First of All, I’m Drinking - Chapter 5

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 5

“Let’s go quickly! The kids are waiting!”

Seria grabbed my hand and ran down the corridor.

After turning a few corners, we soon reached the reception room.

Seria burst open the reception room door and entered, just as she had done when entering my room.

“Hey you guys! I brought Cael!”

At the table, two boys were sitting on the sofa drinking tea.

One had his hair parted to the left, the other had his parted to the right.

Since they were identical twins with exactly the same faces, the direction of their hair parts was the only way to distinguish between them.

Slurp.

The left-parted one’s teacup was empty.

A maid standing beside him poured fresh tea from the teapot with a trickling sound.

“…This is bitter. It tastes awful.”

“Still, you must get used to drinking it. Tea ceremony is a basic cultivation for royalty.”

“Something like this…?”

The child seemed very displeased with the taste of the tea.

The right-parted one sitting next to him wasn’t even touching his teacup, just staring at it blankly.

“A-ahem!”

Seria coughed exaggeratedly, seemingly embarrassed that her words had been ignored.

Only then did the children turn their attention to Seria and me.

“Oh, you came?”

“Sniffle.”

The left-parted one waved his hand.

The right-parted one silently sniffled without saying anything.

The dripping snot fell into the teacup placed in front of him, creating small ripples.

“Ew, gross! Kal! Please blow your nose!”

“…Sniffle.”

“There’s tissue right next to you! Ah, it’s dripping again!”

Plop.

…My mind is growing faint.

Still, it seemed I had become quite accustomed to human culture over the past 8 years.

To think that I, who lived in places filled with torn flesh and blood, would feel disgusted by mere snot.

“Merry! He’s dripping snot again!”

The left-parted one called the maid’s name and tattled on the right-parted one’s misconduct.

The maid skillfully wiped away the foreign matter from the right-parted one’s nose.

Even the usually lively Seria had a disgusted expression.

“…It’s a bit gross, but still, it’s nice to see you after so long.”

Seria waved her hand with reluctance. They also awkwardly returned the greeting.

“Nice to see you.”

“Sniffle.”

The left-parted one’s name is Max de Argent.

The right-parted one is Carno de Argent.

They’re commonly called Ilmbo Mac and Snotty Kal.

Though they’re the same age as us.

Seria and I are the direct children of the current Emperor Brunei, while these guys are from a collateral bloodline.

Therefore, even though we’re all royalty, our actual status and succession order are higher, but we all get along without formality.

Though I have no intention of becoming a human king in the first place.

Whoooosh—

Wind blowing in through the sliding window fluttered the curtains.

The sky viewed from the reception room was different from what I saw from my room.

Same scenery, but it felt new.

“Sigh, here he goes again.”

Seria tapped my shoulder.

“I always tell you, you need to fix that old-man-like attitude first!”

“…”

“You met the kids after so long but didn’t even greet them. Aren’t you happy to see them?”

Ilmbo Mac and Snotty Kal look at me.

Looking back, these guys too.

And Seria, who’s nagging me in real-time beside me.

When I first met them, I only felt about as much affection as I would for small animals.

I did think they were somewhat cute.

‘…That was all there was to it.’

As the years passed.

As the time we spent together increased.

I seemed to grow more and more attached to them.

It was a ticklish yet pleasant sensation I was feeling for the first time in my life.

“Yes, I’m happy to see you.”

I smiled and greeted them.

* * *

We played in the garden for quite a while.

Honestly, I could have excused myself if I wanted to, but since the children wanted to play with me, I played along.

Tag, hide-and-seek, running races.

Somehow, children’s games all seem to involve nothing but running around.

All three except me had collapsed face-down on the garden ground.

If this was going to happen, I couldn’t understand why they suggested playing in the first place.

“Huff, huff!”

“Gasp! Wheeze!”

Seria looked at me like I was some kind of monster.

“How do you! Huff! Have such stamina! Gasp! Hah!”

“…Never mind. I know what you’re going to say, so just lie down and rest.”

The servants brought drinks for the little ones.

I declined.

I wasn’t particularly thirsty.

“Ptooey!”

Ilmbo Mac spat out his drink and said.

“This is that tea from earlier! Did you think I wouldn’t notice if you brought it cold?”

“I apologize. I’ll quickly bring a different beverage.”

The maid who brought Mac the tea spoke without changing her expression at all.

I think I heard her name was Merry.

I could see her determination to make him drink tea by any means necessary.

‘Well, she’s trying hard.’

I shook my head from side to side.

“Oh, right. Do you guys know about this?”

“Know about what?”

At Mac’s voice, Seria looked at him with a curious expression.

“Next month is the ‘Baptism Ceremony’!”

“Pfft!”

Seria was so startled that she spat out the drink she was having.

Kal, who had been dripping snot into his teacup across from her, suffered the misfortune of being hit by Seria’s saliva-mixed beverage.

Since the drink happened to be lemonade, the sight of his pure white shirt soaked in yellow liquid was quite something to behold.

“…Ah.”

“S-sorry.”

Seria took out a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and wiped Kal’s face.

His hair part that had been swept to the right drooped down limply.

“The baptism ceremony is already next month? Really, Mac?”

“Yeah. Can’t believe it?”

“Wow, we’re already eight years old… Time really flies fast. Right?”

“Hehe, it does.”

The snotty-nosed Kal slyly joined the conversation.

“…But what do you do at the baptism ceremony?”

The children’s eyes gathered on Kal.

Kal looked at everyone in turn with a gaze hoping for an explanation.

However, the other children subtly avoided Kal’s gaze.

Ah, don’t tell me.

“You all don’t know?”

I asked just in case.

Nod nod.

Three tiny heads shook up and down repeatedly.

“You were all chattering so excitedly without even knowing what you do?”

Perhaps embarrassed herself, Seria’s face had turned red.

I hadn’t meant to embarrass them particularly.

“Explain it to us?”

Nod nod once more.

The children nodded their heads vigorously.

Their appearance was quite amusing, so I chuckled once and began explaining.

“Alright. A baptism ceremony is, well… first, you know what baptism is, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We know that much.”

Baptism.

The first sacrament that prospective believers receive when joining a religious order.

Through baptism, humans receive divine blessing, and their talents and potential are greatly enhanced.

“All citizens of the Empire visit the religious order of their choice to receive baptism in the year they turn eight. This baptism can only be received once in a lifetime. So you can’t receive baptism at the Order of the Sword God, then go to the Order of the Sea God the next day to receive another baptism.”

The Sword God and Sea God are both deities belonging to the neutral faction.

Celestial Deities govern the Heavenly Realm, and Demon Lords govern the Demon Realm.

Some people occasionally mistake that neutral deities govern the Intermediate Realm.

However, the Intermediate Realm is an inviolable domain where gods cannot directly intervene.

In other words, the neutral faction means they have no particular world to govern.

Meaning they’re surplus.

Most are significantly weaker than Celestial Deities and Demon Lords, with much lower status.

Though there are exceptions.

I continued speaking.

“However, royalty must receive baptism from the Order of Celestial Deities without exception. Do you know who the Celestial Deities are?”

“Yeah. Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel!”

“Unlike the evil Demon Lords, they’re all kind and magnificent beings!”

“Right. Unlike the evil Demon Lords…”

Flinch.

I froze mid-sentence.

“…What did you say?”

I agree that Demon Lords are bad guys, but…

‘Celestial Deities are kind and magnificent?’

What orc-toenail-like bastard taught such nonsense to a child.

Seria spouted absurdity that would make a passing Cerberus snort with derision as if it were nothing.

“But Cael, I have something I’m curious about. *sniff*”

“What is it?”

“There are eight Demon Lords, so why are there only four Celestial Deities?”

Kal asked while sniffling.

“I don’t know either. How would I know that.”

It’s true.

Those guys had the same number even before I was born.

And since the individual power of Celestial Deities and Demon Lords is similar to each other, currently the relationship between the Heavenly Realm and Demon Realm has the Demon Realm holding overwhelming superiority.

Now that I’m dead, perhaps the gap has narrowed somewhat.

‘No, wait.’

I noticed something strange in Kal’s question.

“Eight Demon Lords?”

I looked at the children’s faces and opened my mouth blankly.

“Yeah, isn’t that obvious?”

Ilmbo Maek looked at me with a puzzled gaze and said.

When I remained stunned as if I couldn’t understand even after hearing the answer, Seria placed both hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.

“Cael, you. You slept during theology class, didn’t you?”

She was referring to the liberal arts class that royalty must take.

Of course I did doze off secretly from the teacher.

From my perspective, theology was mostly content I already knew or didn’t particularly want to hear.

For instance, listening to praise for Celestial Deities made my blood boil – how could I sit through that to the end.

But I couldn’t tell the truth in front of the children.

“I didn’t sleep.”

“Liar! You made fun of us for not knowing what happens at baptism ceremonies! But you don’t even know how many Demon Lords there are!”

These little rascals.

I wanted to give them a knuckle sandwich, but right now I wasn’t in the mood for such antics.

“Wait a moment. I have something to confirm. There are really eight Demon Lords? Really?”

“Yes! It’s true, so why do you keep asking?”

“What about Pluton?”

“You mean the eighth divine throne? Why?”

“He’s dead.”

At my words, Seria furrowed her brow and picked at her ear.

“…What?”

An attitude clearly indicating she’d heard nonsense.

The other children were the same.

“Cael, did you have a dream or something?”

“Huh?”

“Pluton ascended to the divine throne last, but he’s known as the strongest among the Demon Lords along with Vergil of the first throne. Such an evil god wouldn’t die easily.”

“So… he’s not dead? He’s still alive and well?”

“Look at this kid. Of course that’s obvious!”

Eyes looking at me pathetically.

No matter how many times I looked around, there was no trace of lies in those eyes.

From their reactions, I realized one truth.

‘…Ah.’

I see.

These kids still think there are eight Demon Lords including Pluton.

Children who live in the Imperial Capital and received superior education from the highest authorities in each field.

What could this simple fact possibly mean.

‘My death hasn’t been made known to this world yet.’

Well, of course.

My death was an event that occurred in a different world, completely cut off from this one.

There’s no way for the two dimensions to communicate with each other.

How could the humans here possibly have received such news?

The death of a god is unimaginable, unprecedented.

The humans surely still believe that I reign intact as the god of the Demon Realm.

Even now, eight years after my death.

“There you are.”

A cold voice interrupted my thoughts.

A boy with silver hair and blue eyes like Seria’s was walking toward me, accompanied by a group of guards.

His impression was as ruthless as his emotionless voice.

‘That bastard is…’

Along with First Prince Arthur, one of the most prominent candidates for succession to the Imperial Throne.

Seria’s older brother.

Second Prince, Killian de Argent.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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