"Thank you. I'll take the tray by myself. There's no need for me to bother you more than I have. Go and sleep," I said as I took the tray of food for two from the eunuch.

"If that's what you say. Servant will take their leave," the eunuch said with a bow before they closed the door for me since my hands were full.

"Alright. The chairs aren't too comfortable at the table, but you can use the desk chair since it's at least padded," I said as I placed the tray of food down on a small wooden table and then swapped one of the rather uncomfortable wooden chairs for the bearable desk seat.

"It's fine. You've done enough, I'll take the wooden seat," she said as she got up.

"I insist. Let me be chivalrous," I said as I blocked her path.

"I believe in equal rights," she responded with a smile as she pushed around me.

"I suppose I can't argue with that. Props to you," I said with a laugh. I took a seat across from her and clumsily took the food I wanted with the sticks we were given. Whoever came up with chopsticks being a good eating utensil needs to be promptly shot.

"Sir, just so you know, you need to eat first according to etiquette. Before you say otherwise, I will be asked if I followed proper etiquette and if I say I didn't, the punishment will be severe," Annaliese said as I stared at her, having actually been waiting for her to take some food.

"Can't you just lie and say you did? I couldn't care about etiquette if I tried," I said as I tried to pick apart some kind of meat into smaller pieces.

"The punishment of intentionally lying to an official is death," she said calmly.

"That's.... Draconian at best," I said as my mouth formed into a thin line.

"There are no savage and civilized people. There are only different cultures," she recited.

"Do you actually believe that?" I said with a smile as I ate a green bean that was in a liquidy sauce of some kind.

"No. If your culture is to rape people for their crimes, your culture is inherently inferior," she muttered while she took some of the green beans I just ate from the large serving plate before following it up with, "Forgive me, politics is not a discussion I should be getting involved in."

"I get off on political discourse, consider it part of your job," I joked, invoking a small smile on her part after I ate a piece of the meat I cut up.

"Nonetheless, I'm not actually allowed to talk about it unless you expressly ask for my opinion," she said as she takes some of the meat I just ate and put it on her plate.

"I am expressly asking for your opinion on this, though," I responded as I took a bite of a sort of pancake of fried seafood put together.

"Yes, but.... Is it normal for you start talking about politics with someone you just met? I thought that was considered rude?" she asks as she takes some of the seafood pancake onto her plate.

"It is. But you're supposed to be a comfort woman, right?" I said as a joke that I just realized was rather cruel.

"Hah. Yeah, I guess that's right," she said with a smiling, seemingly taking little offense to my terrible joke.

"That was also a tasteless joke, I'm sorry for that," I said as I put down the chopsticks, her doing the same.

"Maybe it was, but it was still within the realm of amusing," she said with a small twinkle in her eye.

"That's.... Still a politically incorrect statement," I said as I ate more green beans.

"What funny joke isn't in some way," she said before eating some of the green beans.

"Quite a few," I said with a small frown.

She stared at me for a few moments, almost seeming disappointed before she said while putting down her chopsticks, "Forgive me, it seems I've displeased you."

"Displeased I may be but it doesn't-. No, no, no, get up, don't start again, please," I said as I grabbed her arm to stop her from getting on the floor and begging for forgiveness.

"I-"

"No, it doesn't matter, please stop. I don't enjoy seeing anyone doing that to me, please get up," I said as I lifted her back into her chair while she refused to look at me.

"..."

"It's hard to have a conversation about it if you don't talk," I joked with a smile. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work, as she just stared into her lap.

I sighed with mild annoyance before I went to my desk and sat down saying, "I'm not that hungry since I ate before the conference ended. Eat as much as you want, I should go over some papers more."

I rifled through the drawers until I found an orange folder that was delivered to me this morning that has newspapers in it from Astrya's state run news source along with a newspaper from the Republic of Saxony that had been censored in certain parts. I took out the newspapers and read the state-run newspaper in its entirety before I skimmed over the one from my homeland, realizing how much smaller it was due to how much was censored. They were the same as always, when would they learn that if they keep doing this then even I couldn't help them. Not unless I could manage to get promoted within the next year, which is highly unlikely

I leaned back in the uncomfortable wooden chair I had forgotten to swap back with the desk chair and stretched my back and arms. With a sigh, I put the papers back into the envelope and signed the box on the front of it that had today's date with a pen I grabbed from a nearby cup. I got up and threw the envelope next to the door outside before closing it and seeing that Annaliese hadn't moved since I left.

"Are you not hungry?" I asked her as I took a seat across from her, no longer annoyed with her.

"That's not it," she said as she played with her hair.

"What is it then? Some etiquette rule I don't know about?"

She looked up at me with a cautious look before she said, "I'm not allowed to eat in front of you, and if you insist, I'm not allowed to take from a dish until you eat once from it, and I'm not allowed to actually eat from it unless you eat from it again. Forgive me for my condescending attitude."

Ignoring the last part as I assumed it was another etiquette rule, I said to her, "You should have mentioned that earlier. So, do I just eat twice from everything or...?"

"If you want me to be able to eat everything, then yes. Sorry," she said with a sad smile.

"I don't understand Shangandain culture and I never will. Fine, I'll do it," I said with a laugh as I sat down and got to business, appreciating the small smile of happiness on her lips.

After I had managed to do what I was told I had to, I noticed how dark it was outside and told her, "I'm going to sleep since I need to wake up early tomorrow."

I took off my suit jacket and left it on the desk chair, opting to sleep in my clothes since I didn't want to change in front of Annaliese. The nanofiber in the clothing keeps them unwrinkled anyway, so there was no need to worry on that front. After slipping under the blankets, I promptly fell asleep as I had woken up rather early that day.

"Uh... sir? I need.... He's asleep, never mind."