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“Really, even if a public buffet restaurant is decorated so exquisitely and the ambiance so elegant, it amounts to nothing without a signature dish to uphold the establishment’s reputation. Even if it gains temporary popularity from the competition, it’s doomed to fade away quickly.”

Lilith, propping her cheek with her hand, listlessly cuts the remaining side dishes on her plate with a knife and fork. All she sees are some green vegetables, which are hardly appetizing.

Suddenly, a familiar aroma wafts into her nose. Lilith looks up to see Luna across the table, fork-lifting a piece of steak towards her, her eyes teasing:

“Have you not had enough? Would you like some of mine?”

Seeing the steak on Luna’s plate meticulously cut into small, even pieces, Lilith swallows hard.

“I want it.”
“Here, let me feed you. Ah…”
“Ah…”
“Eh~ I won’t give it~”

Anger.

With a dull thud, it seemed like everyone in the restaurant felt the ground tremble.

The steak on Luna’s fork and knife suddenly shook and flew off, while Luna held onto her cutlery, her expression oscillating between pain and pleasure.

But pleasure quickly gained the upper hand.

“That’s it, Master Lilith… Continue~”
“Ha, you’re beyond help.”

Lilith sighs softly, retracting her foot.

Glancing at the steak on the floor, Lilith shows a hint of regret: “The only decent thing in this restaurant is the steak, and it’s a pity you wasted a piece.”

Touching her flushed cheeks, Luna excitedly says, “If it’s Master Lilith’s command, I wouldn’t mind eating that piece of meat off the floor in front of all these people.”

“I’m not as perverse as you!” Lilith glares at the self-indulgent Luna and points to the plate, commanding:

“Eat your meal!”

“Oh.” Luna obediently picks up her knife and fork.

Lilith then looks towards the restaurant’s entrance, somewhat boredly wondering why the waiter hasn’t returned with the wine yet.

Just thinking about the crystal-clear, fragrant wine makes Lilith’s mouth water uncontrollably.

In reality, she hasn’t drunk wine many times. On Dragon Island, her mother would never allow it, and in the human realms, she mostly drank top-tier tea. The only memorable time she drank was in Cornelia’s small world, that “Oolong Tea” left by someone unknown.

But that drink led to a blackout, leaving no memory of its taste.

So, sparked by the restaurant’s ambiance, she wanted to try a bottle of low-alcohol wine this time.

“The wine is here…”

Upon entering, the waiter, seeing Lilith staring straight at him, or rather at the wine in his arms, immediately forgets the etiquette taught during training and shouts out.

The waiter, despite not having run far, is panting, with his heart pounding incessantly.

The wine is indeed too precious.

When Lilith handed him the purse, he thought it contained silver or copper coins. After all, such a large bag could hold dozens of silver coins, enough to buy fine wine outside.

But when he opened the purse in front of the tavern owner, he was almost blinded by the glittering gold inside.

It was a bag full of gold coins!

Such a large bag could buy the entire tavern!

The tavern owner was shocked too but quickly recovered, his eyes gleaming as he brought out a bottle of wine without any label from the very bottom of the wine cellar.

He said it was a royal tribute wine, a treasure he had acquired from the black market years ago.

As a waiter educated specifically for his role, he naturally had a good grasp of various types of wine. Flipping the bottle over, indeed, he saw the royal family’s exclusive emblem at the bottom. He also carefully inspected the bottle’s mouth and body, confirming there were no signs of opening or puncturing.

Even so, such a royal exclusive tribute wine was not worth the price of such a large bag of gold coins.

As the waiter pondered whether to try his luck elsewhere for a better wine, the tavern owner suddenly asked:

“Does that young lady who asked you to buy the wine know her wines?”

Seeing the greedy look in the tavern owner’s eyes, the waiter’s heartbeat accelerated considerably.

“She probably… doesn’t.”
“Well, there you have it.”

The tavern owner chuckled, dividing the gold coins into three parts:

“This part is for buying the wine.”
“This part is mine.”
“This part is yours.”

Looking up at the waiter, the tavern owner asked, “What do you think?”

The waiter suddenly felt his mouth go dry, but looking at the small pile of gold coins he might never earn in a lifetime, he found the courage from somewhere and nodded.

Thus, with a heart full of trepidation, the waiter returned with the wine.

He decided to do his best in his last job as a waiter, serve this final customer well, and then return to his hometown to marry a beautiful wife with the money.

Whether it was because of his nervous heart or his agitated mood, the waiter could not maintain his usual caution. Normally capable of carrying ten glasses of wine without spilling a drop, he now failed to watch his step.

Splat.

He stepped on the steak Luna had tossed aside.

Slip…

The fresh and juicy steak was as slippery as a soap bar just picked up from the bathroom. As soon as the waiter stepped on it, he lost all balance.

“My wine!”

Lilith’s eyes sparkled with gold, calculating whether she could make it in time at full speed.

It seems… too late.

Just as Lilith began to mourn for the loss of the fine wine, a hand steadily caught the bottle.

“Thank you…”

Lilith was about to express her gratitude, but she froze when she saw the fiery red figure.

“Little children shouldn’t drink alcohol.”

The Dragon Queen looked at Lilith tenderly, smiling:

“My naughty daughter, why are you always so mischievous?”
“Mom?”

Because she could hardly believe it, Lilith blinked foolishly, staring intently for a long time, looking somewhat dazed.

“What, you don’t recognize your mommy anymore?”

The Dragon Queen gently pinched Lilith’s cheek, “Or do you think you’ve grown up so much that you don’t acknowledge mommy anymore?”

“Of course not~”

Realizing it wasn’t her imagination, Lilith darted into the Dragon Queen’s embrace, nuzzling her small head against the queen’s ever-broad and boundless chest.

“Mom, why are you here? Is there something wrong?”
“Can’t I come to see you if there’s nothing wrong?”
“Of course, you can, but in such a public place…”

Lilith blinked, about to comment on how the Dragon Queen’s grand entrance might cause a stir, but then she suddenly noticed everything around them had gone extremely quiet, even the music had stopped.

Hmm?

Lilith looked around in confusion.

But she found that everything around her had become like a still photograph, completely frozen in time.

Luna was frozen in the act of placing a small piece of steak into her cherry lips, her glossy red lips looking incredibly enticing.

The fallen waiter had a face full of panic, one hand reaching forward as if to save the falling wine bottle, while the other hand was tightly protecting something in his embrace.

The musicians in the center of the restaurant looked like sculptures carved by artists, each posture full of tension as if their music could start playing at any moment.

“My dear daughter, if you want to listen, we can continue.”