Nigel, with a face red as if about to explode, declared that she could no longer ride a unicorn.
If a daughter who just turned twenty announced her pregnancy at a family dinner, it might be like this. The atmosphere in the room froze in shock at the unexpected confession.
Unable to bear the silence, Nigel turned so red that steam seemed to rise from her body.
“Well… um… it must be embarrassing.”
After all, she had just confessed in front of so many people that she had recently… experienced something with someone.
I couldn’t tell which was more embarrassing: riding a unicorn in front of others or admitting that she could no longer ride one.
“Uh… so… congratulations…?”
I reached out to Nigel, who looked like she might burst at any moment, and patted her shoulder, stammering my words.
I don’t know when she became unable to ride a unicorn, but it’s still something to celebrate, right…?
“You could’ve introduced your partner to me. I would’ve given you more breaks and rest time.”
“Really?”
I tried to comfort Nigel, who might burst into tears and run away, but it was Milia who reacted.
“Hey, you guys need to calm down…”
I sighed and shook my head.
White Wolf—no, Damien—has already had enough rest.
Unless a monster that requires master-level combat power appears, he’s been holed up in the mansion doing whatever he wants. What more could he possibly want?
He might hit a midlife crisis before he even turns thirty.
“Nigel, you have a partner now? Congratulations!”
Finally understanding the situation, Rana clapped lightly, grabbed Nigel’s hands, and smiled brightly as she congratulated her.
The pureness of the congratulations made Nigel feel so embarrassed that her face turned from red to almost dirt-colored.
“So, who is it? If it’s Nigel’s partner, they must be a great knight, right?”
“Right. I’m curious too. I thought you weren’t interested in that kind of thing.”
Rana and Ophelia started prying, asking who she had started dating.
It seems that women’s intense interest in others’ love lives is the same whether on Earth or in this world.
“Well… it’s… um…”
Nigel, at a loss for words, hung her head and stammered.
“We’re… not… in a relationship…”
A bombshell ten times more shocking than admitting she couldn’t ride a unicorn.
—
I stared at Nigel in shock.
What? Not in a relationship?
Then what? A one-night fling?
Was Nigel that open-minded…?
Nigel, who was so obsessed with being “knight-like”?
Good heavens.
Even finding out that a childhood friend heroine had a med student boyfriend would be less shocking than this.
“Uh… Nigel? I don’t want to meddle in your personal life, but that’s a bit…”
By this world’s standards, isn’t that considered promiscuous?
At those words, Nigel covered her face with her hands and trembled.
“It’s not… like that… It was a mistake. I drank too much…”
…Drank too much?
“But you hardly ever drink. The only time you got drunk enough to pass out was…”
Wait a minute. Come to think of it, recently…
“…Only once…”
There was that one time she got so drunk she was acting strange the next day…?
“Don’t tell me…?”
I opened my mouth wide and slowly turned my head.
Nigel’s confession.
A memory from a few days ago.
Two people who got along suspiciously well.
Someone still staring off into the distance, maintaining silence.
All the clues connected in my head, leading me to an unbelievable conclusion.
No way, no way, was it really…!?
“…Ja-han.”
At the sound of his lord’s voice, the muscular man’s shoulders twitched.
“Yikes!”
Nigel also flinched, as if struck in a sensitive spot.
Seeing that, my suspicion turned into certainty. I let go of Nigel’s shoulder and turned to approach Ja-han.
“Ja-han, Ja-han… You’ve been quiet this whole time. What are you looking at? Don’t you have something to say to me?”
Your neck is drenched in cold sweat.
Why is that? While everyone else is shivering from the cold, why are you the only one sweating buckets?
[Why Ja-han all of a sudden… Wait, no way…?]
Finally reaching the same conclusion as me, Hersela groaned in disbelief, her voice trembling.
“Ja-han, why are you so quiet? Did you decide to become a savage who touches someone else’s precious subordinate while drunk and then pretends nothing happened?”
That’s not it, right?
“Then I’ll have to cut you down…?”
I slowly circled Ja-han, who was sweating profusely, pressing him for answers.
“Should I get the scissors? I just cut the fairies’ hair, so they’re still sharp and ready to go!”
Asha pulled out a pair of scissors, red-hot and steaming, and clicked them menacingly.
“…I’ll explain everything.”
Ja-han, his pale Imperial skin now ashen, spoke like a prisoner walking to the gallows.
—
======[A few days ago, on the Airship]======
A drinking contest between Nigel and Ja-han, born out of pride. What started in the evening escalated and continued until midnight.
The table, now occupied only by the two of them, was piled high with empty bottles, and three times as many glass bottles rolled around on the floor.
The smell of alcohol grew stronger with time, to the point where just breathing made you feel drunk. In such a state, how do you think the instigators were doing?
At first, the two argued and bickered, but now, both Nigel and Ja-han were red-faced, their eyes unfocused, and their heads lolling.
“Just give up already…? You’re clearly… at your limit…?”
“Ughhh… I’m not… done yet…! I won’t… lose…!”
Ja-han was still somewhat conscious, but Nigel was clearly at her limit.
Even Ja-han, who had been fiercely competitive earlier, was now worried she might cause trouble and tried to stop her.
“You… can’t handle your liquor… little girl… shouldn’t push yourself…”
The problem was, Ja-han was also drunk, and his warrior instincts kicked in, making his words come out unfiltered.
“What…?! Little… girl…?”
“You hate… losing that much…?”
Nigel’s face turned red and purple, but since her face was already red from the alcohol, Ja-han didn’t notice and continued with a smile, as if coaxing a child.
“Fine… I’ll… let you win… a hundred times… Happy now…? Go to sleep…”
Of course, given Ja-han’s rough appearance, his smile looked more like a sneer from a villainous bandit than a kind gesture.
“How many… times do I have to say it…! I’m not… a child…! Just because I’m short… doesn’t mean I’m a kid, you bandit…!”
Nigel, heated and rambling, grabbed Ja-han by the collar.
Nigel wasn’t particularly short for a woman, but among knights, she was slightly below average in height. And with Ja-han being a giant, her insults didn’t change the fact that she looked like a child grabbing an adult’s collar.
“Ha… short and narrow-minded… definitely a kid…”
Perhaps because his attempt to calm her down was met with insults, Ja-han, feeling the blood rush to his head, dropped all pretense and openly mocked her.
“This is really…!”
From then on, the two abandoned their glasses and started a childish argument about who was the adult and who was the child.
“So—how do you know what I’m thinking—!”
“It’s obvious, you’re just a stubborn kid—”
Unaware of where this argument would lead, they continued for a good ten minutes.
And then.
“…Fine. Then I’ll prove it…!”
“Hah! If you can, go ahead and… wait, prove it…?”
Ja-han, sensing something ominous in that word, hesitated and looked up, his drunken mind barely regaining some rationality.
– Whoosh!
Nigel, gritting her teeth and glaring, grabbed Ja-han by the collar and dragged him toward an empty room.
“Ugh…!”
The strength in her grip was so overwhelming that even Ja-han, in his drunken state, couldn’t resist.
Perhaps because his alcohol-soaked brain was too scrambled to think straight.
Ja-han only regained his senses after his body was thrown onto a soft bed.
“Wait, wait…! What are you trying to do! Being a kid doesn’t mean…!”
Finally coming to his senses, Ja-han desperately tried to stop Nigel, who was stripping off her top and looking down at him… but it was already too late.
“Shut up.”
Nigel, now completely topless, threw her clothes at his face and pinned down Ja-han’s wrists as he tried to sit up.
She stared down at him with the gaze of a predator.
What followed was…
At the very least, it was a night that proved Nigel’s pure physical strength was superior.
“Ughhh… enough, enough…!”
“Haah… haah… Is this… your limit…? All that big talk… and you’re nothing…!”
Five hours later, it was also proven that her stamina was superior.
—
The next morning.
“Ughhh… my head…!”
Nigel woke up with a splitting headache, clutching her temples. She noticed the strangely vivid sensation of the blanket and looked down at her body.
“Ah.”
She let out a single, dazed groan.
Completely naked.
Sticky skin.
An oddly sore lower body and bloodstains on the sheets.
She wasn’t so naive as to not understand what had happened. Lack of experience didn’t mean lack of knowledge.
Nigel stiffly turned her head to look at the large bandit lying next to her.
As her headache cleared, memories of the previous night flooded back.
Her disgraceful behavior throughout the night played out like a panorama in her mind.
“…Elpinel help me.”
Her face turned as pale as a sheet.
