Published: August 10, 2026
After spending a night in Nostalgia Monk's den, we set out again at dawn the next day, with Nostalgia Monk leading the way down the beast trail.
Since it was the early morning after the rain in the forest, the air felt wonderfully fresh.
"......"
However, unlike yesterday when he had been so noisy... rather, so loud, Nostalgia Monk was now walking ahead with his lips tightly shut and his face deathly pale, moving forward in silence. His pace seemed a little slower than yesterday's, and even Ueno-san walking behind him was able to keep up without any trouble.
"......"
I, too, stopped trying to toss questions at Nostalgia Monk or keep the conversation going like I had yesterday, and simply followed silently behind him.
Nanase-kun, who had slipped up beside me on a slightly wider stretch of trail, whispered softly.
"Is a hangover really that bad?"
"Who knows? Maybe we'll understand once we're adults too."
Unlike us, who had gone to bed early because we'd be continuing along the mountain path the next day, the adult group of Nostalgia Monk and Mr. Zeal had apparently been drinking late into the night with alcohol that the Reytis Kingdom's technicians had taught Nostalgia Monk how to make. And since Nostalgia Monk had been drinking with people for the first time in a while, he had gotten carried away and ended up with a spectacular hangover.
My father often drinks after dinner, but I've never seen him hung over. I think it's because Mother always pulls out the family's trump card, the health checkup report, before he gets carried away and drinks too much.
"Well, I guess that makes sense. But even so, if you think about it, what kind of person is Mr. Zeal?"
The two of us, Nanase-kun and I, looked back, and there was Mr. Zeal walking alongside Ueno-san and Tsuda-kun, looking exactly as usual, completely unlike Nostalgia Monk with his pale face.
With his cheerful expression and light-footed stride, he didn't look hung over at all.
"Did something happen?"
"No, I was just thinking that, unlike Nostalgia Monk, Mr. Zeal doesn't seem hung over. Did you pace yourself?"
Come to think of it, although we'd spent a lot of time together since leaving the castle, I didn't think I'd ever seen Mr. Zeal drinking. I had seen Mr. Crow drinking something like wine at the hotel where we stayed during the handsome-and-beautiful contest, but I didn't think Mr. Zeal had been drinking then either.
And yet, judging from yesterday's reaction, maybe Mr. Zeal actually likes alcohol.
"Hm, maybe 'pace myself' isn't quite the right way to put it."
With that, Mr. Zeal scratched his cheek shyly and gave a small wry smile.
"Actually, I do get somewhat cheerful after drinking, but if I'm in good shape, no matter how much I drink, I don't really get any drunker than that..."
"Ooh, I see. So basically you're a bottomless pit or a booze barrel. And Nostalgia Monk, not knowing that, challenged you to a drinking contest or something?"
"That's right. I did try to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. I got excited because it had been so long since I'd drunk alcohol, and we kept drinking after that, so Nostalgia Monk-san was the only one who ended up with a hangover."
"Ah, I see. My dad used to say to be careful when drinking with a bottomless pit too, I think."
As Nanase-kun put a hand to his forehead and looked up at the sky, Tsuda-kun, walking behind him, pouted slightly.
"If only I could've made shijimi soup or clam miso soup. But of course, there aren't any in the mountains, so all I could do was turn the leftover hatto soup from yesterday into porridge by adding bamboo rice."
"For a grown adult to not even be able to control their own alcohol intake... that's pathetic. They should at least be grateful you made porridge for them."
Beside him, Ueno-san, who had suffered plenty of inconvenience yesterday, snorted.
"There isn't some Lost Magic that can instantly cure a hangover...?"
Incidentally, in modern magic, the only thing that seems to work on hangovers is healing magic.
If Hosoyama-san had been here now, she might have been able to cast it, but unfortunately she wasn't, so we had no choice but to wait for natural recovery. Since he's a demonic beast, it was probably better than us actually experiencing the same thing ourselves.