Chapter 442 – A Shared Dinner

Zhizhi’s face had turned completely red, but Mo Lan smiled with satisfaction.

It had never spoken such a long string of Common Language in one breath before!

As expected, the problem had always been insufficient motivation to learn.

Now that it had a little underling, the boss’s motivation was through the roof!

Today it was her turn to prepare dinner again. Having resolved the two little ones’ learning issues, Mo Lan was in an excellent mood. In a rare burst of enthusiasm, she used Culinary Magic herself and made everyone’s favorite dishes.

Not just for the four Sorceresses—the familiars and undead servants got their own portions too.

When dinnertime arrived, Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph came over.

“Clack! You!”

“Zhizhi! Me!”

“Clack!”

“Right, that’s you!”

“Zhizhi!”

“No, Zhizhi is me!”

……

The moment they entered the tent, they heard Zhizhi’s chattering voice. Following the sound, they spotted a small silver-boned skeleton sitting beside Zhizhi.

“Mo Lan, is your undead servant finished?” Vasida called toward the dining area, where Mo Lan was.

“Mm-hm! The little skeleton is called ‘Clack.’ Zhizhi is teaching it Common Language,” Mo Lan said. “Come eat! Everything’s ready.”

She also called out: “Zhizhi! Clack! Come eat!”

Apart from a layer of silver plating on its bones and a yellow gemstone atop its skull, the little skeleton moved no differently from any ordinary low-level skeleton.

But what was this about learning Common Language?

And yet, looking at what Zhizhi had just set down—weren’t those vocabulary flashcards?

“You’re not seriously planning to use a low-level skeleton’s one and only simple skill—learning ability—on Common Language, are you?” Lilith asked Mo Lan.

“Of course! Once it learns Common Language, when its intelligence grows in the future, it’ll be able to read books and learn things on its own,” Mo Lan said. “Rather than teaching it a single skill, it’s better to teach it the ability to learn skills by itself. As the saying goes: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph all fell silent.

The logic wasn’t wrong per se, but applying it to a skeleton undead servant was deeply problematic.

Lacking intelligence was practically a defect engraved into the very racial traits of undead creatures.

Even Ghosts didn’t possess the capacity for creative thinking.

Skeletons were even worse—there was a hard limit on what they could learn.

Yet Mo Lan was actually planning to have a skeleton undead servant learn a language and then self-study through books. She was practically grooming it to become a scholar.

“Moira, have you become so obsessive that you won’t even spare your undead servants?” Vasida said.

“That’s terrifying,” Lilith said. “Even being your undead servant means you have to study.”

Sylph just shook her head in silence, her expression full of shock.

“Do you really not think this is a good idea?” Mo Lan asked earnestly.

“I simply cannot imagine what it would look like if Egg Fried Rice and Spicy Hotpot were sitting there reading books one day!” Vasida said.

“The whole point of undead servants is that they don’t fear pain, don’t fear injury, and will execute their master’s combat orders without regard for consequences. You’re not teaching it to fight, but teaching it Common Language instead—isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?” Lilith said.

“I don’t need it to protect me right now,” Mo Lan said.

Whether it was her familiars or her undead servants, she raised them with such care that she couldn’t bear to send them into life-threatening combat.

“Being your familiar or undead servant is actually pretty nice,” Sylph said.

Since they had differing views on the matter, they didn’t dwell on it further.

Every witch was different and had her own choices to make.

“Alright! Time to eat!” Mo Lan said. “I asked you all to bring your familiars and undead servants along for dinner. You brought them, right?”

“We did,” Vasida said curiously. “Bringing familiars, sure, but why the undead servants? They can’t eat, can they?”

“Here! This is Egg Fried Rice’s spot!” Mo Lan pointed to the place beside Clack’s high chair. “It gets the same thing as Clack.”

As she spoke, Mo Lan lifted the silver cloche from the plate at that spot, revealing a fist-sized, crystalline, translucent mound inside. “Soul essence pudding! How about that—they can eat this, right?”

Egg Fried Rice’s was shaped like a fried egg, while Clack’s was star-shaped.

Vasida had to hand it to her—she’d even used molds to shape the soul essence into different forms.

But it was indeed something undead creatures could eat.

Zhizhi’s spot was next to Clack’s, and its dish was a glass of chilled bamboo wine.

At the moment, though, it was busy making Clack maintain proper table manners and not touch the soul essence on its plate.

Mo Lan waved to Bi’er, perched atop Sylph’s head, and pointed to a tiny miniature flower-table placed directly on the dining table. “Bi’er, this is your spot!”

Bi’er flew over and sat in the perfectly sized little chair, then lifted the tiny cloche.

It was a plate of fruit salad with a glass of juice.

“Wow! Thank you, Moira!” Bi’er said happily.

They were all her favorites.

“Little Vine? Your spot is over here,” Mo Lan beckoned.

Lilith raised her hand, revealing her wrist. “It should enjoy this too.”

The Vampire Vine on her wrist had already poked out a tiny tendril, stretching toward where Mo Lan was pointing. Something there was clearly attracting it.

At that spot, a flowerpot sat on the chair, and a large plate was set on the table before it.

The Vampire Vine hopped into the flowerpot to settle itself, then extended a vine to lift the cloche. Inside was a pile of plump, green rice dumplings.

But the Vampire Vine, which normally only loved Raw Meat, seemed rather eager.

“These are blood-and-flesh rice dumplings!” Mo Lan said. “They’re stuffed with fresh blood and meat.”

As for Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph, needless to say, their places were set with their own favorite foods as well.

Mo Lan didn’t need to tell them—they already knew which seat was theirs.

While enjoying their dinner, they kept glancing over at the familiars and undead servants.

Bi’er was to be expected—Sprites were an intelligent race with their own etiquette, and she ate with natural elegance.

What surprised them was that the others were all eating quite properly too, a far cry from their usual feeding habits.

Egg Fried Rice was using a small spoon to scoop up soul essence, eating it one bite at a time.

The Vampire Vine had wrapped its tendrils around a set of knife and fork, spearing a rice dumpling and placing it beneath itself. Its root system pierced into it, and before long all that remained was an empty dumpling wrapper, which it neatly pinched between two vines and tossed into the trash bin in the corner of the dining area.

Since there were no bones, the flowerpot remained perfectly clean.

Only the little skeleton didn’t quite know how to use utensils, but it sat there obediently, waiting for Zhizhi to feed it.

Zhizhi held a straw in its mouth, slurping bamboo wine while using a small spoon to scoop soul essence and deliver it into Clack’s eye sockets.

Through the contract bond, Vasida and Lilith sensed the happy emotions of their familiars and undead servants. Only then did they realize that, after spending so much time together, familiars and undead servants would naturally mimic their masters’ behavior. They were always watching their masters, and they yearned to share a meal together.

Even if they couldn’t eat the same food, simply sitting together at the table made them feel happy.