310 - - The Feast of the Devil

Aperitif is plum wine. I can't drink strong sake, but I can drink this much.

Hassun, originally an eight-sided cedar tray, is a square tray made of hegi-wood. As the name implies, the tray is a luxurious dish consisting of several small, bite-sized portions of seasonal seafood and mountain delicacies. To put it simply, it is an appetizer for sake.

My eyes hurt a little, but I get my rice and soup first. I think it's bad that the rice comes out later, and that kaiseki is a menu that assumes that you are supposed to drink.

Spicy boiled rape blossoms, yuba and shirasu (baby sardines), konbujime (flounder), clams in a shell container, kumquat with leaves, kuromame (black soybeans). ...... Is this the season around February or March? The food is delicious and beautifully arranged.

A bowl of soup with sake lees, followed by sashimi of sea bream, red clams and tunas.

"You're so modest!"

It's beautiful, but not popular with drinkers. Well, if they are big, they have big mouths. They prepared large chopsticks for us, but they still look small and hard to handle. Kojiro, who is also big, uses his small chopsticks dexterously and eats neatly, while Sake-drinker crushes his food as much as he can.

They are almost in order of arrival, so Sake-Takeru is far away from us, but we can hear him because of his loud voice. Kojiro talks when he talks, but usually he only says "mmm" or "ah" or two words, so he is eating in silence this time.

"It's quite a spectacle, isn't it? A banquet with five families including the center and demons.

Cal laughs and says.

The man looks well behaved even when he is sitting on his knees. At the banquet outside, he does not show his likes and dislikes, and seems to eat well.

"If it weren't for Homura-sama, I'd be slurping blood instead of sake.

Red Plum smiles slightly at the mention of something dangerous.

"I didn't think anything of it when I sat with S-rank adventurers, but ....... Now you're probably wondering why I'm mixed in here."

"Huh. If you think about how it happened, you lose."

Luba sips his drink, and Peter replies.

After Koume, Peter, Luba, and Ukon come next. I am sorry for Luba, but he and Peter are buffers against the demons. Shiramine is diagonally behind me, ignoring the order of the tables.

"Ahhh.... Ahhh.... Lancelot-sama ......"

Amane has been mumbling in a slurred manner since a while ago, but I wonder if Cal is completely through with it because he's used to being squealed on and having his cheeks tinted. I do my best to avoid eye contact.

No, wait, Sakon and Ukon - or rather, all of them!　Am I not training well enough for this?

"It seems that the fleshy little girl is not very interested in you, stranger."

"It's not love, but it's a way of looking at the object of worship. I think the problem is Ukon. ......

The little girl with no breasts?

I wonder when Camilla and Momiji became friends. They are talking secretly behind their fans.

Galahad has a faint finger mark on his forehead, and I can't help but look at it when he is talking. I try to find something to talk about and bring my attention to it.

"Cal, didn't Galahad say that his ancestors were drunkards?"

"Boom!"

When I broached the subject with Cal, Galahad erupted.

"Oh?　My bloodline, huh?"

The drunkard looks at Galahad with doubtful half-lidded eyes.

I see the resemblance. The way he touches anyone or any beast, and the way he takes care of himself despite his boldness.

"No, you're joking about the redhead.

Galahad lightly denies it.

"Galahad's uncle told me that the blood of a red-haired demon from Fuso runs in the family. A woman who ran away from a prestigious family to become a dancer became a famous adventurer, and when she returned home, she had a child with the ogre."

The ogre is one thing, but the background of the woman whom Kalu introduced in passing is quite impressive.

"What?"

"Oh, his blood!"

Galahad shouts and the sake drinker, holding his cup in his hand, widens his eyes in surprise.

"Hey, is it possible that Ibaraki wears a loincloth and bleached clothes as a dancer's costume ......?"

Peter, who was listening to the conversation, sounded unusually puzzled.

A bikini and a loincloth!　You're trying to recreate that one in kimono, or something more accessible, to suit the tastes of sake drinkers!　That's a totally different direction!　I was surprised too. Peter, I'm surprised you noticed.

"Speaking of which, there's something familiar about ....... No, if you grow your hair long, you'll look just like him!"

"Boom!　What kind of woman is that?

Galahad spurts out his drink again at the drinker's words, while Eagle coughs next to him.

Sorry, I can't imagine that. I mean, the other day I thought of Shin's old man dressed up as a woman.

"I heard she was a big beautiful woman. ......"

Cal looks unusually puzzled.

"Except for strength, sake-drinkers only distinguish between big and small, female and male."

Red Plum's simple words convinced me. The people around Galahad and the sake-takers were still in a panic, as if they hadn't heard our voices, but let's leave them alone.

Oh, the food is delicious.

"Koryu, Karasutengu, and Shadow Crocodile have stepped down on their own. Are Shuten-doji, Shiramine-doji, and Ibaraki-doji up top? ......

"What?

The crown prince, who had been drinking silently as if observing his surroundings, muttered to no one in particular, to which Ibaraki responded by hugging the drunkard's neck. He is then rudely interrupted by the sake-drinker.

Momijiro, Kojiro, and Fine are in the of the red plum blossoms.

Shiramine, Ibaraki-doji, Kaja, and Kagewani and the others in of sake-drinking.

It seems that the signed object automatically comes to the top, or rather, when I sign it, it is affected by my attributes and becomes stronger accordingly. It seems that I am giving up a section to something that is clearly stronger than me without fighting it. It seems to depend on my personality, but it seems that the younger the page is, the stronger the proof is. The first section is a special section of , in which the influence of the owner (me) is stronger than that of the other sections.

"Will you not sign your name, Lord Kanna?"

Red Plum holds a cup in his hand.

From the expression on his face, he is probably stirring up a fight over the first clause of . Although Shuten's book of Yama is more numerous, only Shuten and Shiramine have not only handbills but also signatures.

Katsusha, it seems, is a gigantic demon the size of a 20-mat room. He is said to be a lion-headed demon with horns and hair like a wire. Now he is a pale, thin boy. ......,I wonder if his boyish appearance is a hobby of his.

"No, I'm not signing anything. I'll have a drinking contest to decide who's the better man."

"Ah?"

The drinker stops sipping his cup and squints at the glass.

And so the drinking contest begins.

"Go for it, sake-drinker!

Ibaraki cheered for the sake-drinker.

The first cup prepared was a zakkyo cup, a cup with a hole in it. The sake leaks out if the cup is not held in place with the fingers, so the cup cannot be put down until the drink has been consumed. The cups came in three sizes: large, medium, and small. The player was asked to pour sake into the bowl whose eyes appeared when he turned the top of the cup, and then to drink it all. It is a kind of cup like the Tosa cup.

The cup was rejected because it was considered too small.

The cup used today is a large vermilion-lacquered sake cup that can hold a full measure of sake. It must be quite heavy, but the ogre's arm strength is no match for the cup, and he tilts it with one hand.

"You're going to drink up all the sake in the palace, aren't you?

Ukon is impressed that he is indeed a demon.

"It's a waste of a good sake.

"Shall I change it for some of the stronger liquor I have?"

Hearing Peter's lament, he makes a suggestion.

"Yes, I don't think we'll be able to settle this when we run out of wine. Can you do me a favor?"

I approach the table for the drinking contest at Ukon's request. I smell so much alcohol!

"I'll have a strong drink here... Can I switch to this one?"

I accidentally served the wrong one.

"Oh!"

"I don't care if it's strong, but it mustn't taste bad. The wrong one seems to be drinking, too."

The sake-drinker answers immediately and the crown prince looks a little suspicious.

"This is a strong sake that has been made inadvertently, and it's more than strong, it's poison.

In reply, he put the small bottle aside and poured the sake into two large sake cups.

"By the way, this is the sake that Kojiro soaked me in.

It is said that the stronger the demon, the stronger the sake. --The stronger the demon, the stronger the sake.

I don't like to drink soaked sake, but wine is made the old-fashioned way in wineries!　My father soaks and mixes it, and I guess he doesn't care if he's a drinker or not.

"Homura?　Did you just have a disturbing thought?"

Why does Peter read my mind?

"Oh, Kojiro-dono's..."

"Your husband!"

At least the demon doesn't seem to mind.

"I'll check again. The one who drinks more is the top, and if you are dissatisfied, do a yearly drinking contest. Any objections?

For some reason, Ukon is the referee.

"Hey!"

"That's fine."

The two men, one a drunkard and the other a crown prince, answer each other with a glare.

"Then, let's begin!"

The large sake cup is tilted with Ukon's shout.

"Well, that's good!"

"Hm, not yet."

Four or five cups of sake are piled up.

In between, a new table is prepared for Shiramine, and decent sake is served to everyone. It seems that everyone is getting drunk except for Cal, Benibai, Ruba, and Ukon. Ukon drinks moderately because he is a referee, and Ruba seems to drink little by little all the time and does not drink recklessly. Cal and Beniume, if they get drunk, are only a little tipsy and do not get into disorder.

I'd like to get into the hot springs before the logout time warning comes again, and I'd like to get out of here for a while, wouldn't you?

"It's a hassle, and isn't this what we should do?"

Cal holds a bottle of poisoned wine in his hand with a smile of spring sunshine.

"Both the drunkard and the crowned one are hardy demons, they will not mind a little poison."

Red Plum gives us both an agitated look.

There were two men here who could read my mind, and they were double the trouble.

"No, this is..."

"Oh!　Give me that!

I'll take it.

Before I could finish, the two parties concerned gave their approval, and each poured a glass of wine into the zakyo cup that had just been left unattended.

"Hey!"

"Well, well, well, demons die and come back to life."

Peter says something refreshingly awful and stops me as I try to explain. Oh, Peter is about to sound the alarm.

"Then, let's begin!"

Ukon again calls out and waves his fan down. The two drink it all in one gulp.

"Gugg!"

"Gosh ......!"

And the two sink.

Silence all around.

"...... what kind of sake is that?"

Ukon asks a question with his fan still swinging down. The fan is right on the border of the two prone heads, making it look as if Ukon has knocked them over with it.

"Krulkan's snake wine."

"Krulkan?　Was it the beast of the seal?"

Peter asks.

"It is the drink of the serpent of the end of the beast Tascha.

I tried to be cool.

Kulkarnikan looked at me from the cuff with a "ah-ha" look on his face.

The snake wine has my name on it, but I only rescued it when I came across Peter's A.L.I.C.E. pouring the wine into a bottle that Liddell had bottled. I must have borrowed Joss's griddle from the stall, and the cooking skill must have appeared in A.L.I.C.E., just like when I cooked for the first time in the game. No, Peter has it, so it must already be on the list of available skills.

Anyway, why is it that whenever I let Krulkan go free in the , he is always bottled up by Liddell?

I originally didn't lock the house for clan members, but come to think of it, only A.L.I.C.E. comes to the house.

Cloak appraisal results [Don't think you can get in anywhere but the store space, right? I have a feeling that the company is going to be in the same situation.

Hand armor appraisal results [......mm]

Come to think of it, the only way to get around is to transfer from the general store. --First of all, I cannot imagine that anyone other than Liddell and the set of A.L.I.C.E. could be invited into the residential part of the general store. In fact, it is open only to A.L.I.C.E.!