I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

The commander-in-chief said with a grin.

"I'll be careful! Come on, Tachibana-kun! Let's play rock-paper-scissors! I'm going to utterly destroy you!"

"Ha, you really dare to say that!"

Amused, Qingdeng picked up the wine bottle beside his leg and stood up.

"Come on! Let's see who gets slaughtered without a single survivor!"

It's been a long time since I've had a proper chance to relax.

Looking back over the past two months—the suppression of the remnants of the Exile Group, the campaign against the mountain bandits of Kai… one misstep could have cost us our lives.

Now that he has become a general in the fire-fighting bandit gang, facing busyness, blood and fire, and dangers that ordinary people never encounter will become a matter of course in his daily life.

If things go wrong, new case files might be delivered to Qingdeng first thing tomorrow morning.

Taking advantage of this rare moment of tranquility, it wouldn't be bad to have a good time with friends and have some fun.

So what if the banquet has strayed from its theme? Anyway, nobody should care about this kind of thing anymore.

With the mindset of "wanting to relax properly" and determined to fully immerse himself in the joyous banquet, Aoto and Souji arrived one after the other in a secluded corner of the banquet hall.

Playing finger-guessing games and drinking.

……

After seven rounds of rock-paper-scissors with a record of all losses, Souji collapsed on the ground like a lump of mud after drinking his seventh cup of sake.

As she was about to pass out drunk, she muttered to herself:

"Hmm? Why does this radish taste so bad? It's tasteless and I can't even chew it..."

With a gentle touch, as if stroking a dog's fur, Qing Deng gently smoothed out Souji's soft ponytail:

"If it doesn't taste good, just let go of it, okay? My legs really hurt..."

……

……

After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

Exhausted from the commotion, Kondo and the others collapsed haphazardly on the ground.

Qing Deng, who has always adhered to the principle of "never getting drunk," stopped raising his glass as soon as he began to feel a little dizzy.

Therefore, he became one of the few remaining people who are still mentally sound.

The other five people who were also not drunk were Saito Hajime, Okita Hikaru, Obi, Matsui Tsuneo, and Kyubei.

"Seriously..." Ah Bi sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Once again, only a few of us are still able to move. After every banquet, we have to clean up the mess left by these drunkards. It's so annoying..."

People like Aoto and Saito, who never get drunk, have accumulated a wealth of experience in how to move a hopelessly intoxicated person.

After a flurry of activity, Kondo and the others were dragged back to their rooms one by one, and the banquet hall, which was in disarray, finally regained some semblance of order.

Aoto dragged Harada back to the "diners' room," and when he got up and returned to the banquet hall, he found that almost everyone who was supposed to go back to their room had already done so.

At this moment, the only person still remaining in the banquet hall, still not dragged away... is a certain drunkard disguised as a man...

"Okita-kun..."

Qingdeng sighed with a complicated expression.

As expected, the commander drank too much again.

This is Souji's old habit... He doesn't touch alcohol at all, but if he does, he has to drink until he's completely unconscious.

After Souji lost all the drinking games and drank seven cups of wine, becoming so drunk that he was clinging to Aoto's leg and gnawing on it like a radish, Aoto, fearing that the incoherent Souji might do something foolish again, such as eating someone's body parts, quickly handed the little drunkard over to Okita Hikaru.

Seeing Souji's unruly behavior, Hikaru Okita expressed his annoyance while sternly declaring that he would keep a close watch on him and would not allow Souji to touch a drop of alcohol again tonight.

But little did anyone know, the chief commander was indeed very shrewd.

She regained some clarity at some point and, while Okita Mitsumasa was engrossed in Harada Sanosuke's dance where "his hands didn't obey his head," she secretly stole two bottles of sake.

By the time Okita Hikaru discovered it, the two bottles of wine were already empty.

Now, Souji was completely drunk, burping adorably as he kept burping.

At this moment, Qing Deng stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the commander not far away with a wry smile.

Following the fireworks display, Qing Deng felt a deep sense of regret for the absence of smartphones and portable cameras in this era, something he hadn't done in a long time.

He really wanted to record Souji's current appearance completely, so that he could show it to her when she regained consciousness and let her experience what it felt like to have her "dark history controlled by someone else".

"Mmm...sniff! Sniff!"

At that moment, Souji was seen walking around the banquet hall on all fours, repeatedly twitching his cute little nose, just like a憨厚 (honest and simple) Shiba Inu—and the kind that was wagging its tail wildly.

"Um……?"

Suddenly, she stopped with a soft "hmm," her nostrils twitched more rapidly, and a single hair on her crown stood up slightly as if sensing something.

The next moment, she hurriedly ran towards... or rather, crawled towards Qing Deng on all fours. With a movement as gentle as if she were holding a feather, she picked up a bottle of unopened sake at Qing Deng's feet.

"Hehehe~"

As Souji grinned foolishly with happiness, she repeatedly rubbed her flushed, delicate cheek against the bottle, her eyes narrowing into slits.

"Found you~~ Hehe~"

As she spoke, she swayed as she raised her delicate hand, preparing to unscrew the bottle.

Just then, a large hand suddenly reached out from beside him and snatched the wine bottle from his hand.

"Okita-kun! You can't drink anymore!"

"Ahhh~ Tachibana-kun~ Give it back~ Give it back~~"

So drunk he could barely speak, his voice weak and feeble, that Souji raised his arms, trying to snatch the bottle back from Aoto's hands.

Qingdeng sighed helplessly, then stood up and raised his arm high above his head, holding the wine bottle above his head.

In an instant, an insurmountable mountain stood before the commander.

Souji, that "short-legged dog," tried to snatch something from Aoto's hands... which was somewhat humiliating.

"Ahhh~ Give it back~ Give it back~~"

No matter how hard Souji tries to stand on his tiptoes; no matter how long he stretches his arms to their maximum limit; no matter how much he hops like a rabbit, all of it is futile in the face of such a huge height difference.

Aoto handed the bottle to his left hand, and Souji hopped and skipped to Aoto's left side.

Aoto handed the bottle to his right hand, and Souji hopped and skipped to Aoto's right side.

After circling around Souji several times, Qing Deng patiently advised him:

"Okita-kun, stop drinking. Look how drunk you are. Calm down."

Qingdeng's words were sincere and heartfelt.

"Hmm~~"

With one hand gripping Qing Deng's shirt, the other hand stretched upwards to its limit with her toes, which were turning slightly white at the knuckles, as she desperately tried to reach the bottle that Qing Deng had raised to the ceiling—clearly, she hadn't listened to Qing Deng at all.

Like a sloth, Souji leaned most of his body against Aoto, his delicate, round face so close to Aoto's nose—more than five centimeters away, less than three centimeters close, practically touching his eyelashes. One could easily count each of Souji's long eyelashes without even concentrating.

He could clearly feel Souji's breathing, the warm breath full of the smell of alcohol, continuously spraying onto Aoto's face. Despite the shockingly high alcohol content, Aoto miraculously didn't find it unpleasant.

Aoto's gaze met Souji's for only a moment before he abruptly looked away, not daring to look at Souji again.

Qing Deng really liked that fair-skinned color with a hint of pink, and Souji... her face just happened to be that color right now.

Souji isn't the type whose face turns as red as a monkey's bottom whenever he gets drunk.

No matter how drunk he gets, Souji's face will only be covered with a rosy sunset glow.

This "sunset glow" complements Souji's original fair skin, creating a beautiful scene that, while not exactly breathtaking, is enough to make Aoto's heart flutter.

At the same time, Souji's current state of being unable to speak clearly gives people a strange feeling of "sickly beauty", which makes her lovable.

The protective instinct to hold Souji tightly in her arms surged wildly, like a spring gushing from a geyser.

Qingdeng felt his heart pounding wildly...

With each breath the commander exhaled onto his face, he could clearly feel the "thump" in his chest intensify slightly.

"Okita-kun..."

Qing Deng took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and tried to make one last effort to dissuade Souji from drinking.

However…….

No sooner said than done.

Unexpected changes occurred.

"Ah...~~"

The commander suddenly let out a small cry of surprise.

Immediately afterwards, a fragrant breeze carrying a hint of intoxication collided head-on with Qingdeng.

Caught off guard by this unexpected turn of events, Qingdeng cried out in surprise, instinctively reaching out to tightly embrace the object that had suddenly crashed into his arms, before falling backward onto the ground, face up.

My vision blurred and the world spun around me.

The ceiling came into view at the very front of my eyes.

Also appearing in front of my eyes... was a slender ponytail, glossy and smooth to the touch, like the finest silk in the world.

"Okita-kun?"

Instantly, a look of shock filled every corner of Qing Deng's face.

He stared dumbfounded at Souji, who had just bumped into him and was now tightly held in his arms, groaning in pain intermittently.

Just now, in order to snatch the wine bottle back from Qing Deng's hand, Souji kept standing on tiptoe.

The entire weight of the body is supported by a few tiny toes.

Under normal circumstances, let alone a simple tiptoeing, even if Souji were to do a handstand, supporting himself only on his fingertips and doing a "reverse tiptoeing," he would still be able to stand steadily.

The problem is... Souji is currently in a state of mental confusion.

She crawled on all fours like a Shiba Inu... Her mind was so confused that it was clear she could no longer stand normally.