Good Wine for Friends Who Come to Visit / A Sore Loser

Pelloch's involvement in this situation is simply to cause trouble for Enciodes.

After all, the competition for these spots isn't a huge one, but it's not insignificant either.

Especially after learning the price Enciodes paid for this spot, he felt he had no choice but to fight for it.

Originally, his idea was to simply send out two unimportant characters to fill the positions.

It was intentional to annoy Enciodes, to tell him that the spot he cherished was worthless to him.

But unexpectedly, Suika's outstanding performance disrupted his original plan.

After all, with age requirements in place, people selected randomly might not even meet the passing grade.

The three parties did discuss this during the meeting. Each party set a quota. For example, Silverash would only take the top four from their own party. The rest, even if they passed and scored higher than the others, would choose to abstain and give up their spots.

But the minimum requirement is just passing, because the messenger said that if you don't pass, she won't acknowledge the spot even if you get it.

Therefore, he had to make a choice: either give up the spot or send out the smartest children from his territory.

Neither of these two options was easy for the Paleroche family to accept.

That's why he invited Suika over—to try and gather information from her.

"Miss Suika, to be honest, Kjerag has its Kjerag direction for development."

I've always felt that simply copying someone else's approach isn't necessarily suitable for us in Kjerag.

After all, the outside world is unlike here; it's surrounded by snow-capped mountains and is protected by Kjeragandr.

Arctos looked at Suika from inside the carriage and spoke.

"Of course, the development of Kjerag is ultimately carried out by the people of Kjerag, and I have never intended to interfere with its development."

Suika raised an eyebrow.

"Why did the messenger come...?"

"First of all, the reason I came here was not because I wanted to, but because the head of the Silverash applied to the school, and I happened to be there at the time, and I happened to have a good relationship with the headmaster, and I happened to be a messenger, so I accepted her request to come to this place, Kjerag."

Secondly, I could understand what Mr. Arctos meant: you don't want Kjerag to get too involved with the outside world, nor do you want Kjerag to be influenced by it.

But if I may be so bold, what do you think is the basis for Kjerag's standing on this land?

I heard that the Paleroche family is in charge of the armed forces in Kjerag and is responsible for protecting Kjerag's security.

But if I may be so bold, based on the weapons and equipment I've seen... Victoria wouldn't even need to send a division to completely annihilate you.

Of course, you could argue that Kjeragandr's protection prevents outsiders from entering.

However, there are only a few routes for Kjerag to leave the mountains, and the most important import and export routes are all in Victoria.

If the other side blocks all major transportation routes, Kjerag will be trapped like a turtle in a jar.

Victoria doesn't even need to launch an attack; simply cutting off Kjerag's connection with the outside world, given the current rate of development in the outside world, will leave Kjerag completely and utterly behind the nations of Terra in just a century or two."

Chapter 305 Good wine is served when friends come!

"And what about Kjeragandr?"

At most, she can protect the people of Kjerag, allowing them to survive as savages even if they live like wild animals, but by then Kjerag will become a zoo for the nations of Terra.

Your descendants will become monkeys in a showroom called Kjerag, for people from other countries to watch.

When the Kjerag fall too far behind the rest of the world, outsiders won't see Kjerag as human beings, but rather as some kind of animal that resembles humans but needs to be protected.

Suika's words made Atatos's eyes widen in anger.

But before he could speak, a terrifying force held him firmly in place, while there was absolutely no movement outside, as if no one was aware of what was happening inside.

He was surprised that this was happening. Suika shook her head; the other party had no idea that there was a faint layer of mist inside the carriage.

The mist surrounding him was the culprit that had frozen him in place.

"Angry? Why are you angry with me?"

If that's the case, aren't you just asking for it?"

Suika stared coldly at him until Atatos's flushed face gradually calmed down before she lightly snapped her fingers. The next second, Atatos felt his body return to his control and looked at Suika with fear.

At that moment, he remembered what Ratatos had said yesterday: that no matter whether the messenger's words were true or false, or who was behind her, being arranged to come here alone meant she was no weakling.

When they met today, he overestimated himself because she was so young. Now, thinking back to the times he was about to speak but was stopped by Ratatos, he couldn't help but feel grateful to the woman from the Browntail family. If it weren't for her preventing him from completely antagonizing her, things would probably have been really troublesome.

Seeing the downcast look in front of her Suika stretched.

"Now you're scared, is that even meaningful?"

To be honest, I don't care about any of your Kjerag's nonsense, and I don't want to be involved.

In this tiny patch of land, only people like you are considered unusual.

Do you know why Victoria didn't attack?

The snowstorms are one issue, but the second issue is that the land here is too barren. Not only do we not reap much benefit from the harvest, but we also have to subsidize a lot of money.

Others aren't fools; they've definitely done a lot of evaluation before attempting something that's thankless and exhausting.

"Otherwise, do you really think that you warriors with lumberjack axes can withstand Victoria's elite troops?"

Suika snorted coldly. If Terra were to talk about playing around with the smallest country, it would definitely be Kjerag.

Even when Aegir announced the news to all the countries of the continent, Kjerag was not among them.

It's clear that the nations of Terra don't really consider Kjerag a legitimate sovereign state; at most, it's just an independent autonomous region like Siesta.

Ding ding ding!

Just as Suika was spraying Atatos until his head was bleeding profusely, someone knocked on the carriage door.

"Master, we've arrived!"

Suika opened the door and jumped down first. After Suika left, Atatos finally went limp, looking like he was about to be played with to death.

After not seeing Atatos emerge for a while, the man peered out and, upon seeing Atatos's disheveled appearance, quickly jumped onto the carriage.

"Master, what's wrong? Is it that guy...?"

As he said this, he grabbed the curved sword from his waist and prepared to rush out.

Seeing his actions, Atatos was startled and immediately became alert, jumping up to grab the other man's shoulder and tightly gripping his collar.

"Gulo, calm down, I'm fine..."

"What are you two doing in there? Hmm..."

Suika, peeking in, saw two large men embracing and gave them a disgusted look before quickly pulling her head back in.

A few seconds later, Atatos emerged from inside, supported by Gulo.

"It's too hot inside, I'm wearing too many clothes, I got heatstroke..."

His words left everyone around him speechless.

If you can come up with a decent reason, people below will force themselves to believe it, even if they don't want to.

But look at the wind, the snow, and the temperature outside right now.

And then you tell me you got heatstroke from being in the carriage?

Is this acceptable?

Is this a human being?

Atatos blushed as he realized his slip of the tongue.

"Ahem, didn't we agree to invite the messenger over for drinks?"

What are you all doing standing at the door?

"Gulo, let's go to the wine cellar and get some wine. We're not leaving until we're drunk!"

Fortunately, Atatos had a quick wit; as soon as everyone heard about drinking, they forgot his slip of the tongue and happily ran off to get the wine.

Soon, more and more drinks were being moved into the living room.

Atatos looked at Suika

"Miss Messenger, although our place is small, our wine is no worse than that of Silverash family, and compared to his soft and weak 'spring,' our wine is stronger and more potent."

How should we drink?

Suika opened a barrel and smelled it; it was indeed a strong spirit, and a standard high-proof Ursus- style spirit at that.

"Not bad, not bad. Since it's good wine, we won't cheat you. You drink as much as I drink. Are you in?"

Upon hearing Suika's words, the people below began to clamor.

After all, she's just a little girl, and her arrogance is something they definitely can't tolerate.

"Alright, then however much the messenger drinks, we'll all drink the same amount. Come on!"

Oh, Gulo tell the kitchen to hurry up and serve the food, so that the messenger can at least have a couple of bites before she gets drunk...

After listening, Gulo nodded, ignored the noisy crowd, and turned to walk towards the kitchen at the back.

Ten minutes later, when he arrived in the living room with the kitchen staff and a large amount of food, he was stunned by what he saw.

The previously shouting crowd was now lying unconscious on the ground. Suika was standing on the table, grabbing Atatos by the collar with one hand and forcefully pouring wine into his mouth with a ladle in the other.

"Damn it, you said you'd drink as much as I drink, are you trying to raise fish? Open your mouth wider!"

Hearing Suika's cursing, Gulo felt a wave of dizziness.

After rescuing Atatos from Suika, he saw the patriarch's eyes had rolled back and couldn't help but shout...

"Doctor! Call a doctor quickly!"

He had barely called out a couple of times when he felt a gaze fixed on him. He turned around and saw Suika walking towards him with a smile, holding a wine ladle that was still half full, swaying unsteadily.

"Your master couldn't handle half of this wine. As his subordinate, shouldn't you share his burden?"

Come on, open your mouth...

When the people outside called the doctor and opened the door, they saw Suika sitting alone at the table, drinking wine spoonful by spoonful.

The scattered "corpses" on the ground were her spoils of war at this banquet.

Chapter 306 Losing and then cheating

It was already night when Atatos regained consciousness.

The first thing he asked when he woke up was where the messenger was.

The doctor beside her told her that the messenger had left, and that he had left him a letter.

Atatos accepted the envelope, which was addressed to Atatos, head of the Paleroche family.

Atatos's face changed several times upon smelling the alcohol on the letter, vaguely recalling the time when Suika pinched his nose and forced him to drink alcohol.

The smell of alcohol made him feel unwell at that moment.

After taking several deep breaths to calm himself, he shakily opened the envelope.

[Mr. Atatos: Knowing one's own capabilities is also a very important thing when traveling abroad.]

As for you, your drinking capacity is probably only around five jin (2.5 kg). You'll need to be careful at drinking parties in the future and drink within your limits...

After reading the entire letter, Atatos's face turned even redder than before, and he was incredibly embarrassed.

Not only can a grown man like myself not outdrink a little girl, but I'm also being clearly criticized for my drinking capacity.

He turned to look at the doctor.

"How much did that messenger girl drink to get drunk?!"

The doctor shook his head.

"You don't know?" Atatos frowned.

"No, I mean she wasn't drunk. She got everyone standing around drunk this afternoon and then the coachman took her back to town. They should be there by now..."

The doctor, who was standing nearby, also saw what was written in the letter and understood that Atatos's question meant he intended to get revenge later. However, accepting the letter might disappoint him. She remained quite lucid until the messenger left.

"Impossible..." Atatos stared in disbelief.

After all, Suika drank first, and he drank later. Before he was completely drunk and unconscious, he could be sure that the other person had drunk more than him.

But even though I was drunk until nightfall, she was still able to return to town. Did she not only lose to me in combat, but also in drinking?