Chapter 473 – Bug Legs and Sauce

Silver coins clinked and clattered. Mo Lan didn’t lack for money, yet still felt deeply satisfied.

This was the joy of earning money!

The mages on the carriages finally began wondering why their guards had gone ahead and hadn’t returned for so long.

When they went forward to check, they found quite the spectacle—every single guard was cradling ironclad beetle shell plates and limbs, grinning from ear to ear.

“The mage gave them her spoils?” one of the Beginner mages in the group said in disbelief.

“Grann, you think far too highly of this lady’s generosity,” said Goebel.

He wouldn’t believe it even if you beat him to death—there was no way this stingy, money-grubbing mage would share magical beasts she’d killed with other people.

So even though he coveted the materials on the ironclad beetles, he hadn’t tried anything with them.

He called over one of his own guards to ask.

“What? Rented? And only three copper coins a day?”

“What? You’re going to eat the bug legs? One silver coin per leg?”

Goebel couldn’t tell whether he’d gone mad, or whether his guards and that stingy mage had gone mad.

Renting ironclad beetle shell plates this cheaply was completely unlike the stingy mage’s style.

His guards had spent one silver coin to buy disgusting bug legs and still looked like they’d gotten an amazing bargain—had they been bewitched?

From what his guard told him, he finally learned that stingy mage’s name—Lady Moira…

Hearing his guard repeat Lady Moira’s argument about how warriors should eat more magical beast meat, Goebel felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Hadn’t he just been tricked out of a Magic Gold Coin yesterday by exactly this kind of specious reasoning?

“You believed that?” Goebel looked at his most trusted guard captain and sank into deep self-doubt.

He had previously thought this guard was clever, a capable fighter, worthy of important responsibilities—perhaps even someone he could groom into the future knight commander of his territory.

Had he misjudged the man?

“My lord, it’s true! If you had to name which race in Valen knows best how to eat, it would definitely be the Dragons, right? Why are Dragons so physically powerful? Besides racial talent, could it also be because they eat so much magical beast meat? We warriors normally eat ordinary food, and our appetites are always enormous, but magical beast meat is different—we can only eat a little before feeling full.”

“Vegetables make you hungry faster than meat! Doesn’t that prove magical beast meat has more energy than ordinary meat, and meat has more energy than vegetables?”

The guard captain spoke with such conviction that if Goebel hadn’t already been swindled by the stingy mage, he might have actually believed him.

“You didn’t pay money for this information, did you?”

If they had paid for it, he would seriously need to reconsider whether grooming this guard captain was the right idea after all.

“No! Lady Moira told us for free!” the guard captain said, full of gratitude.

Goebel: “…”

Well, at least he wasn’t completely stupid.

But… why was he the only one who had to pay for false information? And a whole Magic Gold Coin’s worth of false information at that.

Even now, thinking about it still stung.

When he made his way over to Mo Lan’s group, the resentment-filled Goebel put on an entirely different face.

“Many thanks for stepping in just now, my lady! Your Magic was truly an eye-opening spectacle for all of us!”

Though she was a stingy con artist of a mage, she was genuinely powerful!

“Too kind, too kind! You pay, I do the job—it’s only natural. No need for thanks!” Mo Lan said. “How about it? Want to buy a couple of bug legs for dinner? We may be mages, but we still need to eat well and drink well, keep ourselves in good health—that way, when our psychic power isn’t enough for casting, at least we can run faster!”

The mages retreated in unison, forcing smiles as they said, “No thank you! We’re not used to eating that sort of thing!”

“Suit yourselves! Once you pass this village, there won’t be another shop—who knows when you’ll run into ironclad beetles again. You’re missing out!” Mo Lan said.

Plenty of warriors were still lined up waiting to buy! The shell plates and bug legs weren’t hard to sell at all, so Mo Lan didn’t push her pitch too hard. They’d sell out regardless—buy or don’t, suit yourself!

The mages, however, were terrified Mo Lan would badger them into buying bug legs to eat, and hurried off to their own carriages to direct their guards in setting up camp.

The image of her devastating display just moments ago—skewering an entire swarm of ironclad beetles in the blink of an eye—was still vivid in their minds.

If she actually forced them to eat, they would have to “gratefully” choke it down.

Mo Lan’s group had small Spatial Tents that had been unloaded from the carriage.

From the outside, they looked like perfectly ordinary brown leather tents.

About the same size as the small tents the guards had pitched—just a tiny bit larger.

Compared to the mages’ magical beast hide tents, they were leagues below.

But their tents held a world within.

Though the interiors weren’t like the largest Spatial Tents with villa-sized inner spaces, each still had a small suite.

Three tents pitched side by side, completely inconspicuous within the camp.

Vasida went into the woods to gather dry firewood, Lilith was in charge of lighting the campfire, and Sylph was responsible for roasting the bug legs.

The three of them diligently carried out their duties of attending to their Instructor.

The guards followed their example and began roasting bug legs as well, though of course they didn’t forget to boil some dried vegetable soup for their employers to eat with their rations.

The black bug legs slowly turned an appetizing red over the flames, releasing a peculiar, meaty aroma.

Never mind the meat-loving guards—even the mages felt the dry ration biscuits in their hands had lost their appeal, their gazes drifting repeatedly toward whatever was roasting by the campfire.

“No, no, no! Those are disgusting bug feet!”

The mages told themselves firmly.

Once the bug legs changed color, they were done.

The guards who had bought the secret sauce brought their bowls over to Mo Lan’s campfire and scooped up a dollop of the dark, thick sauce broth, then cracked open the roasted bug legs and dipped the meat in it.

The delicate, tender white meat burst with a novel flavor on their tongues, drawing exclamations of wonder from every one of them.

“Heavens! What kind of sauce is this? It’s incredible!”

“This bug meat is amazing! Better than beef or mutton! Not a hint of gaminess!”

Of course the guards could normally taste the gaminess in meat, but the spices that removed such flavors were too expensive for them to afford. They were used to eating meat that tasted gamey. Suddenly encountering meat that had no unpleasant flavor to begin with, they were absolutely blown away.

Many guards had initially been reluctant to buy Mo Lan’s secret sauce.

Frankly speaking, mages might be formidable with their Magic, but no mage was known to dabble in culinary arts.

If Mo Lan had claimed it was a secret sauce made by her personal chef, perhaps many more guards would have bought it.

Coming from her personally, though—they had no confidence in it.

Even those who did buy Mo Lan’s secret sauce had mostly done so to curry favor, hoping to leave a good impression so she’d look out for them on the road ahead.

They never expected it to taste this spectacular.

The flavor was hard to identify, but one look told you plenty of spices had gone into it—and she was only charging one silver coin per bowl.

Lady Moira was truly the most generous mage of all!

Their praise drew in the guards who hadn’t originally bought the secret sauce, and they pooled their money together to buy a bowl to share.