Thus, the military council ended amidst tension and urgency.
The participants dispersed, and except for a few nobles, they left the royal palace.
"It's been a while, Clover."
"We just met at the party the other day. It hasn't been that long... Lubeth."
At a tavern in the royal capital.
After the council, Rest was sitting at a table with a man who was his comrade-in-arms.
The round table... much smaller than the round table used in the council, was occupied by Rest and another man. The young sword saint—Wilhelm Lubeth.
In fact, Lubeth had also been at the council. He had been sitting next to Rest.
He was also to participate in the subjugation of the foreign tribes as part of the advance party. Since they were acquainted, they ended up coming to the tavern together after the council.
By the way... in the private room of the tavern, there were only Rest and Lubeth.
Marquis Rosemary, Rest's father-in-law, had been summoned by His Majesty the King after the council and went to another room, so he left the palace first.
"Just when I'm about to start managing my domain, I'm sent out on a military expedition. Being a noble is quite busy, isn't it?"
"You can say that again..."
Rest wholeheartedly agreed with Lubeth's words.
They poured drinks into glasses, clinked them in a toast, and then took a sip.
"Yeah, this is good enough. Not strong at all."
In Japan, he would be underage, but in this country, there is no drinking age restriction.
That fruit wine had a low alcohol content, was smooth on the palate, and was easy to drink.
(Compared to that distilled liquor, the difference is huge... no, that one is definitely more high-class, though...)
I recall the wine I once drank with Celestine.
Compared to high-alcohol distilled liquor, fermented fruit wine is much easier to drink.
It seems Rest is not that tolerant to alcohol. Seeing Celestine’s heavy drinking, he sincerely felt that.
(Especially that… I never want to drink Spiritus again. If only I could use magic to strengthen my liver too.)
«To be honest, I don’t really need any more achievements… I have enough status, domains, and fiancées.»
Rest emptied his glass about halfway and sighed.
Due to his achievements in the Sabnock subjugation and ending the civil war, Rest had been granted more than enough rewards.
Just when he thought he could live peacefully with his fiancées, developing his domain, he was ordered to go on an expedition.
«Well, it can’t be helped. Fighting is the duty of a warrior. We can’t turn a blind eye while our homeland is threatened by foreign enemies.»
As he spoke, Lubeth sipped his wine.
«It’s simply time to repay the favor granted by the royal family. We just need to do what we must.»
«…You’re so resolute, I envy you.»
Rest sighed.
The reason Rest couldn’t be as resigned as Lubeth was probably because he had lovely fiancées.
After the party the other day, he had deepened his bond with Viola and Primula even further.
And yet, he had to leave his fiancées behind to go to war. It was only natural he would complain.
(I’ll marry them when this war ends… No, isn’t that a death flag?)
«Lubeth, don’t you have a lover or fiancée?»
«Ngg…!»
Lubeth slightly spurted out his wine.
"What's with the sudden question...?"
"No. You're a viscount too. I was wondering if you had an heir problem or something."
"...If it comes to it, I can just adopt a child from a relative."
Lubeth wiped his mouth on his sleeve and tossed the words out brusquely.
The young sword saint, Wilhelm Lubeth, a man of peerless swordsmanship.
One of this man's few weaknesses... was women.
"The 'woman-hating sword saint' is still the same, huh... Didn't your family try to set you up with an arranged marriage?"
"...My parents and uncle did suggest a few. But I have no interest in such things."
"Huh, I think marriage is surprisingly not bad, you know."
"...Easy for a man with multiple fiancées to say, you wom..."
"...an..."
"...izer."
Lubeth let out a loud tsk, as if utterly disgusted.
Then he took another tiny sip of the wine in his glass.
"To begin with, women have no place on the path of the sword. To master a path means giving up other paths. Only by throwing everything aside and dedicating yourself wholly can you stand at the summit."
"Hah, is that so?"
"Drops of water bore through stone, and an inch of time is not to be spent lightly... A human life is far too long to spend doing nothing, and far too short to master anything. If you wish to perfect a single skill within this limited time, you must cut away the excess!"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh. And?"
"Thus, this vow of mine to swear off women is all because I have consecrated my life to the sword! It is absolutely... absolutely not because I am afraid of women! That's right, if I ever felt like asking that woman if she isn't ashamed of shaking those uselessly big breasts of hers, my swords would become a mountain!"
"..."
"Thereithe... for the peathe and thanguility of the land, I thall thtake my body and thoul... grind mythelf to dutht... like entruthing mythelf to the river... climb a million mountainth and then a lion came out... a horthe..."
"Hey... don't tell me you're drunk?"
Lubeth's speech was gradually getting slurred, and his conversation was becoming stranger and stranger.
Rest picked up the wine bottle and stared at it... but they were drinking the same wine. It was a weak fruit wine.
"No way, are you even weaker against alcohol than I am? At the party the other day, you didn't seem like this at all..."
Come to think of it... Rest couldn't remember ever seeing Lubeth drink.
He'd been handed a cocktail as a welcome drink, but had he even touched that?
Maybe he held back on the alcohol when there were a lot of people around.
"In othah wordth! I'll cut down every latht one of thothe foreign tribesth for the thake of the nathion! Thith ith all to repay the grace of hith Majeththy the King!"
"Ah... yeah, yeah. You're right. Whatever you say, Lubeth."
"There! I'm not wrong about anything!"
It was an unexpected turn of events.
Witnessing a side of his battle-hardened comrade that he had never seen before, Rest was completely at a loss for what to do.
"A heavy drinker like Celestine is a handful... but this is a different kind of problem."
After delivering a mysterious, rambling speech for about thirty minutes, Lubeth fell asleep as if his batteries had run out.
Rest ended up carrying Lubeth back to the inn, deeply realizing that the terror of alcohol had nothing to do with the alcohol percentage.
———————————— April 1st! The first volume of the book is going on sale!
The digital version, Melonbooks, Gamers, and Animate will each come with an exclusive bonus short story!
With the book publication, the main title of this work has been changed to "The Infinite Magician," so I ask for your continued support once more!