D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 1217 1217 Sitting Down For A Meal With Royalty

KAT CHAPTER! Itʼs been so long! Wait how Long? 3 weeks! Woops

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”And there you have it. Kress and Blue take the win, with 2 points for each of their teams, while Ellenell and Burgandy take second place,” said Thyme with a grin. There was a round of clapping for the winners, though it didnʼt take long for Thyme to speak again. ”Normally Iʼd want to go through everyoneʼs scores and explain who got what… but I can see the judges are ready to beat me up if they donʼt get their promised free food. So Iʼll be assigning everyone random seats so you can all get to talking,” 

Lily quickly jumped up into Katʼs arms and glared up at Thyme as if daring the dryad to try and separate them. ”Fine, couples can stay together if theyʼre holding hands,” allowed Thyme with a sigh. Kat noticed that while a few people did share some glances, it was only Gareth and Green that held hands. Though part of that was because Kress and Stan were too far apart. The demon did look like he wanted to run over there and grab Kress by the arm. 

Lily of course transformed back into her humanoid appearance to latch onto Katʼs hand, just in case Thyme decided sitting in Katʼs arms didnʼt technically count as holding hands. Which while accurate, wouldʼve been annoying for them all. *Well this has been an interesting round. Iʼm not too surprised that Kress won, but I am surprised by how much stuff he and Blue managed to build. Maybe we shouldʼve stuck around to watch instead of going off and training?*

[Perhaps… but we put in some good effort for the training and I doubt watching everyone build sandcastles wouldʼve stayed interesting for four whole hours. Though… perhaps training nearby wouldʼve been fine.]

*I still say that itʼs safer to make sure we werenʼt going to be a distraction. Based on what Thyme said Blue and Kress were using the area outside the marked squares, so itʼs quite possible the other teams were as well.*

Before Lily could say anything Thyme had teleported everyone. There were six to a table, or seven in the case of Katʼs group because of Lily. These werenʼt the standard dining room tables either, instead there were all outside under the stars with a few stray torches burning with what looked to be normal fire, but considering Kat couldnʼt smell any smoke coming from them she had her doubts. 

The tables themselves were split into three benches, each clearly intended for two people. In the centre was a big pile of food on a slightly raised platform that Kat would quickly learn you could spin around so that all the food was… mostly within reach. All sorts of dishes were piled high on the turning table, and each guest was provided their own set of cutlery as well as a cup that had ʼtap and speak the name of your drink requestʼ printed across them. 

Kat wondered exactly how random this selection process was. Mostly because the bench sheʼd be assigned with Lily also had Oditr on it. Kat knew that if theyʼd been assigned just about anyone else save Romilda, and perhaps Borgick things wouldʼve been a squeeze, but at it stood the three of them fit fine on the bench. Even if their cutlery was a spreading out a bit into the othersʼ sections. 

On Katʼs left was Burnice, with Burgandy on her other side. Burnice didnʼt seem to mind this, but Burgandy looked a little despondent. Katʼs best guess was that the fae had wanted to sit at the same table as Titania, but that was just a guess. On the last bench was March, who made Oditr next to her look even smaller, and finally Marigold, who somehow managed to look perfectly comfortable next March. 

It did prove that it wasnʼt ʼone per team per tableʼ which had been an assumption Kat had made about Thymeʼs seating arrangements. It meant they had nobody from Blueʼs team around, or Romildaʼs. Of course, Kat found herself questioning the whole ʼrandom seatsʼ thing even more when a quick glance revealed Gareth, Green, Kress and Stan all sitting together at a table with Auctifer and Ellenell. 

”Random fruit juice,” said Oditr as she tapped the cup in front of her. Kat watched as the cup shook for a few seconds before letting out a high pitched sound similar to a bell being run and the liquid appeared in Oditrʼs cup. It was a pretty dark juice, whatever it was from. Kat sniffed slightly and determined it to be something vaguely grape-like. 

[Kat… I think I have to ask. But Iʼm sort of embarrassed to do so. I just… I NEED to know whatʼs up with the juice thing.]

*I can ask for you Lily. Itʼs fine.* Kat felt Lilyʼs thankfulness across their link as Kat rolled her eyes, hiding the motion behind reaching for some food. Kat felt it was a bit silly to be worried about asking, Oditr surely got the question all the time. ”Hey Oditr, Iʼm pretty sure itʼs rude to ask, but Iʼm going to do so anyway. Whatʼs with the juice thing?” 

Oditr looked Kat over for a few seconds, searching for something she didnʼt seem to be able to find. ”Huh… you genuinely want to know donʼt you?” 

*Welp. Canʼt lie Lily… so… Kats out of the bag. Pun intended.* ”Sort of. Iʼm curious yes, but itʼs my girlfriend that really wanted to know. She was just too embarrassed to ask, so I did it for her,” said Kat. 

Oditrʼs eyes immediately found Lilyʼs, who was trying her best to look innocent, and mostly succeeding. Having big golden cat eyes and cat ears helped her look exceptionally adorable. Oditr sighed at the display, ”Fine whatever, Iʼll tell you. Itʼs at least somewhat interesting. Took a fair bit of looking on a number of peopleʼs part…

”But the best guess that anyone has come up with, and the one I chose to believe? Dwarves naturally have a disposition for fruit juice, or perhaps, itʼs more accurate to say that a long, long time ago we did. Somewhere along the line, that taste evolved from ʼfruit juiceʼ into ʼfermented fruit juiceʼ which, as you might or might not know, is one of the paths to alcohol. 

”The logic thus goes, that for some reason, Iʼve picked up the tastebuds of ancient dwarves instead of our current preferences. We donʼt really know why, but my parents were pretty old when they had me, and my grandparents were pretty old when they had my dad. So itʼs possible that Iʼm a lot fewer generations removed from those… letʼs call them ʼAncient Dwarvesʼ. Iʼm a lot fewer generations removed from the ancient dwarves then normal, and as such, had a higher chance of developing this condition. 

”The strange thing is, itʼs never been documented before. There was an assumption, with my being Queen of the Dwarves and rather publicly known for the condition that a number of dwarves would come forward and reveal that they too had this condition but were scared to admit to because… well because as a society weʼre pretty well hooked on alcohol. Itʼs a hard thing to admit considering the social stigma youʼd gain if you did…

”But nope. Nobody has legitimately come forward with the condition. Weʼve got a few letters about grandparents or grand-grandparents that have sine passed that supposedly had the condition… but thatʼs impossible to verify really. Weʼve had a few others come and claim they had the condition as well… but it didnʼt take much testing to reveal they were all lying. Not sure why they bothered to do that…”

Kat felt her eye twitch at that. She wasnʼt exactly sure why that happened, until she sneezed afterwards. Obviously it was the sneeze thatʼs why. Oditr continued, ”Well no thatʼs not quite true. At least one of them was a perspective suitor of mine, but the other two werenʼt… or at least, I donʼt think they were. So Iʼm at a loss as to why theyʼd bother to lie about something like that. Sure having it is one thing… but being known for lying to the queen? That canʼt be a good look.”

”Some people will do anything for attention,” suggested Kat. 

Oditr shrugged, while Lily tried to muster up her courage. Kat started to gently rub Lilyʼs back with her tail, and apparently that was enough encouragement for Lily to speak. ”Um… so you said thatʼs why you think you prefer fruit juice… but is that all you drink now? Or is there like… other stuff?” 

Oditr made a ʼso-soʼ gesture and explained. ”Iʼm not incapable of drinking other things, just that when the choice is presented to me Iʼll always choose fruit juice. Thereʼs enough water in it that I donʼt need to drink that much either, though I still do. Usually before bed to help clean out my mouth.” Lily gave Oditr a look, the dwarf somehow managed to interpret. ”Hey, I clean my teeth properly, itʼs just a mental thing I think. I like to drink water afterwards ok?” 

Lily nodded, ”Yeah I kinda get it,” 

*I donʼt really. But then again, I mostly just drink water so perhaps thatʼs why.*

[Sometimes I really wonder how pleasant growing up in that orphanage was Kat. I know you like Gramps… but really just water?]

*Oh… see... Gramps did offer us other stuff, but Iʼd just save it to bribe the younger kids not to cause trouble. Made less work for me.* Lily let out a long sigh. Yup. That was her girlfriend.