Chapter 37: Accusations
Normally, the time I spent waiting around doing mostly nothing other than casual meditating, would've been rather boring. However, my mind was fixated on what Nathan had said.
Either some kind of weird double of him was running around, or something was playing around with his memories.
Regardless, as we had concluded before, there just wasn't enough information. The only real thing I could do was start to pay attention to my own surroundings a little more from this point on.
Well, that was easy to say, but since I planned on meditating most of the time it was going to be hard to. After all, one of the main things about meditating was focusing intently and blocking out the rest of the world.
Nonetheless, it did not take too long before a servant came up to me and informed me that the ball would be happening soon. A few people worked to change my clothes and do weird things like applying what looked like rudimentary makeup onto my face.
Though, most importantly, the head chef had finished working on preparing several servings of meat from the pig carcass from earlier.
Apparently, almost all the nobles would be there, so there was definitely not enough for everyone, but it was still a decent amount. The head chef was so proud, that he offered to personally help carry it around with me and hand it out.
A few others also volunteered to support him.
With that in mind, I got in the carriage along with Jess and we began heading off. As the carriage started moving, Jess asked me.
"What were all those guys bringing along?"
I scratched the side of my head.
"Um, well because of certain things some people found a special way to handle meat, and the cooks were quite excited and wanted to show it off."
That wasn't exactly true, but it was at least right enough to be passed off as correct.
Jess seemed a bit curious, but lost interest shortly after. We then proceeded to spend the majority of the carriage ride in silence. I imagined it would take a while to get there, and it indeed did.
At some point, Jess suddenly spoke up, bringing my attention to her.
"Stay close to me. I don't want you to get lost."
I blinked a few times.
Was this an appropriate time to say, 'You aren't my mom'?
Well, I couldn't put it in too blunt of a way.
"What if there are people I wish to talk to by myself?"
Jess looked at me strangely.
"Since when have you talked to anyone at any of these events? We're just going to go back the moment it's not considered disrespectful like always."
I scratched the side of my head awkwardly. It turns out that Bryson was not a party person, which was fair enough. I wasn't much of one either, but I was still going there with the objective of making it known that a guy that could prepare meat in a different way.
That way, he should be able to get a decent amount of people to ask him to drain meat. And in that way, he should be able to increase his powers or store up on it, or however blood magic was supposed to work.
I tapped my chin a few times.
"After giving away the different meat and telling them about it, then I think I'll be ready to go back."
Jess gave a small nod and didn't say anything else.
When we finally ended up making it to the said event, we had to work our way around quite a lot of traffic. There were quite a number of carriages around the place. The one I was on was closer to the center, my guess was that we either arrived early or that was because dukes got special treatment.
I opened the door, but the moment I did, James, the head butler, frowned at me and shooed, quickly closing it. While I was confused, it didn't remain that way for too long.
A rather loud and booming voice echoed, amplified like the person in question was using a megaphone.
"The dukes and their servants are now permitted to step forth!"
From there, the carriage door opened and James motioned for us to get out. Jess took the lead, and with me right behind her, we walked over to the palace. I suppose this was to be expected, but my first impression of this place was that it was absolutely huge.
Raisa's place was also big, but this one was simply on a different level.
It stood tall, like the palaces people would talk about in legends. It covered a rather expansive area, and from the angle I was from, I could tell that the ceiling was way too damn high.
It wasn't as though a skyscraper could fit in this place or anything, but the manor that I was in probably didn't reach as high as this ceiling.
Walking in, I saw many seats at the very back of the room. There were three large main seats, where the three archdukes sat. Douglas, the one hosting this party, had a very confident smile on his face as he watched everyone file in. By the way, Douglas was the family name.
Honestly, I had forgotten his actual name. I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in the game somewhere though.
At a slightly less elevated position were the people related to the three archdukes. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw Raisa in one of those seats. There were also more seats in less elevated positions, supposedly for those lower in standing.
There were also several sets of long tables, each with many different kinds of foods on top of them. They definitely looked quite nice, but I felt like more than making the food taste good, more effort was put into making it presentable.
I didn't focus on that though.
From there, everyone bowed, which I was slightly late on because I didn't expect that.
After that, Jess began walking forth so I simply followed behind. The other dukes and us all went in separate single-file lines and then filled up the seats underneath the archdukes'.
By the way, we had an awkward empty seat next to us because our parents weren't here.
I noticed someone tapping on my shoulder and when I turned around to look, I saw Raisa happily waving to me with a rather bright smile on her face. Other than waving back, I didn't do anything. It looked like it wasn't the proper time to talk.
From there, the same routine repeated itself for each of the ranks below a duke.
Honestly, it made me feel like I was on stage or something, except there was no real audience. It also took a hell of a long time. Honestly, how do nobles have the patience for these kinds of things?
At the very least I could spend this time meditating if nothing else.
When everyone was finally seated, Douglas stood up and gave a speech about... something. It was filled with words that you'd expect from a cocky noble. Many of them were big, and a lot of them referred to pride and whatnot. He also implied that he was better than everyone here with a few remarks, but didn't say anything openly.
Finally, it seemed like we were allowed to leave our seats and have something to eat.
As I was walking over to the tables, Raisa immediately appeared next to me and waved.
"Hi, Bryson!"
I couldn't help but notice a lot of people were looking in our direction when she said that, making me feel a little strange. Regardless, I waved back with a smile.
"Hey, Raisa."
Jess looked over at Raisa with a stern expression.
"...What do you want from my brother, your highness?"
Raisa looked rather taken aback, looking at Jess strangely.
"I was just talking to him. Is that such a big deal?"
Jess looked somewhat nervous. I guess Raisa was an archduke after all.
"F-Fine. Please treat the Arden Family properly."
Oh, my last name is Arden then? Huh, good to know. Raisa clicked her tongue and grabbed onto my hand.
"That's natural! After all, we are friends!"
Jess looked at me like she thought I was a hostage of some sort. From her gaze, I was getting the words, 'if someone has a gun pointed at you, blink twice'. A bitter smile formed on my face.
"Um, it's a bit complicated but I don't think she has any harmful intentions."
Raisa puffed up her cheeks.
"Why would I have harmful intentions!?"
She seemed to be annoyed by how she was perceived, but I simply coughed roughly.
"Of course not, of course not..."
Raisa let out a huff before suddenly smiling at me again, without a sign of any of her previous frustrations.
"Come on! I'll show you which of these cuisines are the best!"
When she said that, it made me suddenly remember I still had to show off the special meat for Edward. I gave her a small wave, indicating for her to slow down a little.
"Hold on, before that, I actually brought along something I'd like you to try!"
Raisa's eyes widened slightly in surprise and delight.
"Ah, you made something just for me?"
My eyelid twitched. Did you really have to say it like that?
"Er, no. Not exactly, but there's a special way to prepare meat I found out about and wanted to show it to some people so they could experience it as well."
Raisa looked a bit disappointed, but was now overtaken by curiosity.
"Oh my, what is it?"
As though on cue, the head chef took a step forth and opened up a metal cover to reveal a couple of steaks overtop of each other. Though, while there was a confident expression on his face, Raisa didn't look too excited about it.
While they were definitely generously seasoned, the paleness of the meat was understandably concerning.
Still, Raisa hardly hesitated despite being visibly a bit scared of it.
I couldn't help but notice her mother and father were both looking at me intently at this point. It seemed they didn't feel too strongly about me chatting with her, but when I offered this meat, they seemed a little angry.
While she got a plate and fork, her father suddenly stepped forth and shouted at me.
"How bold! Are you trying to poison the only child of the Darcy family?"
There was already a decent amount of attention on me because of Raisa talking to me, but now that her dad got into the picture, practically everyone was paying attention. Some were scared, but there were more mocking expressions on their faces.
Most notable was Douglas, an archduke himself.
I couldn't help but feel this was a bit warranted. But while the Darcy family was the weakest of archdukes, he was an archduke nonetheless.
There was an invisible pressure set on me, but I raised my hand casually through it all and spoke evenly.
"If you believe it is poisoned, then I can try it first."
The head of the Darcy family stared me down, and I stared right back at him dead in the eye. He looked a little surprised that I wasn't scared, but before things could escalate any further, Raisa had come back in a fury.
"Father! Stay out of this! Since when did you think everything involved you? This is between me and him! Even if the food is poisoned, I'm eating it!"
I felt that was going a bit too far, but at least she was defending me. As for her father, he was temporarily shocked speechless but quickly regained himself.
"Nonsense! If this involves you, then naturally, I, your father am also involved! Unless he eats one first, then you are not going to eat it!"
They were making a rather big deal of this, weren't they?
Through it all though, the head chef was still standing confidently, seemingly more confident than even me right now. Raisa looked visibly upset by her father's commands but ended up handing the plate and cutlery to me.
She whispered and winked at me.
"Sorry! I swear my father isn't a representation of me!"
I then casually took one of the meat, cut it, then shoved it into my mouth. Though, right when I did so, my eyes widened.
...Shit, why does this actually taste so good?
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