Chapter 17: One Thing in Common
"That’s new, you woke up this early?"
I asked Jeanne, after I found her sitting on top of the wooden containers which were resting at the corner of the cliff we were in.
Right now, we were just thirteen days away from entering the domain of Demon Lord of Envy.
It was supposed to take us just seven days if only Jeanne had agreed upon the route I chose.
Seriously, what was her problem? Always full of herself, disagreeing with others and pushing her own agenda on all of us like she knows the future or something.
It was something I hated the most about her.
Jeanne didn’t turn her head to me, she kinda knew that it was me who was approaching her from behind.
’At least reply to me dammit.’
I didn’t ask her the same question a second time.
I picked up an olive wine bottle which was placed just beside her.
"...you were drinking?" I blinked at the bottle, then back at her side profile.
She was staring at the night sky, which had no stars, and no other planetary atmosphere on it. All of them were covered with deep purple and black smog.
Her golden eyes reflected the night sky, still, even with the dark atmosphere over our head, I found the reflection in her pupils quite fascinating.
It illuminated the sky into a whole new light like a golden dawn.
Even for someone like me, it looked mesmerising.
"....."
She was still not saying anything.
This is pissing me off, to the point I want to just hit her head with this wine bottle in my hand.
Her eyes shot towards my hand which was holding the wine bottle, as she tried to reach for it, I reflectively raised my hand to avoid her stealing it from me.
The wine is mine now, how dare she snatch it back. She had already drunk half the bottle, so it’s natural for me to have the other half.
"What are you doing? Give my bottle back." She said, curtly.
I can see her eyes darting back and forth between my face and my hand.
"No way, you have had your portion, the rest is mine to have."
"Huh? Stop acting like a brat."
"Brat, who? Me? No no, you are mistaken here, it was you who was ignoring me the whole time, so consider this a payback."
Hearing my absurd reply, which I myself found quite absurd, she tried one more time to take the wine bottle from my hand.
’Oh no you won’t.’
Avoiding her hands, I brought the bottle close to my lip, and took a sip from it.
"Uh? The hell is this shit?" It was sour in taste.
For long as I remember, Jeanne liked her drink to be served cold and sweet.
This one is new.. I wonder if someone scammed her by selling her this wine by calling it the sweetest drink in the entire world.
"Give. It. Back." She glared rather furiously this time.
But I didn’t listen to her, I kept on drinking it even though the taste was sour.
"Fwaaaa... this is really disgusting." I stuck out my tongue, tasting the sourness which was still lingering on my lips.
I saw Jeanne’s angry face looking up at me.
The bottle in my hand still has 4-5 sip worth of wine inside.
"Alright, here, it’s not like I liked it." I said and handed her the bottle.
She snatched it right back, and in one gulp she brought her lips over it and drank the remaining content.
"...ugh..."
Just by looking at her acting this way, it irks my stomach.
I wonder what made her drink this crazy today, and that too all alone.
I thought she should be spending her time, especially today with her battalion, after what we all went through yesterday.
"Haaah..." She wiped her lips, and threw the bottle near my foot which I swiftly avoided.
"...."
Jeanne refused to look at me, stared at the dark sky again.
I wonder what she was thinking.
Maybe...
"Are you by any chance regretting the decision of not choosing my proposed route?"
She didn’t react to it much, just replied.
"Are you nuts? Why are you bothering me? Don’t you have anything better to do."
Yikes...
"I don’t. Why do you think I’d be wasting my time at this hour."
Saying that, I sat on the box next to her.
Just then I noticed that there were not only one but three other empty olive wine bottles fallen on the other side of her feet.
"What the hell? Don’t tell me you drank all of that?!"
How exactly did she pour it all down her throat...
I leaned a bit closer to her, and smelled for any alcohol....
And I was right, she reeked like a real drunkard here.
She pushed my face away, and asked, changing the subject...
"How is Mara doing?"
"She has recovered quite a bit, thanks to the healer. I think she will wake up soon."
"Good to hear that... At least she returned back in one piece."
Mara was the only survivor who returned back from her mission yesterday.
She was away to deal with the 「Retainer」 of Demon Lord of Envy, they were strong foes but under Mara commanding both the Dark and Holy Empire’s battalion they were able to defeat them all.
They made our work easier and made the Demon Lord of Envy a lot weaker.
But doing so, the entire battalion lost their lives, and when Jeanne and I reached there we only found Mara alive and that too in seriously bad condition.
It was a miracle she was still breathing.
"Don’t you ever feel about what the future holds for us?" she asked the absurd stuff again.
The future she said, yes there will be a future we all want, to wipe out the demon lords.
But I get what she meant...
"I think we will be fine." I said this to her.
"Heh, you think... Is it really how you see the future."
She turned her head to me. I did the same to her and said it again.
"We will be fine, taking down demons, Yeah? we took down two demon lords already. We will get to that future."
She bit her lips, "You don’t get it, do you Rian..."
She continued.
"What do you think about the future where we win, but at the same time we have lost everyone we loved? What do you think of that? Would you still call it that we will be fine?"
This made me rethink my previous words...
What if I lost everything...
What would I be then?
I still have my father, my mother... I still regret not saving Lilly...
Would I still call it fine?
I think not?
"I have no one left in my family..." She said, "I have lost everyone I loved, and for me.. this is not fine at all."
I heard from Mara that Jeanne once had an older brother. Who got killed in the Dark Empire.. when he was on a mission.
"I have nothing to lose here, but, the people who died yesterday, they had... the current ones who lived, they have..."
I get what she meant.
But I don’t know what to say here except...
"Want to have another drink?"
Her eyes first widened a bit, opened mouth as if too stunned by my reply.
"Y-you..! Haah... Never mind," she pointed to the box I was sitting on.
"It has apple wine. Let’s open them, the sourness was killing me too..."
"Oh, my fav." I said with my eyes sparkled.
"Same."
Well yeah, we have this one thing in common.
We both like sweet stuff.
I took the bottle out and opened the cork on it.
I first gave Jeanne to take the sip and then I took it from her hand, and sip the next, bringing my lips closer to it.
"This is the thing. The shit you were drinking was ass."
The place where she put her lips on still reeks of what she drank earlier, and that ruined the entire flavour of my favourite apple wine.
"I know, right. It was indeed ass."
"Then why were you even drinking it in the first place?"
She answered, taking the bottle from my hand and taking another sip.
"Because it was what my battalion liked... and also my brother."
"Is that so... What a weird taste they have."
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