Alkayne's plan was functioning, in fact, it was working so well that even he had a hard time believing it, the frozen lake village gathering to a small plot of land in the middle of the lake near all of their habitations and spontaneously decided to throw a party- No, an entire festival, lightning up great pyres, bringing out their stocks of food, which was mostly fish, and their 'ghost cider', which was pretty much the exact same concept as regular cider but with fermented juice from their own translucent, ice apples, which they referred to as a ' ghost apples'.
In fact, the prefix 'ghost' was common usage, they had ghost berries, ghost trees and such, everything that looked like plant life and was made from that ice-like matter was called ghost as they believed that they were literally the ghost of former lush plants from when the land was not covered in snow, Alkayne might have given them some credit if not from the fact that these plants were clearly alive and well.
They did not see any problems with the skeleton and most obviously decaying soldiers joining in, the kalt seemed to truly revere the minor lord on account of him being blessed, it also helped that Jiji would sing his praises to however would hear it, getting more and more ridiculous as she drank increasing quantities of cider.
"Like that, I am telling you, this long and this wide! And schwoosh- I swear it all went in-"
"Alright enough drinking for tonight" he had to fetch and keep an eye on her, but without anyone to blabber to, she just passed out with her face on his lap.
'I guess I was spot on' he thought, being blessed was indeed something that instantly allowed him to win these people over, in their minds, even if he looked weird and called himself and his people undead, as long as he had been recognised by Dame-Sommer, it meant that he was worthy to be amongst them, not only that, but Jiji was genuinely happy about it, Alkayne knew that it was because she was an absolute freak, and her family probably suspected it as well, but it worked out.
He had expected her to calm down a bit after that initial act but she had only grown bolder, and she was also turning out to be prone to getting drunk on top of all that, he questioned her credentials as a nun more and more.
"It has been at least fifty years since someone was blessed, and Dame-Sommer knows that many tried in vain!" an old man with much facial hair said, his face turning the slightest bit of red, indicating that he hadn't been light in the drinking either as for a kalt to shift colour required quite a bit of effort.
"You must be a prodigious warrior like Sir Janus to have achieved it" he added afterward, prompting the zombie to question who that Janus was, as he had been hearing quite a few mentions of him throughout the day, both in relation to being blessed and to other matters as well.
"Ah, I forget that you are not from here… Sir Janus is the only other blessed that is still around, but most of all, he is the Grand Monastery's pope!" the elder stated with a clamour.
"Mmh, I thought that members of the church could not marry one another?" spoke Alkayne, remembering what Jiji had told him.
"Indeed, but he only joined the church afterwards, ah… He and his belle were quite the couple…" the elder seemed to space out for a moment before his head slowly lowered against the table.
'That cider of theirs is quite powerful' noted Alkayne as he looked around the place, his soldiers seemed to be abiding by his order well, mingling with the kalt without issue.
"You absolute idiot, how could you forget that there were holes in your stomach? The cider is leaking everywhere" a skeleton with a gash in his skull commented to another soldier, an undead with a bloated face.
The familiar duo just stared at one another for a second.
"I don't know what you're talking about, my stomach is hole-free"
"I can literally see the cider coming out… Why would you even try to drink? You can't possibly get drunk"
"Who knows? We undeads can do anything! You agree with that, right? So surely, we can get wasted too!"
"Perhaps, but that would be with something highly specific, tailored for this purpose, you can't just expect it to work because it's call ghost cider"
"Always worth a shot… General Loimos would agree with me! It is by trying that we discover!"
"I doubt Sir Loimos tries to get drunk…"
"He does everything! I hear he went on a mission himself with only that Maliah girl, why do you think he chose her?"
"You are changing the subject… But reason would state that having a living with him is simple preferable, moreover, she's incredibly powerful, even Lord Ourlon says that he was not her match yet"
"Mwah! I say that they are going to kiss-"
"Hold on, are you actually getting drunk?"
Alkayne shook his head, these two were quite the comedic duo but intrigued, he took a sip of the cider and sensed that it did not have any sort of effect on him.
'Indeed, you can't trust the name of products…' he thought, the zombie soldier was just messing around and spewing whatever nonsense he had imagined.
A delicate hand fell on his shoulders.
"Lord Alkayne…" Cecili whispered something to him, the undead stood up after gently moving Jiji and turned around, noticing a small group approaching, in fact, it was merely a trio but an impressive one.
"What a pleasant surprise, it had been long, long indeed since any man managed to pluck a heissbloom from the schneebiest's cavern" approaching the minor lord was a man not so much smaller than himself, his stature well hidden under large robes.
Carrying a tall scepter and a mitre upon his head, the man's status was not difficult to guess.
"Sir Janus?" questioned Alkayne still, the man before him did not use anything to cover his face, unbothered by the cold, his face not at all like one of a man supposed to be more than fifty years of age, signs of aging were barely visible on his face.
"That would be me, you must be Alkayne, right? The man who married Jiji! To think that such a mischievous nun would be the one, her unique personality must have seduced you" the pope smiled pleasantly.
Flanking this important figure from both sides were probably paladings, the sound of their armour could be made out even as they were entirely covered in long white robes and a hood that covered their faces in darkness, both were even taller than the zombie and rather wide-shouldered, in fact, they looked exactly the same visually.
"By the way, where is she-" his gaze fell right on her, and he sighed.
"Ah… The party has just begun and one of the most important guests is already knocked out?" the pope shrugged.
"You must be brave to have fallen for her… My Jiela was a bit of a troublemaker also…"
Janus engaged in a conversation about their respective wives, one in which Alkayne could only choose to partake in.