"Comrades, I have something to say. Please listen quietly."
Before long, the bespectacled male player had gathered several players for what they thought was a private conspiracy—though I could hear everything.
"The time has come to offer our hearts for the world's most adorable Anna-chan. Now, all adventurers are setting their sights on Anna-chan. Since our gentle Anna-chan is unwilling to temporarily avoid the spotlight, we must be the villains."
"Strategist, what exactly are you trying to say?"
"We can't let Anna-chan go back today."
"...Strategist, human trafficking is illegal."
"Nobody asked you to speak, dummy. What I mean is we need to find a way to make Anna-chan disappear from public view for a while. Once the adventurers leave Rothschild, we can properly apologize to Anna-chan. Understand?"
"I don't understand."
"Tch, then just do as I say. We're going to have a drinking contest with Anna-chan. Bring out all the strongest Bacchus wine we have."
"Strategist, you want to get Anna-chan drunk?"
"Following the plot of 'Wine Pool and Meat Forest: Anastasia Chapter'?"
"No, if we're bringing out all the Bacchus wine, it's definitely the development from 'Maid Fast Asleep, Unaware First Experience'..."
"Speaking of which, when will you finally send me that 'Anna Forced Hypnosis' resource?"
The chatters drifted into topics that seemed related to me but were completely incomprehensible until the bespectacled male player ended the digression by promising everyone a copy of "Maid Miss's Late Night Service Duties (Third Night)." The overall atmosphere of the discussion was strangely harmonious.
[Drinking] is one of the game skills. A player's alcohol tolerance in the game is unrelated to real life because, initially, every character in the game is poor at drinking. When the drinking level increases, alcohol tolerance increases accordingly. [Drinking] also has many derivative skills—wine tasting and bartending are both branches of the skill tree, and drinking can temporarily boost attributes. It should be noted that consuming large amounts of alcohol in a short period can result in an "alcohol addiction" debuff similar to "gluttony."
"Anna-chan, would you like to try this?"
After they finished their discussion, the first to approach me was a player with the ID "Misaka 10086." Among the players gathered at the camp today, he had the highest [Drinking] level. (TN: Toaru reference.)
"Bacchus wine?"
"Anna-chan actually recognizes it."
"Yes, the most popular drink among mercenary groups. Its status among mercenaries is equivalent to rum among pirates."
Mercenary groups are organizations far removed from maids. When nobles and merchant associations develop to a certain extent, they all hire servants to attend to them. However, mercenary groups have extremely high risks—NPC maids worry they might lose their lives, and few female players are willing to become maids. While Bacchus wine is quite popular among mercenaries, in the eyes of nobles and dignified merchants, Bacchus wine doesn't qualify to moisten their throats, so it's an alcohol that maids rarely encounter.
Bacchus wine has very strict requirements for [Drinking] level—practically only those who have completely maxed it out won't get drunk. But for mercenaries, this is completely irrelevant; drinking without getting tipsy loses all the fun.
"How about we play a game?"
The rules were simple: everyone splits into two teams, then each team sends out one person to stand on a log, drink a cup of Bacchus wine, and see who can maintain better balance. This repeats. This is a typical game between mercenary groups, often with the log set very high, requiring someone to use a ladder to pass up the drinks. The log's surface area can only accommodate standing with feet together, and there are no safety measures below. Combined with Bacchus wine being high-proof liquor, it usually takes only a few rounds before someone becomes dizzy and falls face-first into the dirt, creating a comical sight that draws roaring laughter.
Considering I was a newcomer, they set the log relatively low. If it were too high, I'd have wardrobe malfunctions. Short skirts are really inconvenient.
I had an additional condition: since I came to Anna's Support Group's camp with some questions to consult about, this could be incorporated into the activity to add some gaming fun. Whoever loses balance on either side would be judged as losing that round, gaining the right to ask the other side a question, and the questioned party must answer with complete honesty.
"Go for it! Go for it—"
"The hope of the entire village rests on you!"
The result was that even my teammates assigned later were cheering for Misaka 10086. They seemed desperately eager to take the opportunity to find out... my measurements.
This is bad—I don't even know them myself.
No choice but to get them all drunk.
The mercenary group's warehouse didn't have elegant wine glasses; their habit was to use cups the size of small wine barrels.
Misaka 10086 and I each stood on opposing logs, with the bespectacled male player acting as a referee and handing us two cups of fine wine.
"I drink rather slowly. Please excuse me."
"No problem."
Despite using large cups, I insisted on taking small sips. As a girl, there are many things to pay attention to, especially not ruining one's image.
It took nearly a minute to finish all the Bacchus wine in the large cup. Misaka 10086 was in good condition, and I felt no discomfort either.
The second cup.
The third cup.
After three rounds of drinks, Misaka 10086 downed his third cup of Bacchus wine. Under the alcohol's influence, his face flushed red, and his body began showing signs of swaying left and right.
I still stood steadily on the log with my legs together.
By the fifth cup, Misaka 10086 finally showed significant loss of balance, though he didn't fall off the log.
"An... Anna-chan... really can... hold her liquor… hic.”
"You flatter me."
"Alright, what does Anna-chan want to ask?"
The bespectacled male player smiled wryly and pushed up his glasses.
Regarding why I came to the game world, what would be a good starting point?
"Does everyone... know about the news of the assassination attempt on the young lady of the Neumann family?"
"Neumann? That's a wealthy family from our side (the real world)... Of course I know about it. That incident caused quite a stir—everyone knows about it."
Excellent, so then—
"But that's not exactly news. It's already something that happened over a year ago."
...........Huh?