We spent the day preparing, then began the event proper once night fell. I’d had all sorts of dishes cooked for the troops, and they were all too happy to indulge. Most of our marching rations were preserved, and weren’t much to write home about in terms of flavor. This would be the first time a lot of our troops had eaten a properly cooked meal in ages.
Alcohol was banned mid-campaign, so it’d be their first chance to drink in some time as well. I sort of wanted to break my long stretch of sobriety too, but being fifteen years old, I was still too young to drink. There weren’t strict laws about underaged drinking in this world, and plenty of fifteen year olds imbibed, but I knew from my past life that drinking under the age of twenty could have consequences when it came to your health, and I’d made a personal policy of abstinence until I reached that point. Licia would be sad if I drank myself to an early grave, after all.
Speaking of Licia, even though Purledo County was now under our control, I hadn’t called her over to meet up with me. I wanted to see her as soon as possible, but Fort Purledo wasn’t safe yet by any stretch of the imagination, and I didn’t want her anywhere near a potential battlefield, since there was still a chance the enemy would show up to reclaim it. No, the next time I’d see Licia would be when I returned to Canarre.
“You’ve all fought hard, and I thank each and every one of you for your service! There’s every chance that Seitz will attempt to reclaim this fort in the future, but for now, the time has come for us to indulge to the fullest in the fine drink of victory!” I declared. My soldiers let out a rousing cheer and fell upon the food and drink with incredible vigor.
“Oooh, now that’s the stuff! Guess Seitz makes some pretty good booze!”
And, for some reason, a certain woman in the crowd was already three sheets to the wind. She, of course, was Mireille, and it seemed she’d had a head start on the others when it came to the drinking.
Just how much does that woman love her alcohol?
“C’mon, keep the food coming! I’m not even close to full here!” Mireille added. She was being bossy to the people around her, and I considered giving her a talking to, but I knew that there was no getting through to her when she was that sauced. All we could do was wait until she drank herself into unconsciousness.
I was just about to tuck into the food as well when Pham held out a hand to stop me.
“Not so fast,” Pham said. He was dressed in his maid uniform, but spoke in his usual, natural voice. “Let me test it for poison first.”
“Huh…? Wait, really? I’m sure it’s fine, right?” I said, a little bewildered by how sudden his request seemed. The food had been made by a soldier who worked as a server in Canarre─one who I’d known and trusted for many years. He was a highly capable cook who always made delicious food. It was very hard to imagine him deciding to poison me.
“Just in case,” Pham said before taking a bite off my plate. “All right, no issues.”
“O-Oh, really?” I said. “Actually, now that I think about it, does it even make sense for you to be tasting my food?”
Pham was the Shadows’ leader. If my food were somehow poisoned, and that poison killed him, I would be in a whole heap of trouble.
“I’ve built up a resistance to poison. Won’t be an issue,” Pham confidently replied.
The whole thing still seemed odd to me. He’d never been that worried about the possibility of poison before. Was the recent attempt on my life weighing on him, maybe?
“Sorry,” I said. “I know I make you worry about me sometimes.”
“What are you talking about? I’m your retainer. Worrying about your lord is just part of the job,” Pham replied, maybe feeling just a little bashful. That was odd for him─he wasn’t the sort of person to let his emotions show.
“Hey, maid! We need some more booze over here!”
“Ah, okay! Coming right up!”
One of the soldiers called out for Pham, and he was off in the blink of an eye. As usual, the way he behaved in his maid persona was so unlike himself, it was almost like he was a different person. I didn’t think he needed to bother with the disguise since only our allies were in attendance, but whether he was surrounded by friends or enemies, Pham seemed to prefer keeping his identity a secret when more than a few people were around him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like or trust our soldiers─just that anyone at all learning his identity meant another potential vector through which he could be exposed. In that sense, he was doing the right thing.
Anyway, now that my poison tasting was done, I tucked into my food. I’d been served a sort of meat that I wasn’t familiar with. It tasted like fish, almost, and since I’d eaten so little fish since my reincarnation and so much of it in my past life, I felt a certain sense of nostalgia. I soon learned, however, that it wasn’t a fish at all. It was the meat of a land animal I’d never heard of called an anzarki.
“An anzarki? What sort of animal is that?” I asked Rosell, who was seated nearby.
“They only live in Seitz,” Rosell explained. “They look like big lizards, but they live around the water and are great swimmers.”
Lizards, huh? I guess they’re reptiles, then? Or maybe amphibians, since they’re good at swimming?
I tried imagining what one could look like for a moment, but then thought better of it.
It’s tasty, so who cares? Better not to worry about it.
“You’ll have to excuse me now,” said Clamant. He’d participated in the banquet, but had powered through his meal in a hurry and was now trying to make an exit.
“You’re leaving already?” I asked.
“Correct. I’ve never been fond of this sort of thing, and I have training to attend to anyway,” Clamant somewhat coldly replied. He struck me as the sort of person who didn’t care for getting close with other people─and the sort of person who never neglected his training, of course. He was diligent to an extreme.
“Oh,” Clamant added a moment later, “and it seems the airship is an even more useful weapon than I thought it would be. If you’re willing to sell one, I’m willing to buy.”
“I-I see,” I replied. “We’ll be making more of them in the future, so depending on how things play out, it’s possible I’ll be able to sell you one eventually.”
“Understood. If it’s doable, please try to see it done,” Clamant said before making his exit for real this time.
“Hey, Mister Count!” Shin called out to me next. “Man, talk about one hell of a victory, huh?!”
“It really was,” I replied. “And the airship performed admirably. Thank you again for making it.”
“C-Come on, you don’t have to thank me! I should be thanking you for lettin’ me make it, for cryin’ out loud!” Shin bashfully replied.