Chapter 71: Guardian of the Golden Cave of Wealth
"Just eat something." Hawkins waved his hands quickly, but his stomach was honestly making a rumbling sound.
"I'd like a hot soup, preferably one with a richer flavor. No hot soup is fine, I'd like to eat something flavorful. Thank you very much for your hospitality," said Darian.
"Me too, thank you very much for your hospitality," said Sewell.
"How about a hot soup with some curry and potatoes? Want it spicier?" Theodore asked.
"I can do either," Hawkins said.
"Just normal spiciness." said Darien.
"Me too," said Sewell.
"Okay, I understand. Before that, I hope you can have some snacks to fill your stomachs. They are salty cinnamon cookies and hot black tea." Theodore said.
He left the living room and came back quickly with biscuits and hot tea. As if he knew there would be guests coming today, the biscuits and tea were steaming hot.
Theodore put down the biscuits and hot tea, and told them in an apologetic tone that he was going to the kitchen to prepare hot soup for them. He was sorry to leave them alone, and they could relax here for a while, and he would be back soon.
After he left, Hawkins came up to Darien with a cup of tea and whispered, "Hey, do you think Theodore is pretty good?"
"It looks good so far," Darian said. "I'm very grateful that he let us stay here for one night and provided us with hot soup."
Hawkins looked around and lowered his voice a little. "Have you ever heard the story about a witch who lived in a candy house and warmly welcomed any children who came into the candy house, giving them candy to eat. Once they were fat, she'd throw them into a soup pot and cook them into delicious broth?"
Darien took a sip of his tea and looked up at him. "I haven't heard that story, and you've told it so poorly that I've lost interest. So you're trying to tell me that Theodore is an ogre who lives in a cave and will cook us into the pot once we've had enough."
Sewell said: "Mr. Hawkins means that he thinks Mr. Theodore is a little too enthusiastic, like a bad guy pretending to be a good guy."
Darien turned and glanced at him: "I'm not stupid."
Hawkins shook his head vigorously: "That's not what I said. I didn't say anything, and I don't feel that way."
He clarified the matter too quickly, which made it even more obvious.
In the end, only Seville was injured in the world.
The living room also fell into a brief silence, with only the sounds of drinking tea and eating biscuits. Most of these sporadic noises were made by Hawkins, as if to cover up his guilty conscience.
Theodore didn't let the silence last long. He carried the aroma of spicy curry and smiled as he invited them into the kitchen for some hot soup.
Hawkins immediately perked up. On the short walk to the kitchen, he leaned over to Darien's ear and said, "Do you remember the story I told you?"
He wildly hinted at a connection between Darien's candy house and the soup pot.
Darien found him a bit annoying, so he said, "If it's okay, I'd prefer you not to eat the potatoes from the soup."
Theodore didn't quite understand what they were saying, but he heard the potatoes: "There are plenty of potatoes in the soup. If there aren't enough, you can cook more. No need to steal."
Hawkins said dryly, "No, I never steal potatoes."
As they were talking, they came to Theodore's kitchen, which was carved out of the stone wall. There was no wooden floor, but it was covered with beautiful green tiles. The soup pot was hung in the red brick fireplace, and no one knew where the chimney of the fireplace was.
"I think it would be warm to dine in the kitchen. My dining room is also here, and I'm glad to be able to use this longer dining table, which is never full," Theodore said. "Please feel free to sit down, guests."
Darien casually sat down in the nearest chair and waited for Theodore to scoop soup from the pot.
He could already smell the spicy aroma of spices and looked forward to a hearty meal.
"I added some canned beef I made myself to the soup. I hope it doesn't ruin the taste of the soup. You can dip bread in the soup. I have white bread and coarser oatmeal bread in my cupboard." Theodore placed the soup bowls on the fireplace and served them on the table after filling them up.
"Thank you." Darien said as he took the bowl of soup.
Although the dinner Theodore served them was just an extremely simple meal, he carefully prepared the tableware at each place. The white porcelain plates were placed on the daisy placemats, the table was covered with a yellow checkered tablecloth, and the boiling hot soup bowls were placed on the porcelain plates.
The soup was a little too hot, so they could chat as a prelude to the meal.
"Theodore, many of my elders have been here, including Great Aunt Elizabeth, Grandpa Leslie, Aunt Martha, and some distant relatives. They later passed this map to me. But they never told me about their experience in the Golden Cave. Why?" Hawkins made small talk.
He had been curious about this matter for a long time, but no matter how he asked, the elders would not reveal a word and only said that it was a secret agreement.
"I asked them not to tell anyone. It's such a long journey. Wouldn't it be more motivating to keep a little anticipation and a little mystery?" Theodore said with a smile.
Darien listened without saying anything, as he felt that such words sounded unconvincing.
Hawkins scratched his head and said, "Is that so?"
Theodore said, "Drink your soup. It's cold now."
The little green dragon above Hawkins' head jumped down and took away a piece of oatmeal bread to chew on.
Darien took a piece of white bread from the basket in front of him, broke it in half, and gave the other half to Sevier. He was not that hungry and could not eat much.
The spicy curry soup in front of me was a bit thick, as smooth as cream soup. Most of the potatoes in the soup were crushed, and the beef was loose and soft. As soon as the white bread dipped in it, it was immediately stained with the yellow color of the soup.
Darien took a bite, and the spicy taste immediately spread in his mouth, his tongue and throat felt like they were on fire, burning all the way to his cheeks into a brilliant rosy red.
"It's so spicy!" He couldn't help but take two more bites of bread.
"Is it spicy? When I tasted it, I thought it was too bland, so I added some more chili powder." Theodore took a bite, and his expression didn't change.
The spicy curry soup he made was so spicy that it overwhelmed three guests who had traveled a long way, and now they could only wheeze in their mouths.
It was already late, and after finishing dinner, Theodore did not engage in a long conversation with them. Instead, he talked about how much chili powder should be put in the curry potato soup to maintain the perfect spiciness, and did not say anything else.
Compared to Hawkins's speculation about Theodore, Darien felt that Theodore seemed like a person who was very bored here.
Every corner of Theodore's house was carefully decorated, and careful decoration takes a lot of time.
If you don't leave this cave, you will spend a lot of time here every day.
Darien was amused by his own strange guess, because he also spent a lot of time in the tower. There were not many guests who could take him out. When he was bored and had nothing to do, he liked to decorate the rooms in the tower.
Theodore arranged a room for them upstairs. The wooden stairs creaked when they stepped on them, and the footsteps together sounded like an old-fashioned song.
"Tomorrow morning, before you leave, I will give you enough gold coins. Now, good night and sweet dreams," he said.
"Good night." Darien nodded.
"Good night." Hawkins waved his hand.
Theodore left the candlestick in his hand to them and went downstairs alone.
"Well, I'm a little nervous. Can I sleep with you?" Hawkins asked Darien.
"No." Darien rejected him cruelly.
"You may sleep with your dragon, Mr. Hawkins," said Sewell.
"But dragons can't talk, so I'm still scared," said Hawkins.
"Good night." Darien opened the door behind him and closed it.
Hawkins and Sewell were the only ones left in the corridor. They looked at each other, then silently retreated to their respective rooms.
The corridor was quiet for a while, and then the two doors were quietly pushed open at the same time.
Darien stuck his head out and met eyes with Sewell, who also leaned half of his body out.
There was a brief exchange of glances between them.
Darien said, come in, bedtime story.
Sewell said, do you need company tonight like Mr. Hawkins? I will always be by your side.
Although there were some errors in communication, the goal was achieved and Sevier came to Darien's room.
Mr. Crow has a good habit of carrying a storybook with him, and Darien said he wanted to listen to the story Hawkins would tell tonight.
When the storybook was opened, there was no story about the candy house and the witch, so Sewell made up one on the spot, telling the candy house to be a house that eats people, and the witch and the brave children jumped into the soup pot and escaped out of the house through the tunnel under the soup pot.
Before falling asleep, Darien vaguely thought that there seemed to be something strange about this story...
He fell into a sweet dream.
Sewell closed the book gently, but did not leave or do anything else. Instead, he stared at Darien's face for a long time in the dim candlelight.
The sleeping wizard is very quiet and well-behaved, like a cat with its claws retracted, with its soft belly exposed, making people unable to resist kissing it.
"I love you," Sevier whispered. "But I can only love you."
With a whoosh, the faint candle flame was blown out.
The entire room fell into complete silence and darkness.
The next morning, Theodore prepared breakfast, and after breakfast, he would take them to the mysterious vault.
According to him, he is the caretaker here.
Darien ate his breakfast a little absentmindedly, chewing the thick muffin for a long time.
He was thinking about all the treasures he knew and all the dragons he knew. As far as he knew, only dragons would always guard huge wealth. Why did Theodore become the guardian of a family's wealth?
Is this a voluntary act?
However, the answers to these questions are probably only known to him.
After breakfast, Theodore brought them to a very inconspicuous wooden door, and the huge wealth was hidden behind this door.
Just push it and they’ll get what they want.
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