Chapter 40 Night Talk

"Wow! There's also a witch and hops!" The soul fire in Takuya's eyes—the 'eye fire'—burned even more fiercely. "Then I must go and see it!"

In his previous life, Jiangyou once read an interesting story, which said that before the Middle Ages, women in Europe were good at brewing beer. Almost every household would brew beer at home. Sometimes, if they brewed too much beer, they would give it to their neighbors or sell it.

In that era, Westerners had no hygienic habits. They emptied their toilets freely on the streets and in the fields. Cities and villages were filled with the stench of feces and urine, and dirty water flowed everywhere, re-entering the drinking water supply.

Under this repeated cycle, people's chances of getting sick will greatly increase if they drink unclean water directly from the river; however, drinking low-alcohol beer will reduce the probability of people getting sick because the beer is boiled during the brewing process.

Beer became an indispensable part of people's lives, and women who wanted to sell beer would often put a broom outside their window to indicate that alcohol was for sale there.

It's like a pop-up store that opens suddenly and sells goods while stocks last. Whether you can buy one depends entirely on luck.

A cauldron for cooking malt and hops, a broom gesturing for sale, a cat kept to protect against mice when hoarding grain... These were originally essential features for a female brewer, but eventually, during the heyday of the church, they became evidence for convicting "witches."

Of course, the authenticity of this anecdote remains to be verified. The scope of "witch" hunting in the West during the Middle Ages was very wide and not only related to female brewers. But hearing the connection between witches and beer at this time aroused Jiangyou's curiosity.

——Now that we have traveled through the Western fantasy magic world, we can't just stay in the workshop and work behind closed doors. If we want to learn magic, we have to walk around and see the local customs and practices, the local taverns... Only by knowing the level of our peers can we accurately find our own position.

This is an important market survey before opening!

Jiang You was very excited and asked Holly and Aunt Wolf for a lot of common sense about Doctor Bird-beak and the witches. During this time, Andre tried countless times to lead the topic back to the 'Evil Eye Moon', intending to find out more information about the threatening letter from Holly... Unfortunately, Holly and Aunt Wolf knew a lot of gossip about Doctor Bird-beak and the Witch Forest, but their knowledge about the 'Evil Eye Moon' was no different from that of any ordinary person on the street.

They only knew the news announced by the kingdom's knights, and even some rumors that were distorted and became more and more bizarre, but there was no clue that Andre wanted to find.

This line was broken again, and Andre could only take the threatening letter away as evidence in disappointment, and warned Holly to be careful...'Evil Eye Moon' would not necessarily carry out every one of their threats, but once they found the opportunity, it would inevitably be another irreparable bloodbath.

"I don't want to see your contract invalidated by the assassination attempt by 'Evil Eye Moon,'" said Andre. In his capacity as deputy leader of the Kingdom Knights' Eston West City branch, he witnessed the signing of the business contract between Jiangyou and Holly. "I'm quite optimistic about Xiaogutou's brewery... So, Holly, hire yourself some reliable bodyguards."

Holly shuddered and decided to ask the butler to hire a bodyguard tomorrow.

Jiangyou rolled up the signed contract and stuffed it into his skull, which had developed a spatial storage function. Andre looked at her and Aunt Wolf: "It's getting late. Should I take you home?"

"I'll stay here tonight." Aunt Wolf looked at Holly lovingly, "Tomorrow morning we'll take a carriage to pick up Xiaoyou together."

"Okay, then I'll take you there?" Andre said to Jiangyou.

"Okay!"

So, after bidding farewell to Holly and Aunt Wolf, the black-haired, green-eyed knight with the skeleton mounted his tall horse, followed by his attendant, Jericho, on his mule. Both master and servant held the reins in their right hands and the magic oil lamp in their left, illuminating the night road.

Inside this lamp, there are several magic mirrors placed behind the wick, which can amplify and project the light of the oil lamp. The effect is closer to that of an oil lamp-shaped flashlight, which is enough to illuminate a considerable distance of road ahead.

"Actually, even if you didn't call me, you could have solved the case by yourself~" Jiang You hugged Andre's thin waist and subconsciously wanted to touch his abdominal muscles, but when he retracted his bone claws, he hit the cold armor.

She poked the armor with her knuckles, feeling a little disappointed, and the armor plates made a clanging sound.

Andrei's hands were full, unable to stop her rebellious bone claws. He could only glance back warningly and replied, "It's really not necessary, but with the lich around, it's easier to break through the prisoner's psychological defenses.

"There's a certain degree of randomness in how a lich captures emotions and memories. You might not be able to taste their emotions, but we know that they don't know."

Andrei smiled cunningly. "Once they think we know the truth, they'll start to tell a lot of things. Just knock on the bushes, and the frightened insects, snakes, and rabbits will naturally come running out."

"Oh no, alerting the enemy on purpose," said Jiang You. "Unfortunately, this case doesn't actually have much connection to the 'Evil Eye Moon' you're looking for. The only thing we got was that threatening letter."

"Well, there aren't too many clues, but there are some at least," Andre said. "Besides, you've already negotiated with a supplier, so it wasn't a wasted trip."

Takumi chuckled—literally, her upper jaw clacking against her lower—and said cheerfully, "Indeed, this is like getting a 100-silver loan that can only be used to purchase raw materials. I only need to repay 60 silver coins to get a renewal... It's a huge profit!"

Andre: “?”

"Come to think of it," said Jiang You, "you said before that you wanted to stay at my place. You can stay, but you have to pay me for the accommodation fee, right? If you want me to cook, you have to pay for my food too~"

"Room and board?" Andrei thought for a moment. "I don't have any money."

"Ah? Aren't you a viscount? And you're also the vice-captain of the Knights Templar. How could you be broke?" Jiang You didn't believe it at all. "How about this? I'll give you a discount. You two, master and servant, will stay for three silver coins a day, with food included. That'll make ninety silver coins a month. How's that?"

A "month" in this world refers to the number of days from the last double new moon to the next double new moon, which is exactly thirty days, more regular than on Earth.

Andre saw through her calculations completely. "Oh, in twenty-two days you'll need to pay 60 silver coins. That's three silver coins a day. You won't have to do any business for a day to collect the full payment, and you'll still make a net profit of six silver coins."

"hey-hey!"