The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 190: Out of courtesy

The music was played by musicians, flowing melodiously in the warm, spacious room along with the sound of clinking utensils as the first course of the feast was being savored by those who were specially invited to attend the royal birthday banquet.

Chattering was minimal if the guests were seated with unfamiliar guests, while some were immersed in cheerful and delightful conversation if they knew who was sitting next to each of their sides. And the bubbly atmosphere mostly came from those who were seated at the lower end of the long tables.

When the first song had reached the end of its chorus, the musicians did not stop there as the next song was played, taking its first tune before the full music once again resonating in the room with an intricate melody.

The servants that stayed in the room made their way to the tables where the guests were seated and had finished their first course. Either empty or half-empty bowls that had been used to serve the thick soups of beans, vegetables, and meat had now begun to be collected as the middle course would be carried in soon.

"Not finish it?" Canillas asked when he found there was half of the soup left in Joanna’s bowl.

A crease was formed on Canillas’ forehead when Joanna lightly nodded her head as a response while pushing the bowl aside to be collected by the servant that was still away from their seat.

However, instead of being collected by the servant as Joanna expected it to be, her bowl was taken by Canillas, who immediately shoved the leftover soup in his mouth with the spoon that was in the bowl that had been used by her.

Taken by surprise at what she was seeing, Joanna’s eyes grew wide at the astonishing conduct that was being shown by her husband, and for a certain period of time, it was the only reaction she could make to a conduct that she had never encountered before.

"As much as we can, try not to leave any food that we eat. For us, it may be easy to afford. But there are a lot of people out there that can’t afford the food as easily as us," Canillas shared his advice with Joanna, who watched him spoon the soup with her mouth slightly agape.

After being occupied with a few moments of surprise as she was taken aback that he finished the soup that she could not finish, Joanna was pulled back to her senses. In a hurry, she leaned on Canillas, saying, "Sir Canillas, you don’t need to..."

"Why?" Canillas cut off Joanna’s words, calmly taking another spoon of soup into his mouth. His focus was back on the soups that he ate after taking a glance at the dumbfounded Joanna. "Is it because you have taken sips from it, so it is not hygienic?" He resumed asking after swallowing the soup that he had taken, turning his head to look back at the stupefied expression of his beautiful wife.

He kept the volume of his voice normal, not bothering to suppress it, which was in contrast to his self-conscious wife, who always leaned close to him when speaking to him, as she did not want others to hear what they were talking about.

It was an absolutely enjoyable moment for Canillas, who could be in close proximity to Joanna, who looked like a wife that could not get separated from him, as since they stepped down the carriage, they had acted like a normal married couple.

No distance or awkward interactions were created between them. Everything seemed natural, as if it had become their usual habit to fill their days or if they had been married for a long time, despite some light conflict that had occurred a few moments ago, but gladly it had been resolved without being too complicated.

The only thing that irked him at the moment was the onlookers across from their seat and next to the other side of her. He might look unaware of that, but to notice such a probing look for the observant Canillas was not a challenging thing to do.

As he was invited as an honored guest, no one was seated on his right side, as on this grand occasion he held a special class among the guests.

He did not ask for that. It was the King of Terra who invited him and granted him that position. So if there was one objection to him being there, they should complain to their King, not him, who was only the guest.

However, the way they stared at him made him look like dirt that should not sit together with them—the royal relatives who bore higher rank among all the guests who were invited.

But of course, Canillas did not bother to care much for that trivial behavior that was not unfamiliar to him. What bothered him a lot was his wife, who could not be relaxed, as if she felt that she were under tight surveillance, making her unable to finish the food she had.

It was not the first time for him to be invited as an honored guest to a banquet. But it was his first time attending a banquet in Terra as an honored guest.

At the previous banquet, where he was invited to celebrate the victory of Archess and Terra against Valthian, he attended the banquet just as an allied guest, and he was seated with his comrades, taking a position in the middle of the long tables. Besides, that banquet was not as fancy as it was at the moment.

But for him, it was a far better and merrier banquet compared to the present one, as at the previous banquet, his comrades, the Archessan, filled around half of the room.

Nonetheless, this time, he was the only Archessan. No people from their homeland were at the present banquet.

He never expected others to appreciate his work, especially from those who bore arrogant air with them, as what he had done was purely fulfilling his duty and responsibility as a soldier.

Aside from that, he never put anything related to nobility or royalty as his heavy concern. He also did not care what they thought about others who they valued less to nothing than them. freewebnσvel.cøm

The noble blood he cared about was his wife and her core family. Other than that, they were just dirt on his shoes.

They disrespected him, and he had no obligation to respect them.

Although he had become a political pawn between Archess and Terra, one thing that could not be forgotten was that both of the kingdoms needed him. If not, why did both parties work at winning his favor?

He knew very well that his wife was not as ignorant as him, particularly with the personal problems she had with social situations that made her more self-conscious of her surroundings.

He was not completely sure what else he could do to help her ease into such a situation, aside from what he just did to bring her to a more serene place, where there was none but both of them to get along with each other, not long ago.

Neverthelles, he could not take her there again, as she was determined to attend the banquet because of her concern for him and her homeland. Thus, what he had in mind to make her feel at ease at the moment was to give her company and try to shift her focus from all the arrogant looks that had been on them since they were seated with them.

"Or because it is out of courtesy?" Canillas asked more, watching his distressed wife open and close her mouth as she seemed lost for words to answer him.

It was indeed out of courtesy. Joanna knew very well that it was the answer that she was supposed to give him.

No one she ever met would finish the food that had been taken by others, although it was one of their families. Her father and brother were included, as they never finished the food she could not finish.

Aside from that, Joanna was baffled about him taking her food as if it were untouched food—food that was not left by her.

Didn’t he find that dirty? Although they could be reckoned as family, she and he were utterly different by blood and flesh. Was it fine? The perplexed and bewildered Joanna thought deeper and deeper about what her husband was doing at the moment.

But it was actually not the main point that she objected to. Although she was in a daze, she was sober enough to keep her husband’s reputation from stalling more.

She wanted to stop him from finishing her food because she did not want him to be looked down on more than before by the people that were currently surrounding them, who were now whispering with people next to them, and Joanna believed that her husband had become the subject of that whisper.

She did not want others to badmouth him, saying that he was disgusting and shameless in a very disregardable manner anymore. She did not want to hear them insult him for something that he had never done or that he had done but never inflicted harm on others.

But it seemed that he had his own perspective on what he was doing, as what she heard next told her that she should not be worried about his reputation at all.

"You can keep your point of view toward courtesy yourself, and I won’t object to that. But I will keep mine, and no one can object to that," Canillas stated in a normal volume and light tone, as if they were having a light conversation.

Smiling at the dazed Joanna, he then lowered his head back to take the last two sips of the soup in the bowl.