The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 14 Part 1 by Natsu Hyuuga

Author:Natsu Hyuuga
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 2: The Meeting of the Named (Part Two)

The seating arrangement at the banquet was most unusual.

“Ah...about the size of one field, I see,” remarked Lahan’s Brother. Apparently that was how he perceived the size of the place. For a single room, it was quite large. In the center was a big, circular stage, with round tables arranged all around it.

Yao and En’en were still getting ready, so they were back at the annex. The freak strategist had been asleep on the couch, so they’d left him there. Maomao wasn’t entirely comfortable with that, but between the bodyguards and the freak himself, she figured the girls wouldn’t accidentally get caught up in anything they shouldn’t. Besides, En’en was relatively adept at handling the freak strategist. Maomao hoped—she wanted to believe—that there wouldn’t be any problems.

So it was that she, Lahan, and Lahan’s Brother arrived at the banquet hall first.

“The point is to keep people from feeling that some seats are superior to others,” said Lahan. Despite being a pathetic little creature, he was dressed well, raising the question of whether clothes could indeed make the man. His outfit was plain at first glance, but the cloth was excellent stuff—very Lahan-esque. “It can’t be easy to do the seating chart with all the bigwigs who show up here.”

Maomao was thinking the same thing. It would be hard for those seated behind the stage not to feel that they were being snubbed. Making the stage circular deftly obscured what was the front and what was the back—a clever move. Admittedly, there were still two rows of tables, but the front row was for clans with zodiac names, while the back was for clans with other names, an arrangement no one was likely to object to.

“S-So where do we sit?” asked Lahan’s Brother. He was tall and handsome, at least taller and handsomer than Lahan. He had his looks going for him—but mostly so long as he just stood there. “Gosh, there’s a lot of people here,” he said.

“Brother, try to act like you belong here,” Lahan said in exasperation. The way his older brother stood and stared made him look like the quintessential tourist in the big city.

The venue wasn’t even half full yet. A few tables with no one sitting at them stood out—among them two marked with the characters Ma and Gyoku, respectively.

There were about twenty tables, and each sat eight people, but most of them wouldn’t be completely filled. Interestingly, the tables with guests showed a certain similarity in their composition.

There’s always someone who looks like a retired old guy and then some youngsters.

Even more strikingly, the ratio of men to women among the youth was about equal.

Maomao and the others sat at the table marked La.

“Hey,” said Maomao, elbowing Lahan.

“What?”

“This wouldn’t happen to be one big matchmaking get-together, would it?” Maomao narrowed her eyes.

“Not exclusively, but that’s part of it. People bring the most talented sons and most beautiful daughters from their branch families, and more than a few are looking to foist them off on other clans.

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