After the competition, Sora returned to her girlhood boudoir.
Her cousin's family, who had previously lived in the courtyard, tactfully moved out overnight.
Mistress Case personally oversaw the renovations, determined to recreate the courtyard as her "darling daughter" had once lived.
Alan accompanied his teacher back to their old home, and Ella was forced to move in by her grandmother.
This allowed her to stay close to her mother and senior brother, strengthening their family bond.
Overnight, the Case family's attitude toward Sora, their "poor relative," underwent a complete about-face.
With the exception of the still somewhat naive Ella, the rest of the family seemed to accept the change with ease.
It was as if Sora deserved a grand reception.
To be more precise, it wasn't "reception."
Sora had been designated by the mistress as her successor.
She wasn't some poor relative seeking refuge with her mother's family, nor even a distinguished guest.
She was the host.
The next head of the Case family, the esteemed Young Mistress!
The next day, Sora's door was practically trampled flat.
Brothers and sisters who had vanished after a brief encounter, cousins who had never appeared, suddenly appeared from the ground.
Everyone arrived bearing expensive gifts, and tears inevitably fell as they spoke of past kinship.
Ms. Sora handled these occasions with grace and elegance.
Ella watched, admiring her mother's demeanor but also feeling a little indignant.
"Why bother with these snobs!"
"Little Junior Sister, your words are childish."
Allen smiled and stroked Ella's cat ears.
"If we don't deal with these snobs, who will do the work for us?"
He hadn't forgotten why he'd come.
Sola needed to leverage the connections of the Case family to apply for immigration residency and a pioneering permit from the Silver Moon Monastery.
In the past, she was just a poor relative of the Case family, and it was difficult to get things done when she needed help.
Now, she was the successor of the Case family, and her affairs were the family's affairs.
No need to ask for help, just assign the tasks directly.
The people who actually handled these trivial matters, the "snobs" in Ella's eyes, still needed to be won over a little to prevent them from interfering.
This group of people couldn't accomplish anything great.
But they were very capable of messing things up!
After all, Ella was young and a bit self-righteous.
In truth, she had no right to look down on others for their opportunism. She herself had come here today specifically to flatter them.
Although the Keith family had declined in prominence, their outward display remained as grand as ever.
Every year on the third day of the third lunar month, the entire clan would gather their forces to organize a grand trade fair.
The trade fair was the town's annual event.
Adventurers from all over Silvermoon Island gathered in Keith Town to purchase rare treasures or set up stalls to sell their wares.
Today was the first day of the trade fair, and the town was bustling with activity.
According to her grandmother's orders, Ella reluctantly took her mother and Alan to the trade fair.
Ella understood her grandmother's intention: to use the shopping opportunity to allow her to get closer to Sora and strengthen their mother-daughter bond.
However, an inexplicable barrier existed between her and Sora, making their interactions awkward. At least for now, she couldn't open her heart and accept this somewhat unfamiliar mother.
‐‐ On the contrary, Allen had no connection to her and had recently given her a severe beating, publicly humiliating her.
Ella should have had a thousand reasons to hate Allen, but inexplicably, she didn't hold a grudge and they got along quite well.
Ella couldn't tell if it was because Allen had completely defeated her, leaving her in a state of fear and respect for him, or because Allen was a very easygoing person outside of the arena and took good care of her.
‐‐ Having such a tall, handsome, and skilled senior brother seemed quite a relief.
‐‐ The three of them strolled through the bustling venue, Sora trying to find topics to talk about with her daughter.
Ella casually went about her business.
‐‐ Only Allen was seriously shopping, occasionally stopping at stalls to browse through all sorts of bizarre items.
If the stall owner came to entertain, the most common question he'd hear from him was:
"Is this edible?"
Ella walked half the street with Allen and gradually realized a serious problem...
"My eldest brother... could he be a foodie?"
Sora couldn't help but laugh when she heard her daughter mumbling to herself.
"You guessed it, Allen does have a big appetite."
"That's not surprising, he's so tall and strong!" Ella complained angrily.
She inherited her mother's genes, standing only 1.5 meters tall and delicate.
With her hair styled short and a cat-ear hairpin, she looked like an innocent little sister.
Walking with Allen, she had to look up when talking, which made her feel incredibly humiliated...
"Damn it! Why did he grow so tall for no reason?!"
Ella muttered angrily. Alan overheard the mother and daughter whispering, chuckling to himself.
It was true he had a voracious appetite, but he wasn't starving enough to eat anything.
He was visiting the trade fair primarily to enrich his system's built-in ingredient guide.
And try his luck, maybe he'd find something...
Hmm?!
Alan suddenly stopped and turned to look at a nondescript stall.
The system notification echoed in his mind.
"Special ingredient detected!"
Lucky!
Isn't that a shipment?
Alan rubbed his hands and licked his lips.
Ella saw his hungry expression, her eyes wide with confusion.
"Hey who..."
She still didn't feel comfortable calling her mother in public, so she tugged at Sora's sleeve.
"Big Brother, you look so strange, like a villain with ulterior motives..."
"Don't talk nonsense, Alan just found something interesting." Sora smiled and took her daughter's hand. "Come on, let's go take a look."
Alan had his eye on a bottle of wine.
"Superb crab blood wine! Authentic Underdark product!"
"The painstaking work of a dwarf brewer!"
"Ten years of cellaring, guaranteed genuine!"
"Twenty magic stones a bottle! Brother, you're making a killing!"
The stall owner boasted.
"Crab blood wine" is truly a strong liquor brewed from crab blood, sourced from a monster called a "hole-fishing crab."
This giant crab, which lives in the Underdark, behaves like a spider.
It roosts high in underground caves, dropping a transparent silk thread that serves as bait for hunting. Passing creatures, upon encountering the silk thread, are firmly entangled.
Catching a burrow crab is like fishing: reel in the line, capture the prey, and enjoy a delicious meal.
Dwarven miners in the underground world love to round up burrow crabs.
Once they catch one, they crack the hard shell with a pickaxe and guzzle the crab's blood.
The blood of burrow crabs is rich in alcohol.
For the alcoholic dwarves, it's a uniquely flavorful, high-end beverage.
More sophisticated brews use the blood of burrow crabs as raw material, supplemented with various spices, and undergo a series of fermentation and distillation processes to create a strong liquor.
The resulting "crab blood wine" is usually no less than 80% alcohol!
It's acrid, like swallowing fire!
Alan wasn't particularly interested in strong liquor.
I'd set my eyes on this bottle of wine because the blood of burrowing crabs is a unique ingredient!
After some haggling, the deal was finally settled on 14 magic stones!
Alan unscrewed the bottle, used the cap as a cup, and took a sip.
Puff!
"Cough, cough, cough..."
The spiciness made my tongue cramp and my throat burn!
Ella, watching from the side, clapped her hands in glee.
Alan glanced at the unfortunate girl and took the juice from Sora-sensei to moisten his throat.
Alan was sure crab blood wine wasn't for him. Perhaps Senior Sister Tanya would appreciate something this strong...
Thinking of Senior Sister, whom he hadn't spoken to in a while, a sense of melancholy washed over him.
Sighing, Alan screwed the cap back on and stuffed the entire bottle into his storage bag.
At the same time, he received the expected system notification.
"Consume special ingredients: Hole-fishing crab blood products!"
"Potential +1!"
"Physique +1!"
After taking a sip of the pungent liquor, his physical attribute increased to 27 points.
He currently has 4 points of potential, which is still a long way from the 10 points needed to deduce the fifth-level meditation method.
Unfortunately, there were no other special ingredients to be found at the trade fair.
Ms. Sora spotted a fragmented potion recipe and took it back to study. Perhaps she could complete it.
The recipe and the liquor cost 30 non-attribute magic stones.
"Junior Sister, please settle the bill."
"You buy things, why should I pay?" Ella said with reluctance.
"Junior Sister, this is just your ignorance. Just because you're a daughter and a junior sister, shouldn't you show some respect to your elders?" Allen smiled faintly. "If you're not convinced, I'll have to talk to your grandmother."
"Don't do that! I... I'll pay for it, won't I?" Ella gritted her teeth and forced a smile. "Brother! If there's anything else you like, feel free to buy it. It'll all be on my account!"
Alan really wanted to take advantage of her and make a quick buck.
But Sora-sensei, feeling sorry for her daughter, gave him a look, signaling him to stop.
He even found a secluded spot, took Ella along, and secretly slipped her a large bag of magic stones.
Ella steadfastly refused.
However, seeing tears in her mother's eyes, she felt inexplicably sad, and ultimately accepted the money.
Over a decade of prejudice couldn't be overturned overnight, but she had to admit that her mother wasn't the evil woman she'd originally thought. Spending time together might even bridge the gap between mother and daughter.
After shopping, the three of them went to the town's fanciest restaurant for lunch.
Ella, still obsessed with Allen's foodie nature, told him to order whatever he liked and eat as much as he could.
She could afford it!
Alan took the menu, not bothering to examine it carefully. He simply said to the waiter, "A full set."
"Um... sorry, we're a restaurant, we don't offer that kind of service."
"I mean, a set of everything on the menu!"
"Dear guest... are you kidding?" the waiter asked, stunned.
"What do you mean, are you worried my junior sister can't pay?" Allen's face darkened.
"No, no! As long as you're happy!" The waiter scurried off.
Ella frowned.
She suspected Allen was just being gluttonous, ordering a bunch of food he couldn't finish. After all, he didn't have to pay, right?
Ms. Sora sipped her tea elegantly, set her cup down, and patted her daughter's hand with a smile.
"These things on the menu might not be enough for your senior brother to eat."
Ella was speechless.
When Allen started eating, she was even more speechless.
This... is just a living, breathing eating machine!
Ella couldn't even think about eating herself, staring blankly at Allen's gluttony.
Finally, unable to resist, she leaned over, lifted Allen's shirt, and stared at his belly.
She wanted to understand something.
This man's stomach didn't seem to be very large, so how could he fit in food that was several times his size?
Even after swallowing a steady stream of food, Allen's belly remained smooth.
Unable to understand, Ella began to touch...
Sora watched from the side, suppressing a laugh and coughing lightly.
Ella recovered, blushing and withdrawing her hand.
Not understanding the mysterious structure of Allen's stomach, nor feeling embarrassed to confess to her mother, she was a bit fascinated by the wonderful feel of caressing the eldest brother's eight-pack abs...
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
A rather attractive young woman entered the private room, bowed to Sora, and addressed him respectfully as "Young Mistress."
"Cousin Lisa, please don't be polite. Please sit down and eat with us," Sora said kindly.
The young woman was from a branch of the Keith family, of modest skill, a mere high-level apprentice.
Sora called her cousin out of courtesy; in reality, she was a servant assigned to her daughter by Mistress Keith.
Lisa, however, had her bearings and stood respectfully to the side.
"Young Mistress, there's something going on at home. I'd like you to go back and take care of it. Master Allen and Miss Ella, please come back with us."
"What happened at the Cases household?" Allen's voice came from behind the pile of plates.
Lisa was shocked by Master Allen's astonishing appetite before she quickly replied:
"About an hour ago, a young man and woman suddenly broke into our manor."
"The man calls himself 'Dron the Drone,' and the woman's name is 'Dairy the Bee.'"
"These two claim to be from Red Moon Island and disciples of Elder Grisha..."
Hearing this, Sora's expression changed.
"Dron the Bee" and "Bee the Bee" are self-proclaimed names used by the Bee People.
Since they were from Red Moon Island and were Grisha's students, she had already guessed about their purpose.
The information Lisa revealed next confirmed Sora's worst fears.
"Dorn and Daisy claim to be following Grisha's orders to take their teacher's daughter and bring her back to Crimson Moon Island for training."
Lisa glanced cautiously at Ella and lowered her voice.
"They also said they couldn't let the Case family... waste Miss Ella's talent."
"Grisha's bloodline is not something the Case family has the right to monopolize."
"Miss Ella, you must return to Crimson Moon Island with them... to recognize your roots!"