Chapter 22: Kiara's Dark History: Strange Yakitori
The morning light was like melted honey, flowing slowly along the red bricks of Honey Alley. Leo's bakery was the first to rise up white smoke, and soon the aroma of butter filled the entire street.
Dorothy was cleaning the stained-glass windows. The wind chimes on the candy store door jingled in the summer breeze, and the clock tower in the distance chimed melodiously.
Ye Wan went out yawning. She was holding a large broom and was about to clean the dust at the door when a signal bird flew over the wisteria stand in full bloom, flapping its mechanical wings and releasing its claws to accurately throw a roll of newspaper at her head.
"Who is it?" Ye Wan touched his head in frustration. The newspaper roll was obviously freshly printed and exuded a strong smell of ink.
Ye Wan threw the broom aside and unfolded the newspaper. The front page headline was a huge photo. Kiara Duncan was carrying an iron sword and waving generously at the camera. She was not wearing a black eye patch at that time. Her two beautiful blue eyes were as clear and dazzling as the sky of the royal capital today.
Ye Wan returned to the tavern with the newspaper. You An was brewing coffee. The dark brown coffee in the copper coffee pot gurgled and exuded a rich hazelnut aroma with a hint of chocolate bitterness.
"Your newspaper." Ye Wan threw the newspaper in front of Youan. The only request of this employee who did not want any salary was to renew his subscription to the "Starry Sky Daily". The newspaper only cost 10 star copper coins a month, so Ye Wan agreed.
The pancake jumped to Ye Wan's shoulder, reminding her of the croissants still baking in the oven.
"Thanks, muffins." Ye Wan put on pink sponge gloves, took out a few crispy croissants and put them on the table, then went to the stove to crack a few eggs and threw them into the frying pan. Soon, with a pleasant "sizzling" sound, the edges of the fried eggs quickly became crispy.
Ye Wan served the egg when it was just runny and tender and placed it on the table. She sprinkled some black pepper and coarse salt on her egg, broke the croissant open, and then stuffed the egg in.
Youan was not in a hurry to eat. He leaned back in his chair and read the newspaper with great interest.
Ye Wan's mouth was stuffed full of croissants, and his words were unclear: "What's written in the newspaper? I just saw Kiara."
You An finished reading the front page headlines and gave Ye Wan a rare, enigmatic smile. He then handed the newspaper to her and said, "Take a look for yourself."
"Why are you so secretive?" Ye Wan swallowed the last bite of his croissant with great effort, patted the crumbs from his hands, and took the newspaper. Kiara was still waving enthusiastically at the camera.
With only three days until the opening ceremony of this year's highly anticipated Heroes' Conference, the betting wall at Shadow Alley is a dazzling sight. The most favored champion, Arthur Berlin, of the Gryphon Heroes Guild, is nearly universally believed to be the victor. After all, he once fought alone and tamed a Fenrir wolf in Moonlight Forest. However, this newspaper was surprised to learn that former mercenary Kiara Duncan had also quietly visited the Adventurer's Guild to register!
According to our informant, Kiara Duncan captured 23 monsters at the Heroes' Conference ten years ago, including but not limited to a ghoul, a salamander, and a minotaur. The unnamed informant stated, "I personally saw Kiara Duncan enter the blacksmith's shop to have her 80-pound iron sword repaired."
At the same time, reporters also learned that Kiara Duncan had recently been frequenting a tavern on Honey Lane on the east side of the royal capital. When reporters went to interview the tavern, the owner, who did not want to reveal his name, said: "What the guests ordered is their privacy. I'm sorry I can't answer... Oh my God, muffins, you can't stand on top of the oven, you will be burned! Is my strawberry jam burnt?" After that, the owner jumped up and down into the kitchen filled with black smoke and declined our interview.
However, a customer shared with us that Kiara Duncan ordered a large plate of spicy fish cakes, seaweed rice rolls, and strawberry cake to take into the dungeon. According to our special witch, this may be some kind of mysterious victory ritual that may help Kiara Duncan win the championship.
However, this strong warrior is also quite controversial. According to the clues provided by our informant, Kiara Duncan once abandoned her injured teammates to survive alone during the most recent Brave Conference. It was also during this conference that Kiara Duncan lost a leg and disappeared from the scene. Perhaps because of this incident, no warrior was willing to team up with her anymore, which made many people question her character.
Although there are many mysteries surrounding Kiara Duncan, and although the president of the Griffin Brave Association claims that Arthur Berlin has prepared a secret weapon and will definitely win this Brave Conference, Shadow Alley has quietly adjusted the odds, and many people have placed their bets again, betting on Kiara Duncan.
So, will the "lions" from the Orthodox Association take the crown, or will the controversial old-school mercenaries be favored by the goddess of victory? This newspaper will continue to report on this, so please stay tuned!
(This issue comes with a bonus armor charm sticker that can resist one goblin attack)
—Respectfully submitted by our reporter Carl Stoner
"What a mess." Ye Wan crumpled the newspaper into a ball and threw it into the trash can. If the bald male reporter walked into her tavern with a camera again, she would kick him out.
Ye Wan thought angrily, and after a few seconds she went to the trash can to pick up the newspaper, and stuck the armor spell sticker on Pancake's forehead. Pancake used his claws to try to scrape the sticker off.
"Don't scratch it, this is a sticker that can resist evil curses." Ye Wan said.
I didn't expect so many people to read this tabloid. Although "a tavern in Honey Lane on the east side of the royal capital" sounds very general, implicit, and obscure, and seems to perfectly protect Ye Wan's privacy, but goddess of victory! There is only one tavern in Honey Lane.
Many readers of the tabloid took three public carriages to check in at the Old Oak Tavern, and called Ye Wan "the boss who jumps up and down."
What was worse was that people she knew had started calling her that too, like Emma, Justin from the Guards, and Anne, and she now began her letters with "Dear Jumpy Ye Wan."
"I'm going to find a sparsely populated street and put a sack over that reporter's neck and beat him up." Ye Wan plotted loudly to everyone who was willing to listen to her.
She still remembered the reporter named Carl, with a smooth bald head that shone brightly under the lights of the tavern, who came to Ye Wan to inquire about Kiara's deeds.
Ye Wan ignored him.
However, the reporter soon suffered his retribution. On his way home, someone poured a bucket of water on him. The water had a fishy smell and a lot of fish scales got on his bald head.
"It must have been Kiara Duncan!" He went to the sheriff in a rage to complain, but because the incident happened in an alley, there were no witnesses or physical evidence, and he himself did not suffer any actual harm. Except for the fishy smell on his body for three days, which could not be removed no matter how much soap he put on, others would avoid him when they saw him.
Therefore, the whole incident came to nothing.
The next day, Kiara, the much-anticipated hero, arrived at Honey Alley carrying a monster the size of an ostrich.
The big bird whose throat she had cut was lying on its back with its claws facing the sky at the door of the tavern. Ye Wan was stunned, and Dorothy, who had obsessive-compulsive disorder, almost fainted on the spot.
Youan circled the bird and said in a very experienced manner, "It's a C-rank monster, a hawk-headed pheasant. I'm afraid it was caught in the Moonlight Forest."
Kiara rubbed her hair with her hands, pushing back her cumbersome long curls, and then shouldered the 80-jin iron sword. "You're quite knowledgeable. I was just warming up and practicing before the tournament. Now, little girl, stop trembling like a weak Rapunzel and quickly get rid of this bird. I want to eat its meat."
Ye Wan took out the largest kitchen knife. She had no experience dealing with monsters, but the helpful Katya, wearing reading glasses, guided her. "Just treat it like a grouse. Don't be afraid, dear. Hawk-pheasants run around in the forest all day, drinking wild spring water. Their meat is very tender and delicious."
Ye Wan spent the entire afternoon preparing the large bird. Kiara generously shared it with all the diners: "Just give me the meat, and don't give me the rest. It's too heavy for me to take away."
It was as if the person walking easily on the street carrying this giant bird was not her.
Ye Wan decided to make grilled bird skewers. She prepared skewers of scallion meat, chicken skin, cartilage, chicken meatballs, chicken gizzards, and chicken liver. Half of them were marinated in sauce, and the other half were grilled with salt.
This sauce is Ye Yu's unique recipe. Ripe big red apples are mashed into a puree, boiled with soy sauce, and then added with sweet onion shreds, a little mirin, pepper and cinnamon powder. It is simmered over low heat for an hour. Finally, two spoonfuls of honey are added to thicken the sauce and form a thin, crispy layer on the meat when grilled.
Ye Wan dipped the chicken skewers into the shiny and tempting sauce, and then quickly set up a charcoal fire rack at the doorstep, and instructed You An to heat the charcoal and install the wire mesh.
Because Kiara's behavior of carrying the huge monster all the way from outside the city to Honey Alley was too ostentatious, a large number of people followed her to Honey Alley, wanting to taste the legendary hawk-headed pheasant.
Everyone knows that the meat of this bird is tender and delicious, but because the hawk-headed pheasant has a bad temper, it will attack people with its huge and sharp beak. It also runs very fast, and its two long legs can reach a speed of 110-120 kilometers per hour.
Therefore, eating pheasant meat became a luxury, and Ye Wan raised the price of the grilled bird skewers without hesitation.
Even though the prices were high, the diners queuing at the door of the tavern stretched outside the alley. Youan not only had to maintain order outside, but also had to use playing cards to issue numbers to the diners. He was very unhappy.
Ye Wan didn't care about him. She went to discuss with Dorothy and Leo, and obtained their consent to start placing tables, chairs and awnings outside the tavern. There were so many people that the tavern could not accommodate them all.
The charcoal fire quickly licked the wire into a scarlet color. Ye Wan put several kinds of skewers on it to grill. These skewers sizzled on the fire. The meat was rich in fat. Under the stimulation of high temperature, the fat dripped into the carbon, burning red sparks.
These roast birds were soaked in sauce, and the charcoal fire baked a crispy shell on the chicken, exuding an oily luster. The rich aroma of the sauce wrapped around the meaty aroma of the chicken and quickly filled the entire alley.
Ye Wan also provided each table with a free plate of lettuce and peeled green peppers. The meat in the lettuce can relieve the greasiness; and the chicken meatballs stuffed into the slightly bitter and crispy green peppers made it into green pepper stuffed meat. When you take a bite, you can taste the chewy and tender chicken meatballs and the crispness of the green peppers. It is refreshing and not greasy.
This kebab goes very well with beer, and almost every table ordered draft beer. Some diners like to eat it with rice, so Ye Wan quickly cooked a bowl of rice in the rice cooker.
Ye Wan went to add more wine for Qiara. Because of Qiara, her business has been booming these days and her reputation has spread.
Kiara was very satisfied with Ye Wan's cooking skills. Her favorite was the chicken skin skewers. The chicken skin was roasted crispy, but it melted into mellow fat in the mouth, and the rich fat melted on the tip of the tongue; the chicken liver was dense and soft; the chicken gizzards were firm and crispy; the chicken meatballs were mixed with some water chestnuts, the skin was crispy and the inside was sweet, and each one was delicious.
When Ye Wan brought the last batch of skewers to Qiara, she had already drunk three glasses of draft beer and was leaning against the bar drunkenly.
Ye Wan was afraid that drinking too much would be bad for her health, so he helped her take the beer cup away, but Qiara held his hand.
Ye Wan had no choice but to comfort her: "Don't be sad about that tabloid, Kiara, everyone is just watching the fun, no one will take that story seriously."
Kiara burped with a red face, then took off the black eye mask and threw it on the table. Ye Wan was caught off guard and saw her other eye.
There was no ugly scar, no scary empty eye socket. The left eye was intact, and just like in the photo, it was a beautiful sea blue, like the clear summer sky in Calmette.
"Oh, your eyes are fine." Ye Wan said dryly.
She thought poor Kiara had lost a leg and then an eye.
Kiara shrugged, "I actually hope it disappears to make up for the mistakes I made in the dungeon."
Ye Wan thought of the newspaper and stammered: "You mean...you mean..."
Kiara stood up and put the eye patch back on roughly: "Yes, I betrayed my best friend in the dungeon, and then ran away like a coward without looking back."
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