2.9.

"Leticia I missed you!" Lilian exaggerated her greeting, shedding crocodile tears.

"I-I missed you too? How have you been?" Leticia asked.

"I'm Dorry. I don't think I met you last time."

"Likewise, a pleasure to be acquitted."

"Nice to meet you."

Sequencee and Schwii greeted. Their hands were full, they weren't able to shake hands or anything like that. Sequencee remembered Dorry from that time during the scholarship appraisal. If his guess was correct, he had a unique spell which allowed him to fire a death ray.

'Better be careful around this guy.'

"Come on, sit down, sit down. What did you buy this time?" Quora slapped the table.

"Did you get any cold items? I can help preserve the temperature," Daizo offered.

"It's fine. I have my own cooling spell," Sequencee responded.

"Oh! It's fried fingers! You got so many of them," Nynim raised her voice.

"Since we're having a group party, I thought I should buy more."

"We also got more just in case you wanted some."

"Arrange them all on the table first!"

Schwii's reasoning for accepting the invitation to make merry with this group was simply to enjoy what it was that she hadn't had as a proxy ruler and demon lord. Like anyone her age, she wanted to get to know people and have fun. Now that her status no longer mattered, she had the freedom to be more open to her environment. There was no need to catastrophize over every little thing, knowing that mistakes here didn't mean the life or death of her people. It made it much easier for her to break that shell which had built up over the years.

Sequencee saw it as a positive while Iona kept silent her thoughts. Ultimately, Schwii was a kind child who just wanted to hang around with genuine friends at heart.

"I got wine!" Nynim raised a huge bottle of champagne with a cheer.

"Nynim! Not so fast, we haven't even started yet!" Quora retorted.

"Ah? Isn't it tradition to commence a party with a sabrage?" Nynim rubbed her cheeks on the surface of the bottle.

"I concur with her argument," Iona raised her opinion.

"What? Seriously?!" Nynim was in disbelief. To think such a scary maid would be casting a supporting vote!

"Just open the bottle and begin then," Dorry said nonchalantly as he steadily plated all the shared food items on the table.

"All in agreement?" Nynim asked again.

"Sure.. whatever.." Quora mumbled.

"I'm fine, whichever," Sequence said.

"Are we considered minors?" Ro asked.

"Oh ho, good question. Minors should grow up quickly into adults. I'll make sure everyone has a cup of this baby tonight hehe," Nynim was already drooling. She took out a small saber from her waist and ogled the champaign with a delirious expression. It proved to be a rather creepy sight for someone like the trembling Lilian.

"Done with the arrangement. Feel free to take any," Daizo said, picking his fork up after plating eveything they got on the table.

"In 3, 2, 1!" Nynim slid the saber with deft movement and– pop! The cork hit squarely on Dorry's forehead. The contents came spilling out– and froze in motion. The liquid twirled once in the air and entered Nynim's very own wine glass.

With an amused expression, she emptied the bottle into everyone else's glass. Then she chugged down the remnant by the bottle.

"Ahh! Good stuff. Luckily I bought a hundred of these."

"..." Dorry rubbed his sore forehead.

"I'm getting a little worried. Aren't elves supposed to be a cordial race?" Quora said.

"There are always exceptions in this world," Daizo replied.

With the end of the opening act serving as the appetizer, they proceeded with the main course. Various japanese foods interspersed with perhaps some culturally influenced items like sushi made using Bane Wolf meat or heart-shaped mochi stuffed with some sweet legume grown in the neighboring towns.

"Sequencee, what do you think of the food?" Schwii asked, slicing the fried cutlets into small pieces before placing them into her mouth. She took a rather delicate process for something that could be eaten simply.

"How about you?"

"It's not bad. Though, I still prefer the staple buttered bread and stew. I wonder how this tastes," Schwii reached over and took a fresh croissant. She split it in half with a fork, "Do you want to try some?"

"Sure thing."

"How is it?"

"It's surprisingly good. Much better than the ones I had a long time ago."

"Really? I suppose. This one is quite crisp."

Between Squencee and Schwii, a pink, serene space was created. Leticia pinched her own thigh to keep herself from blowing up.

"When is your class going to start? Did you go through some class appraisal to find which class you'd be entering?" Lilian asked.

"No. There was nothing like that. I'm assigned to class E1A." Leticia shoved a scoop of iced milk into her mouth.

"It makes me wonder which class the hero– heroes would enter. Most likely the first class-classes but.." Ro pondered.

"It'll likely be kept a secret until the day of the course," Dorry voiced his thoughts.

"I still find it hard to believe I even got into this academy. More so when there's a hero so close to us right now. I wonder how they're going to go around with so much attention on them," Lilian mused.

"Dunno. Maybe they'll lock themselves up at their dorm and have maids cook for them all day," Ro said.

"Hey, don't talk bad about heroes," Quora pointed out.

"My bad."

"Hey, hey. Drink the good stuff already, drink it already. If not, I'll give you a big smoochy~" Nynim swung her hand in the air.

"Great.. she's already wasted," Dorry heaved a sigh.

"Someone bring her home–" Daizo said with a laugh.

"No way, no way. I'm not drunk at all!" Nynim fummed with a reddened face. Her cuteness was raised by a factor of two when she was intoxicated.

"Yeah.. let me help with that."

"Help?"

Sequencee reached over and touched Nynim's forehead. The detoxification spell coursed through her body and in a matter of seconds, her flushed cheeks and fuzzy mind fizzled away.

"What? This kind of thing exists?!" Nynim touched her own face in disbelief.

'She's like my mom.. a little'

Sequencee smiled wryly at the bitter yet silly memory.

"What.. that.." Daizo's eyes widened.

"There's a spell like that? Oi, teach me," Dorry requested.

As mages who have been honing their craft for years now, this was their first time seeing a detoxification spell like this. It was already entering the realm of healing magic, which was a humongous topic of study in itself.

"Are you a priest?" Daizo asked.

"I'm not a priest."

"Teach me please oi. I don't want to see this darned elf try to ruin my drinking session by harassing me," Dorry prodded once more.

"Harass you? You call something so subtle harassment?" Nynim pouted.

"If dragging my hand to your crotch and telling me to rub it isn't harassment, I don't know what is."

"W-What?! So the harasser is you!"

"Wow.. I didn't know that," Daizo expressed his awe.

Dorry gently rubbed his temples.

"Isn't it weird that this elf has a low tolerance to alcohol?" Quora said with a twitchy smile.

"It's just my constitution. Better than em' dwarves, no need to drink by the barrel just to get drunk."

"Dwarves still exist? Didn't they die out in the last war?" Schwii asked.

"Dwarves do exist. But they're the minority. Most of them live somewhere between Trine Kingdom and Eluive Kingdom. They're a protected race, dwarves don't reproduce easily even though they drink so much."

"I see.. thank you for the insight."

"It's bitter.." Lilian found the bitter but fruity aftertaste of the unnamed champagne a little had to tolerate.

"That's how it's supposed to be," Ro said, taking a sip to try the taste for himself.

"Come on. Are you two not going to take any?" Nynim said, looking at Schwii and Sequencee's untouch glass.

"I don't like alcohol?" Sequencee responded.

'If anything, I don't want to get anywhere near it.'

"Wha– even though I poured you an entire glass. At least try some."

"Schwii?"

"I don't think you need my permission to take it.. Iona, it should be alright for me to drink this right?"

"It's unlikely that you'll get drunk."

"Is that so?"

By that Iona hinted at the fact that demon lords do not get drunk. Of course, if they wished for it, they would have to take some special medication or super potent alcohol capable of sending people to heaven.

The food was cleared off the table, the evening passed in blithe, leaving everyone satisfied. Nynim got drunk close to a dozen instances with Sequencee reaching out to pull her back to a sober light. The first few times of doing so, it didn't really bother Nynim, but when it crossed the tenth time, she began complaining about Sequencee's actions. She was acting drunk yet not drunk. In the end Sequencee decided to leave her be.

And so with the drunken Nynim in tow, the ten of them returned to their apartment.

"..."

"..."

"OOOOooooo… what a surprise. Let's go into your room!" Nynim's eyes sparkled.

"Denied," Iona stood in between.

Apparently their units were on the same floor and were no more than a couple meters apart. If one wished, they could even crawl to another person's room at night. Provided that they had the access permission.

"Sorry for the disturbance. I'll return with this deplorable elf," Dorry said, dragging Nynim by the arm.

"Uwa! No, no, no! There must be some hidden treasure there I swear!"

Ignoring her words, Dorry pulled her into their unit with Quora helping to hold the door.

"Thanks for today, it was fun," Quora said with a troubled smile.

"We should have a meal like this next time. Anyways, I'm surprised you got a room like this. Doesn't it cost a lot?" Daizo asked.

"Within my capabilities," Schwii replied.

"Right.. well. I shouldn't comment about it so much. Thanks for today, and Happy New Dawn."

"Likewise, have a great evening. Happy New Dawn."

"Sequencee," Leticia bumped into him and called out in a whisper.

"Yeah?"

"Good evening."

"Good evening."

Saying so, Leticia quickly rushed into her unit. Quora shook her head.

"Let's go," Schwii prodded, turning a blind eye to Leticia's antics.

With a sigh, Sequencee tightened the small note he had received in his fist.

'I wonder what you wrote.'