The preparations for the British-style afternoon tea Li had envisioned were complete.

The furniture and tableware were all in place and the food had been prepared.

Still, there was one lingering concern.

She had never once hosted a proper tea party before.

Wanting to be as thorough as possible with her preparations, Li decided to consult her mother.

“Then let’s do a trial tea party as a rehearsal. It’ll be good experience for Sonia too.”

And so, on short notice, a tea party just for family was held at the ducal house.

The participants were Li, her mother, her younger brother and sister, along with the steward and the head maid.

It seemed this tea party would also serve as practice for the relatively younger servants.

Naturally, this was the very first tea party Li herself had ever hosted.

Because of that, the servants also put extra effort into their preparations.

The final checks would be reviewed by the steward and the head maid.

“Then, please begin the preparations.”

At Li’s signal, the servants moved briskly into action.

For this day, a tea cart had been prepared.

It was a modified serving wagon designed to carry dishes, with rounded shapes and flowing curves.

Li had overlooked nothing.

She had also made a bar cart for transporting alcohol.

This one was sturdier in construction and aimed more toward men.

The tea service began as items were brought to the table.

While the tea was carefully steeped, the food was arranged on the table.

Li’s handmade three-tier stand was set down and cakes, scones and sandwiches were placed in that order.

At just the right moment, the tea finished brewing.

The servants’ movements had been perfectly calculated.

The gentle aroma of tea drifted through the air, accompanied by eye-catching, colorful dishes.

Li’s younger sister and brother could no longer contain their excitement and let out a soft gasp.

Even her mother, murmuring “oh my,” had already locked her gaze onto the spread.

“Li-chan, there’s an order to eating these dishes, isn’t there?”

Tea parties in the Amesverta Kingdom usually followed a buffet style.

Light meals and cakes were lined up on the table and guests were served whatever they liked.

Li had brought British style into that setting.

Even her seasoned mother, though she had heard about it beforehand, was momentarily puzzled by this unfamiliar format.

“Yes. I would like you to enjoy them starting from the bottom of the stand.”

As she said that, the maid at her mother’s side neatly plated the sandwiches.

“Is this fish?”

“Yes. It’s a mackerel sandwich.”

At Li’s words, her sister frowned.

Mackerel is a delicious fish.

But being a blue-backed fish, it has a distinctive smell.

That was something her sister disliked.

Li had worked through that issue with the chefs through repeated trial and error.

There were several possible solutions, but the one that received the most praise was marinating it in salted yogurt.

Plain yogurt seasoned with salt.

Yogurt with salt was not a seasoning used in the Amesverta Kingdom.

By soaking the mackerel in it, the odor disappeared.

It also allowed the fish to cook up plump and tender.

To that, Li added the classic lemon and her own homemade herb salt.

Leafy greens, thinly sliced onions and tomatoes were sandwiched together on semi-hard rye bread.

Squeezing plenty of lemon over it before eating was Li’s recommendation.

“It’s delicious. Sonia, there’s no fishy smell, so it’s fine.”

Her mother was the first to speak up.

“Really?”

Encouraged by her mother’s nod, her sister took a bite.

A look of satisfaction spread across her face.

Her younger brother was also smiling happily as he ate his sandwich.

There were also classic roast beef sandwiches and simple egg sandwiches made with mustard butter.

All of them were well received.

Among the men, her brother and the steward favored the meat sandwiches.

Her mother and the head maid chatted enthusiastically about how good the simple egg sandwiches were.

The scones and cakes that followed posed no particular problems either.

No—there was a problem.

“I ate too much…”

At her mother’s exhausted remark, her younger siblings nodded silently in agreement.

The two children’s bellies were swollen like stuffed squid rice.

Yes.

The food Li had prepared was so novel and delicious that it caused people to overeat without realizing it.