Chapter 52: The Beginning of The Change (2)
I didn’t like alcohol that much, but when I was stressed out, I couldn’t help but drink. It was like the sentiment of an office worker. So as soon as I returned to Heilon Mansion from the banquet, I grabbed a bottle. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“Let’s drink,” I muttered, frustrated by the prince’s annoying behavior.
Of course, I couldn’t just ask anyone to drink with me at this hour, so I planned to have a drink alone in my room. There was plenty of good-quality alcohol in Heilon Mansion, and I chose a bottle of fruit wine.
“Sweet,” I remarked. It was definitely a delicious wine, and I felt like I could get hooked if I drank more. Well, it was fine. I was in my room, so it wouldn’t be a big deal if I got drunk and passed out.
Then, someone knocked on my door.
“Fiona, are you there?”
I opened the door immediately when I heard Sigren’s voice. He looked at me for a moment and frowned slightly. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“Are you drunk?” he asked.
Drunk? I had just started drinking to relieve my stress.
A smirk appeared on my face. “I just started.”
“….”
Although the wine was delicious, drinking alone was still boring. It was better to have a drinking buddy.
“Come in, let’s drink together. It’s been a long time,” I said.
Sigren opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it again as I pulled him by the wrist. He followed me in quietly. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
I led him to the chair across from me, but I paused for a moment.
“What happened to your tie?”
The shirt and tie around Sigren’s neck were crumpled.
“Did you get into a fight and someone grabbed your neck?” I joked.
“It’s something like that,” he replied.
“Really?”
How could someone grab him by the collar on the first day of his social debut? He wasn’t the type to get into that kind of trouble… right?
“Who?”
“It’s not a big deal,” Sigren replied. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
He reached out to untie his tie in an awkward way, but then he paused and looked at me.
“Fiona, I can’t see the knot well. Could you help me untie this?”
Sigren bent down slightly, trying to match my height. Without thinking, I reached out to untie his tie. From a young age, Sigren had always hated anything tight around his neck, so clothes or ties that did so were only worn when absolutely necessary.
“….”
The rustling of his clothes seemed particularly loud in the quiet room, making the moment feel oddly awkward. As I untied his tie, Sigren absentmindedly fiddled with my hair. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“It’s done,” I said, tossing the tie onto the bed.
“Let’s drink now.”
I poured alcohol into Sigren’s glass.
“Cheers!”
Clink.
I clinked my glass against his and downed my drink in one go. However, unlike me, Sigren only touched the glass to his lips before setting it down.
“Drink slowly. Why are you acting like a heavy drinker when you’re not even one?”
Unfortunately, there was no culture of drinking in one shot in this world. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com. Here, if someone drank as enthusiastically as I did, they were considered to have a high tolerance.
“I’m not that weak, though. You’re not drinking? This is good.”
“Yeah, but when you get drunk, you fall, and someone has to pick you up,” Sigren replied nonchalantly.
“No way.”
Was I really like that when I got drunk?
“You fell over the last time you were drunk. Don’t you remember?”
Ah, that was probably at Heilon’s New Year party last year. I was so drunk then. But I didn’t really remember falling head over heels. The only thing I recalled was waking up in my bed with a lump on my head.
“Could it happen again?” I said as I drank my second glass. Because I drank it so quickly, I was already feeling a bit tipsy. Well, it seemed I couldn’t deny that my alcohol tolerance wasn’t great. But it wasn’t too weak either—more like medium level. “Aren’t you bored just watching me drink?”
“Nope. Watching the changes in your expression isn’t boring at all. Your face is all red now.”
“Really?”
There was usually a lot of nagging from Sigren whenever he saw me, but right now, his expression was more like someone who would just put up with everything he saw. It seemed like, rather than wanting to drink with me, he just wanted to sit in front of me and dampen my drinking spirit. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com. Well, another big reason he didn’t drink was that he wasn’t a big fan of alcohol either.
I looked at him for a moment. “Sigren, how was the banquet?”
“Not that great.”
I wanted to ask, ‘Did you meet Eunice?’ but that seemed too direct.
Instead, I asked, “I heard there’s a girl being praised as a saint. Did you meet her?”
“No.”
Why didn’t he meet her?
“Come to think of it, I didn’t see you in the hall. What were you…?”
I stopped myself. There was no need to finish that question. He had mentioned earlier that someone grabbed his collar and that he’d had a fight. So I changed the question. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“Who did you fight?”
This time, Sigren responded smoothly. “The crown prince.”
“Really?”
Though I didn’t like the crown prince, he was still Sigren’s older brother. Was it okay?
“Why did you fight?”
“He’s more annoying than I thought.”
I nodded. “That’s true. I really don’t like him either.”
Thinking about the incident made me annoyed again. I inhaled deeply and drank another glass. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
Sigren’s eyebrows furrowed. “What did he do to you?”
“No, it’s not like that. He was just trying to hit on a noble lady.”
“Stay away from him.”
“I will. Honestly, I hope I never run into him again.”
As I kept drinking and talking, I got really drunk. I regretted being so confident earlier, saying, ‘I’m not that weak’ in front of Sigren.
“Sigren, you have two faces.”
“I see you’re drunk.”
“Even if you have two faces, two handsome faces floating around? Not strange at all.”
I lifted my thumb while mumbling nonsense. Then, finally, I rested my head on the table.
“Haaa…”
Before I lost consciousness, I heard Sigren sigh as he looked at my pathetic state. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
***
Check out my Patreon to read advanced chapters!
