We entered the Banquet Hall to be greeted by hundreds of nobles giving us strange stares. Some were simply curious, others were not hiding their disgust from our appearances, and a few seemed to be frowning really angrily at us, as if we've offended their entire family by just existing.
"Well? What are you staring at?!" Rita asked angrily, staring daggers at several nobles. Her rowdy attitude made them recoil, several of them stepped back in fear.
"How rude, how could you address nobility in such a manner?"
"Who invited these beasts here?! Bring them out of here immediately!"
"Disgusting non-humans!"
They were certainly worse than I could have ever imagined. Then again, Rita was the one that started fighting against them for just being glared at. Typical thug girl behavior. She hasn't changed since high school.
"Ahem." David stepped in before things were to get a bit heated. "These are our guests for today, and the very reason this banquet was hosted, dear nobles. They are Lady Planta's party, who have exterminated several cultists and discovered two hidden dungeons within our country. They're nothing less but heroes. The king himself has called them to reward them for their efforts and feats."
"Huh?"
"Is that so?"
"W-Well…"
The nobles quickly fell into silence, most feeling embarrassed about what they had just spoken about seconds ago. I suppose that having a Paladin with us in this time was really the right call.
It seemed that David, as a Paladin, was highly respected and trusted even by other nobles. Although their annoying eyes were still glaring at us as if we were freaks.
But I should had known what we were getting into when we accepted the invitation, especially because the King decided to turn it into a Banquet instead of just a private meeting.
Perhaps so he could let the nobles know us and recognize us as well.
"Well, this started with the wrong foot." Mark sighed. "Anyways, we should just sit around and wait for the King to show up for now, I think."
"Yeah." I agreed. "Let's just chill and act s just chill for a bit… Rita."
I glared at Rita, who was about to fight with someone again.
"Okay, okay…!" She sighed, crossing her arms.
With that done, we tried to enjoy the banquet's food at the very least. Although no nobles ever wanted to speak with us, so we mostly had ourselves to enjoy the place.
"Well at the very least the food is not half bad." Rita said, stuffing herself with little cupcakes. "Hey, you, bring me more wine." She called a butler.
"Y-Yes…" The butler brought her a whole new bottle, leaving it at her side. Rita quickly opened it and started drinking it from the bottle…
"Phew! I love this, I can drink myself to death here without any repercussions." She laughed heartily.
"I don't know if there are no repercussions… But I guess you're not wrong in that we can eat and drink whatever." I laughed, sipping some wine myself. It was quite good; it had a strong flavor with an aromatic scent that made you feel in the clouds. "Hmmm~"
Also there were little toasted slices of bread covered on roasted meat, shrimp, and potato salad, and an arrangement of many different and colorful sauces from this world.
"Yummy! I can't stop eating these!" Acorn was devouring a large bowl of toasted nuts decorated with colorful candy.
"H-Hey, Acorn, don't eat them all!" Nieve said, she was also enjoying them, but the little squirrel was leaving none for anybody.
"Human food is certainly in the lighter side compared to my country's meals." Brisingra analyzed. "We would usually accompany every meal with copious amounts of roasted meat, potatoes, and cheese. But everything here is just on the smaller side, even the meat are just small little steaks." She was enjoying it, nevertheless. "I was always so tired of my home's food, it felt like my father was trying to fatten me."
"Honestly, I kind of liked the dwarven cuisine over this one." Mark laughed. "The larger portions fit my body better… I can barely taste anything when it is so small." He was barely able to pick things with his huge fingers and place them on his large wooden maw.
"I can feed you if you want dear." I smiled, climbing him and sitting on his shoulder. "Here." I gave him a cupcake.
"T-Thanks." He felt embarrassed. "Ah, maybe I should try to reduce my size? I've never tried going below my base form…"
"Hm? Have you tried?" I wondered. "Well, why not? Your power over your body should be advanced enough I think."
"Right…" Mark nodded, quickly beginning to concentrate.
To shapeshift our wood-made bodies, we channel both mana and spiritual energy into them, making the wood change form, either growing larger or smaller.
It takes some concentration and mastery, and apparently not many players have managed to deal with this problem, this is why races like us or slimes are so rare, people can't get used to their bodies.
However, we are quite unique in that regard, we adapted very quickly to them, as if they always belonged to us, and we were able to shape them as we desired.
Well, Mark took a longer time to get used to it as he said, but since the beginning that I and Jenny had been able to shape and mold our forms as we desired without any complications.
Crack… CRACK!
The sound of Titan's body cracking and reducing its size echoed everywhere, his form slowly taking shape as his Spiritual Energy helped him remodel it as he pleased.
FLAAASH!
Suddenly, several nobles glanced at the scene, his huge and bulky form becoming much smaller, only around thirty centimeters taller than his human appearance.
And his skin… also became clear white, and soft, imitating the skin I can produce on this body as well. His face was as handsome as his real body, and his hair… was long, and made of wooden branches and roots, his muscular body frame, covered by blazing runes made him look like an ancient god.
And as he transformed, I ended falling on his arms.
"There, you almost fell, haha." He giggled.
His embrace felt warmer than before, and even more personal…
"Elayne?"
I couldn't speak, I was blushing as I caressed his big and muscular chest.
He's so hot!
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