Chapter 510: Chapter 5: Flavor

Two weeks passed, Gray Stone Town, the Farrias couple’s home.

The morning mist had yet to fully dissipate, enveloping the small clearing beside the Farrias family house with a unique forest humidity and chill.

Messiah had changed from her thin clothes into a durable coarse cloth dress that Bonne had worn in her youth, now faded but still sturdy. She was squatting on the ground in the yard with Bonne, with a clean piece of burlap laid out in front of them, piled with freshly gathered harvests from the nearby woods, still covered with earth and dew.

Bonne’s hands deftly worked through the pile of nuts and mushrooms. Her rough fingers were covered with calluses yet remarkably precise. She picked up a nut with a deep brown shell lined with fine patterns and handed it to Messiah.

“Here, take a good look, Messiah.”

Bonne’s voice was gentle and patient, as if teaching an ignorant child, “This is an acorn, the child of an old oak tree. The shell is hard, and the meat inside is somewhat bitter, but once dried and ground into powder, mixed with wheat to make bread, it’s quite filling.”

She pinched another smaller nut with a smoother shell, “This is a hazelnut. The shell is thin; you can easily crack it open with a gentle tap from a stone. It’s fragrant and crispy, a good thing. Squirrels in the forest love to hide them, so keep your eyes sharp.”

Messiah lowered her head, her long eyelashes casting a small shadow under her eyes. She mimicked Bonne’s actions, picking up an acorn, feeling the ridges of its hard shell with her fingertips, then carefully picking up a hazelnut.

Her movements were somewhat stiff, distinctly imitative, as if every directive from her body needed relearning. She looked at the acorn in her left hand and then at the hazelnut in her right, her gaze still tinged with the bewilderment from when she first arrived, like a layer of mist that couldn’t be washed away. But at this moment, there seemed to be a hint of focus in that mist, striving to discern the differences Bonne described in her words.

That day in Dusk Town, in the midst of chaos, she was tied to a cart by kidnappers, then taken to the base to await being sold. Unexpectedly, an incident occurred during the journey.

The cart transporting Messiah was attacked by a Giant Troll; the traffickers in the convoy were either killed or fled, and the coachman driving the cart had his head smashed. The runaway cart plunged off a cliff, and Messiah fainted from the collision.

When she awoke, Messiah found herself in an unfamiliar forest, later seeing a little person who guided her all the way to that oak tree, leading to subsequent events.

“Don’t just look, remember how they look.” Bonne gently patted the back of Messiah’s hand, “When you go into the forest by yourself, make sure not to bring back things you can’t eat.”

Bonne found the girl very peculiar. She seemed not to understand anything, unable to eat, unable to dress, not knowing even some common sense things. But to say she was stupid, that was completely not the case.

She learned anything very quickly. No matter how complex the task, she could fully grasp and replicate it after seeing it once, and she could easily remember what was taught to her.

Even the smartest old mayor in town, Bonne thought, wouldn’t be as intelligent as this girl before her.

Soon, with Messiah’s help, the nuts and mushrooms were sorted out, and just then, Farrias returned from his farm work.

“Why is there still no food today? I’m starving.”

“Stop grumbling, Max is bringing the kids over for dinner today. Do you want me not to wait for them?”

“What’s that brat coming over for no reason? Keeping me from eating.”

Farrias grumbled as he walked into the house.

Messiah looked at the bickering pair, her expression confused.

She could sense that Farrias seemed to be in an unpleasant mood, and she couldn’t help but ask, “What happened to Farrias?”

Bonne didn’t understand: “What?”

Messiah said, “I just heard him arguing with you.”

Bonne was momentarily stunned.

“Hahaha!”

She laughed heartily: “It’s just bickering.”

Messiah asked in confusion, “Bickering?”

Bonne nodded: “Yes, when two people live together for a lifetime, it’s inevitable they find fault with each other. He complains about me grinding my teeth, I complain about him farting; over time, there will always be some discomfort. At times like these, they argue over trivial things.”

“It’s not an argument, just two people who love each other finding fault in one another and having no way to vent, so they hit each other to relieve it. Yes… that’s it.”

Messiah said, “Very complicated.”

Bonne nodded: “Yes, very complicated. I took a lifetime to learn it.”

She paused and added, “But it’s alright, don’t see it as something significant. You will learn it over time, the friction, tolerance, venting, and understanding. That’s how life is meant to be.”

Messiah seemed to somewhat understand. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NoveI-Fire.ɴet

Bonne laughed: “It’s strange, you’re clearly smart, but you’re always so clueless about worldly matters, strange indeed.”

“Alright, let’s go inside and prepare food. I no longer want to hear that old man’s complaints.”

Just as the sun was about to set, Max finally arrived with his wife and daughter, knocking on the Farrias’s front door.

Max was the son of the Farrias couple.

The Farrias couple had a total of three children in their lifetime. The eldest did not survive childhood, losing their life to a cold, and the youngest, unwilling to remain ordinary, declared at age 14 that they wanted to explore the outside world, leaving with a trade caravan of Wandering Merchants, and was never heard from again.

Max was the only one to stay in his hometown, living like his parents—getting married, having children, leading the ordinary life of townsfolk, generation after generation.

Soon, the food was ready.

The main dish was a large platter of sliced dark-colored coarse wheat bread, mixed with ground acorn powder, exuding the simple aroma of grains and nuts.

The soup was a steaming thick stew, floating with slices of porcini mushrooms, some edible wild vegetable roots, and a sporadic few pieces of rabbit meat, with a thick broth embodying the flavor of the forest.

In addition, there were nuts and mushrooms, dipping sauces, drinks, and more.

Neither luxurious nor expensive, it was just the most ordinary meal in a remote small town for the most ordinary townfolk.

But it was extremely warm, filled with the taste of family.

“Let’s eat, let’s eat, I’m starving!”

“Wheat bread couldn’t even shut your mouth!”

Amidst the grumbles, Bonne stuffed a piece of bread into Farrias’s mouth, the playful gesture provoking hearty laughter from the two granddaughters, filling the room with laughter and joy.

Watching this scene unfold before her, an unusual emotion inexplicably rose in Messiah’s heart.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on the emotion, feeling as though a ray of sunshine penetrated her skin, illuminating her heart, leaving her feeling warm.

She took a spoonful of the meat soup.

Sweet.

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