"No one even rembers what it’s like to have you around," Oriole said with a shake of his head. "If you ask , then that sounds just like losing them."
"I don’t need them to like or rember ," Arthur said while raising his hands and staring at them. "I just need them to be alive. This is the difference, Oriole. I don’t mind it if no one likes . But I’ve seen it."
"Seen what?" Oriole asked as Arthur paused, as if in a dream.
"I’ve seen what would happen when the Naless takes over this world," he said and stared at Oriole. "I’ve seen worlds that were sucked dry by the gods. I can’t have the sa happen to ours."
"I know," Oriole said with a sigh. "I understand that it’s a burden to make a difference. But—"
"You don’t," Arthur said as his hands turned to fists. His expression was unreadable, but if one looked beneath the surface, they could see the throat-cutting rage within him. "No one does."
Oriole stared at his friend. He opened his mouth several tis, and then closed it. After several failed attempts, he opened his palm upward and a bottle appeared.
Arthur was confused.
The alchemist placed the bottle on the table and began taking out glasses from his storage ring. Then, he unscrewed the bottle and began pouring into the glass cups.
"Then tell what it’s like," he said. "I can keep going with the blaming ga, but it would only hurt us both. Instead, let be the friend I once was, and tell what it’s like to carry the fate of everything."
Arthur was taken aback by the sudden change in his tone. He stared at the glass of clear fluid, and the scent of lilies told him it wasn’t water. It was alcohol, Arthur realized.
"What is this?"
"It could be the most powerful wine known to mankind," Oriole said. "But it’s not, because this isn’t wine. I have no fucking idea what this is. I created it by accident when I was doing my experints, and examining it tells that it could elude the mind and sweeten the tongue. Side effects don’t include hangover, thankfully, but it seems to be an alcohol of so kind."
"The ingredients..."
"Nothing that would make you lose your lunch," Oriole said with a laugh. "Just drink it without any questions."
Arthur picked the glass and sniffed. It burned his nose, but the scent of lilies was there. He glanced at Oriole and created a rune when the alchemist wasn’t looking. He tested it for poison, not because he doubted Oriole’s intentions, but simply because he knew that alchemists had a tendency of drinking their potions. They grow a tolerance that Arthur did not enjoy.
Arthur glanced at his friend, who was screwing the bottle shut. Then, he sniffed at the drink and gulped it down. Arthur did the sa, and that was the last thing he rembered.
Reality ca back with a loud, screeching noise. Arthur felt himself dragged back to reality by a suffocating feeling on his chest. He opened his eyes to find a large creature sleeping on his neck and chest.
"Wha—"
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" the rooster crowed, more loudly this ti. Arthur’s ears rang as he pushed the giant fowl away. He rose from the ground as the rooster ran away sowhere.
Arthur looked around, confused about what happened. He froze as he saw the surroundings. They were definitely in Runera, based on the giant tree and hovering buildings. But he was inside a farm, on the wrong side of the fence.
A sheep bleated as it stared at Arthur. It was a small one, half the size of the rest eating the grass behind it. Arthur blinked in confusion before jumping from the ground.
It took a mont for him to realize that he was topless. The sheep ran away from around him, and Arthur had to jump back, flying out of the fence, to avoid being headbutted by one of them. He landed on solid ground as he began to look around.
"Good morning, my lord!" an old woman greeted him. She was coming out of a barn with a bucket of milk in each hand. "I’m glad to see you’re awake now!"
"Uh," Arthur muttered. "I’m sorry, but what happened? How am I here?"
"You don’t rember?" the old lady asked with a chuckle. "You ca here with your friend last night. The two of you were flying sowhere, but landed in my farm. I didn’t want to disturb you since your snores were loud enough to wake up all the animals."
"Thank you, and I’m sorry. My friend? Where is he?"
"It’s a woman, and she’s still asleep on the roof," the woman said and pointed at the barn with her chin. "You can wake her up now."
"Thank you, ma’am. Let help you with these," Arthur pulled out a shirt from his subspace and wore it before taking the buckets into the farmhouse.
After he helped the old lady, he took another look around to see they were on the outskirts of Runera. He could see the trees and buildings from here, but they were well beyond the wall.
Arthur jumped in the air and landed on the roof. A single figure was snoring on the roof, hugging herself like a baby. The woman’s black hair was sohow still tied despite her disheveled appearance.
"Suyin?" Arthur muttered with confusion and crouched beside the woman. He called out for her several tis, but she only reacted when he called her Little Yin.
The woman rubbed her eyes as she tried to rise, but the glaring sun wasn’t helping her understand what happened. She looked around for a while before her eyes focused on Arthur.
"Arthur? What are you doing in my room?"
"Your room is the roof of a barn?" Arthur asked with a sigh. "What are you doing here?"
"A barn?" she looked around, and her eyes widened. "What am I doing here?!" she jumped and began adjusting her clothes.
"That’s what I asked," Arthur rose from the ground and sighed. "Tell this, at least. What’s the last thing that you rember?"
"Uh," she paused. "I was walking back to my room when I ca across you two. Oriole, I an. You were acting strange, as if you were drunk... giggling... laughing... and that’s the last thing I rember."
"Dammit, Oriole," Arthur said. The alchemist had given sothing too strong that he couldn’t even rember what happened ever since he drank it. At least he was right about having no hangovers. "Wait... did you drink it, too?"
"Drink what?" she asked with confusion. She now had a mirror and was fixing her hair.
"The alcohol that Oriole made."
"No," she said. "My grandmother never allowed to have any alcohol, so I have a very weak tolerance to it. I know better than to embarrass myself."
"This is bad..." Arthur muttered. "If you didn’t drink it, then it ans this, whatever this is, was contagious. We need to run back to the city. I’ll create a portal."
Arthur raised a hand and waved it. A giant fireball erged, shooting into the sky. The sheep bleated and ran in fear, while the woman below scread in surprise.
"That’s not a portal," Suyin said.
"...you think?" Arthur rolled his eyes and said. "I was clearly trying to create a portal. Let try again."
Arthur waved his hand again. All of a sudden, the entire roof was covered in dirt.
"I think it’s better if you don’t try again," Suyin said. "This is..."
"I know what it is," Arthur said with a sigh. "It’s called spiritual disruption. Any abilities we try to use now will get the wrong results or target. But why do we have it?"
"Don’t ask . You’re the one drunk out of your mind," she said. "I can’t believe that you would get drunk out of all people. I thought you were a robot now who never did anything wrong."
"I’m not a robot," Arthur said. "Forget it. We’ll walk back."
Arthur jumped down, thanked the old lady, and then began walking toward the city. Suyin followed after him.
Thankfully, his legacy and subspace weren’t disrupted. He pulled out several items, including sandwiches, as they returned to the city. At the sa ti, Arthur noticed that his Legacy of Spirits had so warning.
[Your soul has been poisoned.]
[Your soul has resisted the poison.]
[Lingering effects: amnesia, delirium, drunkenness, hallucinations, and soul disruption. These effects will be cleansed by the legacy over the span of forty-eight hours.]
"Dammit, Oriole," Arthur said again as he closed the legacy. "I knew I shouldn’t drink anything given by an alchemist."
"I agree," Suyin said as she walked beside him. "But it was nice to see you like this again."
"Like this?" Arthur asked with confusion.
"I’ve joined your guild after what happened in Ilios. Ever since then, you beca more distant and less... human. It’s nice to see you as your old self again, even if you’re just drunk."
"Wait, you rember what happened last night?"
"It’s coming back to ," she said with a grin. "You two were crazy."
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