Chapter 17: Banquet (1)

The battle against the knight had ended and Gelda rushed to Kurena as fast as he could.

He then checked her to make sure she does not have any wounds or injuries. The two crossed blades hundreds and hundreds of times, he would be worried to say the least. Kurena only had a “what are you doing?” expression on her face as Gelda touched her hands and feet to see if she was hurting anywhere. She took a clean kick from the vice-commander Reivland and went flying dozens of meters through the sky before hitting the wall. Gelda went on to make sure she didn’t receive any injuries on her stomach or back but Kurena just giggled, saying it tickles.

Not a single wound. Not even a bruise. Just  a little dirt on her cloth from falling to the ground.

(Hmm, was she always this sturdy? She never really got hurt when we were playing those knight make-belief games, did she?)

Allen and Kurena used to spar for about an hour everyday with the wooden sword and he would receive blows in his hand or legs often, which left bruises. However, now that he thinks back to it, he could not remember Kurena ever getting hurt.

The commander also broke into a cold sweat seeing there was not a single bruise in Kurena’s body. Even though her opponent, Reivland, could not even stand up and was carried away.

Gelda was cautious. They were called out to the plaza and made her fight a knight all of a sudden. While it definitely is great that she was able to win, Kurena could have very well died in that battle.

The commander extended his hand and stood in place. Gelda thought—”is this him asking for forgiveness by letting me shake the knight commander’s hand?”. Gelda was short-tempered to begin with. Blood rose to his head, making both his head and face red. Gelda is the one who generally initiates fights between Rodan and him.

Even then, Gelda still extended his hand. This is the difference between the commander of knights and a serf—like heaven and earth. His precious child as well as his best friend and their child were here. With his face still red with anger, Gelda respectfully extended his hand, trying to kill his rage.

*Clink*

He was startled. There was something hard in his hand. From the feeling from his palm, he understood that it was some coins. While he was surprised, he retreated his hand without saying a word. He glanced at his palm to discover that there were 3 gold coins there. The commander handed it to him, pretending to want to shake hands.

“Well then, mayor. We would like to take it slowly from here, for the future talks and what not.”

“Y-yes, I have arranged a banquet at my place.”

As if nothing had happened right now, the commander started speaking about the future with the mayor who had gotten close. It seems that was his way of showing consideration—such that no one notices the huge sum of money.

“I am grateful. You introduced yourself as Gelda, right? Will you come along with your daughter?”

“Eh? Ah? Yes…”

While Gelda did reply, he kept glancing at Rodan.

“Mm? Ah, right. If you’re worried, you can also bring your friend.”

He was probably trying to work out the tension in the atmosphere. As he looked at Rodan after that, Rodan also nodded, letting him know that he will tag along. Kurena also invited Allen along.

As they had to prepare as well, it was decided that Gelda and his group would head over to the mayor’s residence after three hours and have dinner there as well. Rodan told Allen that he would go and inform Mithilda and Theresia about the situation and that Allen should stick with Gelda and Kurena till he gets back.

And so, Allen followed Gelda. Generally, they do not really come here often—the center of the village. New and fresh scenarios await.

(It’s quite big, huh? There were more than a 100 people gathered in the plaza just now so I assume the village population is about 300?)

This being the center of the village, there were quite a few shops as well. His gaze went towards a corner of the shopping district.

(Oh? It’s a weapon store. And that shop over there has plants inside. Vegetable shop? Nah, seems more like a pharmacy.)

He looked at the stores as he followed Gelda.

The mayor’s residence was a short distance from the plaza. It was his first time seeing the place but it was quite big. Speaking in terms of the real world, it’s about the size of two single houses. As he had been living in a hut all this time, he found these houses to be quite properly built.

Gelda was told to wait here for some time as they prepared. And so they relaxed after being led into a guest room.

(As the Order of Knights came right after 12 PM, the banquet is probably at around 3 or 4PM. Oops, almost forgot to use ‘create’ and ‘synthesis’.)

He confirmed that his mana recovered by looking at the grimoire. And although Rodan and Kurena both were present there, as they can’t see neither the grimoire nor the cards, Allen proceeded without any worry. He used his abilities and gained those EXP.

His daily routine that he started for leveling up his skills ever since he turned 1. Although he could only do it twice a day at first, he was now able to consistently do it thrice a day—both create and synthesis. He knew that if he wanted to get stronger, he would just need to keep at it untiringly everyday, little by little.

After having completed his daily task, which took only about a few seconds, Allen looked around the room.

(As expected, there’s quite a lotta difference between a serf and a commoner’s lifestyle, especially when that commoner is the mayor, huh?)

He was left with nothing to do soon enough. While he did have many things to do at home, such as taking care of Mash, inspecting the summoned beasts, throwing stones, etc, he would have some free time. He started dozing off as he came to an understanding why Reversi is popular in such other-worlds. As Allen dozed off, Kurena also leaned on to him as she nodded off. Gelda just watched over them gently, thinking how the two slept quite well.

“Oii, seems like it will start soon.”

“Pa-papa?”

As Allen woke up, rubbing his eyes and looking around him, he spotted Rodan. He soon realized that they had come to the mayor’s house. Two hours had passed since he dozed off.

He then followed Rodan and Gelda. They were apparently heading towards the mayor’s reception room.

And soon they could hear the sound of people talking. A number of people were already present there. There were also close to ten knights present. There were villagers and also children. The place was spacious.

(Oh? What did that kid and the mayor’s kid have again? The kid who can wield axes?)

It would appear that the banquet was not only between the mayor, the knights and Gelda. Probably the village’s influential people or somewhat proper people had gathered here.

They were led to a table and were told to sit in quite the chief table. The knights’ leader, mayor, a woman who’s probably the mayor’s wife, her kid, and the axe kid and his parents were sitting on the same table. There were 3 tables, with 1 of them probably being for important people. There were the other knights sitting at the other two tables.

And as the master swordsman had also arrived, the banquet began. The knights’ leader and the mayor seemed to have been doing some sort of speech or greeting to begin the banquet but Allen didn’t listen to it. It was a speech revolving around them thanking the people for the village’s development.

(Oh, it’s mormo! I gotta take at least two or three of these to mama.)

Mormo’s are a kind of fruit in this world and they were served on the table. He decided to take some back as a souvenir for his mother.

They all ate as they liked. The knights’ leader too, probably had a long journey, was showing no signs of stopping. As if the blood-lust he showed at the plaza was some sort of joke.

Also, the vice-commander was not present here. Allen did not know if he was yet not in a condition to have food like this or if he just avoided it because it would be weird with Kurena here.

(The aura the knights give off changed. I wonder if it is because they are sure she is the master swordsman now. But that doesn’t change the fact that they came with the intention to execute her if she was not the master swordsman.)

As Allen thought so, the knights’ leader started a conversation with the mayor.

“Well, Mayor. The development of this village is incredible. I had come once three years ago and it has developed a good amount.”

“Y-yes. All of us worked hard for the village’s development.”

The mayor looked quite hungry himself. Now that he looked at him closely, he looked like a somewhat plump man with good physique and over 40 years old. His child was thin so that physique does not seem to be hereditary.

“And well, I do feel bad about saying this to you, since you worked hard for 10 years to build this village up…”

“Eh? What is it?”

The mayor asked nervously, wondering if something was wrong.

“I was told by the landlord to name this village as ‘Kurena village’ if the master swordsman was real.”

“””Eh?”””

It was just called the ‘new village’ till now. And it was also decided that it would be named this year. Everyone assumed that it would be the mayor’s name since he worked hard for the development but apparently the landlord decided it would be named after Kurena. The knights’ leader declared and apologized.

(He seems quite humble, compared to the first time we met. Or is he actually like this to begin with?)

“R-right. It is the landlord’s decision, after all.”

He did not react much. It can also be said that nothing would change even if he did.

(I see, so this village will turn into the village which gave birth to the master swordsman.)

Although the banquet had just begun, it appears the leader just wanted to get this out of the way quickly. More food was being served as they continued their conversation. It had been quite long since Allen had intricate cooking, since all he had after being reincarnated were simply stuff. As he ate heartily, he hid one, and then another mormo fruit on him.