In the castle’s dining hall, a lavish breakfast had already filled the table. After freshening up, Ye Chui and his group immediately began devouring it heartily; everyone was starving.
As an ordinary person from another world, Ye Chui did not enjoy the feeling of maids and servants standing behind him while he ate. He had originally wanted these people to sit down and eat together, but the undead head housekeeper was displeased. She would nag in the ear of every maid and servant who sat down: “Servants have no right to sit and eat with the masters, servants have no right to sit and eat with the masters…”
In the end, those people felt too embarrassed…
During the meal, Ye Chui keenly noticed Green’s subdued mood, so as the guildmaster, Ye Chui carried his own plate and sat beside Green. While savouring the delicious grilled sausages and bread, he chatted with his member: “Green, are you still worrying about the hair loss?”
“Guildmaster, I am not worrying about the hair anymore… If going bald can make one stronger, even losing all my hair would be fine.” Green shook his head, then asked Ye Chui somewhat worriedly, “Guildmaster, will my hair really fall out completely?”
“No, no, look, the rest of us are fine, are we not? Relax, the hair loss is definitely, perhaps, probably, maybe just a temporary thing. It will get better slowly later on.” Ye Chui hurriedly said insincerely, continuing to change the subject, “So what exactly are you unhappy about?”
Green’s expression was a bit awkward for a moment as he glanced at the others at the table.
At this moment, a pile of food was heaped in front of Guni; she was eating voraciously. The undead head housekeeper muttered in her ear: “How can a noble lady eat like this, how can a noble lady eat like this…” But Guni’s strong nerves directly ignored the undead head housekeeper’s mutterings. Thanks to her, the undead head housekeeper had no mood to mind the eating manners of the others: Debbie was also a young lady from a noble background, but she ate without any sense of restraint at all. Raisa and Xilaisi were a bit better, but they absolutely could not be called noble in demeanour.
Now everyone was wolfing down their food silently because of the morning training, paying no attention to Green’s side, so Green lowered his voice and said to Ye Chui: “Guildmaster, I am feeling sentimental about my youth.”
Ye Chui: “Ah?”
“Look, Jacob is with Denny every day; in your words, that is called showing off their affection… I am four or five years older than Jacob, after all. I feel I should consider these things too…” Green’s face grew even redder as he said in a low voice.
“So that is it?” Ye Chui nodded and glanced at Debbie. “So you still have not given up on Jiji? I have told you how many times, this matter starts with a minimum of three years…”
“No.” Green sighed sadly. “I know it is unlikely with Jiji. Recently, I met another girl. I, I have been dreaming about her every night lately…”
“Oh my, who is it? Tell us quickly. Rest assured, with our magic guild backing you, even if you fancy that princess, I will make the little fatty grant her to you.” Debbie, who was eating, immediately poked her little head over with a face full of delight.
Raisa, Xilaisi, and even Guni, who had been eating heartily, all widened their eyes and looked over.
Bloody hell, so you were all listening after all!
Green became even more awkward, lowering his head and twisting his hands together: “It is, it is that Posili…”
“That twelve-phase inheritor!?” Debbie immediately exclaimed in shock.
The others all showed stunned expressions.
Then Ye Chui resolutely patted Green’s shoulder: “Green, let us talk about the possibilities between you and Jiji instead…”
Green: “…”
Actually, without Ye Chui needing to persuade him, Green himself knew it was absolutely impossible between him and Posili. Leaving aside that Posili now stood on the opposing side to Ye Chui, whether in terms of status or power (Posili had not yet gained power now, but once she awakened, it went without saying she would immediately stand at the pinnacle of this world), he and Posili were worlds apart.
Establishing any kind of relationship with her was basically something that could not happen.
Seeing Green’s dejected appearance, Ye Chui felt as guildmaster that he needed to encourage his member, so he earnestly patted Green’s shoulder and said: “Alright, liking Posili is nothing. So what if she is a twelve-phase inheritor? You need to have the resolve to pursue her even knowing what kind of person she is. The twelve phases stand with the church; we will definitely be enemies in the future. Who knows, maybe we can rely on you to sort out this twelve-phase matter. Keep at it; I will firmly support you!”
“Guildmaster…” Green was immediately moved. “Are you serious?”
“Mm, anyway, I just said it offhand, so just listen casually.”
“…”
Ye Chui patted Green’s shoulder again; he had just said it casually. Pursuing a twelve-phase was something even he, with his protagonist halo, felt the chances were slim for. For Green… well, where there is a will, there is a way.
Green showed a want-to-cry expression again, but moments later he rallied his spirits once more.
And after finishing breakfast that day, when he returned to his room and then reappeared before Ye Chui and the others, he had actually shaved his head completely bald.
Since his hair might fall out anyway, he might as well shave it all off.
I am setting off to become the strongest man, starting with going bald!
Leaving Green aside, after finishing breakfast, Jacob and Denny finally dragged their exhausted bodies to the dining hall. Ye Chui had Debbie summon Afu, so while the two ate breakfast, she massaged their bodies. They both looked utterly spent. At this moment, Ye Chui glanced around and confirmed that the maids and servants were not nearby, the undead head housekeeper having gone who knew where just now. Thus, Ye Chui had them go to the adjacent side chamber first to handle breakfast.
Taking advantage of this time, Ye Chui said to the others at the table: “Everyone, get ready in a bit. We are going out today.”
“Out? For what?” Debbie, who was properly enjoying her honey tea, asked curiously.
“We have trained for so long now, especially Jacob, Green, and Denny; everyone has made a lot of progress. So today, we are going to give them some practical exercise.” Ye Chui said with a smile.
Entering the Crown Battlefield required seven guards. Counting without Denny, they had six; Prince Gale said he would arrange a black-armoured guard to join them. Although Ye Chui trusted Prince Gale, he felt uneasy about the people under him no matter how he thought about it. If possible, he also wanted to include Denny, of course, provided she would not hold them back.
Jacob’s combat ability also needed some honing, and among them, Green, who had the weakest strength overall, needed improvement too.
So this exercise was targeted at Jacob, Green, and Denny, the three of them.
“What kind of exercise?” Jacob immediately showed a delighted expression and asked.
A mysterious smile appeared on Ye Chui’s lips: “You will know when the time comes.”
While speaking, Ye Chui quietly turned his head to look towards one of the servants in the side chamber separated by a wooden window, who was enjoying breakfast. That servant had used the name “Charl” when coming to work, but Ye Chui had already investigated and knew his real name was: Rat.
With his browser ability, how could Ye Chui not have absolute knowledge of the people around him?
…
After leaving the dining hall, Ye Chui and Debbie climbed three flights of stairs to the rooms on the castle’s top floor.
There were three large rooms here; Ye Chui and Debbie each occupied one, and the remaining one was a basically unused study. They planned to rest a little, then start today’s action.
However, upon reaching the top floor, Ye Chui and Debbie discovered something that greatly depressed them: on the top floor’s corridors and room walls, the originally hung exquisite artworks were now being successively removed and replaced with one twisted, bizarre oil painting after another that no one knew what they were.
The culprit was the undead head housekeeper who had disappeared from the kitchen earlier and gone who knew where.
Those bizarre oil paintings were undoubtedly the works of Master Kandinsky that Prince Gale had sent earlier and that Debbie had stuffed into the basement.
They had now been hung up, and this was not the first time such a thing had happened. In fact, on the second day after Prince Gale sent these paintings, they had spiritually appeared on the castle’s walls. After Ye Chui asked several maids and servants, they initially did not know what was going on, until that evening when Ye Chui stayed vigilant and had several servants patrol the castle at night, discovering it was the undead head housekeeper secretly swapping them.
Ye Chui had people take the paintings down again, but the next day they would reappear on the walls. This had cycled who knew how many times already.
And today was the first time Ye Chui and Debbie had caught the undead head housekeeper in the act.
“What are you doing? Why are you swapping out all these paintings?” Debbie immediately rushed over furiously and demanded.
“Master Kandinsky’s works, very good, Master Kandinsky’s works, very good…” The undead head housekeeper’s sightless eyes stared at Ye Chui and Debbie as her mouth muttered endlessly.
Ye Chui and Debbie: “…”
“You know Master Kandinsky?” Ye Chui asked.
The undead head housekeeper fell silent for a moment. Undead originated from flesh and soul; their memories were incomplete, and they could not form complete thoughts. Hearing Ye Chui’s question seemed to bring some confusion to the undead head housekeeper. Moments later, she continued repeating: “Master Kandinsky, Blue Knight, Master Kandinsky, Blue Knight…”
The Blue Knight was the imperial duke with whom Master Kandinsky had that affair.
After muttering this a few times, she suddenly showed a pained expression, clutching her head and letting out a silent scream, then vanished into thin air before Ye Chui and Debbie. In the castle, the undead could disappear and appear at will, so there was no need to worry that something had happened to the undead head housekeeper, but Ye Chui and Debbie still exchanged glances, feeling this undead head housekeeper was increasingly strange.
“Could she originally have been a maid by Kandinsky’s side?” Debbie guessed.
Ye Chui also frowned. Actually, he had always been somewhat suspicious: what exactly was Prince Gale’s purpose in sending Master Kandinsky’s works here? He could not possibly really be a stingy sort like Hoin of the Anduin family, could he?
Prince Gale was an old fox; there might be some other motive…
Prince Gale had not yet seen the undead head housekeeper. It seemed he must arrange for Prince Gale to meet her; who knew, it might yield some unexpected gains.
Temporarily setting aside the matter of the undead head housekeeper, Ye Chui and Debbie rested a bit. When the sun had risen high, Ye Chui left his room and happened to see Debbie holding a small potted plant in the corridor, greeting him: “Hey, are we setting off? I will put her in the study first, let her sunbathe, and water her a bit.”
“Mm, be careful.” Ye Chui reminded Debbie, looking at the potted plant in her hands.
In that flowerpot grew a verdant green plant that looked very strange, because the plant was humanoid. The trunk was like a little girl in a skirt, the two extending branches were like arms, and at the top of the trunk was a cluster of leaves bunched together, resembling a young girl’s hair.
After Ye Chui and the others settled here, he had planted that elf seed, and the seed had quickly sprouted and grown into its current form. The elf daughter really was grown from planting, ah, just did not know when she would speak. For now, she was basically no different from a plant, only occasionally swaying her branches, and on the trunk’s part that resembled a human face, a pair of green eyes would open, gazing at the outside world.
Elves really were magical creatures…
Of course, Ye Chui and Debbie had no idea that elves were not grown this way: they rooted in the earth and needed to be planted in open spaces. They would grow into towering trees overnight and later bloom elf flowers from which elf children would be born…
Ye Chui and Debbie’s method of growing it in a pot, if seen by anyone who knew about elves, would make them unable to resist commenting “What nonsense”. When planting in Greenleaf Village, Viya the old lady had indeed told them that planting elf seeds just needed to be done in the ground. Those words had been understood by Ye Chui and Debbie as properly planting in a flowerpot and carefully tending it.
However…
The elf race had been extinct for several millennia; aside from a few, most people probably thought the elf race had never existed at all. Ye Chui and Debbie’s planting method… perhaps it would yield unexpected results?
After placing the elf potted plant on the study’s balcony, Ye Chui and Debbie went downstairs to the castle, where Green, Jacob, Denny, Raisa, Xilaisi, and Guni were already waiting. Ye Chui joined them, and then they quietly left the castle.
Today, the castle’s servants would go out to procure supplies, and the Rat was one of the procurement personnel. Ye Chui had already unlocked via his browser and knew the Rat would take this opportunity to meet and hand off to someone, informing them of the secret to Ye Chui’s strength. And Ye Chui planned to deal with that person spying on his secrets.
Of course, Ye Chui was also quite looking forward to what expression the other party would have when learning from the Rat that the secret to Ye Chui’s strength was actually “100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, run ten laps around the castle”…
