Chapter 14: Manticore Sausage? Hakimi Sausage!

“This is…”

Xue La leaned forward, taking the recipe card from the merchant.

The paper was tinged with an unhealthy yellow, as if it had seen many years.

The text on it recorded a strange yet familiar dish.

“Manticore Sausage: Take the finest lean meat from the manticore’s back…”

Good heavens.

Xue La quickly realized what a rare find this was, and she blurted out the name of the recipe.

“Emius’s Recipe—the legendary chef?”

She didn’t even blink as she spoke.

“This paper really is old.”

Laurence nodded, confirming her guess.

“Exactly. A small merchant like me doesn’t have the means to enjoy manticore sausage.”

The merchant poured out his thoughts in one breath.

As a monster material merchant who traveled far and wide, the most valuable parts of a manticore—its fangs, wing membranes, and venom glands—would cost about five hundred gold coins to purchase.

These items were small, light, and easy to carry.

As for the rest… Laurence had no use for it.

He suggested that Count Brian take the manticore’s head and have it mounted as a trophy, enhancing his noble prestige.

The remaining meat could also be put to use by making sausages.

‘Poor big Hajimi~’

“This dish is very complicated to make. Ordinary sausages just involve mincing the meat, adding salt, wrapping it in casing, and boiling it. But this manticore sausage is different…”

Laurence spoke vividly.

“It needs to be marinated with several kinds of herbs and cooking wine. A small merchant like me probably doesn’t have the luck to enjoy this. Might as well do you a favor…”

“Mr. Laurence is very considerate.”

Xue La briefly left her seat and lifted her skirt in a curtsy.

“I am truly honored to receive such a generous gift.”

Count Brian also knew why.

The legendary chef Emius had once been a subordinate of the legendary Emperor Frank.

Though he commanded a kitchen rather than an army, the strength of a victorious army was fueled by food.

People said that during the war to unify the Patagonia Continent under the emperor, Emius had compiled, summarized, and elevated the cuisines of the four lands.

In other words, Emperor Frank conquered the continent politically, while Emius conquered its inhabitants through taste buds and stomachs.

By Xue La’s era, Emius’s recipes were rare treasures nearly five hundred years old!

Some common ones had spread widely, but others existed only in secret corners of various places.

As a result, each of Emius’s recipes could fetch a high price of ten gold coins in the hands of someone who knew their worth.

Ten gold coins!

What did that mean?

Luo Yi and Roderick toiled in the fields for a whole year, barely producing a single gold coin’s worth of value that went into the count’s accounts.

The dress Xue La had torn up herself was worth a hundred gold coins—something the former would have to work a lifetime to repay.

Laurence offered five hundred gold coins to purchase the manticore materials, enough to rebuild a town destroyed by monsters and compensate the families of the dead and wounded.

Ten gold coins… neither large nor small, but still precious.

However, that was just Count Brian’s personal opinion.

For Xue La, its value lay elsewhere.

Emius’s recipes were items created by the insane game designers of Epic Fantasy Legend—mere game props to trick players into starting a second or third playthrough for completion.

Every dish discovered and crafted was theoretically called a “legendary dish,” granting twice the experience of ordinary dishes!

Their consumption effects were even more stunning, sending players into absolute delight.

Before her transmigration, Xue La had hated these things the most.

As a speedrun player, collecting all the recipes was far too tedious.

But those buffs were truly tempting.

Take this “Manticore Sausage” for example.

Although the dish was complex and time-consuming to make, its buff effect was—

“Within 24 hours, grants 50% hunger resistance, 80% poison resistance, 40% burn resistance, 10% damage reduction, and short-range night vision.”

Compared to ordinary food like cookies, which granted “a temporary doubling of critical hit chance, critical hit damage, and critical hit effect”…

It was like a mere loli!

Manticore Sausage was a good thing.

Xue La understood that.

The hero’s future adventures might need it.

But she wasn’t the hero.

Her purpose in making it was simpler—just to get enough experience.

Then use it to allocate points to the Assassin profession, helping the hero deal with the Demon King… and open a restaurant once the world was at peace.

‘Feels like a clever plan.’

Emius’s recipes were the key to achieving twice the results with half the effort…

Based on Xue La’s memories from her previous life, this series of items required the hero to travel between towns to discover them.

Could a small merchant like Laurence also provide them?

Xue La wasn’t entirely sure about that.

Because in her previous life, she was a speedrun player.

She had actually… never collected all the recipes.

She couldn’t very well go worship at the Ling Yue Ying Sect, could she?

Cheating was shameful!

Anyway, it was just a game.

At worst, she could eat ten ordinary dishes before a fight to stack buffs.

Only after eating and drinking one’s fill could one go adventuring.

In short, the value of what the merchant Laurence offered back was not the superficial ten gold coins—even though in her previous life, Xue La remembered that some game NPCs did sell Emius’s recipes at that price.

Grateful beyond words, grateful beyond words…

Laurence nodded in acknowledgment.

After thanking this kind and intelligent merchant, the next person to thank was Luo Yi.

That kid was still buried in his work, competing with the lamb chops.

“Eating with such gusto.”

Brian smiled and raised his glass in congratulations.

“Roderick—you raised a fine grandson. Truly a soldier under Old General Bali Saihe.”

At the sound of that name, the table split into two voices.

The most intense reaction came from the Linde family knights, who had been eating in silence.

They offered a cautious suggestion.

“Lord Count… General Bali Saihe is indeed a legend, but… in the eyes of the law, he is still a traitor and a national betrayer…”

Count Brian shrugged and took a sip from his glass.

“I know. But isn’t that unfair? The one who fought bravely on the battlefield and barely escaped with his life is a traitor and a national betrayer. Then what are those good-for-nothings sitting in Norsenia Palace?”

That statement was nothing if not bold.

Laurence buried himself in his drink, pretending not to hear.

He wasn’t from Norsenia—he was a Niers from the Western Kingdom of Westania.

Why should he meddle in this?

But the knights’ concerns were real.

Bali Saihe was still a taboo name in the royal capital.

The man himself might be wandering the city’s streets, begging, seen as a blind and destitute beggar.

At his advanced age, suffering such torment was indeed disheartening.

But that was all there was to it.

The knights also cared about their own livelihoods.

What if someone heard the head of House Linde’s treasonous words?

“What are you afraid of? My Linde family is just a rural minor noble, drunk from too much wine. Come, come, fill it up!”

Brian laughed loudly, unconcerned.

‘Dad…’

Xue La suddenly felt much better about him in her heart.

After all, it was Bali Saihe… that legendary hero unit NPC.

If she hadn’t transmigrated as a mere maid but as the hero, she would definitely cling to Bali Saihe’s thigh—that “walking golden finger old man”!

The hero’s main storyline was deeply connected to him… even including one of the hero’s harem routes.

For now, all she could do was try to build a little goodwill before Luo Yi became the hero and met Bali Saihe.

The other voice naturally came from Roderick, a former subordinate of Bali Saihe.

This iron-willed old man wilted for the first time, seeming to have aged ten years in an instant.

Finally, someone acknowledged his suffering?

At this age, people loved to reminisce.

That failed battle, the blood and sacrifice of four kingdoms, the Demon Race’s victory…

A memory too painful to revisit.

“A defeated general is not worthy of praise.”

Roderick lowered his head, too embarrassed to accept the count’s compliment.

“I’m just a soldier. I didn’t want to let my skills go to waste. My grandson—please forgive his rudeness, milords.”

“What rudeness? Your grandson saved my daughter.”

Count Brian cut straight to the point.

“Are you interested in becoming an instructor at my manor? Your grandson Luo Yi can help out with odd jobs at the manor too. That would be a good thing.”

Luo Yi’s eyes flickered, uncertain whether this was good or bad.

But when his gray eyes met Xue La’s golden ones, everything fell silent.

He began to look forward to it.

So did she.

Except for the Linde family knights—allowing a “lowly” tenant farmer old man to become an instructor? Was that…?