Chapter 64: TsundeTree

Waking up, I sort of expected for my head to feel like it was on fire... Only to wake up with nothing more but a mild headache and a sense of weakness slightly affecting my mind.

'Wait, how could I even have any expectations? That means I didn't get drunk enough!'

The entire night of drinking Leinei's wine and talking turned out to be less than sufficient. Without a proper, murderous hangover, how I was supposed to test the effects of that herbal tea Leinei spoke so highly about?

With my eyes still closed, I raised my hands and gently massaged my ears to get rid of the most annoying prize of yesterday night's drinking. A mere moment later, I opened them up... Only to confirm that Fay was, indeed, sleeping by my side.

Even though we were basically newlyweds at this point, we ended up not enjoying each other over the night as any other couple in our situation would.

There simply wasn't the right opportunity for us to escape from everyone's eyes so that we could fully focus on each other. And while I could still remember Fay greedily clinging up to me when we laid down to get some rest, in the end, save for some cuddling, nothing really happened.

Looking down, I finally noticed why I felt so weirdly refreshed.

We were not in the hut. In spite of all the hospitality the dryad offered, she didn't invite us inside her small hut at any point of the night. And when we couldn't hold ourselves up any further, we simply laid down as we were, hoping for our clothes to keep us warm.

And now, I realized just why Leinei didn't even bother inviting us in.

'She really does have some skills,' I thought, gently raising the thin sheet made with flowers that somehow perfectly insulated us from the cold of the morning winds.

"Woah..." With my mind slightly impaired, I cared not for appearances and uttered a moan of awe out loud. "This is magnificent," I muttered, carefully inspecting the sheet of flowers and vines that somehow felt as soft as the most expensive cushions one could find on earth.

"Thank you for your praise," Leinei spoke, suddenly forcing me to realize she was standing right behind me.

"It's not the taste that I'm struggling with, but getting the plants to produce alcohol itself," she then added in a silent voice, as if not really aware she was voicing her thoughts out.

I allowed the moment to pass in silence, not sure if Leinei actually wanted me to hear those words.

"In that case, would you rather have me bring some bottles of pure alcohol instead?" I asked only once I was sure she actually meant for me to hear her complaint.

'Even though I can bring both proper brews and also pure spirit, I need to start rationing out what gifts I'm promising,' I thought, quickly growing aware of the limitation that seemingly didn't exist.

The portal didn't seem to limit the amount of stuff that I could carry through it. It didn't exhibit any problems when I moved through the gate with someone else. But that didn't change the fact... there was only so much that I and Fay could carry on our back! And while bringing more people could theoretically solve the issue...

I have yet to give Fay the green light to step food outside of my shed, so how could I bring even more beings? And beings so much older, they would find absorbing new knowledge of how the modern world worked a lot more challenging than Fay with her fresh and young mind!

"That..." Leinei hesitated for a second upon hearing my words. She even went as far as to turn her head away and avert her eyes when I raised my face to look at her directly. "That would be pretty helpful," she admitted, as reluctant to do so as she was.

"Then, may I trouble you and ask again if you could help me look for some simple herbs?" I then brought out the very same question I mentioned back during our drinking night. "And now that we are sober, you won't be able to claim I used your drunken state to my advantage!"

I pointed out with a satisfied smile like some sort of lawyer suddenly coming out with a plot that blocked the intended course of actions of the persecution.

"Humans..." Leinei rolled her eyes again. Yet, for as much as I could tell from her flesh-free face, her mood improved by a tiny bit. "Rather than speaking crap, shouldn't you try your tea first?" she asked, only to pull out a cup she was hiding all this time behind her back.

'You couldn't give it to me earlier?' I whined in my mind, suddenly realizing that I only had my talkativeness to blame for enduring the unpleasant feeling in my head.

"With pleasure," I muttered grumpily, reaching out for the cup and taking a sip of the fresh-tasting brew. 'Let's see how much worth this tea has.'