“Interesting,” Rose said. “Want to try some? I can’t possibly eat all of it.” She had ordered something that looked like starfish fileted and filled with what she told me was caviar. I wasn’t even sure what it was, let alone if it was safe for me to eat.

  But she had offered it so earnestly that I felt that I couldn’t refuse without appearing like a giant jerk, and so I accepted.

  It tasted… I can’t say that it was bad, but the mix of flavors in my mouth was something I hadn’t experienced before. It was likely something more suited to the tastes of lizardmen rather than humans.

  “You don’t like it?”

  “No - it’s good,” I told her, trying to keep a happy face. Then again, I wasn’t sure if she would notice. Lizardmen were likely just as bad at judging human expressions as the other way around, or so I figured.

  The meal continued and the conversation moved on to more trivial topics. I began to somewhat relax. Was it like hanging out with my friends back home? Most certainly not, but this was still better than nothing.

  “Let’s get a bottle of wine!”

  “We have work tomorrow!”

  “It’ll just be a few sips, nothing too much.”

  “Did you know? I heard of a grimoire you can make with red wine that lets you drink without ever getting hungover, too out of your mind, and even spares your liver!”

  “Oh? Haven’t heard of that one.”

  “But I swear it’s true! C’mon guys, someone else must’ve heard of it too!”

  “I haven’t - but it wouldn’t surprise me if one existed. There are a lot of them which completely nullify poison completely- but that also means you can’t ever get drunk.”

  “Bah! Not worth it!”

  “Even if there isn’t something like that, I’m sure Stefan could make one!”

  I wasn’t sure how the conversation turned to me, but it did.

  “Yeah - did you see him back in the tournament? He probably could pretty easily.”

  “Oi - let’s get him a jar of wine and see what he can do!”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Guys, guys,” I said, trying to make sure things didn’t get too far out of hand. “I mean, I’m not sure I could really do this on the spot like this you know…”

  However, they didn’t seem to take a simple ‘no’ for an answer and after some prodding I agreed.

  I didn’t drink any alcohol as I still wanted to be sober in order to work on my own project later, and had instead sipped on something I can only describe as resembling a fruit smoothie.

  Despite the fact that the restaurant was being heated, the drink was ice-cold, meaning it was very likely that the spell [Freeze] was being used here.

  I didn’t know that spell myself, but I had heard that there was a way to use the spell on a box and make something akin to a modern day refrigerator - though very few people could afford to do that. Actually, no, the pain wasn’t in affording one, it was in maintaining the spell throughout the day. You’d need to pay someone to do it all day long unless you could do it yourself.

  The simple fact that this restaurant could afford to have someone use the [Freeze] spell to chill drinks spoke volumes and indeed, indicated that it was a first-class restaurant.

  Teal knew the [Create Paper] spell, and so we had everything that we needed. They asked for a small cup and an ink brush - which the restaurant had for some reason, and then practically pushed it into my hands.

  I scratched my chin a bit as I considered what to write down. I didn’t have that much experience drinking, and neither did I know much about wine in the first place.

  Scientifically, I knew how alcohol was made, its chemical formula, and the side effects of drinking it - sure, I could write a short essay on that, but would it be enough?

  There was only one way to find out - as it was I wasn’t too stressed out about this whole interaction. This was more like a party game than an actual attempt to make something, though it might mean I wouldn’t have enough mana left over to finish what I had been working on tonight, but I had kind of given up hope on finishing that today anyway.

  And so, I dipped the ink brush in the wine (I was not going to put that in my fountain pen, I had no idea what kind of effect it would have on it and I did not want to ruin a fountain pen) and began to awkwardly try to write something down.

  It was hard given I had to go back to using the ink brush, and also because the wine didn’t make for very good ink. It was a bit too watery and the letters would often smudge before I got the hang of it. I had to give up on my first two attempts as the paper was completely ruined, though I had far more success on my third. I was about halfway done when I was interrupted by a voice.

  “Having fun are we?” I turned my head up to see a lizardman who I didn’t know who had dark blue scales.

  Several other things made him stand out. His robes were fancier than what I was used to seeing - I had seen Lauren wear such things but that was on special occasions only. There were also two other lizardmen behind him who I guessed were his friends though from their posture looked more like servants or lackeys. “Why not- hic-” he paused here. Was he drunk? “-why not have a real Liberomancer’s Duel?”

  It took me a moment to process he was challenging me. But why? I mean, Duels were mainly a way out for solving conflicts without resorting to violence, but what conflict did this guy have with me?

  I took a closer look at him, wondering if I hadn’t recognized him because I wasn’t that good at telling lizardmen apart aside from their most obvious trait, their scales - nope, I was definitely sure that I hadn’t seen him before.