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LAZLO gave Lushera one warning for her visit to Monica: do not leave the gift with someone. Make sure it goes directly to Monica.
That did make sense considering the purpose of this adventure was to bring Monica and Lushera together.
So, Lushera aimed directly for Monica. She waited until she got back to her room, then scrambled up to her window to talk to her. Normally, someone would call their guards at this point, but she had the King’s permission to do this, and she’d learned by now that people let someone who looked like a little girl get away with more things than usual.
“You mean, His Majesty asked you to come here?”
“Yes.”
Having at least made it into the room, Lushera told Monica about everything that led up to her coming here. Monica seemed to have a lot she wanted to say, but perhaps she decided there was no point arguing with some crazy person who came for a visit through her second-story window. She just let out a resigned sigh.
Lushera opened the bag with a pocket dimension inside that she brought and took something out.
“This is the present?” asked Monica.
“Uh, no. This is from one of my party members. Please, go ahead.”
“Hmm…”
The first thing out of the bag was a small basket. It contained a fruit tart Viola made, along with a sandwich made from the leftovers of their dinner. Viola threw it together in a hurry when she heard Lushera was going over to Monica’s. She made the sandwich from the cooled leftovers to prevent the bread from getting soggy while it was in the pocket dimension, but the food was still nice cold.
Monica examined the sandwich of roasted, flaked fish, then took an unladylike bite.
“Ah, you’re not going to use a mithril utensil to check for poison or anything?” asked Lushera.
“Why? Is it poisoned?”
“W-Well, no…”
“Then I don’t need to. I wouldn’t particularly mind if it was poisoned anyway.”
Lushera thought she heard Monica murmur something like, “This is the flavor…” in a horribly weary tone.
“And… This is it,” said Lushera. Next out of the bag was the velveted box with the present from King Lazlo.
Monica opened it to find glittering gold inside. “A necklace.”
“It’s a very popular style. And Berg Brothers & Co. is the highest—”
“Hmph!”
“Ah!”
With a snort of laughter, Monica threw the jewelry box aside in the same way someone might throw a letter they made a mistake on in the fireplace.
“Wh-What are you doing?” Lushera asked.
“It’s obvious. He just thought a girl of my age would probably like a present like this. He probably spent no more than thirty seconds thinking about it before deciding. He likely didn’t even think about it himself. He had a servant choose it and he simply sent it.”
Lushera thought Monica’s action was harsh, but she couldn’t disagree with what she said. That was probably all Lazlo could do. And so, Monica was going to respond in kind, not giving any particular effort into being grateful.
“Don’t you get it? You’ve been caught,” said Monica with a glance at the box she’d tossed aside as she drew closer to Lushera. “If we know each other more, that’s another relationship His Majesty has to get to you. That essentially means he’s trapped a red dragon in his hands. Even the thinnest of threads come together to form a spider’s web. That’s the sort of person he is. If it meant getting that, he would be willing to pretend to care about poor little Monica locked up and alone in the pretty glass house.”
Her sharp blue eyes bore into Lushera as she harshly accused her of taking this too lightly. It seemed she already knew who Lushera was.
Lushera hadn’t entirely let her guard down with Lazlo, but she hadn’t thought much of this request of his beyond it being a chance for her to check in on Monica. Monica didn’t think highly of Lazlo and felt like she was being used. It was only natural that would annoy her.
Lushera also found herself tongue-tied by Monica’s wisdom that allowed her to see through to a person’s true nature. She was likely raised to be able to do that, as people hated that she was born, and she lived her entire life surrounded by ill intentions.
“He’s pretending to be like a father so he can drag me in too,” she said. “Though maybe we should talk about whose fault it is that I can’t see my real parents.” As she spoke, she waved some sort of invitation envelope for Lushera to see.
“What’s that?”
“An invitation to a banquet. It arrived yesterday. It seems something is happening in the castle, and I was invited. I get them every once in a while, like they just randomly remembered I exist. But I’m not allowed out in public, so if I do go, I get to sit in a separate room eating while everyone else is having a grand dinner party. It’s just miserable.”
A banquet…? Oh, that’s right, because Julian came, they quickly threw together a small dinner, thought Lushera. She had heard about it.
The court entertained guests by providing food. Banquets in the court were the setting for building relationships and where negotiations were held. They also helped negotiations move along and strengthened the bonds between the attendees.
This event would be for welcoming Julian.
Lushera knew about this banquet because the Golden Helm had been invited, though she wouldn’t be attending. They were most likely invited because they succeeded in defending Mount Kugus. Though, adventurers obviously couldn’t have much direct say in international conflicts.