Chapter 135

135 Luke has a drinking problem

‘This tastes like piss’ was Luke’s impression after drinking his first beer, and in a parallel world no less!

But seeing everyone drinking it so happily, he forced himself to drink just to avoid being look down. After living for so long in a forest with a bunch of inept people and so far from civilization, all he wanted was to impress other people.

He had a rough start with his companions, but he was sure he would be able to make new friends in Ironwoods.

He tried to wash down the taste of beer with cider, but cider wasn’t the sweed drink he thought it to be, it was bitter and tasteless. In short, he was awfully disappointed by the taste of alcohol.

‘Why does everyone go mad about this stuff?’ he couldn’t wrap his head arount it.

It wasn’t until he set foot into the brothel that he finally got it.

“I want a drink”

He asked a hot brunette that was leaning on the bar.

“Of course handsome”

.....

The prostitute replied smoothly, it was the first time she saw him, which could only mean he came from out of town. Travellers were usually loaded and were more than eager to spend it on booze and women. She also noticed how inexperienced Luke was, he didn’t stutter so at least he was able to talk to women, but he was cold and distant which could only mean he was a young boy that wanted to keep the appearance of being cool in front of others.

Prostitutes were really good at judging the character of people, mostly because the amount of money they were able to squeeze from someone depended heavily on that. But Taffy was even better than most of them, it was a natural thing for her and it gave her an edge over the other girls at the brothel.

She took a jar of beer to Luke’s table and casually sat on Luke’s lap. He thought she would play hard to get, but her direct approach didn’t bother him in the slightest. He simply closed his eyes and focused on the soft and warm feeling for a while.

“What’s the matter? do you not find the beer to your liking?”

“Oh, of course”

He drank a sip of beer, hiding his disgust for the taste behind a poker face. Taffy sighed in mock relief, it was all a play to please her customer.

Though Luke always behaved like a big shot, he wasn’t really experienced in matters of love. Anne was his first crush, then Helena, and both rejected him to pursuit Ryu.

He wasn’t used to the bitterness of alcohol, but there was something else wasn’t used to and that was its disinhibiting effect.

“And that’s why I’m telling you, that Ryu guy is the worst! the worst!”

“Oh, I can see that mister Luke, he must truly be an awful person if you dislike him”

“Oh, come on Taffy, just call me Luke or I’ll be mad”

“Sure thing Luke!”

She squinted her eyes in an amicable smile, but on the inside she was boiling in rage. This guy got drunk after two beers and doesn’t let her go. To make matters worse he doesn’t stop groping her, if things continued like that he would pass out on the table and she would end up as poor as she was before she met him.

Luckily for her, she knew exactly what to do to take him off of her.

“Luke, wouldn’t you like to drink with me?”

For an experienced prostitute like her, asking that was the same as admiting defeat. Not only she had to swallow her pride and ask her customer to buy her a drink instead of him begging her to drink, but that also meant she was giving up on bedding him.

When morning came Luke found himself butt naked inside a room he didn’t know. He didn’t know what happened, only that he was feeling awful and his head hurt as if he had been stabbed right through the eyes.

This was a complete new feeling for him, but much to his surprise, he didn’t wake up alone. There was a beautiful brunette beside him.

From that point on he vowed to not drink until passing out, since he lost all memories about what had happened. The only proof of his lost virginity was that his purse weighed slightly less than the day before.

Luke, being the proud and powerful hero he was, of course didn’t keep his vow and got drunk on a daily basis. It got so bad he wouldn’t even leave the room. He had plenty of money to spare, food, drink and as many beautiful girls as he wanted.

One at a time, two at a time, it didn’t matter. He had the looks of a prince and the stamina of a wild beast, there was no stopping him.

The true charm of alcohol wasn’t its taste, but it’s disinhibiting effect.

After his first drink he became a smooth talker, after the second he became even mor handsome and after his third he was loved and admired by everyone. All of that, of course, was nothing but an illusion created by his alcohol abuse.

He spent his days leasurily, endulging on the sweet pleasures of flesh and berating against Ryu.

But something good came to happen by sheer luck.

Luke was known in the brothel for three things: his wealth, his despise for Ryu and his alcohol abuse. It got to the point that prostitutes would talk right in front of him thinking he was too drunk to remember, which was true most of the times. Yet, it only took once for him to notice what they were talking about.

“What do you think happens to the girls that can’t make any money in the brothel?”

“Haven’t you heard? madame Bianca sells them to a city far north from here”

“Yeah, but... I mean, that won’t happen to us right?”

“Of course not, at least not as long as we have him paying for our services”

Two prostites talked on the bed while Luke was still awake right in between them.

He did pass out drunk, but after so much time drinking heavily, he acquired a poison resistance skill that allowed him to recover quickly from his slumber.

On that day, or more like night, he decided he would lower his alcohol consumption and hear all the rumours he could about what was going on in town. But it turned to be much more difficult than he initially thought.

He always said to himself ‘I got this, I can quit whenever I want’ when in truth he was helpless. His resistance skill didn’t make things better, on the contrary, it only meant he needed to drink even more to get as drunk as before becoming one of the brothel’s best clients.

Money wasn’t a problem for him, his carpentry skill allowed him to craft a sled in a few hours, and those were on high demand. Since Ironwoods was covered in snow for the most part of the year, sleds were a lot more useful to them than carriages, and they were cheaper too.

His companions were worried about his behavior, but couldn’t say much because he kept crafting sleds earning a lot of money for everyone. But Hiraku, who saw Luke almost as his own son, always nagged at him.

At first Luke would just dismiss all of his lectures, but after finding out madame Bianca’s scheme and Ironwoods dark secret, he would endure the lengthy lectures as if he was a martyr of some sorts.

He couldn’t tell Hiraku, in fact, he could tell no one about his findings until he found some evidence, but he was willing to fall rock bottom in alcohol and women to find out the truth.

“Drink, drink, drink”

A woman on her twenties chanted while sitting next to Luke. He took the mug and gulped it down in a single motion earning him the cheering of the four prostitutes that were tending to him. Taffy always made sure to pick the girls that would serve Luke herself, earning her a little extra comission and if things went her way, she would be able to buy herself from Bianca before the freeze.

Life was good for everyone at the brothel, but especially for Luke who had all the admiration and attention he wanted now, he had much more money than he was able to spend and he was even able to investigate madame Bianca’s wrongdoings. Things couldn’t get any better for him and slowly but surely he started forgetting about Anne, Helena and more importantly, he started forgiving Ryu.

He had always know that Ryu was a lot more competent than the rest, he also knew he wouldn’t be alive now if it wasn’t for him, but he always had felt Ryu took the girls from him.

Now that he was living ‘his best life’ he couldn’t care any less about a stupid grudge like that.