So what are banquets like in this neighborhood? Do you like, dance around in circles? That’s what I saw in the movies back in my place. Or is it different, since it’s a completely new place?”

Both Isaac and Rivelia were unaccustomed to banquets filled with smiles, chats, drinks, and dances. Isaac never had anyone to invite him, while Rivelia prioritised her swordsmanship over the countless invitations she had received in the past.

“…”

“Hm? You don’t know?”

“I’ve never had any interest in banquets.”

Rivelia, still mad about before, replied in a cold tone without even looking back.

“But you should still know the basics of dancing right?”

“I don’t.”

“What a boring life you have.”

Rivelia finally exploded, and Isaac quickly escaped her room.

Even so, one needed to be properly dressed when attending a noble’s banquet. But the two didn’t bring clothes fit for a banquet, considering that they’d come here on official business. That was when the branches of the Seven Grand Merchant Guilds doing business inside Wolfgang’s lands approached the troubled two and solved the issue.

It was unknown when they’d received word, but the guilds showcased hundreds of dresses designed specifically for occasions like this. The designer was greatly disappointed when Rivelia coldly rejected all of his recommendations, opting for a knight’s ceremonial uniform.

“So you chose that in the end?”

Isaac dashed his lips in disappointment and scanned Rivelia from top to bottom. Rivelia shivered and sent a sharp glare at Isaac, who in turn shrugged and averted his eyes elsewhere.

The banquet didn’t have the atmosphere Isaac expected, where nobles gathered and talked with a smile as people danced to music in the background. The entire banquet was filled with hairy men, with not a single woman in sight.

“It is an honour to see you. I am Rhineland.”

“Nice to meet you. It is an honour to meet Sir Rhineland, who has risen in fame as ‘The Flash.’”

“Oh! You know of my name!”

“Ahem! My name is Pount.”

“Ah! The Knight of Destruction. Greetings!”

It was disgusting to see two middle aged men, one skinny and the other the size of a mountain, squirm their bodies because a girl around the same age as their daughters acknowledged them. But nobody else minded; they just wanted to get just a single word in with Rivelia.

Rivelia would have coldly cut them off if they were trying to make moves on her through whatever means, but the group only showed sincere respect and camaraderie to a fellow swordsman. She had no choice but to respond kindly to them, and when the greetings were over, a heated debate about swordsmanship was opened.

As fellow knights on the path to swordsmanship, they were eager to receive advice from Rivelia, who was by far ahead of them. The magic knights couldn’t join in the conversation, but they stayed around to sneak just a couple more glimpses at the famous Rivelia.

While everyone’s attention was on Rivelia, Isaac dragged a chair to the corner of the room and sipped his wine alone, wondering if he was looking at a banquet or a lecture on swordsmanship.

Rivelia gave brief and formal replies at first, but she soon got invested in the debate and continued it with a keen interest. Isaac clicked his tongue when the debate progressed to a sophisticated theory regarding the pros and cons of using a weapon that did not adhere to a typical body-to-weapon size ratio.

“Still so much to learn.”

To be completely invested in a debate without thinking about identifying or at the very least be on guard against those suspected to be turncoats.

“Hm?”

Isaac continued to sip alone in perfect isolation, when he felt a familiar tugging on his feet. He looked down to see eye to eye with a girl he’d never seen before.

The cute child with chubby cheeks and sparkling eyes smiled brightly when their eyes met and put her finger on her mouth as she said ‘shh!’. She then crawled under the chair.

“…”

While Isaac contemplated on how to react, a taller girl who seemed to be her elder sibling appeared with light footsteps.

“Found you! Now Julia is it!”

“Hinh!”

It seemed the two were playing a game of tag. The new girl tapped Julia’s butt and ran away, and Julia crawled out of the chair to chase her sister, circling the banquet. Isaac muttered as he watched the two children scream with joy, holding on the skirt of their well decorated dresses as they ran about.

“As usual, the children are so energetic.”

“Kya!”

“Hueeeng!”

“Uaaang!”

The two chasing each other ran into Rivelia from behind. There was no way Rivelia would even budge at being hit by children, so the older girl was thrown onto the ground. She cried out of surprise, and Julia began crying with her.

“Oh dear. Lailia, Julia, you should have been careful.”

Rivelia was stumped watching the two children cry in front of her, but Count Wolfgang soon appeared and picked up his two children. The two seemed to calm down in their father’s arms as they dug themselves deeper into his chest with a sob.

“I’m so sorry about this.”

“Don’t be. It seems the children were quite surprised.”

“Hahaha. It’s nothing. They are quite the energetic children.”

While Rivelia accepted Count Wolfgang’s apologies, the knights took the mo