"Extend?"
Ansel raised his eyebrows slightly: "You think I plan to end this ga on my own? No, no, no... Ravenna, it's not who will end this ga."
Ansel stood up and walked out of the restaurant, with Ravenna having no choice but to follow. Ansel's recent words had given her a sense of relief, but also an indescribable fear.
If Ansel was not the one to end the ga... then who would it be?
The young Hydral arrived at the entrance of the restaurant, where the owner was smoking a clay pipe, looking distressed across the street at another eatery.
"What's the matter, boss?" Ansel struck up a conversation with him, "Your business seems to be doing quite well."
"Well? Haha... this is the best it's been in days."
The owner chuckled bitterly: "That place across the street, run by the Pelican Trading Comrce, has taken all the custors in town. At first, when we weren't getting our ingredients from the Pelican Comrce, they lured away our custors with low-priced dishes made from high-quality ingredients.
By the ti we had to follow suit and get our supplies from them, it was too late to compete with their low prices."
"A restaurant's reputation ultimately depends on the skill of its chefs."
"But where can you find so many skilled chefs? Most people can't even taste the difference."
The owner dejectedly threw his pipe to the ground, stamped it out, and sighed: "The Pelican Comrce's place is cheap and the ingredients are good, that's attractive enough. If I hadn't been here for five or six years and had many regular custors, I might already be green with envy to the point of madness."
Saying this, he rubbed his cheeks vigorously and managed a strained smile: "Actually, I'm almost mad. The Pelican Comrce has started to raise their prices, but can we not buy from them? If we don't, where else can we find so many ingredients of the sa quality? That would be even more expensive! But if this continues... who knows how high those guys will raise the prices?"
The man turned to look at his own shop, his expression showing a hint of reluctance: "Old Kahn told that if I agree to co under the na of the Pelican Comrce and give them a fixed share of the inco every month, I could get ingredients at a cheaper price... If I want to keep going, I guess that's the only way."
"So you're saying, you have to hand over the restaurant you've run for so many years?" Ansel asked in surprise.
"What else can I do, go bankrupt and close down?" The owner sighed, "We're actually one of the lucky ones, still having a chance to make money... The farrs are the ones who are really suffering, their crops rotting in the fields, and in the villages outside the city, another farr hanged himself yesterday."
Ansel expressed his condolences and then headed towards the gate of the small city.
Ravenna, hurrying to keep up with Ansel, was shaken by the restaurant owner's words.
Not just... the farrs?
"Does it seem strange to you?" Ansel, walking ahead of Ravenna, suddenly said, "That a restaurant that could benefit from cheaper, higher-quality ingredients has fallen into such a dire state as described by the owner?"
Before Ravenna could respond, Ansel continued:
"You're too naive, or rather... too self-righteous, Ravenna."
Ansel halted his steps, turning to look at Miss puppet, who had completely lost her air of genius and appeared as a child, bewildered and helpless. His smile was mocking as he spoke with irony:
"Your vision of transformation is a leap forward for the world, akin to the tamorphosis from the mundane to the transcendent. So how... should it be realized? Do you think that this matter is like the formulas you write in your research, where you simply fill in a number and automatically obtain a flawless answer?"
He was no longer gentle, no longer patient, and no longer offered Ravenna any guidance or instruction, but coldly and indifferently pointed out her mistakes.
This pure and extre contrast had left Ravenna unable to recover since a mont ago.
Even though Ansel no longer addressed Ravenna as "Helen," she still spoke in a slightly panicked manner: "Father, I didn't—"
"You didn't? But you clearly don't understand anything, do you?"
The young man roughly pinched Miss puppet's cheek, his face showing such pronounced disdain from his superior position, his attitude was almost like... "I'm fed up with playing house with you."
"Do you think the production of food will only affect farrs? Do you know how many industries are tightly bound to food, fluctuating with its production?"
"Do you know when a comrce completely monopolizes all resources without any threats, the terrifying control it will have in that industry and related industries?"
"Do you know how many workers are in these industries, and what impact these fluctuations will have on them?"
"Do you really think..."
The serpent revealed his cruel and fierce face, spewing venom at the helpless puppet:
"That without the intervention of extraordinary beings, with the rules restricted by , just producing enough food will ensure that everyone can eat?"
After staring at the trembling and contracting pupils of Ravenna for a long ti, Ansel suddenly laughed:
"Very good."
He affectionately bent down, pressing close to Ravenna's cheek, whispering: "What I've been looking forward to is exactly how you look now, dear Ravenna."
"Fear, panic, cluelessness, powerlessness. It seems that my previous attitude towards you has caused so misunderstandings, but for , it was just for fun, don't forget—"
"Three years ago," Ansel gently bit her earlobe, an action so intimate yet causing Ravenna's heart to ache.
"You abandoned ."
"..."
The petite scholar's violet eyes dimd in an instant.
All the affection, passion, and tireless guidance that Ansel had shown her, which had made her so engrossed and dependent, were torn to shreds by his few words now.
The intense shock left her mind blank for a mont, and just then, fragnted mories struck her mind like splitting lightning, bringing with them an unbearable, intense pain.
["Can you believe that a soul can be shaped, Ravenna?"]
["The foundation of the extraordinary, the unique source of each extraordinary being, it... can be molded, created."]
["— The most outstanding alchemist can even achieve this."]
"Uh... Ahhh!"
Myron had never told Ravenna that the recovery of mories could be so painful, so unbearable.
It didn't feel like the recovery of so-called mories, but rather, being infused with… fragnts of a soul?
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