Kraelonia Academy's Dining Arrangements

If two was a company and three were a crowd then they were clearly in some kind of party right now. Han found himself sharing a table with a lot more people than he expected to when he accepted the nobleman's invitation for lunch:

Timothy was seated at his right side, and they had dour look on his face as he faced a certain Noble.

Stuck to the young man's side was a ginger haired girl—Penny. Well, Penelope for Han apparently. The girl had made it clear to him and right now she was trying to cheer up his friend for some reason.

It so happened that on his left was Donovan. And that made his elbow room a little stuffy. They still had their axe with them for some reason!

And in front of him was Lady Angelika. She was probably the most normal one out of the group. Except she still wore her plate of armor, so maybe it was a warrior thing to have armor and weapons always on their person.

So last but certainly not the least, it was no surprise that Sir Leon de Harrington was the one that was facing Timothy. And they looked a lot more pleasant than his companion as they wore a smile, they were now all gathered together in some round table.

The nobleman sighed a bit as he looked at the empty spot on his left, "Unfortunately, I don't think Elliot's able to join us today." He looked up and mustered a smile, "But we're pleased to welcome you to Kraelonia Academy, you guys deserve to be here and we're glad to have you two join us."

"Yeah, thanks for inviting us to lunch, Sir Leon. We're glad to be here." Well, his friend wasn't going to say anything so Han had to do all the talking.

Somebody took the opportunity to kick his leg underneath the table. Han tried not to wince.

"You could be a little more grateful." Donovan mumbled underneath his breath.

Timothy muttered at the same time, "You're the only glad one." 

Now that made him a little confused on which of them actually kicked him regardless of the direction. He'd figure it out next time, except what was he supposed to say now? He could keep blabbering—he was good with that, but with all the people in their table and also some of the other students who were discreetly looking their way, there was some social etiquette in play. 

"So um…" Han wasn't sure what to say. He had to think of a topic, previous lessons? Four of them shared a class and though he wouldn't mind Penny being silent, he had to at least not leave his best mate out of the conversation.

There was also the notion of not bringing up how Donovan bloody cut his stomach open!

Suddenly Timothy managed a sniff, "We're all here but where's the food?" And he was right, all of the [ Students ] had sat down but not one of them had anything resembling food.

"It'll be here soon." Sir Leon answered with a patient smile.

He would have face-palmed if he could, he wasn't sure if his friend was being way too aggressive at Sir Leon or was actually hungry. Well he was sort of hungry too—and a bit dizzy from the blood loss.

"Pfft, just you wait, Timothy~ You'll be surprised!" Penny gave him a grin.

Donovan nodded, "It gets most new students impressed indeed. Well, at least probably people who aren't used to living in the upper-tier cities."

"Well, it's still something to look forward to." Angelika remarked with a smile.

Han Jing's imagination started to wander as he looked around the dining hall. Contrast to their round table, there were actually an assortment of designs available from a square table fit for four to a long one that were occupied by around ten to twenty people.

All around them were the sounds of chatter, gossip and laughter as groups conversed together and yet it didn't feel cramped or noisy at all. With a massive room that also consisted of high ceilings decorated with lights above him, magical orbs of light, they had a lot space. And more than ever the castle was more magical than it could ever be as multiple doors began to open themselves as literally hundred of carts strolled their way down the hall.

Timothy blinked beside him, "That's…"

"[ Enchatment ]." Han murmured with a nod.

"It's indeed a wide-scale [ Enchantment ] or perhaps a finely-tuned [ Spell ] that animates each cart to deliver the meals to the respective group of students." Penelope explained from his farther right.

She could see much further if possible.

"It doesn't make you amazed?" Donovan arched a brow at him, hardly stopping himself from sputtering. "Is it a common thing were you're from?"

"No, we don't have that in our village." Timothy answered for him, his eyes were still stuck to the carts moving on their own. "But are you sure we have food? I don't recall making any orders."

A small chuckle escaped from Sir Leon's lips, "I had been afraid of that, do not worry, I've already conferred with the [ Chefs ] and requested for a little of everything."

Now that was a somewhat novel idea, making requests at a cafeteria would land Han Jing a glare from the cafeteria lady but it seemed that the case was different here.

"Your friend looks impressed but you really don't seem amazed at all," Angelika remarked with a small smile, "Despite my own family, it's quite rare for an academy to go through the extents of service such as this."

"Then I can guess where the gold is being used for." Timothy added with a small frown as one of the cart stopped at their table. Each of them was covered with a lid so he had no idea what was in it until it flew off.

Now the food was something Han could drool for, but he gave a nod at Angelika, "I've encountered Enchanted Suits of Armor during the Test Trial so I suppose I kind of expected this."

"Oh right, that does make sense!" Donovan gave a begruding nod as the dishes began to fill their table.

Truth be told though, Han Jing wouldn't be gobsmacked unless the plates and cutlery actually started and singing and dancing for them.1 

He had standards.