abel smiled as he explained himself, “i’m not really doing this to defend the dwarves, wizard cyril. i only spoke out because lady carrie didn’t have the right attitude.”

it was just abel and wizard cyril, but if bernie was here, he could probably explain how abel could be so brash with lady carrie just then.

after he sent to dwarves to their own eating place, abel returned to the restaurant to attend to the elves. when he did, he saw bartoli ordering the servants to serve breakfast. they were passing plates of di san xian to the guests. the portions were small, but the elves weren’t known for having big appetites.

despite the small tension they’ve had, abel proceeded to take his seat. lady carrie didn’t feel displeased to be sharing the same table as him. actually, she didn’t seem to mind at all, which was very strange to the other elves that were with her. from what they could tell, abel must be very important to be forgiven like this.

“what’s this food you’re serving us, grandmaster abel?” lady carrie asked. as a former adventuring partner of abel, she knew that he wasn’t a man who would hold grudges against her.

abel lifted his finger and pointed at bartoli, “this is called “di san xian,” lady carrie. it’s a specialty dish cooked by my butlers,”

when lady carrie looked towards bartoli, she finally noticed the wizard badge that bartoli was wearing on her chest. she couldn’t believe it at first, but after she squinted her eyes for a bit, she stood up and bowed to bartoli.

“thank you for service,” lady carrie said gracefully. bartoli did the same. while she wasn’t wearing anything fancy, her gestures were just as elegant as the guest that came to thank her.

lady carrie turned to abel, “i have to say though, grandmaster abel. you must have a lot of courage to have an intermediate wizard as your butler. does the wizard union, well, do they have anything to say about it?”

it’s not like lady carrie was dissatisfied with the treatment she was receiving. if anything, it’s a rare honor to have an intermediate wizard cook for you. and no. abel didn’t do this to welcome lady carrie as some sort of vip member of the harry castle. once the other chefs were doing with their training, bartoli was going to stop cooking for a very, very long while.

lady carrie seemed to enjoy the food very much, “this is some great food, grandmaster abel. if you don’t mind, can you tell me the recipes to make these? my mother hasn’t had a good appetite lately, and as her daughter, i have to try looking after her.”

abel nodded as he had no reason to decline, “sure. once the teleportation circle is opened, i’ll send the recipes right over to the double moon forest.”

“you mean a large-sized teleportation circle,” lady carrie couldn’t help but point that out.

instead of saying anything, abel just turned to look at the other elves sitting at the same table. lady carrie understood right away. he didn’t want to let too many people know about this.

lady carrie said with a smile, “don’t worry about it, grandmaster. the girls i’ve brought here are all very trustworthy. ever since they were little, they’ve had to follow a very tight discipline routine to become the trusted helpers of our family. they know how important it is to not leak out any information about you. besides, they’ve all signed their confidentiality contract before coming here. so, please.”

“yes, i do have a large-sized teleportation circle,” abel nodded his head.

“great! more of these dishes for me, then!” lady carrie quickly spoke, then promptly rephrased herself, “and more for mother, obviously.”

whichever it was, abel didn’t really mind too much about it. as far as he would have it, he’d be a happy man once his chefs could send their cooked dishes over to the double moon forest. it’d be a lot of work, of course, but he’d do anything to improve his relationship with his future father and mother-in-law.

“and what’s this? i think i smell blue howling rabbits!” lady carrie said as she recognized the smell from one of the dishes.

abel didn’t reply to that. after all, it was only a matter of time before someone knew about his secret ingredient.

“did…. did you do something with your alchemy again?” lady carrie guessed. she didn’t know where the blue howling rabbit came from, but unlike the others, she knew about abel’s secret identity as a master alchemist.

seeing that abel wasn’t saying anything, lady carrie spoke in a quieter voice, “would you, perhaps, be willing to provide these ingredients to me, grandmaster abel?”

abel smiled and shook his head, “sorry, but that’s a no-deal, lady carrie. i’m not supplying this secret ingredient to anyone. i can give you a hint, though. if you can use your network to do some research on liante city, i’m sure that you’ll start to understand why i have to turn you down.”

then, breakfast was over. the elves weren’t in a good mood before this, but after they knew that they would stay here for a while and that their food would be like this every time they ate here, they seemed to be in a lot better mood.

soon, abel brought the elves and the dwarves to the hanging fort platform.

“the cliff magic tower!” lady carrie screamed as soon as she realized it. it was the legendary “cliff magic tower”, after all. abel might not know about it, but it was exactly the thing that the elves used to refer to how “despicable,” “evil” and “corrupt” the humans were.” of course, it was also known as the magic tower with the strongest defensive capability throughout the holy continent.

“so you did wizard cliff in, didn’t you, grandmaster abel?” lady carrie asked brashly.

abel immediately shook his head, “wha-what? no! how can you say such a thing? no! i didn’t kill him! i just happen to be the one to loot this tower.”

obviously, there wasn’t a point in defending himself here. the tower was here. who else could’ve been the one to have murdered wizard cliff?

“bold enough to commit the crime, but not bold enough to admit it, i see,” lady carrie sneered at abel before she left to start the work.

as unlikeable as lady carrie’s demeanors were, it often helped her to get away with a lot of things. first up, it made her fit enough to lead the elves and the dwarves that were doing the construction work. then, as the teleportation circle was already repaired, she took the advantage to connect it straight to the angstrom city council.

and there. soon, a lot of rare timber was moved over to the harry castle. they were all species that couldn’t be found in the human world. they were all meant for building the magic tower’s internal structures, which made the dwarves very shocked at how lavish the elves were at using their materials.

“cut this piece in the right size, isiah,” lady carrie instructed isiah as she handed a blueprint to him.

isiah quickly complied. he did the job as extremely carefully as he could. if he made even just a small part wrong, this wood, which was worth the same as gold of the same volume, would be all spoiled right away.

and not just that. there were timbers that were far rarer than the ones that isiah handled. as far as the dwarves could tell, the elves had no limits when it came to them doing everything that they could to help abel out.

wizard cyril scanned abel from top to bottom as he teleported next to him, “how are they so good to you, grandmaster abel? did you marry an elven princess or something?”

abel had no idea what wizard cyril was so skeptical about, “what do you mean? are you saying that this wood is very expensive?”

wizard cyril covered his face with his hand, “yes, yes! of course, they are expensive! you see that golden timber there? it’s called “fine gold wood.” it’s a little less durable, but it’s also very precious because of how much more malleable it is. normally, if you were lucky enough to get your hands on it, you would obviously use it to form connections between magic tower.”

“and would you just look at that!” wizard cyril started clapping his hands, sarcastically, “just look at that! these elves are making lightning circles out of it for you! normally speaking, and i mean normally speaking! only the most important defensive circles are made from fine gold wood.

“and by the way… agh! why do i even bother… whatever. good on you. good on you, grandmaster. good on you.”

it was kind of hard for abel to understand how frustrated wizard cyril was. to give a picture, the dividing earth basin was not the natural breeding ground for the fine gold tree. it was only found in the double moon forest, and without several millenium for maturation, it’d be impossible to be using it on a whole magic tower. and honestly, just who could afford using it on a whole magic tower?

wizard cyril did use some fine gold wood on his own magic tower. he did. it was about the same size as the piece that lady carrie told isiah to cut out.