She'd become tipsy before, but had never lost her sense of rationality no matter how much she would drink. Therefore, alcohol was what Agnes used every now and then, whenever there was something she wanted to extort from her siblings.

Instead, she was surprised that Zoltan lasted longer than she had expected.

She thought that if she just dealt with him moderately, he would quit soon enough, But he didn't back down easily even though his face had turned red.

“Sir Zoltan.”

“Huh, yeah?”

“Your brother, does he perhaps have a secret lover?”

Since he seemed to be drunk enough, Agnes went in first.

“What? Don't be ridiculous. My brother is someone who has never even held a woman's hand.”

He said and waved his hand exaggeratedly.

“But?”

“What do you mean by ‘but'?”

“But why is your brother avoiding me?”

“My brother is avoiding the princess?”

“Yes, it's so difficult to even see my husband's face.”

She complained.

Zoltan scratched the back of his head.

“I can't see him during the day nor the night, so there's no time for building affection.”

“cough”

Zoltan's face, which was already red from the alcohol, turned redder.

“You're, uh, telling me that?”

“Then should I speak of this with Niall?”

Zoltan was unconsciously convinced by Agnes' remark.

Thinking about it now, it wasn't something she should say in front of her brother-in-law. But Agnes was full of things she wanted to vent, so she didn't realise it earlier.

“As far as I'm concerned, ehem. Is that it? Ah, about my brother.”

Agnes sighed deeply and looked down.

“My brother! Really, he is a good person!”

“I've understood that.”

“Also, being a good person is really good!”

He smacked his tongue and poured the remaining half bottle of liquor down in one go.

“I know…”

That's the problem.

“Maybe that's why Princess, hic, d.a.m.n it. I can't believe I'm talking about this.”

He grumbled. Agnes held out a bottle of liquor that had not yet been opened with sparkling eyes.

“Take this and talk more. So maybe what?”

“No. But how is the princess still fine? Are we really drinking together? Are you pretending to drink water instead of alcohol?”

He grabbed Agnes' cup with suspicion, and then sniffed and smelled it.

“Oh, well, don't do anything useless and just keep talking.”

She gave him a cold warning.

Zoltan blinked his eyes and parted his lips.

“Why the h.e.l.l isn't he doing anything around me?”

“Well, what is it? Maybe it's because of that.”

“Because of what?”

Zoltan scratched the back of his head and opened his mouth while different expressions flashed across his face.

“The former d.u.c.h.ess, I mean my mother, she suffered a lot in her marriage up till her death. As our family started struggling more and more, she wasn't even able to tell anyone about it when she fell sick. I'm afraid you will suffer as well.”

He filled his empty gla.s.s, only to down it the next second, leaving the gla.s.s empty once again.

“In the end, it wasn't until mother's illness had progressed beyond recovery, that our family found out about it.”

“Father would always say before his death that he regrets marrying mother. That she would have lived happily ever after if only he hadn't married her. He would continuously mutter such words as if out of habit.”

“But I…”

“However Princess. The situation in the dukedom has become worse than before.”

Zoltan's voice became lower.

“It's getting harder and harder to stop the incoming flood of beasts. As far as I know, there are also quite a few financial problems.”

Agnes chewed her tongue. She emptied her cup silently, not knowing what to say.

“Princess, please understand. My brother is probably scared. Maybe the princess will end up dying like mother did.”

“But… I decided to do a formal rite of oaths. If we do it, we'll irrevocably become a couple anyways?”

“What?”

“We've already decided to perform the rite a few days ago. He said it would take some  time, since it takes a long time to prepare.”

“Well.”

Zoltan's face turned strange. He frowned with his left eyebrow(1) without replying.

“What is it? Do you know anything?”

“That, um, I understand it's probably not proceeding.”

“What are you talking about? Obviously, we'll meet up and then hold the rite…”

At that moment, Agnes realised. Why the Duke was avoiding her.

“Hah.”

At first, she felt betrayed. Then anger flared up at the duke, who had comforted her with lies. But soon, the emotions were mixed with understanding and empathy.

After hearing about the past from Zoltan, she could certainly see what that man was worried about. She felt dejected.

“I see…”

After, it was silent between the two for a while. Agnes gnawed on her lip and poured alcohol in her gla.s.s.

Something clear and watery fell.

She hurriedly wiped her cheeks.

Fortunately, Zoltan had not seen it.

Duke Alpharde. Although she hadn't even said it out loud, her chest tightened. The words she wanted to speak were stuck in her throat(2).

She wanted to run to him straight away and see his face and let it all out. She was afraid that if she met his composed eyes, tears would start falling again.

“Come on, Princess, have a drink.”

“Alright.”

Agnes managed to grab hold of her heart.

Before they realised, countless bottles of liquor piled up around them.

Zoltan seemed to now be struggling to keep his body up straight.

Zoltan's servant, who stood a few feet away, kept restlessly glancing over.

“Come here and take your lord away.”

Agnes beckoned him.

“Ughh. I'm still far from done, definitely, huhp, fine. The sun hasn't rised yet.”

Since some time ago, Zoltan's eyelids were halfway to closing. The sun may not have risen, but the moon had already moved to the south.

Agnes shook her head softly.

“It's fine. Sir Zoltan. You look terrible. What are you doing? Take him to bed.”

The servant rushed to support Zoltan.

Although Zoltan was twisting and squirming his body quite violently, his resistance was weak from drinking so much.Then he suddenly stopped wriggling and bent forward.

“Nggh, not yet, I'm still, blech!”

“Oh my lord!”

“Wait, you can't vomit here! Ah, seriously, what if it gets on Milady's dress!”

Ney, who came to her senses belatedly, ran up immediately.

Zoltan ended up throwing up beside the table.

The servant had trouble supporting him alone, so others were called there as well.

Agnes got up in a hurry to prevent the vomit from splattering on her.

“It seems I'm better at holding my liquor.”

She announced it clearly just in case he would say something else behind her back.

“Princess, I, can, still. Ueghh!”

Zoltan, who was barely managing to spit out his words one by one, could not hold back the bile rising from his stomach.

Before he had even formed a full sentence, he sent everything inside him out in the world.

“I'll see you when you're sober again. Goodbye, Sir Zoltan.”

Leaving the man who talked and vomited simultaneously behind, Agnes headed back to her living quarters.

Ney had been grinning since earlier.

“What's so funny?”

“Talking big about drinking and bathing in alcohol, but in the end it was just empty talk. Hmph. As expected of Princess. Prince Chavolti was a good drinker too, but not as good as Princess.”

“t.i.tle.”

“Ah, yes. Milady.”

At first, she was unhappy with the princess who had requested for alcohol during broad daylight, but after Zoltan got wasted, the ends of Ney's mouth wouldn't stop touching her ears.

“How dare he challenge Milady when he's not even good at drinking?”

The wasted Zoltan jumped to his feet when he heard it but didn't say anything.

Agnes laughed.

The next morning, a man she both wanted and did not want to see visited her chamber.

Ney had gone to check who it was that was knocking on the door and left quickly after.

“Master is here!”

Agnes greeted him, as if everything was normal, although the conversation she had with Zoltan yesterday night continued to linger in her head.

“You're here.”

“I heard you drank all night with Zoltan yesterday.”

“Not all night, since Zoltan threw up in the middle.”

Agnes corrected him.

Then Laslo let out a long sigh.

“How are you feeling?”

“You mean my body? There's nothing wrong with my health.”

“No hangover?”

Laslo looked at Agnes with puzzled eyes.

Agnes who had downed the alcohol as if it were water yesterday, looked far too fine.

“I've never experienced it. I don't know.”

“…… that's a relief. Zoltan can't even stand on both feet right now.”

He recalled his brother lying in bed with a pale face.

When he had returned to the castle late at night, he was told by a servant that Zoltan had been drinking with the princess for hours.

At first, he had thought Zoltan had forced her to drink, so he stopped by his bedroom as soon as dawn came to rebuke his brother. However, the complete story Zoltan told him was different from what he had originally imagined.

“You don't look sick.”

He sighed with relief.

“You haven't been around for a while, but now you're here because you don't want me to get drunk?”

“……it's just that I was too busy to be with you. I'm sorry for leaving you alone.”

Agnes conflictingly swallowed the words that she really wanted to say.

“I'm fine, so you don't have to worry.”

“Is that so?”

He kept worryingly looking Agnes up and down while being amazed, seeing her stand on her own two feet.

In the end, only after Agnes waved her hands and said she was alright a second time, did he remove the worried look on his face.

“What on earth made you drink for hours? From what I've seen, you don't seem to enjoy drinking very much.”

As he said, Agnes does not like to drink alcohol since she doesn't get drunk no matter how much she drinks.

“That's…”

Lila's notes: