Chapter 55 A Grand Banquet

To thank their friends from another world for their tireless help in resolving the cataclysmic disaster on this planet, and to welcome the first official delegation from an alien civilization to visit this world, the Holletta royal family hosted a grand banquet. The banquet was held in the Vyshann Long Hall on the east side of the palace – a place reserved for Holletta to receive foreign envoys or hold other grand state banquets.

Originally, this banquet should have been held when the elves had just arrived, but the practical spirit of the Irim elves delayed the banquet until everything had settled down, and the visiting princes and ministers had to go home and wait for most of the day. Hao Ren felt sorry for putting people through so much trouble, but Hilda and the several ministers she brought clearly didn't think there was anything wrong with it: you should work hard when you work, and you've already eaten your fill at home before you set off, so eating here should naturally be postponed until after the work is done...

These Irim are definitely the most simple and honest elves in all the worlds, without a doubt.

The Vyshann Long Hall was resplendent and magnificent, and the grand court banquet was dazzling both in terms of the surrounding decorations and the gorgeous clothes of the attendees. This banquet was much larger in scale than the last secret meeting that Hao Ren and the others had attended. However, the meticulous Vivian quickly discovered the special arrangement of the attendees: apart from the Irim elves, who made up the majority of the people present, there were not many Holletta people left. Some were high-ranking kingdom officials and church leaders who looked important, while others seemed to be trained "attendants." These "attendants" wore gorgeous clothes, were polite and well-mannered, and behaved like ordinary nobles, responsible for maintaining the atmosphere at the banquet and acting as assistants to other nobles, but strictly speaking, they were not "guests" at the banquet, but special security guards who had undergone strict confidentiality training, whose profession was to make up numbers.

Obviously, the matter of the Irim elves still had some discrepancies with the Radiant Church's external propaganda, so this banquet still had a certain level of confidentiality.

After hearing Vivian's discovery, Hao Ren clicked his tongue: "Tsk, that's why I don't like dealing with politicians, it's too troublesome."

"Am I one of the 'too troublesome' politicians in your eyes?" Ofra's voice came from the side. Even at the banquet, she was still wearing a heroic light armor, only it had been replaced with ceremonial armor that was more decorative than protective, with gorgeous patterns and pale purple decorations on the edges of the armor. She looked at Hao Ren's table with a smile, "But I quite agree with you, politicians are too troublesome."

Hao Ren looked up at the female marshal: "Speaking of which, aren't you planning to wear anything else? It's armor all the time, clanging wherever you go."

Ofra shrugged: "It's an occupational disease that's been developing for hundreds of years, I can't change it. When I first took office, the whole country was at war, and after following Gadon III to defeat the world, I couldn't take off my armor. And I think it's pretty good this way, it's very majestic."

Dou Dou hopped to the edge of the table and touched Ofra's armor: "Very majestic, very majestic... very hard, can't get in, not good."

The little one is used to crawling around in her dad's clothes, and now the first element in evaluating clothes is whether she can crawl in or not. She judged Ofra's gorgeous armor by the standards of a commodity house, so how could she not be disappointed? Hao Ren had a headache seeing this situation: Dou Dou is growing, and I guess she won't be able to be carried around like this for long. This morning, he measured his daughter with a ruler and found that the fish baby had grown another centimeter... What should he do when this girl grows into a normal-sized mermaid?

Hao Ren imagined it and felt that the washbasin and fish tank at home would definitely not be enough by then. First of all, he would have to find a place to dig a big pool for Dou Dou to sleep in, and then he would have to contact the lumber market or something... Raising children is really troublesome.

Lily was staring at the table full of food with green eyes, as if she had a noose around her neck, straining her neck and enduring: "When can we eat? When can we eat? When..."

Izhaks sat opposite the table like a tiger crouching, nodding very experiencedly: "According to human rules, at this time, important people should make a few speeches, tormenting the audience's appetite before starting the meal."

Izhaks was right, soon Moron and the Pope stood up, and the two began to thank heaven and earth, thank the goddess for all the things in the world, and thank the alien guests for their help from afar. After thanking them in a circle, they thanked them randomly in a different order. Hao Ren's table was closest to the two old men (because they were honored guests), but as a result, everyone at the table was dozing off, and Lily was lying on the table with evil fire in her eyes: "You keep thanking us and you still don't start eating, can't we just start eating without thanking us?"

Lily's voice was probably not small, and Moron was choked and coughed after thanking the southwest wind of the past two days. The old king looked at this side with a wry smile, turned his head and looked at Hilda: "Your Honorable Elven Queen, you..."

Hilda nodded and stood up, raising her glass to her people: "Let the feast begin."

Her opening speech was so concise and efficient. The Holletta princes and ministers around her were originally ready to wake up and applaud later, but they had just narrowed their eyes when they heard the words "Let the feast begin," and suddenly most of them couldn't react. Several old men subconsciously raised their hands to applaud, but after thinking about it, they felt that the speech was too short to be normal. Hafman wiped his shiny forehead and whispered to Hilda, "Your Majesty the Queen, is that all?"

Hilda nodded: "That's all."

So the banquet began. The Holletta people prepared to communicate with the Irim foreign affairs personnel at the banquet according to the rules and habits, but soon they found that they couldn't keep up with the rhythm of these alien visitors at all: the elves acted immediately like soldiers after receiving the signal to start the meal. They lowered their heads to eat in an orderly manner, without making a sound or whispering to each other. The rich delicacies were indeed to the elves' taste, but they didn't waste time praising them. The meal, like a forced march, lasted only a few minutes, and then there were piles and piles of empty plates left on the scene.

Prince Hafman was holding a cup and came to an Irim foreign affairs minister, but now he could only stare blankly with a slightly awkward look.

"The Irim advocate simplicity, efficiency, and not wasting," Hao Ren raised his fork and smiled, "And the more formal the banquet occasion, the faster they eat, because banquets mean higher costs and manpower occupation. So let's just eat our own, don't force yourself to keep up with their rhythm."

Hilda also nodded to King Moron with a slightly apologetic look: "This is our tradition, please don't mind. We are very satisfied with the banquet, but we are not good at eating slowly."

Finally, she pointed to her body: "Also, due to the special life form, I don't need to eat."

Hao Ren asked curiously after hearing this, "By the way, I always forgot to ask, you can live without eating or drinking now, where does the energy come from?"

"I studied it, and it seems to get power from the surrounding environment, including solar energy and various radiations in nature," Hilda said with a smile, "I also did an experiment not long ago, and it seems possible to survive in space, but it's easy to get tired after a long time, and it seems to be related to excessive radiation."

"Oh oh, solar energy and charging," Becky said with a mouthful of oil, still liking to interject rudely at the dinner table as before, "Then it seems that Wim doesn't need to consider succeeding to the throne."

Hao Ren coughed quickly: "Cough cough, don't discuss this topic."

"I will abdicate when the time is right. I said before that I was just waiting for him to mature completely," Hilda smiled indifferently, "I have officially transferred a lot of power to him recently, otherwise I wouldn't be able to run out so casually this time."

Moron and Ofra listened to these aliens talking about the transfer of kingship as casually as chatting about family affairs, and the person involved was still the queen herself. They felt incredible – it is estimated that these people would never have imagined how the Irim society developed into what it is today.

At this time, Lily inserted a large piece of roast meat and handed it to Hao Ren's mouth: "Try the roast meat here, I think we can try it when we go home. You and Bat should remember the taste and roast it for me when we get home."

Hao Ren was greatly moved: after feeding the dog for so long, he was finally fed by the dog one day...

Just then, a high-ranking church knight with a hurried expression suddenly appeared in the hall, and walked quickly towards the Pope.

Hao Ren's attention instantly fell on this high-ranking church knight.

The other party had some kind of suspicious aura on him.