〈 Chapter 99 〉 Afterparty

*

The last match was over.

With spirits high, we rented out the barbecue area on campus.

I had no idea such a facility existed, but those three idiots… I mean, the trio, they knew about it.

This time, their endless wandering actually proved somewhat useful.

We got all the basic ingredients from the cafeteria and started our barbecue.

Meat sizzling on the grill.

Suddenly, I tore my gaze from the meat and saw Elsie across from me.

‘What the…’

She was already fixated on the meat.

During regular meals, she always stared at me uncomfortably, but now she seemed completely focused on the BBQ.

From that look I remembered seeing her during the trials, there was a strong determination in her eyes today to not hold back.

‘Well, that’s good for me.’

The more she focused on eating, the more at ease I felt.

Seeing her not eat much usually made me uneasy for some reason.

I also felt a little tired—perhaps from expending too much concentration in the recent mock battle.

‘Let’s try to relax a bit today.’

Just then, someone handed me a cup.

It was Yusera.

“What’s this?”

Now that I looked, she was holding a cup too.

In her cup, a translucent liquid was sloshing around.

The smell hit my nose in an instant.

“What’s it? It’s alcohol.”

The distinct aroma of alcohol wafting up to me.

I was dumbfounded by this sudden appearance of liquor.

Isn’t drinking forbidden at Hero Academy?

At my question, Freira answered from a distance.

“It’s fine! As long as a supervising professor is present, it’s allowed.”

Now I noticed she was holding bottles of alcohol.

It turns out it was her idea to bring it in the first place.

Seeing me flustered, Bell asked, “Is this your first time drinking?”

If we’re talking about my body’s experience, then yes, it was my first time.

Back when I almost drank with the innkeeper, Finn and Weiss walked in and ruined it, and when I hung out at the tavern with Libero, I was too focused on swordsmanship to drink any.

But, that was just my body’s story.

For me, who also bore Sung Yoo-rang’s memories, alcohol felt familiar.

In fact, too familiar.

After all, I had spent countless days holed up in my room drinking like a hopeless bum.

“No, that’s not it. I’ve had plenty.”

It was tricky to say I had or hadn’t drunk, but it felt appropriate to say I had.

“Then that’s good. Let’s drink freely today, it’s a special occasion!”

She handed the cup to Elsie.

Elsie took it, pulling her attention from the meat and began to express curiosity about the drink.

At that moment, I felt a wave of danger.

‘Elsie definitely hasn’t had any experience with alcohol!’

Gwen seemed mature in her speech and demeanor, but her tastes were closer to that of a child, so she probably had little encounter with liquor.

If someone like Elsie were to get drunk… I really didn’t want to imagine that.

‘Is there any way I can stop her from drinking?’

Still, maybe a rookie drinker like Elsie would find the typical bitterness of alcohol unappealing.

I held on to that fleeting hope.

“To the great victory of Team 4-B!”

Cups clinked together, and we downed our drinks.

I kept an eye on Elsie, watching for any unusual reactions.

But she showed no signs of being affected as she drank.

‘Her face isn’t even changing color!’

No, if her lack of reaction is the only oddity, that’s still odd.

If she’s not bothered by this on her first try, she might be one of those who can handle their liquor well.

Then perhaps I didn’t need to worry so much.

As I started to feel the buzz from drinking for the first time in a while, Bell’s sudden question caught me off guard.

“But how did you manage it? There were still three knights left after I died, right?”

Oh yeah, she didn’t see how I dealt with them.

And she wasn’t the only one who missed it.

“Right, you’re an archer. How did you handle those three knights from Class 1?”

It seemed the trio was also curious about that.

On the other hand, Elsie looked at me anxiously, knowing I was hiding my swordsmanship skills.

But I was fine. I hadn’t used any swordsmanship during the fight.

“You know, close-range shooting is my specialty. I managed to resolve the first knight with that, and the second…”

Did I deflect the knight’s sword with an arrow?

At the time, I’d done it so naturally without a second thought, but now that I thought about it, it wasn’t exactly natural.

It would be better to embellish things a bit when speaking.

“I just had to grab an arrow since there was no way to block. I think I ended up deflecting it somehow. I took the second knight off-guard, and then Yusera came and took care of the last one.”

Thus, I maintained the persona of an archer until the end.

“You said that so casually!”

But it seemed Bell didn’t find that so casual.

When I looked at Elsie, she had a horrified expression.

Yusera was the only one who smiled comfortably.

“Well, you’re a candidate at the Hero Academy. You could do that much, right?”

“No, even so, handling knights from Class 1 with ease…”

“But this guy can’t even properly perform long-range sniper shots.”

Yusera, who had been defending me, suddenly hit the nail on the head.

Sorry, but that hurt my pride a bit.

I had aimed to master long-range sniping, but my accuracy still wasn’t great.

“Still, it’s true we won thanks to Mr. Sung Yoo-rang, so let’s toast to him.”

As they were about to raise a glass for that, I felt a bit uneasy about it.

This victory wasn’t just mine to claim.

“Winning because of me? If you guys hadn’t done your roles perfectly, we wouldn’t have won at all.”

During the mock battle, everyone carefully followed my commands.

If the trio hadn’t contained the archers.

If Bell hadn’t thrown herself into the fray to buy me time.

If Yusera hadn’t run over at my command to quickly take care of the last knight.

Then there would have been no way we could get this outcome.

“This is not my victory; it’s our victory.”

Suddenly, the area fell quiet.

It felt like I’d said something wrong.

“What should I say? That was quite a leader-like statement.”

Bell said.

Then the trio chimed in as well.

“Clearly, you’re fitting to be a leader.”

“I knew it from the start.”

“Your appearance gives it away, doesn’t it?”

Before I knew it, they were calling me “big brother.”

Not that I ever asked for that nickname, so I felt a bit taken aback.

“Then since we’ve already toasted to our victory, let’s also raise a glass for our leader!”

They raised their glasses on their own.

“To our leader!”

Who decided I was the leader?

But I went along with the mood for the toast.

‘Leader…’

I had entered Hero Academy just to quietly graduate.

But after saving Yusera and getting tangled up with Elsie, it felt like something was starting to stick to that goal.

Whether that was indeed the right path is still uncertain. I should ponder on it more seriously.

But at least, it didn’t feel bad.

‘For now, let’s relax a bit.’

The first semester’s final mock battle was over.

In the second semester, we’d mainly deal with the practical experience of facing Chaos Beasts within the trials and the individual competitions based on the first semester’s results.

It would probably go by quickly.

‘So many things to think about.’

Taking a sip of my drink, I glanced around.

There was Elsie steadily shoving meat into her mouth as if nothing happened.

Yusera, wearing quite a bright smile.

And… Freira, who was endlessly generating empty liquor bottles.

For a moment, I felt like maybe everything was fine just the way it was.

…But it wasn’t fine.

Elsie, who appeared unaffected even while drinking, was actually not okay.

The lack of change in her complexion was simply because she was using Optical Modulation.

The only consolation was that her drunken behavior seemed surprisingly tame.

“What does a cow say?”

Not particularly curious.

“Ha ha ha!”

Puhuh.

“What about when a cow cries?”

When a cow cries, it obviously mo…

“Wooon.”

Where on earth did she learn these nonsensical jokes?

One thing was for sure: she wasn’t in Elsie’s age group.

So I narrowed it down.

‘Is it Gwen?’

It’s hard to imagine someone just naturally liking jokes like this. It made me think Elsie must have gone through quite a lot.

But right now, I needed to stop Elsie from going off the rails.

Without realizing my intentions, Elsie confidently posed her third riddle.

“What does a cow do?”

This time I had to think quickly to solve her riddle and cut off her rampage.

I analyzed the pattern of all her previous riddles and combined them with all the vocabulary I knew.

Finally, I reached a conclusion.

‘Sodok soti…’

No way that’s it.

That’s a dish from Sung Yoo-rang’s world.

The distortion in the term “do” must stem from Sung Yoo-rang’s convoluted knowledge.

‘That’s right; there must be another answer.’

But I couldn’t let her answer it.

“Elsie, cheers!”

Splashing my cup against hers, Elsie drank.

Suddenly, Elsie was only grinning from ear to ear and was silent.

‘Did I manage to shut her up?’

It seemed I had successfully subdued her.

Feeling confident, I said, “It looks like Elsie is a bit drunk, so I’ll take her back to the dormitory.”

I couldn’t leave her in this state.

After all, it wasn’t far to the dorm.

Just as I stood up to help Elsie, Yusera, who looked perfectly fine until now, suddenly spoke.

“I think I drank a bit too much…”

I turned to look at her, and she was gripping my sleeve.

“Wait, given how you’re speaking, I’d say you aren’t too drunk…”

“Euhneugeu euneu tsu…”

What on earth is she saying?

She definitely wasn’t in her right mind.

It was at that moment I noticed.

“Elsie?”

Elsie had somehow moved closer and was now holding my hand.

“Uh, Elsie, your hand…”

“You said it was fine for comrades to hold hands last time, right?”

Well, she did say that.

However, this was becoming problematic.

‘Who should I help?’

As I questioned myself, I heard the trio mutter something in the background.

“From this moment on, I withdraw my support for you, big brother.”

“I agree.”

“It’s been passed unanimously.”

What on earth were they saying?

They were sitting far away, clearly wanting to offer no help.

And I noticed it wasn’t just them; everyone else was similarly unhelpful.

“Let’s start cleaning up, shall we?”

“Ah, it feels great to drink after so long.”

The magician duo also began to get up to tidy up their dishes.

I was the only one stuck, caught between two of them.

It was an unprecedented crisis.

“Bell, help me with Elsie.”

The savior—or rather, the hero—was Freira.

Hesitantly, Bell approached to support Elsie.

But for some reason, Elsie wouldn’t let go of my hand.

‘What’s with this girl’s drunkenness…’

Then Freira continued, “Yusera, I know you aren’t that drunk, so just go back on your own.”

In that moment, Yusera flinched.

She squinted her eyes and turned toward Freira.

Then she locked eyes with Freira.

Tap.

Her hand fell away from my sleeve without resistance.

At the same time, Elsie’s grip also loosened.

I was suddenly freed from both sides.

‘How the heck did that happen?’

Just like that, Bell led Elsie away, and Yusera, looking back multiple times, followed after her.

Freira leaned in to whisper to me, “Do you want to stop by my office for a bit?”

In that moment, I realized I still had one final boss left to face.

*