BLOOD BOUNDED - THE MOONLIGHT - Eng - Castlevania Lords of Shadow (fanfic) PIII

Chapter 76

In the middle of the celebrations, Gabriel dedicated himself to contemplating the panorama with amusement, while his brothers personified chaos between jokes, laughter, music created with their own pots, and of course, the most ridiculous dance possible. At some point, there had been a tradition of sneaking in beer on the last day of the week, the night before their break. And well, this was the result.

He immediately realized that abusing that drink was a bad idea, especially if he wanted to stay alert, so he only limited himself to small doses to relax. And logically, he didn't want to screw up when he met Marie later, so he made sure to stay sober and wash up first. The food helped.

But in the meantime, he would continue to see his brothers ridicule themselves beautifully and so he would have a couple of funny things to tell her.

All, except for the least expected.

"I can't believe you really made Manuel pay for everything, hahahaha!" Tomas nudged him, his face red from laughing too much.

"I don't know what you're talking about" he took a sip of his drink "he did kindly offer. Isn't that so, brother?"

At the sharp edge in Gabriel's tone, Manuel jumped and muttered:

"You're a demon, you knew that, right? A fucking demon and you're going to hell."

"Well" his brother mumbled "we warned you not to be too smart and you didn't listen."

"Remind me not to breathe too hard near his maid," Roland muttered.

Someone had climbed on the table and was trying to imitate those stage dancers at the fair, the heels of their boots echoing throughout the room, and the loud male laughter accompanying it.

It was strange that so much noise hadn't brought their teachers, but not that he cared.

"Let a dance opponent come by!" they announced "A bag of silver coins for the winner!"

"Come on, brother!" He told Manuel with his usual sharp laugh "with your good performance entertaining the ladies, perhaps you will recover what you invested so generously."

Tomas kept laughing like a wretch and Roland covered his face to hold on.

Manuel made a face at him:

"And why don't you try, Lord "Look-at-me-I'm-so-stupid", Lord "Don't-look-too-much-at-my-maid", Lord "I-only-dance-with-my-young-lady", Lord..."

"Now, now, brother" Tomas stopped him "don't condemn yourself more than you are."

"Leave it alone, Tomas" Gabriel snorted sarcastically "if he doesn't learn, that's his problem."

Christian had risen with his mug raised:

"My brothers, I want to make a toast to the only apprentice without defeats" he paused with a wink "after me, of course" there were giggles in the audience "Sir Gabriel No-Surname!" He leaned in his direction. "Cheers to you, brother!"

Faced with the obvious offense, his brothers were silent, waiting for his reaction.

Did they expect him to claim him? To get up and beat him until he bleeds? Or maybe something fancier like challenging him to a "friendly" duel where he would leave him in the dust, again? He was not lacking in desire, truth be told, and perhaps at another time he would have opted for the latter without thinking.

But with Marie's face flashing in his mind, he decided that he had more important things to think about than making his point to a loudmouth to whom he owed nothing.

This said, Gabriel No-Surname gave him his sharp laugh, raising his mug:

"Thank you for so much praise, brother! I hope you can still be ahead of me on the battlefield, if the sand you've swallowed isn't enough for you, when we meet once more! Cheers!"

"CHEERS!" they clamored and drank almost in unison.

"Ouch," Ronald hissed.

"Speaking of who doesn't teach lessons" Tomas mumbled.

"Gabriel!" José entered panting through the large gate.

"What happen?" He and his companions got up immediately.

"Quick, come on, there's no time!" He prompted them, upset.

Just when the bell began to ring, silence reigned in the room, causing the noise outside to reach them:

"Vampires, vampires!"

A storm is coming... are you ready?

I have a bad feeling about this...

Anyways, future awaits.

Peace~