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#249 Oozing Alcohol
🕑 Added 2021-10-09 12:01:01 +0000 UTCThe first thing we’re doing in spring is to taste the fruit and herbal wines.
Back in autumn, we soaked various fruits and medicinal herbs in the distilled liquor created by Bacchus, hoping that their flavors would infuse into them.
It should be ready to drink now that winter’s over!
It should be!!!
In theory, you soak the fruits in the wine before the rainy season and drink it around autumn. But the concept of seasons isn’t all that defined in this world.
So here they are, all lined up in front of us, a colorful array of wine.
Starting with the standard plum wine, we also have apple wine, lemon wine, peach wine, loquat wine, orange wine, and kiwi wine.
There are also a variety of herbal wines prepared by Platy and the other mermaids.
They take out whatever steeped ingredient they put into them, giving them a unique color that cannot be found in ordinary alcohol.
“…I don’t think we’ll be able to finish all these in one sitting!”
Anyway, we decide to enjoy the plum wine first since it’s the most abundant in quantity.
“Plummy-yummy!”
“It’s even easier to drink if you dilute it with water!”
“The pickled plums are also delicious!”
“I’ll make them into jam later, so don’t eat them all, okay?”
They all seem to like it.
I’m going to make this a staple on our farm and brew them regularly.
“Saint, saint.”
I hear someone call out to me in my tipsy state.
It’s Bacchus, the god of alcohol.
“I want to see the results of the other steeped liquors. Will you come with me?”
Bacchus has now established himself as the head of the brewing department at our farm.
He told me that he had made dozens of different kinds of steeped wine, but only a handful of them was shown at the wine party.
“I know for a fact that they will all taste great!”
Well, that’s wise judgment.
We got some crazy ideas when we asked the farm residents what alcohol to brew, but Bacchus was willing to try them all instead of rejecting them.
He believes that the possibility of creating a miraculous product, no matter how ridiculous the method, isn’t zero.
This determination of his is what you’d expect from an alcohol enthusiast.
“But there were some extreme ones, weren’t there?”
Like Horkosfon’s proposed natto wine…
“Failure is the yeast of success! The challenge itself wasn’t the problem. But we do have one in particular!”
“Huh? What?”
“It’s this…”
Bacchus shows me around the brewery, and what he shows me scared me out of my wits—a ridiculously large wine bottle.
It’s so tall that I have to look up at it.
How did they make such a huge bottle?
That in itself is already a mystery, but an even bigger mystery is its contents. It’s a glass bottle, so we could naturally see the generous amount of sake, probably shochu.
And what’s floating inside it is…
“A dragon?!”
Dragon wine?!
Who the hell thought of up this?
We’re they confusing it for snake wine?!
“Veil? VEIL!!!”
I call out to Veil from the outside of the bottle while knocking on it.
What in the world is she doing?!
“You called, Master?”
“Ahhhh!!!”
The voice from behind me spooked me out!
“Huh? Veil?!”
She’s right here in her human form!
“Huh? Who’s the dragon inside this bottle then?!”
There’s a dragon inside the bottle.
There’s also a dragon outside the bottle (Veil).
Veil is the only dragon on my farm; that’s why I assumed that the dragon inside was her.
“If you’re outside the bottle, then who’s the dragon inside?! Who?! …Oh, your clone?”
She does have a conscious clone of herself that guards the mountain dungeon. It must be the exact clone!
“No, this dragon is different from me. Can’t you tell?”
“Huh?!”
“Have I not introduced you to her? Alrighty, I’ll introduce you.”
Veil taps the bottle as if knocking on it.
“Seidour. Master seems interested in you. Come out and say hello.”
“Oh, my. Are you sure, sister? I’ve only been here for less than two months.”
“Just come out for a few minutes.”
She’s aliveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I shouldn’t be all that surprised even if she’s inside a sealed bottle, considering she’s a dragon, but she really is alive!!!
“Hyup. There we go. It’s been a while since I’ve had some fresh air.”
The alcohol-soaked dragon pokes her head from the lid.
“So, you’re Sis Veil’s master. I am Seidour, a Grinzel Dragon.”
“Y-Yes… Nice to meet you…”
The situation is so bizarre that I can barely utter a reply.
The dragon that had soaked itself in the liquor comes out and greets me!
“Um, this is our first meeting… it seems.”
“Indeed, it is. Is there a problem?”
Why is a dragon I’ve never met soaking herself on my farm?!
Its level of mysteriousness is similar to those locked-room murders!
“Let me do the explaining,” interrupts Miss Know-It-All Veil.
You’re probably the one who started all this, anyway!
“It was an ordinary winter afternoon, and I was bored out of my mind…”
“Okay…”
“So, I decided to kill some time and go mess with another dragon.”
?!
Speaking of which, aren’t these dragons being tested by the current Dragon Archon to determine his successor?
And if they interfere with the other dragons and make them fail the trials, they’ll benefit by eliminating their rival.
That’s unfair.
“As I was flying around, I came across Seidour. I made her my target and approached her…”
But instead of intercepting Veil, she clung to her, crying for dear help.
“I was given an outrageous trial! Not even we dragons could accomplish it!”
“W-What kind of trial was it?”
I didn’t want to pry too much, but that wouldn’t get us anywhere, so I had no choice but to urge her.
“I was asked to bring a fruit named ambrosia.”
“Why don’t you just get one?”
A fruit?
Dragons like you should be able to get a fruit or two easily.
“That’s not how it works, Master,” says Veil. “Ambrosia is a fruit that has been long-extinct and is nowhere to be found on earth.”
“Oh, it’s practically an impossible trial.”
No matter how many dragons there are, it’s impossible to find something that no longer exists.
“I was roaming around at a loss when I met Sis Veil. I had no one else to turn to and was already exhausted, so out of sheer happiness, I…”
Hugged her and cried out, eh?
“And with all her bawling, I didn’t have it in me to corner her anymore…”
Your initial goal was to sabotage her, but you didn’t stick to it, Veil.
“That’s when I remembered you, Master. You can grow trees and crops out of nothing without sowing a seed, right?”
Oh, yes.
That’s one of the benefits of the Hand of Supremacy.
It’s a really versatile gift.
“I brought her here because I thought you’d be able to make an extinct fruit sprout again.”
I see. I understand how Seidour came to the farm now.
But what I still don’t understand is why she’s soaking herself in the alcohol!
“A noble dragon like me can’t be indebted to a human! Not to such children of lower races!”
Her words are relatively polite, but I can tell she’s a dragon, all right.
She’s naturally arrogant as the most powerful race.
“So, I thought I’d first try to give you a big enough reward before I ask you a favor. But since you’re a human who can subjugate Sis Veil, I thought you wouldn't be satisfied with something generic…”
“We were just having an alcohol party, right? That’s why I thought it would make you happy if I prepared dragon wine.”
“That’s what Sis Veil told me, so I decided to immerse myself in alcohol right away! Being stuck in a bottle for six months or so is no hard task for us dragons.”
“Not being able to play with Master for that long sucks, too, personally.”
And that’s how this happened?!
Why didn’t I notice this? Oh, wait, I have been away a lot during winter, fishing and preparing for Orkubo Castle’s attractions!
It’s no wonder I didn’t notice. But at least inform me about it, Veil!
I guess I can’t even expect that much from her…
“Less than two months have passed since, but I’m determined to persevere! I’ll be sure to ask for your help in cultivating ambrosia when I’m finished!”
“I’m also interested in dragon wine. Oh yeah, Master. Why don’t we give it a taste now while we’re at it?”
There’s nothing more thoughtless than tasting steeped alcohol before it’s finished…
Dragon wine…
I’m interested in what it tastes like.
I wonder if it’s like snake wine?
I take a scoop of the wine and sip it.
“Woah! This is goooooooooooooooooood!”
What’s up with this?!
It’s delicious! And that’s not all! My body is boiling hot, and I feel strength surging up within meeee!!!
No alcohol can contain this much power!
This dragon wine is undoubtedly the most potent alcohol!
“Oh, saint, you shouldn’t drink dragon wine carelessly,” casually says Bacchus, unconcernedly checking the quality of the other wines. “It will make you immortal.”
“Why say that after I finished drinking it?!”
I guess a dragon’s power will always shine through, no matter what product they’re involved in.
