Chapter 64: Everyone Saw Too Much

Chapter 64. Everyone Saw Too Much

The doors opened, and somehow my second entrance into the banquet hall felt considerably more dramatic than the first.

I stepped inside.

Heads turned.

Not everyone looked at me, but enough people did that the movement traveled across the hall like a wave. Nobles paused halfway through conversations. Several knights glanced over their shoulders. A merchant holding a wineglass stopped with it halfway to his mouth.

After what happened in the hunting ground, this was expected.

It didn’t make me nervous. I’d spent enough of my previous life presenting controversial research before rooms filled with academics who desperately wanted to prove me wrong. Compared to that, a few hundred nobles staring at me was practically relaxing.

I kept walking.

My eyes swept calmly across the nearest group.

They immediately looked away.

One noble became intensely interested in his wine.

Another resumed talking to his companion with suspicious enthusiasm.

A woman suddenly found the embroidery on her sleeve fascinating.

Rude.

I didn’t bite.

Usually.

Apparently, my face had returned to its natural state.

No more tragic protagonist staring through windows.

Still, something was strange.

Whenever I passed a group, I could feel their attention returning to me from behind. The deeper I went into the crowded hall, the more obvious it became. People watched me when they thought I wasn’t looking, then immediately pretended otherwise whenever I turned my head.

What the hell?

I’d already proven I wasn’t crazy, hadn’t I?

Technically, I’d laughed while turning monsters into experimental servants and manipulated three heroes into nearly killing one another.

But they didn’t see that.

"Rey!"

I immediately recognized that voice.

Lily waved enthusiastically from across the hall, completely unconcerned with noble etiquette.

More importantly, she was carrying a plate.

A plate containing food.

My beautiful, wonderful wife carrying beautiful, wonderful food.

Ariel stood beside her with two drinks, which presumably meant one belonged to me.

I smiled.

Several nearby guests stared harder.

Okay.

Seriously.

What the hell was wrong with these people?

I reached my wives and held out my hand toward Lily’s plate. "Thank you."

She pulled it away.

I blinked.

Lily picked up a piece of roasted meat with a small fork and lifted it toward my face. "Open your mouth."

I stared at her. That felt excessive.

Then my stomach reminded me that pride contained very few calories.

I opened my mouth.

Lily fed me.

Marriage had benefits.

Ariel handed me one of the drinks immediately afterward. "Here."

I took it. "Thank you."

Nia and Liora joined us a moment later, carrying a small collection of pastries between them.

Nia’s fox ears were already angled toward me. "What did the king say?"

"Not much." I took another bite from Lily’s fork. "He asked about my condition and gave me the rewards."

Technically true.

The other part of our conversation could wait until we returned home.

The banquet hall had too many ears.

Some of those ears were even literal animal ears.

Mentioning that King Aldric intended to give me royal missions, secret Grim Reaper assignments, and permission to develop my own private forces in the middle of a crowded banquet would qualify as advanced stupidity.

I wasn’t that hungry.

I glanced around our little group. "Where’s Seris?"

Liora leaned slightly closer. "She said she wanted to check something."

I frowned. "Something?"

Liora met my eyes, then subtly tilted her head toward the other side of the hall.

I followed the directions.

Elia had returned.

She stood among several representatives of the Light Temple, looking perfectly composed again.

I understood.

Seris wasn’t merely wandering around.

She was investigating.

"What about the others?" I asked.

I took a sip of my drink.

Lily immediately offered me another bite.

I accepted it.

This arrangement was becoming dangerously comfortable.

"Nia and I tried to find out more," Liora said, keeping her voice low, "but there are too many guards around them. Whatever is happening isn’t a normal medical check."

Interesting.

"Before you returned from the hunting ground," she continued, "some guests were already saying you might not make it back alive." Liora’s expression remained composed. "Others think what happened inside the hunting ground wasn’t as simple as Darius claimed."

Darius’s excuse had been terrible.

Ariel moved closer. "We heard something else before you arrived."

I glanced at her.

"Some nobles are worried about your former comrades’ power."

Oh?

"They were talking about what could happen if their influence keeps growing unchecked," Ariel continued. "Especially after Garr used that ultimate skill."

A slow smile touched my mouth.

Exactly as expected.

This wasn’t complicated politics.

It was basic survival instinct.

You did not flex overwhelming power in front of the person governing the land where you lived.

Ancient era.

Modern era.

Different clothing, same rule.

If your personal influence became large enough to rival the Crown, you stopped looking like an asset and started looking like a potential problem.

I took another drink.

Then noticed something.

Nia was suspiciously quiet.

Her face remained composed.

Her tail did not.

It swayed behind her with increasingly obvious impatience.

Left. Right. Left. Right.

Her ears twitched.

I turned toward her. "Do you want to know about the ores?"

Her head snapped toward me.

She nodded immediately. Fast.

I almost laughed. "I got them."

Her eyes brightened. "All of them?"

"All of them."

Nia immediately threw her arms around me. "I love you, Rey!"

Her body pressed warmly against mine, fluffy tail swishing behind her as though she’d personally won the kingdom’s treasury.

I caught her around the waist before she could knock my drink over. "Yes, yes. Apparently my greatest romantic quality is acquiring rare mineral resources."

She grinned at me. "It’s one of them."

At least she was honest.

Several people turned toward us. Again.

I frowned over her shoulder.

That strange staring again.

Except now that I examined it properly, it wasn’t hostility.

No disgust or obvious fear either.

More like...

Interest.

Curiosity.

I released Nia enough for her feet to settle properly. "Do you know what’s happening with all those stares?"

Nia followed my gaze.

Her ears perked.

She studied one group, then another.

Something changed in her expression.

Her eyes sharpened.

Then she looked at Liora.

Liora looked back.

No words.

Just one of those terrifying silent communications women apparently developed after living together long enough.

"What?"

Nia’s smile widened. "Don’t worry. We’ll handle this."

That sentence had never made anyone less worried.

Liora calmly handed the pastry plate to me.

Then both women walked away.

I watched them approach one of the noble groups that had been staring.

Nia’s entire demeanor changed before she even reached them.

Her smile became elegant.

Her posture shifted.

Her tail settled.

Merchant princess mode activated.

Liora walked beside her with the composed expression of someone who could calculate your family’s net worth before you finished introducing yourself.

I looked down at the plate they’d abandoned in my hands. "Is this about business?"

Ariel followed them with her eyes. "Seems so."

I’d somehow become a business opportunity without being informed.

Lily picked up another piece of meat and held it toward me.

I already had the plate.

She still insisted on feeding me.

I opened my mouth anyway.

Resistance was inefficient.

"The queen invited us to look around the palace garden after the banquet," Lily said cheerfully.

My ears practically perked.

Garden?

Now that was interesting.

Royal gardens weren’t ordinary gardens.

There could be rare medicinal plants.

Ancient herbs.

Mana-sensitive flowers.

Perhaps species that were extinct in my era.

Maybe even....

"She said the flowers are especially beautiful this season," Ariel added.

My excitement died instantly.

Just flowers.

Lily giggled at my expression. "It’s only for the girls. The queen only invited the women."

Heh. Even better.

"Then have fun."

I immediately lost interest.

No rare herbs, no medicinal plants, no ancient ingredients to examine? Then this matter had absolutely nothing to do with me. They could admire roses, lilies, tulips, or whatever colorful reproductive organs plants decided to show off.

I had food.

That was considerably more important.

Then the atmosphere near the banquet hall entrance suddenly shifted.

Conversations weakened.

Several heads turned.

I noticed immediately.

The enormous doors opened once again.

Three familiar figures entered.

Darius.

Raven.

Garr.

They had changed into clean clothes, and whatever injuries could be quickly treated had been dealt with, but even from across the hall, none of them looked particularly pleased.

Especially Garr.