Chapter 125: Night of the Banquet
The return journey to Lewellyn’s dukedom passed in relative silence. Claude, Etienne, Lexie, and the mage accompanying them barely spoke as the teleportation spell pulsed them back to familiar soil.
What lay ahead allowed no time for relief. Upon their return, preparations for the palace banquet kicked into high gear. The nobles, greedy for gossip, were eager to feast their eyes on the newly risen duke, who disappeared from high society after Princess Eleanor went missing, and the so-called lost princess.
Etienne was whisked away almost immediately by Duke Eugene, whose staff ensured every detail of his transformation was executed to perfection.
"Are all of these...truly necessary?" Etienne asked as his gaze roamed over the rows of clothes before him, and hesitation played in his eyes.
"Yes. You will enter with me," Eugene answered. He waved his hand, and a female servant approached. He began giving orders, ignoring Etienne.
But Etienne was still unconvinced. "Why must I—"
"There had been rumors about me ever since His Highness disappeared. If they see you with me, no one will question where you came from."
Etienne could not refute that. His job is to sneak into the tower where Noir’s mother was. By doing that, he needed to pretend as a noble, so it would not look suspicious if he roamed the palace, and just explain he was lost if caught.
Meanwhile, Claude and Lexie slipped into the palace under the guise of new hires. The palace, already desperate for help with the large-scale event, had no qualms hiring the "duke-recommended" pair.
With only that piece of paper from the Duke of the North, they were hired immediately.
Claude and Lexie were assigned as servers because of their pleasant appearances. So, for two days, they trained alongside other recruits—learning how to bow just enough to show respect but not subservience, how to serve wine without spilling a drop, how to walk with trays on one hand while avoiding eye contact with lecherous nobles.