"Should I?" When I turned to the emperor, I saw him noticeably relieved. I could feel that he sensed my excitement. "What kind of food is served at a royal ball? I've been to a small banquet and they usually only serve some cold meats and fruits platters."

"When did you have banquet food?" the emperor asked.

"I had it in my previous job, a few years back."

As I thought of the decadent banquet, I shook my head. The room had been filled with smoke, so that it was impossible to see any of the food on the table. However, whatever I ate after singing for hours continuously, was delicious. It was a pity that most of the food I could eat, at that time, was only soft food. I don't know why I keep thinking of that moment, except that this ball reminded me of then.

"Was that when you were with the Count?" the emperor asked.

I felt goosebumps rise up all over my arms. I was surprised that the emperor knew he had been my previous master. I could sense his anger, as if the air around us had plummeted with a cold chill. The question was, why did he get so angry over the Count? I thought about this, as I followed him to the tables covered with decadent foods. The variety of dishes seemed to go on forever. I thought the food I had been eating at the palace was fancy, but this definitely changed my perspective.

There didn't seem to be a lot of food that I recognized, but everything looked delicious. To be honest, I just wanted to take my corset off and eat as much as I could. There were open sandwiches with thinly sliced smoked fish or salted meat, colorful cakes and snacks, and sweet-looking candies and chocolates. Among them were placed small sliced cuts of meat, cheeses, and fruit skewers. The food had been displayed on luxurious two-tier and three-tier trays, decorating the table as if it were a showcase of glamorous artwork.

On one far side of the ballroom, at the end of the food tables, was a huge champagne tower. I had only seen champagne towers in movies. It was surprising that there was a champagne tower in this era, but the civilization here was so different from that of Earth, that I was consistently surprised on what they had. I just discovered fountain pens the other day.

There were glasses of liquid that was definitely not juice on the table, and I could see servants walking around holding silver trays with glasses that also seemed to be filled with alcohol. Raven's worries seemed to be understandable.

"Here you are." The emperor handed me a plate and, as if he was a mother bird taking care of offspring, carefully started placing food upon the dish in my hands. I couldn't help but laugh a little, as I also happily placed food on the white plate.

"Try this as well," the emperor said as he continued to pile food on my plate.

When I tried to skip the dessert section, the emperor insisted on placing a few sweets on my plate as well. However, in this body, I couldn't seem to handle sweet food. It was likely because, here, I had not been exposed to sweet snacks at an early age. If this had been my past life, I wouldn't have cared and stuffed a handful of chocolate into my mouth.

"Sweet things don't sit well with me," I informed him.

With a disappointed expression, the emperor slowly put down the chocolate. At the same time, his hand hesitated as it went towards the fruit plates.

"I heard you finished all of the fruit I sent you. Will these be all right?" He began trying to put the entire platter of fruit skewers on my plate, so I quickly stopped him.

"One is enough! I'm wearing a corset right now, so I can't eat much."

"Really? That's not good. Then you should take off your corset." The emperor realized what he had just said and coughed to cover his error, avoiding my eyes.

"What I mean," he continued awkwardly, "is if you don't finish it all right now, I can have whatever is left sent to on your room. You can eat the rest, whenever you feel like, there."

"If you insist," I answered, then decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. "Then I think you should eat this."

I placed some chocolate and candy, as well as three open sandwiches, on the emperor's plate. He seemed a bit uncomfortable and gave me a glare. I could sense that he wanted me to stop, so I looked him in the face and smirked. "You didn't have dinner, right?"

I placed one more open sandwich on his plate, then giggled as the emperor turned away blushing. The fact that he was embarrassed made me happy, so I placed another cake on his plate.

"Don't leave any leftovers!" I said jokingly.