Chapter 730 – Dukang Wine House

Chapter 730 – Dukang Wine House

With a single teleportation spell, Mo Lan traveled from Sylph’s plantation in Emerald Creek Plains to Witch’s Town.

The colorful cobblestone streets along the shore of Spring Sight Lake were as beautiful as ever. Not far away stood an enormous brass wine pot, three stories tall — that was Dukang Wine House.

The corners of Mo Lan’s mouth lifted involuntarily. She still remembered the astonishment she’d felt when she first tasted “Tiger Sniffing Roses” at the bonfire market.

Later, after Lady Aeltis had turned some of her signature drinks into cards via the Management Card and listed them on the Card Shop, Mo Lan had become a loyal customer. Quite a few of the drink cards stored in Zhizhi’s space were Lady Aeltis’s creations.

Compared to Lady Aeltis’s drinks, Mo Lan was far less familiar with this wine house. This was actually her first time visiting.

“Welcome~”

The moment Mo Lan’s boots touched the oak steps in front of the tavern door, a saccharine voice — pinched and sweet enough to make one’s heart clench — emerged from the door itself.

She looked closely and saw that it was the doorknob, wearing a black bow tie, that was speaking.

Its keyhole was stretched open exaggeratedly wide, as if grinning in a fawning smile.

With a “click,” the doorknob turned itself around, and the heavy oak door swung open, releasing an intoxicating fragrance — a blend of fruity sweetness and the scent of wooden barrels.

Mo Lan was no longer the freshly graduated novice Witch who knew nothing about the otherworlds.

This time, she recognized it. This doorknob, just like Lady Aeltis’s drinkware familiars, came from the World of Myriad Treasures — an intelligent being from that world.

Mo Lan had seen records about this world in the Otherworld Archives. In that world, objects were more likely to develop sentience than living creatures, and such beings were called object spirits.

Object spirits were mostly simple-natured and fiercely loyal to their masters. They could also awaken various wondrous magical abilities, making them excellent choices as familiars.

Many senior Explorers who had visited that world recommended picking up a few object spirits as familiars or attendants.

Mo Lan calmly nodded to the doorknob in acknowledgment, tidied the strands of hair that the wind had tousled, and then stepped into the wine-scented tavern.

The interior was even more spacious than she had imagined, but the clever spatial layout kept the place from feeling cavernous.

In the expansive wine house, the area around the central bar offered an open view, while the rest of the space had been carefully designed into semi-open private nooks, naturally separated by decorations of wildly different styles.

These decorations clearly came from different otherworlds, but remarkably, when combined together, they didn’t look cluttered at all — instead, they created a harmonious sense of lively warmth.

It was practically a museum of otherworld souvenirs.

Cheerful country tunes drifted from morning-glory-shaped instruments mounted on the walls. Object spirits bustled between the tables doing their work, or shamelessly napped in plain sight.

Mo Lan drew in a deep breath. The rich aroma of wine mingled with the sweetness of fruit wood and the warmth of spices, and she instantly relaxed.

She finally understood why witches often said Dukang Wine House was a place that “steals your time.” Just admiring the wondrous decorative pieces from all those different worlds could keep you sitting there all afternoon without realizing it — and that was before factoring in the music and fine drinks.

“Lady Moira, Lady Traci has already arrived. Please follow me!”

A large wine pot object spirit hopped nimbly down from the warming stove behind the bar, its spout tilting slightly upward in an elegant “this way, please” gesture.

This was Lady Aeltis’s most beloved familiar and also the head manager of the wine house — Miss Meimei. The exterior of Dukang Wine House had been designed to resemble her.

Mo Lan followed Miss Meimei up a spiral wooden staircase. The lighting on the Second Floor was softer than on the first, and through the windows, she could see the shimmering surface of Spring Sight Lake.

By the window, Lady Traci was lounging lazily in a plush goose-down chair.

Her silver-white hair cascaded down like a waterfall woven from moonlight, with a few playful strands draped across the open book spread before her.

Between her slender fingers, she held a thin Crystal straw, idly stirring the amber liquid in her glass.

Hearing the footsteps, she raised her eyes slightly. When she spotted Mo Lan, a smile appeared in her silver-gray eyes. “You’re here! Come sit! The sunlight here is at its most lovely right now.”

Mo Lan sat down across from her. She had been feeling a bit reserved and proper, as one tends to in the presence of a senior — but the moment she sank into that impossibly soft goose-down chair, all pretense crumbled.

The chair was so comfortable it was practically predatory, making her relax instantly. There was no maintaining any kind of dignified posture after that.

“What would you like to drink, Lady Moira?” Meimei hovered beside them and asked, then added thoughtfully after a moment, “You’re also welcome to materialize drinks from your cards here.”

Ever since the house’s drinks had been made into cards and listed on the Card Shop, the wine house’s workload had lightened considerably, and even the object spirits had found themselves with much more free time.

“I’ll have a Tiger Sniffing Roses!” Mo Lan answered without hesitation. “After all this time, my favorite is still the very first drink I ever tried!”

“Coming right up!”

Meimei had every drink in the house stored inside her. She cheerfully directed her fellow object spirits to bring over a special rose-patterned wine glass, then personally poured the drink.

Only after completing this perfect act of service did Meimei usher the other object spirits away, leaving the space to Traci and Mo Lan, who were still not entirely familiar with each other.

“Why are you back so soon? Did you run into some kind of difficulty?” Traci asked with concern.

Mo Lan shook her head, then gave a brief account of her experiences in the Dreamweaver World, along with her theories about the instances and the Dream Chronodisk.

“I see!” Traci confirmed her guesses. “I’ve been to the Dreamweaver World as well. You’re right — those instances are actually incompletely evolved spatial fragments of the dream realm. You could just as well call them miniature living spaces. The Dream Chronodisk does indeed contain a trace of temporal power. Altering the flow of time in an ultra-small living space shouldn’t be a problem. And the laws governing a miniature living space are only sub-level laws, so your Book of Cards might not be incapable of crafting it… But why are you so concerned about time? Altering the flow of time on a small scale might let your time pass more slowly than others’, making it seem like you accomplished more in less time — but in reality, time still leaves its mark on you. It would actually make you appear shorter-lived. You’d be better off just letting time flow naturally…”

Mo Lan already knew all this. For a Sorceress who didn’t need to worry about lifespan, saving time wasn’t important. However —

“I desperately want to grow stronger as quickly as possible, but I’m also far too greedy. Whenever I see anything new and interesting, I want to understand it, want to learn it — even though some things don’t really contribute much to my actual power and are purely matters of interest. So I thought, if I had a place where I didn’t have to worry about wasting time, somewhere I could stop and linger now and then, maybe I could feel at ease spending time learning things I enjoy, even if they don’t add much to my strength.”