Chapter 152 – Stale Vinegar

A certain day.

Outside the borders of Lombard Kingdom.

The carriages were temporarily stationed in the countrysides.

Lin Xiao was currently discussing about the competition with Woos and the others, and Elena, as a maid, was preparing to help her master make a meal of love.

Although saying that, she was only heating up the food that someone else already prepared, the only thing that tested her culinary skills was a pot of soup.

Stewing soup was probably one of the simplest things to cook, it was difficult to mess up, but Elena was currently bothered by the boiling pot of soup in front of her.

She didn’t understand why humans have to make a meal into something so complicated, all you had to do was shove all the food into your mouth until you were full, yet they still need something like soup, how bothersome.

“Vinegar, pepper, sauce…”

Elena was currently holding several small bottles at a loss, and didn’t know what to use to make this boiling pot of soup taste more delicious.

“Since it’s seasonings, I can just add a bit of everything, right? It’ll definitely be delicious that way… oh, wait, last time I did that, Lin Xiao cursed that I was poisoning him… tsk, what an annoying guy, I’ll poison him sooner or later!”

Elena was still wavering, but the soup inside the pot was bubbling vigorously, like it was rushing her to make a decision.

If she didn’t add any seasonings soon, the soup would evaporate!

“Damn, how annoying!”

Finally, the apprehensive Elena threw away the two other bottles, leaving only vinegar behind. She pulled off the cork, and prepared to pour the entire bottle in!

“There will definitely be no problem if I just add vinegar!”

In compliance with her strange logic, Elena started to put it into action.

Leaving aside the fact that she was adding vinegar into the soup, if Elena actually poured the entire bottle in, then she would be the only one who could drink it… since she was a demon, she had a great appetite and digestion, even if it tasted bad, she would be fine even if she poured it all into her stomach, if it was anyone else they would die from it being too sour.

“Let’s just add all of it in… eh?”

Just as a couple of drops of vinegar hit the boiling soup, Elena noticed her hand being grabbed by someone, and the vinegar that was about to go in also stopped.

“Ah! Stop, you can’t put vinegar!”

She turned around in surprise and saw a beautiful charming woman.

Shen DaiYing reacted quickly and stopped what she was doing right away.

They were both woman, so she simply grabbed Elena’s hand and snatched the vinegar away, putting it to the side. Then she grabbed a ladle and stirred the soup around.

“Thank goodness, it was just a couple of drops… it shouldn’t have changed the flavor.”

Saying that, Shen DaiYing used a spoon and tasted a bit, finally relaxing after she was sure there was no problems.

“Elena, what are you doing!” the usually gentle Shen DaiYing was frowning, and thought that Elena was trying to play a practical joke, so she sternly lectured her, “If you pour vinegar in, the soup will taste bad, why did you do that?”

Elena felt uncomfortable being lectured by her, she could only turn her head around and faintly replied, “I don’t know how to stew soups, I also don’t know how to cook.”

“Eh? You don’t?” Shen DaiYing covered her mouth in disbelief, “Aren’t you a maid, how do you not know how to cook?”

“I don’t know what I don’t know.” Elena answered like it was to be expected.

“Uh… no way, right.” Shen DaiYing pretended to cook the soup, but glanced at Elena, “If you don’t know how to cook… then, does Lin Xiao cook for you usually? Aren’t you the maid and he the master.”

Shen DaiYing finally found an opportunity, taking the incident of her adding vinegar, she started shifting the topic to Lin Xiao. Elena had no idea that she was trying to gather information, and thought that she was just idly chatting, so she calmly replied.

“Lin Xiao said that he plans to find a chef,”

Lin Xiao did indeed say that, 「you don’t even need to buy poison you idiot, your cooking itself is poison! If I don’t find a chef, I’m going to die sooner or later!」

“Finding a chef?” Shen DaiYing opened her mouth agape, and couldn’t react.

He already has a maid yet he needs to specially look for a chef, isn’t he spoiling Elena too much.

If it was like that, what would Elena do?

A trophy maid?

Or a… sexual release maid?

Various thoughts floated around her, and Shen DaiYing’s smile unconsciously became stiff.

“Hehe, Elena, isn’t it a waste to look for a chef.” She pursed her lips and continued on, “I actually know how to cook, especially Eastern food, a lot that you guys have never even had before!”

“Is that so?” Elena didn’t comment.

She didn’t understand why she was saying that to her, what does you knowing how to cook have anything to do with me?

“Um… Elena.”

Shen DaiYing was sitting next to Elena and continued to stir the soup within the pot. Her gaze seemed to be looking at the soup, yet also looking at the void beyond it.

Shen DaiYing faintly smiled and spoke.

“How about I go help you cook? I’m bored staying at home alone, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all eat together?”

“Help cook?’ Elena frowned.

Although she couldn’t detect any malice from her words, but she still became vigilant. After all, Shen DaiYing had something to do with the Lesser Devils, so she had her pegged as a potential enemy from the start.

But to Shen DaiYing, Elena looked like she was angry, like a female cat that had her territory invaded.

Seeing her disapprove, Shen DaiYing became more energetic.

“Is it not okay? I think Lin Xiao should be pleased… he’ll definitely like the food I make!”

“Oh, is that so.” Elena responded tepidly.

Of course Lin Xiao would be happy, he already said that he fell in love with Shen DaiYing at first sight. But what does this have to do with her? Why does she keep bothering her?

Elena was confused.

“Tsk… what’s that smell?”

As they were speaking, Elena suddenly detected a sour smell. It was probably because the bottle wasn’t closed tightly? Thinking that, she firmly closed the bottle.

“Since you’re not against it, then it’s settled! After the competition, I’ll go cook some delicious Eastern food!” Shen DaiYing raised a small flag for herself.

“Oh.”

After the competition, is it. At that time, Elena probably would have had her slave contract removed and left already.

“Oh right… Elena, why did Lin Xiao have to bring you along for this competition?” Shen DaiYing quickly changed the topic again and asked something unrelated.

Among the four participating, only Lin Xiao stubbornly brought his maid along. Woos and Momm didn’t bother stopping him, Elena was his maid, so he could do whatever he liked with her.

But Shen DaiYing wanted to find out the reason.

“…” Elena was silent.

How should she respond? She obviously couldn’t say it was because of the slave contract so she had to follow Lin Xiao around like his tail, right?

So she pretended she couldn’t hear her and didn’t respond.

“There’s a lot of people accompanying this time, so even if he didn’t bring his maid, he would have been well taken care of.”

Shen DaiYing didn’t give up, but since its got to this point she might as well delve it and ask to the end.

“So, Elena… did you want to go with him?” She asked seriously.

Who initiated, that was the most important question!

What was Elena’s attitude towards Lin Xiao?

“Who initiated? …I forgot.” Elena just shook her head.

She didn’t understand what Shen DaiYing was getting at, but the strange sour smell came back.

“How sour.” Elena muttered.

“Eh? W-what did you say?”

“There’s a smell of vinegar.”

“V-vinegar?”

“Yes, don’t you smell it? It seems like the bottle of vinegar is leaking.”

Elena picked up the bottle of vinegar to her side and inspected it. Realizing that it wasn’t leaking, she tilted her head and fell into thought.

“It’s not leaking… strange.”

“Elena, you?”

Shen DaiYing didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry, she still wanted to re-ask that question, but Elena pointed to the pot of soup and ended it there.

“If it keeps cooking, the soup will all evaporate.”

“Eh?”

Only then did Shen DaiYing notice that all the soup was almost gone while they were talking, so she quickly moved the pot and preserved the rest.

“Elena, about that…”

She still wanted to continue asking, but noticed Elena already ran off.

“Hey!”

Looking at Elena’s leaving figure, Shen DaiYing didn’t feel too good.

She didn’t get a response for the question that she finally summoned her courage to ask, she dejectedly realized that Elena never understood her intentions, or just didn’t care about her.

The only thing Elena cared about was her master. The scene in front of her was proof, the person who called her away earlier was Lin Xiao.

Elena ran away after hearing her master calling.

They weren’t too far so she could still vaguely hear them speaking.

“Hey, what were you guys talking about?” Lin Xiao pulled Elena’s arm and curiously asked.

“She taught me how to cook soup.” Elena coldly replied.

“Soup? I thought… okay, then did you learn?”

“No.” Elena turned around and looked at Shen DaiYing then seriously said, “She said earlier that she’ll come to our house to help cook after the competition.”

“Really!?” After hearing that, Lin Xiao almost started jumping out of happiness. If it wasn’t for Elena’s icy gaze, he might have even hugged her to celebrate.

“So, what do you want? The soup is ready.”

“Ah, forget the soup… We’re in trouble.” Lin Xiao frowned, “No, strictly speaking, you’re in trouble.”

“Me?”

Elena blinked.

What kind of troubles could a mere maid be in?