episode_0009

As I passed the knights guarding the door of the large banquet hall and entered, I was instantly struck by a gaze that made me think my whole body was hot. Of course, it was a very brief moment, and the next moment it was already gone. It was at a speed that made me wonder if I was mistaken.

But just because I don’t feel their gaze doesn’t mean they don’t notice me or don’t care. Maybe it wasn’t some kind of initiation ceremony just now. Those who have been rolling around in this industry for years and decades wouldn’t be blatant enough to make an amateur like me notice, so maybe this is also part of the custom.

Well, in reality, whatever it is, my job doesn’t change. I slowly headed to the corner of the banquet hall with Yugram and the escort knight. Since I’m a hot potato right now anyway, there’s no need to bother me in a crowded place, and it would be better to wait my turn slowly on the outskirts.

When I think of a banquet, my image is of people standing, walking around, chatting with people they know, dancing, and such, but there were chairs placed at each table as usual. To be honest, I’ve never been to a party before, so I don’t know if this is normal or not, but first, Amais pulled out a chair for me, so I sat down on it and started observing the banquet hall.

The inside of the banquet hall is truly noble! Royal! Elegant! The ceiling is so high that you wonder how many floors it is, and it is not only high, but also covered with gorgeous and beautiful work, so you won’t get bored even if you just look at the ceiling all day long. The soft feel of the high-quality carpet under your feet, the faint sound of the orchestra playing. Various simple foods and drinks placed on each table. And even the many servants waiting.

If you look around at the attendees, you can see that the young people are with the young people, and the middle-aged people who look a little older are gathered together and talking actively about something. Since it’s been a while since they’ve been together, it’s definitely not light-hearted talk like, “Have you eaten yet?”

It was an unwritten rule in Karsten’s culture not to talk about work-related topics during mealtimes, but it didn’t seem to apply to banquets. Well, if you ask if a banquet is a meal, it doesn’t seem to be. However, banquets do have their own rules, so I had to memorize them all.

In an instant, a loud, irritating sound of “Beep- …

The one facing the knights on guard was a middle-aged man. He had a huge scar across his left eye, a stylishly grown beard, and the figure that was visible above his banquet uniform made it clear at a glance that he was a soldier or a knight. As he took a step back from the entrance of the banquet hall, the alarm stopped, and as he passed through the entrance with his right arm stretched out behind him, the alarm did not sound, but as soon as his right arm passed through the entrance, the alarm sounded again.

As soon as a woman who had confirmed this approached and said something, the alarm sound disappeared, Amais and Yugram also put away their swords, and the tension in the banquet hall disappeared. I wondered whether that woman was a magician or not, but now I was more curious about the identity of that man. When I looked at Yugram, he spoke slowly in a small voice as if he had read my thoughts.

“Gavinas Purcell. Now retired, but still a powerful general in the military. That right arm is a prosthetic arm made with magic, so it reacts to the magic in the banquet hall.”

“Prosthetics? Can magic engineering do something like that?”

“If you ignore the cost, it is possible. His prosthetic arm was specially given to him by the king in recognition of his bravery, so it would be worth about a small territory, to put it bluntly.”

No matter how much money it cost, it is amazing that this world’s technology can create a prosthetic arm that looks no different from a normal arm at first glance. I wonder how much merit must have been accumulated to receive such an award, and Amais glanced at him from the corner of his eye, trying hard to hide it, but his expression was overflowing with pride.

Since they are from the same family, they would respect and be proud of each other. In this world, receiving a special award from the king is the highest honor for a noble. In the previous world, it would be like being a soldier who received the highest level of decoration directly from the president.

Magic Engineering. I heard about it in class with Yugram, and I learned basic concepts and examples. There was even a time when I just stared blankly at a faucet that was just hanging in the bathroom. Even in a world where there is magic, there are things that seem to have popped out of nowhere, far from the overall cultural level or technological development. Whenever I see something like that, I have a reasonable suspicion that there might be people like me who have vague memories of their past lives.

If we were to say, ‘a device that can easily control water,’ I think it’s a concept that any culture would think about at least once. However, when it becomes a concrete object called a ‘faucet,’ it feels incredibly uncomfortable.

I don’t remember the exact structure or principle, but I think the concept of the water supply was to connect a passage to a place where water was collected or stored somewhere and bring it in. So if you manipulate something to control the force of drawing water, the water comes out strong or weak.

There is no such prerequisite as long as there is magic here. According to the principle that I asked Yugram once, if you continuously charge magic power to an object that has a magic that creates water, the water will be supplied automatically.

In other words, the principle of that object is that it can produce water anytime and anywhere as long as you have magic power. It can be made like a normal well, or it can even make water come out of thin air.

But why does it have to be a sculpture that reminds me of the faucet in my past life? There are more than one or two other absurd parts. It would be a reasonable inference that other than me, a transfer or a past life existed somewhere on this continent and could still exist now.

To be honest, if I say I’m not interested, I’m lying. I wonder how other reincarnated people are living, whether they have empty memories here and there, whether they really lived in the same world as me or whether they came from another place, etc. Of course, I’m just curious, and I have no intention of actively seeking them out and interacting with them. I know what’s going to happen…

Since I was sitting at the table, I couldn’t see my surroundings very well, so I got up from my seat and moved to the corner of the banquet hall to continue observing, but as expected, the peaceful banquet continued without any incident. After all, it was a banquet where only high-ranking people who had some power in the country gathered, so it was even more strange that something happened.

‘But I wanted to see a development where the crown prince was blinded by the heroine and deliberately poured wine on her dress, or suddenly challenged her to a duel in front of a crowd of people.’

You may hear people say that it’s because it’s a novel, but in reality, ridiculous and absurd things happen often, just like in a novel, so isn’t it not completely impossible? It’s just that our political world is competent in filtering out people who would do such things.

As I was absentmindedly watching people come and go, the atmosphere of the banquet hall suddenly changed. It wasn’t noisy, but I could tell that many people were talking. The voices that I could hear suddenly disappeared and became quiet, and the music that I could hear faintly stopped. I looked around to see what was happening, but because I’m short, I couldn’t see beyond the people at all.

“That’s because the King entered.”

Amais noticed and leaned down to whisper. Now that I think about it, there was something like that in the order of events. I was the only one who couldn’t see it because I’m short, but it seems like everyone realized the king’s position and became quiet.

“Thank you for being here, the 10 families that support this country. I am very proud that with your blood and sacrifice, you have driven out the Sashin religion and that this banquet can be held once again.”

The most surprising thing when learning about the common sense of this world was these 10 families. It is said that there are only 10 noble families in any country. At first, I was very curious as to whether this made sense, whether the country could run, and why no country changed this system, and in fact, that curiosity has not been resolved yet. Yugram also mumbled and did not give me a proper reason.

In fact, the families subordinate to these ten families are also commoners in legal title, but in reality, they are treated no differently than nobles, so there is no such thing as a few dozen people deciding and taking charge of all the big and small matters of this huge kingdom. It is a bit questionable why Yugram does not tell us the reason for this seemingly inefficient and meaningless system.

By the way, my father’s voice while he was speaking as the king was really cool. It was similar to the voice I usually heard during dinner, but it felt much more serious and charismatic. It was an atmosphere that made me naturally accept that he was the king of a country, so I just stood there blankly listening to my father’s speech.