Chapter 35: Dinner at the Mansion (Part 1)
The carriage in which Andrei had arrived was finally put to use.
Three Harvs and a former Kingdom knight filled the carriage with four prisoners: a murderer, an accomplice, one who attempted to bribe the Kingdom knight to interfere with the investigation, and one who accepted bribes and conducted a reckless investigation. The first two faced the death penalty, while Pertmin and Huipa faced prison sentences of three to ten years, depending on the decision of the Grand Judge.
"Congratulations." Winchester's clerk put away the file he had completed and said to Andre, "A great victory, Deputy Commander Huntington."
"It's just justice." Andrei waved his hand. "Take everyone back. I have something else to do. I'll be back with the regiment tomorrow. Keep an eye on these prisoners. Don't let them escape... or die."
Winchester naturally agreed. He and Perru led the first brigade of knights and escorted the prisoners away. When the huge group of people, horses, and convoys drove out of the courtyard of the Axe mansion, everything returned to peace.
"So, it's the 'Eyes of the Waning Moon' that Pertmin painted?" Takumiu's skull moved closer to Andrei, swaying back and forth curiously. "Did you ask her what was going on? I saw you whispering to her!"
"I asked." Andre pushed her skull aside in amusement. "Come on, Holly! Take us to the study!"
The sobbing little pangolin botanist whimpered and obediently led the way. Andre, Jericho, Jiangyou and Aunt Wolf followed him all the way to the tower connected to the main house.
"Look, the second floor of the tower is the study, and the third floor is the bedroom." Holly said, "What are we doing here?"
Andrei didn't answer him. He walked directly to Pertmin's desk, rummaged around, and took out a letter.
Jiangyou leaned over again and found that it was a threatening letter sent to Holly.
"Evil Eye Moon sent a threatening letter to Holly, threatening him not to sell magical plants at low prices to 'unclean' magicians and potion makers." Andre quickly glanced through the contents of the letter. "The letter was intercepted when it reached Pertmin. She kept it for emergency use."
"For emergencies? Does it mean that if she needs to kill Holly, she can use this to divert attention?" Jiang You guessed.
"That's about right." Andrei shook the envelope in his hand. "It's just that this time, it wasn't Holly who got into trouble, but Holland... Even though it didn't necessarily make sense, she still decided to imitate the mark on the letter, leaving the 'Eye of the Crescent Moon' on Holland's clothes. She thought that if her plan to frame Holly didn't work, she might be able to use this mark to divert the Kingdom Knights' investigation."
"Indeed, all she wants is to muddy the waters and make the case as confusing as possible. She doesn't care what nonsense this symbol might lead the Knights to come up with." Jericho nodded in agreement and added, "Well, now that the case is closed and the clues to the Evil Moon are gone, what are everyone's plans next?"
"...Little Bone, cook something to eat." Andre looked out the window at the dusk. "We've been busy all day, and everyone must be hungry."
Jiangyou stared at him silently: ...It's written as 'da', but read as 'ni', right?
Her silent condemnation was quickly interrupted by the excited Aunt Wolf. Aunt Wolf Talia rolled up her sleeves and said enthusiastically, "Yes! Yes! Everyone must be hungry! My Holly must be hungry! Just wait, Nanny will make you something delicious!"
Holly sniffed and said, "Yeah, I'll go to the botanical garden and pick some fresh vegetables and fruits."
"I'm going too!" Jiang You's soul fire suddenly ignited again. "By the way, I opened a brewing workshop and I need a lot of ingredients. I wonder if you're interested in discussing business?"
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The servants of the Axe Mansion had the strangest day of their lives so far.
They watched as the hostess in charge, the useless host, and the hostess's sister who was taking advantage of the situation were taken away by the kingdom's knights, and now they were driven out from their own kitchen by a skeleton who was said to be able to detect lies!
That's their kitchen!
"...But, it smells so good." Ella took a deep breath of the fragrance in the air and wiped her saliva. "It smells even better than the food Nina cooks!"
"How rude!" the chubby cook feigned anger. She also took a deep breath of the aroma, sniffing a few times: "But it really smells good! Ahhh! This must be super delicious!"
Five servants were playing Jenga at the kitchen door, greedily inhaling the aroma wafting from the kitchen, and looking enviously at the wolf aunt in the kitchen, who was wearing a flowery dress and a big bow and ate non-stop with a howl of approval.
Yes, in addition to the busy skeletons in the kitchen, there is also an indispensable helper - the food taster Aunt Wolf Talia.
There is no other way. If Jiangyou, who has no sense of taste, wants to cook good meals, he still has to rely on Aunt Wolf as a plug-in at this stage.
To be honest, the absence of common sauces such as soy sauce, oyster sauce, and bean paste was indeed an experience that was out of comfort for Jiangyou, but fortunately this is a botanical garden, and there are plenty of herbs such as green onions, scallions, onions, ginger, garlic, lemon, basil, and even super delicious rice!
The kitchen had all sorts of lamb, beef, and chicken, and the meat was pretty good. It was just that the locals, like the foreigners, didn't eat offal much, so the lamb and beef were served in large, pre-cut steaks. The chicken had been gutted, and the texture was that of a free-range chicken.
"Without soy sauce and oyster sauce, scallion chicken would be soulless... so let's go with lemon basil shredded chicken! Add sautéed lamb with scallions, diced beef with pineapple and black pepper sauce, garlic lettuce, stir-fried shredded potatoes, and a bowl of fragrant rice! Done!"
Steam the washed rice first, cut the lamb chops into slices, cut the beef into cubes, steam the chicken with scallions and ginger, rinse with ice water, remove the bones and tear into strips, shred the potatoes, and mince the garlic...
Auntie Wolf was dazzled by the series of actions, and she wanted to help but didn't know where to put her paws. When she came to her senses, a small bowl and a small spoon were already stuffed into her paws. The skeleton in front of her had removed two long, thin bones from somewhere and used them in its hands as cutlery, occasionally picking up a piece of meat and putting it in her small bowl...
...Wait, is this tableware really okay?
"Hmm? Oh, these are called chopsticks. I couldn't find any suitable branches, so I used bones instead," said Jiang You calmly. "...It's said that the oldest chopsticks were also made of animal bones. Ivory chopsticks, ox bone chopsticks, rhino horn chopsticks... These things were very common in my... ahem, hometown back then. Anyway, I use them myself, so don't worry about it. Let's just tell me if this pineapple and black pepper beef cube is flavorful enough?"
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