Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Banquet
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Please take good care of me.
The first thing the expedition party needed after completing their long journey was rest, so they handed over their spoils of war to the other soldiers and returned to their lodgings or homes to rest.
In the meantime, the servants at the Lord's manor busily prepared a welcoming banquet for the warriors who had achieved great success.
By evening, dozens of round tables were set up in the largest communal dining hall at the Lord's manor.
People sat freely wherever they wanted, chattering excitedly with their comrades to celebrate the expedition party's safe return.
Magic lamps—relics of ancient magic—illuminated the entire dining hall, while servants hustled about under the lights, carrying food and drinks.
Even though the chill of winter was beginning to show its face, the air inside the dining hall was warm and cozy, heated by stoves fueled with Fire Monkey cores.
Lord Nut, seated at the head table, stood up and raised his wine glass.
"This gathering is to bless the brave heroes who have returned from their distant journey for all of us, so eat and drink to your heart's content. Well done! Valiant ones!"
Knights, squires, and soldiers alike cheered and waved their hands, regardless of rank.
Some spilled their wine while waving their glasses, but no one paid any mind to such minor mishaps.
As everyone reveled in joy, Lord Nut declared loudly.
"I swear on my honor that tonight, there will be no shortage of food or drink! I'll provide everything, so just enjoy yourselves!"
"Long live the Lord!"
"Belluan forever!"
Lord Nut sat back down with a faint smile at the warriors' roaring response.
Once the banquet truly began, the entire hall filled with boisterous chatter.
Arsen, too, downed a glass of wine from one corner of a table, washing away the fatigue of the long expedition.
Across from him, Zenovia spoke in a tone laced with admiration.
"You seem to rack up some incredible feat every time you head out. Good work."
"It's better if things resolve smoothly without any feats. Has your hand gotten better?"
"It's been fine for a while now."
Zenovia clenched and unclenched her fist repeatedly to show it was perfectly all right.
She possessed more than enough skill to join the expedition, but unfortunately, all the fingers on one hand had broken during sparring, so she hadn't been included.
In one-on-one combat, Zenovia's skills were considered on par with Palato's or just a notch below, so if she had participated, she likely would have fought in the second duel.
"There were many times I wished Knight Zenovia had been there."
"I wanted to go too. If that brute Weble hadn't charged in like that."
Considering the events of the expedition, it was truly regrettable that Zenovia hadn't joined.
If she had fought and won in the first or second duel, the enemies might have abandoned their plans and fled entirely, or even if ambushed, the knights' numerical superiority could have been secured.
But on the flip side, outnumbered in knights, the enemies might have resorted to even more vicious tactics, making such hypotheticals meaningless in the end.
Arsen tore off a leg from a nearby roast chicken and asked.
"Speaking of which, I don't see Knight Kamin. Did you leave Bellia with him?"
"Yeah. Kamin doesn't like these kinds of events anyway. He always finds an excuse to skip out. Such a shy guy."
Bellia was the name of the daughter born between Kamin and Zenovia.
This rare child of two knights was only three years old but already bore the full expectation of becoming a knight herself.
Though for now, she was just an innocent rascal.
Zenovia plugged her ears with an expression like the surrounding noise was overwhelming.
"I don't hate eating and drinking amid all this racket, but it's just too loud... I think I'll head out a bit early after all. Speaking of which, the young lady didn't come, huh?"
"It'd be awkward for both of them. We're actually planning to meet up at the tower later. Would you like to join?"
"Nah. I'll gratefully decline."
It had been a polite invitation, and he'd expected the refusal, so Arsen felt no disappointment as he offered his wine glass.
The glasses clinked sharply, and they both emptied them.
"This takes me back. Remember your first expedition? You were just a kid then, but now you've grown up."
"I received a lot of help from you back then, Knight Zenovia. I'm truly grateful."
"I even remember you bawling your eyes out when I comforted you."
"You're fabricating the past—things that didn't happen won't come true just because you say so."
Zenovia burst out laughing at Arsen's retort, then teased him a few more times like he was a child, but Arsen countered each one without changing his expression.
After their brief exchange, Zenovia stripped the meat clean off a pork rib bone with her teeth and stood up.
"Then I'll head out first. You enjoy yourself moderately too."
"Understood."
Zenovia waved goodbye and left the banquet hall.
A few nearby knights and squires suggested she stay longer, but she firmly declined and vanished.
After seeing Zenovia off, Arsen surveyed the banquet hall from his seat, occupying an entire table alone.
At the distant head table, the Lord was chatting with older knights like Palato and Ramun Knight, while nearby, his two sons sat separately with their subordinates—or perhaps friends—repeatedly tilting their glasses.
'Tired.'
Arsen didn't enjoy mingling with people he wasn't close to, so these massive gatherings were more exhausting than enjoyable.
If possible, skipping entirely like Kamin would have been preferable, but as a key member of the expedition and one of those with the greatest achievements, attending was the bare minimum to save face for the Lord.
Just as he was about to stand, someone plopped down heavily in Zenovia's vacated seat.
The massive knight was so enormous he seemed to block the entire other side of the table—a trick of the eyes. His name was Weble.
"Hey, little Arsen. Why're you drinking all alone like a pauper? Your big bro here's gotta sit with you."
Arsen had grown quite tall himself by now, but compared to the giant over 250 cm tall, he was still a head shorter, making any protest about not being little pointless.
Of course, by Weble's standards, no one in the territory qualified as anything but little.
Arsen shook his head with a smile.
"I was just about to leave. I have plans to go to Mage Luden's tower."
"Hmm. Mage Luden..."
Weble's face soured instantly at the name.
Matching his huge frame, Weble was brave and reckless, always charging into battle in dangerous ways that ended fights quickly but often wrecked weapons, armor, or Jins.
Naturally, Luden was the one who repaired Weble's messes every time.
Thus, whenever they met, Luden would grab him and lecture endlessly, and Weble—knowing he was at fault—couldn't argue back and avoided him.
A perfect predator-prey relationship.
"Haven't broken anything lately?"
"None at all! Things were so quiet after you all left, it was boring. Lately, the only thing I've broken is..."
"Knight Zenovia's fingers."
"Ah, sparring between knights can lead to that sometimes."
Arsen stifled a chuckle at Weble's childish grumbling, covering his mouth lightly.
"Then I'll get going too, Knight Weble."
"Stick around a bit longer."
"They're waiting for me. See you at the training grounds next time."
"Alright. Let's see how much stronger you got from this expedition!"
After bidding Weble farewell and standing, Arsen stopped a passing servant clearing plates.
"Hey, are food and drinks being sent to the mages' tower too?"
"Pardon? I'm not sure..."
"Check, and if not, have some sent over."
"Understood."
The servant bowed deeply in response.
* * *
"You arrived sooner than expected."
"Welcome!"
Contrary to Arsen's concerns, the administrator had thoughtfully arranged it, and food and drinks were already at the tower.
Luden, Eloise, and the newly joined mage Groom had laid out the food on the first floor and seemed to be enjoying themselves in their own way.
Luden usually cluttered the first floor with all sorts of items, but perhaps in consideration of the new blind mage, everything had been neatly put away somewhere.
"It was too noisy over there. This place suits me best, after all."
"With Eloise and others insisting on living here instead of their perfectly fine homes, it's exhausting."
Luden grumbled, but his expression betrayed no displeasure. Arsen sat down with a silly grin.
Luden snorted once and took the seat across from him.
Having recognized Arsen's voice moments earlier, Groom bowed his head deeply in greeting.
"Has the knight arrived? Thanks to your consideration, the food has been delicious. Truly!"
"Ah... Glad you're enjoying it."
Now quite accustomed to Groom's flattery, Arsen nodded before realizing Groom couldn't see it and responded verbally.
He decided against explaining that he hadn't sent the food himself—it seemed pointless.
Groom was eating a large slab of meat pie.
Pies were likely the most suitable food for him, given his blindness made utensils inconvenient.
Arsen poured wine into an empty glass and asked Luden.
"Will Groom be staying here in the tower like you from now on, sir?"
Luden had received an honorary knighthood directly from the Lord, but Groom was nominally a prisoner captured from the enemy territory.
Different abilities and circumstances meant he couldn't receive the same treatment as Luden just for being a mage.
That said, jailing a cooperative mage would be foolish, so having him live in the tower together was perhaps the most reasonable option.
"That's the plan. It'd be inconvenient for him to live in separate lodgings at the Lord's manor like you or Eloise, and hard to assign attendants."
Arsen briefly wondered if it was safe but dismissed the thought.
It was an overreach to imagine Groom suddenly going mad and attacking a sleeping Luden.
In the middle of the territory—not out in the wild—this tower—Groom wasn't foolish enough not to know the consequences of harming Luden.
Someone so reckless with their life wouldn't have meekly survived as a slave in Atar territory to begin with.
In this situation, offering treatment far beyond what he'd known before, imagining Groom suddenly harboring grudges and attacking Luden was a meaningless assumption.
It was like preemptively slaughtering a tamed mount just because it might buck.
"Well, it's hard to pair a regular person with a mage... and leaving him alone would be inconvenient for walking anyway."
Eloise, overhearing Arsen, waved her hand.
"Oh, right. Sen! I have something to show you. Groom? Stand up for a sec."
"Yes!"
At Eloise's command, Groom immediately set down his pie and rose. It was as swift as a well-trained hunting dog.
What followed left Arsen startled.
Standing and turning around backward, Groom probed ahead with his long staff in one hand, walking steadily if slowly and shakily—perfectly on his own.
It was worlds apart from the limping, dragging gait on the way back, where tendons had severed his legs.
"Did you fix his legs?"
"Yeah. Luden had us cut open the legs, forcibly gathered the tendons, and reattached them. He's been unable to use them properly for so long it's still shaky, but practice should improve it."
"Impressive. Really..."
Arsen clapped sincerely in admiration.
He knew Luden was knowledgeable about the human body, but he'd never imagined he could perform surgery combining healing magic.
Repairing tendons severed and left for over a decade—Arsen wasn't a medical expert, but he could easily guess how difficult that was.
"Did Eloise do the surgery herself?"
"Yep. Luden just helped knock him out so it wouldn't hurt, and I handled the rest."
"I can only offer my deepest gratitude for the young lady and Master Luden's grace."
Groom bowed so low his head nearly touched the floor.
"Master? Did you officially take him as an apprentice, sir?"
"Have to. I still have plenty to teach Eloise, so might as well teach two at once. Plus, I have quite a bit to learn from this fellow too."
Luden nodded and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
They were covered in barely legible scrawl.
"There's info on the enemy Jins you captured, and these folks are used to employing blind mages, so they've got a solid system for non-mages teaching magic. They call it magic scholarship or something. It'll expand my knowledge nicely."
Having acquired new knowledge, Luden seemed quite pleased—almost whistling.
Watching him, Arsen had a sudden question.
"But how do they make Jins and other weapons in Atar? Groom couldn't work like you or Eloise, right?"
"Apparently with regular blacksmiths. They'd heat or melt on demand, while the smiths hammered. Totally mismatched, and terrible for the smiths' mental health. Their products were pretty shoddy when I saw them. The Jin hearts were barely passable. Probably a skilled mage made those."
Groom nodded in agreement with Luden's words.
"Most hearts were made by Bolt. After Bolt died, Hwaro and I managed two, but we often heard our Jins were subpar."
"That's what I heard. We'll disassemble the ones from there, make molds, record them, and test incorporating elements into our territory's Jins. These attempts usually fail, but who knows."
"I'll root for you."
Luden grinned at Arsen's words and raised his glass.
The metal glasses clinked, ringing clearly through the tower.