Volume 11 Chapter 2 Part 3
A person who seems to be a servant of the castle, made a request, so everyone, including Gozer, handed their weapons over to him.
The Duke goes around to the other side of the table and turns in his own sword to one of the escorting guards.
「Lord Michio and everyone, please sit down. Let’s start our meal first.」
Following his own advice, the Duke sits down. His chair is at the left end of the other side of the table.
There are six chairs along the side of a table, which are presumably for myself and for my Party Members, so perhaps I should sit directly opposite of the Duke?
Deciding to do that, I sit face to face with the Duke. Roxanne is next to me, then Sherry, Miria and finally Vesta.
On the other side of the table, Cassia sits next to the Duke.
Gozer is next to Cassia and after that is the woman who I think is Gozer’s wife, so it would seem that my choice of a place to sit was a correct one after all. Sherry doesn’t have anything to say to correct me, so that reinforces my decision even more.
「Would you like to drink liquor, sir?」
A servant asks me respectfully.
「Could I possibly trouble you to make some herbal tea for me?」
「Of course, sir. As you wish.」
Drinking booze in the current situation would be bad for me. I might start saying strange things if I get drunk and that would be a problem for me, so I definitely shouldn’t do that.
The servant asks everyone if they want alcohol to drink one after another. Unsurprisingly, nobody except for Sherry wants to drink liquor.
Nobody wants liquor except Sherry.
「Then lets start the feast with Michio and his Party Members. I’m glad that you were able to come visit us today, so make sure that you eat and drink to your heart’s content and enjoy yourselves.」
The Duke begins the proper dinner party with that greeting.
The dishes are carried around and the first one seems to be the main meal for tonight. Is the appearance of hot dishes considered to be a luxury in this world? In any case, Miria should also be happy with the feast as well, because there are fish-based dishes being served.
In the meantime, Roxanne and Cassia, who is sitting directly in front of her were apparently engaged in some passable small talk.
They were talking about various small-time things like our relationship with the neighbors who live the closest to us, the landlady from the hardware store and the like.
Is Cassia really okay with talking about things like that with Roxanne? Or maybe she wants to see for herself that we’re living our everyday lives at an appropriate level?
「It would seem that you were all able to safely enter the Labyrinth of Nordselm. I am both grateful and glad that you managed to return from there safely.」
Uh-huh, we might have a problem on our hands. Cassia thanked us for going to the Labyrinth of Nordselm, but the truth is that we have yet to go there, because the Duke himself has told me not to go there.
「Isn’t this dish delicious, Lord Michio?」
The Duke interjected in a hurry, meaning that he wanted to avoid digging deeper into that subject as well.
「This is…」
I’ll play along with him on this.
The dish that he pointed to looks like a dissected anatomical model of a frog that looks like it was just baked.
「It’s a wholly roasted thrush, prepared especially for today’s dinner.」
「Such a rare ingredient for is meant exclusively for showing the hospitality towards one’s guests. It’s a cooking ingredient of the highest possible class.」
Alright, topic of conversation successfully changed.
「Hee…? Never would have guessed.」
The Duke answers and Roxanne adds to it.
So it’s not a frog, but rather a bird?
Now that I look more closely at it, Gozer is eating it by hand, without even using a knife, so is it supposed to be in one whole piece so that you could just bite into it? Because if so, then I guess I’ll just bite into it as well.
If I were to compare it to anything, then I would have to say that it’s similar to yakitori with fish sauce. The tender meat comes loose in my mouth without me having to bite into it too hard.
It tastes quite good, but unfortunately there’s not much meat on it, and it is mostly bones. Is this how all wholly-roasted things taste like?
「Was this caught in the Labyrinth where Mabream is a main monster present on the 22nd floor?」
Roxanne, I really don’t think that there’s any need to be steering the conversation in such a direction.
「Mabream, desu!」
You don’t need to encourage her as well, Miria!
「That’s right. The 22nd floor of that Labyrinth is an especially tough place, and not because it is overcrowded, far away from the city or any reasons like that, but because of the combination of monsters that can be encountered there.」
「The combination of monsters?」
With every spoken sentence, I keep having the feeling that the conversation is heading somewhere where it definitely shouldn’t be going.
「The monsters that can be encountered on the 22nd floor there are Fly Traps, Pig Hogs and Mabreams.」
Sherry followed up and offered an explanation before anyone else could. And speaking of which, thanks to Sherry, we are already familiar with all of these monsters without having to go to the 22nd floor of Nordselm’s Labyrinth, so we should be pretty safe for now.
「Mabreams and Pig Hogs might sound like they’re terrifying, but trust me, there’s no need for you to be afraid of them, since they are relatively easy to take down.」
「Easy, desu!」
「Northselm’s Labyrinth is also not good of a place because of its 23rd floor.」
I didn’t want to talk about this any longer than I had to, but Cassia was also pretty persistent with her statements.
Well, for Cassia, today is a day when she can offer us her thanks for entering the Labyrinth near her hometown, so I guess I cannot really blame her for picking it up as a topic for conversation.
「How about this dish then?」
「That dish came from a place that is pretty infamous because of its 25th floor.」
And now even the Duke picked up on the topic instead of simply choosing to drop it.
「Come to think of it, you didn’t fight on the 23rd floor until now, did you?」
「No, no. The furthest we have ever gone in the Labyrinths is the 22nd floor.」
「The monster on the 23rd floor is Drive Dragon, whom many people don’t want to fight against, but I guess that information alone isn’t all that helpful. I’m very sorry.」
Sherry apologizes.
Certainly, if we were to talk about the West Forest’s Labyrinth near Zabir that we entered instead of Nordselm’s Labyrinth, then I guess that it wou;dn’t be a lie to say that we have yet to do battle on its 23rd floor, because we really didn’t.
Was that what it meant?
The monsters on the 23rd floor of the West Forest’s Labyrinth near Zabir are probably Drive Dragons, but if I were to talk some more about this, then it would have been revealed to all that we have not entered the Labyrinth of Nordselm after all, so instead, I came up with a reason for why we didn’t fight on the 23rd floor of the West Forest’s Labyrinth in Zabir in order to minimize the difference between that Labyrinth and Nordselm’s Labyrinth.
As expected of Sherry. The Duke should thankful to you.
「I’m still grateful for all you and your Party has done for us.」
「By the way Sherry, it’s okay for you to drink a little more if you want to.」
「Yes, master.」
Since today is supposed to be a celebration, I told Sherry that she can cut a little bit more loose.
「It would seem that you have an alcohol connoisseur in your midst. If I remember correctly, we should have a particularly good bottle of it here, so let’s open it up.」
「Is it a really good one?」
「Umu. I just happened to get my hands on it the other day.」
「Ahh, you are talking about that one.」
「I am looking forward to it.」
Now that the Duke mentioned alcohol and everyone started talking about it, the talk about the Labyrinth of Nordselm was quickly forgotten about, much to my relief.
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 50 hours
This is the 2nd step, after the bar from entering Nordselm’s Labyrith, in the Duke’s master plan for Michio.