Jade Leywin POV
*Doom*
"So... whose idea it was?" I asked while tapping my fingers on the armrest as my pressure bored down on the members of the Council, new and old
Everyone except for Art averted their gaze, cold sweat trailing down their forehead
Yesterday's announcement had gone off without a hitch, including the subsequent parade and party, now it was time for some explanations
"Now, now, calm down a bit Jade" Mai got closer to my chair with a smile
"Okay fine it was my idea" Virion gave in
"Why?"
"Because Dicathen still needs you, I'm sorry to drop this on you after everything you did in the war but we really can't afford to keep you on the sidelines" he justified himself
"Still you could have at least warned me"
"That's my fault, I thought you would ditch the announcement if we told you" Art said raising his hand
"*sigh* alright, fine, I'll help but don't you dare hide something like this from me again, now let's move on to the main topic, Art, is there any news from Mordain?" I asked
"He contacted me through Avier a couple of days ago, so far they've managed to get the Thyestes clan and the rest of the pantheons and obviously the Avignis clan with the rest of the phoenixes, next they'll speak to the Grandus clan and try to get the titans, that said it won't be quick, the asuras have extremely long lives so they tend to plan their course of action through centuries especially for politics, between this and the fact that time flows differently in Epheotus it'll most likely take years before they can form an alliance big enough to actually stand in Kezess's way" Art explained
"Any chance that Kezess might try to make a move in the meantime?"
"According to lady Myre it's unlikely although he is planning on demanding me to send Sylvie back to Epheotus he won't make a move, in a way Kezess is a lot less dangerous than Agrona, while he is extremely powerful he's also a lot more stagnant, he won't take any action unless something drastic happens"
"Which means you'll have time to go and retrieve the last keystone and obtain Fate" I commented
"Ehm, I'm sorry but what is this Fate thing?" Olmund asked raising his hand
"It was written in the reports I gave you just reread them" Bunhd told him
"Oh, right, sorry everything is so new and..."
"Don't apologize, honestly none of us here understood what Fate is either and none of us can keep up with these two" Bunhd reassured him
"Anyway, with the compass and the mental map Sylvia left me I can go and retrieve the keystone whenever I want, although I have no idea how long it'll take" Arthur brought the conversation back to its topic
"Which means it's best to wait until after the wedding, everything will be ready in a couple of weeks so just sit tight and be patient" Virion stated
"Good, now about the student exchange program, is everything ready?" I asked
The student exchange program, following the example set by the previous Council back when they unified the three kingdoms we were planning to send a group of students from Xyrus Academy to Central Academy for a semester and then having a group of students from Central Academy come here for a semester, similarly to when Xyrus Academy was opened to all three races we hoped that this could make the future generations of leaders of both continents forge connections with each other
"Director Goodsky just finished handling the paperwork required, Caera also already handed us the paperwork from the alacryan side" Kathyln replied
"How many students signed up?" I asked
"Quite a number actually, we were worried that no one would be interested but apparently we were wrong, there's a lot of students curious about the other continent" Curtis stated
"Great, this will be an opportunity for the next generation to get acquainted and get rid of all the prejudices spread during the war on both sides" Tess exclaimed bright
"Yeah, let's just hope it won't end like the last time" I commented, Art, Mai, Kathyln and Curtis just laughed wryly
"And how is the reconstruction going?" Tess asked
"Great, the funds provided by the war reparations are more than enough to cover all the costs and thanks to the alacryan mages sent here the works are proceeding much faster than initially estimated" Olmund replied, he was the one responsible for managing the reconstruction effort since Darv was the kingdom that suffered the most damage
"Alright then I think we covered everything for today, we still need to coms up with a long-term plan for the adventures issue but that's not particularly urgent" I said wrapping up the meeting
Due to what happened in the beast glades during the war, the adventures lost their greatest source of income, namely the dungeons, most of them had been destroyed and while some were still subjected to the reset that made the mana beasts inside respawn, we couldn't rely on them alone, they were too few and way too dangerous so we would have to come up with a way to employ the adventures in Dicathen, for the time being it was fine since the rebuilding required materials found in the glades outside the dungeons so right now almost every adventurer in the continent was making a living with material gathering quests but we would have to come up with a solution one of these days
"Oof, finally over" Curtis complained as he got up from his chair and stretched a bit
"Brother the meeting might be over but we still have work to do" Kathyln scolded him
"Nope, not today" he replied as I moved behind Art and Mai moved behind Tess
"You'll come with me now" we said at the same time as she put her hands on Tess's shoulders while I placed my arm on Art's shoulders
"*sigh* what the hell are you doing?" Art asked while pinching his nose
"Kidnapping you" I replied with a smile
"And where exactly are you planning to take us?" Tess asked with a mixture of worry and excitement
"To your bachelor/bachelorette party of course" Mai and I stated at the same time
"Bah, a stupid human custom" Virion commented
"That's racist Virion, it's an important and fundamental human tradition, right Curtis?" I told him
"Obviously, no groom and no bride can marry before having a bachelor/bachelorette party" Curtis stated nodding, Virion just rolled his eyes
"Now let's go!" I declared pushing Art out of the room, Curtis followed me, Mai pushed Tess out of the room and they walked together in the opposite direction, Kathyln following them
"Jade remember I need him alive and in one piece for the wedding" Tess shouted as turned an angle
"Please, at least tell me you haven't called any stripper" Art pleaded after we got out of ear range
"To tell you the truth, Regis and I wanted to call them, strippers and some other ladies" Curtis replied with a smile
"But given that our lovely and adorable fiancées would skin us alive if they were to discover that, Theo and I opted to NOT have them at the party" I clarified
"Good, at least I'll live long enough to actually get married" Art commented
After reaching my room I took out my tempus warp and activated it, we all crossed the portal and found ourselves in a tavern fully decorated for the occasion, spread all over the tavern were several billiards tables, some darts games, several poker tables, a stage with a band playing music had been built and obviously there was a ton of alcohol stored behind the desk, all of our friends, well the male ones, were already here waiting for us
"We brought the groom!" Curtis announced and got an exultation
"I can't believe you really recreated darts and billiard" Art told me
"Why not? They're absolutely harmless and can provide a great deal of entertainment, especially if those who are playing are completely drunk" I said watching amused as Adam, completely drunk already, threw a dart at the target only to miss and hit Durden
"Harmless huh?" Art wondered as Durden started chasing Adam with his staff
"It's fine, it's not like Durden really got injured, speaking of alcohol though, you need to try this" I told him as I placed a bottle on the table
"What's this?" Art asked as he examined the amber liquid inside
"Whiskey, a special brew, a little gift from Seris to celebrate your wedding" I explained
"You do remember we can't get drunk right?"
"Wrong, I also thought we couldn't but apparently I was wrong, we just process alcohol too fast and can't perceive its effect, but what if we drink something really strong?"
"You mean this?"
"Yep, that's asuran alcohol, a Vritra brew, it comes directly from the personal reserves of our favourite reindeer"
Art poured the liquid into two glasses and I quickly conjured ice into them, together we took the glasses and toasted
"Oh, this is so good" Art commented with his eyes closed as he enjoyed his drink
"Yep, don't even remember the last time I felt alcohol work on me" I agreed
"Please tell me Seris gave you more"
"She gave me several barrels and even better, she gave me the recipe, I'm planning on brewing this for us, I already managed to get the equipment and ingredients"
"Yes, that's the type of good news I like"
"Just make sure no one else drink this, it's made for asuras so anyone with an inferior regerative factor will die instantly after a sip" I warned
"Gotcha"
"Also, this came as a freebie" I said taking out a stash of paper
"What is it?" Art asked perplexed
"Data, research data about interbreeding between asura and non-asura, this is everything Agrona had after centuries of experiments"
"Why are you giving me this?"
"Because you said you have the physique of an asura right? Well I thought it would affect your ability of having kids as well so I asked Seris if she could get me this, you and Tess do want kids right?"
"We actually never talked about that, well given that she's royalty I'm pretty sure she'd been instructed about the whole having an heir thing, as for me well yeah I would like to have children with her"
"Good then read it with her"
We spent the rest of the evening drinking and playing with the others, at some point my memory got a bit hazy but all in all it had been a great party
"Come on get up, I'll take you home" Mai's voice reached my ears
"Mmm? Oh, Maaaaaaiiiii" I said as I got up from the high stool only to stumble forward
"Okay okay, easy, take it easy" she told me as she quickly caught me and passed my arm around her shoulder helping me, she smelled good, very good
I leaned in trying to kiss her
"No, not right now, you reek of alcohol" she stated turning around
Taking out her tempus warp she opened the portal and we crossed it together, after the usual flash of light, which I found particularly annoying this time, we were in my room at the Castle, she put me down on the sofa before sitting down herself placing my head on her lap
"Thanks" I muttered
"Oh, you've already sobered up?"
"Enough to hold a coherent conversation"
"Good, once you've recovered the ability to walk you should get a shower"
"Yeah, also sorry, I overdid it, I was a pain in the ass wasn't I?"
"A bit, but it's alright, both you and Arthur deserve to let loose every once in a while so let me spoil you okay?" she replied with a small laugh as she gently stroked my head
"Mmm" I nodded
"So you remember everything?" she asked surprised
"Yeah, honestly it was kinda surreal, it was like my conscious had split in two, one part of me was completely drunk and acting without any inhibition while the other was still fully aware of everything, despite that though I couldn't control myself, it was like having a third person view of myself, never experienced anything like that the other times I got drunk" I explained
"I've never seen you drunk before" Mai said confused
"I'm talking about my past life, well even then I only got drunk two or maybe three times, I've never been one to party around without any self-control"
"So, how was your evening?"
"Standard, we just drank and fooled around, we played a couple of games from my previous life I recreated, it wasn't bad, what about you?"
"We went to Alacrya"
"Why?"
"Well at the foot of mount Nishan there's a thermal spring, Caera reserved the whole place for us so we spent the whole evening getting pampered and receiving the royal treatment, scented baths, massages, beauty treatments and other things like this, it was a pretty good experience, I've never been interested in these things but I think that from now on I'll visit the place from time to time"
"Oh, this explains why you smell so good and massages huh"
"Don't worry, the masseurs were all women, same for the rest of the staff, we were told there were some guys among them but Caera specified that we only wanted female staff so they weren't there this evening"
"Perks from being governor" I commented
We kept talking about nothing in particular, just our usual banter as I felt my body slowly processed the asuran alcohol I drank, I could feel it getting purged from my system until I was fully sober, I took a quick shower and we went to sleep