Chapter 947: If I’d Known Eating a Skewer of BBQ Would Lead to... ♡～
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 947: If I’d Known Eating a Skewer of BBQ Would Lead to... ♡～
"She’s actually in the Expansion Realm?"
Looking at the reply in the message, I marveled at Sister Bai’s incredible proactivity.
However, I hadn't come away empty-handed just now.
Since the Witch Academy already had the idea of interconnecting the Expansion Realm and the Core World, the implementation of that idea shouldn't be far off.
This was indeed good news; I could mention it to Millian later.
Speaking of the Expansion Realm, I was reminded of a certain someone.
Ninglan Qiuyue.
It really had been a long time since I’d seen her. I wondered how she was doing. She must be... busy out of her mind, right?
As the largest united territory in the Expansion Realm and a transportation hub connecting other regions, she must have a mountain of things to deal with every day.
Just as I was lost in these thoughts, a figure appeared silently behind me.
"Who is it?"
Faced with this unannounced spatial fluctuation, my Body Cultivation space sense instantly alerted me to the anomaly!
"Eh? Sister Bai!"
When I turned around and saw that familiar figure, my momentary wariness vanished completely. I lunged forward into a flying hug.
"Xiao Han! Don't be so excited~"
Sister Bai instinctively reached out to catch me. She had originally intended to give me a surprise, but she hadn't expected that her movements—those of a dignified Transcendent Witch—would be detected by a Little Witch.
"Hehe~ It’s been so long since we’ve cuddled..."
I buried my head in Sister Bai’s chest. As expected, being here in my main body is the best way to experience this kind of happiness~ This feeling is something no amount of clones could ever match!
Even when Sister Bai came to the laboratory, I rarely showed this side of myself.
Sister Bai held me in her arms, occasionally toyed with my silver-white hair.
There was no need for grand gestures, nor many words of longing.
Just holding each other like this, feeling the other’s warmth, sensing their breath, and listening to their heartbeat.
At this moment, silence was more lyrical than any sweet words!
Until a certain point.
When emotional satisfaction gradually gave way to rationality, and instinct urged the body to do more.
Only then did I gently lift my head.
"I’m satisfied~"
"Is Xiao Han satisfied already?"
Sister Bai wore a gentle smile. Her restless right hand reached for the side of my face, lightly stroking my cheek. The friction between her fingertip and my delicate skin seemed to strike a chord of heart-tugging static electricity.
"It’s Sister Bai’s energy recharge that’s complete~" I leaned against her again, my cheeks and chin resting perfectly atop her soft peaks.
This height difference was perfectly in line with "Xiao Han Ergonomics."
"So, do you plan to stay like this forever? Even if it’s the holidays, it doesn't mean no students or mentors will pass by, you know?"
"If you’re afraid of being discovered, Sister Bai, we can go into the Dungeon World to continue~"
"Isn't Ling Yi still in the Dungeon World?"
"Oh~ I almost forgot about that little one." Reminded by Sister Bai, I remembered there was still an "empty-nest" wood elf in the Dungeon World.
Because I’d been so busy with the Primitive Dream Laboratory, I hadn't managed the state of the Dungeon World in a long time.
"But even if Ling Yi is there, it shouldn't matter, right? How about... we move into the Dungeon World first? That way, no one will disturb the two of us—not even Ling Yi," I suggested.
After all, within the academy... there really wasn't a suitable place to play with Sister Bai.
Even if we found a place where no one went, it would be quite thrilling, but wouldn't there still be the Ley Line Information to worry about?
So, the Dungeon World would be more private.
"I’ll follow your lead."
Sister Bai naturally wouldn't refuse. She truly hoped for a private space with Xiao Han where they could do things together, even if those things were childish.
After hearing Sister Bai agree, I reluctantly separated from her on a physical level.
When we stepped into the Dungeon World again...
We stepped onto slightly soft grass, surrounded by lush greenery. Not far away was a wooden house that blended into nature, and further off was the surface of a lake.
Every time I came here, it felt like going on a picnic.
"Wow... the Tree of Heya has grown this big?" I looked at the massive tree. Although it was born from the Omni-Link Main Network Tree, its growth had become increasingly free after breaking away from its original framework.
"Strange, where did Ling Yi go?" I scanned the surroundings but didn't see her. My mental power and other sensory methods found no trace of her, and even the hollow in the Tree of Heya was empty.
"Maybe she went out to play?" Sister Bai didn't mind much. She had been the one coming over to tidy up the Dungeon World lately. It wasn't much, just cleaning up the small wooden house they shared to keep it from getting dusty.
"True~ It’s a pity about the fruits I brought her, though." I somewhat regretfully placed the fruits I’d brought on the open ground beneath the Tree of Heya, hoping Ling Yi would see them as soon as she returned.
Moreover, the ones I brought were Transcendent fruits; they wouldn't spoil in storage equipment and were the kind of fruit wood elves loved.
Although we also grew fruits related to the Fool's Dream Drink in the flowerbed in front of our wooden house, Ling Yi hadn't had any Fool's Dream Drink since Fool's Dream left.
Sister Bai pushed open the door. The inside of the wooden house was as tidy as ever, carrying a faint, refreshing scent of natural wood.
However, because it hadn't been used for a while, it felt a bit cold.
"Oi~ what are you doing here?" I kicked a stone that was standing abruptly to the side.
With my movement, the stone twitched like a living thing.
Sensing it was me, the once-solid stone suddenly "shattered" into several pieces and fled at a high speed of several centimeters per second.
This was a product of my previous attempts at Soul Delineation. Aside from the initial lab rat, I had kept a few other species.
I hadn't expected that after some time, those fellows would have vanished completely, leaving only this stone monster standing here motionless.
"Xiao Han~ look what I found!" At that moment, Sister Bai walked out of the wooden house, the sound of something being dragged behind her.
"Hmm? Wait... huh? A charcoal grill? Where did that come from?" I looked at the object in Sister Bai’s hand with a shocked expression.
"Hmm... I must have brought it when I was decorating this place. After all, the atmosphere here on the island in the middle of the lake is great, and it has a camping feel, so I brought this along. I’ve never used it once," Sister Bai said after a moment of thought.
"Uh... good idea!"
"Shall we try it?"
"Yes!"
A simple exchange led to us being busy for quite a while.
Since neither Sister Bai nor I had ever tried outdoor BBQ, we naturally had zero experience.
However, even if we didn't know how, with our wisdom and manual dexterity, we wouldn't be defeated by such a small thing.
"Hehe~ I really didn't expect this. This reunion is actually a BBQ with Sister Bai on the island. What a rare experience!"
With a snap of my fingers, a flame the size of a small fireball ignited the hardwood charcoal below.
These things seemed to have been prepared by Sister Bai long ago; there were even several types of charcoal, such as fruitwood charcoal, to add flavor to the BBQ.
"Didn't Xiao Han say she likes to experience all sorts of things she hasn't tried before to enrich her life?"
"Ha~ You still remember that, Sister Bai~ But what are we grilling later? We can't exactly slaughter something fresh inside the Dungeon World, can we?"
While there were indeed creatures I’d experimented on within the Dungeon World... that probably wouldn't be right, would it?
"Hmph~ Carrying a bit of everything in storage equipment is actually very useful." Sister Bai wasn't worried. Since she had proposed the BBQ plan, she had naturally considered what to grill.
As for meat or vegetables, she really did have them. After all, she was a Five Senses Body Cultivation Witch.
There was an inescapable bond between food and perception.
I watched as Sister Bai took out the food items one by one. There were many meats I hadn't even seen before.
"Sister Bai, what is this?" I pointed to a massive leg Sister Bai had placed on the ground. It was obvious the creature had been enormous when it was alive.
"Oh~ that’s leg meat from a Dragonborn Blood Beast." Sister Bai looked up at what I was pointing to while selecting ingredients and explained, "Where did this... come from? Or rather, where do you hunt these creatures that we don't usually see?"
"Doesn't the Witch Academy have Witch Secret Realms? The secret realms held by the student body's Secret Realm Club are only a part of it, and they’re mostly for students. There are other secret realms used for various purposes, including some specifically for raising this kind of meat."
"Huh?"
"There’s even more amazing stuff. I know a senior witch who controls a Dungeon World even larger than this one. She raises Transcendent creatures in there specifically to harvest their meat~"
"Transcendent?" I was stunned.
"Yes. Xiao Han, you might have a misconception. Transcendence isn't that unreachable, and there are levels even among Transcendents. Non-intelligent Transcendent fierce beasts or alien beasts can also end up as ingredients."
"And they have powerful immortality, so doesn't that mean they can be harvested almost infinitely?" I followed Sister Bai’s words with a follow-up question.
"That’s one way to put it. The reason that senior I know dares to raise Transcendents in a Dungeon World without fearing they’ll destroy it is because those few Transcendents have been harvested until they’ve given up and stopped resisting. That witch senior also prepared Painless Demonification Potions for them as a reward~"
"Ah... that’s so weird. I feel like my brain is growing!"
I poked the beast leg meat, which had a cross-section taller than me. Indeed, the life of a Transcendent was always full of wonder and the incredible.
"So... is this the Dragonborn Blood Beast you personally hunted in those secret realms, Sister Bai?"
"No," Sister Bai shook her head. "Dragonborn Blood Beasts are very rare, and the Witch Academy doesn't have a secret realm for raising them. This was a trophy I picked up at the Dragonborn Academy back then. Pity I only managed to hack off one leg."
"Hah?"
My eyes widened as I looked at the giant leg meat and then at Sister Bai. This was not the answer I had expected.
"The Dragonborn Blood Beast is a kind of deformed Dragonborn hybrid. It has a fairly high concentration of dragon blood but lacks the corresponding strength. Combined with its massive size and some selective breeding by certain races, it has become a 'blood jar' specifically used for extracting dragon blood."
"So the Dragonborn Academy was actually built around this?" Suddenly, I seemed to understand a lot of things.
"Roughly speaking. Most of their high-concentration dragon blood essence is refined from these blood beasts. But it’s a total waste; the meat of the blood beast is actually the best part," Sister Bai commented, completely ignoring the issues regarding the breeding of Dragonborn Blood Beasts at the Dragonborn Academy.
Afterward, Sister Bai explained several other types of meat to me. I had to admit, Sister Bai knew a lot about food.
As the meats were skewered onto wooden sticks and began to drip oil under the high heat of the grill, I was unashamedly on the verge of drooling.
"Here~ let me add a bit of my secret BBQ seasoning~ You have to wait a bit longer, Xiao Han~"
"It’s fine! I can wait!" I spoke up again.
I had originally intended to help, but in the end, it was Sister Bai who did all the work.
"Just stay there and wait like a little glutton~" Sister Bai said with a laugh.
Actually, in the beginning, Bai Yu’s cooking skills were only average—not bad, but not exactly stunning.
However, after an exchange with Dean Mei, she had learned about the saying, "To win a girlfriend's heart, you must first capture her stomach."
Before long, the steaming skewers were basically ready.
Don't ask why we didn't use spells; the answer is that spells don't have the charcoal flavor you get from a real grill.
"Here~" Sister Bai picked up a skewer and held it to my mouth to feed me.
"Awoo~ Mmm~ Mmm!"
"How does it taste?"
"Mmm~ I thought the seasoning was already god-tier, but I didn't expect the meat to be this good!" After swallowing, I felt a surge of happiness~ After all, this was personally seasoned, personally skewered, personally grilled, and personally fed to me by Sister Bai!
"If you like it, how about I make it for you every day from now on?"
"Yes... no." I wanted to say yes, but then I thought of something and quickly shook my head. "Eating it every day would get boring. I don't want my body’s instincts to tell me I’m tired of something Sister Bai made with her own hands. Besides... how can we eat BBQ every day?"
"Then how about we rotate every day?"
"If we do that... then I’ll be completely unable to leave you, Sister Bai. I’ll become a dummy who only knows how to eat and drink for free..."
"How could that be? If Xiao Han is a dummy, then what does that make the other students and witches in the academy?"
"Eh? I thought you’d say you’d take care of me for the rest of your life, Sister Bai~"
"That’s not out of the question~" Sister Bai was slightly taken aback, then said with a smile, "But if that’s really the case... then I’ll have to collect a little bit of interest every night~"
"Interest? What interest?" I looked up at Sister Bai and caught her instinctively licking the corner of her lip.
"What do you think?" Sister Bai’s face suddenly drew close to mine. Her tone was very gentle, but beneath that gentleness was a hint of impatience.
At this moment, our breaths intertwined. Then, I felt a touch of warmth at the corner of my mouth—it was a smudge of sauce left behind when Sister Bai fed me.
"The taste is truly excellent~" Sister Bai said with a smile.
For a moment, it was unclear whether she was talking about her seasoning or something else.
"Wait! Wait... I, I’ve only eaten one skewer... Mmm♡~~"