The Afterparty that had begun in the early evening continued late into the night.
Even the dormitories’ strict curfew was lifted for today, so many students took advantage of the rare opportunity and kept drinking until late.
There was still no sign of the lights going out across the academy’s grand athletic field.
“Mmm~! I knew rare meat would be delicious!”
“How can the texture be this tender and soft?”
“And the flavor is incredible. The moment it enters your mouth, a complete harmony of flavors starts ringing out!”
An unusual menu helped liven up the atmosphere at a drinking party.
Great Owlbear meat did not possess a heavenly taste compared to other food, but the unusual experience alone made it a fine side dish and drinking snack.
For the noble students, it would be a chance to acquire an unusual bit of refinement. For the commoner students, it would be an expensive, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Although the meat was not actually anything extraordinary, seeing the other students enjoy it while swept up in the atmosphere made their excitement rub off on me as well.
More importantly, everyone was so preoccupied with eating Owlbear meat that there was far less competition than usual for the whole-roasted pig, which would ordinarily have been the most fiercely contested dish.
I easily secured my favorite menu without any competition.
Great Owlbear or whatever, this was far better as a drinking snack.
“Sen...ior Con~rad~.”
“Hrr... sno...re....”
As the banquet dragged on, my companions at the same table became thoroughly drunk and could barely keep their wits about them.
Naturally, I was the only person left at the table still sipping from a glass.
I told them not to mix their drinks. Why did they insist on drinking the same way I did?
Neither of them looked likely to regain their senses anytime soon, so I quietly rose from the table where we had been eating.
“Sen~ior? Where... going...?”
“I’m going to get some air. Rest until you sober up.”
“Be care~ful... coming back....”
“Snore, snore....”
Leaving the two drunks at the table, I searched among the dozens of tables set up across the plaza for the one where Senior Sian was sitting.
Of all my acquaintances currently at the academy, Senior Sian was the only one capable of matching my drinking capacity.
...It should be fine to consider her an acquaintance by now.
Although the crowd was large and noisy, finding her was not particularly difficult.
Even among this complicated mass of people, Senior Sian’s mana was impossible not to sense unless she deliberately concealed it.
I headed toward the place where I felt the second-strongest mana after Principal Russell’s. Just as expected, Senior Sian was still eating with the companions from her Hunting Festival party.
I was about to call out to her and use the opportunity to become acquainted with the others as well.
“Senior Sian, if there’s an open seat, may I join—”
“I’m tellin’ you. Don’t you think our party made such a mess of the Hunting Festival because of Sian’s strange plan?”
“...Huh?”
However, the banquet at Senior Sian’s table was unfolding with a strange atmosphere completely different from what I had expected.
“Rayen?”
“I know Sian was our party leader and all~. But thinking back on it, that plan really wasn’t any good.”
I had come over merely intending to chat with Senior Sian, but the scene before me was somewhat different from what I had expected.
The Department of Spearmanship student who had been struck down by the Great Owlbear yesterday was criticizing Senior Sian’s strategy for the Hunting Festival.
“........”
Senior Sian looked slightly flustered by Rayen’s unexpected words.
“Looking back, it certainly was a reckless plan. We probably would’ve done much better if we’d hunted normally, the way we usually do.”
The Department of Swordsmanship student joined in criticizing her, and Senior Sian’s head sank.
“...I have no excuse.”
Her dejected answer sounded as though she accepted that everything that had happened during yesterday’s Hunting Festival was her fault.
“Hey, second-year! You say something too!”
“Pardon? M-Me?”
“Your score went to hell after you followed her plan too! Don’t take her side just because you’re both in the Department of Archery~.”
“Well, I mean....”
“........”
“Putting aside whether your plan was good or bad... I-I do think it was a little cowardly....”
Seeing even her junior speak to her that way, I could no longer stand by in silence.
“Haah. We could’ve caught something like that Werewolf from the awards ceremony too. We had members good enough to take second place at the very least, but we screwed around and didn’t even make the rankings....”
“That is enough, Senior Rayen.”
“Huh?”
Rayen looked puzzled when my voice suddenly interrupted.
“Oh, Conrad. Thanks for yesterday~.”
“Senior Rayen, what did you just say to Senior Sian?”
“Hm? Why are you suddenly acting so scary...?”
My reaction must not have looked particularly friendly, because the mouth that had been drunkenly running with such confidence shrank back a little.
“Were you not just saying that Senior Sian’s strategy caused you and the other party members to receive poor results?”
“........”
Rayen seemed to think for a moment, then continued speaking to me as though unwilling to concede.
“I-I mean, it’s true! If Sian hadn’t come up with that weird plan to mess with your party, Conrad, we wouldn’t have attacked that damn huge Owlbear or whatever it was, and we wouldn’t have almost gotten our asses killed!
“If we’d just quietly found something suited to us and fought it, we could’ve taken at least second place!”
“But you followed Senior Sian’s strategy because you agreed to it in the end, did you not?
“When I saw you before, the expression you wore while showing us the Werewolf made it look as though you were quite pleased with Senior Sian’s strategy.”
“...I was just caught up in the mood.”
“Senior Sian may have been the party leader, but do you truly think she would have carried out the strategy if even one of the other members had actively opposed it?
“And after all of you said yesterday that nothing could be done, why bring this up only today, on an occasion meant to be enjoyable? Now that your body is safe and you have alcohol in you, did you suddenly remember the bundle of prizes you failed to bring home?”
“........”
Left with nothing to say, Rayen quietly turned their gaze toward a corner.
“The other two are no different.”
When my gaze shifted to the left, the students from the Department of Swordsmanship and the Department of Archery both flinched.
“Senior Cain, you actively participated in Senior Sian’s strategy as well.”
“...I did.”
“If you knew it was reckless and believed that hunting normally would have been better, why did you not say so from the beginning?
“You failed to state your own opinion clearly at the start, and now that you see an opportunity, you are merely agreeing with Senior Rayen.”
“........”
Cain could not give a clear answer to my question and began gathering his bag and coat from around his seat.
“...I must return to my hometown early tomorrow morning, so I will take my leave first.”
Cain rose from his seat with a feeble excuse and fled my questioning.
“Ah~. I should go get some air too....”
Once Cain disappeared and Rayen lost one of their allies, they immediately rose as well with an excuse whose true intention was obvious.
Before long, only the two students from the Department of Archery remained at the table where four people had originally been sitting.
“Your name was Renaria, correct?”
“Ah, yes!”
Lastly, I addressed the student from the same department as Senior Sian who was still there.
“Remember this. If you get swept along by the crowd like this and cannot even voice a proper opinion, you will eventually end up with neither porridge nor rice.
“In the end, agreeing with Senior Sian’s strategy and joining her party were both choices you made.”
“Yes....”
Renaria quietly rose from her seat and bowed her head toward Senior Sian and me.
“I’ll head back first.... I’m sorry for saying something so strange, Senior Sian....”
“It’s fine. Go back and rest.”
At least she was far better than the other two in that she knew how to apologize for her own mistake immediately.
Senior Sian waved goodbye to Renaria, leaving only the two of us at the four-person table.
I cleared away the tableware from the seat Renaria had occupied, replaced it with a clean set, and took the seat beside Senior Sian.
“...Thank you for helping me.”
“It was nothing.”
“Those kids aren’t bad at heart either. They ruined their final evaluation because of me, so they probably spoke a little harshly.”
“How was that because of you, Senior Sian? Anyone would’ve fallen against that monster.”
Senior Sian turned her face toward me after hearing my words.
Then again, it probably sounded strange coming from me, the person who had killed that monster.
“And if it had been any monster other than the Mutant Great Owlbear, your party might have defeated it easily and won.”
“Perhaps.”
“It’s a little strange to share the glory of success among everyone, then force the responsibility for failure onto one person.”
“Perhaps... it is.”
“Have a drink.”
I poured the liquor on the table into Senior Sian’s glass.
Then I filled my own glass as well and lightly clinked it against hers.
“What about your party members?”
“They both passed out. Neither of them has much resistance to alcohol.”
“You look perfectly fine.”
“I’m stronger than they are.”
Senior Sian and I tilted our glasses at the same time and swallowed their contents in a single gulp.
“So I started looking for someone who could keep drinking with me, and I thought of you.”
“Are you sure? I’m strong.”
“Would you like to make a bet?”
“A bet?”
“On which of us gets drunk and collapses first.”
“...Fine.”
This time, Senior Sian filled our glasses.
With another toast, their contents vanished again.
“This is good. Did the academy provide this too? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”
“No. I brought this from my homeland.”
“Ah, is this that famed elven liquor?”
“It isn’t as good as that, but this is still fine liquor.”
As she spoke, Senior Sian looked wistfully at the empty seats around the table.
She had probably brought it intending to comfort her party members after the final evaluation.
But the beastfolk student from the Department of Spearmanship had suddenly gone off, ruining the atmosphere.
“Did you have the scar treated?”
“Yes.”
“Let me see.”
I did not like the expression on Senior Sian’s face, so I hurriedly changed the subject.
Without a word, she rolled up her sleeve and held out her snow-white forearm toward me.
The scar where yesterday’s current had burned her skin had vanished so completely that not even a trace remained.
“The priests were impressive.”
“That is why high-ranking priests are always stationed at the academy, in preparation for situations like this.”
“I’ve hardly ever been injured, so I didn’t know. I had no idea they were so remarkable.”
This was her first injury despite having won the Hunting Festival four times since enrolling.
It might have sounded arrogant from anyone else, but coming from Senior Sian, it was entirely convincing.
“Pour me another.”
“You really are strong.”
“I’m fairly average at home.
“My mother and younger sister are especially good at drinking. I’ve never once seen either of them drunk.”
“What a frightening family.”
Then came another drink.
This time, Senior Sian spoke first.
“When they all said it was my fault a little while ago... I felt a little sad.”
“That’s understandable.”
“I shouldn’t be hurt by something this small. Perhaps I’m not particularly suited to being a leader.”
“The strongest and smartest person becomes the leader. What else is there to it?”
“That’s true. But I’ve never met anyone stronger or smarter than me.”
“Don’t say that in front of anyone other than me. Someone might call you insufferable.”
“...I meant until now.”
As though she were in some kind of hurry, Senior Sian drank without even clinking glasses with me this time.
I followed her and cleanly emptied my glass once more.
After that, Senior Sian and I continued sharing ordinary, trivial stories, repeatedly filling and emptying our glasses.
About an hour later.
“...I’m going to stop drinking.”
Senior Sian was the first to declare her surrender.
“Really? You still look fine.”
“Yes. But if I keep drinking with you, I feel like I might say something strange.”
“Something strange?”
“...There’s something.”
She did not seem to want to answer, so I did not press her further and raised the glass before me again.
“Then I win the bet, correct?”
“...Yes.”
“We didn’t wager anything, but since I won, would you grant me one wish?”
“...As long as it isn’t too strange.”
Since none of Senior Sian’s other party members were present, I decided this was a good opportunity to bring it up.
“Would you seriously reconsider what I said to you yesterday?”
“...Which part?”
“My offer for you to join our party.”
Senior Sian’s eyes widened as though she had not expected me to mention it.
“I thought you were joking.”
“Who would joke about recruiting someone of your caliber into their party?”
“........”
“Besides, after parting ways like this today, wouldn’t it be somewhat difficult to form another party with your current members next time?”
“That’s true....”
Senior Sian looked as though she were seriously turning my proposal over in her mind.
But I already knew.
In the end, Senior Sian would accept my offer.
At a glance, she might appear cold, but in truth, she merely placed great importance on practicality.
She might seem quiet and blunt, but that was because she was introverted and easily lonely.
She would probably accept my proposal in the end.
If it was Senior Sian making the decision, then without a doubt.
“I should head back soon as well. I need to take my party members to their dormitories.”
“...Yes, all right.”
“I’ll be waiting for a favorable answer.”
“...I’ll try.”
Leaving Senior Sian alone at the empty table to continue thinking, I returned to my original table to collect the two drunks.
“Ah~! Senior Conraaaad~. What a coincidennnce....”
“........Snooore.”
Without question, returning two drunkards to their respective dormitories was the most troublesome thing I had experienced all semester.