Different Spawn Points

Aoko and the other two were soon ushered to the seats of honor. They felt a little uneasy, but they weren't about to lose their nerve.

The gods and monsters present were all unfailingly polite.

Those meeting them for the first time merely raised their cups from a distance. Unlike at Enma-tei, not every monster came over to toast them.

Those who had met them before came over to say hello, then returned to their seats.

Before long, the mice brought out juice and rice balls. What puzzled the three women was that the mice also set drinks and rice balls at the two empty places, along with three sets of tableware.

They didn't understand it, but the banquet went on.

What Aoko and the others hadn't expected was that they would spend the entire afternoon waiting.

All they had to drink was juice, and all they had to eat were rice balls. Delicious as both were, they grew tiresome after a while.

They couldn't even try something different, because there was nothing else to eat. They missed the food at Enma-tei.

When the mice came to refill their juice for the twenty-seventh time, Aoko couldn't help stopping one before it left.

Aoko asked, "When exactly does the banquet end? Or what are we waiting for?"

Aoko might have been the least sharp of the three, but even she could tell that the banquet only seemed to have begun. It hadn't truly started at all.

The guests here were waiting for something—or rather, for someone to arrive.

The mouse said, "Soon. Dinner will begin shortly. Please wait just a little longer."

The mouse didn't answer directly, offering only a vague assurance that dinner was about to begin. That was when the real guest of honor would arrive.

"Who are we