novelraw Chapter 52
Chapter 52
Chapter 52: Euphemia’s Mysterious Client
However, the imagined erotic scene did not appear.
A silver-haired maid was hugging a round magical cactus, its spikes stabbing into her so badly that her expression had become slightly twisted.
Meanwhile, the golden short-haired loli vampire was holding a straw, poking it into the still-struggling magical cactus, trying to suck out the juice inside it.
At the center of the table sat a pot of enticingly colored mao xue wang.
Mm, vampires liking blood-based dishes was perfectly reasonable.
Mm, Koberen people not being able to handle Yunque’s spiciness was also perfectly reasonable.
Mm, high-tier witches having magical pets with them was reasonable too.
Mm, magical cactus juice being usable as a substitute for drinking water in the desert barely made sense as well.
But how the hell did all these things combine into this situation?!
Lina finally snapped and yanked open the folding screen. “Can you two calm down already?!”
……
The blonde vampire girl stood beside the table with her head lowered like a child who had done something wrong, while the maid beside her covered her face, too embarrassed to look at Lina’s expression. Off to the side, the magical cactus had finally quieted down and lay flat on the floor facing upward (though nobody knew which side counted as the front), looking extremely peaceful.
With her hands on her hips, Lina had a mountain of things she wanted to say clogging her throat, but in the end she swallowed them all back down. She sighed and said, “The shop doesn’t have milk, but they do have soy milk, so I already ordered some for you. Magical cactus juice is numbing. If you drink that stuff, forget about sleeping tonight.”
“Uh… thank you…” Euphemia quietly raised her head and stole a glance at Lina’s expression.
“Ahem, the two of you were making way too much noise, and… it caused some rather strange misunderstandings,” Lina cleared her throat. Although the maid covered her face with her hand, Lina could clearly feel that her face had become even redder.
Today, Seriel was still dressed in her neat and capable maid outfit. The fitted waist dress accentuated her enviable figure, while in contrast, Euphemia’s adorable attire was especially eye-catching.
Euphemia wore a beret decorated with a red ribbon bow and a casual red-and-white dress. The fluffy puff sleeves paired with the white frilled trim along the edges of the skirt made her look playful without losing elegance.
Her two little feet dangled back and forth in the air, clad in round-toed leather shoes. White lace-trimmed socks like candy wrappers covered her ankles, yet left her slender, fair calves exposed to the air.
She looked even more like a certain Scarlet Devil Mansion’s second young lady!
And they both had the same chest…
Lina let out a soft sigh and said, “Sigh, it’s not really a big deal. Since it was all just a misunderstanding, I won’t say more about it… but the ingredient list clearly says there are chili peppers in this dish. If you can’t handle spicy food, why did you still order it?”
Euphemia lowered her head and quietly said, “I can actually eat spicy food… but I don’t know how to use chopsticks, and I didn’t know how Yunque food is supposed to be eaten…”
Only then did Lina notice some strange floating objects in the pot. Her eyes widened. “How exactly were you eating this?”
Seriel held her forehead and said, “Milady saw ‘Yangrou Paomo’ on the menu, then suddenly got inspired and said vampires should probably eat it with sheep blood…”
“And then I tore that thing called mantou into small pieces and tossed them into the pot,” Euphemia stuck out her tongue. “I even drank a few mouthfuls of the soup so the flavor would soak in better.”
Lina mentally reorganized Euphemia’s explanation.
Not very human-like.
Well, she really wasn’t human. She was a vampire after all.
“You two… don’t really understand Yunque cuisine, do you?” Lina asked helplessly.
“Uh… yes. Milady and I have only ever heard about Eastern cuisine from books. This is our first time trying it,” Seriel answered honestly.
Lina gently exhaled. She still could not just ignore these two pitiful-looking vampires. “If you don’t mind, you can eat together with me and my friends… Mm, I know a little about Yunque cuisine.”
“Really?” Euphemia raised her head, anticipation and a trace of hesitation flickering in her crimson eyes.
Clearly, she was still a little afraid of Lina.
But in the end, her desire and curiosity toward food overcame her fear of the “Ancient God,” and Lina’s table welcomed two new guests.
Not long after Sibyl and the two vampires briefly introduced themselves to each other, the first dish, “Liangzhou Lamb Fried Rice,” was served.
The rice mixed with the savory aroma of lamb and cumin entered her mouth. As the distinct grains of rice were crushed between her teeth, the fragrance of meat and rice bloomed upon her tongue. Lina felt as though she had returned once more to the grasslands of Liangzhou in Yunque: pastoral songs and distant flute melodies bidding farewell to the setting sun, towering poplar trees, winds carrying the scent of sand, and two girls leaning against each other by the pond…
Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo! Why did she think of her again?!
Lina raised her head and discovered that her companions had also started enjoying the food, each of them wearing blissful expressions on their faces.
Looks like the taste suited them too.
And then she saw Euphemia attempting to pour soy milk over her rice.
Just as Euphemia was about to commit the crime, she suddenly felt a chilling gaze land on her!
If I pour this soy milk in, I’m definitely going to die!
The vampire’s keen instincts protected her once again.
With veins bulging on her forehead, Lina narrowed her eyes and kindly said to her, “Miss Euphemia, please stop trying to destroy food through bizarre combinations all the time. It’s disrespectful to the chef.”
“Eek! O-Okay, okay!” Euphemia quickly picked up her bowl and shoveled a huge mouthful of rice into her mouth.
“Wow, it’s so fragrant!”
“Milady, eat more slowly,” Seriel gently raised her hand and plucked a grain of rice from the corner of Euphemia’s mouth. “This is only the first dish.”
Lina nodded. “Mm, I ordered a few more dishes afterward, so don’t worry about there not being enough food. By the way, did you come to Gaul City for the World Expo preview exhibition too?”
“Nope,” Euphemia shook her head. “I came to attend a charity banquet, and also to gather material for my next novel.”
“Gather material?” Lina tapped the table lightly with her knuckles, clearly interested. “What kind of material requires you to come all the way to this city specifically?”
“Uh… well, it’s like this,” Euphemia organized her thoughts and stammered, “One of my… one of my clients asked me to write… um, fanfiction related to the Ten Great Witches… yes, just fanfiction. But the information I currently have is insufficient, and that client only told me some of the most basic details. Out of professional ethics, I have to make sure the basic setting of the story is reasonable and well-supported… so I came here to gather material.”
“And Milady is attending a special banquet tomorrow evening,” Seriel added from the side.
“You’re investigating the Ten Great Witches?” Lina widened her eyes. “Aren’t you afraid—”
“It’s fine. My client has very powerful connections,” Euphemia’s expression relaxed slightly. “All these investigations are being done with her tacit approval. Even if one of the Great Witches comes after me, I’m not afraid!”
If there was any sort of connection in this world that could make someone unafraid of being held accountable by the Ten Great Witches… then that connection could only be one of the Ten Great Witches themselves.
Which one was cultured enough to hire a novelist to write fanfiction about herself?
First, Fantasia was ruled out. That old loli might look young and cute, but at her core she was basically an old library guard clutching a thermos of goji berry tea.
The Witch of Wind… probably not either. With her personality, if she wanted this kind of thing written, she would definitely write it herself, then shamelessly run around forcing people to read it aloud.
Fennis, expressionless. Ruled out.
The Witch of Blazing Flame and the Witch of Ocean, both illiterate. Ruled out.
The Witch of Life and the Witch of Knowledge, on the other hand, did seem like the sort who would do this.
As for the Witch of Death… well, with that face alone, every fanfiction author in the world would probably go insane trying to pair her up with someone.
That Twilight Witch… Lina had never really understood her much in her previous life, and it was hard to say now as well.
Euphemia naturally had no idea what Lina was thinking. While chewing the lamb Seriel fed into her mouth, she mumbled unclearly, “This time I came to investigate the second-ranked Witch of Death… Mm, my client told me that if I wanted to investigate matters related to her, I could go to either the Church of Death or the Harvest Church.”
“That’s the part I don’t understand,” Euphemia held her cheeks, which puffed out slightly from the food in her mouth. “It’s understandable if the Witch of Death is connected to the Church of Death, but why is she related to the Harvest Church too?”
“That really is strange. I’m curious too,” Lina pretended to look puzzled. “So what kind of book are you writing? How did it end up involving the Ten Great Witches?”
“Th-that…” The vampire girl recalled the matter. It seemed that the client had never said she was forbidden from mentioning this to others.
She stopped writing, hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward after making sure nobody else was nearby and whispered, “You all have to promise not to tell anyone first!”
Everyone nodded one after another. Only after receiving Lina’s confirming gaze did Euphemia finally relax.
With this Ancient God here, nobody should dare leak the secret.
She took a deep breath and solemnly pulled out the book titled ‘The Star Witch’s Ninety-Nine Sleepless Nights · Volume Two’.