When the mayor's wife brought up the subject of childbirth, Wei Ge secretly observed Shade's expression. She found that he showed no reaction at all; clearly, he did not care about such topics.
The dinner officially began at half past seven, and the guests took their seats one after another. The seating order was also carefully arranged. Although Wei Ge held no title, she was seated fairly close to the front.
The servants then served the dishes in order from the head table to the tables at the edge. However, everyone invited this time was a local of Arcadia City, so the dinner was not made up entirely of familiar local dishes. After all, the locals had long grown accustomed to local flavors.
There were no Delarion-style dishes on the tables, though. In these wartime days, no one wanted to invite trouble for themselves.
Caviar salad, roast beef, roast goose, fruit tarts, chocolate pudding, fresh vegetable clam chowder—the lavish meal was accompanied by quiet conversation. The head table where Shade and Wei Ge sat was occupied by the most important guests at this Charity Banquet, so their discussions mainly revolved around "the future plans for charitable projects," "developments within the royal family," and "the international situation."
The men dominated the conversation. At Wei Ge's prompting, Shade also spoke of some things he had heard during his private meetings with the Blonde Princess over the past month and a half of vacation. Thus, people gained another impression of this Wilundell visitor with Northern Kingdom features: he was suspected of having friends among the upper ranks of the military.
During the banquet, the subject of heirs to the Anjou Royal Family inevitably came up as well. It was clear that Margaret's elder brother, Samuel Anjou, currently had the strongest support, though Margaret's