Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 807 - 72 Sympathy from Muir

Chapter 807: Chapter 72 Sympathy from Muir

The City Hall of Third Flame City is situated in a small square at the very heart of the city. The square here has no fountain, no garden, no birds, and almost no decorative items; the ground is only paved with stone slabs. Moreover, there stand nine statues above ground. All statues depict mages who have made significant contributions to the field of knowledge exploration over the past three thousand years. To commemorate their achievements and to encourage and stimulate themselves, most mage lords will construct such a group of statues in the capital city center of their territories. The style of arranging the square in this manner fully reveals the character of these mage lords from the Kingdom of Mages—they only care for exploration and research and have no interest in anything unrelated. Even if those seemingly useless decorations could actually improve the living environment within their territories, they wouldn’t invest any effort in their construction. In their eyes, such things are as meaningless as art and are not worth paying attention to.

In the Kingdom of Mages, mage lords live high up on Floating Islands, like deities overlooking the creatures below, exercising their absolute control over their territories. Clearly, for the inhabitants of their lands to continuously generate wealth for their research and experiments, the lords must personally carry out administrative functions and manage the production of their territories. Otherwise, the territory could end up being a burden, no longer able to provide any resources to them. Hence, mages had to build a City Hall on the ground as a point of contact to issue administrative orders to control their domain. To ascend to the Floating Islands, other than half-god mages who could use slow flying spells to ascend gradually, one could only teleport through the City Hall’s Teleportation Array. However, this mode of teleportation poses a major issue: it requires fixed spatial coordinates to locate, but since most of the time the Floating Islands move on a preset course, they cannot provide fixed coordinates. Therefore, to access the Floating Islands, one must choose the five-minute period of hovering after each hour when the islands adjust their direction in the sky to teleport.

"So this is why the two of you sneaked out to drink?" Catherine glared at Pannis with dissatisfaction in her eyes. Just before they reached the City Hall, Pannis, checking the time, had excused himself with a pretext, diving with Muir into a tavern at the city center. By the time the girls found them, several empty cups were on the table in front of the two, and a few remaining cups were filled with odd-tasting high-altitude brown rice wine. Brown rice is a specialty of the highlands. Most Butte people use it as a staple food, and the surplus is used to brew wine. Brown rice wine is thicker than other types and possesses a peculiar flavor. It combines the sourness of grape wine, the sweetness of champagne, and the spiciness of malt beer. Besides, it has a slight bitterness, which is not very strong, making it easy for one to liken it to a cup of afternoon tea. The mix of flavors might sound unappealing, but most people who try it tend to like this specialty. However, although it doesn’t feel strong when drunk, high-altitude brown rice wine has significant aftereffects; many tourists, unaware of its potency, have dangerously overindulged and nearly died of intoxication on the highlands.

The girls unanimously rolled their eyes in disdain at Pannis’s ungentlemanly behavior. However, the clever girls did not say much. They knew that the two were good friends and had not had the chance to deeply converse for a very long time. The last time they met, Pannis did not have the opportunity due to his desire to conceal his identity. This time, they just wanted to catch up—a completely understandable motive. Thus, Catherine, from an angle invisible to others, bared her teeth at Pannis with a threatening expression but then turned around politely and nodded at Muir, taking a seat next to Pannis.

"Tsk, tsk, looks like His Majesty is in trouble." The girls’ behavior obviously did not escape Muir’s observation. The chanter, who had lived for five to six hundred years, sighed and muttered an enigmatic exclamation.

"Huh? Why bring her up all of a sudden? What’s wrong with Flare?" Pannis asked, baffled: "What trouble is she in?"

"You guys are really pitiable." Muir sighed helplessly at Pannis’s reaction, then turned to the girls and said: "Although in this regard our positions are opposed, I suddenly find myself feeling sympathy for you."

Obviously, the girls weren’t looking forward to pity from an elf. Catherine gave a bitter smile and took a sip from one of Pannis’s cups. As a girl who loved wine, Catherine had long heard of the reputation of the highland brown rice wine, but had never had the chance to taste it. Today, having her first taste, she surprisingly found it quite good. However, just as she was about to take a second sip, Pannis snatched the cup away, "This wine has a strong aftereffect. If you don’t want to meet Master Fila while unstable, it’s best not to drink more than half a cup or you’ll definitely regret it."

After savoring the mix of flavors in her mouth, Catherine sighed regretfully, wiped the nearly nonexistent wine stains from her lips with proper etiquette, and said seriously, "All right, then I won’t drink anymore. The ingredients you wanted us to find, we’ve gathered them all. But, we’ve been discussing for quite some time and still don’t understand what you need these materials for."

"Yeah," Vivian added, nodding, "Rootless flowers, golden swallow leaves, ivory spheres, these are all alchemy materials. You’re not also a part-time alchemist, are you? The most outrageous is the Mountain Stream Vine Leaves—they have to be fresh, not dried. Hardly any alchemy material shops would sell these unprocessed ingredients. We nearly ran through a quarter of the city and couldn’t find them; in the end, we obtained them from the Mage Guild in exchange for contributions. What exactly are you planning to do with them?"

"Of course, to eat them. You only think of them as alchemy materials, but you’ve forgotten that before they became alchemy materials, these things were actually wild herbs, many of which can be used as wild vegetables," Pannis replied, taking a fresh Mountain Stream Vine Leaf from Vivian and smelling it, his eyes filled with reminiscent emotion. "Haven’t we often collected wild vegetables to go with our prey during adventures? It’s the same idea."

"So..." Catherine mused, "Back in the day, did Master Fila really enjoy the wild vegetables you prepared?"

"Haha, you guessed it. The way I prepare these wild vegetables is something no one else knows how to do. Although he staunchly denies it, he always eats a lot of them, far more than his normal portion," Pannis said with a light laugh. "Since we’re paying a visit, and it’s around lunchtime, it’s only proper to bring a gift. Give me a few minutes, I’ll head to the tavern’s kitchen and then we can go for our visit." (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it at qidian.com with your recommendation tickets and monthly passes. Your support is my greatest encouragement. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)