One day, while visiting the village for supplies, Noah received an unexpected gift from the villagers.
This was the same village he had visited daily since Claudia had taken him in. The people, who’d known him since he was nine, greeted him cheerfully and handed him presents they’d prepared beforehand.
“Happy sixteenth birthday!”
Noah carried these unexpected gifts back with him to the tower along with his purchases of cheese, milk, and other daily goods. When Claudia went to meet him, her face lit up with excitement.
“Noah! Could it be that you have, at long last, resolved to try a drink?”
“Oh, no. This is just...”
Her assumption wasn’t unreasonable. Noah glanced down at the cause of her enthusiasm: various bottles of liquor, each bearing a different label.
“The people in the village insisted on giving these to me today—after they scolded me for being away so long. They had all been waiting for the chance to celebrate my sixteenth birthday.”
“Well, you have been away from the tower for quite some time. Between your knighting ceremony and our stay in Sharavia, this is the first time you’ve gone to the village for supplies since your birthday, isn’t it?”
Noah hadn’t thought much of it, but of course, Claudia had remembered. As she lifted each bottle from the wooden crate, examining them with interest, her lips curved upward into a grin.
“Each one is different,” she said with a laugh. “They must have all chosen something just for you.”
“Does alcohol really vary that much in taste?”
“Oh my, you’ll just have to try them for yourself. So, Noah...when do you plan to drink them?”
She was clearly looking forward to something, but Noah had yet to realize what that was. Instead, his mind drifted back to something Faraz had said in Sharavia—that he should test his limits in a safe place before drinking out with others.
Noah had found the advice somewhat irksome at the time, but he couldn’t deny that it made sense.
A safe place...
If he was going to test his tolerance, it needed to be in a place where a potential lapse in judgment wouldn’t be disastrous. This alcohol would serve as a test; if he considered this to be a matter of discipline and training, then the sooner he did this, the better.
“If it pleases Your Highness, then perhaps as soon as this evening.”
“Oh, of course!”
“I am most grateful. Then, if I may...”
The matter of company was of equal importance. There was only one individual Noah could entrust with this, should anything untoward befall him.
“I will ask Lord Karlheinz to accompany me.”
Claudia was silent for a time. “I see,” she said curtly.
In that instant, Noah realized his mistake. “Your Highness—”
“So, in other words, Noah, you intend to have your very first drink not with me, but with another?”
“I wouldn’t consider this to be such a momentous occasion. It is merely a customary first step, meant to assess my tolerance.”
Yet Claudia’s cheeks puffed out in clear discontent.
“Your Highness,” he continued, “since I do not know what sort of disgrace I may bring upon myself while intoxicated, I cannot risk subjecting you to such an unsightly display.”
“That is precisely why I must be there. Watching over one’s retainer is the duty of their sovereign.”
“I may become a burden. If something were to happen...”
Claudia fixed him with a gaze of wounded reproach. “Were not all of your firsts meant to belong to me alone?”
Noah cursed inwardly. There had never been any hope of resistance from the start. “As Your Highness commands.”
“That’s my good boy!”
Accepting his fate, Noah reached for the fresh fruit he’d purchased in the nearby village, preparing to make a nonalcoholic drink for Claudia.