I enter the children’s area of the banquet.

Dangit…

While the area is significantly more empty, plenty of young possible heirs are still awake and talking.

It’s the middle of the night…

Most of those who are awake are pre-teens, but that doesn’t mean I can sleep.

I’m starting to really feel the effects of my sleepiness. The speech used up my last bit of energy to stay awake.

…Maybe I can nod off in a corner? I know it’s a bad idea, but…

I just really feel like I need to sleep…

If it’s the same as in my first life, I tend to get delirious and act how I’d probably act if I were to ever get drunk.

I’m not sure how I’d act if I got drunk, and I never will.

My dad gave me some when I was like, nine, or something. It was one of those super-cheap ones though that taste terrible,though.

I don’t remember the taste other than it was bad.

Regardless, I’m never having any alcohol. I’m well aware that that was his intention, but it’s something I should be staying away from anyway.

…Now that I think of it, a lot of common things that are bad for people, like soda, or coffee, have gone through a similar process for me.

I mean, not too similar with some. I’ve just never had soda and don’t see a reason to try it.

But for coffee, it’s essentially the same as how it is with alcohol.

…I don’t mind tea though. I wish I could have some though. For the bit of caffeine.

I need to be awake right now…

I head into one of the side rooms.

…the children of knights and dames are all over the place, asleep. Most of them in this room seem to be between the ages 5 and 8.

Very improper, but I do understand. With the culture of the nobles, going to sleep at an event such as this is something that should be avoided.

I head to a corner and lean against it, so that I at least look more awake while being asleep than the other children here.

With that little bit of support, darkness closes around my vision, and my consciousness fades.

My eyes open and I stand up against the wall at the same time.

I’m still really sleepy, but I think I’m awake enough to continue for a while.

I look around me.

Still asleep. Good.

I make my way out of the small room. By this time, the older children, apart from a few almost teenagers who’ve seem to have gotten their hands on alcohol, somehow.

I make my way around the ones who are awake and make my way to the adult’s area.

I look out a window that's on the way.

It’s of far worse quality than any modern window, but windows are extremely hard to make in this world, and are really, really, really expensive.

It’s still night time.

Excellent. So I just took a bit of a nap.

I’ll probably fall asleep at midday, but that’s not an issue.

I enter the adult’s area once more and stand in a random corner.

It’s not too long before some knights and dames come over to talk to me.

It’s all just ‘pleasantries’, which aren’t so pleasant, but it’s better than having an actual conversation. My brain isn’t quite ready for that right now.

Slowly, so very slowly, time drags on.

Once the exchange of pleasantries of a knight and I end, I make my way out of the room to take a look at the rough time via a window.

It’s early dawn.

I’d like to end the banquet as quickly as possible, so I’ll get all the votes and propositions now. It’s a little early, but I didn’t specify what time of dawn.

I head back into the room and head to the head of the table. It’s a bit odd how fast Bedo notices and rings the banquet bell.

I stand up on my chair and begin.

“Salutations once more. I’d just like to announce that the time to discuss things has come to an end. Those who’d feel like their proposition has a good chance based on your conversation during this time, please come up to give a quick recap on your proposition.” I tell the knights and dames, before filch-teleporting back to stand behind the chair.

I wonder how the knights think of my teleportation?

It never came up as a topic of conversation.

A dame who looks to be about thirty or so comes up and stands next to the chair.

She begins her proposition.

I don’t really focus on what she says, but in short it’s that the Akashi viscounty should provide soldiers to protect them.

While my opinion of the woman is lowered by her proposition, I could make use of it to easily spy on all of the knight households.

A eldery knight comes up afterwards.

The basics of his proposition is to provoke the Ulden Barony into attacking us, and request other territories to stop trade with the Ulden Barony due to the negative political effect of attacking someone who isn’t two yet.

Then once their territory is starving, and their troops are exhausted, counter-attack and conquer their territory.

It’s a very bold plan, that I think would have a decent chance at success. The big problem is that the Ulden Barony and Akashi Viscounty aren’t connected.

The viscounty of a neighboring noble would have to be beaten and conquered to allow for that.

That viscount has a head who is quite cautious, and well liked. Declaring a war against them would paint me badly in the eyes of other nobles, which is dangerous, and it’s extremely unlikely that I could get them to declare war with me in a way that doesn’t also paint me badly.

As such, even if the main part would be a success, the benefits would not be able to fall into my hands.

Another middle-aged dame comes up next.

Her proposition is to send a complaint regarding the behavior of the Ulden Barony to one of the closer Dukes or Counts, and put a bit more funding into the military to train more reserve soldiers, but otherwise ignore the Ulden Barony.

This is the proposition I like best so far. I can’t immediately think of a major flaw, either. Though I’m sure there are some.

I can send soldiers under my command to train the reserve troops to spy on the knight houses, I can prepare for war, and I don’t actually have to go to war, unless the Ulden Barony decides it’s a good idea, or I decide I want to head to war with them. I don’t have to foot the entire bill either.

Even the thing that’s closest to being a major flaw is solved rather easily. Sending a complaint to a duke or count may normally tie me to a faction, but there’s a count that currently hasn’t chosen a faction quite close. They’re on the other side of one of the Ulden Barony’s neighboring baronies.

Deciding that the solution is quite good, and it wouldn’t be worth it to spend more time on propositions, after the dame sits back down, I give a glare across the room.

If anyone really wants to give a proposition, they have the freedom to, but it will annoy me, and I’m making that known.

No one decides their proposition is good enough to risk gaining my ire, and after around two dozen seconds of no one stepping up, I move back to stand on my chair again.

…I’m getting a bit hungry… servants have replaced the food with more fresh food, and now I can really smell it right below me.

I’m glad they were also going around serving food to those standing, since I ate some before I took my nap.

“Seems we have our three propositions. I’ll be giving my opinion on each of them, and then the three who have given propositions can give their opinion on my opinion, as well as their own opinion on the other propositions if they feel that to be necessary.” I announce. I’m not really expecting any of the three to actually give an opinion on my opinion, but maybe a discussion will start from them giving opinions on each other's propositions.

“For the first proposition, I believe it will be acceptable as long as each knight house pays for the soldiers that are to be sent to them. I will send a few soldiers for free, though.” I explain.

I’ll be keeping my opinions as short as I can.

“For the second, it’s a rather bold plan, but it has a chance to have great benefits. However, there’s another viscounty in the way, and so holding the Ulden Barony once it falls would be difficult, and so the only option would be to sell it. Alas, that much money is quite the boon.” I continue

“As for the third proposition, taxes will rise slightly to pay for the training of soldiers, but otherwise, there are no issues. I’m aware of a count that’s currently factionless, and is also very close to Baron Ulden’s territory, so no issues will come from that.” I finish

I get down normally this time, and walk backwards until I hit the wall.

The elderly man stands up and makes his way to the head of the table.

“The two options proposed by the two ladies will certainly be unprofitable to the territory, whereas my proposition has a good chance of increasing the riches of the territory. We can also use the war as a chance to gain allies, and decrease our losses significantly. As long as we balance which factions our new allies come from, there will be no risk of being forced to join a faction. As such, there aren’t any significant negatives, but great benefits.” the elderly man leaves to head back to his seat after saying his bit.

The second dame gets up and goes to the head of the table.

“The viscounty is extremely rich already, so there isn’t any real need to attack for the sake of amassing more wealth. It may also be difficult to gain allies in a way that keeps us neutral. While some attention should certainly be placed in defense, and we should attack if attacked first, the wealth of a poor barony such as the Ulden Barony isn’t enough to warrant conquering or selling it. As such, it’s best to save some resources.” the viscountess explains

She heads back to her seat.

The first dame doesn’t get up from her seat.

I wait for half a minute before moving back and climbing onto my seat and standing on it.

“Alright, now that that’s over with, let’s begin voting. If you are in favor of the first proposal, please head next to the door, if you’re in favor of the second proposal, please head to my right, and if you’re in favor of the third proposal, come behind me. Leave your lovers behind, as that will mess up counting.” I order

…I don’t feel like tallying it up, so I’m hoping whether option two or three have a clear victory between them. I don’t really care either way. The elderly knight explained his better, but the middle-aged dame has a proposal that I initially liked more.

Having those who chose the first option head to the door is another hint of me disliking that option, for those dense enough to have not gotten it already.

Slowly, the nobles make their decisions and head to either option two or three.

After a bit, when no more people make there way to either side, I ask “Has every knight and dame made their decision?”

No one says otherwise.

I look at the sides.

I think option three has won.

At least, it looks like that. It’s not close enough to count. I’m 80% sure.

“Seems we’ll be going with proposal three.” I announce

“You’re all free to leave whenever you’d like, as long as you’re all gone by noon.” I tell them, before heading back into my corner.

Due to my sleepiness, my memory becomes more and more blurred.

There I stay, talking to some nobles every once in a while, as I watch the nobles congregate with eachother, while some slowly leave after grabbing their children.

A good unseen side affect is that the knights and dames seem to have started getting upset with eachother over which proposal was chosen.

The more they’re fighting with eachother, the better for me.

At noon, the last knight leaves.

I head up to my room, and quickly fall asleep.