>>30317018Late Spring 1123
The mayor’s jowls swayed intensely as he engulfed the food set before him. A bite of sweet bread, a desperate gulp of honey mead, a chunk of fish down his gullet, all while blabbering endlessly to his guests about everything and nothing. Cassandra was a big eater, but he was putting her to shame in that regard.
Noravera was still picking at her food, but she’d finished eating some time prior. She took a lull in the conversation to get a word in. “Thank you again for your hospitality, Sir Mayor. I hope our expedition is not disturbing your tranquil city too much.”
The important man shook his head vehemently. “Oh, Lady Jaggery, not at all, not at all, your visit is a source of joy. Such an exotic party, and headed towards the cold wastes with such a noble purpose. You deserve all the support you receive. If there is one thing we respect here in Himenth, it’s powerful warriors looking for selfless deeds.” He punctuated his effusion by closing his lips around a sweet roasted cherry potato.
Rear Admiral Magnus spoke a well-practiced sentence with a rather monotone voice. “The schizo threat preys on us all; pushing back against it is a natural duty for men and women of strength.”
Words escaped the Mayor’s lips in between food inhalations: “You know, my good Sir Admiral Magnus, I have some schizo experience myself nanora.”
Shige let himself enjoy the silence for a second. Then, “Is that so, Mister Appleton? Do tell us how that came to occur, I’m curious. We are still quite far from their raiding territories, are we not?”. There was a twinge of genuine pain in the Admiral’s eyes, as he intentionally, in full possession of his faculties, asked the Mayor to talk more. On the other side of the table, there was at least one member of their party genuinely enjoying themselves. Fruce was savoring every bite of the grilled Luunish fillets brought to them from the Mayor’s kitchens. Cassandra didn’t much get the hype. The texture near the skin was kind of interesting, and the meat beneath near melted in her mouth, but... Like everything here, the damn sugar. According to some of Akira’s papers, the Luna chuubanite was supposed to propagate less far into the ocean than the Mori-type, something about a repulsion between salt and the substance. Cassandra just hoped there would be some nice, sugar free, salty seafood to fish in the Arctic Sea. This was a hope she was clinging to desperately...
“Right you are, right you are my friend, we didn’t get raided or any such dangerous thing norahaha. Some schizos got caught after attacking a patrol of brave Luknights. Fools they were, they got themselves shipwrecked on our mighty rock sugar shores, most of them drowned. Our Luknights came upon them as the two were warming their frigid bones near a fire. Their resistance was feeble, and they were taken alive, for a change.” At long last, this seemed to grab his audience’s genuine attention, which the Mayor relished. The Admiral’s gaze moved from some fascinating empty spot of the ceiling to the Mayor’s eyes, and even Citrora paused her meal to listen.
The fat man turned to his wife, a beautiful pink-haired lady at least fifteen years his junior. “Ah, you were with me that day, right, my sweet fruit? We were inspecting the prisons.” Which prompted enthusiastic nodding on her part.
“Yes, yes, I was! Oh how scary that was, just seeing them in their cages chilled my heart. They’re unpleasant beasts.” Sephira put the back of her hand to head, dramatically. “It was a cold winter day, some months ago, they’d been taken from the Gelanora dungeons to make more space, if my memory doesn’t fail me.”
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