Mage Manual-Chapter 1235 - 899: Neck Shot

"Happy birthday, Filly!"

In the villa’s first-floor hall, everyone offered their congratulations, then gathered around to watch Filly blow out the candles on the cake, close her eyes, and make a wish with her hands clasped together.

"So this is what a birthday ritual looks like," Igula said, "I’m learning something new." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Huh?" Filly asked, "Have you never celebrated a birthday?"

"We all grew up in an orphanage; you can consider us born orphans. There, a birthday is just an ordinary day, nothing special for us to celebrate," Igula explained, "And honestly, preparing a cake and lighting the same number of candles as your age on the day you were born, then blowing them out in one go to make a wish with your eyes closed... I’m not doing such a weird ritual. Who knows what might happen?"

"But the Necromancy Faction does have a ritual similar to a birthday, called ’Feast Day,’" Harvey said, "On the day a corpse turns into a spirit, they perform the Feast Day ritual annually, stuffing a large number of maggots into—"

"Vishi, did your era have birthdays?" Ash quickly interrupted Harvey.

"We did, but how do I put it, we didn’t celebrate; it was more of a comforting activity," Vishi shrugged, "We Eternal Dusk Elves would hold a ceremony on the last day of each year, feeling sad that another year of life had passed. Humans actually celebrate getting a year older; it’s really hard to understand."

Rose shook her head, "Because humans are fragile, they get hurt easily, die easily, so every year they get through is worth celebrating."

With that, she twisted open a bottle of wine and chugged it directly, her throat gulping without stopping, finishing it in five seconds.

Rose covered her mouth and burped, placing the bottle heavily on the table, her face blushing slightly, and looked around, "Weren’t we going to drink?"

"In the Kingdom of Allstars, the drinking etiquette is to down bottles one by one?" Ash was shocked.

"No, I wanted to play that kind of drinking game!" Filly quickly said, "It’s the one where everyone has fun and drinks together, leaving beautiful memories. Drinking like that leaves no memories at all!"

"I don’t know much about birthday parties, but I do know quite a bit about drinking parties," Vishi took out a box, "I’ve already prepared; let’s play the Undercover Game."

"Everyone gets a glass of wine, with one being the undercover drink filled with various sweet, sour, bitter, spicy essences. Before we start, I’ll draw a penalty out from here. Whoever is found to have drunk the undercover drink has to carry out the penalty."

Igula asked, "How will others know if someone really drank the undercover drink?"

"The person pointed at most certainly drank it," Vishi said confidently, "If you drank normal wine, why would others suspect you? A one-handed clap doesn’t make a sound!"

Ash questioned, "There won’t be any penalties that cross the line, right? Like touching the opposite sex."

"I refuse to touch the opposite sex too," Rose burped.

"All the on-the-spot penalties have to be done with the same sex. Is that good?" Vishi blinked, distributing the glasses, "Alright, the first penalty is... confessing over the phone to an opposite sex not present!"

Ash took a sip of wine and spat it out, quickly finding everyone pointing at him, "This isn’t fair; besides me, Filly, and Rose, who else knows an opposite sex not present? And even has their phone number?"

Harvey raised his hand, "Barina, the cemetery guardian."

Igula raised his hand, "Corona, Berti, Jill, Nara... all met at the bar."

Vishi crossed her arms, "Can’t handle it? Would you really ruin Filly’s little Heart’s Desire, Master?"

"Alright!" Ash gritted his teeth, pulling out his phone to call the only absent contact in his list, "Nia, are you free now?"

"Yeah."

"I like you, Nia," he paused, "This is a drinking game’s penalty, sorry for disturbing you—"

"Say it again."

"Huh?"

"The signal here is bad. I didn’t hear what you said. Say it again. Articulate clearly, speak slowly."

When Ash put down the phone, his entire aura had changed.

"The game has changed, Vishi!" Ash’s mouth twitched, gritting his teeth, "You better hope I don’t get a chance!"

"My favorite past time used to be prophesying in a wine pool," Vishi took a sip from her glass, "To think you can challenge me, you’re still a few thousand years... Pugh!"

"Forget you’re in an ordinary human body now?" Ash smirked challengingly, "Let’s descend into Hell together, Vishi!"

*

"This penalty is... getting a cake to the face!"

While drinking, Harvey’s armpit was suddenly tickled, causing him to spit out his drink, and of course, he was pointed at by everyone. Before he could speak, a cake was intensely slammed onto his face, the impact even knocking him to the ground!

The Necromancer calmly wiped the cake from his face, looking at Igula who had quickly smashed it onto him. However, Igula had changed position, now sitting across from Harvey.

"Igula, aren’t you too much?"

Ash was quite annoyed, "Why did you get to do it? That opportunity should have been mine!"

"No one is more qualified than me," Igula said leisurely.

"Alright, this time the penalty is," Vishi filled everyone’s glasses and drew another slip of paper, "getting doused with wine."

When Igula was drinking, his chair suddenly shook violently, causing him to cough twice. He looked down and saw a corpse quickly slip away from under the table!

When he looked up, he saw everyone pointing at him, and a flying bottle coming his way!

Smash!

The bottle precisely shattered on Igula’s head, the liquid and blood flowing down mixed together. Harvey calmly said, "Drench him with a bottle of alcohol, no problem, right?"

"If Igula thinks it’s fine, then it’s fine," Vishi tried to suppress a laugh.

"No problem." Igula wiped the drink off his face, his lips curling up slightly, "Of course it’s fine. This is how you should play when drinking, but I’m not going to go easy on you next. Harvey, you’re not going to bail halfway, right?"

"No," Harvey replied. "By the way, I’m going to write some penalties in the box, like hugging my family members."

"I’ll write something too," Igula said coldly, "I’ve always thought bald necromancers have more charisma."

*

"This time the penalty is to pour alcohol on the neck and collarbone and let others lick it off!"

After Rose finished her drink, she coughed vigorously a few times, looked up to see everyone pointing at her, then decisively poured the drink on herself, "Filly?"

"I...I think..."

"Let me do it!"

Vishi walked over unhurriedly, hugged Rose and started licking, making Filly blush up to her ears, while Ash and the other two turned pale—luckily they didn’t get this penalty, otherwise it would become a lifelong shadow for them. Such penalties should be banned by law!

Only after a full minute did Vishi finally let go of Rose, still unfulfilled, went back to the box to draw a new penalty: "This time the penalty is to hold a soft candy with your teeth and let others lick it away."

Harvey chose to make his tongue locally ice cold flowing fire.

Igula directly used a spirit miracle to numb his nerves.

Ash pulled a short sword from his sleeve and stabbed it fiercely into his thigh.

...

...

"I, I can still drink..."

The living room on the first floor of the villa was already a mess. Rose lay on the carpet in a precise sleep, hugging a strange doll; Vishi lay on the table, half her face soaking in her own vomit; Igula passed out on the stairs, apparently having failed to reach his room; Harvey had somehow moved the coffin up from the basement, lying inside to sleep squeezed together with his family.

Filly quietly got up and moved everyone to a comfortable place to sleep.

She actually lied. She had already drunk last year when Senior Lea brought a case of alcohol back to their dorm, intending to get her drunk, but in the end, it was Senior Lea who got so drunk she was out cold. Since then, Filly knew that she could hold her liquor quite well.

She moved the drunken Ash to a soft chair and found that Ash’s pocket was vibrating. She took it out to find that he had a phone call from ’Nia’.

Filly suddenly had a mischievous thought, answered the call, and said, "Hello, is this Nia?"

"...Where is Ash?"

"He’s asleep. He was too tired earlier and can’t wake up now. Do you need anything? I can relay the message when he wakes up."

"No need!"

Hearing the other party angrily hang up the phone, Filly felt both the pleasure of a successful prank and a twinge of unease for having hurt someone.

She looked at the sleeping Ash, sat next to him, and softly murmured, "Actually, you didn’t misunderstand. Knowing that I would die makes you feel like dying too, that indeed makes me feel a lot better... even, it’s wonderful."

"You might think I would take this opportunity to make some strange demands of you," Filly pressed her legs together and gently rested her head on his shoulder, "but I won’t. That would be too humble. We have time. While saving the world, I will make you fall in love with me... Isn’t the plot where the male and female leads gradually fall in love during world-saving more interesting than your encounter with the Sword Maiden? If we fail, we’ll reunite in Hell, isn’t that more romantic than your adventure with the Witch?"

"My true heart’s desire is to hope you will stay forever."

She lightly rubbed her head against him, "But if I were to say it aloud, that would make me worse than Sister Vishi."

Filly picked up the bottle. Since no one was watching, she stopped pretending and drank directly from it, but due to her posture, it choked her throat, and she accidentally splashed alcohol onto Ash’s face.

"Sorry." Filly quickly pulled out a tissue and was about to wipe Ash’s face. As she wiped, she stared dazedly at the alcohol on his lips. His lips were soft, and the alcohol glowed with a strange sheen, as if it had become more appetizing.

But she soon shook her head and wiped away the alcohol from Ash’s face.

Then she picked up the bottle again and carefully poured alcohol down Ash’s neck.

"I don’t want the Sword Maiden, nor do I want to kiss where someone else has kissed."

Filly straddled Ash’s lap, leaned forward, grabbed his shoulders with both hands, and gently buried her head in, resembling a Vampire fervently feeding on its prey, yet as tenderly as a kitten suckling from its mother.

"It tickles." the drunken Ash murmured.

PS: It’s the end of the month, asking for a monthly vote!