Location: Lil Red Storm Realm, Realm's Womb, Seed World
The gang celebrated the birth of Dredre's forest spirit, Ceed, and the union of the Wyatt siblings until even the likes of the Field Marshal had to start using her soul energy to cleanse her system of all the booze just to keep partying. Fortunately, most of them were demon merchants, so they never ran out of food, wine, or entertainment to keep the festivities going. With Dalie's gift rejuvenating Wyatt's wallet, they went wild.
Corey and Dalie had wine for the first time as Corey Bright and Dalie Wyatt, while Cortney and Jaya publicly drank wine for the first time as well. As for Wyatt, he joined them, but due to his strong physique, none of the best-selling and popular liquors in the inter-realm network seemed capable of getting him drunk.
Learning this, the gang turned it into a drinking game: they would taste every liquor available on inter-realm network until they found one that could get Wyatt drunk. The challenge was to last the longest without using soul energy, rule power, or any ability to cleanse their body of alcohol. The winner would be the last one standing or those who made it to the end without using any powers. With seasoned drinkers like Dredre and the Field Marshal in the mix, the competition was fierce. Ceed and Dalie couldn't get drunk due to racial reasons, so they acted as judges alongside Wyatt.
Ultimately, they did find a liquor that could get Wyatt drunk. Ironically, its name translated to "Mother of All Liquors," marking the end of the game and the party. Unsurprisingly, Dredre was the winner, with the Field Marshal as the runner-up. Thanks to the party, Dalie had become everyone's new favorite, while Ceed's previously frozen expression and annoyed grunts no longer made her unapproachable as everyone had learned to decipher her grunts. The Field Marshal and Clown Mask seemed to have grown comfortable enough to no longer need their respective masks in the gang's presence.
Wyatt also made some progress with Susan. While Corey was busy drinking and partying, Wyatt followed the Field Marshal's advice and managed to converse with Susan as usual, even making her laugh occasionally, without letting his wounded ego get in the way. It wasn't easy, as he was deeply shocked and hurt by her rejection to his proposal to date publicly.
After the party, Ceed created human-sized pixie-style cottages in the woods for everyone to rest. While the gang slept, Ceed and Dalie left to discuss what kind of celestial Ceed would like to become, following Wyatt's orders to keep Ceed's status as
a celestial a secret from the rest, especially Dredre.
Though Dredre considered Wyatt her best friend, as a pixie, she was still loyal to the Librarian. Wyatt didn't want to put Dredre in a position where she would have to choose between her friend and her master. However, given how things were unfolding, it seemed inevitable, though Wyatt preferred to face that issue later rather than sooner in this one instance.
Waking up in his cottage, Wyatt opened his eyes to be greeted by the pleasant face of Dredre, who was patiently hovering above him, watching over him. With the successful birth of Ceed and Dalie taking Ceed under her wing, Dredre now had more free time on her hands. With her usual playmates Corey, Cortney, and Jaya still asleep, and the rest of the gang busy with their own work, she could only wait for Wyatt to wake up and assign her a task or keep her company.
"How can you be up earlier than me when you drank almost twice as much as the entire gang?" Wyatt asked, getting up.
"If not for those last few glasses of M.O.A.L, I could have drunk a lot more," Dredre replied, using her ability to cleanse Wyatt of all dirt and smell.
Feeling refreshed, Wyatt walked out of the cottage, recalling that the Pixie race's entire lifestyle was one big party. If not for the Librarian getting them to work as book guides in his libraries, they would spend their entire lives nurturing their forests and partying with their tribe members. The Field Marshal never stood a chance against her in the drinking game.
"So, what do you plan to do next?" Wyatt asked, hoping she wouldn't suggest starting another forest, as he would resolutely reject that idea.
However, she wouldn't, since the only reason he agreed to let. Dredre grow her forest initially was that she could still feel at home even though she was far from home. Thanks to Ceed, the entire Seed World was now filled with numerous floating forest islands, each mimicking Dredre's native forest and the neighboring pixie tribes' forests in the Dark Realm.
Not that Wyatt had any complaints with the new changes; the Seed World was now more vibrant and calming than before. Most importantly, it followed the time zone and climate conditions of the Card World, which he was accustomed to. Though the Lil Red Storm realm was in the same time zone as the Card World, its two-suns arrangement could only be preferable to the slave-work culture of MNC's back on Earth.
"I could help Susan, Park, and the Field Marshal with their project," Dredre suggested, the first idea that came to mind.
Wyatt's face turned grim upon hearing this, as he had bad news for the mentioned trio. Locating the island where Susan and Park had set up their office, Wyatt headed there with Dredre in tow. Seeing Wyatt awake, the Field Marshal joined them. As they arrived, Susan and Park paused their work to greet Wyatt.
"Good morning, Wyatt."
"Is it morning?" Wyatt asked, trying to gauge the time based on the position of the illusionary sun in the Seed World's spatial boundary. After taking over the Seed World, the first thing Ceed did was replace the fake sun Wyatt had created and let the Seed World's boundaries mimic the climate and weather patterns of the Card World.
"Well, it should be morning in the Card World," Park confirmed, informing him the shortcut to tell time in this realm.