Chapter 366: Invitation

Although some things happened, the banquet ended peacefully and all the attendees were separated into groups-those who were staying at Randall’s place, those who were staying at the city’s hotel and those who returned.

As for Jin and Saki, they were to stay at Randall’s place tonight.

Now that the attendees were gone and serenity had returned to the Randall house, Reinhart and Belche went around looking at the congratulatory gifts they received.

“This is from Matheus, huh?”

Reinhart muttered, looking at the mythril short sword. It’s a present for Belche.

“And this is from Ms. Karen, right?”

A solid office table and chair with wonderful ornaments attached. It would perfectly fit into a land lord’s room.

“This is…… from Jin, right?”

A firmly made bed and pure white Japanese-style mattress. He remembered that feel. The mattress was made from magi silk. He wasn’t aware of anyone who could make such a thing other than Jin.

“Master Reinhart, this mattress, it feels wonderful!”

It seems Belche also fell in love with it at once.

“Bell, we are already married, so… you know… do you want to try and change the way we call each other?”

“Eh? ……Ah, yes…… that’s right, ‘dear’…”

“Yes, you… I will actually go with Bell.”

“Yes, I also like it when you call me Bell.”

It was such a scene which would make his heartburn if someone saw it.

And then they reached the mascot doll.

“Wah, such an adorable mascot! Dear, look! This mascot’s arms and legs also move!”

“Let’s see, let’s see…… Hoho, this is amazing! The structure is similar to an automata!”

As expected of Reinhart, it seems he has seen through the mechanism of the mascot doll Elsa built.

“Hmm, there aren’t many people who can make such elaborate doll… But I don’t know anyone who makes it in this style… No, it resembles Jin’s a little but… it isn’t Jin…”

Having seen countless products made by Jin, Reinhart came to the conclusion that while the doll certainly resembles Jin’s style, it’s outline is different.

(Can it be? No…)

Someone who’s close to Jin, can use engineering magic and would send Reinhart a gift. There’s only one person he could think of. However, he couldn’t quite believe that that person was this skilled.

(Even if I assume that she has started learning, can one really create something like this in just a month and a half…?)

It was so elaborate that Reinhart wasn’t sure if he himself could make it or not. That cousin of his, whom he thought of like his own little sister.

(Well, I can find out if I ask Jin.)

Telling himself that, Reinhart moved on to the next gift.

Belche realized Reinhart was thinking about something and so she let him be and went on to look at the other gifts.

“Dear, this jewel box is from Ms. Saki.”

She said happily, holding it up, as Reinhart came closer.

In another room, Jin and Saki were having a conversation, looking all exhausted. Saki had taken off her glasses. If you’re not used to it, your eyes can get tired having it on all the time.

“Ahh, it’s over……”

“It’s over, huh?”

“I came because it was Reinhart’s marriage ceremony but I wouldn’t like coming to something like this frequently.”

“Kufufu, it seems you’re not good with things like this, huh?”

In response to Saki’s banter, Jin asked “Well, do you like them, then?”.

“I don’t really like them either.”

To which Saki replied readily.

“Soon after my mother passed away, I was taken in by the marquiss family for a while. They taught me etiquette there. But I hated it, hated it so much that I couldn’t stand it. My father was still a novice in alchemy so he didn’t have the leeway to raise me as well so I had no other choice.”

“Hmmm.”

Saki began talking about her upbringing. Jin shifted to the listener’s role and gave appropriate responses in between.

“By the time I was 16 years old, my father was finally recognized as a respectable, full-fledged alchemist. I ran away from that house and went straight to my father.”

“It must have been tough.”

“Yeah. And right around that time, aunt Karen’s mother, Ms. Ema, passed away. The marquiss probably couldn’t bother worrying about me.”

“A lot has happened, it seems.”

“Yep. And well, I also followed in my father’s footsteps and started learning about alchemy. I was dumbfounded when I got to know that in this world, there are way more things that we don’t know about than things we actually know of.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

‘The more you learn, the more you find out about how ignorant you were…’-Jin remembered someone saying that.

“I, for one, think that learning is done to make people happy. So I also think alchemy should