Primped and prepared, I was shown to the dining room by Dahlia and Mimosa.
The room I stepped into was big, bright, and lovely. The wall that faced the garden was made entirely of glass through which bright sunshine streamed into every nook and cranny, bouncing off an unlit chandelier. In the center of the room was a massive table so large it made me want to ask how many people it could fit. In fact, the table was overflowing with so much food, that I wondered exactly how many people I was going to eat with, and if maybe this was a buffet.
In other words, so much for maintaining my weight.
I’m serious, that’s how much it was.
Rohtas was waiting ahead of me and pulled out a chair for me. I sat down. The seat in the middle was for the ‘master of the house,’ so I sat to the left, for now. In front of me, a stunning assortment awaited... Everything looked wonderful, but there was no way one person alone could handle it.
“Um, Rohtas? Just how many people is this supposed to serve?” I enquired to Rohtas, who was standing humbly beside me, as I stared intently at the food.
“Why, just you, Madam. We still did not know your preferences yet, so we prepared a little bit of everything. Is it to your liking?” Rohtas nonchalantly answered with an unmistakable undertone of ‘do you have a problem with something?’
But.
Even just considering salads, there was a simple salad of chopped greens, a dressed salad of steamed and mashed root vegetables, a Sinoan-style salad originating in a kingdom called Sinoa, as well as a Rovençal salad from the famous cuisine of the Rovence region. Four whole kinds of salad on the table. The soup appeared to be potage. For egg dishes, there was an egg fried sunny side up on top of crisp bacon, scrambled eggs, and an omelette flavored with vegetable bouillon. In addition to all of this, there was steamed sausage and simple boiled eggs... and also fruit, yogurt, and the like. Several kinds of bread had been arranged on the table.
All of this is really just for me!?
Not to brag, but at my parents’ house, we just had bread and vegetable soup.
Even dinner wasn’t this extravagant, so for someone like me who was used to eating simply, suddenly consuming all this luxurious food (and this was just breakfast!) was sure to wreak havoc on my stomach.
“Does Mr. Fisalis eat breakfast like this, with so much lavish food?” I asked with eyes half-closed, all the while still staring at the food without taking a bite.
He’d have to be a competitive eater to fit this much food in that slim frame!
Rohtas hesitatingly answered, “Yes. Although he does not finish everything on his plate. In the Master’s case, what he likes to eat changes daily, so we bring out a wide variety for him.”
I was floored.
What... he... likes... to... eat... changes... daily!?
And he doesn’t clean his plate! What an absolute lap of luxury he lives in.
This guy needs a stern talking to by a certain green giant!
“Oh, is that so? But if that’s the case, a lot of this amazing food must get thrown out, right?” I finally managed to say.
“Er, well,” Rohtas hesitated. Up until then, he had been very verbose. I had not minded the previous version of him, though.
I decided to speak plainly. “That’s just a waste. I can’t eat this much food in the morning, so from tomorrow on, just bread, potage, and some salad will be more than enough. The Rovençal salad looks very good, so I’ll have that with the bread and potage, today.”
“You will not eat the rest later, then, Madam?” Rohtas asked with a look of bafflement.
“How could I possibly eat all of this? I’d like it if anything that is left over from breakfast is reused for lunch and dinner.” I divided up the food onto the plates in front of me as I said this. In that moment, I had an idea: a one-plate breakfast! That with milk tea afterwards would be perfect. Fresh juice would just be too much.
Luxury is the enemy, after all! (My family’s motto.)
Looking over the single-serving plates I had taken the liberty of assembling, Rohtas, still with a confused look on his face, said, “We cannot do that. Once we clear the plates from breakfast, we will prepare fresh food for lunch and dinner.”
I could tell he was confused by the way he spoke, but I was still convinced that throwing out all this food would be wasteful.
The sheer waste in this house made me want to turn into a green monster, myself, but probably not so jolly. They were too reluctant and I was fed up with it.
“Can’t I put it in the icebox?” I asked.
“That is not the issue, Madam!”
“Then what is?”
“The peerless Fisalis family would lose face if the lady of the house was eating paltry leftovers!” Rohtas’ face was bright red.
“It isn’t that big of a deal...”
“It is!”
“Well then, if serving food my way is shameful, are you going to make better use of all this?”
“...understood, Madam. I will have the cooks reprepare the food for the servants to eat.”
My persistence finally wore Rohtas down.
Although it hadn’t even happened yet, the fact that the servants would be made to eat my leftovers weighed heavily on my conscience.
I mean, I would eat them instead.
“So then why not serve the food again for lunch then?”
“Eh?”
“This is really too much food for me. Just salad, bread, and an egg dish would be plenty for lunch. Steamed chicken and sausage for the main course, with salad, potage, and bread will be perfectly acceptable for dinner. And in smaller quantities, please.”I had already moved on to considering the menus for later in the day.
It was sad that, even as reheated leftovers, the food here was still much more luxurious than what I had at my parents’ house. Rohtas seemed perturbed at this prospect, too.
“M-Madam...”
“I honestly don’t need food this fancy. Please.”
I might have been plain-looking, but I could pull off killer puppy dog eyes.
Looking up at Rohtas from where I sat, my eyes naturally turned up.
I assumed an expression on the verge of tears, as if to say, “oh, please?”
“Understood.”
Rohtas folded so quickly at my persistent request that I could almost hear a snap. I knew there was no way he could resist my puppy dog eyes.