Chapter 176: Enjoy a hearty meal at a restaurant.

Night was about to fall. A last trace of sunset lingered on the horizon, washing the ancient town in a hazy orange-red glow.

The streets were growing quiet. Most people had gone home for dinner, though the shops on either side remained open. The restaurants were the busiest, with diners coming and going.

After making a circuit of the town, Shu Li and his friends chose a restaurant with a promising-looking storefront.

The moment they stepped inside, a waiter greeted them warmly and led them to a table for eight in the dining room.

“What would our honored guests like to eat? We have everything you could ask for. I guarantee that once you’ve eaten here, you’ll want to come back.” He bowed as he spoke, smiling so broadly that his eyes narrowed to slits.

“Do you have magical beast meat?” Amanda asked first. His gray-blue eyes sparkled, and he licked the corner of his mouth, making no secret of his appetite.

The waiter was caught off guard. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “Well... I’m afraid we don’t have any magical beast meat.”

Seeing the disappointment on the boy’s face, he hurried on. “But we do have beef, mutton, chicken, duck, rabbit, venison... Would any of those suit you?”

They were all ordinary animals. Amanda slumped over the table. “Then bring me two rabbits and a deer!”

Farm animals didn’t taste good. Rabbits and deer were wild, so he could make do for one meal.

The waiter paused. “For you alone?”

A deer was hardly small. With two rabbits as well, there was no way one person could finish it all.

Amanda lifted his head. “Of course they’re for me—”

Shu Li swiftly clapped a hand over his mouth. Smiling brightly, he said, “We’re sharing. One rabbit will be enough. We’d also like some vegetables and fruit.”

“Mmph, mmph!” Amanda glared at him. Why cut down the number of rabbits? How much meat could one rabbit possibly have?

“Pfft—”

“Ahem!”

The Little Fairies held back their laughter. Angel, seated on Amanda’s other side, poked him in the waist, reminding him not to reveal a dragon’s astonishing appetite in front of an ordinary human.

Amanda hunched his shoulders, aggrieved.

He was already doing his best to eat less.

As a young dragon, he could eat two whole cows in one sitting. The rabbits and deer were his reduced portion!

Shu Li let go of his mouth and patted his shoulder. “Smaller meals more often are easier on the stomach.”

Angel nodded. “And vegetables and fruit help with digestion.”

“...Fine. Fine, then.” Amanda sighed.

Shu Li turned to Ace with a grin. “Amanda’s had a big appetite since he was little. Magical beast meat is his favorite, so his brother often goes hunting in the mountains to feed him.”

“Oh, I see,” Ace said.

Ace showed no sign of suspicion, and Shu Li quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He went on to order fresh vegetables and fruit, along with toasted bread, milk porridge with oats, and other dishes.

Budno made a point of telling the waiter to prepare the meat several ways: roasted, stewed, and smoked.

The waiter beamed as he wrote down every order.

Magicians really were rich!

Once he had gone, the group settled around the table and chatted.

“Are we going to the wealthy merchant Ram’s house after dinner?” Disio asked. “Aren’t we going shopping?”

They had hurried back to the Magic Association after their street performance that afternoon, afraid the townspeople would surround them. They hadn’t had a chance to explore the shops.

Kumandi frowned. “It’ll be dark soon. The task comes first.”

Ace nodded with a smile. “We can shop tomorrow. There’s no rush.”

Budno was all for it. “Tomorrow it is! We’ll have a generous reward once we finish the task, too!”

There were more snack stalls along the streets during the day. They could eat while they shopped.

Angel saw the gleam in his eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking. She smiled to herself.

Amanda was still brooding over the meat and had no energy to care whether they went shopping.

Shu Li made the decision. “First we eat, then we do the task. Let’s try to finish before midnight so we can come back and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll get up early to shop tomorrow, and once we’ve bought what we need, we’ll set off for the next town.”

“Henry told me there are carriages for hire here,” Ace added. “We can rent one for the journey tomorrow.”

“That’s great!” Budno cheered. A carriage was wonderful. It would save time and effort, and he could sleep in along the way.

“Then it’s settled,” Shu Li said.

They discussed a few more details of the journey. As their conversation wound down, the waiter arrived with steaming dishes, setting down plate after plate until the table was full.

Amanda and Budno smelled the roast meat and swallowed hard.

Once everything had been served, Shu Li invited them to eat, and everyone dug in.

Amanda went straight for the roast venison. He speared a piece with his fork, blew on it, and put it in his mouth. “Mm? Mmm!”

“Well?” Budno asked. “Is it good?”

He had never eaten meat and wanted to try it, but the thought that it might taste bad kept him from taking any.

Shu Li, who had eaten meat before, calmly picked up some toasted bread and ate it with the milk porridge at an unhurried pace.

The other Little Fairies didn’t dare try the meat yet either. They stared at Amanda, waiting for his verdict.

Amanda finished chewing and swallowed. “It’s all right. It has an earthy, gamey taste, though.”

Ordinary animals had that taste no matter how they were cooked. They couldn’t compare with the delicious meat of magical beasts.

Encouraged, Budno speared a slice with his fork and put it in his mouth. After chewing twice, he frowned deeply. He couldn’t decide whether to spit it out or swallow.

So... this was what meat tasted like?

It was so gamey. He didn’t like it at all!

But with a human classmate at the table, Budno forced himself to swallow. He managed a strained grin. “It’s... it’s all right. Ha ha...”

The Little Fairy was no good at lying. His miserable expression gave away how distressed he was that he couldn’t enjoy the meat.

Disio and Angel exchanged a glance, still undecided.

Amanda, meanwhile, had accepted the taste of ordinary animals and was eating with gusto. Gnawing on a rabbit leg, he urged his friends, “Eat! It tastes pretty good. Come on!”

If they didn’t, he would finish it all himself.

Kumandi concentrated on the fruit and vegetables, ignoring the meat entirely. Shu Li ate a piece or two of rabbit to be polite.

He, too, had once looked forward to human food. Then he had tasted their meat dishes, and his expectations had collapsed.

It wasn’t that meat itself tasted bad. The humans in this world just weren’t very good at cooking it.

Without all kinds of spices to get rid of the gamey taste, or methods such as pan-frying and deep-frying, how could it taste good?

Even roast meat was missing its soul without cumin and chili powder!

After much hesitation, Disio and Angel each tried a little meat. They barely managed to swallow it, then resolutely left the rest alone and took large bites of fruit instead. Fruit grown by humans certainly wasn’t as good as fruit grown by Fairies, but compared with the meat, it was a delicacy.

Ace didn’t seem picky. He ate some vegetables and meat and appeared not to notice his companions’ aversion to the latter.

Shu Li stole several glances at him. Seeing him focused on his food, he relaxed a little.

They had only just entered the Human World. However carefully they disguised themselves, they weren’t experienced actors. Little habits were bound to slip out without their noticing, and drawing attention to them would only look more deliberate.

So when his friends showed their distaste for the meat, Shu Li said nothing.

Thankfully, Ace asked no questions and gave them room to be themselves.

They enjoyed the meal, and most of the rabbit and venison ended up in Amanda’s stomach. Even then, he wasn’t full. He decided that after the task, once he was alone in his room, he would have a late-night snack from the food in his storage ring.

Shu Li wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and called the waiter over for the bill.

The waiter hurried across, smiling, and bowed as he announced, “Eight gold coins and thirty silver coins in total.”

The members of the Light Team thought they had misheard him.

“Wait. How much?” Disio asked with a frown.

“Eight gold coins and thirty silver coins,” the waiter repeated pleasantly.

“Why is it so expensive?” Angel asked in surprise.

The waiter pointed to the deer and rabbit bones on the table. “Our owner paid a hunter five gold coins for those wild animals just this morning. They were still alive and kicking in the back courtyard before they came to your table. And the vegetables and fruit are all fresh. You needn’t worry, honored guests. Our little restaurant has been in Kesheng Town for thirty years. Our food is excellent value, and we would never overcharge visitors. If you don’t believe me, ask around. You’ll hear we have the best reputation in town.”

He sounded so sincere that Angel looked uncertainly at Shu Li.

Shu Li had eaten at a human restaurant with Ilio before, but they hadn’t ordered this much meat. He couldn’t judge the local prices.

When they ordered, all he had thought about was making sure everyone enjoyed the meal. He really hadn’t considered the cost.

“Ace... what do you think?” he asked their human classmate.

With Ace’s ease around people, surely he knew what things cost.

Ace gave Shu Li a nod, then addressed the waiter evenly. “A few days ago, we ate a meal in Suolin Town that was even more generous than this one. It cost less than two gold coins. We didn’t even order beer today. How is this meal four times the price?”

“Well...” The waiter fell silent and glanced toward the owner behind the counter.

This group of magicians had earned plenty of tips from their performance in the square today. When the owner saw them come in, he had decided to take advantage of them.

Ace continued, “We magicians travel all over the continent. We’ve visited plenty of towns, and we know what things cost. Suolin Town and Kesheng Town are in much the same sort of location. Why would a meal be cheap there and expensive here?”

“Exactly,” Shu Li said. “I can ask someone at the Magic Association later whether a deer and a rabbit really cost five gold coins.”

At the mention of the Magic Association, the waiter wilted. He cast a guilty look toward the owner.

Sensing trouble, the owner hurried over and smacked the waiter on the head. “You can’t even add up a bill! What use are you? Go help in the kitchen.”

Rubbing his sore head, the waiter slunk away.

“My apologies, everyone,” the owner said. “He only started here a few days ago and keeps getting the prices hopelessly wrong. I’ve scolded him plenty of times. If I didn’t feel sorry for him, I’d have fired him already.”

“You’re a kind man,” Shu Li said with a smile.

“Heh, you flatter me.” The owner coughed twice. “This meal is on me. You don’t have to pay.”

The Magic Association was highly respected in town. If its president learned that he had cheated magicians, the president would surely ask the mayor to shut down his restaurant.

He had let greed get the better of him. They looked young, and he had assumed they would be easy to fool.

“We couldn’t possibly accept that,” Shu Li said seriously. “We shouldn’t take advantage of you. Tell us the real price and we’ll pay it.”

The owner rubbed his hands together. “Then... two gold coins?”

The venison was the largest expense. He had paid the hunter one gold coin for it that morning, and everything else had cost about fifty silver coins. Charging two gold coins would leave him a profit of fifty silver coins. That wasn’t unreasonable, was it?

Shu Li took a money pouch from his pocket, poured out the silver coins, counted them, and pushed them toward the owner.

“One hundred and eighty-five silver coins. No more.”

One hundred silver coins made one gold coin. Even at a gold coin and eighty-five silver coins, the owner would still turn a profit.

The owner hesitated over his profit dropping from fifty silver coins to thirty-five, then agreed.

At least he wouldn’t lose money.

He took the hundred and eighty-five silver coins and cheerfully saw the seven magic apprentices out.

By the time they stepped outside, night had fallen completely. Unlike a large city, the town had no magic stone streetlights. Darkness filled the streets, and only the light spilling from the houses gave them just enough to see the road.

Walking beside Ace, Shu Li said, “Good thing you were there. We wouldn’t even have known we were being cheated.”

After his earlier trip with Ilio, he had thought he had gained enough experience to manage on his own. Only now that he had entered the Human World did he realize how much he still had to learn.

Ace smiled. “Actually, I’ve never been to Suolin Town.”

Shu Li stopped short.

Then he remembered: Ace had been robbed by bandits and had fled from the Xisha Mountains into the Dalia Empire. If he had eaten in Suolin Town, how could he have collapsed by the roadside from hunger?

“Wow,” Disio blurted out. “You bluffed him?”

Ace’s expression didn’t change. “When you’re away from home, you have to keep your wits about you. If you’re too trusting, people will take advantage.”

Disio blinked. Their human classmate had a point.

If Ace hadn’t tested the restaurant owner, they would have lost everything they had earned from today’s performance!

Angel fell into thought.

“The owner must have seen how many tips we received,” Kumandi said calmly. “He worked out how much we had and raised the price accordingly.”

Amanda clicked his tongue. “Really? He calculated it that accurately?”

“Don’t underestimate a businessman,” Kumandi replied.

After deciding to travel through the Human World for experience, he had read many travel accounts in the library. Most Fairies were deceived again and again on their first journey. By the time they realized what had happened, they had almost no money left. Some went back and used force to recover their money from the humans who had cheated them. Others couldn’t find the swindlers and had no choice but to accept their bad luck and take on tasks to earn more.

In short, humans were cunning. They would cheat, trick, and swindle people in every way imaginable. Merchants in particular would do anything for profit.

“Ace is right,” Shu Li said solemnly. “We have to learn to be shrewd. Otherwise, we’ll end up helping someone count the money after they’ve sold us.”

The moment the waiter named the price, Shu Li had thought it sounded high. But he hadn’t known the local prices well enough to challenge him.

Looking back, two silver coins could buy six enormous loaves of toasted bread. How expensive could food here really be?

Between his two lives, he was thirty-six years old, yet he had no real experience of society.

For his first eighteen years, he had been a high school student worried about foreign languages. For the next eighteen, he had lived as a Little Fairy in a sheltered world. He had grown older without gaining much worldly experience. Here in the Human World, he was practically a blank slate.

Experience. Only by going through things himself could he gain useful knowledge and judgment.

As they talked, they reached the wealthy merchant’s house.

Before going out to dinner, they had asked Henry for the address. It was only a little over ten minutes from the restaurant on foot.

The merchant really was rich. His house was the finest in town, far larger and grander than the Magic Association.

Shu Li couldn’t help admiring it. He stepped forward to knock.

Before he could raise his hand, a piercing scream rang out from inside.

“Aaaah! A mouse!”