Miss Witch doesn't want to be a diva!.

Chapter 637: Settling Down in Stone Forest Castle

The mountain wind blows through the woods, and the sun shines through the clouds. Even in this desolate world, there is still a sense of tranquility.

After entering the bar, Tilan turned her eyes, her light blue eyes looking at the fresh and different environment with curiosity like a baby bird. Her simple coat and hood covered her beautiful blue hair, and even her face was hidden under the veil.

The scene I saw had many similarities with what I had imagined, such as the bubbling beer mug, the hot baked potatoes and bread, the slightly sour and salty smell, the hanging smoked sausages, the flickering flames in the fireplace, the dust on the ground and the oil stains on the wooden table.

For her, who is used to the modern and clean society, such an environment has another sense of reality.

However, there are no magicians, adventurers, young and energetic guys, or bards playing music as imagined in many stories. Instead, there are more guests who smell of sweat and eat and drink with their collars open.

"What is Heshia going to eat?" asked a companion.

"The most famous black pork here is probably the black pork." The girl replied.

"That'll be four black pork chops, two servings of toast, a pot of beer, and some vegetables." Guy told us about today's dinner plan.

"Okay, please wait a moment." The clerk responded after taking note.

Sitting next to Tilan, Orlais felt a little awkward. Tilan noticed her little emotion and asked.

"What's wrong."

"Dirty and smelly." Ores said what she was thinking bluntly. Fortunately, her voice was not loud and it was noisy around, so only a few people at the same table heard it.

"This is the only way now." Tilan held the back of her hand and whispered in Orlais' ear to comfort her.

For elves, especially ice elves who are famous for their cleanliness, this kind of environment is indeed very different from Orlais's previous life. However, to Tilan's surprise, she only showed it today. She was very used to it in the grassland settlement before.

Perhaps in her subconscious, the trees and rocks in the wild are part of nature and cannot be considered dirty, but the environment full of oil and sweat is unbearable for this ice elf lady.

"Woo..." Ores pouted, and slowly calmed down with Tilan's comfort.

Seeing her reluctant look, Tilan wanted to laugh. After losing her memory, Orlais was less arrogant and more naive than before.

A few people listened to the people around them eating and chatting. After a while, the four servings of black pork barbecue they ordered were served.

The pork was fat and lean, and was placed on a plate with sizzling hot oil. A few celery leaves were dotted on the side, which was very tempting.

It was a rare piece of good meat. This was the second meat meal for the four of them after eating vegetarian food for nearly a month, and it was even more delicious than the lamb chops they had a few days ago.

I took small bites of the hot steak. Since I didn't have a knife, I could only tear it apart with my teeth. But the process was easy because the meat was roasted perfectly.

After eating it, the sauce spread on the steak and the salt sprinkled on it mixed with the chewing of the meat fibers, under the effect of heat, have an amazing taste.

It didn't take long for the palm-sized steak to be finished, and then I could slowly eat the toast.

Ores ate more slowly on the side. She seemed to be both happy and somewhat disgusted with the steak. Her brows relaxed only after she finished eating.

After finishing this rare luxurious lunch, the four of them walked out of the bar. The air outside was much fresher.

"This meal cost 62 stamps, almost all of what I had prepared," Guy sighed.

"So expensive?" Fran was surprised.

"Of course, do you think that meat is cheap, especially food with little pollution."

"Let's go. It's time to get down to business. Go there before noon. I'm going to sell the fur coats I brought back at the market this afternoon, and then buy some necessary items."

"As for you..." Guy looked at Farlan and Heshia.

"Fran, I've seen the location of the ruins you drew for us before. Originally, I wanted to verify it before letting you go, but after spending some time with you, I don't care whether this reward information is true or not. You can go wherever you want later."

"Miss Heshia and Miss Orles, you said before that you wanted to come to the big city. Now you are here. It's up to you what you plan to do next. If you feel that there is nowhere to go for the time being, you can come back to the settlement with me tomorrow. Boss Moose, Sura, and I welcome you."

"If Miss Heshia wants to stay in Stone Forest Castle temporarily, she will need a lot of stamps, which means money. There are about 3000 people living here permanently. Most of them work for the Gray Feathers, a small number are native Gray Feathers, and there are also one or two thousand floating personnel, that is, people who have not obtained permanent residence permits."

"If you don't have permission, you can only stay overnight in an inn. These inns are run by the Gray Feather Clan behind the scenes. They cost at least 15 stamps per night, and the better rooms cost more than 20 stamps. If you don't have money, you must leave the Stone Forest Castle before nightfall, otherwise you will be caught and punished by the patrolling guards."

"The city has been recruiting capable craftsmen and experienced doctors. Miss Heshia meets both of these requirements. If you want to stay here permanently, you can apply at the meeting hall. The Gray Feathers are kind to capable people."

"Guy, good!" Fran gave a thumbs up, praising Guy's style of anticipating their urgent needs and telling them everything.

"I think I'll stay here for a few days. As for the money, I have a lot of skills. Even if I don't live here permanently, staying for a few days won't be a problem." Fran thought for a moment.

"How's the security here?" The girl thought that if she were to live here for a long time, she would be very tired if the security was too bad.

"Don't worry about the security. This is the only place in this area of ​​hundreds of miles that can be considered to have real security." Guy raised his finger.

"It is because of the order here that the Gray Feather Race can maintain its upper echelon status in this land."

"Then I guess I'll have to stay for a while. I heard there's a library here. If I want to return to my hometown, I need to at least be sure of my location."

"Yes, the library is also a place we must visit during our trip." Fran remembered something.

After that, the four of them separated. Fran prepared to find some simple work to earn money for temporary accommodation, while Heshia took Ores to the meeting hall in the center of Stone Forest Castle.

More than ten minutes later, Heshia stopped in the square. There were two guards standing in front of the church-like hall building in front of her, and there seemed to be members taking a rest in the gatehouse.

The girl walked forward and was about to say hello when the two guards lowered their spears in alert.

"What are you doing here?" Although judging from their figures, the two people should be girls, but they both had most of their faces covered, which was indeed a bit suspicious.

"I'm here to apply for permanent residency." Tilan observed the two guards for a moment. Their strength was about Sequence 2. Their extraordinary core structure was simple, but their physique was quite special, much stronger than native humans.

"You? What can you do?" The two were skeptical.

"I'm better at cutting clothes." After thinking about it, she decided to talk about tailoring skills rather than healing skills. After all, being a doctor would take up a lot of time, and she didn't want to be involved in too complicated interpersonal relationships.

"That's nothing." The two men looked disdainful. It's just that they know how to sew clothes. That can be found anywhere.

“I’m doing better.”

"Go back. We don't lack tailors here. If you keep saying that, it will be an offense."

"Okay." There was no rush to apply for the qualification. Tilan thought about it and decided to go to the market to have a look.

In the afternoon, she and Orlais walked through the market, where they saw many vendors hawking their wares, selling everything from common foods like flour, potatoes, and fruits to rare guns and steam engines.

"Flan is over there." Tilan saw a figure in the distance helping someone debug a steam engine. It was his companion whom he had not seen for long.

She looked for a while, but did not squeeze in with the curious onlookers. Instead, she prepared to go and see how Guy's coat was selling.

Walking through the crowd and arriving at the area where clothing and fabrics were sold, Tilan saw 6-7 stalls, each with a lot of sewn clothes, bedding and the like hanging on the stalls.

"See? This is a masterpiece..." Guy stood on the box, holding a coat sewn by Tilan in each hand, and promoted it to everyone. His words were exactly the same as what he said in the Red Pomegranate Village.

“It looks really well-made.”

“The stitches are very delicate and neat.”

"The clothes are very symmetrical and not skewed," commented several experts.

"The workmanship is excellent and the quality is good, but unfortunately the material is too ordinary. This kind of fur is of low grade and cannot be sold at a high price." "Indeed, ordinary people can buy this, but the gray feathers in the castle will definitely not wear it."

"I'll give you 120 for the stamp." Someone made an offer.

“This price is quite high.”

"150 for a steel stamp." Someone else bid the price, and the price increase was not as big after that.

In the end, Guy sold four pieces at a price of about 160 steel stamps. Others wanted to buy them but were reluctant to spend the money. Guy did not lower the price rashly, but asked everyone to come back tomorrow.

After collecting the things, Guy saw Tilan coming over and handed her 200 steel stamps. This was her dividend, after all, she was the one who made the clothes.

"We deducted part of the money for food and drinks on the way." After all, he was the one who paid for the meals before.

"It's okay." Tilan didn't care about the money, she was just curious about how Guy could sell it so quickly.

Then she told about how she was treated coldly in the meeting hall.

"Ha, it's normal that those guys don't know people, but if you want to apply, it's better to find a guarantor from the Gray Feather Clan. I happen to know one and I can tell you about him."

"Come with me." Guy waved his hand, and then took Tilan and Ores to the wealthy area in the castle.

When he arrived at the entrance to the wealthy area, he took out part of the seal and handed it to one of the guards, asking him to help convey the message.

About half an hour later, a middle-aged man wearing a hat and well-dressed came out. He saw Guy and walked over slowly.

"Guy, you are still alive. You came to see me specifically this time. Are you going to do something for me?" He used to be Guy's employer, and the two knew each other. Guy had left a good impression on him in the past, otherwise he would not have come out to meet him.

"No, this time I came here to recommend a friend to you. She plans to live here permanently." Guy moved aside.

"Recommender." The other party frowned. He didn't like the idea of ​​guaranteeing a stranger for no reason.

Tilan thought about it and decided to take off her hood and veil. Her soft hair fell from her shoulders, looking a little messy. Her face under the bangs looked a little immature, but there was a special kind of clear and quiet beauty. Even she, who had seen many handsome men of different races, was stunned.

"Who is this?"

"This is Miss Heshia. She and her companions fell from the sky accidentally and got lost in the grassland. Now they are trying to find a way to return home and want to live in the mountain castle for a while first." Guy introduced quickly.

"Miss Heshia, is that right?"

"Yes, may I ask who you are?" Tilan remembered the strict teachings of her previous etiquette teacher, and responded with a dignified posture, like a lady in a painting, which made others around her involuntarily get into the mood and become serious.

"I am Sigmund, a scholar of the Gray Feather race." He took out a pair of glasses from his pocket and put them on so that he could see the girl in front of him clearly.

As a gray-feathered species, he has dark gray eyes and his hair is black with a grayish tint (strictly speaking, there is no gray in nature, only different degrees of black). His back is slightly raised, where the retracted wings should be.

The gray-feathered species has many characteristics of a 'cicada'. It is not in human form when young, and will only transform into a human form when it reaches sub-adulthood.

"In that case, please come with me, Miss Heshia." He invited Heshia to sit in the mansion for a while.

"Thank you."

Afterwards, the four of them entered the wealthy area, passed through many beautiful houses, and then entered a medium-sized mansion, which was surrounded by a lawn garden with pleasant scenery.

"Guests are coming. Please prepare the tea from my study cabinet."

"Yes, sir." The four gray-feather maids and waiters bent down to obey the order, then looked up and looked at the few people curiously.

"I'll just take a walk and sit in the yard for a while." Guy thought about it and decided not to go in. After all, he didn't know any etiquette and it would be a bit abrupt to sit there.

"In that case, prepare something to eat for Guy." Sigmund raised his hand, and the two waiters nodded to show that they understood.

After entering the western-style house filled with mahogany furniture and clean wooden floors, Sigmund invited the two to sit down. Seeing that Ores had not taken off her clothes, he did not pursue the matter too much. In his opinion, she should be a maid or Heshia's sister.

"I wonder where Miss Heshia is from. Judging from your appearance and behavior, you should be from a relatively wealthy and prosperous place."

"My friend and I come from the Land of Roses, where there are tall trees and forests, and the technology is also very advanced. But now we don't know how we ended up here, so it will take us a long time to find the way home." Tilan thought for a moment and replied.

"The Land of Roses..." The other person stroked his beard, as if he was recalling where this name appeared and was recorded.

Unfortunately, this term had never appeared in the history and experiences he knew.

"What is Miss Heshia good at? This land is not peaceful. If we rely on only two of you, it may be difficult to get out." After thinking about it, he paid attention to other situations.

"When I was a child, I saw many court craftsmen sewing clothes, and I also learned a little bit. This should be able to make a living." The girl thought about it and decided to say this, which was more in line with the other party's perception in the current environment.

"Court craftsman?" The other party was thinking about the implied meaning behind this word.

"Yes." Tilan waved her hand and asked Orlais to bend down, then she took out the only hair accessory from the lining of her clothes. It was a flower made of silver leaves and ice crystal gems, with a kind of exquisite beauty that was incompatible with the current world.

"This..." Looking at the hair accessory handed over by Heshia, the other party let out a slight exclamation and looked at it carefully.

Having the leisure to make such useless jewelry can be considered an extremely extravagant and wasteful act, which indirectly indicates that the other person's identity and background are extraordinary.

Sigmund, who originally had many doubts, now had many of his doubts dispelled.

After watching it for a few minutes, he returned the hair accessory to Heshia with some reluctance.

"In that case, it seems that Miss Heshia needs to stay with us for a while."

Soon, the maid brought brewed tea, and the two drank it slowly. Sigmund chatted with Hessia for a long time and found that although the girl did not understand the environmental history of the surrounding land, her thinking logic and the depth of her thoughts on things were far beyond the reach of those rough people on the street. This showed that she had received an excellent education and was relatively experienced.

"Although I don't know Miss Heshia's identity yet, judging from the way you talk, you should be trained as an important heir. It is too humiliating for her to be just a craftsman in the city." He sighed.

"Unfortunately, my status and position are not enough to give you better treatment directly. Otherwise, I will ask you and your companions to stay here temporarily. Later, I will negotiate with the Elders Council and give you treatment that matches your status and position."

"This..." The girl thought about it.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Sigmund. Actually, there is no need to be so ostentatious. My companion and I just want to stay here temporarily. It would be great if we could borrow books from the library later."

"Hahaha, this is not difficult. The reason why the borrowing fee is so high is because too many people do not respect knowledge. They don't understand that those words and records that are casually flipped through are the precious lessons that our predecessors spent so much effort and effort to record."

"If possible, please ask Miss Heshia to write a few memoirs of her experiences during her stay in the mountain fort. We also need to know the news from the unknown and distant places."

"That's possible." If she really wanted to write, there would be too much to write about, from the First Era to the Sixth Era. Compared to ordinary Federation people, Heshia herself knew a lot of historical secrets because of her identity as a singer. She herself obtained more details of ancient history from the Ghost Princess and the Cult.

In a sense, if we can sort out thousands of years of history in detail, we can slowly grasp the laws of rise and fall of the times and see through many flashy current affairs. It's a pity that more people just regard history as a pure story and do not pay attention to the various factors behind it, such as culture, system, climate, economy, etc.

"Hahaha, it's settled then."

Afterwards, Sigmund brought Heshia to the meeting hall again. With the greeting of this middle-level figure of the Gray Feather Race, the people in the meeting hall respectfully completed various formalities and handed Heshia two nameplates symbolizing her identity.

Not only that, the house for the two to live in was also quickly arranged. Just on the west side of the hill fortress, it was a two-story stone brick cottage. The environment was quiet, and not far away was a tree-lined cemetery. This seemingly simple house was a place of shelter that many local people would never be able to find in their lifetime.

While expressing her gratitude, Heshia also felt sad about the disparity between the times.

But now, I can finally settle down temporarily.

(End of this chapter)