Chương 105: Brighthaven Festivities

June stood near the corner of the new enclosed Brighthaven camp with a faint grin, sipping from a gourd. The construction union seemed to understand the urgency of his relayed order to build an interconnected, tight camp, and in turn, they built a small castle to house the people of Brighthaven.

'They really outdid themselves!' People were assigned underground bare-bones dormitories, which, surprisingly, no one had complaints about despite the downgrade. In turn, June had River allocate more resources to enrichment activities. It was a dark night, but everyone was gathered in the central area of the bare-bones castle that was littered with wooden furniture pieces and peppered with fireplaces illuminating the area.

Today was a festival under the guise of surviving three and a half weeks without annihilation. He could smell the mixed bag of emotions coming from his people and enjoyed the warmth alone in a dark corner away from the rest. He lowered the gourd from his mouth and softly dragged a finger along it to find a poorly mended crack and felt the words he had engraved into its side.

"L. L. E. A. S. A. S…LJ" The rubble of Leonard's place was sorted and handed out to his friends. June didn't plan on taking anything, but he did recognize a flattened bag that was going to be dumped, and after further inspection, he found Sidri's and Atish's gourds, but they were irreparably damaged during the altercation with the Wendigo.

'Half of it was my fault…. But I think I would have used more power if I had a second chance.' Despite the gourds being mostly unrecognizable, June plucked through the mushed bag and picked up pieces ranging from flecks to shards, and with a little clay, he was able to put it back together into one gourd with some advice from Ann. He added some new engravings to it; full names would be embarrassing if someone else found out, so he just added the first initial of the people who kept him going in the virtual realm.

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'Leo, Leonard, Eren, Ann, Silvester, Sidri… Lilia and I… Is it weird that I added myself?' He brought the alcohol to his nose and whiffed it, making a face of disgust before quickly downing the rest.

'I don't feel drunk?'

'It's because you're subconsciously rejecting it.' June jumped, looking around quickly before sighing.

'Where have you been for the past week or two? You haven't responded after I flambéed myself.'

'Yeah, I was busy; I saw you kill a Wendigo vessel… so good job?'

'You know it feels weird hearing my own voice say good job.'

'You won't get used to it, anyway; to get drunk, you need to actually let the alcohol settle in you. You keep sending it to your liver instantly or storing it in your body. Let me recall how to do that…' A few moments of quiet festival music went by, and June was happy he had greenlit the festival.

'Hm, found it.' An odd sensation of remembering something washed over his body. He clenched his fist and looked at it.

"Interesting, so I've been killing the buzz before letting it take hold… useful; the opposite is true too! Like a quick undo button… I appreciate it, but—''Yes, I know, we don't really care about getting drunk much.'

'...'

'I wonder why?' He somehow sensed the voice shrug.

'Peepah was a drunkard, but we don't necessarily dislike alcohol.'

'You know, talking to me is still a second opinion since I have experience, but you should really look for a third opinion… preferably one that's not yourself.'

'…'

'Oh, by the way, do you know what the third event is? The announcers didn't say anything.'

'Well, spoiling a fun surprise now isn't exactly my forte. Anyways, you don't need to worry about what's going on in the mundane and Nightrealms; I got most of it handled, and you know what they say.'

'If you want something done, do it yourself, since someone else will mess it up?'

'Well…. I guess you really do know what they say.'

'…'

'Oh, and I'll leave you with a little gift and a half-tip.' June suddenly felt his gourd swirl and fill up.

'The alcohol your people make is admirable, but this would probably suit your tastes better. As for the half-tip, light embodies many things: purity, divinity, truth. But boil it down, and it's just bright and flashy.' With that final gift and tip, his mind quieted to just his own voice. June let out a long sigh, understanding that the Voice just told him he's been overthinking it.

'Shit! Was it really that simple the entire time?' He took a sip from the refilled gourd and tasted non-alcoholic lemonade, and his faint grin enlarged after a second realization.

'That was a full tip, you generous idiot.'