Alsar

72 before the date

"Excuse me for coming so late at night! Ren-san, are you here?" "Huh? Tord-san? I'm coming!" I got home safely by 21.00. After arriving at home, I took a bath and did some other things. By the time I was finished, it was already 23.00 but Malik-san still hadn't come home yet.

 I was about to go to sleep first, thinking Malik-san must be enjoying himself to the fullest, drinking with his colleagues when I heard Tord-san's voice calling for me. 

I immediately hurried up to the door. "Tord-san? What's the matter... Ah... Malik-san..."

 "Good evening!~ It is as you can see... Also... Guild Master is really heavy... I'm having a hard time here..." When I opened the door, I saw both Tord-san and Malik-san standing there with Malik-san leaning most of his body weight on Tord-san. Malik-san looked like he was barely conscious... "Did you drink too much? Tord-san, thank you for bringing Malik-san home. Would you like to have some tea first?"

 "Of course!~To be honest, I want to refuse your generous offer but carrying Guild Master all the way from the guild to here was really tiring.. I'm so parched... I'd like to have one glass of drink if possible..." Malik-san did say he was going to drink tonight but it seemed he had drunk too much? Tord-san was breathing heavily. 

Carrying Malik-san who was much bigger than him must've been hard. I offered to prepare some tea as the bare minimum to thank him and Tord-san accepted my offer while bowing his head, apologetic for the trouble. 

 "Well then, please come in. Ah and, I'm sorry for troubling you more but... Can you please help me carry Malik-san to his room?" "Of course!~" Realistically speaking, if Tord-san had left Malik-san's drunken body on the floor, I wouldn't be able to carry Malik-san to his room. So I had to ask Tord-san for more help to bring Malik-san to his room and laid him on the bed. "Malik-san, I'm going to loosen your clothes for a bit, okay?" 

 Malik-san was barely conscious but I still informed him beforehand what I was about to do to him. I popped the button from his collar off and loosened his waistband. Of course I had also taken both his socks and shoes off. "Whoa~ Ren-san you're like the Guild Master's wife." Tord-san spoke in admiration as he stood near the door. 

 "Hehe~ As his only son, I've troubled him plenty of times so I don't mind returning the favour once in a while like this. Now then, shall we go to the living room? Would you like something cold to drink? Or would you prefer something warm instead?" Usually Malik-san was very reliable and strong so this was one of the rare occasions where I'd be able to help him instead. 

After covering Malik-san with a blanket, I prompted Tord-san to follow me to the living room and asked what kind of drink he wanted. "Please give me something cold!" "Okay, I will see what I have in hand." I gestured for Tord-san to take a seat on the sofa while I went to the kitchen to grab a jug of cold tea from the fridge. I poured the tea into a glass and handed it over to Tord-san. 

 "Here you go. But it's rather rare for Malik-san to get that drunk, isn't it? And I thought Malik-san could hold his liquor pretty well too..." "Guild Master does have a very strong alcohol tolerance but there was another guy who was even stronger than him! Guild Master kept on drinking while saying 『I'm celebrating my son's engagement!』and that was why he ended up in this state."

 "I see..." In other words, it was a drinking party to celebrate my engagement? That was why Malik-san ended up drinking until he was drunk since he was my stepfather after all. "Well, everyone just wanted to drink no matter what the reason was so Ren-san, you don't have to worry about it too much, okay?" "Haaah..." 

 "Fuah... Thank you for the drink! It's already late so I will excuse myself first!" Tord-san then left with a forced smile on his face. The next day after, Malik-san woke up with a terrible hangover so I casted recovery magic to heal him. Malik-san was so impressed that he requested for me to keep on taking care of him whenever he had a hangover from thereon after. His face was so serious too so I knew he wasn't trying to tease me. Does that mean other people can't cure hangovers like I do? I guess healing physical wounds was common but that was not the case with fatigue or headache. I felt that my talent in support skill was really a cheat in that sense....