Despite the taste that lingered in my mouth, I thought I understood why she was saying why I would never keep this promise.
I don't know why, but I felt like a rather pleasant warmth coming from my belly dissipating all over my body, but especially in my head, a feeling of well-being came over me at the same time, and I'm not sure but I feel like I'm on a boat, my eyesight is slightly failing, I'm starting to wobble too and I'm having more and more trouble keeping my balance.
So much so that I have to hold on to the counter or I think I would have fallen.
So that's drinking alcohol. I have to admit that it's not unpleasant at the moment.
"Oh, are you drunk already?" Alia said to me when she saw that I was leaning on the table.
"No, not at all, I'm just... my legs are a bit sore. I replied, trying to articulate as best I could.
"Stop lying, you can't even speak without stuttering.
"Well yes, I think I'm a little bit drunk, but I promise not much.
"Yes, yes, I believe you.
Come on, get some rest before we go back, we've got time anyway.
"Yes, good idea, but in an hour, you'll wake me up, right?
"Yes, don't worry."
So I went and sat down, as best I could, on a chair and fell asleep the next moment.
[On 05/07/499 18:30.]
As I slept, I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
Still half asleep, I told myself that it was Alia's hand telling me to wake up, as I had already been asleep for an hour.
But one thing made me say that it was not hers. The force with which this hand is pressed on my shoulder is much too strong to be hers.
So I woke up with a start, I was still in the same place, on the same chair, but the person who had just woken me up was indeed not Alia.
I've only just woken up so my brain isn't quite optimal yet, but at first glance it looks like it was Chauk who just woke me up.
"Oh Yùichi, is everything okay?"
His voice was strangely soft for a man of his gabarie.
"Yes, everything is fine. What's wrong?" I answered him while trying to put my thoughts back in place.
"Phew, you're fine. He replied relieved.
"Why did this happen?
"Well, seeing as everyone was upstairs except you and Alia and a few minutes later Alia came back upstairs without you, I thought something had happened to you. But luckily you were just sleeping."
Indeed, he was right, Alia was no longer in the room, which is still very strange.
"You wouldn't happen to know where she went, would you?
"Yes, I do, and that's also one of the reasons I came looking for you."
Why?" What happened to her?"
"Well, she wanted to go out and buy something for you I think, but unfortunately, a young woman alone in a bar like that is really not a good idea. So all the men in that bar went after her, as if she had become their prey. I tried everything to get her to leave, but unfortunately, I can't fight them, because of that chip, otherwise she would have already come down to you."
"Did you offer them a duel?"
"A duel?"
"Yes, as Shanlen explained earlier, if a duel is proposed between two people, killing the other in that duel is not punishable by death."
"Yes, that's right, I had totally forgotten. But don't count on that. Even if you beat one of them, it won't change the minds of everyone else.
"Yes, I know. But if the contract adds the fact that those who don't keep their word die, then they'll have no choice but to leave it alone.
"I hadn't thought of it that way. So how do you plan to do that?"
"I'm not going to reveal everything, I have to leave a bit of a surprise for you too."
"All right, fine by me. I'll go back up and check on her. You get your plan together in the meantime.
"Yes, don't worry. Oh, and I might need you at some point.
"You can count on me."
With that, Chauk went back upstairs and left me alone. This allowed me to fully concentrate on the clauses of the contract I was going to create to avoid leaving an important condition aside.
For ten minutes I thought about how to beat them all in one go.
And when I found this solution, I went back into the bar.
While I expected the worst about Alia, I was rather surprised to see that she was still wearing clothes.
When you know what one man is capable of, it's easy to guess what 20 men around one woman will be capable of.
So I expected to see her totally naked, beaten and spreading her legs.
But fortunately, she still had clothes on, had no apparent wounds on her body, and didn't seem to have been touched in any place.
"Yùichi, are you finally up?
"Yes, yes, it's good. Is everything all right with you?"
"They're not bad, but they won't let me go.
It felt very strange to talk about humans in this way, especially as they could hear us. Even though these humans were currently only thinking with their fifth limb.
"Who are you? asked a man sitting next to Alia.
Just by the look of him, his stance and the tone he uses to talk to me. I can bet he's the kind of guy who acts like a boss when Shanlen isn't around.
A subordinate, basically.
"I'm friends with the person sitting next to you, so I'm asking you nicely to let her go."
"Kindly?" He replied wryly.
He didn't say another word, but all the other men started laughing too.
This situation reminded me more and more of Meh's and I really didn't like it.
"Well kid, stop messing with us. We're all having a good time together, so get out and don't come back.
"I'm sorry, but it's impossible, if I go back, it's with her."
"That's it, now you're breaking my balls."
He stood up, came to my height and grabbed me by the collar.
"Oh Doz, watch out, that kid is the one Shanlen took with him earlier. If you smash his face in, he'll kill you for sure. Said a man a little apart from all the others.
"Ahah, no risk, if Shanlen's up without him, that means he's not interested in this kid, so if I beat the shit out of him, he'll be out of a job."
"I would have warned you." Answered the same man, all turning in his chair so that his back was to us.
"Well, let's pick up where we left off."
"And man. I'll make you a deal."
"Go ahead, I'm listening, kid."
"All right. I'll give you a one-on-one fight, and whoever wins will do what they want with Alia, but whoever loses will be forbidden to talk to her, touch her or even look at her. Is that OK?"
"Ahahah, a fight against me, of course I accept.
"Good, I wouldn't expect anything less from you. But first we're going to make some rules.
The first one, for one of us to win, one of us must be dead, unable to fight or give up.
Second rule, the one who has lost cannot in any way hurt his opponent after his defeat, or he will die on the spot.
Third rule, no outside help is allowed, on pain of death, from the people of the side that cheated.
Fourth rule, it is forbidden to injure the loser under penalty of death also.
Fifth rule, if one of us runs away for more than one minute, he will be considered as a loser.
Sixth rule, all these rules also apply to the men who are with you.
Seventh rule, whoever does not respect this part of the contract will die on the spot.
Do these rules suit you?"
"Nah, Yùichi don't do that!!!" Alia shouted when she heard the rules I had stated.
"Shut up, kid. That's not for you to decide, but of course I accept your rules with pleasure."
"Don't worry Alia, I'm going to smash it to a point where even her own mother will be unable to recognize it."