Normally, I was taught there was no such thing as a free lunch, yet here I was, being treated to a sumptuous lunch by the crown prince of the Amazerian Empire.
To be fair, it wasn't technically "free." After all, it was compensation in return for me having performed "labor" in the form of dueling against his top bodyguard, Elem. Despite me sucking his mana dry, Elem was still in pretty good shape. To be fair, he didn't suffer that severe an injury, and he looked exhausted.
Additionally, according to him, the best way for him to recover his strength was to eat. Of course. Even I understood that logic.
"But man…I didn't think you'll actually beat Elem. Without resorting to a Strategic-scale spell, too!"
Roland was chortling as he watched me feast on chicken, fish and potato from across the table, his eyes twinkling. Unlike me and Elem, he had refrained from stuffing his face and was merely leaning against his chair in a relaxed but somehow dignified manner.
"I'm utterly shocked. Elem is one of my best, you know? The most skilled of my bodyguards. Even though he looks like this, the number of people in the Amazerian Empire who can defeat him can be counted on a single hand."
"So five?" I asked after swallowing a piece of potato that I was chewing. Roland chuckled and shook his head.
"Three, actually."
"Cool." So Elem was the fourth most powerful dude in the Amazerian Empire. I was assuming that Roland meant our generation, of course. There was no way Elem was the fourth strongest mage in the Amazerian Empire – there were so many other adults who could defeat him, never mind me. The Amazerian Empire would get crushed by the Global Federation easily if that was the case. Before that, they would have a hard time fighting off rank A monsters that roamed their rainforests.
"Still, I'm grateful to you for putting on a good show for us." Roland was nodding. He glanced at Elem, who was too busily feeding himself to pay any attention to our conversation. "Elem, how would you rate your opponent?"
"Huh? I don't care about his rating."
"Ouch." I grimaced. "Seems like he doesn't think much about me at all. I'm too weak and insignificant."
"I'm sure that's not what he meant," Roland assured me with an amused smile. "Elem is just too lazy to think about complicated stuff like rating and after-action reports." He sighed exaggeratedly. "He gives me quite the headache sometimes."
"Why even bother?" Elem snorted. "All those ratings and rankings are meaningless. You think you can accurately measure someone's strength by his rank? By weird levels? What nonsense. A human's potential is far more complex than that. You can't just encapsulate someone's strength through random alphabets or cold numbers."
"Now that's something I didn't expect you to say," Roland remarked, amused. He turned to me and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Elem is usually a simple guy. He's not usually that capable of such sophisticated reasoning. Hell, I didn't even know his limited vocabulary included those words 'complex' or 'encapsulate'!"
"I can hear you, you know," Elem growled. "And I have been studying. Mistress Ishtar has taught me a lot."
"Ah, yes. Ishtar is a great teacher indeed." Roland shuddered momentarily. "I can sort of understand why you learned so much and so quickly under her." he winced as he turned to me. "She's a demoness from hell."
"I'm sure," I responded dryly, though inwardly I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have the misfortune of being taught by her.
"Anyway…what do you think, dear Cecilia?"
Roland turned to Cecilia, who was sitting on the other end of the table, accompanied by several of her subordinates from the Stuart Clan. Sacha had declined to join, but Adrian was happily eating right beside me.
Apparently the young kid love sushi. So did I. We ended up ordering and sharing a large platter of sushi, much to Roland's amusement.
"You guys have technology, stoves and the chance to eat cooked food in your advanced Global Federation," he had pointed out. "Why are you eating raw stuff?"
"Don't just write sushi off as raw stuff!" I had bellowed. "It's more than that! Sushi transcends cooked or raw! It's a high art form…the ultimate cuisine!"
Okay, big words, considering this wasn't even genuine Japanese sushi but bastardized forms prepared by non-Japanese. But I didn't care. To me, sushi was sushi, no matter who prepared it or where it was from.
Taken aback by my ferocious defense of one of my favorite foods, Roland had dropped the matter. He did like the few pieces he sampled, and ended up calling another platter. In contrast, Elem was just eating everything, sushi, cooked, raw or whatever, without any distinction. The guy evidently didn't have any preference for food.
He was eating for the sake of living, rather than to enjoy. I guess the Amazerian Empire must be quite the harsh place then.
Cecilia also picked up a piece of sushi with chopsticks, more because that was the current dish that dominated the table than because she had any real preference for it, and nibbled on it. Oi! That was not how you eat sushi, lady.
"What are you referring to, your excellency?" she asked Roland politely.
"Him." Roland jabbed a finger at me. "You're still going through that long list of suitors, aren't you? And hasn't Richard already defeated you before?"
Why the fuck was he talking as if we were close friends or something? And acting like some damned wingman?
Cecilia shook her head silently, but instead of answering Roland's question, she turned to me instead and bowed her head slightly.
"I'm sorry to hear about Alicia."
My hand froze, and the sushi nearly dropped out of my chopsticks. I turned to regard her a little stiffly, and shook my head.
"Thanks."
"…it was a tragedy. I didn't expect that…"
"No one did. It was my fault. If only I had been more vigilant…if only I had known…" I placed my chopsticks down and clenched my right hand into a fist. "She wouldn't have…"
"Nobody could have anticipated that," Cecilia told me gently. "You shouldn't blame yourself."
On the other end of the table, Roland fell silent for a bit when he sensed the mood. He just nodded, as if to himself, and turned away.
In contrast, Adrian smiled brightly.
"Well, at least you now have a chance, Sister Cecilia!"
Then he turned pale when he caught the looks on both of our faces, and gulped, realizing that he had just said something extremely insensitive. Even Roland was giving him a cold stare. Only Elem couldn't care less about what was being discussed around the table, swallowing another huge chunk of spare ribs.
"S…sorry. I didn't mean…"
"It's fine," I told him with a sigh. Unlike me, Cecilia was still enraged, her tone level but frosty.
"Alicia is my friend, and a very precious person to Richard, Adrian. Please do not talk about her in that manner."
"Y…yes. Sorry."
"And do not ever imply that I am one to take advantage of a friend's untimely demise."
"…yes."
Feeling sorry for Adrian, I quickly intervened. "I don't think Adrian ever meant to imply that. I think he has learned his lesson."
Cecilia shifted her icy gaze to me, and then she shook her head with a sigh. "You're too soft, Richard."
"Isn't that fine?" Roland asked as he leaned back, chewing on a large piece of sashimi. An octopus tentacle stuck out of his mouth before he swallowed it. "I think that's one of his good points. The world is filled with too much violence and cruelty." He glanced imperceptibly at Elem as he said that. His elite bodyguard pointedly ignored him in favor of stuffing a huge chicken thigh into his mouth and tearing its flesh off with his teeth. Roland shook his head with a chuckle. "We need to balance it out with kindness and gentleness."
Cecilia stared at him in shock.
"I did not expect the crown prince of the Amazerian Empire to say something like that."
"There are a lot of things you will not expect." Roland shrugged lazily. "Even I have encountered things that are way beyond my calculations or predictions. As much as the world is full of dangers and hardship, it is also full of mysteries and wonders. If we don't appreciate the good things in this world, then what is there to live for?"
"Living is painful," I replied. "Life is too painful, the reality that conforms the universal belief that it is best not to be born."
I hardly thought anyone would have read Dazai Osamu's The Setting Sun, so I wasn't surprised that no one recognized the quote. They were all staring at me blankly.
"I didn't think that you are a pessimist," Cecilia remarked. I shrugged.
"I'm not. I'm just quoting someone."
"Never heard of that quote before," Roland admitted. I smiled. So there was something even the crown prince didn't know.
"That's fine." I was the one who randomly majored in Japanese literature before I found myself transported to this world, almost a millennium into the future. "It's not important. I guess what I meant to say is this. As painful as living is, there are just some things worth living for…worth enduring the suffering and misery throughout life. After all, there can be no joy without misery, no enjoyment without suffering. We all live on in the hope that we can eventually overcome despair."
Then I realized everyone was staring at me.
"…what?"
"No, just didn't expect you to say that either," Cecilia replied. Roland chuckled.
"I mean, I did think you were a somewhat sophisticated and intelligent fellow, but I didn't think you'll get all philosophical on us."
Now he was embarrassing me. "Hey, you're the one who started this whole discussion. Anyway, who wants more food?" Grabbing the menu – which was in the form of a holographic device with a touchscreen that automatically recorded our orders and sent them straight to the chefs in the kitchen without us needing to wait for a waiter or waitress, I used it to hide my face from everyone's intense gazes. "What else do you want to order?"
"More sushi!" Adrian hollered, eliciting a laugh from all the older guys and girl sitting around the table.