After the Gender Swap, All the Villainess Bosses Want to Keep Me Caged Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Teaching doesn’t require standing this close, right!

That thick Foundations of Magic Studies, heavy enough to kill soone if thrown, was temporarily placed on the low table beside the sofa.

She picked up the feather duster again and continued cleaning the remaining areas.

Scarlet Moon on the sofa did not speak again, her gaze rely falling on her from ti to ti.

Finally, near noon, the cleaning of the entire hall was declared complete.

The floor was as smooth as a mirror, the bookshelves spotless, and even the gaps in the decorative armor glead with a tallic sheen.

“Miss, the cleaning… is finished.”

Ling Xi walked to the front of the sofa, bowed slightly, and reported her work.

“Mm.” Scarlet Moon let out a sound through her nose and stood up. “Perfect timing. It’s ti for lunch.”

“Go make the al. For two.”

“Eh?”

“The kitchen is over there.”

Scarlet Moon pointed in another direction down the corridor. “All the ingredients are inside. I’m not picky.”

The words “not picky” sohow sounded more like the subtext of “Make whatever you want. If it tastes bad, you’re dead.”

She sighed and resigned herself as she walked toward the kitchen.

The kitchen was larger than she had imagined, even bigger than the apartnt she used to live in.

A massive stone stove occupied an entire wall, above which hung a row of copper pots of varying sizes.

On a long wooden preparation table were placed all sorts of ingredients Ling Xi had never seen before.

Standing in front of the table, she felt her cognitive system take a hit.

On the wooden board before her lay a piece of dark red at, its surface covered in a layer of fine, sharp black scales.

She picked up what looked like the sturdiest kitchen knife beside it, gestured at the slab of at, then brought the blade down with force.

Clang!

A piercing tallic scraping sound rang out, numbing her wrist from the vibration.

The blade left only a white mark across the scales.

In the basket beside it was a pile of mushrooms.

Each cap displayed an excessively vivid rainbow color, the hues slowly shifting and flowing.

If soone ate that, wouldn’t they start seeing their life flash before their eyes on the spot?

Just then, faint footsteps sounded from behind her.

Ling Xi’s body instantly stiffened.

Scarlet Moon walked in.

In her hand, she held a long boning knife, its blade gleaming with a cold light.

Ling Xi did not even dare to turn her head.

Scarlet Moon walked up behind her and stopped.

The distance was very close.

So close that Ling Xi could sll the familiar fragrance on her and feel the faint chill radiating from her body.

The cold blade extended past Ling Xi’s cheek, the tip lightly tapping the scale-covered at.

“This is the loin of a Fla-Scaled Boar.”

Scarlet Moon’s chest lightly pressed against Ling Xi’s back.

Her voice sounded right beside her ear; their faces were almost touching.

“Its scales are harder than steel. Chopping it directly is useless.”

Scarlet Moon’s free hand reached over and grasped the hand Ling Xi was using to hold the kitchen knife.

Then Scarlet Moon’s hand covered it, completely enveloping Ling Xi’s.

The two of them held the knife handle together just like that.

Ling Xi’s mind buzzed.

“Don’t lose focus.”

Scarlet Moon’s voice carried a hint of amusent.

She guided Ling Xi’s hand, aligning the tip of the blade with the gap between two scales.

“You have to insert the knife from here.”

With a slight push from her, the tip slid precisely into the gap.

There was no resistance at all.

“Then, keep it close to the inner side of the scales and separate the at.”

She guided Ling Xi’s wrist, controlling the blade, removing the scales covering the slice of at one by one.

Throughout the entire process, Scarlet Moon’s body never moved away.

Ling Xi felt as if her back was about to catch fire.

[Scarlet Moon felt pleased by your clumsiness. Fate Points 1]

[Current Fate Points: 12]

“This is a Prismatic Mushroom.”

“The way its colors change represents the flow of the illusion toxin inside.”

“If you eat it directly, you’ll see the thing you fear most, until your mind collapses.”

Unbelievable. Truly a top-tier assassin in the culinary world.

“However,”

That hand brought the mushroom close to Ling Xi’s eyes.

The shifting colors on the cap were only a few centiters from her eyeballs.

“It only has one poison gland.”

Scarlet Moon’s hand paused beside Ling Xi’s cheek. On the knife rack, another smaller, thinner blade flew into Scarlet Moon’s hand.

She pinched the small knife between two fingers, the edge hovering precisely less than a centiter from Ling Xi’s cheek.

Ling Xi’s body tensed in an instant.

With the slightest movent of those fingers, a streak of blood would appear on her smooth skin.

“Don’t be afraid. With such a delicate face, I wouldn’t bear to ruin it.”

Scarlet Moon spun the small knife once between her fingers, the tip drawing a silver line through the air.

“Its poison gland is hidden at the very bottom of the stem. You have to cut in from a specific angle to remove it intact.”

The hand holding the mushroom, along with Ling Xi’s hand, was turned to a different angle.

The other hand holding the knife moved as well, aligning the tip with a certain point on the stem.

“This toxin doesn’t affect ,” Scarlet Moon’s voice brushed against her ear, “but for you, it’s more than enough to be fatal.”

The cold blade pressed against the mushroom’s surface.

Ling Xi’s breathing halted.

The tip pierced in, followed by an extrely delicate twist.

A black sac, smaller than a grain of rice, was cleanly lifted out and rested on the knife’s tip.

Scarlet Moon released her hand.

She directly stuffed the small knife into Ling Xi’s palm.

“Handle the rest carefully.”

Scarlet Moon’s voice was very soft.

“If you accidentally rupture a poison sac, no one knows what kind of scene you’ll see.”

“When that happens, if you want to save you, compensation will be required.”

Compensation…

Hearing that word from her mouth alone was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

Each mushroom represented a possible ntal breakdown.

She took a deep breath and, imitating what Scarlet Moon had done earlier, aid the tip of the knife at the base of the stem.

Her hand was trembling.

The knife tip trembled along with it.

No, at this rate it would definitely rupture.

Ling Xi closed her eyes and took another deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

She recalled the sensation of Scarlet Moon holding her hand just now, that steadiness and precision.

When she opened her eyes again, her hand was steadier.

The tip pierced in and twisted.

A black sac was lifted out.

Success!

With the first success, the following movents beca sowhat smoother.

By the ti she finished handling the last mushroom, the maid outfit on her back was already soaked with cold sweat.

She looked at the pile of processed yet still completely unfamiliar ingredients on the preparation table, and her mind once again went blank.

How was she supposed to cook this?

Pan-fry? Stir-fry? Boil?

How was this stove even lit?

There was so firewood piled in the corner.

Surely she wasn’t expected to start a fire by drilling wood?

Ling Xi, who had originally planned to save up her points, bowed her head before reality.

Helplessly, she opened the System Store and exchanged for [Beginner Cooking].

A stream of culinary knowledge poured into her mind.

The alien ingredients that had just left her at a loss now had perfectly clear preparation thods.

She walked to the stove, pressed her hand against the rune, and infused it with ntal energy.

Blazing flas rose up.

The at went into the pan, spices were stir-fried, her movents skillful.

At last, a normal food aroma drifted from the pot instead of the scent of a disaster scene.

The fragrance from the kitchen soon spread outside.

[Scarlet Moon felt despair at your cooking skills. Fate Points -2]