Chapter 18: Not Enough

It wasn’t just Luo Yi who was happy—Xue La was too.

“I knew it. Not a single soldier under Senior Bali Saihe is a slouch.”

Xue La lifted her dress and hurried over with small, quick steps.

It was late summer, early autumn. In the warm countryside of Norsenia, a light green dress paired with white stockings and leather shoes was more than enough.

Kargon nodded, greeting the young lady of House Linde.

Luodelike and Luo Yi did the same.

“Does the young lady have any orders?”

Kargon asked.

‘Well…’

‘I can’t just say I’m too restless and want to watch the show, can I?’

‘That doesn’t seem right.’

‘After all, my mother’s attitude toward Luodelike and Luo Yi… is really… not very friendly.’

‘If I still want to stick close to Luo Yi—doing something too intimate—my mother, Lady Catalina, probably wouldn’t be happy, would she?’

The Lyoncourt family was a golden lion; the Linde family was a gentle sheep.

That was both the emblem on their family banners and, in a sense, a缩影 of the couple’s household dynamic.

A lioness of a mother would never allow her child to play with a dirty stray dog.

But standing here without saying a word wasn’t exactly… graceful either?

“Well…”

Xue La racked her brains and finally “waited” for the right excuse.

“Young Lady!”

A clear voice rang out. It was Xue La’s new maid.

Why was she called a “new” maid?

The blame fell entirely on the manticore—because when Xue La was caught by the manticore at the Harvest Festival, the lady not only vented her anger on her incompetent husband and the guard but also took it out on the maids who cared for her daughter.

According to the lady, they were nothing but useless good-for-nothings!

So, when Lady Catalina returned from her maiden home, she brought not only Kargon but also a group of new maids from her family.

One of them was a lovely girl about two or three years older than Xue La, with beautiful green hair. She wore a pair of glasses and was both capable and charming.

According to her mother, her name was Aoweiliya, a senior maid. Her duties weren’t limited to simple tasks like serving tea, warming the bed, or massaging the young lady’s back.

She was also responsible for teaching etiquette and knowledge.

Lady Catalina’s goal was to raise Xue La into an elegant noblewoman.

However, Big Sister Aoweiliya was also very open-minded—Xue La knew that well.

She didn’t comment on Xue La’s “newly awakened” interest in cooking; she only hoped Xue La would operate safely and not burn herself.

“That’s a big pot of boiling water—being careful never hurts!”

The green-haired older sister had once warned Xue La like that, standing guard in the kitchen almost without leaving her side.

But the most difficult part of simmering the manticore sausage was already over.

Now, all that was left was to remember to add cooking wine and herbs to the pot and let it simmer for a day and a night.

In theory, nothing would go wrong.

But Xue La saw right through Aoweiliya’s expression.

That anxious look—she had seen it before she transmigrated!

In a Western restaurant, busy apprentices always wore troubled faces but had to stay calm in front of the supervisor—in short, keep it together.

Aoweiliya honestly told Xue La what had happened.

And that made Xue La understand.

‘I really did transmigrate into another world… not Earth!’

So some things were unavoidable.

You see, Xue La Linde was born into a local noble family where wheat fields rolled and livestock roamed.

Yet even her own kitchen could run into a flour shortage—because of the manticore’s rampage, this year’s fresh wheat from the territory hadn’t been fully collected or processed yet.

Not only that, but there were some things in the kitchen that were running short…

The herbs used to make the manticore sausage!

Thyme, dill, rosemary, basil, mint…

Although these rare herbs were native to the Kingdom of Norsenia and widely distributed in the mountains and forests of the Linde family’s territory, they were also part of the taxes that the commoners gathered and offered to the lord.

And the manticore… unfortunately, because of its devastation, the people dared not go up the mountains anymore for the time being…

Count Brian knew this trouble, which was why he had kept the manticore’s head and skin, planning to have them mounted and displayed in the towns under the family’s jurisdiction.

Only by eliminating the people’s fear could order be restored.

Even further, to salvage the family’s reputation.

But there was plenty of time… For now, the count had to put the trophies in the manor and appease his wife!

As things stood, the manticore’s influence still lingered. No fresh herbs were being gathered…

What the kitchen had in stock were last year’s leftovers.

Improperly stored, they had inevitably turned moldy, been chewed by mice…

So, at the critical moment of making the manticore sausage, the supply ran out.

“The last herb is gone,” Aoweiliya said. “What do we do now?”

Xue La covered her face—this wasn’t Earth; there was no convenient logistics!

This was bad news, meaning the manticore sausage production risked being abandoned halfway.

But it was also good news—at least Xue La instantly knew how to cover up her special concern for Luo Yi, downgrading it to a common “young lady and young attendant” relationship.

Unlike her mother, Count Brian held Luodelike and Luo Yi in high regard, not without a sense of cherishing talent.

Given time, perhaps Luo Yi would become a local knight loyal to House Linde?

Of course, that didn’t conflict with the future Hero Trial, Xue La knew.

The so-called Hero Trial, besides age restrictions and moral considerations, had no discrimination against birth… History recorded many instances of noble knights and lowly peasants becoming Heroes…

But alas, the war between the human realm and the demon realm was nowhere in sight…

In recent decades, that defeat had even happened, making General Bali Saihe’s name a rat everyone shouted at in the streets.

Sigh…

“Since the herbs are out of stock, let’s gather people to pick them…”

Xue La said.

“Everyone’s scared because of the manticore… so I have to lead the team personally and take the girls from the house up the mountain.”

“Young Lady, you have a kind heart. But it’s best to ask the lord and lady first.”

Aoweiliya smiled as she withdrew.

“The dangers in the mountains haven’t all disappeared.”

Xue La nodded, then looked at Luo Yi.

“I know. So I want some guards—like the brave warrior who killed the manticore, Luo Yi.”

She said it very softly.

But in her parents’ ears, it was heavy.

In Count Brian’s study, a different scene unfolded.

“You’re spoiling her too much.”

Lady Catalina was outspoken and countered directly.

“Sending the manticore’s head on a tour to Baldwood Town to win back people’s hearts; and assigning the steward to the White Pigeon Bank in Baldwood Town to cash the draft for rebuilding the ruins there—that’s a huge sum of money. The steward needs helpers too.”

Brian was long used to his wife’s endless chatter. He quietly watched her golden, wavy hair and light green eyes.

‘By the Sun God Helong, she really is like a lion!’

The count remembered how he had married the girl from the Lyoncourt family back in his youth. Back then, he was a practical man who shuttled between his hometown and the royal capital, bearing a noble title but mingling with merchants, working hard to earn one gold coin and silver coin after another.

Yet the young noble had also tried to enter the aristocratic social circle of the time. Then, at a ball, he had won the favor of the Lyoncourt family head.

“Well done… such a talented young man…”

the future father-in-law had said.

“I have a daughter. Do you want her?”

Back then, he was full of pride, thinking it was a supreme honor to be connected to a marquis family.

Who knew he would marry a lioness?

Beautiful but deadly.

“Xue La has grown up. She can help with many things.”

Brian maintained his pride in his daughter.

“Knowing how to command the kitchen and make a decent banquet meal—isn’t that also a required course for noblewomen?”

“You and I aren’t blind. We both know what I did in the kitchen after I married into your family,”

Lady Catalina said with a laugh.

Noblewomen in the kitchen? That was something only the lowest, most impoverished noble girls living in drafty old towers would do.

In all the years Catalina had been married into the Linde family, her so-called “cooking” had been nothing more than symbolically sprinkling salt or crushed herbs into the pot. She didn’t even have to move her hands; her personal maid would finish the task for her.

That was called “showing heart”!

Therefore, by the standards of noblewomen, Xue La’s “cooking talent” could only be described as “too advanced.”

There was no need to spoil her daughter and waste the kitchen’s stock on making manticore sausage…

Granted, turning a monster into food could boost morale to the maximum.

But it wasn’t necessary.

“This is very troublesome. On one hand, we have to conscript militiamen and knights to escort the steward to Baldwood Town—that town that held the Harvest Festival and was unfortunately attacked by the manticore. On the other hand, you unconditionally spoil your daughter, let her go up the mountain, and let her hang around that dirty stray dog Luo Yi.”

“A dog, once washed and fed and given a warm place to sleep, is a good thing for guarding the house.”

“Our house doesn’t need this mongrel,”

the lady retorted sternly.

“My daughter barely escaped the manticore’s claws. Now she wants to go up the mountain? I won’t allow it… As for the escorts…”

“We can talk, dear.”

Count Brian spread his hands, trying his best not to tug at the lioness’s whiskers.

On that point, the lady knew it too.

Her constant nagging, using her status as a marquis’s daughter to pressure her count husband, did have some benefit.

She had originally thought Kargon could defeat Luodelike—a former royal guard from the capital, how could he lose to a lowly old man farming in the countryside?

Not enough. Not nearly enough.

But as long as she still held power in the manor (a power even slightly higher than her husband’s), then Luodelike and Luo Yi would never turn things around!

The next day, the manor’s arrangements were announced.

Xue La pursed her lips and smiled bitterly at the arrangement.

Luo Yi could indeed join her and the other girls as a guard to pick herbs up the mountain.

But the escort leader was Kargon.

Luo Yi’s grandfather, Luodelike, was assigned to the steward’s side as a guard for the draft exchange.

After all, that was a huge sum of five hundred gold coins.

It required a trustworthy person—even though Luodelike had only become the estate instructor a few days ago.