“Please interrupt us next time. I would rather someone know where you are in the visit, especially in the castle. We wouldn’t want your experience marred by getting lost. Oh, and thank you for making drinks. I have to ask… Where did you go? I didn’t know we had ingredients like this in the castle.” Ghrateans found it disrespectful not to take offered food, so they all took glasses and sips without waiting for a response.
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”I just used some fruit from the kitchen that I thought tasted nice; aside from them being red, I don’t know what kind of fruit it was. The only other ingredient that I used in the milkshakes was milk.”
Implicit in Rosalia’s statement was the fact that he had added neither cream nor sugar or other sweeteners. The kind of milk that he had made the milkshakes with was already naturally sweet and rich enough for those ingredients to not be necessary, but anybody with the slightest knowledge of how to make a dessert would notice a strong incongruence between the milkshakes’ flavor & consistency and the ingredients that Rosalia claimed to have used.
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Lucia and Caes knew nothing of this, so they simply drank without thought. Aquius and Flora, however, whom both had before milked animals and picked fruit respectively, and knew with their collective knowledge that such a combination of things could not have readily produced such a drink, seemed a bit suspicious. “Really?” Flora began. " You didn’t use anything brought with you? I don’t think any of the milk we use in the castle or any of our fruit could make something this sweet… I don’t even think we have any sugarcane or anything like that at the moment. We’re still waiting for a shipment from Shaalsa, right?" Aquius nodded. “They’ve opted for a land route. Amisan waters are very icy at the moment, and the shipments are too big to be reliably carried by maquida- a reasonable amount of them, anyways- the birds are expensive.” Flora looked back at Rosalia. “What did you use for these drinks?”
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Duchescina Rosalia began to look very flustered at the mention that his milkshakes were sweeter than the milk that Flora had around the castle.
”Oh, um… Now that you mention it, I think I did put some sugar in the bottle of milk that I used…”
Rosalia knew that his lie was absolutely terrible, him having already previously stated that he had made those desserts with fresh milk, but he was embarrassed at having made a social faux pas and unaccustomed to interacting with women other than relatives and Ariana for a longer time than it took for them to give him some head-pats and a few compliments on his looks. All that he could do was hope that Flora would understand that he was making the kind of statement that the listener knew was fabricated but chose to believe anyway.
”I’m sorry; I promise that I wasn’t trying to outdo your consort or anything like that.”
Rosalia briefly looked at Aquius and then approached him; being about four feet away from somebody of Aquius’ height made the dainty, diminutive Duchescina look even more pint-sized than he did around Ariana. Rosalia did a gentle curtsy with the skirt of his ruffly, aproned dress, never ceasing to avert his eyes from Aquius for more than a brief glance through the translucent, full-face veil that he was customarily required to wear around women that weren’t his wife or relatives.
”Maybe we started off on the wrong foot. I’m Ariana’s consort, Rosalia; it’s lovely to meet you. Did you like the milkshakes that I made for you?”
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Rosalia’s apparent embarrassment only made Flora and Aquius more suspicious, especially when they themselves had just mentioned that they had no sugarcane at the moment. Still, being nobles, they could tell that pressing him was not going to make him give any more information, considering that he had just started lying, A trade secret of some sort? It didn’t matter too much, considering that they were clearly not being poisoned, and it would have been an act of war to poison them anyways.
Rosalia’s choice of words, however, was also still strange. ‘I wasn’t trying to outdo your consort’ implied that Aquius cooked at all, which, of course, he didn’t. Rosalia must not have been there for that conversation. The second to last line was also strange. None of the Ghrateans had so far been offended. The Ghrateans had no clue what social rule Rosalia thought he broke, but Aquius decided to humor him anyways.
“It was rather good, my friend. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting anyone coming to know how to cook, but it’s not unheard of.”
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”I’m glad you like it! I love serving milkshakes to others when I’m receiving guests or visiting somewhere; everybody says that they taste amazing, and that they love how deliciously sweet and rich and creamy my milk is. I don’t have any left in me to make refills for you now, but I’ll be sure to make a lot more of them for you while I’m here since you love them soooo muuuch!”
Rosalia felt very proud of himself for impressing Aquius with his drinks; making food was viewed as one of the most important skills for a Belsedori consort to learn, and he greatly and visibly enjoyed being praised for his cooking skills by Flora’s husband. While he was quietly celebrating, he looked over to Caes and Lucia.
”And it looks like Duchess Lucia and Duke Caes loved drinking them too; they’ve managed to empty their whole glasses while we were talking!”
Duchess Ariana, who had walked up behind Rosalia to intervene on his behalf when he became visibly flustered, began to gently pet Rosalia’s head and address him in an extremely patronizing tone of voice,
”Of course, honey! You’ve always been very good at producing lots of high-quality milk, and Duke Caes loved it in the ham dumplings that you made for him when he visited us too; hehe! You’re so good in the kitchen, and you always make such delicious milk for everybody; I’m sooo glad that I have a sweet, pretty, loving little blossom like you for my consort! Although, maybe I should make your bell louder; I can’t have you wandering away from my side without telling me like that, and you just look like such a cute, delicate little doll when it jingles away on your choker while you walk!”
After a few more seconds of being pet, Rosalia was reminded of something by Ariana’s words.
”Oooh! I should make dumplings for everybody too!”
Rosalia, who until now seemed blissfully entranced by Ariana’s lavishing him with condescending affection, directed his attention back at Aquius.
”I’m really excited to see what we’re going to have for dinner! Did you want me to help you make it? I’m as comfortable in a kitchen as any consort should be, especially when I’m making dumplings! Although, you’ll have to do anything with dairy in it yourself until I can make some more. But I’m very eager to try it; I’m sure it’ll be absolutely delicious!”
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The faces of the Xhaasans changed almost immediately as they understood the true meaning of the words that were spoken to them; they had just drank an entire bottle of milk that had came from a person. Lucia in particular was of less mental constitution of her husband and nearly dropped her empty cup. She then turned to glare at Caes who responded quickly in Ghratean, saying “Eg nonan skemota!” I didn’t know! Lucia clearly was taking the information the worst out of the four of them. She suddenly wished that she had stayed in Iyanala. Caes coughed a few times.
The Amisans were faring much better comparatively, as to be honest, even as noble children they had probably eaten nastier stuff. They also had less cultural taboos about food in general, and were simply quite perplexed about the development. They both, however, very slowly, put their drinks down.
Flora spoke. “Rosalia, humans don’t… drink another human’s milk, except for as babies. I… struggle to comprehend how you even had enough to make these drinks. Human milk, as far as I know, at least, isn’t naturally sweet, and neither is milk from any animals we know of.”
“Hai!” Lucia said in agreement, still too befuddled to stop speaking in Ghratean.
“Men also don’t produce milk,” Aquius said, continuing. “And Ghratean nobles generally don’t cook. We have an entire staff for that.”
It was very clear the Ghrateans were uncomfortable with the place this drink was sourced, although they very barely managed to keep looks of disgust out of their faces. Except Lucia, who was the greatest affected by the information.
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Both Ariana and Rosalia were more than a little shocked at the revelation that the Ghrateans had any objections at all to drinking humanoid-sourced milk. After all; they had no problems with drinking milk in general, and where else would they get it from if not from humans? Neither of them really knew what to do in this sort of situation, so they simply listened to Duchess Flora’s exposition for the time being. Both of them then turned to look at Duchess Lucia when she spoke, but Ariana quickly turned back to listen to Aquius.
Duchess Ariana had very little idea of what to do at this point. An apology or similar didn’t seem workable at the moment; Rosalia’s giving the Ghrateans drinks that were made with Belsedori milk was entirely appropriate according to the customs that he had been taught, and he was only trying to show kindness to them by making them drinks. But on the other hand, the Ghrateans were clearly very uncomfortable with the idea of drinking milk that Rosalia had failed to specify was sourced from a person on account of him believing it to be so obvious as to not even need stating.
”I see… Well, I’m sure Rosalia wasn’t aware of that; he only wanted to be nice by making you drinks, right honey? Hm? …What are you looking at?”
It was at this point that Ariana realized that Rosalia had stopped paying attention to the conversation that he was next to, and then looked to see what Rosalia was so fixated on as to completely ignore everybody else. She quickly took notice of the fact that Duchess Lucia seemed… significantly more bothered by the drinks than everybody else. A quick nudge to Rosalia brought him back to the conversation at hand, but Ariana quickly observed with dismay that the worst damage had already been done.
After reorienting himself and trying to figure out what had happened since he had stopped listening, Rosalia decided to volunteer speaking.
”W-well, if you really do-don’t l-like the drinks that m-much, then I-I can take an, anything that you don’t want…”
Rosalia, who at that point seemed to be barely stopping himself from beginning to cry, then quickly took the milkshakes away from in front of Flora and Aquius and returned to his chair before Ariana could say or do anything to stop him. With nothing else to do at this point, Ariana then returned to her chair next to Rosalia’s and attempted to calm him down with hugs and pets while occasionally glaring at Duchess Lucia.
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After this awkward conversation, another Cloud Fae entered the room (almost falling out of the air at the sight of the Belsedori before quickly regaining her composure) and stuttered, “D-Dinner’s almost ready, my lady. The cooks say 15 minutes. We p-prepared it seperate from the rest of the court as you asked.”
Flora responded in a soothing Ghratean voice. “Gratudu, Pakere.”
The fae zipped out as if she were being hunted by a predator.
Flora then broke the silence between the nobles with a clearing of her throat, and then saying “My servant there informed me that our food is nearly ready. I will have a servant show you to your temporary room if you need to unpack or change before then. Caes, Lucia, I assume you know where to go?”
They both nodded. As they all left the room, Caes could be heard whispering in what seemed like an angry or annoyed tone to Lucia as they went to their room.
Dinner
After a little bit, the Belsedori were led to a room with a small dining table in it- small by Ghratean standards, at least, for it didn’t feed an entire court or at least a sizable part, but simply 6 nobles. As they took their seats, they saw the food on the table: It looked like it was a kind of soup with some vegetables and some kind of fruit in it, and to the Belsedori it would have been hot- Although to the humans it would have been barely lukewarm. The counterparts in the human bowls were still steaming, so it seemed that they finished the Belsedori food first and let it cool considerably before serving it. It also didn’t appear to be some peasant soup, as it was very well presented and elegant.
Lucia seemed to look a bit guilty, but before she could say anything, Flora greeted the Belsedori. “Thank you for coming to dinner. Caes informed us of the temperature disparity in the food he noticed from his visit, so we tried to ensure that it wouldn’t burn you. We didn’t know the exact correct temperature, however, so still be careful.”
{OOC: feel free to write any interactions before the dinner.]
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”That was just awful!” said Rosalia as he shut the door after walking with Ariana to their room. ”I go out of my way to make refreshments before anybody has to even ask me to, and everybody acts like I served them milk from an animal!”
”You should have waited for them to ask, sweetie; at least then nobody would be able to complain about you doing something that they told you to. I’m sure that they didn’t have anything against you, though.”
”Flora and Lucia didn’t even ask to pet me when we first met; I’m starting to feel like Lucia doesn’t like me.”
”Aww, It’s not going to be anything like that; maybe they just thought that I was supposed to ask to pet Aquius and Caes first, or maybe they wanted to wait until Aquius was there and then forgot. I’m sure that it’s nothing.”
Ariana tenderly pet Rosalia’s head a few times before going to unpack the couple’s luggage. Rosalia then quickly began to change clothes for dinner; fifteen minutes wasn’t nearly as much time as he usually got to wash and soften his hair and feathers, pick and change into a new outfit, and otherwise take care of his appearance before attending a host’s dinner, but Belsedori consorts learned all kinds of spells that could speed up the rather complicated process if time was ever an issue. The first step was to take off all of his accessories and undo his hair braids for a brief moment so that he could quickly freshen his hair with magic.
”It’s been a while since you’ve had a meal that you haven’t helped cook yourself, hasn’t it honey?”
”Yes. I can’t believe that Aquius would let his wife replace him with servants, though; he even said that Ghratean nobles in general usually don’t cook. What kind of consort doesn’t love staying in a kitchen and making delicious food for his wife every day?”
Rosalia was now busy putting on a bright white, ruffle-trimmed dress with honeydew green ribbons that Ariana had recently removed from their luggage.
”I have no idea. Not to insult our hosts, but I wonder if the food will be any good; servants are nice for some things, but they’d never put half as much love and care into making a home-cooked meal as a sweet consort like you does.”
Rosalia blushes slightly as he puts on long gloves and socks that roughly match his previous wear save for a change in ribbon color and more lace detailing around the gloves’ wrists.
”It’s really the least that I can do to show all of my love and appreciation for my wife; it’s far from anything special.”
”Seems to be pretty special around here.”
Rosalia has finished putting on all of his main clothes and is now tying a large white ribbon into a bow on the upper back of his reformed crown braid, which has been freshly decorated with both another small white ribbon and a large, pink flower.
”Maybe Ghratean boys do other things instead of cooking; they seem to learn some kind of magic, at least.”
”I’m not sure if it’s the kind of gardening magic that you wanted to learn, though.”
Rosalia, having finished tying his wedding ribbon, putting on his veil, and replacing his pure white choker with a similarly colored collar, turns to face Ariana.
”Do you think that I look cute?”
Ariana looked over Rosalia’s clothes. He’d replaced his previous outfit for pure white clothes accented with soft, pastel green ribbons on his chest, waist, sleeves, and socks, as well as abundant ruffles and lace decoration. The light, airy clothing, Rosalia’s already slim figure, and the glittering light on his earrings and necklace gave Rosalia such a magical, ethereal appearance that Ariana felt as if he looked like someone from a dream.
”You look perfectly adorable, sweetie; I’m sure everybody will love your outfit. Speaking of which, we should be going to the dining room soon.”
Dinner
Ariana puts her hand close to the soup to feel the temperature.
”This seems to be about the right temperature to me. What do you think, honey?
”I think that I can eat it without problems.”
Rosalia’s reply was spoken so softly as to be barely above a whisper; he was mostly preoccupied with fidgeting with the bell that he had transferred from his choker to the collar that he was now wearing. He also seemed to still be at least somewhat upset by the events of the previous conversation, as indicated by his unhappy demeanor and the fact that he had returned to clinging to Ariana’s left arm.
”So; what kind of soup is this?”
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The Ghrateans glanced at Rosalia when he came in. They didn’t stare, but they did seem to either be confused or somewhat surprised at his clothing. Flora looked at Caes and raised an eyebrow. Caes only shook his head. It seemed that Caes and Lucia were avoiding each other’s gaze.
Flora went ahead and explained the soup. “It’s a soup made with a fruit we call Harrafrux- always fruit, because, strangely, it grows year round. It’s quite delicious, as well, and rather nice since we mainly rely on agriculture stocks to get through the winter. Manually growing plants takes too much effort during the winter, and even if the farmers were willing to do it they wouldn’t be able to handle the cold. This fruit is the one exception- It grows in the coldest of winters to the most scorching of summers.”
As Flora finished her explanation, Lucia looked continuously more like she wanted to say something. Still, she remained quiet. Aquius seemed to be concentrated on something.
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Duchess Ariana took a bite of the soup, and seemed to be pleased with it.
”This is very good soup; thank you. In Belsegallia, most of what we eat that doesn’t come from an animal or a cons… cough comes from trees; the ones that we have are very easy to grow in perennial snow, unlike other plants that are restricted to a few places with seasonal snow cover. Extreme heat isn’t a problem, though; at least, not the kind of heat that you encounter in terrestrial places like this.”
As Ariana was speaking, Rosalia also lethargically tried the soup. He said nothing to anybody about it after having a bite, although it was unclear whether this was because he was customarily supposed to keep quiet or because he was still busy with being upset. Ariana, who had just exhausted her ability to discuss Belsedori agriculture and was unsure of whether it would be a good idea to test her luck by engaging with Lucia or Aquius, decided to fall back to every Belsedori wife’s favorite topic of conversation: her husband.
”Do you like Rosalia’s dress? I let him pick it himself this time; I think that he looks adorable it it.”
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Flora looked at Rosalia. “He looks very nice.” As she finished speaking, Aquius got up and whispered to Caes in Ghratean. Caes chuckled as he got up. Aquius looked at his wife. “We’ll be right back. Some of the boys from the training apparently figured out that Caes was here- We’ll keep them from disrupting the rest of you any further.” They both walked off.
Lucia took a good look at Rosalia for the first time at dinner. She had glanced at him when he and Ariana had came in, but hadn’t really looked at him well. After about a second, she got up. “Before we continue any further, I would like to apologize for my outburst earlier. I was prepared for some cultural discrepancies, but that one took me completely by surprise. I ensure you both that it will not happen again.” She sat back down.
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”We understand. Although I can see why Rosalia didn’t feel that he needed to specify exactly where he got the ingredients for his drinks from, he still made them without asking first; I’ll make sure that he doesn’t run off and do anything like that again while he’s here…”
Ariana looks to her left at Rosalia, who’s still silently clinging to her arm and avoiding eye contact with everybody else, before returning back to her conversation with Lucia.
”…Not that I’m going to need to for a while. He’s quieted down a fair bit since we got here, so I might not have to stop him too often.”
Rosalia, for his part, is continuing to silently eat his soup outside of the current conversation.
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Flora nodded. “We understand that there are some very major cultural differences between our nations. I sincerely hope that we didn’t offend you too much- this is a learning experience for everyone.”
At this moment, Caes and Aquius returned. Caes in Particular looked at Rosalia for a moment before sitting down.
Caes talked as he sat back down. “Rosalia’s outfit looks… very nice. Is there any special reason for it?”
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Duchess Ariana looked over at Rosalia again.
”Hmm… nothing significant that I can think of, aside from being on a foreign visit in general; Rosalia’s outfit does have a lot of decoration on it, but that’s common and normal for boys’ clothing. It is made with a different kind of fabric compared to what he was wearing earlier, but you wouldn’t notice the difference unless you touched it directly.”
Ariana then removed a small piece of paper from one of her pockets.
”And, speaking of special occasions, have there been any changes to the visit itinerary since we last planned it? i have a preliminary one here, but I should check if anything needed to be adjusted after I departed.”
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Flora shook her head. “No. We should be visiting further inland as planned. Arsilva, where we will see the Gilded Palace of old, Flos, where we will see the Great garden- The second biggest in all of Amisa- And to Tabulon, where many maps are made- although they’re more famous for the unique fruit that go there. There aren’t many highwaymen this time of year- They wouldn’t be able to handle the cold- And we’d probably be travelling by air until we actually get into the cities anyways. I have us set to set off the day after tomorrow, to give you a chance to more comprehensively explore Irigutus.”
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Ariana put the piece of paper back into her pocket.
”That sounds lovely. I’m sure Rosalia will enjoy getting to spend lots of time at this ‘Great Garden’ that you have; boys always like doing things like walking around gardens and looking at pretty flowers.”
While Ariana was still talking, she replaced the now-empty soup bowl in front of Rosalia with her half-full one and gently pet him on the head.
”Visiting the Gilded Palace will also be a wonderful opportunity to observe more of Ghratean architecture and interior design. Is it made in a different style or materials from the castle here, or is it largely the same?”
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“The Gilded Palace was built years ago, before Amisans and Xhaasans ever made contact. It’s style is different- Amisans back then had a heavy liking for silver, and so the greatest buildings of old were ‘gilded’ with silver designs, hence its name. Its architecture is more elegant and elaborate then typical Amisan buildings today, which focus more on conforming with nature- cities that try to blend into the forest. Of course, being a coastal city, Irigutus does nothing like that, so it is closer in style to the old architecture than a regular town or city.”
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”Hmm. We don’t have much silver or other natural metal in Belsegallia, aside from ancient relics in abandoned places; getting to see so much of it will surely be a special experience. I suppose that there are indeed some benefits to living in the terrestrial realm, even if the atmosphere here is uncomfortably dense; at home, we use magic to make metals and gemstones because Belsegallia has few natural ore deposits.”
Ariana stops to think for a moment.
”Although, where do you get them from? I never saw any metallic crystals anywhere outside when I was flying; do you find them somewhere else?”
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