When Nirta saw it, he raised one eyebrow and refilled the wine glass.
“You seem to enjoy drinking. Have another drink.”
Max suddenly realized how silly she looked, and told Nirta that in fact she never enjoyed drinking more than one or two drinks at a meal, but she closed her eyes and drank all at once because she didn’t want to receive his disappointed glances like the one she saw earlier.
As the warmth inside her began to spread, Max felt comfortable. Max glistened lingeringly at the pleasant feeling of increasing drunkenness and continued to drink the wine Hebaron poured for her. Her drinking suddenly looked like a show and invited the onlookers to come in one by one to offer her food and alcohol.
While the way they appeared to feed her like a rare species mildly annoyed her, Max could not refuse and kept drinking.
She asked to herself how many times she tilted the glass to her lips, and gradually her eyes began to fade to the point where she felt strange. She began to let hiccups as she clasped the glass with her hands tightly. Her body felt limp and shaky, the room before her eyes was dancing.
She didn’t know why, but suddenly she wanted to clear her head and sober up. Perhaps her appearance had appeared strange that a knight stepped in and blocked Nirta’s hand from pouring more alcohol into her glass.
“Sir Nirta, stop filling the cup. I think the lady is already drunk enough ..”
“Well, I’m… O-o-okayy…” Max answered.
Her tongue was twisted and her pronunciation was not clear. Normally, she would have kept her mouth shut immediately because of how ashamed she was of her drunk tone, but somehow she didn’t feel so embarrassed to stutter. Trapped in her drunken state, Max decided to finish all the remaining liquor in her glass at once and bravely held out her glass towards Nirta.
“One more drink, p-please….”
“You eat very well. All right. Okay. Come on, have another drink.” Nirta complimented her.
Nirta’s tone has now become more friendly to her. It was pleasantly satisfying the way he talked to a fellow drinker, so Max drank more happily. Smiling endlessly and shaking her body left and right, thanks to the alcohol that spilled, her sleeves got damp, but everything about her felt good.
Then she heard someone burst out laughing at the sight of her.
“That’s pretty adorable. I thought you were a woman of somber and demure character.”
Max swung her head towards the side where the sound came from, and shouted back.
“I am not up-uptight! You may not be a-able to d-deny it, but…”
She sighed as she gulped down the wine that Nirta gave her. Suddenly, her pleasant mood quickly subsided and was replaced by melancholy in an instant.
“But… that’s… It’s b-because I’m not used to d-dealing with p-people. I don’t speak v-very well and.. I don’t know what to say. A-also the-they are all g-grown up for n-nothing. It’s a li-little sca-scary when you’re fa-facing him… If you look it up, it looks more po-powerful than it needs to be. It’s all more in-intimidating, I’m not the one to b-blame, but the other to b-blame, it’s to you! E-everyone, please lo-lower your height a li-little”
The knights stared at her absurd request and incoherent words blankly. The only one who broke into laughter was Hebaron, Lord Nirta.
“Why, you think height is useless? For combat, a big body is totally beneficial. Yours is too small. What did you do when you were little that you did not grow up?” Nirta asked Max.
“Is Lord Nirta drunk?” Max answered back.
Undaunted by her sudden loud voice, her glass was filled again by the big knight.
“Now, it’s not too late. You will grow like a pine tree if you drink and eat as much as I do.” Nirta told her.
“Well, shall we? I… Oh, can I still be a li-little b-bigger, can I?” Max replied with a smile.
“If you grow taller, you may become more courageous and bold” Max looked up at him with hopeful eyes. Hebaron bragged with a big smile.
“I have been drinking since I was 13 and grown this much.”
“I didn’t know there was such a secret in Sir Nirta’s height!”
Even Yurixion, who sat next to her and put meat in his mouth, poured a lot of alcohol into the cup and began to gulp it down.
The surrounding knights who were looking at the drinking session began to cast their eyes away, as if embarrassed by them.
Max didn’t understand why they had such an awkward face. She tilted her head absentmindedly, wondering what they were going to do next, but instead she found herself bringing her mouth back to the glass. At that moment, a big hand suddenly reached out over her shoulder and snatched her glass away.
Max looked back in astonishment.
Her eyes met with Riftan who stood tall with a fearsome expression. His face turned red and his eyes were staring at her. Judging by his half-blind stare, and violently muttering at her, Max realized he was angry.
“Now… what the hell are you doing?” Riftan asked her.
“To grow ta-taller…” Max replied with a hiccup.
Riftan glanced about the room once more before opening his mouth and his fierce eyes flew towards the knights.
“Can you tell me who got my wife drunk?”
“She is pretty good at drinking, so I just… .” Hebaron answered.
Hebaron scratched the back of his head and made excuses, and Riftan’s face grew even more frosty.
“My wife has had enough of drinking.” Riftan announced.
He gritted his teeth, and laid down the glass until it banged. Then he looked menacingly around the restaurant, where silence had fallen, and announced in a cold soft voice.
“Eat well and keep drinking. Because you’re going to use a lot of energy at the aerobatics training tomorrow.”
The knights groaned low in unison.
Riftan then walked out of the restaurant, dragging Max with him and ignoring the grumbling sounds from the other knights.
Suddenly, Max’s legs felt weak, and Riftan picked her up and held her, noticing her discomfort. She obediently wrapped her arms round his neck as Riftan held her. She had been thinking about going to bed because her eyes kept closing.
Riftan attempted to lower her down when they arrived in their room, but Max buried her face deep in the nape of his neck and appeared not to hear his deep sigh as he struggled to bring her to bed. Then she felt Riftan’s body flinching and stiffening.
Max, who was happily intoxicated by the sensation of drinking and sleepiness, didn’t care a bit. She gulped down his peculiar body odor and kissed his neck impulsively on the pulsating part of his pulse.
“Hey….” Riftan breathed in surprise.
As if to soothe a sulky animal, Max smiled and smoothed his hair. She gently closed her eyes while wiggling with her hands on his chest.
“Maxy… you don’t mean to sleep, do you?”
Max moaned and buried herself deeper in his arms. Riftan looked down at the figure and fretted.
“How much did you drink?”
“….”
“damn it, you’re not teasing anyone, but why are you dressed like this?”
He finally managed to put her body down on the bed and pulled up the skirt that had been rolled up.
Max raised herself to make it easier for him to undress her. Then as soon as he took the dress off her head, she laid her head on a pillow and began to sleep in earnest. Looking down at the figure, Riftan gritted his teeth once more..
“When morning comes… you’ll see.”
