Unleash the Chuunibyou!

Chapter 23: Celebration

"Come on, Fu, drink with me!" Hani laughed while shoving a full tankard of ale in front of Fumiko, making her scrunch her nose and turn away as she didn't like the smell at all.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I don't drink!" Fumiko yelled in reply. "I've seen what alcohol does to people and I don't plan on being a victim!"

"Oh, come on! At least order some food then because everything's on me tonight!" Hani replied while everyone that had joined them at the inn shouted cheerfully behind her as she'd extended the same offer to all of them.

"Shouldn't you save some of the money at least?" Fumiko asked.

"I've already sent half of it home to my mom and sisters, so it'll be fine!" Hani replied with her words already slurred. "Come on, order something! I might not have been able to win if it wasn't for you!"

"Then how about giving me eight silver and thirty copper?" Fumiko asked. "That's how much I gave you in order for you to enter the tournament and the copper is for the breakfast and bath this morning."

"Sure thing!" Hani agreed happily before digging into her now much larger coin purse before handing Fumiko a single coin. However, while she'd been expecting silver and copper, Fumiko was aghast as she was handed a gold coin instead.

"Why- What are you-?!" Fumiko began before she held the coin back out to her friend. "There's no way that I can accept this, especially when you're drunk!"

"Keep it Fu, and order something while you're at it!" Hani shrugged. "If you're that against it, then try to give it back to me tomorrow and I'll give you the same answer!"

"No no no! It's too much!" Fumiko persisted, yet her complaints went unheard as Hani turned around.

"Innkeep! One of your best fruit desserts for my friend here!" Hani yelled, leaving Fumiko all by herself while still unsure about what to do about the gold coin before she was unable to complain about it seeing as the berserker was already chatting happily with the same gruff men that she'd met last night and something landed on the table in front of her that made her forget about any complaints that she might have once had.

"Here you go, one scoop of strawberry ice cream served over a vanilla cake with chocolate sprinkles. Enjoy!" One of the inn's waitresses put what looked like a large wine glass in front of Fumiko before leaving her to stare at its wonder. And while she was just star struck at first, once she got past the idea of there actually being ice cream and strawberries in Hail, she slowly took a spoon that was already on the table before taking a small scoop of both the ice cream and the soft cake underneath it before eating. Though while she'd just been angry with Hani, all of her worries seemed to disappear as that taste of strawberries and cream filled her mouth while the soft chewiness of the cake let her chew in a moment of bliss before her eyes snapped open as she realized that all of the noise in the once loud room had gone quiet. And once her eyes were open, Fumiko saw that everyone was staring at her while grinning for some reason while Hani was attempting to stop another nosebleed.

"W-what?" Fumiko asked suspiciously as she wasn't sure if she enjoyed being the center of attention or not.

"You. Are. So. Adorable." Hani spoke while shaking slightly, and Fumiko thought that she detected a slight hint of danger in the woman's eyes before she figured that she'd better hurry and finish her dessert so that she could leave. However, after quickly eating five more spoon-fulls, a fierce pain shot through Fumiko's head, causing her to stop what she was doing in order to hold her head with both of her hands as if this technique could cure her brain-freeze faster.

"Here's to the witch who caught that cheater's trick and made him get what he deserved!" One of the men suddenly toasted with Hani agreeing right afterwards before everyone cheered and raised their tankards. And while she was happy that Hani had won the tournament, she wasn't sure how she felt about the three cheaters who had been imprisoned afterwards. Though they were being detained because of their crime, and Fumiko guessed that they had to pay for what they'd done. However, for a reward for having caught the cheating, she wished that the city's lord would have let her keep the armor that the man had been wearing seeing as it had supposedly been an artefact and she was more than curious as to just how it had worked and wanted to study it in order to possibly get some ideas about new spells in the future. But the armor was locked up underneath the lord's mansion now and her hopes were crushed, though none of that mattered at the moment as she took another bite of ice cream and felt all of her concerns fade away again until she eventually finished with her dessert and snuck away upstairs while leaving all of the loud people behind her.

Seeing as the bathing area behind the inn was most likely crowded with drunkards who were suffering the parties effects, Fumiko instead chose to take her bath inside of her room as she used a simple spell to gently blast herself with tolerable hot water until she felt clean even despite the lack of soap. And after cleaning her cloths as well, she found herself still wide awake due to the sugar rush that she was still feeling before she summoned the Arcane Codex and once again began brushing up her knowledge of Hail. Though, while doing so, she was ecstatic to find that she'd missed a feature just within the front cover seeing as there was a series of card holders and her adventurer's card immediately flew out of her satchel and into the codex so that she didn't have to worry about it being in the satchel anymore. However, after seeing the act, she wondered if there was a way that she could store everything that she had in a secure location now seeing as, even though she didn't have a lot of money, it was still all metal and was heavy to carry around. Not to mention that she didn't want to be carrying everything that she owned with her just in case she was robbed or something, and so she was hoping that she would be able to make a compartment inside of Buru or something that could hold everything she was carrying yet would still be able to turn into a bracelet before Hani stumbled through the door and once again interrupted her train of thought.

"Fuuu~." Hani mumbed as soon as she was through the door, still stumbling while seeming to be barely able to stand as she made her way to her bed.

"Again..." Fumiko sighed to herself as knew that her time in reading was over, not that it had ever really started...

"Fuuu~." Hani mumbled again before she fell face-first onto her bed once more. "Thank... you..."

"For what? You did most of the work." Fumiko allowed herself a smile before she walked over and strained herself in pulling some of the covers out from underneath the woman until she set them over the sleeping drunkard.

"Thank...y-" Hani said again before her words gave out into the same snore that she'd had previously.

"I'm really glad that I didn't have to turn you into a toad." Fumiko smiled again before she got ready for bed herself and eventually extinguished the lamp that had been illuminating the room until now. And after seeing that the moonlight was pouring through the window, she didn't think that she needed Haru in order to sleep before she climbed into her covers and closed her eyes to sleep.