Chapter 164 Potatoes
By observing and estimating the subtle differences between the interior and exterior spaces, the professor had finally grasped the deception set by Ole Asaqi. It was indeed ingenious, but there was still a simple and crude way to break it. That was to imitate the entrance method of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters in a fairy tale, facing a very inconspicuous brick wall, closing your eyes and crashing into it - this was probably what the other party had mentioned as "a small flaw."
Of course, if the position is not chosen correctly, he will either hit his head and bleed, or be swallowed by the magic circle and his body will "disappear" - but after several experiments, Nova discovered that this was also a trick, and the second male lead was just trying to scare him.
He proudly announced this important discovery during breakfast and verified it in public. Azuka, who was sitting next to him, was startled for a moment, then her eyes curved softly and she praised him generously.
Having his proudest magic circle broken by an ordinary person - even though it was a work from his youth - Ole Asaqi should have reacted to it, whether it was anger or sarcasm.
But he didn't. This guy had been going out early and coming back late lately, and his expression had become increasingly gloomy. He even made a rare appearance at the table this morning, absent-mindedly stuffing steaming yellow potato pancakes into his mouth. After chewing a few times, his expression finally changed.
“…Who did this?”
It was completely different from the taste of his hometown that he had long been tired of.
As the only son of the Scarlet Duke, Ole didn't have to personally prepare his meals. After living in the open for so long, he'd gotten used to just scraping by. Azuka was a bit better, considered the best cook of the three. Her only drawback was that everything she cooked tasted the same, whether it was stew or barbecue—there was no other way around it. The Assachi Valley was short on resources, and there was only so much to eat.
As for Marcyline, she would smash the kitchen. Not in an exaggerated way, but in a physical sense, like she would mince chicken and cut the table in half while cutting vegetables. After doing this time and again, everyone unanimously chose to kick her out of the kitchen.
"I."
The tyrant drank his coffee elegantly, raising his eyelids lazily to admire the assassin's frozen expression.
The other person looked like he was neither swallowing it nor spitting it out, and his expression changed in various colors, which was very beautiful.
"What's wrong?" Marcylin quickly stuffed her potato pancakes into her mouth, looking at her friend's strange expression in confusion. She puffed her cheeks and asked vaguely, "I think it's delicious?"
She had a voracious appetite since she was little, and since her family was poor, she rarely had enough to eat, and she had no means to enjoy the taste buds. She would eat whatever the other two gave her, never complaining, and was easy to feed. But Marcylin's sense of taste was not impaired, so she could naturally taste the difference between good and bad.
She didn't know where this new flavor came from, but Maxine couldn't help thinking. She clearly remembered that His Majesty was a nobleman who was supposedly ignorant of grains and lazy. However, the first time she saw him in the kitchen was because she was hungry in the middle of the night and sneaked into the kitchen to cook some potatoes. She happened to run into him.
No one turned on the lights. In the moonlight, His Majesty's gray eyes seemed to glow, like two clear glass balls. Marcylin held up her fork, which held a small, boiling potato. "Um, um, good evening?"
"……Good evening."
The man had clearly not expected anyone to be in the kitchen and seemed startled by her. Maxine could clearly see the muscles in his arms and shoulders tense up instantly, and the coffee cup in his hand trembled.
She hesitated for a moment, then handed the potato over as if possessed by a ghost: "Do you want to eat it?"
The emperor looked at her intently for a moment, and just when Marcylin felt she was doing something stupid, he slowly nodded: "Yes, thank you."
—Then all the potatoes she had cooked were requisitioned.
The tyrant ordered her to mash the potatoes, put some butter in the frying pan, spread the mashed potatoes into pancakes, and even sprinkled some precious spices on them.
The originally tasteless plant tubers soon became roasted and fragrant. Maxine began to feel her saliva being secreted crazily. Unexpectedly, when she got a little excited, her hands lost control. The crisp sound of the dishes breaking seemed extremely harsh in the silent night. Fortunately, the other two were not there.
Maxine: "..."
The other person glanced at her with an indecipherable expression, and moved his lips as if he wanted to say something - but in the end he said nothing, and just moved further away from her with a wary look on his face.
Finally, while Marshilin stood by the stove, feeling aggrieved, tucking into a piece of bread in small bites, she calmly watched the man's wrist. The emperor was making coffee for himself, and for convenience, he had rolled up his sleeves a little, revealing a pale forearm. Although he was still wearing gloves, the clear, scarred teeth marks on the wrist were particularly glaring.
Excluding the possibility that someone had suddenly gone mad and bit her hand, there were only three living creatures left. The red-haired girl thought sadly that she could figure out with her heels who the teeth marks belonged to, and whether they had been bitten with gloves off - the other party had openly and without any intention of concealing anything, and had confirmed her guess.
...But she had never discovered before that the other party had such a...brutal hobby?
However, on the surface, Maxlin said nothing. She just waited silently for the other person to stop eating, and then cleaned up all the remaining food in a flash.
"Thank you for the potato pancakes. They're delicious." The red-haired girl stared into those beautiful smoky gray eyes and praised them sincerely from the bottom of her heart. "I didn't expect you could cook so well."
"You're welcome." The man was slowly drinking his coffee, his expression noticeably more relaxed. Upon hearing her words, he raised his eyelids and glanced at her calmly, "Because this is a bribe."
A blank moment appeared on Mashilin's face: "...Ah?"
"Please don't tell anyone what happened," the professor said expressionlessly. "You didn't see me in the kitchen tonight."
To avoid people knowing that he was writing until midnight and got up to drink coffee secretly, and even forgot to eat dinner.
Seeing the confusion on the man's face, Nova thought for a moment and found that coercion and inducement didn't seem to have much effect on the heroine's personality. He simply raised his injured right wrist and shook it in front of the man, trying to arouse his sympathy: "Otherwise I will be bitten and it will hurt."
Marcylin: “——Ah?!”
Wait, something seems even more wrong!
After finishing her reminiscence, Marcylin couldn't help but glance at her blond friend - the other person was peeling an apple, cutting it into bite-sized pieces and dropping them all onto another person's plate. Her expression was gentle and peaceful, and she didn't look like someone who would bite someone to draw blood.
"Maybe he's worried I'll poison the potato pancakes," the professor said coldly.
He was not very happy that there was another person who wanted to eat breakfast for free - the other two were fine, one was good at using language to satisfy emotional value, and the other was good at expressing praise through actions, but in the end, only the assassin leader looked like he was afraid that he would make a move.
"...You'll feel uncomfortable if you don't mock me one day, right?" Ole said dejectedly. He really didn't have the energy to argue with others recently.
He went back to the Bloody Bazaar and, based on his memories from his previous life, began to investigate one by one to see if there were any strange forces behind the events that had had a profound impact on him. The more he investigated, the more frightened he became.
Once the seeds of doubt are planted, it's only a matter of time before they take root and sprout. Ole couldn't help but wonder if the people around him were approaching him because of "God's" will, or if they had ulterior motives.
He knew this was wrong, but he couldn't help but doubt Shadow Chaser, Daniga, his two closest friends, and even began to doubt his own sanity.
...If Maxine knew about this, he would definitely get beaten up, and Azuka would make him question his life.
Ole silently pushed the dishes away, then sneered, leaning back in his chair and saying slowly, "A few nights ago, I saw someone secretly eating alone with Marcyline, and he even made himself a large pot of coffee - and drank it all."
Seeing the black-haired young man clenching his fork, slowly raising his eyes and staring at him with an unusually gloomy expression, like a pale evil ghost - Ole was not frightened by him at all. He even pulled the corner of his mouth at him maliciously and continued to complain to his friend, "Oh, and he pretended to be pitiful and didn't let Mashilin tell you."
Don't forget that he is an assassin, even Marshilin can't easily discover his whereabouts.
Azuka: “…”
He glanced helplessly at his old enemy, who was too busy glaring at others to look at him—he wondered if he was feeling guilty.
Mashilin, rather dissatisfied, said bluntly to Aole: "You are so childish."
He bullies people even after eating.
The person who was being "bullied" looked up and down at the assassin leader with a murderous look, sneered and was about to open his mouth to spray venom - but his neck was pinched, and before he could react, someone stuffed an apple into his mouth.
"Ore, I just happened to need you for something."
Azuka calmly changed the subject. The assassin raised his bloodshot eyes and looked at him for a while, then suddenly curled his lips and went out with him.
Before leaving, the savior did not forget to give his old enemy a half-smile - As for the total amount and timing of your coffee intake, we will discuss it privately later.
With the help of the wind, they left the crowded and noisy crowds in the downtown area, avoided the endless colorful sails at the harbor entrance, and walked along the coastline until they saw the sparkling sea in the distance.
Several seabirds circled in the sky, and looking back, four giant lighthouses stood on the coast of Port Maurice, each shaped like one of the four main gods. When night fell, burning whale oil lamps illuminated the gods' eyes.
This place was once defeated by endless wars, but now, nourished by glory, desire, sea and death, it has grown into a behemoth that has completely integrated sin and money into its flesh and blood and can no longer be separated.
Ole's face was expressionless: "What do you want to say?"
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