"Oh, have some," I say, pouring a stein of the deep red wine for little Lazari. After all, this is the first time she's ever made a request of me and I'm not about to deny it. This is something that I've recently been trying to encourage, a step in the right direction I'd say.

"Wait, Jeff, you sure children can drink this stuff?"

I mean, I dunno. If she doesn't like it, she can stop drinking it, and if not, she can have more. After all, denying her request now would be counterintuitive to what I've been trying to achieve. So saying, I watch her take the stein with both hands and take a sip.

Not gonna lie, it looked quite cute. Very endearing indeed. I kind of expected that she would recoil from the sensation, but to my surprise, she kept drinking the stuff.

"You like it?"

She looks at me, bobbing her head, her vacant countenance now tinted with a rosy red. Taking a whiff of the wine, just from its aroma alone I can tell this was good stuff, from Pordeaux, the city of wine no less. I'm no connoisseur but just its aroma and a bittersweet aftertaste alone captured the essence of good liquor.

"Once again, Wills, I'd like to say I'm godsdamned proud of you,"

"Heh, it's nothin',"

I can always depend on the resident, alcoholic gambler when all else fails!

"Chii!" Rubbing its body against my arm, the little bird wants something from me.

"It's this isn't it?" I swirl my stein in front of Lily, her eyes captivated by the scarlet vortex.

An expectant look builds up in her eyes, but I quickly crush such a thought.

"I'm afraid little birdies such as yourself aren't able to drink this," I say with a clear bias in my tone. Nonetheless, it's still my bird, so I wouldn't be so heartless as to give her nothing. Fishing through my pockets, I found it.

A rare candi I believe these are called.

It's a kind of spherical consumable, wrapped in a thin blue foil, with the ends both twisted in knots to seal it. I found some after perusing the contents of Mr Thomas' cold compartments. To my understanding, the candi boosts one's power and essence by a small margin, but that said, it has minimal effect on most people meaning that you would need to eat a whole lot of these to find any purchase in power rank. There were higher tiers of candi, but even rare candi were rather difficult to obtain, not to mention the other kinds.

Tossing the candi toward Lily, she catches it in her beak and promptly scoffs it down. I don't think the wrapping is edible, but it's too late to stop her. Watching the bird guzzle down the candi was an interesting sight, to say the least.

"You good?"

Lily nods her head, but she still wants more, evidenced when she still eyes the liquor.

I ignore her, savouring the lingering taste in my throat. Mhm, I usually don't drink and it's been a long time since I had any liquor of any sort. But I can say, without a doubt, that this takes the cake. Best liquor I've ever had.

"Heh, I can agree with you there, buddy," Wills chips in, "I guess merchant families like them got all the good stuff,"

I'm tempted to get wasted after abstaining from alcohol for so long.

Though, after Lacer threatened to beat us up if we messed the place, I restrained on the drinking. After all, knowing my inability to control myself under intoxication, I was not risking it.

"More like your inability to control yourself under anything," I ignore Laffer's snide remark.

So wrapping things up, I tuck Lazari to bed and go to sleep. Lily nestles herself in the nest she made on my table. Godsdamned bird.

…

I had a nice dream. At least not a weird one.

"Wake the hell up you sad sack!"

Hmm, is someone telling me to wake up? On normal occasions, I would not give a fuss on who woke me up, but I'm going to have to raise a few flags here. After all, I don't recognise this voice. So, which star struck bastard said that? And why did they sound so obnoxiously rude and vulgar, yet somewhat familiar?

Ah, I know. I'm hallucinating.

I've got to say, I'm quite proud of myself for being able to remain lucid even when experiencing such a vivid dreamscape. Looks like I gotta drink some more leaf water. Getting out of my bed, I find a little girl standing with her hands on her hips, looking smug at me.

What the hell?

For some reason, there's an unknown child here. With a peculiar ashen white hair, with wings of the same colour arching off her back. Is she supposed to be a rip off angel? Well, it would be somewhat in line with my previous dreams.

Sigh, these hallucinations are getting a bit too real.

"Hmph, you're not hallucinating!"

I might actually go insane with the rate these delusions are affecting my mental state.

"Hey, hey! I'm real!"

"Yesn't, you're not," Without thinking those words leave my mouth.

Oh crap, am I seriously conversing with my hallucinations? If this isn't walking the path of insanity, then I don't know what is.

"It's me!" The girl shouts, pointing at herself, "Lily!"

I only know two people named Lily, one of them is a ghost and the other is a bird. You're none of them.

"C'mon! You raised me!"

Yesn't, I did not. Is this some kind of scam? Like the type where someone pretends to be your bastard child and grease some coin outta you. This definitely seems to be the case.

“You sick scumbag,” She snorts, "I didn't want to do this. But! You forced my hand!"

Seeing how I dismiss all her attempts at communicating with me, the little girl puts on a serious countenance.

"Jimmy," She says a name I haven't heard in a long time, "He wouldn't be proud of what you did,"

I freeze as these words echo in my mind. It nearly puts me in hysteria, but my rationality is able to keep a firm lock on my sanity.

He wouldn't be proud.

At the utterance of these words, a pervasive emptiness fills me. A very conflicting feeling that borders mania.

Tsk, these hallucinations are getting more and more relentless aren't they? They're actually making me contemplate suicide, which is impressive considering that I'm highly aware of their ephemeral nature.

"D'you believe me now?"

Wiping the solemn atmosphere around her in an instant, she again puts on has a smug grin, that I find all too familiar.

"No one knows that name, so all you did was prove that you're definitely a hallucination,"

She seems to be in disbelief as she just stands there with her jaw wide open.

And rightfully so, I'm not sure who's messing with my mind, but I'm assuming that it's a spell that works off of my memories. Perhaps, some kind of dream construct, in which case, it's a rather stupid construct that I shouldn't even be heeding. However, in light of that fact, it's also quite pitiful that I was just arguing against what was essentially a figment of my imagination.

*Siiiiip*

I take a deep drink of leaf water. Mhmm, that should do it. However, glancing up I immediately notice a problem.

"Why are you still here?"

"You SPED!" Stomping her feet, she yells at me.

Very rude.

"You gave me some candi and now I'm like this!"

Wait a minute. Candi? Like a Rare Candi? Taking a quick glance toward a certain bird's nest, I find it empty.

"You're Lily?!"

I couldn't resist shouting aloud, now that the realisation dawned upon me.

"You just realised?!"

"Shhh, be quiet, you're gonna wake up Lazari,"

"You sped, she's knocked cold,"

What? And indeed she is. Touching her face a couple times, I don’t get any response, apart from a rough breathing. Did I give her too much? I mean, I don't think I gave her that much liquor. If I recall correctly, I only gave her three steins…

Okay, that might've been a bit too much liquor. But that seriously can't be my fault, I mean, she kept drinking, so she was definitely alright.

Oh, but I forget. She's a demon. Demons are weird. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with her! I'm a great person, no way could I fail something so basic!

As I delude myself away from my terrible parenting, I hear just the noise I wanted to hear.

*Knock!* *Knock!*

Mhm, to really help with my troubles, someone knocks on my door.

This dunce just had to make a racket in the middle of the night. Couldn't just wait 'till morning could you?

"This is all your fault," You just had to wake someone up.

"You good in there?"

Opening the door, Laffer peeks in which somewhat scares the shite out of me.

What? How did he get in here? I swear I locked the door.

"Wait wait, what's happening here?"

That's trivial, bigger question…

"How did you get in here?"

He ignores me, more intent on investigating the current situation. And after a second, he comes to a rather wild conclusion, saying some dubious things.

"Jeffrey," He makes eye contact with me, "I'm afraid this is where we draw the line. Some laws are just universal,"