It's about to get dark when we get back to the village. Gram is carrying the carcass of the Wulfar like it's no big deal, even though it's almost as big as him. And he still has that massive shield strapped to his back, too. Just how much strength does he have? Rolan and Luna disappear into their rooms upstairs of the tavern. They both gave the very obvious excuse that they were tired after the fight and wanted to hit the sack early. Oh, I'm sure they'll be hitting the sack... repeatedly and loudly.

Gram, the bard and I stay downstairs, celebrating with the villagers who heard of our exploits. That means, all thirty or so people living in the area. We're loud enough to drown out whatever sounds may come from upstairs, I hope. Well, Gram's booming laughter is making sure of that in one corner, while the bard's singing - which is pretty good, I admit - can distract from the world in another.

I'm in the middle, with a massive jug of beer in front of me. This will be my first time drinking alcohol. I'm underage and shouldn't, but screw laws. Well, I guess there's no such law in this world since I see a few youngsters in their mid-teens lifting jugs to the big man's jokes. It's alright for me to drink, right?

I take up the jug with both hands - that's how big it is - and begin to chug away. I need to drown my frustration at being sent to this world in alcohol. Hm, I might have gotten ahead of myself with this amount. If I were a human, my belly would have swollen up comically, but now, nothing is visible on the outside. I down the whole jug and suddenly a wave of cheers run through the tavern. What?

"Wow, the lady is quite the drinker, isn't she?"

"That's incredible, young lady!"

Uh, everyone was watching me. How embarrassing.

"You seem to be able to hold your liquor, Miss Marcott." Gram approaches me with a jug as big as mine. "What say you we have ourselves a little contest?"

Hey, are you seriously inviting a girl one third your weight to a drinking contest? If I weren't a Crawling Chaos, I'd explode after two of those. Those are buckets, not jugs! But you make them seem normal-sized...

"Alright." I don't know why I accepted, but I did, and it's too late to back out now. Another jug is placed in front of us each, and we drink on three, downing it all before putting it down.

"Whoo, that hits the spot." Are you a middle-aged single salaryman or what? "You're not half bad, either. Starting to feel the effect already?"

I'm actually not feeling anything from the alcohol and have to wonder what the alcohol content of this is. Or am I just secretly drinking the kiddy version? I look to the tavern keeper, but he's filling our jugs from the same barrel.

Four jugs later, accompanied by loud cheering, Gram retires. He's holding his belly, and his face is flushed red from the alcohol. I still don't feel anything though? Don't tell me I can't get drunk?

"Where is she storing all that beer?"

"This lady is a drinking goddess!"

Thank you, thank you.

"Miss Marcott, are you even human?" Gram asks, and I freeze up. He doesn't know, does he? I mean, it does look quite suspicious how I just drank what may as well have been my body's weight in liquids, and my stomach didn't even grow. "That's drinking you'd expect of an elf!"

 Saaafe... Well, I might be as beautiful as an elf, but my ears aren't pointy. And an elf can defy the laws of physics by storing such a huge amount of alcohol in their bodies without it showing? That's interesting to know.

"You jest, Mister Gram. I'm just a normal human girl." Ah, that was such a bald-faced lie, I'm surprised at how I can keep a straight face. The villagers look at me unbelieving, but since there's no other indicator to my inhumanness, nobody suspects anything. Note to self: Don't do things humans can't. But I won't give up eating a lot. I'll just take the beer for food tonight.

The party slowly trickles out, and everyone has their fair share of alcohol. Over time, I actually started feeling its effects, but it took a considerable amount. The tavern keeper had to scratch his head when the barrel was emptied relatively quickly but opened another one with a shrug. Phew, I'm lucky everyone seems to be so accepting of my abnormal physiology.

Gram is lying on a bench, the bard is playing some relaxing tunes, and everyone is either heading home or falling asleep on the spot. This feels like how a party in a fantasy world should be. I wouldn't know about any in the real world; I was only seventeen when I came here.

I regret my decision of accepting the drinking contest. My head hurts, and I feel like hurling. Why is it affecting me now? Ah, maybe because it dissolves slower inside my body than it does in a human's? Where's the detox spell when you need it? Ugh...

Gram doesn't look much better this morning. The bard didn't drink much, so he's as annoying as ever. Rolan seems tired, and Luna looks refreshed. What did those two do, I wonder... not. I don't even want to know how long or how often they did it, I'm happy we didn't have to hear anything downstairs. Ugh, I feel like throwing up even more now.

"We're departing in an hour. Get ready until then." Rolan announces to his party. So, what should I do?

"Where are we going?" I just shamelessly included myself, but it was kind of already in the talks, about how they wanted to guide me to the capital. Taking me to somewhere less backwater would be a step in the right direction, and I might find my own way from there then.

"We're going back to Hovsgaerden to get our reward for this request." Rolan is the one to answer. That name sounds so fantasy!

"Where is Hovsgaerden?" Maybe you could show it to me on a map, you know? Oh, he's actually taking something out of his backpack. What's this, a piece of leather? Don't tell me you're going to draw it for me...

"Kortid!" He chants and lines appear on the leather. They form a map! Wait... don't tell me...

I want to repeatedly hit my mother over the head with a paper fan. She didn't tell me this incantation for making the map appear on the large leather piece I have in the backpack.

"This is where we are." He points at a small red spot. "And this is Hovsgaerden." He points at a black spot to the north-west, not too far from it. Ah, the upper corner of the map says "Kingdom of Lares". So that's where I am. Doesn't tell me anything in the way of geographical relation to the Demon Continent, though.

"How far is it?" I can get an idea about the distances with this.

"About three days away." Gram joins in on our conversation. He has packed his belongings and is drinking a large jug of water. "If we had horses, it'd be a distance we could do in one day."

"So we are going to walk?" I'm not too keen on walking long distances on my human feet since I know the luxury of running as a Vulfar, but I'll need to travel with them if I want to get to the capital. At least until I learn to operate maps myself. I'll have Rolan teach me along the way, and in the process give Luna more reason to be jealous. She's just too fun to play with, and I can't leave that alone.

"Horses are very limited in these parts, so they're really expensive." So you're poor. Got it. "Even this request won't get us enough money to buy a single horse." And the adventurer job doesn't pay much. Got it. "We're far from the Demon Continent, so the effect of corruption isn't that strong. We don't get that many incidents here." This place is far from the Demon Continent. I already suspected that. "In case Uther's expedition doesn't bear fruit - and we certainly don't hope for that - we plan to move to the empire so that we can eventually join the cause against the demon lord." I see, I see. But before you can do that, I'll kill you.

"When do you plan to do that?" From their response, I can gauge the confidence they have in their abilities. If it's really soon, it means they are strong. Well, they aren't really, but it means they think they're considered strong among their human peers.

"Within the next two years. The journey alone will take a while, but it's our funds that are important." I don't know how far it is, but two years is a pretty long time in my books. I'd have been finished with high school and already entered university at that time. Well, I guess moving to a different country takes time. "Alright, let's go. We'll be camping out during our journey, so I hope you don't mind, Miss Marcott."

"You can call me Chloe, Rolan." I glance at Luna and see a murderous gaze. Hee hee, I'll have so much fun along the way. If she attacks me, it'll be legitimate self-defense, too, so that'd be a bonus.

"A-ah, yeah. Miss Chloe." Oh, now she's glaring at Rolan for actually accepting that proposal. Will they start arguing here again? This is going to be entertaining.