While the coming-of-age party was there to basically show of the wealth of the family, engagement banquet was there to show of the wealth of a couple. Traditionally you were not supposed to use family's wealth to throw this banquet, that is why you were not expected to throw it when you got engaged younger. Most people even did it after they graduated academy, but in our case, it was no big deal, since we were already running very successful business with my fiancée, that was making us more than enough money to cover the costs of one banquet.
And so, we started the preparations and sent out the invitations. One of the biggest surprises of the banquet came shortly after that. Between people that confirmed that they would be attending the banquet was also the king, he announced that he would be coming together with the queen and his eldest daughter.
King normally didn't attend any parties or banquets sending him an invite was just formality for all the nobles coming from families of marquess and higher. Seeing that I was getting engaged to the daughter of baron and two commoners it never crossed my mind that he would want to attend. Even less that he would bring his eldest daughter.
Eldest princess was the main villain of the story, she was the greatest prodigy in the kingdom. She was the number one student that was never beaten and won all the fights and duels she got into in a matter of seconds. This got to her and she became bored, extremely bored. So, she decided to open portal to hell and let in a legion of demons, in order to fight something more interesting. Threatening the whole world just to have a good fight. In other words, first princess was a battle junkie and a lunatic.
She was two years older than me and already attending the royal academy. During the first and second act of the game, she appeared twice in a fight and several times in cutscenes. Once killing a strong monster after main character managed to hold it down until she arrived and second time as an unbeatable boss that kicked main character's ass. Those two events were actually connected, she saw some potential in main character after she saw him single-handedly hold down the monster so she challenged him to a duel. This ended up in crushing defeat where she one-shoted the main character. You know how in some games you have to face boss that is meant to kill you but there is a possibility that you can win if you are good enough. Well, that was not the case here, you were made to face an end boss in the first act of the game. There was no way to win that fight. Third act of the game was where she started her plan to open the portal to hell so that she could fight demons.
Seeing that she will be attending I became nervous, last thing I wanted was to be around her. I ultimately decided to not worry about it, I could still hope that she was not aware of the fact that she is meant to come. She still could have been added by king without asking her.
Regarding the preparations, we decided to go all out. We wanted to show that our business is booming and that we have more than enough funds to live on our own.
We bought a mansion in capitol just for us, it originally belonged to the marquess but he could no longer effort to maintain it since he was having massive issues with funds. We customized it to our needs and wants, changed all the furnishings, repainted the whole thing and made sure everything is in perfect order.
Another surprise came when we wanted to hire people to take care of the mansion. The morning, we wanted to go to work agency Sebastian showed up in front of our mansion together with maids, gardeners and cooks from our mansion outside of capitol. All of them asked father if they could become my employees. According to Sebastian my father released them all with a smile on his face.
Next, I dug into my memory to find some recipes from my old world that could work here. I was able to remember recipes for some desserts and a sorbet recipe for which I decided to use ice magic instead of a freezer. I gave all that to our chef and asked him to train making those.
While I was doing that, Trish also worked hard. She was picking out decorations, looking for perfect musical troupe, entertainers and so on. Making sure everything is perfect and unforgettable.
There was not much Rina and Yuki could do to help, most of the time they tried to be with us and make sure that we know that they are there for us. Their most important task was taste testing the desserts and sorbets, I asked the chef to make. They seemed to enjoy this role very much, according to them the thing they enjoyed the most were sorbets.
Sorbets were made from crushed fruits and sweet liquors or honey. Once properly mixed it was frozen by ice magic and served. We ended up having about 15 different flavors of them. Since they needed to be cooled regularly with ice magic, we decided to serve them from separate table manned by a person that was highly skilled with ice magic capable of keeping the sorbets frozen.
The date of the banquet approached quickly. To my surprise the most anxious ones were my father and Trish's parents. Since we told them that they are not allowed to see our mansion before the banquet and that they are not allowed to participate in any preparations they were worried and very anxious. Even more so, when we told them that king will be attending.
About a week before the banquet my father held the so-called family bonding dinners. They were three dinners back-to-back three evenings in a row to which he invited me, my fiancées and every time family of one of my fiancées.
First dinner was Trish's parents, I got to meet her mother for the first time. Her mother was very elegant and dignified, mature woman. We mostly spoke about our plans for the future and Trish's parents used this opportunity to get acquainted with my other two fiancées.
Second came the Yuki's family. To be precise her mother, since she had no other known living family. Her mother was basically older more mature version of Yuki. She was once a prostitute in a high end brothel, then she ended up being pregnant and had to leave the place. She was not sure who was the father since she had to sleep with many men during her work so she was forced to raise her kid alone. Once Yuki grew old enough, she became an adventurer supporting her mother and raising in ranks, ultimately gaining a privilege to chose a surname from the king upon reaching the highest rank, the S rank.
Third dinner was with Rina's family. Her family was large and not very well off. But everybody could see how much they loved Rina and how happy they were for her. My father had a surprise for them at the end of the dinner. He gifted them a house here in capitol, so that they can be closer to their daughter. Seeing this I tore Rina's contract and ensured Rina's family, that they have nothing to worry about and that I am going to take care of them.
Rina and her family had hard time accepting this but since we gave them no choice, they ultimately accepted. After quite a lot of tears of joy they all hugged me and my father, thanking us.
After this came the day of the banquet. First to arrive were my father and Trish's parents. We showed them the mansion before the rest of the guests arrived.
A little more than hour after that, other guests started trickling in. First to arrive were lower nobles, barons and viscounts. About an hour later another wave of nobles came, this time they were earls and marquesses.
As the second group of nobles arrived the usual mingling of nobles started. Barons and viscounts were doing their best to create and cultivate existing relationship with earls. While earls did their utmost best to do the same with marquesses. This game became even more complicated when the three other duke families of the kingdom arrived. It was rare to see all four dukes of the kingdom at one place. At first only one of the dukes announced that he will be attending the banquet, but once king also decided to come the others quickly changed their stance and decided to attend. This triggered a domino effect where nobody who received invitation wanted to miss the occasion.
The three dukes were mostly waiting for the king to arrive while most of the marquesses was trying to talk to them, earls were trying their hardest to piggy back off of marquesses so that they get an opportunity to speak to dukes. Like this it went all the down to measly barons.
All this stopped the moment the announcer announced that the royal family has arrived. My father personally led them into ballroom. First one to be announced was the king, right after him it was queen and lastly the first princess.
Hearing the announcement, I cursed under my breath as I walked with the girls to greet the royals.