Satou's here. During the time of bu

Satou's here. During the time of bubble economy long ago, it seemed that it was normal to treat your lover with full course meal in every memorial day. I don't think that I'm lucky to grow up during the recession, but it looks like people who've been in the good times have their own shares of problem too.


◇


"Well then, everyone, please enjoy the specialties of Gugurian."

The viceroy says so signaling the start of the banquet.

The people in this dining room are the viceroy, his wife and his retainers, gentlemen and ladies--who are of course nobles with peerages. The guests are princess Menea, and Poni-san who acts as her escort,
and also lady Karina and me. The influential people in the city are only invited when it's a buffet party.
By the way, only adults are allowed to participate in the banquet and party, their children aren't.

The dining table is decorated with flowers, and two maids accompany each guest. The tablewares are silver knives, spoons and forks. Beside the knife that looks like an extremely common dagger, the spoon and the fork are like the ones used in the previous world. There is only one set of the tablewares for each plate, but it gets exchanged with new ones when you've finished your meal it seems.
The room is lit with magic light. It's not with magic tools, but a magician is putting out light balls. That should be the case considering magic balls are occasionally added from the corner the room.

Wine-like liquor is poured into the glasses. This is the first time I've ever seen glasses as containers since I come here. It seems to be famous products of the dukedom called Oak Glass. According to lady Karina's story, there's a life-sized glass mirror in the women waiting room.

Lady Karina's clothes looks so gorgeous, you wouldn't think that they're made in hurry. I'm the one who pay for it, but it's scary to look at the bill. The clothes have spaciously shown neckline, and the demonic--I mean, emphasized breasts, it's also not only decorated with silver and golden threads, but even gems are mounted in every important places. It's probably not preferable for the invitee to wear clothes that are too gaudy, but since the viceroy's wife is wearing even gaudier dresses, so it should be alright. Since the topic about sense of beauty could be controversial, I don't really want to talk about it, but it's also 'Peacock' in this world too huh, I'll leave it at that.

The first plate that I've assumed to be cold from the beginning is light green soup. It's delicious even though it's cold, potatoes soup-like.

Starting from that, various plates with dishes like meat pudding, boiled trout, pilaf-like dish, baked pheasant, and fillet meat steak are presented out in turns. Aren't there too many main plates?
Regardless of the main course, side dishes like vegetables, and entremet are put on different plates. Breads are also served in a basket, this is the first time I've seen ones that aren't black breads. They're not puffing hot, but it's been a long time since I've eaten white breads.

I want to use chopsticks when I'm eating the trout, but the nobles nearby seem to have got used to it, they break the trout and eat it without problem.
However, half of them who aren't able to do it well are assisted by the maids behind by leaving only the white meat for the nobles. Diligent maids are too wonderful.

Of course, I ask for help too.

Apparently she's an inexperienced maid, I could hear, "Ah", and, "B, bone-san, please don't bring it here.", such slightly fun screams from behind. Since she said it in low voice, guests who don't have attentive ears skill probably can't hear it. I did not think that I would be this glad for getting attentive ears skill.

I'd like to have Liza eat the pheasant dish. Let's buy it in the market, and make the same dish. I have to thank the chefs for the good food in the kitchen, and get them to teach me delicious recipes later!

The overall volume of food is too much, though it's not like I can't eat them all, but since it seems to be normal to leave leftovers, I'm relieved. Even in glutinous Japan, I don't think I've ever left this much. The gormandizer lady Karina eat them all up.

During the banquet, people around me are having conversations while eating slowly, and it's unexpectedly difficult for people who can't eat slowly.
Moreover, lady Karina is too engrossed in eating she tends to forget about the conversation, and has a hard time to follow it. Since she's unfamiliar with this position, it can't be helped. If I haven't followed Arisa's recommendation and got taught of etiquette by well-informed maid-san beforehand, I might show some shameful behaviors too.

Arisa and the others are on eating tour around Gururian city as scheduled. I'm expecting their result enthusiastically since they would absolutely find shops with delicious cooked rice.

The last dessert isn't gururian (ohagi), but sweetened chestnut. It's called gold sugar, and seems to be promoted at Gururian confectionery. It's really very tasty.

After the dinner, we move to a different room to have pleasant chats. Men and women are in separate rooms. The talks are frank since there are only same sex.

Since a gentleman at the prime of his life who claims to be baron Muno's childhood friend is talking, I don't get left behind alone. The baron is like that since long ago after all.
I got uncomfortable when the topic changes to silver masked hero who has appeared in Seryuu city and Muno city, but the impressions are generally favorable. 'Maybe his true nature is someone who has served the previous Saga empire's hero', such theory is prominent. If he's the predecessor hero's friend, shouldn't he be around 70-90 years old then? I want to retort with that, but I restrain myself.

Since I want to change the topic, I try to talk about the story of the young nobles at the dwarves' hometown.

The atmosphere gets a bit heavy since it's not really a good topic to talk about, but I get some informations. There are hundreds of noble houses in the dukedom alone, and more than 100 young nobles don't succeed their houses and become commoners each year. There is no strict rule that mandates nobles to fall and become commoners, but if one of their sibling inherit the house then they have to leave. If they're minors then they'd be still under care of their parents and remain in the house for the time being.

The magic swords search seem to be vain struggles of the young nobles who don't want to become commoners, even if each of their houses issues prohibition for it, there are always someone who breaks it.
It seems that entering into the duke's imperial guard is quite an honor, and during the service, they'd be treated as temporary nobles and the fall into commoners is postponed. The person with talent could be conferred with medal and become a honorary knight.