[Episode 79] — Drink in Moderation
Clink—clink—
Whenever I swung my feet while sitting on the bed, the chains restraining my ankles collided and made an unpleasant metallic sound. Fortunately, the parts wrapped around my ankles were leather, so they did not feel particularly cold or painful.
As I blankly stared down at the chain linking the bedpost to my ankle, I thought, Ah, this is a dream. I was certain I had dreamed something like this several times before.
Should I call this déjà vu?
That feeling of having experienced something before.
Surely, the moment I woke up, I would forget this dream before I had even blinked ten times. Once I opened my eyes and got up, my heart would be pounding violently, while the contents of the nightmare would have completely vanished from my memory.
“Have you been drinking all day again?”
Drinking?
I turned my head toward the voice and saw Titania leaning against the door, gazing at me. Her hair had been cut short, reaching her shoulders, and she had grown taller than me. This was Titania as an adult.
“I did say that you could do whatever you wanted ‘within this room,’ but it’s troublesome if all you do is drink. Or are you protesting against me in this manner?”
When I lowered my head, I saw countless empty bottles scattered across the floor. It seemed the room had not been cleaned in a long time; empty bottles that had dried out inside were mixed with unopened bottles of alcohol, all rolling around on the floor.
Had wine been spilled on the floor as well? Sticky, dried wine stains filled the room with the sweet smell of alcohol. There was no “mirror” in the room, so I could not see what I looked like, but I was certain I looked terrible.
For some reason, the me in the dream did not answer Titania. I frowned irritably and turned my head away, refusing to look at her. I looked like someone who had taken offense at nothing.
“To drink all this by yourself... It would have been better if you had called me rather than drinking alone.”
“Me? Call you?”
Ha!
I let out a hollow laugh as though I found the idea absurd and glared at Titania. Regardless of whether I did so or not, Titania picked up a wine bottle rolling across the floor, lifted the corners of her lips, and met my gaze.
Even though it was only a dream, seeing Titania’s expression made my heart churn. That girl, who gazed only at me with her eyes gently curving in a winsome smile, was, as always, impossible to hate.
I sharply turned my head away again, clicked my tongue, and replied,
“Do you even know how to drink before saying that? You’ve only just become an adult. What would a girl like you know about alcohol...?”
As the me in the dream spoke sarcastically, I heard a sloshing sound behind me. With a pop, the cork came out of the wine bottle in Titania’s hand before dropping to the floor and rolling away.
After opening the bottle and approaching my side, Titania silently looked down at me. When I raised my head to look at her, she merely curled her lips into a smile.
An unbearable silence passed for a while—
Titania brought the mouth of the wine bottle directly to her lips and began pouring the wine into her mouth as though she were drinking water. Startled by the way she filled her mouth with wine, I could only stare at her.
With loud gulps, Titania’s throat bobbed several times, and the wine bottle tilted farther and farther. Just as I was blankly watching her drink—
“Mmph—!”
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Titania suddenly lowered her head and claimed my lips. Supporting my chin with both hands as though she were holding a glass, she twisted, rubbed, and crushed my lips forcefully, as if trying to pry them open.
I tried to keep my lips shut—
But Titania pressed down on my chin and forced my mouth open. The wine she had been holding in her mouth flowed through the narrow gap between my lips and filled my mouth.
Gurgle, glug.
The wine that came over with Titania’s breath filled my mouth and was forcibly pushed down my throat. Like a mother bird feeding her chick, my mouth was instantly filled with the wine Titania passed to me.
When I came to my senses and tried to spit out the wine remaining in my mouth, Titania thoroughly explored my mouth with her tongue, as though she would not permit me to spit it out.
As our tongues were forced to tangle within my wine-filled mouth, I could hardly breathe. The wine spilling from between our lips quickly soaked through my pristine negligee, staining it red.
The fiercely coercive kiss continued until I bit Titania’s lips.
At the same moment a crunch sounded inside my mouth, Titania’s lips pulled away from mine. I breathed heavily and glared at her as though I meant to kill her.
“Haa, haa...! You really... Again...!”
Titania took a step back, grinned broadly, licked the wine trickling down the corner of her mouth, and looked down at me. The me in the dream hated seeing Titania wear that smile.
The child who had once gazed at me with an innocent smile now smiled at me with wanton abandon.
It was not a smile one could ever give to a “mother.” How was I supposed to describe that smile?
...That’s right. That smile was—
“How was it? I know how to drink now, don’t I?”
The smile Titania showed me was a captivating smile reserved for someone she truly loved.
In a word, it was an enchanting smile.
*
“Urgh—”
The moment I blinked and opened my eyes, a headache swept over me.
“W-water...”
It felt as though my stomach had been turned upside down, and as though someone were pounding my head with a hammer. Feeling like I might vomit at any moment, I first groped around for water.
Unable to rise from the bed and merely waving my arm helplessly in the air, I heard someone sigh from beside my head. At the same time, someone placed a cup of water in my palm.
“...Mother, here’s some water.”
“Mmm...”
As expected of my precious, beloved daughter.
Titania kindly handed me cold water as though it were the elixir of life. I sluggishly sat up, gulped down the water she gave me, and only then did my churning stomach seem to settle a little.
One glass of water could not soothe such a terrible hangover, but feeling as though I could finally live again, I let out a deep sigh. Then I raised my head and smiled at Titania—a smile meant to convey how grateful I was, but...
“Titania...?”
“...Mother, come sit over here.”
Titania patted one side of the bed and glared at me. Huh? Wh-what...?
At the cold voice and gaze from Titania—something I had never experienced before—I unconsciously swallowed dryly. Had Titania ever looked at me like that before? No, not as far as I could remember.
I crawled across the bed on my knees until I reached the spot Titania had indicated, then quietly knelt there. I held my head and tried to recall whether I had done something wrong to Titania while drunk the night before, but—
This is bad. I can’t remember.
All my memories of last night had been completely wiped away. I did remember that Hailey, Yvette, and I had drunk ourselves senseless together yesterday. We had been chatting noisily about all sorts of things, including the masquerade ball taking place today, but...
I really can’t remember...
Only fragments came to mind. I had no idea what exactly we had talked about. I held my head and tried to recall, but the pain pounding against the back of my skull from the hangover made it impossible.
“Mother.”
“Y-yes. Titania.”
Titania called my name in a voice cold as frost. I hurriedly composed myself and glanced at her. Then she let out a deep sigh, as though the earth itself were sinking beneath her feet, and said,
“Until now, I have never interfered with you coming here and drinking. You enjoyed drinking and having fun with Countess Serina, after all.”
“Y-yes... Thank you...”
“But... yesterday was too much. Last night, there was not even a trace of the dignity and propriety that the queen of this country ought to possess in your drunken state.”
“......”
“I never dreamed that the saying about becoming a dog when you get drunk would really be true. Mother.”
The sharp, stinging reprimand coming from my thirteen-year-old daughter hurt far more deeply than I could have imagined. Just how completely drunk and out of my mind must I have been to hear something like that from Titania?
“...Mother, would you take a look at my negligee?”
“Your negligee...?”
“Doesn’t it look different from usual?”
With eyes that felt as though they might fall out from the pain, I looked at Titania’s negligee. It was certainly different from what she usually wore. It was larger than usual, and the sleeves did not seem to fit her properly...
“Yesterday, you dirtied my negligee, Mother, so I had no choice but to borrow one from Viola.”
“Ah...”
“And I was the one who cleaned up the soiled negligee. Since you vomited in your room, I was worried that your dignity would hit rock bottom if I called a maid to clean it up!”
Bang!
Titania slammed both hands down on the bed and glared fiercely at me. I truly had not a single excuse to offer. As if getting blackout drunk were not enough, I had even dirtied Titania’s clothes. I was a disqualified mother...
“I-I’m sorry... I should have exercised more restraint...”
“...I know that you don’t usually drink, Mother. You never drink alone, unless you’re drinking with Grandmother... You don’t want me to see you drunk, either. I know that.”
...She was right.
At the royal palace, I had done my best not to let Titania see me drunk. But whenever I came here, should I say that my restraints loosened a little? Perhaps because I felt less pressure here, since it was not the royal palace, I enjoyed drinking.
Maybe I was trying to relieve my accumulated stress with alcohol... In any case, yesterday had been far too excessive. I had never drunk enough to black out like that before, so I had thought I could control myself—but apparently, that was not the case.
“I’m truly sorry. From now on, I’ll exercise a little more restraint...”
“A little?”
“...I’ll try to abstain from alcohol.”
The pressure in the word a little? felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, so I ended up declaring that I would quit drinking altogether. Only after I said I would abstain did a bright smile appear on Titania’s face. Just how irritated must she have been while looking after me drunk yesterday to pressure me like this...?
Titania smiled bashfully as though satisfied with my answer, placed her hand over mine, and looked at me.
“Abstaining completely would be too painful for you, so let’s just say you’re forbidden from drinking here from now on. They say alcohol is bad for your health, too, don’t they? I don’t want you to lose your health because of drinking, Mother.”
“Y-yes... I promise I won’t drink here ever again...”
“And...”
Titania tightly clasped my hand and fidgeted with her lips as though embarrassed.
“When I become an adult... I want you to be my first drinking companion, Mother. So... you have to stay healthy until then. You understand?”
Titania smiled bashfully to hide her embarrassment. Looking at that smile, I could not help but chuckle. Truly, I had made such a precious daughter worry about me.
“All right. When you drink for the first time, let’s do it together.”
“Really? It’s a promise?”
“Yes, yes. At that time, I’ll have to ask the Minister of Education for some good liquor again. No matter how expensive it is, I’m sure the Minister of Education will gladly give us some.”
When I nodded, Titania flung her arms around me. For a while, we held each other tightly until we could hardly breathe, then looked at one another with bright smiles.
Titania beamed, slipped out of my arms, hopped down beside me, and looked up at me.
“They said we should start preparing for the ball soon. You really are attending, aren’t you, Mother?”
“...Yes, I’ll attend.”
I turned my head and looked at the clock.
Perhaps because I had slept late and only just woken up, it was already nearly afternoon. The masquerade ball would be held at night, so it seemed we should start moving soon if we did not want to be late.
I somehow managed to raise my hangover-weakened body and aching head from the bed. Perhaps the hangover was already wearing me out; I gave Titania a wan smile.
“Let’s start getting ready soon so we won’t be late. It’s the masquerade ball you’ve been looking forward to so much.”