Chapter 145: Northern vs Southern Nobles
Irene’s jaw clenched and her eyes widened slightly but the apprentices who so easily talked badly about someone she thought was nice struck her. She felt the need to defend Alix even though she didn’t know him very well. The judgment seemed unfairly biased.
However, as she saw Sir Gunnar enter the dining hall at the same time as Sir Sven, she merely settled down, realizing it wasn’t worth the argument. Her eyes then drifted to the Crown Prince who was being fawned over by multiple maids and she realized she really needed to get it together before she got herself into trouble.
As Irene looked around, one thing she noticed was that there wasn’t food at any of the tables except for the one where the Royal and Ducal families would sit. It was clear that no one else was allowed to eat yet who was lower ranked than the Princess who hadn’t made her presence known quite yet.
However, she also recalled that being a rule in her past life as well. Her husband had titles though so she never worried about when to eat. He wasn’t a Duke or King but they were never in the presence of any they had to worry about. Even then, Duke Arlin and his wife weren’t people well understood by the duchy.
No one dared question anything, but Leif and Irene shared looks of understanding.
"These must be some rules from the South," Felix realized. "Is that right, Arin?"
The light blonde apprentice raised his eyebrows.
"Not much acquainted with nobles here in the north, are you?" he asked, his tone clearly judgmental. "Those are the rules. The highest title in the room will decide when everyone else gets to eat. You’ll notice that even the Duke hasn’t lifted his fork while His Highness does so easily."
"You’ve never had to worry about that, right Iro?" Felix taunted from across the table. "Your father is lorded so he gets to do whatever he wants since there aren’t many nobles out here."