With Valeria's support, I managed to make my way off the dance floor, shaking erratically around me in a disorienting blur. She guided me to a quieter corner of the tavern, where I sank into a chair, my head spinning and my stomach churning.
"Easy now," Valeria said soothingly, her hand on my back. "Take deep breaths. You'll feel better soon."
I nodded weakly, closing my eyes and focusing on my breathing. The combination of the alcohol, food, and whirlwind dance had overwhelmed me, and I could feel some queasiness building within me.
I gestured to Valeria to grab a container for me. She promptly did, and moments later, I could hold it back no longer. My stomach revolted, and I leaned over, retching into the bucket. The room swayed around me, and a wave of dizziness washed over my stomach, emptying its contents.
Eventually, the sensation passed, leaving me feeling drained and embarrassed. My face was all red from the heaving, and Valeria supported me as I got up and asked, "Can we go back? I think our job is done here."
The vomiting did clear my mind up, and I shifted my priorities back. Isabelle comes first, then Valeria and anything else.
"Yeah, let's head back. I'll inform Viktor that we're leaving." Valeria said that as she nodded.
We made our way out of the tavern, and I was deeply disappointed in myself for being this way. If only I had not drunk too much and thrown up, things could have been different.
As we walked out, I was too far gone, and VIktor was generous enough to arrange for us a carriage back to the Imperial Nexus.
As Valeria hauled my ass to the carriage, she murmured to herself "Seems like someone had too much to drink".
A weak "Whaee~" was all I could muster before losing all strength in my voice.
Valeria tossed me into the back of the carriage like a sack of potatoes and got in herself.
I made a feeble smile towards Valeria, and I wanted to show her my gratitude for taking care of a loser like me.
She was visibly upset and kept talking to herself as she looked out the window. I couldn't hear much of what was going on, but I made out the end of her ramble.
Out of the corner of my eye, she appeared to converse with Lyra, who had a fancy box in her hand.
"I'll pay them later."
Who was it for? I wondered as my eyes shut involuntarily from the fatigue and the alcohol's drowsiness. As I drifted off into my slumber, I could only think of Isabelle's predicament.
"Find me." These two words kept echoing through my head.
I couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. Isabelle's voice, though only a distant whisper in my mind, held a weight that I couldn't ignore. It was as if her plea had transcended the physical distance between us, reaching out and tugging at my thoughts.
The next morning, I woke up in my room because of the golden glow of the sunrise hitting my face, and my head stung like crazy. I tried to get up and sit, but moving just intensified the headache. I groaned as I got up and sat on the side of my bed as my ears rang like crazy.
"Find me."
Those were the two words said to me during my nightmare. I got up and stood against the windowsill, staring into the country beyond, lost in my thoughts, those words playing over and over again in my mind.
"Eduardo? You okay?"
A faint voice seemed to call me out of the abyss of my thoughts again. It was Valeria's voice. I turned around, and she was in my bed, sheets covering her gallant figure.
My cheeks flushed red as the gravity of the situation dawned on me.
"W-w-what happened?!" I realized to my horror that I was topless too, only in my undergarments. I quickly pulled over a towel and covered myself.
Valeria started acting all shy, caressing her body with her own hands; the movement was visible under the bedsheets, and my heart rate immediately went up.
"Do you really not remember what happened yesterday night, Ed?" She asked, sounding super shy and looking down at the bed instead of looking at me. My heart started to beat in my neck as my mind raced to comprehend what could have happened.
She got out of bed, and she was in her inner wear too. Seeing me panic, she started to blush too. Valeria reached across the bed to the table, quickly grabbed her dress, and threw it on.
She seemed to be panicking too and had no idea how we ended up here, and then Valeria suddenly came up to me, grabbed me by the neck, and slammed me into the cold brick wall with a ferocity I'd seldom seen.
"You shall not mention this to anyone. Understood?"
"Y-yes." I managed to cough out under her strong arm, pinning me to the wall. My brain flashed back to the time Zorro did the same, and I wasn't as panicked as the first time around, so I was calmer.
Despite her feminine figure, she really is strong—much stronger than me. I swear, I started to hear my bones crack under the pressure.
She glared into my eyes with an intensity that I only saw when she vowed to hunt Gelidra down.
She then let go, and I collapsed on the floor, filling my lungs with air again.
Valeria was looking off to the side and had a still-shocked expression, which hinted at the fact that even she had no recollection of how we ended up here.
"How exactly did we end up here?" I asked her as I put my clothes back on.
Valeria let out a big sigh and said, "I don't know. All I remember is getting into the carriage and Lyra handing me a very fancy box of wine, and I couldn't hold myself back because someone decided to kill the mood that night and blacked out in the carriage."
I quickly tightened up, and she shot a glare at me. I glanced to the side and noticed the expensive bottle of wine just discarded at the side of the bed.
"Okay, but another person I know gulped up an entire bottle of expensive wine over a tiny thing."
Valeria's eyes narrowed as she shot me another icy glare, her frustration palpable. "Are you seriously making a big deal out of this? This is not the time or the place for your sarcasm."
I raised an eyebrow, suppressing a smirk. "Oh, come on, Valeria. You can't deny that you have a tendency to go a little overboard sometimes."
She crossed her arms over her chest, her jaw clenched. "And you have a tendency to poke your nose where it doesn't belong. Like right now."
Her nostrils flared slightly. "You're impossible."
"And you're a walking storm," I shot back.
Valeria huffed, clearly torn between irritation and begrudging amusement. "Fine, have your fun. But remember, I could still throw you into that wall again."
I held up my hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright, I'll behave... for now."
As she turned to pick up the discarded bottle of wine, her stern expression softened just a fraction. "Just... try to understand, okay?"
As we continued our bickering, I heard a knock on my door.
"Holy shit." Was the only thing I could murmur to myself.
"Hey! Ed! This is Zorro here! Open up; there's something important I have to inform you of."