Second candy
Vilt and Evelyn traveled overnight to the eastern town of Nashi. After a brief rest in the town for a day, they continued on their journey.
This time, Vilt was heading not towards the village, but towards the Foto Forest outside the town.
Before leaving the Nashi Town Inn, Vilt said to Evelyn, "I plan to explore the Foto Forest. You..."
Before the rest of the words came out, Evelin said, “Are you going to abandon me?”
After following Vilt on the journey in the early morning, even after a simple day of rest, Evelin still looked a little haggard.
"No." Violet looked at Evelyn's pale face and softened her voice. "I'll probably be in the forest for half a month. If I'm unlucky, it could be a month or even longer. The wilderness is different from a town. I have no fixed place to stay, so encountering wild animals is commonplace. I might even encounter a demonic beast."
As Violet spoke, she looked at Evelyn, a noble lady. She didn't think the spoiled young lady could adapt to life in the wild. "I'll come back to pick you up when I get out of the forest."
The words "I'll come back to pick you up" made Evelin feel at ease. She smiled faintly and shook her head, "I know everything you said. You forgot that I'm a magician going to Violet Academy and have participated in field expeditions before."
Violet hesitated for a moment, but still didn't say something like "You nobles' outdoor adventures are just playing house to amuse children."
"Maybe I can still protect you then. In the wild, you're in much more danger than me." Evelyn added.
Protection? It was the first time Violet heard someone say that to her, and she felt a little strange. However, thinking of her current status, Violet didn't say much.
She took out the teleportation talisman she had confiscated from Andre last night and handed it to Evelin, "Keep this."
"What?" Evely took the teleportation talisman and immediately recognized its value. Her eyes widened. "Did you buy it?"
"No, no." Evelyn quickly dismissed the idea. How could Vilt, who even requested the cheapest room at the inn, be willing to spend gold coins on a high-level teleportation talisman? "What is this...?"
“I stole it,” said Violet.
"Hmm." Evelin looked at the teleportation talisman in her hand, then at Violet. So, was that what she went out for last night? She didn't doubt Violet's "stolen", but it was the first time she saw someone snatch something and gave it to her.
Evelin couldn't quite put her finger on her own feelings, but she clearly felt the corners of her mouth curl up. She shook the teleportation talisman and said, "I'll keep it in my space ring. Maybe it can save our lives later."
"Okay." Violet didn't intend to explain anything further.
"Shall we set off?" Evelyn asked after putting away the teleportation talisman.
Seeing that she still wanted to go with her, Violet sighed and said, "No hurry, let's go buy some things first."
The Futo Forest outside the town of Nashi occupies a quarter of the entire kingdom.
The forest can be divided into four parts from the middle to the outside: the outer edge of the forest is mostly inhabited by travelers and chambers of commerce from the town, most of whom are just passing by and walking around the outer edge and will not go deep into the forest; the area deeper than the outer edge is called the forest surface, where there are many herbs with high medicinal value, wild beasts and a small number of magical beasts for nobles like Evelyn to explore in the wild; further inside is the middle of the forest, where the risk factor increases, and it is mainly a place for mercenaries to collect rare herbs and hunt magical beasts.
In the deepest part of the forest, there is said to be a castle where the evil dragon lives.
If you want to reach the depths of the forest, you need to burn all the thorns, cross the swamps, and pass through the miasma. No one has ever succeeded.
Violet's destination is the middle of the forest.
However, she was just an ordinary person who couldn't perform magic in front of Evelyn, and Violet didn't intend to let her know about this.
Evelyn put Violet's magic box into her space ring. She only had a backpack with a dagger and some seasonings. Violet and Evelyn both changed into black clothes that were resistant to dirt.
There was no danger outside the forest, and Violet and Evelyn even encountered several caravans transporting goods.
The outer area was not large, but it still took the two of them half a day to reach the surface of the forest.
As they entered the surface of the forest, a hare hopped past Vilt and Evelyn, but Vilt ignored it.
The result of letting the hare go was that Vilt and Evelyn could only pick some wild fruits to fill their stomachs at noon.
In the afternoon, they were lucky enough to encounter a wild boar.
The wild boar's attack power was not strong, so Evelyn didn't need to take action. Vilt took the dagger and cut the wild boar's throat with one move.
After killing the wild boar, Violet skillfully cut off the meat for the two of them to eat. Eating meat all the time would make one tired of it, so Violet didn't leave much.
At this time, the sun had already set to the horizon. Vilt glanced at the sky and wrapped the wild boar meat in leaves. After Vilt finished all this, Evelyn took the initiative to use the space ring to put the wild boar meat away without her saying a word.
The space ring is an independent space where time is suspended and food can be kept fresh.
They continued walking into the forest. When it got dark, the wild boar's corpse might attract other wild beasts. Vilt and Evelyn needed to find a place to rest away from the corpse.
Not long after walking, Vilt found a river. There was a high ground not far from the river. Vilt first washed the blood off the dagger, and Evelyn took out the tent from the space ring.
The tent was bought by Violet before she left Nashi Town, and it came with instructions for setting it up.
Evelyn opened the instruction manual and wanted to help. Violet took a look and saw that she had already started assembling the meat. She said to Evelyn, "Evelyn, take out the wild boar meat. I'd also like you to go to the forest and pick up some branches so we can grill the meat for dinner. How about that?"
"Okay." Evelyn's eyes lit up when she heard that Vilt had assigned her a task. "This is my first time eating barbecue outdoors! Wait for me to come back."
Evelyn took out the "leaf bag" from the space ring, placed it next to Vilt, and then went to pick up branches with brisk steps.
Violet glanced at her departing figure and smiled subtly.
After setting up the tent, Violet sat directly at the door of the tent, took out the seasoning from the bag, used leaves as a plate and began to marinate the meat.
They were only staying one night, so they didn't need much more than some sticks for the barbecue and a fire to keep them warm during the first half of the night.
Evelyn quickly returned with the branch.
This was her first time doing this kind of work, and the branches in her hands were of different lengths, some of which were even a head taller than Evelin. She stumbled over like this, and her clothes were covered in dust.
Violet took the wood from Evelin's hand and threw it aside, then raised her hand to pat her clothes.
Evelin looked down at her dusty front and smiled awkwardly, "Want to start a fire?"
"Yeah." Vert nodded, broke off the branches that were too long, and put the damp wood aside to dry it after the fire was started.
Violet didn't intend for Evelyn to tell her any common sense about living in the wild.
After all, they won't stay here for long, and after arriving at Violet Academy, the eldest lady will no longer have the chance to live such a hard life.
However, as Vilt was thinking this, Evelin came over and imitated her in breaking off the long branch. She weighed it again and asked, "Why are they in two piles? Are they for different uses? Then where should I put mine?"
Evelyn asked, extending her hand in front of Vilt.
Violet took the dry branch from Evelyn's hand and put it to the left.
“Some of the branches were damp and couldn’t start a fire,” Violet explained.
Moreover, it was on the surface of the forest, where the water element was much more abundant than that on the outskirts of the forest. Not to mention ordinary fire, even using magic to ignite could not guarantee that the wet branches could be ignited.
However, thinking that she was just a poor magician who didn't even have a place to live, Violet didn't say these words that were not in line with her identity.
There weren't many branches, and with Evelyn's help, the dry and wet piles were quickly separated.
Pile the dry wood into a small hill, and then pick out two sharp branches to pierce the pickled wild boar meat.
Just as Violet was about to search for the flint in her backpack, Evelyn seemed to know what she was going to do. She smiled and pulled her aside, "Do you want to light a fire?"
"Um."
"Leave it to me!" Evelyn said, snapping her fingers. The tiny fire elements in the air fluctuated and gathered into a red flame. As Evelyn manipulated it, it fell on the woodpile. With a "chi!" sound, the branches ignited, and the light of the flames shone in Vilt's eyes.
"How's it going?" Evelyn leaned closer to Violet, looking for praise. "It's useful to have me with you, isn't it?"
"That's a great help." Violet agreed.
Barbecuing meat is completely different from roasting sweet potatoes in a cave. You can throw the sweet potatoes into the fire and leave them alone, but meat needs to be turned over from time to time, otherwise it will easily burn.
It was Evelyn's first time to barbecue outdoors. She didn't judge the time and distance well. The piece of wild boar meat on the stick kept turning around on the fire. Soon her hands felt sore and the stick in her hand began to droop.
Evelyn shifted the branch between her left and right hands, but otherwise remained silent. She didn't want Violet to think she was being delicate, like she needed constant care.
However, Evelin didn't hold on for long.
The magic flame was stronger than an ordinary flame, and the meat in Vilt's hand soon gave off fragrance and fat. She placed the meat on the leaves, cut it with a knife, and made sure that the middle was also roasted. Then she handed the meat in her hand to Evelyn and wanted to take the branch from her hand.
“Huh?” Evelin was stunned, and her hand subconsciously tightened.
"Eat this of mine. It's your first time grilling meat. I'll put in some extra work."
"I..." Evely didn't let go of the barbecued meat that was about to fall into the fire and didn't look good.
After all, it was her first time doing such "rough work". The wild boar meat had been in close contact with the flames for a long time, and the edges of the meat had turned a noticeably burnt brown.
Seeing what Evelyn was struggling with, Violet divided her roasted meat into two and gave the larger piece to Evelyn. "Then let's exchange it, half each." As she said that, she pushed the divided meat in front of Evelyn.
Evelin pursed her lips and handed over the branch in her hand.
Well, she really didn't know how to judge whether the meat was cooked through, so there was no need to insist on it to avoid waste.
She only learned the word "waste" during this period.
The meats all took about the same amount of time to cook, but Evelyn's piece was cooked faster because it was on the lower shelf.
The meat was also cut into two pieces, but this time, the larger piece of meat was given to herself. She did not deal with the burnt part and ate it directly. The burnt smell filled her mouth, but Vilt's expression did not change at all.
She eats everything the same.
Evelyn withdrew her gaze from Violet and lowered her head to bite a piece of meat.
She didn't know if it was because she was hungry or what, but she felt that this was the most tender barbecue she had ever eaten.
After the two of them finished their barbecue, Violet threw the leaves and branches that had been used to grill the meat into the fire. It was already dark, and the temperature in the forest began to drop.
While adding branches to the fire, Violet gestured for Evelyn to go back into the tent and rest.
"No." Evelyn shook her head. "I'm bored in the tent by myself. Let's chat."
"?" Violet looked puzzled. "What are we talking about?"
"Talk..." Evelin blinked, "Talk about what we're going to do in the next few days."
She looked at Velvet, now helpless. "You said you were going to stay in the forest for half a month. I thought you were just outside the forest. Now it seems you're going further in. There are many magical beasts in the middle of the forest. Even intermediate magicians may not be able to defeat them. Mercenaries gather small teams to hunt them."
"That's why I said it was dangerous," Violet said with a smile. Then she changed the subject, "And who said I was going to the middle of the forest?"
"Hmm?" Evelin tilted her head.
"I'm here to look for a herb called Baise Leaf. It's said that if you mash it into juice and add other pigments and herbs, it can change color, and the resulting juice can be washed with water. I plan to collect more to see if I can use it in new magic. But this is the first time I've heard of this herb, and I don't know if I can find it." Vilt gave the reason she had thought of in advance.
It was the first time that Evely heard Violet speak such a long speech.
Magician Miss Violet, this is... too dedicated.
"Is there a diagram? I can help you find it." Evelyn said.
Violet pulled a piece of papyrus from her pocket.
Evelyn took it and found that in addition to the colorful leaves drawn in ink, it also recorded Violet's new magic.
Although they had known each other for quite some time, and Evelyn had learned some of the principles of magic from working as Violet's assistant, she was still somewhat surprised when she saw her perform a new magic trick without any precautions.
While Evelyn was looking at the diagram, Violet added more branches to the fire, and the flames grew a little higher. The magical flames in front of her made Evelyn feel warm all over.
"This is the first time I've seen this kind of herb, too," Evelyn said, returning the papyrus to Violet. "I've remembered it. I'll look for it with you."
“Thank you for your help.” Seeing that there was no doubt on Evelin’s face, Violet thanked her sincerely.
“Oh, we’ve known each other for so long, why are you still being so polite to me? This is what I should do!” Perhaps it was Violet’s trust that made Evelin relax. She smiled brightly and not only took the initiative to move closer to Violet, but also put her arm around her shoulders.
Evelin's head suddenly came over, and she leaned against his neck, and he could feel her hair brushing against his collarbone.
This was another experience that Violet had never had before, and she froze completely.
Soon, Violet realized something and quickly distanced herself from Evelin, looking as if she was trying to avoid her. Violet stood up and took two steps back to distance herself from Evelin.
Knowing that her reaction was a bit excessive and Evelin probably found her baffling, Violet explained, "I'll go check if there are any wild animals around."
After she finished speaking, she didn’t bother to listen to Evelin’s answer and quickly left with the dagger.
"Just leave like that? Do I have a thorn in my flesh?
"What!" Evelyn frowned, picked up a piece of wood and threw it into the fire, saying angrily.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
