After slicing the mushrooms, she took a lot of the mushrooms and divided them between Nightingale and herself. “First spread a layer of butter on both sides of the mushrooms, then carefully roast them on the fire until they are golden on all sided. Be careful not to roast them for too long, or else they will burn black.”
“Okay,” Nightingale said, took a piece of the Bird Beak Mushrooms and imitated Anna’s style of smearing oil on both sides of the mushroom. “Has His Highness recently always worked until late into the night?”
“That’s right, in order to find a place for the refugees, as well as drawing blueprints for new machines, he spends almost everyday after midnight before he goes to bed. There were several times when I’ve passed by his office, that I could still see the light of the burning candles from under the door.” Anna nodded once and then asked, ”You were gone for more than half a month, so you began to miss His Highness, right?”
Hearing the unexpected question, Nightingales hand slightly trembled, dropping the mushroom into the oil, “Uh… actually it was not too bad…”
“It wasn’t limited to only you; it was also the same for Lightning, Lily, Echo, and Wendy. They all were missing His Royal Highness; they said since there was not even a bathing place, they had all wanted to return at an earlier time,” Anna suddenly felt that the other’s expression had become somewhat strange, “Hey, what happened?”
“Nothing,” Nightingale said flustered, shook her head, took another mushroom and then said with an embarrassed smile, “actually it was like that, indeed… I also longed to come back.”
“Is that so?” Anna used her hands to directly pinch the oil coated mushrooms and threw them into the fire of the stove, “If it was me who have to leave His Highness for half a month, no, maybe even just a few days would already be enough that I couldn’t wait to see him again.”
The moment when she had met Roland Wimbledon within the dungeon, was the most incredible moment in her entire life, until today whenever she recalled this moment, her heart was would still fill with warmth and gratitude. If not for His Highness, even if she could have somehow lived on, it would only be a life in ignorance and confusion, just like those apathetic townsfolk.
It was His Highness who had taught her how beautiful the world truly was. No matter if it was because of the soy paste covered pepper steaks, or the “Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science”, the moment he had stepped into her life it had filled with all kinds of new stuff, allowing her to finally feel that she no longer was the same as those other people, but rather a unique and unmatched witch.
She was confident that the others sisters also felt the same — as long as they were in contact with His Highness for a long enough, it was impossible for them not to become caught up in his strange but clever ideas and his unique charm, this was what Anna believed without a shred of doubt.
“Oh, did I bake this for too long?” Nightingale raised her iron fork and showed that one side of the mushroom had already become burned.
“A little bit…” Anna couldn’t suppress her laugh, “Bird Beak Mushrooms is very tender, so it isn’t necessary to roast them for a long time, just test it some more and you will grasp it. For now, I will prepare the material for the stew. ”
Nightingale instead sprinkled the lightly burned mushroom with honey and salt and threw it into her mouth, “Well, it was still delicious.” Seeing how Anna skillfully mixed all kinds of herbs and other ingredients together, she asked curiously, ”Have you done this often before?
“Ah, marinating food, grinding flour, going to the nobles and ask for a seasonal work, helping to wash and shave the neighbor’s sheep,” Anna said, “Most of the time I was doing those kinds of odd jobs, the only exception was when I went to Teacher Karl’s college.” After pausing for a moment, she continued, “But when my mother had died, my father no longer let me go to the college, or even allowed me to leave the house in general.”
“Sorry…”
“All of that doesn’t matter any longer, it’s in the past now,” Anna’s eyes shined brightly like a sky-blue lake in the moonlight. “Compared with the majority of the other witches, I can already be considered as being very lucky, can’t I?”
