Chapter 22:
“L-Let’s drink this. I took it from those guys who invaded before.”
Flustered, the Demon King’s words tumbled out in a jumbled mess. She had forgotten her usual “borrowed” excuse and confessed to outright stealing.
“…Why the sudden alcohol?”
“They say it makes you feel better if you drink it together. You’re… a little angry, so let’s drink, okay?”
The Demon King was as terrified as a badger that had heard a gunshot. Breaking her promise seemed to be a big deal for her.
‘But if I use this as leverage to demand my release…’
<Oh my, I’m being this humble and generous? Maybe I should just kill you and mount your head like a deer trophy. I have no more use for you. Goodbye.>
Bang!
Better not risk it.
‘I don’t know the exact reason, but if she’s this flustered, she probably won’t bother me for a while. Let’s be satisfied with this. Don’t push my luck and ask to be released.’
It might be like killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
“Alright, I’ll drink.”
If she wanted me to drink, she could have just threatened me with magic. Asking was just a formality. It was only logical to fill my glass and play along.
-Pop
The cork flew out, startling her. It felt like I had just demonstrated fire to a caveman.
“H-Hey. It’s boring to just drink, so why don’t we play a game?”
‘I knew it, you little shit.’
As expected, she immediately suggested a game after opening the bottle. There was no way the game-obsessed, competitive Demon King would simply sit and drink quietly. And now she had added “cheater” to her list of attributes.
“Sure, let’s play.”
My answer seemed to ease her anxiety. She had been acting like a puppy desperate for a bathroom break. She then went to her room and returned with a notebook.
“Th-Then we’ll play the games I made!”
The first game the Demon King presented was called “Ten Questions.”
“You ask ten questions! If you guess the answer correctly, you win! For example…”
It was simply Twenty Questions, nothing more, nothing less. She probably thought it was her original creation because she didn’t know the name. She explained the rules with an air of excitement, as if she had come up with a groundbreaking new game. She was so enthusiastic that she was bouncing on her toes.
“Wouldn’t ten questions be too few? How about twenty?”
“Gasp!! Oh my!! Oh my goodness! Are you a genius?!”
The Demon King overreacted, slapping my arm excitedly. Damn it, did she break my arm?
Whether we played this game or not didn’t really matter. The reason being…
“The penalty is drinking this!”
What else could the penalty be in a drinking game? Just drinking. Might as well play along and pace myself.
“Alright, Twenty Questions then. Shall we start? Haaa… I’m nervous.”
The Demon King gripped the bottle nervously, like a fighter stepping into the ring.
I won the rock-paper-scissors and got to ask the first question. The Demon King was waiting with wide, attentive eyes, like a student cramming for a crucial exam.
‘… Let’s make it easy.’
Defeating the Demon King in any game was never a good idea. I decided to choose something obvious.
‘The paper crane. Let’s go with that.’
She wore it around her neck all day, so there was no way she could miss it.
“First question. Can it withstand all magic below 7 stars?”
!!!!!
‘What the hell! You idiot!!!’
Who asks such a ridiculous question as their first question?!
But surprisingly, the answer to that absurd question was…
“…Yes.”
That paper crane, layered with countless disaster-level buffs, was a divine artifact worthy of a positive answer to that question.
“Hmm… Is it Daedalus… Or Thanatos? Or maybe Moby Dick?”
She seemed to be thinking only of fearsome monsters. No wonder she turned out the way she did, hanging out with such nasty creatures. Tsk.
“Second question. Is it here?”
… Here? She must mean this tower. In that case…
“Yes.”
“… Huh? Could it be something I like?!”
The Demon King suddenly became sharp. When you got down to it, she wasn’t stupid, just ignorant. The answer was almost within reach. All I had to do was nudge her in the right direction.
“Yes.”
“Oh my? Really?”
Suddenly, blue sparks crackled around her fingertips. Chain Lightning, a 5-star spell.
-Buzzing
?
-Crackle!!!
“Shit!!!”
Dorothy saved me. Thanks to her habit of randomly zapping me with Chain Lightning while I was carrying her luggage, I could anticipate and dodge the spell just by seeing the sparks.
-Crackle!
-Damn it! That hurts! Stop it!
-Hmph
-Kyahahaha!
-Stop it, you purple bitch.
-What did you say?
-Crackle!
-Aaaargh!
Damn you!
The memory briefly enraged me, but that wasn’t important now.
The crucial question was why the terrifying Demon King suddenly tried to kill me. What had changed her mind?
“Why, why did you do that! All of a sudden!”
“Huh? Well, you said it was okay… So I tried it. It’s Chain Lightning… a 5-star spell…”
“Explain yourself.”
“Isn’t the answer you?”
What nonsense was she spouting? This twisted, infernal Pikachu.
“Look, it’s here, and it’s something I like, so isn’t it you? That’s why I tried using magic.”
‘… What? Like?’
I knew that for demons, “liking” something often involved testing it with lightning bolts. Those crazy barbarian bastards.
“… You’re wrong. And I’m not immune to magic.”
“S-Sorry. I’ll ask before shooting next time.”
‘Just don’t shoot at all.’
She continued to ask baffling questions, dragging this simple puzzle all the way to the sixteenth question.
I had forgotten her habit. Despite being the most naive creature in the world, she overcomplicated things. The footprints from our ordeal with the picture quiz were still visible.
“So it’s not Nemesis either… Hmm… This is a high-difficulty question…”
‘This is so frustrating…’
I had no choice but to give her a blatant hint.
“Have you buffed the paper crane today?”
“Huh? Of course. I gave it buffs earli… Ah!!”
She gasped, realizing something, and asked with clasped hands.
“Seventeenth question, is it alive?!”
She finally asked the question she should have asked ages ago. But it seemed she had found the answer.
“No.”
“Huh? Then it’s not the paper crane?”
!!!!!
What the hell was she talking about?
“This one is alive…”
The Demon King muttered, stroking the paper crane.
Her absurd worldview gave me a headache. What? The paper crane is alive? She definitely needed psychiatric help.
Despite hearing the remaining questions, the Demon King failed to guess the answer. Disappointed, she asked for the solution, and I told her it was the paper crane.
“It’s not alive.”
She seemed about to protest my shocking statement but, for once, simply accepted it. She then started pouring alcohol into her glass.
-Glug, glug, glug
…
-Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug
…?
-Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug
?
“Hey, what are you doing?”
She was filling a water glass, not a wine glass, to the brim with alcohol. I didn’t know her alcohol tolerance, but she seemed to be a heavy drinker. But this was excessive, even for her.
She paused before taking a sip.
“Oh, wait. This has poison attributes, and I have to savor them.”
It was true that alcohol was a toxin. A magic circle suddenly appeared beneath her feet.
“Viper’s Kiss Immunity deactivated, Hydra’s Embrace Immunity deactivated, All-Poisons Immunity deactivated…”
She had been living with numerous poison countermeasures. This meant my plan to assassinate her by lacing her sandwich with rat poison was scrapped. The light faded, and she lifted her glass again.
-Gulp
“Ugh!”
She took a sip, her eyes widening, and then coughed violently.
“Cough! Cough!”
“What, what’s wrong!”
Did she have a fatal alcohol allergy? Yes! Die! Die!
“Ugh… W-What is this taste…”
She glared at the glass accusingly.
… But judging from her reactions…
Could it be? Despite being the Demon King, could it be…
You’re drinking alcohol for the first time?
This simple game had become a death match for her. But seriously, damn it. Wasn’t this supposed to cheer me up?
“Ugh…”
The Demon King was drinking as a penalty, but even calling it “drinking” was a stretch. She was barely touching the liquid with her tongue, taking tiny sips as if using a dropper. This was going to take all night.
‘… Don’t tell me?’
Was I going to be subjected to days of this game after barely escaping the Little Farm hell camp?
The Demon King’s hesitant sips brought back those traumatic memories.
‘No way. Not this time.’
“You’re supposed to chug it in drinking games.”
“Huh? Chug? What’s chug?”
I kindly pointed out the error of her ways. The Demon King’s face paled.
“D-Drink it all at once…?!”
‘Well, you shouldn’t have poured so much…’
“Should I pour you a smaller amount? If it’s too much…”
Perhaps my words struck a nerve. Remembering her humiliation in Little Farm, she seemed to get fired up and downed the entire glass in one go.
-Gulp… Gulp… Gu… lp…
-Slam!
She slammed the empty glass down. The table, sturdier than Rebecca, and the tableware, reinforced with countless buffs, remained intact.
“Ughhh… My mouth… My mouth is bitter…”
She stuck out her tongue and fanned it, her face scrunched up in disgust. She looked like a child who had accidentally taken a swig of alcohol, mistaking it for water at a family gathering.
“… Hmm…”
A slight flush appeared on her face after finishing the large glass.
Then.
-Crackle.
-Shatter!
?
The glass, which wouldn’t even break under Rebecca’s Divine Hammer, suddenly shattered. This was impossible.
‘… Wait, could it be?’
I picked up a fork and pressed it against the table.
‘Ugh…’
With considerable force, I managed to leave a faint mark on the table.
!!!
This was absolutely impossible under normal circumstances. The table was enchanted with buffs that made it resistant to most forms of damage.
This meant the buffs had weakened… which meant…
‘Her magic weakens when she drinks alcohol… I’ve heard of such cases, but I never thought it would be you.’
An unexpected opportunity had presented itself.