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Given how Aishael was able to lower the temperature of her surroundings in an instant, she had to at least be a Five-star Magister.

Since she found out that her foe was dead, she was back to being the same frigid little girl she was. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that she did not care about her mother’s death. However, I knew that it wasn’t that she didn’t care, rather it was that she was already prepared for her mother’s death from the beginning.

A slave gladiator either won, died or was humiliated. Those were the only options available to them.

Because of Aishael’s little episode, the mood was rather awkward again.

So far, out of all the people she had spoken to, only Reyage had gotten off unscathed. Everyone else was basically a victim of her acidic lashing. You could almost say that this little girl had talent in this field. Even Paliseth ended up with the short end of the stick after their exchange.

Naturally, that wasn’t to say that Paliseth wasn’t any less talented either. It wasn’t that she truly lost, she just knew my stance on this matter, and that stance was definitely in favour of Aishael. If the two of them were to ever get into an argument, I would clearly stand on Aishael’s side. This little girl was just too pitiful for me to consider otherwise. Not only were her parents all dead, she now had an uncaring granny to deal with as well.

Being the cunning old hag that she was, Paliseth smartly chose not to dwell on this matter, even if Aishael had angered her. In fact, she even put on a benevolent smile like an elder looking at her favourite grandchild.

All this was a result of Paliseth’s determined efforts at currying my favour. Whether it was the death of a son or swallowing her pride, nothing was off the table.

Because of the awkwardness of our current situation, some of the surrounding Half-Elves began to congregate around us. Slowly, they began to walk up to us, surrounding us in the process. And unlike those Half-Elves we saw at the elevator, these Half-Elves were unabashedly hostile towards Lanbael. Not that they were showing it openly, but they weren’t really hiding it either.

Seems like this Lanbael hasn’t been treating them well normally.

“Hey! What do you mongrels think you are doing?! Have you grown tired of living?!” Realising their intent, Lanbael swiftly yelled at the daring Half-Elves, every bit the practised tyrant of this little domain. “How dare a bunch of mongrels act so disrespectfully in front of his holiness! Treasonous, the lot of you!”

The moment the T-word came into play, the Half-Elves almost gave in on the spot. Whatever anger was propping them up had dissipated in an instant, replaced by an inbred subservience hammered into them by Lanbael.

However, just as she had a smug smirk on her face, the Half-Elves rallied together once more and pushed forward a couple of steps.

“You… fine! Since you lot want to die that much, I’ll happily oblige!”

Having said that, Lanbael promptly took up a combat stance while the other Half-Elves prepared for a last desperate charge as well.

However, the impending clash never came to be. With just a simple sentence from Aishael, the entire situation was defused. “It’s alright. Stay back for now, I wish to talk to that old hag over there who claims to be my grandmother.”

Claims to be?

Even with Paliseth’s jadedness, that last bit rattled her quite a bit… Man, would it kill you to not provoke her?!

I hurriedly coughed to draw their attention towards me, then… nothing. Everyone was staring at me right now, but I had clearly not figured out what my next step was… awkward…

“So… what do you Half-Elves usually do?”

It was just casual chatter on my part, yet Aishael seemed to have been considering this question quite seriously. She paused for a good long while then looked me right in the eyes. “Guard the slave gladiators… and fight.”

Oh? So they take part in fighting as well then? But the equipment they are training with is really bad. Even those Half-Elves guarding the slaves seemed to be poorly equipped as well. And that was me being polite.

“And what do you guys eat on a daily basis?”

Still out of a topic to talk about, I asked the next thing that came to mind.

“Eat?” Aishael was stumped once more. This time however, she waved towards a mature-looking Half-Elf and beckoned for her. The lady took out a small sack from her waist and threw it at Aishael who couldn’t even be bothered to open it as she simply shoved it in my direction and said, “this.”

“This?” I took the sack from her and gave its contents a feel. Before I even opened it, my nose was immediately assaulted with a foul odor. It was an acrid smell, the kind you would expect from rotting food.

My brows furrowed subconsciously as I prepared to open the dreaded sack. At the side, Lanbael anxiously whispered in my ears. “Your holiness, there’s no way these lowly Half-Elves would ever have anything good to eat. If your holiness is hungry, I can prepare…”

“It’s okay. What I eat is different from you all anyway. I’m just curious. I’m sure you won’t mind right, Elder Lanbael?”

“Not at all… not at all… why would I ever…”

Faced with my smile that didn’t seem like a smile at all, Lanbael couldn’t help but break out into a cold sweat. One could almost describe her expression as being slightly twisted right now. She probably already knew that I liked Aishael. Furthermore, while this little girl might have been really rude towards most here, she hadn’t done much to anger me yet. The fact that Lanbael seemed so apprehensive only made me even surer that there was something in this sack that I had to see.

As expected, the moment I opened up the sack, I was greeted by a translucent bottle of white, slightly viscous liquid. Next to it was a black piece of bread that looked more like a stone and probably hit like one as well.

Because the bottle wasn’t sealed up, it gave off a sour, fermented smell. As for what the liquid was, I just knew it was dangerous and definitely expired. The rock-like bread itself was probably every dentist’s nightmare, or perhaps wet dream -depends on how you look at it. You could tell from a glance that someone didn’t even bother milling the wheat before baking it into bread.

No way… is that mold I see growing on the bread? So it’s not just a blunt weapon, it’s a chemical weapon as well… What the fish, is that even edible anymore!? A pig wouldn’t eat that…

Naturally, the bread wasn’t actually as hard as a rock, but it wasn’t that far off either. At very least, it would hurt if I tossed it at someone.

“Is this what you eat normally?” I picked up the black weapon with a pinch, lips twisted in a curl. “And is this really bread?”

Aishael didn’t respond immediately. She instead took the bread from me and then took a bite out of it. She did not take a forceful bite of the bread but instead chewed on it slowly. Finally, after a good long while, she managed to bite off a small chunk of the bread. She kept it sloshing about in her mouth first, allowing the stale bread to soak in her saliva and soften before swallowing it.

Madness… rather than eating a piece of bread, that’s more like fine dining!

Under my disbelieving eyes, the now moistened bread travelled visibly down her throat, at which point she said, “we get two pieces of bread instead during wartime.”

“Two pieces of bread?” I was stunned. My finger reflexively shot up to point at the bread. “You eat this even during times of war?”

“Mhm.”

I know I’ve asked this before but… is that even edible? Are you sure they didn’t give you that extra piece of bread to use as a backup weapon? Your normal weapons do look pretty bad in comparison after all…

I practically snatched the bread from her at this point. I couldn’t bear to watch a little girl munch on a black rock any further. Bread in hand, I pinched it with my other hand to test its hardness. I felt the moistness from the point where she bit down… should I try it out? Hmmm… maybe not. I’ll just give it a sniff instead.

The bread itself did not stink. However, I just couldn’t shake off the feeling that it was giving off some strange odor… my imagination, perhaps? Either way, I did not want to keep it any further. I tried to toss it away, but the moment I did so, Aishael suddenly reached out to stop me.

I gave her a confused look. The next thing I saw was her placing her own hand on top of mine then guiding it towards her. First, her body then her face began to come closer as well.

Is she trying to seduce? Hey, let’s be clear here. I know I might seem like I have a preference for little girls, but that’s not true at all. It just so happens that all the girls I like are little. Besides, this little acid tongue is probably older than Nicole.

By the way, how should I even react to her advances? Maybe close my eyes and take the plunge? Who knows. Someone tell me please.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.