Extra Episode:
Weiss’s Birthday Party
“THE DAY HAS FINALLY DRAWN NEAR…”
My voice was trembling as I looked at the calendar in my room. The most important day of my life was in one week. That’s right, I was talking about—
“I can’t wait for your birthday next week, Lord Weiss!” Rosalia said happily when she noticed my gaze.
Precisely. It was soon to be Weiss’s birthday, and I would be lucky enough to celebrate it as him!
In my previous life, I had celebrated his birthday all on my own, but now I had Rosalia with me, a fellow Weiss fan. Personally, I wanted to get everyone in the territory in on the celebration, but my loyalty points still had a long way to go.
“Hey, I kind of want to throw a territory-wide celebration. Do you think that’d make people angry?” I asked her.
“Hm, let me think. Recently, you took down the mafia operating here and stabilized the local government. That being said, only the people in this and nearby cities know what you’ve done, so it will still prove difficult.”
“Yeah, I figured…”
There was no television or internet in this world, so my efforts to turn things around hadn’t spread to everyone in the territory yet. A bad reputation was a hard thing to shake.
“However,” Rosalia continued, “the flip side of that is that everyone in this city now knows how incredible you are, so I think they would be glad to cooperate. I’m sure that Lord Reinhard, Lady Aigis, and Lord Nyarl would also be more than happy to participate if you invited them. We might not be able to hold a territory-wide celebration, but I think we could pull off a citywide one.”
I smiled and nodded. “That’s a good point. Let’s make this as grand as possible!”
There were lots of preparations to be made, so things were going to get busy in the lead-up to Weiss’s birthday. Where should I start?
“By the way, what was it like last year?” I asked in the hope of getting some ideas.
“Ah, well…” she said, frowning and concentrating. I rarely ever saw her make a face like that.
Crap, is she wondering why I don’t remember last year’s birthday…?
But I quickly learned that wasn’t the problem.
“Um, you were so drunk, you might have forgotten,” said Rosalia, “but none of the invited guests came to the event. You ended up eating a huge meal and drinking with Lord Barbaro before going on something of a rampage…”
“Gah!” That was bad even for someone with my rep.
Weiss, don’t worry. I’m going to make this year’s birthday a happy one!
“That being said, things will not be the same this year,” Rosalia said firmly. “We have Sir Kaiser here, and I plan on celebrating all day long no matter what happens. Let’s bring everyone into this!”
“Right, thanks. Okay, first things first. I have to hold a presentation about this at our next meeting, so I need to think of a plan.”
Grateful to Rosalia for her consideration, I tried to think of how to best get people in the city together and how to make sure everyone had a good time. In the game’s timeline, the hero planned a big festival here… What was the main attraction again? One specific event came to mind.
Food and drink were the fastest way to a person’s heart, and if I had something special, everyone would have a grand old time.
“I have a good idea,” I said. “Rosalia, if we get through the next meeting successfully, would you like to go on an adventure with me?”
“An adventure?”
“Yeah. A treasure hunt, so to speak.” Just thinking about it, my expression was growing excited while Rosalia looked on, puzzled.
✦ ✦ ✦
After I distributed the Weiss’s Birthday Celebration materials I’d discussed with Rosalia, I explained their contents to the meeting’s participants.
These materials covered not just the entertainment but things like the venue security and the economic benefits of the event. I was confident I’d covered absolutely everything after talking it over with her. I’d stayed up multiple nights in a row in order to put this presentation together, but that would be a small price to pay to make this work.
Also, while no one else knew this, it actually felt more like the fun vibe of staying up late before a cultural festival than cramming all night for a test.
After going through all the other topics of discussion for our monthly meeting, I closed by asking everyone for their final thoughts. “With all that said about the celebration, can I assume there are no objections to making this a city-wide celebration this year?”
I’d already put in the orders for the food we’d be serving at the party, and I was done preparing the invitations for Aigis, Nyarl, and the rest of the nearby nobility. But in order to get the city on board, I needed the help of the Merchants’ Guild and the other big names in the city.
The president of the Hamilton Merchants’ Guild vocalized his support first. “I have no issues with the contents of this plan. If anything, I am grateful I have permission to use your name to sell my goods.”
“Leave city security to us! We won’t let a single criminal or heretic into this city!” added Kaiser, my head of public safety.
Those two were completely on board, and the others appeared to have no objections either, and the rest of the meeting went smoothly.
We’d regained a fair bit of financial stability thanks to the Divine Spring, so we could afford to spend some money to have fun. At this rate, we’d be able to throw a massive party, just as planned. All that was left was to get my hands on a certain special food.
As far as that was concerned, I knew where to go and what to do. I was going to use my game knowledge to make this party the greatest success it could be.