As for the six of them, the second Primera called my name, they shoved me forward and bolted. And they didn’t just run off. The girls actually started tidying up the estate, making the excuse that they wanted to show their gratitude for letting us stay here...spying on me the whole time. And just then, Cain and Leon showed up too. They even dragged Gramps along, setting him up at a table where they all pretended to chat while sneaking glances my way. Apparently, Albert was holed up in his room recovering since I hadn’t seen him once since we got back.
“Here, Primera. Cain and Leon’s treat. Have a drink and chill out,” Amur said.
“Thanks.”
Primera accepted the drink and downed it in one go. I was wondering why they hadn’t gotten me one until Amur immediately handed me a drink of my own. The second I took a sip...
“Wait, this is alcohol. Hey!”
I turned around to check on Primera only to see her already asking Amur for a refill. Amur must’ve prepped a second round ahead of time because she handed over another glass before I could even say a word. Primera downed that one too and asked for a third.
I knew she would end up drunk and clinging to me if things went on, but...
“Zzz...”
The moment she finished her third glass, she was out cold, breathing softly in her sleep.
“Mission accomplished!”
“Amur, Cain, Leon... Get over here.”
I called the three of them over and interrogated them, wondering if they had put some kind of suspicious substance in it or something. They confessed to having made a cocktail using a type of alcohol that makes you super sleepy.
“Well, I guess I’m reporting all of this to the duke. Actually, I’ll let Albert do the honors,” I said. “Jeanne, Aura, can you take Primera to her room and tuck her in?”
Jeanne and Aura had a feeling things were going to get bad and immediately obeyed. They carried Primera to her bedroom. I figured they’d probably find some excuse to stay gone after that.
Cain, Leon, and Amur looked around the room, desperate for someone to save them. Unfortunately for them, Gramps and Leni—who’d been lurking around spying on me and Primera just a minute ago—had already disappeared.
“Well, shall we have a little chat?” I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
Honestly, I was a little relieved that Primera had passed out. But spiking someone’s drink could be considered illegal, and I made sure they knew it. After I finished chewing them out, Albert and Kriss showed up. They’d been called in by Gramps and Leni, and the three of them got another round of scolding for good measure.
When I asked Gramps and Leni about the whole cocktail incident, they both played dumb and stuck to their stories, so I didn’t have much choice but to let it go. Instead, I slapped them both with a temporary alcohol ban. No drinks with meals, and no nightcaps either. Leni didn’t seem too bothered, but Gramps was definitely hurting from it. He put up a fight, of course, but I told him that since it was a collective punishment, he had to deal with it.
Finally, the day of our departure arrived.
“You stupid head!”
“Idiot, idiot!”
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
“Aura, right! Leni-tan, left!”
“Got it!”
Even though we were supposed to be leaving soon, the six girls were in the middle of yet another three-on-three brawl. I’d lost count of how many times they’d gone at it since we’d arrived in Gunjo City, but at this point, neither we nor the people seeing us off were even fazed anymore.
People’s well-wishes for me mixed in with the girls’ cries and taunts.
“Thanks for everything, Tenma.”
“Nelly, Milly! Cover me!”
“I won’t let you!”
“I should be apologizing for dragging you all into this mess,” I said.
“Gotcha!”
“My butt!”
“It really was a wonderful wedding. Honestly, I wish you could’ve been at mine too.”
“Lily, Milly, heeeeelp!”
“Secret technique! Shrimp Lock!”
“Hey! Knock it off!” I shouted.
“Okay!”
“Well, they’re certainly as lively as usual, aren’t they?”
As I was chatting with the people seeing us off, the six idiots were causing such a commotion that I had to raise my voice a bit to shut them up. Primera had been watching from nearby and tried to say something to defend them, but since she couldn’t come up with anything, her voice just kind of trailed off.
“Amur and Aura acting up is one thing, but why is Leni involved?”
I’d thought the whole point of her tagging along on the journey was to help train Amur, but...
Kriss came over. “I know exactly what you’re thinking. I was curious too, so I asked her about it,” she said. She then told me that, apparently, Leni had been teaching Amur that part of a wife’s duties was to keep other women away from her man.
“Wife, huh...”
“Well, that’s one way to think about it,” Kriss said. “What bothers me more is that it feels like Leni’s just using Amur as an excuse to have some fun herself. You don’t think Amur’s rubbing off on her, do you?”
Honestly, Kriss’s theory was plausible, but I wasn’t too worried about Leni. She had a boyfriend back in the SAR, so there was no way she’d stick around the capital permanently. She’d probably drop by now and then to visit Amur, but if those visits were just here and there, we could deal with it...
With that in mind, I made my rounds, saying goodbye to everyone who’d come to see us off. That included talking to Primera, Kanna and Soleil, Flute, Ceruna and Henri, Marks, and the rest. The only ones missing were Dozle and the guildmaster, but they both had to work and couldn’t leave. That was fine, though, since I’d already said my goodbyes to them earlier. Still, I asked Kanna and Flute to pass along my thanks one more time.
While I said my farewells, Amur and the others were still quietly fighting in the background.
“Hey, it’s time to leave!”
“Crap!”
“We missed our last chance!”
“Damn you, Amur and Aura!”