A big crowd gathered for the Jiu contest. Abrial had never seen so many people before all standing in the same place. They filled up nearly half the stone-floored courtyard: mothers and fathers with little children running around wildly, old men and women sitting on stone benches, hordes of excited teens.
Abrial didn't know what it was, but something about having all these people watching her gave her a thrill. She felt…
Powerful! It was a weird, new kind of power she hadn't had access to before — the power of knowing that if she did something crazy, it would shock all of these people. And if she did something awesome, it'd amaze all of them. That…was AWESOME!!! All sorts of ideas started being born in her head — there was an infinite number of things she could do to shock a group of a hundred people, hehe!
"All those competing in the annual Jiu contest of Futou! We will hand out your cups now."
Abrial and the other competitors — all of whom had indeed turned out to be male, for some reason — had been lined up facing the audience. Old men with scraggly white beards and bald heads, teenage boys who jabbed each other in the ribs, middle-aged men who looked silly as they competitively cracked their knuckles. Abrial was the one female among them, standing about a head shorter than most.
However, Abrial didn't care. She was too focused on that beautiful prize horse to be concerned about anything else.
The prize horse had been tied with a red rope to a tree at the edge of the courtyard. Its coat shimmered a shadowy, shining black, and its mane tossed in the wind, feathery and wild.
Abrial's pupils dilated more and more the longer she looked at it.
She'd never seen a real horse before. But she really, really, REALLY wanted to make friends with that one.
She was shaken out of her infatuation when a woman held out a carved wooden cup to her. Abrial blinked and took it.
What the heck was this for? Didn't contests usually involve stuff like running, or fighting, or mind games, or something? Were they going to be throwing cups at each other, or what?
"Hey," she called to the teenage boy on her right. "What exactly are we doing in this contest?"
The teenager side-eyed her. There was slight disdain in his gaze.
"Has no one told you? The town of Futou is famous for three things: breeding horses, crafting axes and brewing rice wine. To win that horse, we will be axe-throwing and drinking."
Abrial's jaw dropped. Her face went pale as a ghost's.
"Drinking?"
"What? Have you never drunk before?" smirked the middle-aged man to her left. A few of the other men nearby chuckled as well. "It's true that drinking is a hobby of men, and not women. This contest might not be for you, little lady."
Abrial stuck her tongue sourly out at him, shutting him up with shock.
At the same time, Finley's pale face materialized in her mind, frowning sternly.
Abrial — not only is drinking alcohol bad for your health, but you do not have the capacity to hold more than a little, and yet you always drink half the bottle when you find some! If you drink too much, it is possible you might do something more reckless than usual and end up…severely injured. Look — you can't even walk straight after one mouthful this time. Give me the bottle, that is quite enough.
Abrial swallowed. Her fist tightened around the wooden cup, making her knuckles go white.
Why did it have to be drinking, of all things? Anything else, she could've done well in. But every time she'd snuck even a few sips of alcohol at the house, she'd always, without fail, gotten extremely drunk…
Her mouth tasted sour.
Maybe…maybe she still had a chance? She'd always had great aim, and she was strong. She could still beat the rest of them in ax-throwing and snag that horse, then ride to the house quickly, right?
That's right — of course she could still win! She just needed to try really hard to stay sober in the alcohol part of the contest, since she would definitely win ax-throwing easily! And she needed that horse. She would win this to get back to Finley ASAP. She could do it.
She had to.
At that moment, the short announcer man spoke again. He was very happy with the enormous turnout that Abrial's female presence had gotten them, so his voice was jolly:
"All those competing! We will now fill your cups with Futou's most potent rice wine of this summer harvest! Do not spill any out."
A woman swept around with a gleaming ceramic jar and poured a clear liquid into Abrial's cup, filling it almost to the brim.
Abrial gulped.
"It looks just like water," she muttered under her breath. "It'll go down just like water. Water doesn't make you drunk! You'll be fine!"