Maxi was strolling down the hallway while looking out the windows when an excited voice approached her.
"It looks like you're ready, my lady.
I was on my way to escort you to the dining room."
She turned to see Rodrigo, elegantly dressed, swinging his slender legs as he hurried towards her.
"The knights have arrived.
Let us hurry, my lady.
Lord Calypse is waiting."
Maxi followed him down the stairs.
When they reached the entrance to the dining hall, she heard excited voices coming from inside.
She peeked in without entering.
Under the twinkling lights, fifty men were crammed onto both sides of a long dining table, and female servants waited for them.
The table was filled with succulent roasts, breads, glasses of wine and ripe fruits.
Golden flames crackled in the fireplace.
Maxi hesitated, unsure whether her presence was appropriate at a knights' banquet.
“Is everything okay, my lady?” Rodrigo asked with a hesitant expression.
When Maxi summoned the courage to enter, silence fell over the room.
Dozens of gazes turned to her.
Riftan called.
“Come here, Maxi.”
She snapped out of her daze and walked to the seat next to him.
Servants promptly placed small portions of food on his plate.
"Some of you have not yet been introduced.
This is my wife, Lady Maximilian Calypse."
She anxiously scanned the knights' faces.
They displayed ambiguous expressions, neither friendly nor hostile.
“I trust they will treat her with the respect she deserves,” Riftan said, a warning tone in his voice.
Only then did the men begin to half-heartedly extend their greetings.
Maxi murmured his thanks in response.
After the exchange, the knights resumed their meal as Maxi stared at his food.
Riftan filled his goblet with wine.
"Why aren't you eating?
Is the food not to your taste?"
“N-No, it’s d-delicious.”
“Then eat.”
He picked up a piece of chicken with his hands and took a bite.
His table manners were no different from those he had when eating at a makeshift camp.
Riftan finished the generous portion of chicken in no time and grabbed another piece.
After swallowing the wine like water, he urged her to eat with a sharp look.
She gaped at his insatiable hunger.
He always pressures me to eat...
She cut off a steaming piece of smoked meat and put it in her mouth.
Then he served vegetables to balance the fatty meat and sweet seasoning.
Despite the anxiety, the food was delicious.
The chef at Calypse Castle was clearly much more skilled than the one at Croyso Castle.
Riftan, who was watching her eat, deposited more food on her plate.
"Try this.
It's good."
She took a bite.
Marinated in a red sauce, the meat tasted wild but not inedible.
With half-closed eyes, she looked at the dishes on the table.
Most were piled high with meat of unknown origin.
As soon as he finished his plate of food, Riftan handed her a bird stuffed with beans and potatoes.
“Here, eat this too.”
“I c-can’t eat t-all of this.”
"You barely ate!
Come on, just a little more."
Maxi grimaced.
She had forced herself to eat everything Riftan had given her, and now she was feeling sick.
Unable to bear another bite of the greasy feast, she set down her fork.
Riftan frowned.
“Even sparrows eat more than you.”
"T-That's not t-true.
I c-ate m-a lot..."
Riftan grumbled.
A pile of clean bones sat on his plate.
Even among knights, he seemed to have an exceptional appetite.
Really, she ate like a bird in comparison.
“H-How much is enough?”
Maxi sighed.
Riftan looked at her with his mouth full.
He swallowed his food before responding, quite directly.
“You should eat a whole chicken at least.”
“I-I don’t think… most women c-can eat that much…”
“I know a woman who did it.”
Maxi grimaced.
Who was the woman he was referring to?
Did he like women with big appetites?
Most men wanted healthy children from healthy wives.
She looked at her thin body.
Squinting her eyes, she shoved more food into her mouth, earning a smile from Riftan.
"Try to eat more and more every day.
You are very fragile."She nodded with a piece of bread in her mouth.
Riftan began drinking with the older knight sitting next to him.
Taking a sip of wine, she studied their faces.
There were new faces in the room that she didn't recognize from her trip.
The center of the table was occupied by younger knights drinking and laughing loudly, while at the end were the young men who had seen no more than sixteen summers.
At the head of the table, two knights in their forties or fifties offered glass after glass of wine to Riftan.
Maxi continued to drink her wine, intrigued by their conversation.
The training progress of the squires, the year's crop yields and the production of the mines, increased sightings of certain monsters, the effectiveness of various weapons… She never had the chance to learn about these matters.
Riftan was engrossed in conversation with the more experienced knights when the youngest of the knights-in-training rose abruptly from his seat.
"Lord Riftan!
Is it true that in the final battle in the Lexos Mountains, you cut the Dragon's Breath with your sword aura?"
Everyone stopped talking to look at the young man.
Undeterred by the looks of the more experienced knights, the silver-haired squire continued to chat animatedly.
"They say the flames of Dragon's Breath can tear off the tops of mountains!
It's the most powerful magic in the natural world.
How did you manage to cut through that with a sword?"
“My sword aura happens to be special,” replied Riftan, clearly irritated.
“Our captain’s sword can absorb any magic it encounters,” interjected a knight who was filling a large mug with beer.
“The stronger the opponent’s magic, the stronger his sword becomes.”
Maxi recognized the speaker as Hebaron Nirtha, one of the knights who had traveled with them to Anatol.
"Well, even without such unique attributes, our captain is an excellent swordsman!
He put that pretentious commander of the Knights of the Temple of Osyria in his place!"
“He is the commander, not captain” Ursuline Ricaydo, the blonde knight, pointed out.
“When are you going to correct these mercenary habits of yours?”
Hebaron grumbled loudly.
"Captain, commander, it's all the same to me!
Don't lecture me about useless distinctions."
The silver-haired youth, who had been watching the argument, began to shout with renewed enthusiasm.
"So is it true that Sir Riftan dueled Sir Kuahel Leon of the Knights of the Temple?
Why haven't we heard this wonderful story before?"
“This was no time to brag about the two greatest knights dueling each other,” Ricaydo said brusquely.
"The Dragon Campaign was before us.
The campaign high command silenced rumors of the duel, fearing that Sir Kuahel's defeat would demoralize the Temple Knights in the alliance.
One duel could always lead to another between hot-blooded knights.
We were there to hunt a dragon, not to fight in a tournament."
"B-Still, it was a duel between the two strongest knights on the continent!
It's a shame no one has heard of it.
It must have been a duel to outshine all other duels!"
“Killing the dragon was more than enough,” Riftan said dryly.
"I don't need any more feats to my name.
And it wasn't an official duel.
We were preparing for the Dragon Campaign, so neither of us showed our true abilities.
As for the dragon, my contribution was greater than his only because of my sword's ability to absorb magic, not because of my swordsmanship."
“It’s not your style to be so modest,” joked a young knight who was munching on an apple by the fireplace.
"A victory is a victory.
You two agreed to duel under limited conditions, and you won fair and square."
The eager eyes of the squires were fixed on the speaker.
"Sir Gabel!
Please tell us more about the duel!"
Gabel Lachzion shrugged.
“Would you rather hear about this instead of the campaign?”
"No!
You need to tell us about the dragon too!"
The knight laughed at the young people's excitement.
Maxi, too, was listening intently.
She had heard the bards sing at her father's banquets about the heroic deeds of knights, but she had never heard the stories straight from a knight's mouth.Gabel took a sip of golden ale to quench his thirst before recounting the first days of the campaign, beginning with a vivid account of a battle against ogres and trolls.
By the time her report reached the fight against three basilisks in the valley leading to the Lexos Mountains, Maxi was as fascinated as the bright-eyed squires.
The monsters she had personally encountered were frightening, but she was captivated by the creatures in Gabel's eloquent narrative.
As she silently admired his talent for storytelling, she felt something touch her neck.