Chapter 216: Chapter 0216: Face-to-Face Peeping (4th Update, Alliance Hierarch Extra 12/22)
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The footprints continued to the castle entrance, then disappeared.

No one noticed this, not even the Retainer Knights patrolling around the castle in the heavy snow.

In the castle kitchen, Mrs. Abbie’s voice was so loud that it could be heard even in the great hall. Butler Carter was wiping the fixtures and ornaments on the walls and shrugged when he heard the noise.

“She is always so rude, why can you tolerate her?” Thomas asked mockingly while arranging the hall’s stools.

Carter didn’t like Thomas, not only because Thomas disrespected his authority as the butler, but also because Thomas always enjoyed speaking ill of others. He replied gravely, “Because she is Mrs. Abbie, because the master loves the delicious food she makes, and so do the servants.”

“I guess that’s true, if she didn’t have those cooking skills, she would have been fired by the master long ago.”

“Not necessarily, the master is a noble gentleman of kind quality, he would offer Mrs. Abbie a new position.”

“The master is too kind to the servants if you ask me. Jessie, Tom, Eileen should all be sent away, they are just useless.”

“You had better not let the master hear that. Everyone is doing their job, they have done no wrong, and they should not be called useless.”

Thomas snorted disdainfully, “Any other person would do better than them!”

Just then, Mrs. Abbie’s soprano voice came from the kitchen, “Damn it, Eileen, where are the vegetables I asked you to wash? If you delay the master’s dinner, I will ‘kiss’ your butt with my boot!”

Then Eileen’s loud rebuttal followed, “I’m washing the beans, which you instructed!”

“Oh, is that so, can’t you be a bit more swift and wash both the beans and the vegetables?”

“Do you know how many beans there are? Maggie, tell Mrs. Abbie, I think her eyes have gone blurry!”

“Good heavens, are you trying to rebel, Eileen!”

The quarrel in the kitchen provided material for Thomas, who hummed disdainfully, “This is what you call everyone doing their job? The fact is, useless is as useless does.”

Carter ignored him and simply said, “Have you set up the tables and chairs upstairs? Today’s dinner will be earlier, don’t delay it.”

“Aren’t Tom and Jessie in charge of setting up the tables and chairs?”

“They are responsible for delivering food to the town, so I’m entrusting this task to you.”

“Heh!”

Thomas laughed mockingly but went upstairs anyway. Being just a valet, he had to follow Butler Carter’s orders.

However, the argument in the kitchen did not stop. Mrs. Abbie was still in full blow-dryer mode, continuously roaring, while Eileen was still huffing and puffing with retorts. But the work in the kitchen proceeded in an orderly fashion, not stalling due to the quarrel, with even the trainee maids sticking to their tasks unfazed.

Everyone had gotten used to the strange relationship between Mrs. Abbie and Eileen, sometimes they were like enemies, other times like mother and daughter.

Maggie had gotten used to it, too.

She wielded a broom, responsible for sweeping up the rotten vegetable leaves on the floor, which could be given to the serfs to feed the chickens.

“Maggie, do you want some?” The argument had just stopped when Eileen, who was in charge of washing vegetables, suddenly pulled out a handful of shriveled peanuts from a corner and offered them to Maggie as if nothing had happened.

“No thanks, Sister Eileen, I have some, haven’t eaten yet.” She also pulled out a handful of shriveled peanuts from a corner.

There was a peanut processing workshop in Fresh Flower Town that bought a lot of shelled peanuts every day. The plump peanuts were suitable for making various peanut snacks and peanut butter to sell to trading caravans. The leftover shriveled peanuts were then divided and given to castle servants as snacks.

Working in the castle certainly came with some perks that ordinary people couldn’t enjoy.

Eileen put the peanuts back in her pocket and said, “The peanuts taste the best when fried. After the dinner party, once Mrs. Abbie leaves the kitchen, we can fry them ourselves.”

“Mrs. Abbie wouldn’t allow it.”

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“As long as she doesn’t find out, don’t worry, I’ll scrub the pot clean, and she won’t notice.”

“But, Mr. Carter, if she finds out, she will, punish you.”

“It’s no big deal, it’s just using the pot to fry some peanuts. Mr. Carter won’t blame me. He’s like the landlord and never treats us servants harshly, even though I’m just a kitchen maid.”

“Well, okay then.” Maggie licked her lips, having taken a liking to the delicious snack of fried peanuts after trying them once, which was much tastier than the dinner the servants ate every day.

…

The bathroom.

Liszt stood beside the bathtub, constantly measuring the area of the bathtub and the bathroom with a measuring tape.

After collecting the data, he went straight to the study, took out some thick paper and began to sketch and design what he called the bathtub hot spring.

The Little Fire Dragon was not a safe energy source.

One must ensure that it can be used for heating while also taking safety precautions; it was a mentally taxing design that the blacksmiths and carpenters of Fresh Flower Town definitely lacked the brains and insight to create.

“It seems to be the three laws of thermodynamics or some kind of law that determines the three properties of heating water—convection, conduction, and radiation. Radiation I won’t need for now, but conduction and convection are the most suitable methods. With conduction, as long as one part of the bathtub is heated, the whole bathtub’s water can be warmed up.”

Thinking and thinking.

His brain felt a bit messy; the content from junior high school physics had mostly been returned to the teacher.

But he did know one thing, whether it’s heating from the bottom of the bathtub and allowing the water to convect, thus hot water rises and cold water falls. Or heating the water from the side of the bathtubs so that the temperature continually transfers to the other side, there needs to be a tank isolated from the bathtub to heat the little dragon.

“I can’t let the Little Fire Dragon heat all the time, after the bath, I need to put it away so the volcanic glass tank must be crafted by the craftsman immediately… When carving, how to release the bubbles inside is a troublesome issue.”

He propped his hand on the desk, bored, and tipped his chair back on two legs.

Then he casually picked up a piece of volcanic glass.

Activating the Eye of Magic, he prepared to observe the Magic Power within the bubbles again, considering how to work with the craftsman to extract the Fire Dragon Magic Power.

However, after he activated the Eye of Magic, his gaze fell upon the study by the Window, and he was startled.

His hand shook, and the volcanic glass was thrown away, the chair toppled over as well.

Fortunately, his reflexes were quick, and with a twist, he stopped his falling body and steadied himself against the desk.

Then he forcibly directed his gaze to the volcanic glass on the ground, rather than looking at the Window—the place where a Magic Power-formed figure appeared, leaning against the wall. It was clearly a full-chested woman, arms folded across her chest, and her gaze seemed to be fixed on Liszt.

The sudden appearance of a Magic Power figure in his study, where he thought he was absolutely safe, had the potential to scare someone to death with its surprise.

Thankfully, Liszt managed to disguise his surprise with the commotion of his awkward fall.

He didn’t alert the Magic Power figure, which only changed its position and continued to lean against the wall, watching Liszt.

“What is this? What is this thing?” Liszt bent down, cautiously picked up the volcanic glass, and forced himself to stay calm, pondering what this suddenly appeared Magic Power figure could possibly be.

By the time he straightened up.

The panic that followed the scare had swiftly settled, and his brain had regained its cunning, immediately recalling the reward from the Smoke Mission—the Thief that spies on the Landlord.

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