"I see, so that happened..."

Shanks nodded glancing at the still unconscious Corvus.

​​

"By the way, is his health the reason why you didn't go straight to the avatar of wrath?"

He added pointing at the white-haired young man, who lost his glasses somewhere along the way to the city.

"Ha? No, why would you even ask that? It's literally has been over three months in the wilderness, killing monsters and eating monsters. No matter how good Zombie's cooking is, I wanted something normal."

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and explained offhandedly.

"Oh. True."

The rat-faced man flinched and nodded after hearing such a normal response.

"Wait, you are able to cook?!"

Rotte flinched and stared at Zombie in disbelief.

"Always has been."

The blue undead smirked and pointed a finger gun at the warrior...

"...?"

But sadly there was no one there who could understand the reference.

"Still, with the sudden disappearance of the Lairs's girlfriend, we can assume that she will either go to warn the current avatar of wrath or leave to the capital to snitch on us right to the queen."

Cranberry picked the subject as if nothing was said and looked at the Dandelions on the other side of the table.

"...fuck me..."

The black-haired elf sitting by the corner sighed over a half-empty tankard of beer and sighed.

"..."

Cranberry glanced at her and furrowed her brows.

"Hey, it doesn't mean that she lied to you or anything. It is kind of understandable that she would go report everything that happened to her superiors it was within my expectations at least."

She lightly shrugged her shoulders and tried to lift the elven mage's spirit.

"...then why didn't she said anything and just fucking vanished...? She probably used me as fucking cover to gather information on you, young lady, or something fucked up like that..."

Lairs cried and downed the rest of her bear in one go.

"Oi! Waiter! Fucking...! Bring me another round!"

Lairs raised the empty tankard and called at the staff hiding behind the bar counter.

"Whoa, Lai-lai, that's your fourth one, you're going too fast!"

Rotte flinched and pointed out.

"...Rotte, your sister is fucking heartbroken, can't you just shut up and keep her fucking company while she drowns herself in booze?"

The black-haired elf put her forehead against the table and sobbed.

"Lai-lai..."

Rotte sighed and pulled his chair closer to the elven mage and started massaging her back.

"Alright, it's drinking time! I'll be sure to keep up with you!"

The warrior declared and grabbed his own tankard.

"Shanks! You too! we can't abandon Lai-lai in this situation, right?!"

He added looking at the rat-faced man.

"Of course not, but first...! Young lady, I think we need to have a talk about what happened in the tower of sloth."

Shanks raised his hand to stop his friend and instead turned towards the red-haired girl.

"Maybe tomorrow, all that happened today has tired me out. We will talk tomorrow - don't go overboard and it will be fine."

She waved her hand dismissively and instead went upstairs together with her blue undead...

...

...

"This is insanity...!"

*WHAM*

Shanks groaned and slammed his head against the table so hard that the beer in his tankard spilled over.

"...ugh... you're telling me...? I just wanted to complete Arion's quest and have a single happy ending...! How come we get into a mess with some freak made out of light?!"

Mary groaned in response, half-laying on the table and waving her empty tankard around.

"It's bullshit! Did you hear what they said about our young miss?! They called her a failure?! I bet you that if not for those whole invisible walls protecting them, our young lady would destroy Patience!"

The rat-faced man declared and down the remaining beer in a few big gulps.

"They called the titan-class monsters trash and cannon fodders... like, what the hell are they even?! Of course, they would win! Patience is a scam!"

Mary cried and slammed her tankard a few times against the table.

"...here..."

That was taken as a signal for the trembling waitress to come and serve the two of them the next round of drinks.

It was already late into the night and the rat-faced man and the brown-haired heroine were the only guests left in the dining part of the King's Apple - everyone else from their group - followed the red-haired villainess and the blue-skinned corpse puppet's example and left to rooms hurriedly prepared by the staff, leaving the last two to drown their anger and anxiety in alcohol.

"I hope that she won't get discouraged or something!"

Shanks sighed and took a sip of the newly arrived beer.

"Whaat...?! No way! Cranberry is cool! She won't be scared or some adnis-adminish-administrator's privileges bullshit...! She the besht...! Even though she was only a backstory character in the game I've seen in my dreams!"

Mary cried, hugging the tankard instead of drinking from it.

"...huh...? What game? What dreams? What, don't tell me that now you will come out and start talking about some evil scheme or secret you've had harbored all this time?!"

The rat-faced man rolled his eyes and complained before taking another sip.

"Nooo...! It's not like that...!"

Mary cried and shook her head wildly from side to side.

"It's just since I was little, I kept having those really weird dreams - I would always see some kind of a flat box and on its surface, there will be images playing - it was as if I was spectating someone interacting with those images - and that was supposed to be a game..."

She explained while holding back her drunken sobs.

"...sounds crazy to me..."

Shanks raised his brows and shook his head, clearly too intoxicated to pay any actual attention to what the heroine was saying.

"...uuuu.... you, you want to hear the really crazy part?"

Mary sniffled and raised her head just enough so she could suck a bit of the beer from the tankard.

"That game that I saw was literally about this world, about all of us! I've seen Zombie, Arion, Claymore, Roan, Mason, Corvus - all the capture targets, their routes, and how to seduce them and all! But! The villainess in that game wasn't Cranberry, it was Mason's older sister that was stealing the good looks from an elf!"

She frowned and started drinking the beer by putting her face into the tankard instead of raising the tankard to her face.

"But that's impossible, right? I mean, I've learned that Mason's sister died in her childhood... no, wait... maybe that's one of the things that changed after the system reset that Cranberry was talking about before...?"

The brown-haired girl suddenly straightened her back and stared in the distance with foggy eyes.

"Hey...! Hold up for a moment! What's with this blatant injustice...?! You just basically listed names of all the guys with connection to every main family but with the exception of someone from my Sloth family! Why is that? Huh?! Do you think that we are worse or something?!"

Shanks got angry and slammed his hand against the table while glaring furiously at the brown-haired girl.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...! It's just my dream! Kind sir, why do you have to get so mad? I didn't have any control over what I dream about! I think there was something about the Sloth family - but it was about it being available as something called a post-game content!"

Mary backed off and raised her hands in surrender.

"Post-game? What the hell is that supposed to be?"

The rat-faced man grumbled and laid down on the table.

"How am I supposed to know? There was no explanation provided in the dream!"

The brown-haired heroine scoffed and leaned back in her chair.

"..."

Shanks didn't answer to that, he fell asleep with his head and both arms - one still holding onto the tankard - on the table.

"...huuu... such a lightweight...! Just like in that game! Just so you know, this night drinking was one of the requirements to get you as my... party... membe... *suuuuuu*"

Mary emptied her tankard and laughed at the knocked-out man, but not even ten seconds later, she herself fell asleep as if someone flipped a switch inside her head and turned off the lights.