Blood tax

Chapter 41 Shabu-shabu is really wonderful
Second Age August 1443, 10.

When the distant mountains are decorated with red leaves, turned over wool cloaks and cashmere scarves are delivered to everyone.On the crowded promenade of Homenworth, the girls put on new autumn and winter clothes are a bit more tasteful than the coolness of summer.

Griffith leaned against the tall pillar at the corner, glanced at the passing figures, and asked in a low voice:
"are you done?"

"Okay, okay! (The goods are correct!)"

The boys gathered around him breathed a sigh of relief.Just as they were about to spread out, Galadia jumped down from the high armrest, grabbed the apprentice knight's sleeve, and looked as if she had finally caught him.

"What are you doing? I smell something bad."

The homework at Homon Watts is intense and heavy, and even changing classrooms between classes requires everyone to trot to catch up.A group of people gathered together and looked suspicious.

"Nothing! (It's your illusion!)"

The twin boys standing aside shouted, then quickly shoved something into Griffith's hand, turned and ran away.

For several weeks in a row, apart from public lectures, Griffith only occasionally met Galadia a few times while passing the corridor.A few times, the elf seemed to want to say something to him, but left in a hurry before finishing the polite words.

"You must be doing something bad!" The elf's ears perked up, "Tell me!"

"Do you have any plans for the Frost Festival?" Griffith, who had collected something from the twins, patted his pocket and tried to press down the corner of his mouth.

"Are you going to treat me to something delicious and spicy!?" Galadia raised her thin eyebrows, "No, I can't wait that long, I'll go today. I'm almost suffocated."

NICE!
Griffith reached into his pocket and felt it.

From time to time, Homonwarts would require the purchase of study aids and textbooks, especially textbooks are so expensive that even second-hand books cost several silver lads.Homonwarts also has several restaurants and cafes outside the public dining hall that girls love and pay extra for.

In addition to purchasing the medicines and auxiliary materials for the experiment...

Here, as in the Legion, Griffith felt like his money was running low, and his monthly stipend couldn't be kept.In the absence of additional rewards for the task, Griffith's salary is only 26 silver lang and 12 centimes.The other Shutorals were as poor as he was.

But hey, I have another way.

Counting the money that the twins had just put into his hands, Griffith had an extra 200 silver langs!These money are all from the sale of privately brewed wine. Even if part of the operating reserve is deducted, it is still appropriate to eat a few meals and buy some gifts... Griffith counted the jingled silver coins, and said with a sigh of relief:
"Okay!"

After saying this, Griffith suddenly wondered if he had an illusion.

Just under ten centimeters to his right, Galadia was looking at him with a strange expression.It was a mix of nervousness, worry, and anticipation, with a hint of relief and relief, familiar and unfamiliar, as if the girl had waited an era for something.

"You really have something to hide from me." The elf muttered.

……

From the west gate of Homonwarts, past the grass on the cliff and the stone bridge hanging over the rapids, just outside the checkpoint is the small town of Baltimore.

The town is built on a gentle slope by the quiet seaside, with solid and cold black rocks at the foot, and there are almost no gentle sandy beaches.

It is the property of the university, and the families of the professors and employees are mostly housed in the town.Hundreds of visiting scholars come from all over the world every year. If they don’t want to live in a dormitory, they can rent a house in the town with a living room, bedroom, study and two bathrooms.

A whole street of shops, bookstores, restaurants, barbershops, and public baths was built in the town to serve the college and the scholars, as well as their families and servants.To give the people working on the street a place to live, the town stretched out on gentle slopes by the sea, where hospitals, schools, cobblestone roads and a wharf were built.

With such good public facilities, the nearby cargo ship owners shifted their routes a bit, and built chambers of commerce, warehouses and carriage companies further west in the town.

Then, it became like this...

Even after the lights are turned off in Homonwarts, you can still see the bright lights of the town from the windows and towers of the castle, just like the Milky Way winding in the sky.

On the long street connecting the east and west of the town, if you open the door of any bar or restaurant, you can see the professors and students of Homonwarts.Without the constraints of school rules, as long as you put on a wide hood, no one will know what you are doing.

"How about that one?" Griffith walked on the edge of the sidewalk with one foot deep and one foot shallow, pointing to the elegant little restaurant in front.

Galadia kept squeezing him.The two of them were walking on the wide and flat sidewalk, but the elf did not walk in a straight line, and almost pushed him under the sidewalk.

Isn't the sidewalk quite spacious... Griffith glanced at his companion suspiciously.

"No, this one!" The girl suddenly grabbed his arm, dragged him into an alley, pushed open the small wooden door, and shouted at the owner:

"Two servings of hot mutton, small greens, candied garlic and sauces! And butter beer!"

"Okay, let's cook the mutton!" The owner chopped the mutton quickly and gestured with a kitchen knife for the position in front of him.

"Hurry up, hurry up, I'm going to have a stomach piercing from hunger." Galadia pressed the apprentice knight against the small table, turned around and brought two bowls of pickled garlic.

"This is candy garlic." The elf peeled it off skillfully.

You are still eating this!Griffith was taken aback.These garlics leave a taste in the mouth and are said to scare away vampires!
The clerk swiftly brought in a peculiarly shaped copper pot and lit charcoal underneath.There was water in the copper pot, and in the water were many red dates, wolfberry, mushrooms, chopped green onion and parsley.

"This pot, not bad~" Griffith didn't know how to start, so he praised the pot first.

"It's called mutton hot pot, and it's popular in my hometown and the Sevasto region!" The elf picked up some pickled cucumbers and peanuts with thin chopsticks and ate them. "It will definitely be popularized all over the world in the future!"

"Elf food?"

"No no no, it was invented by your clansmen, the great Roland knight, the one in the ballad." The girl shook her head and looked at the shopkeeper who chopped meat expectantly.

Roland Knight can still invent this!What a talent... Griffith thought with admiration.

"He also invented a shabu-shabu pot with spices! I can't eat it, it's too spicy, but many people like it!" Galadia took the sliced ​​mutton and poured it into the copper pot. " No wonder he has been unknown in recent years, thinking about what to eat every day."

The clerk served the two of them with a strange dipping sauce, which was served in a small saucer, which smelled good.

"Quick! The mutton won't taste good when it's old!" The elf picked up a few pieces of meat like lightning, and when the sauce was poured, it was about to be put into his mouth.

Suddenly, she seemed to remember something, and stopped like an electric shock.

"what happened?"

"Well, that, um, I don't know if it's cooked~" the girl stammered, the chopsticks in her hand reaching Griffith's mouth, "You try it first."

Okay, no problem, isn't it just that I'm not familiar with it?I even eat raw meat.Griffith swallowed the mutton in one bite.

This!
The indescribable fragrance, some hot-mouthed mutton makes the hungry stomach madly squirming, the delicate meat is not greasy or greasy, and there is an irresistible full temptation.It seems that as long as you take the first bite, you can't leave it again.

It's so delicious, for the sake of this mutton, even friends can skip it!

"Is it delicious?" The elf looked at the apprentice knight with a smile, and the happiness on his face was as if he was eating.

"It's amazing," the apprentice knight chewed and picked up a slice, "and it's cooked, just right."

"Really?"

"Really," Griffith didn't think too much, put some sauce on his own boiled mutton and sent it to the elf's mouth, "Try it."

For a moment, Galadia raised her eyebrows and leaned back a little, with surprise and hesitation on her smiling face.She opened her mouth, lifted her long hair and took a bite, making an imperceptible hum.

Griffith felt his bones brittle.

So, it seems that something is not right...

The two of them were silent for a moment, then they both leaned back, sat up straight, and began to eat mutton each.

……

"Well, what have you been up to lately?"

Galadia held it back for a long time before she popped out such a sentence, staring at the mutton in the pot with her eyes lowered.

"Veronos asked me to work as an auxiliary in the alchemy course. I learned a lot of pharmacy knowledge and made some for myself." Griffith reported the progress of the work.

"anything else?"

"Do you know Nanyuan's grapes? I picked some at the beginning of the school year and put them in pumpkins to make wine. It was very successful. I'll give you a taste another day."

Although he didn't know why, Griffith felt that there was something wrong with the atmosphere, and reported the income-generating work in detail.

"Hey! How do you still have this skill!" Galadia took a sip of butter beer. "You sold bootleg wine to everyone! How much did you make?"

"Not much, not much, almost 200 silver lang."

"Hey, you~ Then treat yourself to this meal." The brisk smile returned to the elf's face, "Just because of this, your after-school time has been taken up."

"Yeah," said Griffith a little distressed, "I originally wanted to investigate the relationship between Isis and the Bayerland Cook gang, and the origin of his magical creatures, because there was no time to delay. Fortunately, the wine thing doesn't take any more time, and I have free time again."

"Thank you for knowing~ The boss has another beer!" The girl complained dissatisfiedly, "Aren't you regretting that the good time was wasted?"

Her face was already stained with a faint blush, and the butter beer was quite strong.

"It's okay~" Griffith was sure that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell, "I want to prepare a Frost Day gift, but this time I can't give scented tea."

"Ah, you said this," the elf suddenly regained his energy, his eyes softened a lot, "it's enough for the gift to be intentional."

……

"By the way, I asked the people from Larmor House to help me investigate the intelligence of Isis, the Cook gang and Rudias, and they should write to me after a while. Your imprisoned clan, What happened after that? Any clues?"

After dinner, Griffith walked back with the elf who wanted to play elsewhere.Tomorrow is not a weekly rest day, it would be bad if you missed the access control or delayed tomorrow.

"I can't find out anything~" The elf covered in alcohol gently pressed against his arm and staggered forward.

There seems to be some good taste fermenting in the autumn night.

Maybe now is a good time.

Griffith thought for a while, why Galadia went to the vicinity of Manisa Village and met him there.

"Hey, I've been thinking about something for a long time," Griffith bowed his head slightly, approaching the elf's ear.

The drunk elf seemed to suddenly stagnate.Some blurred eyes glanced at the apprentice knight and hurriedly looked away.

"That's it." Griffith began to consider the words.

"Ah~ I'm so dizzy~" Galadia suddenly pulled her hood, lowered her head, and hurriedly walked in the direction of the stone bridge.

what happened?I haven't said anything yet.Griffith followed, looking around.

Not far from the shopping street, a group of Homonwarts first-year freshmen were chatting and laughing outside the bar.The two of them unobtrusively avoided the crowd and avoided everyone's sight.

They were almost seen.Griffith suddenly realized that it would be a little inconvenient for his classmates to see him alone with Galadia.

In a group of giggling classmates, Griffith found Aaron's figure.He hasn't been seen in a special way since that night.With impeccable grace, he drank quietly in the corner of the crowd.The elated freshmen were chatting and laughing, but looked like they were his sidekicks making way for him.

Griffith couldn't help but stared at Aaron in the crowd for a while.At this moment, he suddenly noticed that a person in the bar walked past Aaron, and seemed to have secretly handed something to him.

This man was wearing a tight hood, and before Griffith could take a closer look, the blond and red-eyed boy had already turned his gaze, and looked at Griffith outside the bar with an irresistibly deep gaze.

The apprentice knight's heart suddenly accelerated.He hurriedly avoided Aaron's gaze and took the elf to detour away.

(End of this chapter)