The house they were led to by the headman was relatively the largest in the village with the most rooms.

Even so, it only had four rooms. Natalie would use the smallest room alone, while the remaining members would share the other rooms, two to a room.

While they were unpacking their belongings in their respective rooms, the headman’s yard became bustling with activity.

People had brought various foods as thanks for saving the village.

Someone brought ten-year-old snake wine hidden deep in their storehouse, someone brought freshly baked bread, someone brought aged venison, and someone brought potatoes and sweet potatoes with dirt still clinging to them as if freshly harvested.

The makeshift table quickly became abundant with humble yet plentiful food.

The crackling sound of the bonfire, the sizzling sound of fat dripping from the venison—soon merry singing and children’s laughter joined in.

The expedition members’ lips also curled into small hums in the cheerful atmosphere that made it hard to believe these people had suffered from a goblin attack earlier in the day.

Natalie was also humming along to an unfamiliar song while picking up a piece of venison when the headman approached with a large bottle of snake wine, grinning.

“Here, have a drink, great mage Miss who has used her precious power all day for ignorant folk like us.”

“I’m weak with alcohol…”

“Oh my, this isn’t alcohol but medicine! A rare elixir made by catching white snakes as thick as a strong man’s thigh that hide deep in the Keus Forest valley! Just one cup and by the next morning, your energy will surge! Two cups will make your skin as fair as white jade, and three cups will expand your magic container so much that even ordinary people can awaken as mages—that legendary medicine!”

The white-haired headman spoke in a husky voice like a market medicine peddler.

“It expands the magic container?”

“That’s right! Since it’s been aged for ten years, it will probably expand it tenfold!”

“W-well, just one cup then…”

“Oh come now, just one cup? Our great mage should have three cups. Here, starting with the first…”

Natalie reluctantly accepted the wine cup—or rather, wine mug—that the headman offered.

It was because she still couldn’t shake off the Korean characteristic of being unable to firmly refuse alcohol offered by an elder, despite having fallen into a strange world.

Gulp gulp. The fiery liquor scraped her throat savagely as it poured into her stomach.

As the strong alcohol swept down her throat, a sound that was either a groan or an exclamation involuntarily escaped.

“Urgh-“

“My, you drink well. Here, have some venison as a side dish… Now, just two more cups.”

“I think I’ve had enough…”

“What are you saying? I opened my family treasure that I was planning to pass down as an heirloom just for our great mage. Just two more cups now. Drink up, drink uuup! My, you drink well.”

Before she could finish her groan, she saw the headman eagerly pouring more snake wine into her cup.

After drinking strong liquor in quick succession, her face was already burning and her vision swaying, perhaps from the alcohol taking effect.

Even with the tolerance of a nine-year and eleven-month office worker hardened by frequent company dinners, those three cups of snake wine seemed difficult to overcome.

She was about to wave her hands in refusal, thinking that if she drank everything offered, she might depart this world before her magic container expanded, when—

She noticed the strange sight from earlier beginning to fill her vision again, and widened her eyes.

“Hmm?”

Magic ؁؃؄ ؁% increase؂؃؄؎.

Though it might be confirmation bias, the words that appeared this time seemed to convey a clearer meaning than before.

Magic something increasing? Could it be because of drinking this snake wine?

Just as she was thinking that the headman’s claim about three cups expanding the magic container might actually be true, another wine cup brimming to the point of overflowing was thrust before her.

“My, judging by your expression, the medicine is starting to take effect. Come now, this is the last cup, drink up, drink uuup!”

The headman’s voice urging her to drink reverberated in her hazy ears.

She was about to down the cup, thinking that after finishing the last cup, she might be able to perfectly see the remaining jumbled letters, when—

Just as her swaying hand reached for it, someone snatched the wine cup away, and a familiar man’s voice struck her ear.

“I believe two cups are enough for our great mage. I’ll drink the last cup.”

“Oh my, I was just about to look for our Commander after the great mage, and here you’ve come yourself.”

The headman’s delighted voice faded and drew near repeatedly.

Natalie looked up at McClain, trying to steady her swaying vision.

Gulp gulp. She frowned deeply as she watched the last cup of snake wine—her magic container expansion tenfold elixir and status window message decoding potion—disappear hopelessly into the man’s mouth.

My ten-year-aged white snake wine. I needed to drink that to see the status window completely.

Glaring at the man’s face that split into two, then three, then merged back into one, Natalie reached out to snatch the wine cup he was holding.

“My wine. Need to finish it…”

“You’re drunk, Pereira. You’d better go in and sleep now.”

As she waved her hands through the air trying to grab the cup that kept splitting and merging, the man grabbed her wrist and warned coldly.

This won’t do. I need to complete my status window, but this man keeps interfering.

Nothing ever works out because of this man. He doesn’t even act like the male protagonist from the original work, and when I finally managed to join the expedition after trying to persuade him, he only exudes coldness. Now he’s even taken away the cure-all medicine that would give me morning vigor, jade-white skin, and magic container expansion.

“Bad guy…”

“What did you say?”

Having heard her mumbling, the man slightly narrowed his brows and asked again.

Natalie shook her head, gathering what little reason remained to suppress the resentment welling up inside her. She must have shaken too hard because the whole world tilted and creaked.

“Hey, pull yourself together and let’s go inside. I’ll take you there.”

When the man hastily grabbed her shoulder, the swaying world stopped moving. As he tried to support her and help her stand, the headman started his medicine-selling pitch again.

“Oh my, it would be disappointing if our Commander who saved our village only had one cup before leaving. Come now, Commander, since you seem to handle your alcohol well, please have just five cups. I’d like to offer you the entire bottle, but I need to serve the other knights too…”

“One cup is enough for me.”

“Oh no, that won’t do. This, this, even though it doesn’t seem like much, with one cup your energy surges by morning! Two cups make your skin as fair as white jade, three cups awaken you as a mage, four cups make your sword energy pierce the heavens, and five cups turn you into a Sword Master—that legendary medicine!”

As the count increased to five cups, the rhyming became so precise that it clearly wasn’t his first time delivering this pitch.

Three cups to awaken magical power and five cups to become a Sword Master. If one drank the entire bottle, they might shed their human shell and ascend to immortality.

The man, despite already having a status window, kept accepting and drinking the snake wine that the headman poured endlessly.

One cup, two cups, three cups, four cups, five cups… Insane. Did this man perhaps work in corporate sales? He drank alcohol like water without his face changing color at all.

Finally, Natalie’s hands, which had been wandering through the air, admitted defeat and obediently returned to her knees.

By then, the man must have finished all five cups, as the headman stopped his sales pitch and said, “Now I’ll go serve a cup to each of the knights over there—” before fading from Natalie’s blurry vision.

What an annoying jerk. Keeping all the good stuff for himself. After putting me in a position without a male lead and preventing me from seeing the ending, now he’s trying to become both a mage and a Sword Master.

As she grumbled inwardly out of spite, she felt the man’s shoulder flinch next to her head.

She didn’t have the mental capacity to question why the man’s shoulder was felt next to her head. Her mind, already jumbled and hazy, was filled with thoughts like: if only I’d had one more cup, I would have gotten a status window… what about my status window?

Though she thought she was just thinking to herself, the man who had been treating her like a stranger throughout the expedition kept responding.

“Status window? Status windows don’t appear that way. If they could be obtained by drinking a few cups of alcohol, they would have appeared long ago.”

His voice remained cold without the slightest hint of gentleness.

You bad man, if you didn’t believe in its effectiveness, why did you snatch and drink my precious snake wine?

“Hey, Natalie Pereira. You’re drunk, so let’s go inside. Listen to me.”

The man tried to hold and lift Natalie, but she was not a compliant woman.

Especially in situations like this, when all her plans had been thwarted because of the man in front of her.

I’m so annoyed—is it really that difficult to add just a little romantic flavor?

Who’s asking for real love? I’m just saying let’s pretend to be madly in love until the ending. How could he reject that so flatly?

Is he planning to eat well and live well alone, then escape from this place? What a selfish b*stard. I need to get back to my company before I’m automatically fired.

Her fingers, unable to bear the annoyance any longer, seemed to have grabbed his cheeks. He appeared to look at her with an uncharacteristically bewildered expression.

And that was the end of her memory of that night.