Chapter 71. Flora and Her Friends (2)

After the plates were arranged on the table, Flora took two pieces of the mouth-watery kebab, taking one bite on the stick to her right before closing her eyes as a delighted and bright smile blossomed on her face. Her nose flattened as she continued chewing on the meat, radiating an aura of smiles as her cheeks had turned into a disaster, enough to make her friends freeze.

“You shouldn’t make too much of a mess…” Mana scolded the little cheery girl as she took out a handkerchief and wiped off the mess on the little girl’s cheeks who didn’t mind at all despite the hood of her favorite deer suit being dirtied.

You could tell at one glance that she prioritizes food over anything else, she didn’t even notice her cheeks were being wiped as she simply continued on eating, taking another piece then chewing. The entire scene made me a bit embarrassed to look at her friends who were all smiling satirically.

“What are you all looking at, let’s go eat!” Kayla snapped everyone back to reality, her voice contained excitement after a short while of staring at the meals placed on the table. The silky blue-haired large-chested lady went ahead and took four pieces from the plate and with a competitive spirit, started eating as fast as she could in front of Flora.

Her mouth easily fitted four pieces, swallowed them like some kind of parasite then burped out loud as she looked at us with glimmering eyes, “This is absolutely delicious, do you have some wine?”

“The dish itself is already marinated with high-quality wine, why do you need more?” Mana responded with a questioning gaze. The two of them stared at each other with sparks flying all around the room which I didn’t understand why.

“Bwah! It doesn’t matter, good food needs to be paired with good wine, isn’t that right, little lady?” Kayla looked at Leisha, sitting beside her as she patted Leisha’s back despite the poor lady minding on her business. Leisha was writing some kind of formulations on a sheet of paper which was kind of her habit.

“Uh-uh… I don’t know,” Leisha responded, causing Kayla to look at her with disappointment as she stood up from her seat, stretching her arms up while flexing her heavy chest as she sighed before walking towards the kitchen without speaking a single word.

And with no surprise, her head peeked out from the kitchen after a few moments, on her hand was a large wine bottle that was coated in crystals. It was one of the more special wines we had, one that costs us more than ten gold coins.

“Hey, don’t use that! That wine is expensive!” Mana shouted at Kayla who chuckled.

“To think that the two of you were hiding this legendary wine that is said to be able to make someone drunk in one sip, how amusing!” Kayla looked at Mana and me with a teasing smile, causing the pink-haired beauty to blush. I was utterly confused over why Mana blushed over her words but shook my head as it could maybe something local here.

“You can grab the blueberry and red wine over at the second kitchen instead, those two have been there for a while now. They should be good tasting,” I said while taking a piece from the plate that was reduced fast by Flora’s intense eating speed.

The kebab tasted a bit similar to the one we tasted a few hours back but with the main issues of quality fixed, the wine added more flavor to the already high-quality meat which made it an absolute delicacy, it was a bit spicy while also a little bit sweet.

“It tastes better…” I gulped down and said before Kayla came back with two wine bottles in her hand, the one to her right had a bottle with a blue tint while the one to her left had a red tint, both were of the same size.

The wines were both red and blueberry coming from a certain semi-luxurious merchant that usually arrives here once every month, “You have some good wine over here!”

“Hey! That cost around five gold coins per bottle!” Mana shouted as Kayla laughed, placing the wine bottles on the table as she walked back to the kitchen, this time, she came back with a tray full of wine glasses and a corkscrew.

“Ara, no worries about the price, little Ayumi has plenty of money, after all!” Kayla looked at me with a wink as she took out the corkscrew, opening the cap of the wine bottles in one go as she threw the corkscrew away while taking a glass, filling it up with red wine.

Plenty of money, your face… I am not even a noble, compared to you, my savings are like an ant worth. Not to mention, this wine cost me a week worth of my salary, you piece of…!

“Whatever… better utilize something you spent than waste it there,” I said, letting out a heavy sigh as I took out a glass before filling it up with blueberry wine while the elderly lady together with the little girl looked at us with surprise, “What are you two standing there for, come eat with us!”

“Yui! Sheila! Let’s eat!” Flora ran towards her friends with four pieces, handing two of the two of them as she smiled adorably. A bright rainbow could be seen around her that made the two little girls tremble as the two looked at one another, nodding.

“Please excuse us,” the more noble violet-haired girl bowed down while the brown-haired one looked at her surprised but quickly followed after. I wonder if it is some sort of tradition here.

“You don’t have to do that, all of us are equal in status here,” Kayla scolded the violet-haired girl who didn’t seem to be hurt but instead nodded as she looked at her elder sister with admiration before the two of them were dragged by Flora on a sofa, sitting down beside her as the three ate like cute chicklings.

“Ah right, there was something else I remembered just now,” the large-chested Kayla said after gulping an entire glass of wine, her cheeks were blushing red as she looked at us with a seductive smile. Her eyes were visibly drowsy.

“What, is it something to do with the event?” I asked before she shook her head as she answered.

“It has something to do with Mana and the Fragaria family, in particular, her elder sister… a little bit of trouble appeared a few days ago. It was about a certain treasure appearing on the Fragaria family and that treasure has major importance with a newly discovered dungeon near the capital.”

A newly discovered dungeon near the capital…? As far as I can remember, there are only six dungeons located near the capital on the original setting of Solis with only three of them being discovered as far as I was told so far. If this item has some importance with the dungeon then the only thing I can think of is either a boss that requires a certain item to beat it which none qualifies or a dungeon with a special key which also none qualifies.

“What kind of treasure?” Mana asked while taking a sip of her wine as Kayla took out some sort of papyrus paper from guess where… her chest, placing it on the table as she unwrapped it, revealing a beautiful matte black key with a tint of gold at the edges.

“This is said to be a key to a secret boss on the newly discovered dungeon, the key weighs around the size of fifty boulders which makes it a bit problematic as no one could lift fifty boulders even with the help of eighty adventurers…” she smiled wryly.

The key looked a bit familiar though, the shape of the key was similar to that of a weapon. It was more like a tiny scythe, even the edge was sharp, yet it also doesn’t qualify as a scythe. It was hard to describe what the item was.

The Key of Ashleim

An unidentified special key that, according to old writings, said to be able to unlock the doors towards hell. Some other writings wrote about the key being one to unlock the seals of a scythe buried in a certain dungeon but so far, no one has been able to find the proper answer to the origins and usage of the key.

Mihou

Fun fact, there was another version to the end of this chapter, click below to see.

The Key of Ashleim, an event tier item that was made for Valentine's day in my original world. The actual story behind the item is a bit embarrassing but it was made for all the single people to take revenge against the ones who had partners in the marriage system. They would invite the pair to go dungeon diving with them only to come to a certain door where a key is required, this key would be handed to all single people without the knowledge of the pair.

After unlocking the door, the pair would be sucked in where they will be brutally tortured… not physically but mentally, beyond the door was absolute hell. It was a room that had walls that said, “We’re no strangers to love”, “You know the rules, and so do I” with the very center containing a statue of a teenage man that would say.

“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down…”

Yes… the secret behind the dungeon was a room of nick rolls which at that time was still hilarious… though, if I were given a chance to not do it again then I will never do it again to not let all of you down…

[Yes, you got rick-rolled]