Chapter 48 Birthday Shenanigans

Though he acted in the moment rather than the long term, that came to bite him as the alcohol gripped at his mind–swirling his natural self and letting loose any filter he once had.

With red cheeks, hot and flushed, he was fully drunk now.

It was a new experience for him, that’s for sure. Attempting to simply walk around felt as if the world below his feet was spinning around like a merry-go-round being tugged by storming winds.

Irene was the only one who stayed away from the booze, though it wasn’t because it was kept away from her. In fact, he tried multiple times to try and get her to drink it.

“C’mon! It’s kind of bitter and tastes like gunk, but it’ll make you all warm inside!” He tried urging Irene.

Though he was less than convincing with his flushed cheeks and lecherous expression that was unrestrained by the attributes of alcohol.

“…No, I’m fine,” Irene shook her head with a small smile.

“Ya’ sure? More fer’ me den!” He slurred his words before gulping down the mug.

As he continued drinking down too many mugs for a boy and a newbie at that, the drunken father and tutor of his were getting at it:

“Huh?! You think your magic is better than a sword?! What do you think people started fighting with, anyway? It was weapons! Blades!” Julius said with half-opened eyes and a reddened face.

“That was then, now is…now! Magic is superior!” Celly hiccuped.

“Haaaah?! Can magic cut a bear in half?!” Julius retorted.

“It can! It can also blow a bear into red mist!” Celly fought his words.

“That’s…” Julius was stumped for a moment before continuing, biting off a chunk of meat from a grilled drumstick, “…Well, can magic block a sword?!”

“Mhm!” Celly replied.

“Not my sword!”

“Can too!” Celly retorted.

They were both red in the face and barely able to stay upright with how enveloped in the alcohol they were.

Traces of booze were still on the corners of Celly’s mouth and stains of alcohol were dirtying Julius’ shirt.

“How about we settle which one is better then?!” Julius challenged.

“You’re on!” Celly accepted.

–It was less than a safe challenge issued, and Irene tried stopping it as the only sober mind around, but the two practically couldn’t even register the small girl’s existence with alcohol flooding their senses.

“You two should settle down…!” Irene said, between them.

Julius scratched his ear, “Huh? A challenge is a challenge!”

“Yeah!” Celly agreed, hiccuping again.

He was too busy trying not to completely pass out as the amount of booze he drank was finally taking its full effect on his inexperienced body.

They all went outside to witness this drunken bout between both Julius and Celly, who both stumbled onto opposing sides of the verdant field.

Even Treyna, who at times like this was the voice of reason, was swayed by the booze, simply clapping her hands and cheering, “I believe in you, Celly!”

Julius seemed heartbroken, “Huh?! I’m your husband–you should be on my side!”

“Go, Celly, go!” Treyna continued clapping.

Fueled by intoxicated anger, Julius flipped his sword around in his hands, holding a stance though he wobbled about to do so, “–Looks like I’ll have to win to reclaim the love of my wife! I’m going all out!”

“Bring it on, then!” Celly said.

Of course, the booze brought out the complete opposite attitude of the silver-haired young woman, who didn’t seem to shy away from anything right about now.

As he was standing by the house and spectating, leaning against the wooden exterior, Irene tugged on his sleeve.

“…Huh?” He groggily let out.

Irene looked up at him with her hazel eyes, “Please stop them, Emilio…this is dangerous.”

Though he hadn’t been in any sort of rational mind this whole time, seeing the young girl with her frizzy locks looking up at him as her freckled cheeks were as pale as ever, he understood at last that this was probably something that shouldn’t be happening.

“Alright…” He nodded.

“Thank you…” Irene sighed out in relief.

While Julius and Celly were preparing for their inelegant brawl of sword-vs-magic, he began cooking up a spell he was learning in secret.

It was something he had yet to actually try out in practice, and something he had failed to gain a proper understanding of until recently. Such a spell was definitely not something to use lightly and with an uneven mind. In short, he was choosing to use it with little rationale in his drunken state, yet it was coming to him naturally.

…The staff…the focus it’s bringing. Though my body still feels like something between lead and soggy noodles, that mage-part of my brain…it’s so clear while I’m gripping this staff, he thought.

“…Spirit of the sky…across the world you sing your melodies…the songs of tranquility…the requiems of storms…”

It was mumbled by him tiredly as he had to work hard just to hold his staff upright towards the sky, stumbling a bit even though he was leaning against the sturdy house for support.

Julius flipped his sword around with surprising finesse with booze filling his veins, and Celly was doing similar as she spun her staff in a circle before holding it up.

“Emilio, hurry…!” Irene urged him.

He focused on weaving the spell, hiccuping between words, “…Through your kindness and…hicc…wrath…Present your power to the world below…”

“Go, Celly, go!” Treyna was still cheering on the opponent of her husband.

Just before the two were about to set off in their drunken duel, the last bits of the unknown invocation left his lips: “Greater Storm.”

Immediately, the looming shadow of the clouds up above cast a shade down on the fields as dark clouds sat overhead.

“What the–?!” Julius looked up.

“Huh?” Celly looked up as well.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Rain? Celly thought.

What began as nothing more than a few droplets suddenly shifted into a monstrous downpour that turned the soil they stood on into mud within moments.

“Gah–how the–?! A storm?!” Julius questioned, feeling the mud squish beneath his boots.

“…This is…!” Celly looked down at the mud-turned ground.

The dark clouds above rumbled and thunder cracked and roared out with the rain flooding the fields below.

“Get inside before you get sick!” Irene called out.

Somehow even though they were so ingrained in having this drunken duel, both Celly and Julius complied as they followed, along with the others, back inside the warmth and dryness of the house.

“Seriously…why’d it start pouring like that all of a sudden?” Julius yawned, leaning against the windowsill.

Celly fiddled with her tall, oak-brown hat that was drooping from the wetness of the rain, “It didn’t look like a storm was coming…”

He whistled a bit, feigning ignorance as he laughed, “How about some cake?”

“Sounds good to me,” Julius said groggily.

“Yeah,” Celly smiled a bit.

Irene was the only one who seemed to have realized the storm that was secluded only around the immediate area was of Emilio’s creation, though he gave her a wink as if saying “let’s keep this one a secret”, to which she obliged.

Nearly falling into his chair, having used his own sheathed sword as a cane to guide his drunken body, Julius sat down as Treyna cut and served him a piece of the white-frosted dessert.

On the other hand, he lent a shoulder to Celly to get up to the stairs and to her room. Though he was hardly a beacon of balance himself, the half-elf was much worse off than him as she continued to hiccup and sway.

“…Easy does it…” He said.

He helped Celly lay down, who gave him a few pats on the head while resting her head on the pillow, “You’re so…hicc…kind, Emilio…what a cutie.”

As she playfully pinched his cheek, all he did was laugh it off and return back down stairs to get a piece of cake before returning, setting the plate beside her head, but she seemed to be in a different world than him.

He froze as he noticed the rain had soaked the white shirt that Celly wore under her long coat, leading to her body beneath being partly visible with the fabric clinging to her skin.

She smells like booze…Just stay on that and you won’t get any bad ideas, Emilio! He told himself.

As he gulped, feeling the sober scratch at his brain like a devil on his shoulder, he couldn’t stop staring at her partly see-through clothes.

“Do it. Cop a feel,”–this was the devil on his shoulder whispering into his ear.

No! Stop that! He thought.

Shaking his head to try and rid those intrusive thoughts from his mind, it only felt as if he spread the seeds of temptation deeper into his brain.

I knew it…! Booze was seriously a bad idea for somebody like me! He thought.

Without even thinking about it, his hand was naturally reaching towards her, as if the mere sight of a girl in that state was like a magnet to his devious fingers.

“…What’re you doing, Emilio?”