Well, everyone saw me off and we were moving to the mayor's residence, where Mr. Dionne lives. But I wasn't allowed to drive.

　I got in through the side hatch in the rear of the armored car and the driving was on window flower autopilot. I grabbed the ceiling handle and stood on my feet....

　The reason is that even though it is a black suit, the pattern is shadow stripes. He was banned from sitting from the window flower because of the obvious wrinkles.

　It's a short time to stand, no problem.
　But it reminds me of commuting to work by bus and makes me want to throw up...

　The place was close enough that we managed to get there before the limit. It's hard, but we get out of the armored car in front of the garden entrance. Then we were greeted by the maids. They were all very beautiful women, and my mood recovered as I was shown to the room for dinner.

'Dionne-sama, Ryota-sama has arrived.

　The maid knocks lightly and announces my arrival inside.

　I'm kind of nervous but I'm not alone. There's a window flower hidden in her breast pocket, and Yukikaze is also obi sworded at a slight angle to the left side. With the two of you, I'm sure you'll be fine.

''Yes, we are ready. Please escort Sir Ryota to your room.

　I was worried because I didn't understand the manners, but I didn't feel the words were too formal. There didn't seem to be any problems, so I just opened up and took it easy. As soon as the maid opened the door for me, I left my coat with her and greeted her briefly before entering the room.

"Your Highness Dionne. Thank you for inviting me to the luncheon today.

　Ms. Dionne's costume is a light purple Ionic chiton.
　Her hair is loosely tied up.
　But the decoration is modest and rough.

　First of all, she puts her hand on her chest and bows lightly. He called me Sir, so I called him Your Highness. The Free City of Kishina is a nation and has received knighthoods from surrounding countries. Dionne is the daughter of the mayor, so it's hard to tell if she's royalty or aristocracy because of the complexity of interpreting her status.

　For the sake of convenience, Kishina is the Marquess and the mayor is the Marquess of Kishina in the Alpu Guard Country. It's the equivalent of an Alp count, and it changes slightly from country to country.

''It's been a while, Ryota-san. I'm sorry for the delay in thanking you. Please come in.''

　Immediately, I received advice from Windowflower via communication. Since I've returned to 【san】 indoors, it's a signal that from here on out, we'll be having a private dinner without regard to the title. It seems that as long as you behave normally, there will be no problem. As expected of a window flower, it helps.

　The room is surprisingly small, with a rather large table and four chairs, but the food is lavishly arranged. It seems to be in the form of exchanging plates with other dishes if they're empty.

　And, besides Dionne, there's one more person.

'First of all, I would like to thank you for saving my daughter, Ryota-dono. I am Dionne's father, Mendel Xinau. I am the mayor of this city. Well, now that we're done standing, let's sit down first.

　The mayor of Mendale is dressed in a tunic, leather sous-vons, etc., in a multitude of cultures; he seems to be in his 40s, but he's slender, nice middle, and intelligent. My seat is facing the mayor, but I pull Dionne's seat first at the direction of the window flower.

　There's no concept of ladies first in this world, yet it's an action that I know when I see that even women respect it. I'm not a feminist, but if you don't understand the etiquette anyway, this is Wadoohana's plan to highlight the cultural differences and make it less clear.

　I'm for equality between men and women as long as the responsibilities and social burdens are the same.
　I would welcome a permanent job as a full-time housewife(...).
　If women strongly objected to it, the culture of corporate life might go away.

　I digress, so I'll bring it back.

　If you can make them think that there is a cultural difference, the rest will be judged by their thoughtfulness and grace. When I proceeded to ask Dionne to come in, she smiled at me and agreed, and I offered her a chair. Afterwards, I went back and took off my sword belt and hung it over the chair with my jacket and took my seat.

　We toast with wine, clasp our hands together to thank him for the food, and then begin to eat.

'I've never seen the manners of the Far East before, but it's wonderful. I feel a sense of civility, even though our cultures are different.

　It's a mixture of Japanese and Western manners and nothing else. There's just no way to do anything but be polite. Still, he seemed classy to the mayor. It seems that only someone who has maintained the city's independence through small country diplomacy is tolerant of the manners of other cultures.

Thank you very much. There is no particular manner in the Far East. We are grateful for the guests and the food we receive and take care not to make them feel uncomfortable. That's all there is to it.
(In reality, there are several Japanese manners such as Ogasawara-ryu and Ise-ryu.

　I'm impressed by how easily the right reasons come out of your mouth. And according to the mayor, the aristocrats of big countries prioritize self-promotion over dignity.

　Especially the nobles of the Olin oracle country. They eat with their hands, with a woman lying on a fluffy couch. They throw the dregs of their meals on the floor and have their slaves clean them up.

　At its core, the idea is to show off one's power and wealth to gain an advantage. The goal is to make yourself look as big as possible and delegitimize the other person. On the other hand, if you are in a lower position, it is a matter of how close you are to the same level of recognition.

　It is easy to understand and effective for many people.

　However, it's not very cost effective and has many drawbacks. If it were me, I would use my opponent's desire for self-promotion. I'd lead them to the right place, and if they didn't give up their power and resources, they wouldn't be able to save face. I don't have a position I want to maintain in Ares, and I can easily get away from power.

　The Olin aristocracy might be a more tasty opponent than I thought.
　We dine together with such a story wrapped in an oblique manner.
　''I'm mostly crooked in character too,'' he chuckles in his mind.

''It's a relief that Ryota-dono's country is so far from Ares. Despite his decency, negotiations take priority over pragmatism, and he's going to have a hard time with diplomacy. And while Ares doesn't know Japan, Japan knows Ares. For a small country, information is the lifeline. For my part, I would very much like to build a friendly relationship with you.

　Mayor Mendale is a bit of a crank. He tries to play a joke on you, but his goal is to get information out of Japan. But alas, you won't find anything in your research.　At any rate, it's a different world, so you won't find it even if you look for it.

It is true that Japan is a territorial nation, but we have many military powers in our neighborhood, and we can't afford to lose sight of them. Therefore, our diplomacy is a tightrope diplomacy, in which we always seek out the intentions of our neighbors and work to maintain the balance between the great powers. Doesn't your country have a lot of agents?

　For my part, I easily abandoned civility and put a check on it for starters. It's true that I've only given out false information about Japan. But I couldn't help but react to the way the mayor sounded as if he knew I was an investigator for Japan.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have the right information.　Of course, we are aware of the surrounding countries of the Spotted Forest as well as the investigators. However, they only came to inspect the site, and if they have harmful intentions, they are too out of the loop. That's my assessment.

　They found out!
　Well, I have no problem with that perception.
　You know, that's a pretty pathetic explanation.　

'But I'm interested in your networking skills. You have connections in the Alpes, Bertha, Aegis, Riento, Minos, Robert's Chamber of Commerce, and you are an Alp nobleman and ally of the dragon. And yet, he is not well known. Let me ask you frankly, Ryota-dono, are you really a harmless investigator?

　How the hell do you know who I am?

　It's a coincidence that I made the connection, but it's scary that I have the information to do so. Honestly, I'm more in the mood for who you are than I am for who you are!

"Harmless investigators, sir?　The connections are coincidental. However, you can see that this is not a cultural investigation of Ares. In fact, I have come to investigate the cause of the gods of Ares' hiding. In our country, the help of the gods is vital to our national security, and we don't want the same thing to happen to us.

　Again, I manage to cover it up with that kind of lie. By the way, Dionne. You're adding drinks and food from the wagon very naturally... wasn't that a thank you before the consultation?　I've been locked in a dogfight with your father for weeks now!

　What is this?　It's a scam!

　It's a story about being hospitable enough, and when they're in a good mood, they're ready to talk.　And yet, we're just going to skip all that and go belly-to-belly. I can't find the thank you part anywhere?