashak, with an anxious expression.

“Don’t you think you should go up now. There was an order from Valta to let you rest.”

Normally, I would have listened meekly since it was a doctor’s words, but since it was Karvan’s order, a rebellious streak suddenly surged.

The atmosphere was also great.

“Can’t I stay a little longer? It’s not like this kind of opportunity comes often.”

“But, if you drink so much right after a battle…”

“Hey! She said she wants to stay longer!”

“Yeah! He’s a doctor, so he’s no fun.”

“…Then how about lying down and resting for a moment? Your cheeks are too red.”

Even as he was booed for killing the mood, Mashak stubbornly suggested.
It was the desperate look of someone watching a patient who should be lying in bed wandering around barefoot.

Well, if something happened to me, Mashak, as the doctor, would be questioned.
I meekly nodded and put down my cup.

I didn’t realize it while I was drinking, but as soon as I took a short break, the drunkenness hit me, and my head was spinning.
As I was hiccuping and lying on the table, Mashak draped a blanket over my shoulders.

“…is… so…”

My body was hot from the alcohol, and as I was listening to the murmuring voices, I felt sleepy.

“Shinbi-nim.”

Mashak, the best doctor in Bahalgras, called out to the woman lying on her stomach with anxious eyes.

“…Valtael.”

Sniffle, sniffle.
The shoulders covered by the blanket moved regularly.
I should have been more firm in telling her to go up and sleep.
He looked at the small body with a troubled expression, regretting it.

His first impression of the Valtael was ‘frail.’

It was understandable.
A hair color reminiscent of cherry blossoms, and rosy cheeks.
Fair and smooth skin.

A small frame, even considering she was a female.

A slender build.
Even when he checked her pulse, her heartbeat was slow, and her body temperature was too low for a beast-kin.
She had lived with humans for a long time, but her human scent was also too strong.

Lowly suspicions kept popping up, but he kept his mouth shut.
Thinking that Valta must have his reasons.

“She was cutting the Nemea’s nails! In the middle of that corpse-strewn corridor! So calmly!”

The large, curious eyes seemed to know nothing of fighting, to the point where Tegen’s words seemed like nonsense.
Her small frame, even for a human, was only half the size of Valta.

“You must handle her with care.”

Afraid of losing the Valtael he had barely brought, he looked so fragile that he even gave unsolicited advice.

She couldn’t even endure the imprint sickness and had to take a decoction three times a day to move, and she had trouble swallowing even the diluted medicine, so she had to be given fruit candy along with it.

“I like being with Tegen. It’s fun.”

And how quick-witted she was.

If he so much as made a silent gesture of anger at the clingy Tegen, she would notice it like a ghost and comfort him, saying it was fine.

Worried that she might be upset, the gentle smile on her face as she said, ‘Mashak is good too,’ was like a young rabbit or a flower deer that knew nothing of fighting.

To have pushed such a herbivore-like person into the Forest of Trials all by herself.
What on earth was Valta thinking.
He had been so worried, but she had returned perfectly fine, as if to show him.

“Are you not hurt anywhere? Your body…”
“I’m fine! Oh, I’ll definitely use the potion you gave me next time. I couldn’t use it because it felt like a waste.”

Even when he hastily checked her body, there wasn’t a single scratch.

He couldn’t believe it when she smiled awkwardly, saying she didn’t have a chance to use the holy water he had given her.

Mashak’s heart was full and proud.

‘Our Valtael, is such a strong person.’