Elvys walked down the broken streets, in a city that had experienced many changes. Because of its dangerous terrain and extraordinary geographical location, it had experienced several wars, including the present one.
Unconsciously, he walked into the slums, where a skinny child was using a stick to turn over the rotting leaves, searching for insects beneath the soil to fill his hunger.
When the child saw Elvys' blood-red eyes, he visibly shrank back and hurriedly burrowed into a bush that no longer had a single leaf.
A few days ago, they had occupied the city, and the nobles had fled in a panic with their treasures and food. Now the army of the Tule Empire had surrounded the place, but they were holding their soldiers outside the city, seemingly wanting to starve them to death in the city.
The food of the rebel army had indeed been almost completely consumed, and the deputy leader, Fred, had come to Elvys, asking him to turn himself and the other soldiers into bloodsuckers.
"If we become bloodsuckers, then food is no longer a hand choking our throats, and our combat power will greatly increase. We can even launch a night attack on the Imperial army."
Elvys flatly refused: "You will be burnt by the sun, and the uncontrolled desire for fresh blood, this cannot solve the problem. There are also bloodsuckers in the army of the Empire, and an ambush will not have much impact on them."
Fred still wanted to continue to persuade him, even if only half of the soldiers were transformed into bloodsuckers, it could reduce the pressure of food on them.
Elvys lowered his eyelashes and said in a low voice, "No one hates bloodsuckers more than I do."
He lifted his head, "I will never turn anyone into a bloodsucker."
Just as they were at a stalemate, a soldier came to report that a slave wanted to see the leader of the rebellion.
Because of Elvys' red eyes, even though he fought in the sun with the soldiers and never collected a blood tax, the label of bloodsucker was still pinned on him. The civilians and slaves did not welcome the rebels. Of course, they did not resist either, they just numbly and sluggishly watched the city change hands, thinking it was an internal fight between noble bloodsuckers.
Elvys met this old slave who looked like a piece of wood, this old slave named Miller brought them astonishing good news.
"All the food and treasure that the viscount couldn't take away are hidden in the secret room under the mill."
A famine that was about to come was resolved, and not long after, when old Miller was on his deathbed, Elvys personally went to see him and asked if he had any last wishes.
"Mill... children... treat them well..." Old Miller spoke intermittently. He was a highly valued slave of the viscount, otherwise, he would not have been ordered to guard the viscount's possessions. Old Miller had taken in more than a dozen children in the mill, some of them were war orphans, and some were slaves forced to be separated from their parents, he offered the food to Elvys, hoping that these children would be treated well.
"I will treat them well," Elvys promised.
Old Miller closed his eyes.
Elvys stood up, looking at Old Miller's deeply wrinkled face. "I promise, on the land I rule, all slaves will gain freedom. The children who have lost their parents, who have been abandoned, will be cared for and sheltered, and will receive education just like ordinary children."
Old Miller lay there quietly, listening to Elvys' promise to him, to himself, and to everyone.
As for the rise of the Miller family, Elvys didn't want to explain anymore: Old Miller didn't have any offspring, it was just one of the children he adopted who took the name Miller who had an outstanding business mind. She caught the opportunity of the newly established empire and even ended up with a seat in the ruling council, but that was entirely due to her own abilities.
The black cat turned over and sat up, controlling its animal instinct to lick its paws. It was dreaming again, but this time it wasn't a nightmare.
The faces of Fred, Old Miller, and Yuna Miller flashed before him one by one, then shattered. Over two hundred years had passed, and now they had all turned into bones in their graves. Elvys sometimes had absurd thoughts: if he had listened to Fred back then and turned everyone into bloodsuckers, would his old friends not have left him one by one?
Every such moment reminded Elvys: immortality is a great pain, and he couldn't even find a way to end this pain.
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Self-heating lunch boxes quietly became popular in the Midnight Marsh. They were convenient, delicious, and diverse, the only drawback was their high price. However, recently there were rumors that because the cost of raw materials had decreased, the owner of the Dragon Flame Restaurant was considering lowering the prices of the restaurant's dishes and self-heating lunch boxes.
However, because there was a limit to the number of self-heating lunch boxes that could be sold, every mercenary team that carried them into the Midnight Marsh was subjected to everyone's envious gazes.
Lamb's team had managed to get the self-heating lunch boxes for two days. The thought of the food in the lunch box made the days in the Midnight Marsh seem not so hard. Someone was even more eager than him, Powell had been asking him when they could open the lunch box.
"Haven't we agreed before we came here? If the harvest is average, we'll eat a lunch box two days before we leave and sell the other one. If we get a decent prey, we can open a lunch box to celebrate that day and eat the remaining one a few days before we leave. If we get nothing, well..."
"So we're having an average harvest now?" Powell suggested, "Since we can eat at least one lunch box anyway, why don't we open one and eat it tonight!"
Lamb was about to scold him, but unexpectedly, his suggestion was unanimously agreed upon by the team members.
"Just thinking about the delicious food in the backpack makes it impossible to swallow the hard bread in my mouth!"
"Having the self-heating lunch box in the backpack, I'm on tenterhooks every night when I go to sleep, fearing that some thief will steal it."
Seeing that everyone couldn't resist the temptation of delicious food, Lamb also compromised: "Fine! We'll eat it tonight when we get back. Everyone, cheer up, we must catch the golden thread python required for the mission today. Our goal is to finish both self-heating lunch boxes before we leave!"
The team members did not dare to cheer loudly in the wild, but the exchange of looks between them revealed excitement and joy.
Ina was counting the incomplete version of the Eternal Inscriptions left by Lusen, frowning in distress. Although she had never thought of mass production from the beginning, the self-heating lunch box was just an experiment, but now that the experiment had received positive feedback but there were not enough follow-up materials, how could she not feel regret?
Thinking of this, Ina started her wicked fantasy again: she wanted to imprison a large number of apprentice magicians and have them draw Eternal Inscriptions for her day and night. Since she couldn't change the bad reputation of the black dragon, she might as well take the initiative...
"Miss Ina!"
Lusen's timely appearance prevented a black dragon from going astray. He quickly walked into the restaurant and saw that everything was still in order, then he finally relaxed. The Dragon Flame Restaurant was a place he had watched grow little by little, Lusen did not want any chaos to happen here after his departure.
"Lusen, are you here to say goodbye to me? Are you leaving Mist Town?" Ina put the stack of incomplete Eternal Inscriptions aside.
"No, we've collected quite a lot of magical herbs this time, but the professor found an immature Crystal Bluebell. We plan to wait for it to mature before we leave."
"So you're going to stay in town for a while, right?" Ina ask.
Lusen, with his sharp eyes, noticed the stack of incomplete Eternal Inscriptions. There were only a dozen left from a large stack. He wanted to increase his understanding of inscriptions by drawing them and practicing his magic skills. Ina just needed the draft paper he had practiced on. So Lusen understood and asked, "Can I stay in the restaurant during this time?"
Ina, of course, welcomed him. She candidly hoped that Lusen would bring more people: "Are the other two students brought by Professor Derick interested in Eternal Inscriptions? The Dragon Flame Restaurant also welcomes them to come and learn."
In Ina's imagination, the Eternal Inscriptions would certainly have some appeal, and if not all of the two students came, at least one would. But she didn't expect the result to be like this.
"Professor Derick, I didn't expect you to be interested in Eternal Inscriptions," Ina said with a dry laugh.
Professor Derick sat down opposite Lusen: "I heard that it includes food and accommodation... No, I mean, I'm very eager to learn about inscriptions."
Practicing drawing inscriptions can strengthen the control over one's own magic power, so even if the chance of fully understanding Eternal Inscriptions is almost zero, magicians like to train their ability to use magic power in this way. If they can use their own magic power as they wish, reducing the dispersion of magic power during the casting process, the power of magic will also increase accordingly.
And so, Professor Derick also joined the Inscription Drawing Squad. Ina brought out a stack of lunch box paper that was as tall as a person for them to practice. What's important in drawing inscriptions is the control of magic, it doesn't matter what material they're drawn on. This also saved Ina the trouble of transferring the inscriptions one by one to the lunch box paper. She could just fold the spread-out paper boxes and use them directly.
There were still a few vacant rooms in the Dragon Flame Restaurant. Dusì and Anty were not staying here at night, so Ina cleaned up the rooms and gave them to Professor Derick and his students.
However, what was strange was that after only a few days, one of Professor Derick's students, Daniel, moved out and claimed that he wanted to take this opportunity to deepen his understanding of spells and no longer come to Dragon Flame Restaurant to study Eternal Inscriptions.
Lusen, afraid that Ina would think Daniel had issues with her and the restaurant, quickly explained the accident that happened to them in the Midnight Swamp.
"The professor punished him by making him copy the field operations rule a hundred times, and said he wouldn't take him on the next outing."
"So, did he apologize to you?" After all, it was one of her people. If it weren't for the lizard coming in time, they would have lost their lives in the swamp. Ina asked displeasedly.
Lusen hesitated: "Although he didn't formally apologize, he did mention his apology to me when he was admitting his mistake to the professor."
In the end, under Ina's gaze, Lusen bowed his head and spoke rapidly, "Alright, Daniel neither apologized nor thanked me, so I will only treat him as an ordinary classmate in the future, and I will definitely not remind him if he does such dangerous things again!"
Seeing Lusen vent the resentment that had been held in his stomach, Ina laughed and said, "That's more like it. Since you survived a great disaster, I'll treat you to a vanilla ice cream."
Since Ina was treating, of course, everyone got a share. Professor Derick and Alcota also got an ice cream each.
Alcota couldn't stop praising the ice cream, claiming it was the best dessert she'd ever had in her life.
But it was too soon to say that. Ina still had many desserts she hadn't introduced yet, like cream puffs, milk tea, mango pomelo sago, various frappes, and sweet, soft daifuku~
However, she decided not to mention the desserts that were not yet available at the restaurant, so as not to whet everyone's appetite too much. "Don't say that, Alcota, life is long, especially for a half-elf like you. You will definitely encounter even more delicious desserts in your life."
Alcota, biting her spoon with a smile, said, "I'll look forward to it then. Just don't make me wait too long."
Professor Derick looked pained, "Just thinking about not being able to eat this ice cream once I leave Misty Town makes me unable to breathe." He looked at Lusen, "Let's move our lab here!"
Lusen quickly shook his head, "Professor, the food here is too expensive. We would use up our budget in just a few days."
"I will open a restaurant in the Imperial Capital, Professor," Ina reassured Professor Derrick.
The professor smacked his lips, "Actually, I wanted to invite you to teach at the Stars College, but seeing the soulful food you make, I wonder if it's the right idea. It might prevent more delicious food from being developed."
Ina humbly declined, "I'm afraid I don't have the ability to teach students..."
"Not at all!" Professor Derrick was excited, "Seeing the self-heating lunch boxes you made, it's a perfect example of applying magic to improve life. You are a mage with a practical mindset, such an attitude is precious!"
Ina knew from Lusen that the magic world today argues for magic for magic's sake, the convenience of magic can only be enjoyed by nobles and mages. While Professor Derick is a "heretic" advocating for improving the lives and work efficiency of the poor through magic. So, it's not surprising that he feels like he's met a kindred spirit.
But Ina definitely won't become a professor. She's already overwhelmed with just a few branches. She plans to spend some time studying how to improve the efficiency of managing several branches because she doesn't have many people available.
Dusì is one, Anty is just managing the daily operation of Misty Town, and Donne is a newcomer who Ina doesn't fully trust yet.
Seeing that Ina couldn't be persuaded, Professor Derick stopped trying, but he didn't give up on the idea. "You're so energetic, it's not impossible to do both," he muttered.