Episode 106
Late at night.
Inside Cecile’s atelier.
“Why are the numbers coming out like this?”
She frowned at the paper covered with strange symbols and calculations.
“Lady Cecile?”
“Where did it go wrong?”
“Um… Lady Cecile?”
“My math is flawless. I’ve checked it a dozen times. But the values still drift after a while…”
“Lady Cecile, the task you gave us—it’s finished.”
Only then did Cecile turn her head.
“…Ah, really?”
Her voice was flat, her mind still lost in concentration.
“Put away the refined drake musk, then head home.”
Her assistants’ faces lit up.
Finally, we can leave!
The heavy pressure in the room lifted.
As they cleaned tools and arranged vials of glowing liquids, Cecile suddenly glared.
One assistant was carrying a jar dangerously, making the golden liquid inside wobble.
“Careful! I told you, that concentrate is packed with mana. Even inhaling the fumes before dilution can be dangerous!”
“S-sorry!”
The flustered assistant blushed, not realizing just how close they’d been to disaster.
Cecile sighed.
This still doesn’t feel right.
She was never the type to work with others.
Even back in Delac’s lands, when she ran a shop with Geru, all the crafting had been her own work.
But here, she couldn’t afford to cling to that way.
These days, she was one of the busiest in the Demon Lord’s realm—second only to Ariella.
Ariella insisted I hire assistants…
And she knew Ariella was right.
Between working with engineers on ship designs and finishing all the little projects Ariella piled on her, Cecile couldn’t possibly do it all alone.
No helping it, I guess.
Still, unlike when she worked with Ariella, her mood was sharp and irritable with these assistants.
After they left, Cecile worked deep into the night.
“Whew… time to rest.”
But lying on her bed, sleep wouldn’t come.
Her brain was too wound up from the day’s work.
She got up, dug through a crate of wine bottles stacked in her atelier, and pulled one free.
Maybe one glass will help.
She had spent the whole day distilling these wines, extracting pure alcohol, then blending it with drake musk.
The steward had been glad to unload the surplus, sending cart after cart of cheap wine to her workshop.
“Ugh! What is this taste?”
Cecile’s face twisted.
“I’m not picky about alcohol, but this is horrible. You couldn’t even sell this stuff without getting cursed out.”
But since she had already opened the bottle, she hesitated.
Should I just dump it in the yard?
Her eyes drifted to the distiller in the corner.
Wait a minute.
It was clean and ready for storage, unused since her last round of refining.
An idea sparked.
If it tastes terrible anyway… why not try distilling the wine differently this time?
Normally, distilling stripped wine of all its flavor, leaving only pure ethanol—not drinkable at all.
But what if she stopped the process partway through?
Just enough to keep the taste, but boost the strength. Maybe three times as strong as normal wine? Enough to drink without dying.
And so, Cecile’s lamps burned past midnight once again.
The next morning.
“Ariella! Trouble!”
“What is it?”
Ariella had only just begun her morning duties when the steward, Gruve, came rushing in.
“Pi! The hatchling—she fell out of the sky!”
“…What?!”
It made no sense.
A dragon that could fly through storms and cut open seas with dragon magic—falling from the sky?
But there was no time to question it.
“Show me!”
Ariella was already running out of the castle.
Gruve sprinted after her, his short kobold legs working furiously.
“Was she attacked?”
Who would dare? Everyone knew what happened to Fedwick.
“I don’t think so. Witnesses said she was flying fine, then suddenly swerved and lost balance.”
Gruve panted as he reported.
“It started right above Cecile’s atelier. She zigzagged like crazy, then… crashed in the front yard.”
“…Cecile’s atelier?”
“Yes. That’s where she went down.”
By now, the other retainers of the Demon Lord’s castle had gathered as well.
When they finally reached the scene—
“Pi?”
“Hrrmm… mmnyahh…”
It wasn’t as dire as expected.
Pi lay sprawled on her back, hazy but conscious.
“Any injuries?”
Richmond checked her quickly.
“Her body looks fine. No broken bones.”
Ariella frowned. Dragons were tough, but still—falling from that height should have left marks. Pi’s scales and bones had grown hard with proper feeding, stronger than ever.
But something was wrong.
“If she’s not hurt, then why is she acting like this?”
At the sound of Ariella’s voice, Pi perked up.
“Ariella! Hrrmm… Ariella is the best! Love Ariella!”
Her words were slurred.
Clearly, she wasn’t in her right mind.
Ariella’s face went pale.
“Poison? Did she get poisoned?”
But no—Pi didn’t look like she was suffering. If anything, she looked far too happy, flopping around with a goofy grin.
Ariella narrowed her eyes.
“…Wait a second.”
Richmond chuckled softly.
“Not poison. She’s just eaten—or drunk—something she shouldn’t have.”
Pi rolled onto her back, legs waving in the air, and let out a long yawn.
A strong stench blasted from her mouth and nose.
The unmistakable reek of alcohol.
Ariella blinked.
“…Don’t tell me. She’s drunk?”
“Cecile! Get out here!”
While chaos reigned outside, the atelier was strangely quiet.
“Huh? Ariella? What brings you here?”
Cecile appeared, rubbing her eyes, clearly just out of bed.
“Is it morning already? My assistants will be here soon.”
She froze, staring past Ariella.
“…Why is the hatchling rolling in the dirt out there?”
Pi’s slurred mutters drifted across the yard:
“Pi will grow up strong… smash everything… beat all the monsters…!”
After Ariella explained, Cecile clapped her hands.
“Oh no! Of course!”
“Of course what?”
“Come here—look at this!”
She dragged them inside to the distiller in the corner, still bubbling away.
“You distilled wine… into stronger liquor?”
“Yes. I tried a little last night, and it tasted amazing. So I tossed in a whole crate of wine and went to bed.”
Since it was a simple process, she hadn’t bothered to supervise it until the end.
Now the reason for Pi’s state was obvious.
“She inhaled the alcohol fumes through the chimney while flying overhead,” Ariella muttered.
“Exactly. Some vapor always escapes, but I never imagined a dragon would happen to fly through it.”
Cecile promised to adjust the process.
Ariella sighed, rubbing her temples, then ordered Pi carried back to the castle.
Gruve shook his head.
“Now we’ve even got a drunken hatchling to look after…”
Of course, the one who had to carry her was Ched.
“Lady Pi! What happened to you—ugh, the smell of booze!”
“Uuugh… Ched, my head’s splitting open…”
Ched laid a cold towel on her forehead and groaned.
“Unbelievable. I can’t keep doing this…”
Pi wobbled and babbled for half a day, then finally sobered up after drinking fairy-forest honey water Ched brewed for her.
It seemed the incident was over, just one more of Cecile’s odd experiments gone awry.
But soon after—
“They say that liquor you made… is incredible quality?”
