Chapter 174 Results of the Dinner Party
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
On the night of the fifteenth week of the Beginning Star, I was in the reception room with Lewya. The reason, of course, was to wait for a message from Diana and Mei.
”If it’s a message, I can handle it. Why don’t you wait in your room? Diana will get mad at you.”
”I can’t calm down waiting in my room in this situation. It’s okay, I know more about the item box than Diana or Mei, and as long as we take proper precautions, it’s not as dangerous as people say.”
”Even so, it doesn’t mean there is no danger at all, right? I don’t want Diana to scold me too.”
”I’ll explain to Diana myself so that Lewya won’t get scolded.”
After dinner, I finished compiling the report and completed all the day’s work. It had already been two hours since Lewya and I started waiting for the messages in the reception room. Considering that the dinner party was supposed to start before sunset, it wouldn’t be strange if it had already ended, but it seemed that this dinner party was dragging on for quite a while.
Then, after another hour, while talking to Lewya in front of the item box that remained silent, I saw Diana’s face on the other side of the space that opened when the item box activated.
”Master Neil?”
”Oh, Diana, um, is the dinner party over――”
”Why are you there? Lewya was supposed to receive the message, and Master Neil was supposed to hear the report from Lewya.”
Oh, her tone is calm, but she’s actually quite serious when she’s angry.
”Well, um… I just couldn’t calm down waiting for the report, so I asked Lewya to let me stay here. So it’s not Lewya’s fault… I’m sorry.”
”…There are many things I want to say, but there are more important things to prioritize now. Be prepared when we go back.”
This is the pattern where Diana will lecture me for about three hours when she comes back. But what bothered me more was that Diana tried to continue the conversation without any complaints.
”Anyway, something big must have happened, right? Please give me the report.”
”Then, let me briefly explain what His Majesty the Emperor shared with the nobles at this dinner party. First and foremost, His Majesty demonstrated the new item box developed by Master Neil to the nobles. It uses the lost magic of dimensional magic… and also about the existence of elves.”
”What!?”
Lewya’s face turned pale at the fact that the existence of elves was announced to the nobles at the dinner party, but I held up my hand to restrain Lewya and asked Diana.
”What about the elves? What did His Majesty say?”
”He said, ‘Elves are involved in the development of this magic tool. I feel the potential in the magic tools created by Neil Artemis and the elves, and I have great expectations.’ That’s all. He didn’t mention anything about the treatment of the elves.”
”That’s it!? What is the Emperor of the Empire thinking!”
”Calm down, Lewya. His Majesty clearly stated that ‘the Empire will not lend its power.’ That means… well, for now, I want to hear the rest of the report.”
”Then, next, as Master Neil predicted, at the dinner party, dishes made with chicken and alcoholic beverages made in the settlement were served.”
”I knew it. How did the participants react?”
”They were both very well received.”
”Well received? One is a dish made with livestock meat, and the other is a drink made by amateurs like us. I can’t imagine it being well received by the nobles.”
I thought it would be fine if they found it interesting, but what does it mean that it was very well received? Are they being considerate of His Majesty? Even if they don’t like it, as imperial nobles, they should understand that excessive flattery will only upset His Majesty. So it must really be well received among the nobles.
”Did His Majesty do something?”
”Yes, at first, the reactions were not favorable for both, but His Majesty said,
’Ordinary people don’t think about using spices to make livestock meat taste good. Before trying to make livestock meat taste good by spending money, they would rather eat something delicious from the beginning with that money. That’s why it’s such an interesting idea to use expensive ingredients and skilled chefs to elevate the food of the poor to the food of the wealthy. There aren’t many ways to use money more extravagantly than that. And this alcohol, it has a strong alcohol content as it is, but that’s because it was made with the assumption that it would be diluted. The preferred diluent is water, real water that is not magically generated. Isn’t it interesting to use more expensive water than alcohol for drinking? It’s a luxurious and interesting idea, don’t you think?’”
”I see, so it appeals to the luxury-oriented nobility. It’s all about how you present it, huh?”
”Just being luxurious, is that enough to appeal to the nobility?”
”Being luxurious is also proof that you have the financial means to do so, Diana. Even people who don’t like luxury will indulge in a certain level of luxury for the sake of their reputation if they are nobles. There are also foolish nobles who simply enjoy luxury or try to show off their wealth more than others, but you don’t hear those kinds of stories in the Empire.”
”Is that so?”
”If nobles in the Empire were doing such things, it would be like this.”
Saying that, I made a gesture of cutting my throat with my thumb.
”Excessive luxury is a target for execution. The Emperor dislikes wastefulness.”
”Well, His Majesty is not someone who wants to live a life where he can maintain the minimum dignity as a member of the imperial family, but he wouldn’t go so far as to cut off the heads of nobles just like that.”
Well, “His Majesty would never order such a thing,” but after the problematic nobles are dealt with, there are already nobles prepared to take their place. They must be secretly cooperating in dealing with the nobles…
”Then who will be the one to cut off the heads of those nobles?”
”Let’s talk about that another time, Lewya. It will take a while… Diana, is there anything else that His Majesty shared at the banquet?”
”Mei-sama’s beauty products developed and sold in the settlement were also shared.”
”What? Beauty products?”
Come to think of it, when I checked the copy of the ledger that recorded the sales of the current star in the development area of the plow of abundance for calculating taxes at the end of the stars, there was a record of a large number of beauty products being sold all at once.
Did His Majesty purchase such a large quantity to share at the banquet? But beauty products are quite different from what His Majesty has shared so far. I don’t think it’s His Majesty’s taste… Is there some other reason for this?
”What about the beauty products? What did His Majesty say?”
”Regarding the beauty products, His Majesty only mentioned that they are new medicines developed by Meisy-sama, different from cosmetics and secret potions.”
”Short and simple. How did the nobles react to that?”
”We received quite a strong reaction. Especially the reactions of the ladies who attended with their husbands were tremendous.”
”The obsession with women’s beauty is the same everywhere… But those beauty products are less effective compared to cosmetics and secret potions, right? Even if His Majesty shared them, would they be so interested in something whose effects are unknown?”
”There was a perfect example to prove the effectiveness.”
”A perfect example?… Wait, did Mei get invited to the banquet?”
”Yes, it seems that it was to show the effectiveness of the beauty products to those around. Meisy-sama is a duke’s daughter, but she was quite negligent in her appearance.”
Mei’s laziness is a well-known story among the nobles. It is said that when she appeared in society, the servants desperately tried to improve her appearance by applying makeup, but her messy hair that she neglected to take care of, and the dark circles under her eyes that resulted from cutting back on sleep for research, cannot be concealed by makeup.
Mei’s appearance became a laughingstock among the nobles attending social events. Thanks to that, Duke Novak no longer forced Mei to participate in society, and I remember Mei telling me that she now has more time to freely conduct her research. It must have been quite a surprise for the nobles to see Mei’s transformation, and there is no other example that is more convincing than Mei to prove the effectiveness of the beauty products to the nobles.
”By the way, how is Mei doing?”
”If it’s Meisy-sama, she is here.”
Diana looked away from the item box and turned her gaze towards the back of the sofa where she was sitting. Then, a white and slender hand appeared from behind Diana’s sofa and weakly waved towards her. It seemed that there was another sofa placed behind the one Diana was sitting on, and Meisy was lying there.
”She seems quite tired.”
”She was being pressed by the ladies and asked to explain about beauty products. They said it felt like a lifetime of socializing.”
”Well, she has been through a lot.”
”If Master Neil had also attended the dinner party, his fatigue would have been nothing compared to Meisy’s.”
”…I’m glad I wasn’t invited, to be honest.”
If I had been present at the event where the lost magic of dimensional magic and the existence of elves were revealed, it is not difficult to imagine that I would have been pressed even more than Meisy.
”The Lord was also frequently approached by various people and couldn’t hide his fatigue anymore. Master Neil might have collapsed from the overwhelming pace.”
”Huh, was Dad at the dinner party too?”
”Yes, he was answering questions in place of Master Neil.”
”I see, I must have burdened Dad a lot.”
I had reported the general situation to my father, but since it had been kept a secret until recently, he couldn’t possibly understand dimensional magic and elves enough to answer other people’s questions. However, as the lord of the Atmiras territory, he couldn’t simply say, “I don’t know because I leave matters in the settlement to my son.”
On the other hand, he couldn’t honestly reveal the information to other nobles. Therefore, it was necessary to handle the nobles while omitting the important parts that should not be mentioned, based on the limited information obtained from the report. My father had survived in the noble society of the empire, which was filled with secret struggles, and he was skilled at deceiving with words, but this time, it might have been beyond his capabilities.
”Next time, as a gesture of appreciation, should I send a gift or something…”
”That’s a good idea, but I think it would be more filial to solve the problems that the settlement is facing and reduce the Lord’s worries.”
”Haha, stop with the undeniable logic. Anyway, are there any other things that His Majesty shared?”
”No, there is nothing else.”
”Was there anything else that was shared that is unrelated to the settlement?”
”No.”
So, this dinner party was completely focused on the settlement. I thought that if there were other things that were shared, there might be another motive…
”I see… I can see it now, His Majesty’s intention.”
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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