Climbing the mountain had already exhausted both their physical and ntal strength, and the people of Winter weren’t particularly concerned with formalities.
There were no pleasantries, they went straight to the point... which ant starting to eat.
The hearty al that had been prepared was served without delay... though, of course, this term "hearty" is from Winter’s perspective.
In general, it was slightly better than what Annan had eaten at the Duchy Mansion, but that was only a very limited improvent—
Apart from the six people who had followed Annan, there was also Viscount’s son, about seven or eight years old, with his brownish-red hair and blue-eyed wife. A total of ten people were seated at the round table, packed tightly together.
There were three dishes of vegetables: one boiled, one stead, and another mixed with mushrooms. Additionally, there was a dish of baked beans, a dish of fried sausages, a dish of sausages stuffed with rice and blood that were stead to perfection, a pot of boiled beef without much seasoning, a dish of spicy beef steak chopped into small pieces, and a pot of clear stewed lamb.
The staple was a thick stack of leavened pancakes—sowhat resembling thicker hand-grabbed pancakes that could be eaten with butter, jam, or fish roe, or wrapped around steak.
...For the players, this was hardly considered a lavish al.
The main issue was that the flavors were too bland.
If not stead, then it was boiled; if not, then clear stewed. The earlier dishes almost had no salt, while the clear stewed lamb was excessively salty.
Using the words of a street urchin—it was as if the lamb had been hit with a salt bomb, concentrating all the salt from the previous dishes into this one. The salt was so excessive that the lamb soup even began to taste a bit bitter.
The craftsmanship made the expressions of the players beco quite peculiar.
Xitan Pulan only ate half a round before stopping. Annan and Zoya didn’t eat much either, as for Zorgen, he simply didn’t eat a bite—he hadn’t even taken off his scarf, living like a Kakashi.
While Four of a Kind was genuinely a bit hungry on one hand, and ate more at out of politeness to the host on the other, the street urchin kept eating sausages and beef steak with his drink. These sausages and beef steak were probably the only two relatively normal dishes on the table.
Although the steak also lacked any flavor of salt, it was at least sowhat spicy.
—This was no longer a matter of poor culinary skills.
It was definitely a problem.
However, the expressions of Viscount’s family mbers seed perfectly normal, and they ate quite deliciously. The child was even gobbling up the food, devouring the tasteless beef and the extra salty lamb without changing his expression, as if engaged in a bizarre at-eating ritual.
This even made the players start to suspect whether the people of Winter have so unique taste buds...
If it weren’t for Lin Yiyi and Longjing Tea, who had eaten there a few tis in Winter, stating on the forum with certainty that this couldn’t be possible, they might have actually believed it.
After the al, the group followed Viscount to the study.
On the way, Viscount showed no sign of anything amiss.
He was even enthusiastically introducing the mansion’s decor to Annan.
"Does it feel completely different from the south, Your Majesty?"
Viscount Dorgoruki said with a smile, "In Flannel Province, there are so elven traditions that have yet to be abolished... including the artistic aesthetic style of the elves."
His mansion was decorated in a unique way.
In any corridor, there was no sense of symtry on either side—when there was a wooden wall with paintings on the left, the right might feature marble statues, pieced-together shards of stone, or a stone wall engraved with poetry.
The number of chandeliers in the rooms was like playing Sudoku, completely different in each room. The floors were unusually modest, and the ceilings were as transparent as crystal glass... overall, the whole mansion was filled with a strong sense of asymtry.
"Due to the presence of the Twin Towers in the south, people consider symtry as beauty. But northerners often favor asymtry—unless necessary, they cannot tolerate anything too symtrical.
"Like on the way here... when you left from the tro station, you should have seen the houses on both sides of the street."
"Indeed."
Annan nodded in agreent, "The houses on both sides of the street had completely different decor styles. And they are almost chaotically scattered."
It wasn’t even interspersed—the complete interspersion could be considered a form of symtry.
To put it in an analogy, it was like a novice playing a building simulation ga, placing items as they thought of them. The space utilization was very low, with three fire stations on one street, and two of them less than a hundred ters apart.
The decor style that could drive a person with OCD insane.
Or perhaps, the excessively asymtrical style might actually satisfy those with OCD? Or maybe this is a form of OCD itself...
"This is indeed the style of an elven city."
Annan replied.
He had indeed seen the cities of the elves—it was from the viewpoint of the ghostly form of an elf, Miss Bofis, whose place he had looked upon.
Of course, Annan had half a sentence left unsaid.
—Elven cities, even from a modern perspective, possess a very advanced aesthetic.
It was a magnificently colorful and luminous city.
Asymtrical giant buildings over a hundred ters tall, filled with post-modern artistic styles, over twenty species dyed into multicolored crystals, walls draped with semi-transparent luminous decorations, massive arches and tunnels... If one were to describe it, perhaps ’psychic punk’ would be a fitting summary.
When witnessing such a city, the enormous shock received—’asymtry’ was a detail that took a mont of hindsight to consciously realize ’indeed it is so’.
If he were to describe the style of the elven city...
It would be "shiny."
Too shiny, especially at night. The multicolored neon glow brought by spell energy turned the entire city into sothing that looked like a computer case covered in LEDs, with ferociously serious light pollution.
"—The elven city I understand is indeed like this."
Annan said so calmly, against his better judgnt.
"Of course, Your Majesty."
Viscount Dorgoruki said smugly, "The elven traditions we abide by are not just this."
"What else is there?"
"That’s exactly what I aim to show you now—and also the ’reason’ I am seeking absolution for my cri of treason."
Viscount spoke earnestly.
—This was the first ti he had ntioned his own "criminal act" after eting Annan.
Upon hearing this, Annan slightly narrowed his eyes.
Zoya, who had been following him, clenched her right hand slightly.
Annan raised his head, looking at the Viscount.
He slowly said, "Seeing as you’ve brought this up yourself, I expect... there must be sothing in this room that could persuade ."
"Naturally, Your Majesty."
The Viscount smiled composedly: "One question then... Do you know what the elves worship?"
"—Serpents."
Annan answered without hesitation.
"Correct, but not entirely. To be precise...The ’Non-Snake’."
The Viscount’s hand rested on the study door handle, slowly pushing it open.
"Its na is the Shapechanger—"
"That is, ’The Worm’."
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