Chapter 378: Hospitality of the Undead
A white-robed ascetic monk with a flail on his back grabbed the young noble who was about to argue and said something to him with a shamefaced look on his face. The noble then pulled up his scarf to cover his face and stopped talking nonsense.
The citizens of the Principality of Shiga who were abandoned by the border town were taken to the wilderness by the Nightmare Butcher to be fed. This is such a shameful thing that it is beyond words!
Anthony did not act aggressively. He just pretended that nothing had happened and led the man directly to the living area next to the canteen of the undead.
The location of the Undead Canteen was originally a large open space. The scattered wooden houses around it were demolished and rebuilt into a living area. Among the dozens of bungalows, only two facing the street were occupied, and the others were still empty, which was perfect for entertaining outside guests. Although they were not decent rooms, at least the walls were painted and the ground was paved with cement, which was better than sleeping in a tent.
The Prosperous Church is not as wealthy as the Blazing Sun Church. The holy priests there are all hard-working people and are not picky about where they live.
The official members of the delegation, the dozen or so nobles who came from the royal city of Shiga, really looked down upon this stable-like bungalow, but they really had no means to be picky in such an environment, so they had to move in with reluctance.
After the guests had settled down, Anthony went to the cafeteria next door to inform the old man.
The visitors of the Prosperity Church, who had just put away their luggage and tied up their horses, were soon informed that they could go to the large cafeteria next door for their meals.
After traveling all morning, everyone was already hungry. Even the young noble who had just lost face not long ago did not refuse and went to the cafeteria together.
As soon as they entered the door, the guests saw... the undead (players who came to brush up their reputation with the Guild of Commerce) mixed in with the sturdy women in the cafeteria hall, helping to arrange the dishes.
What is even more shocking is that in the semi-open kitchen, the people busy at the stove are also undead...
The holy priests, who had eaten food cooked by the dead two years ago, walked towards the table where the dishes were laid out.
The official members of the visiting group who encountered this situation for the first time were a little confused. A group of Shiga nobles stood at the entrance of the cafeteria and looked at each other, not knowing whether to go in or retreat.
Andre had already found a seat when he realized that none of the official members of the delegation had come in. He quickly stood up and walked over, trying to look as normal as possible and whispered to Count Dimos, the chief envoy of the delegation and a member of the royal family of the Principality of Shiga: "Sir Dimos, you can eat the food prepared by the undead. There is no need to worry. Brother Lowell also praised the food cooked by the undead."
Count Dimos cast his gaze towards the holy priests who were already seated at the table, nodded, led the way inside, and took the lead in sitting down.
Seeing that the Earl had sat down, the other members of the delegation found it inconvenient for them to continue standing, so they followed him reluctantly.
The young nobleman who took off his cloak hesitated and slowed down his pace. When he passed by Andre, he whispered, "Mr. Andre, did my great-great-grandfather...really accept these dead souls without reservation as you said?"
Andre's gaze could not help but pause for a moment on the face of the young nobleman.
This one is Brother Lowell’s great-great-great-grandson, and one can still see some of Brother Lowell’s genetic bloodline in his appearance.
Because the monks devoted themselves to the church and neglected the development of their family, the Lowell family's title was not high, and they only retained the title of viscount, and their fiefdom was very small, with only two small towns.
If Brother Lowell had not been alive, the Lowell family might have slipped into the ranks of barons, lords, and become ordinary people.
Andre, a subordinate of the Holy Priest Cavalry Regiment, had the opportunity to read the letters written by the monk, but the monk's descendants might not be able to see them in person.
Brother Andre felt a little sympathy for the descendant of the Lowell family. He nodded slightly and said, "That's right... Your great-grandfather had a broad mind that ordinary people could hardly imagine."
The young noble bowed slightly to Andre and strode towards the dining table.
The cafeteria, which usually seats only a hundred people, was a bit crowded when it accommodated more than two hundred people at a time, so many plastic benches were temporarily added to barely accommodate them.
The holy priests with relatively simple minds only thought about eating after they sat down, but the official members of the delegation could not be as careless as them. Whether it was Count Dimos or young nobles who came here just to gain experience because of their family connections, they all looked at the furnishings in the cafeteria calmly.
All the tables and chairs in the cafeteria were collected by Yang Qiu from a bankrupt fast food restaurant. They were all cheap hard plastic tables and chairs, which made it difficult for the Shijia nobles, who had never seen such materials, to distinguish the value of them and became more cautious.
The cafeteria itself is an assembled steel house. It looks fine from the outside and there are no major problems unless you take a closer look. Sitting inside and taking a quick look, you can see that the walls and ceiling are all covered with traces of assembly, and they feel like steel plates to the touch. This makes the Shega nobles sitting against the wall confused about the financial resources of the undead regime, and they become more and more confused - the mineral resources of the Shega Principality are not poor, but using the best steel to build houses is too wasteful!
What's even more outrageous is that the stove baffle separating the hall and the cafeteria is made entirely of shiny stainless steel, and the discerning Shiga nobles would be blinded by it!
When the civilian women who helped in the canteen and the undead who came to earn reputation served the main meal on the table, the Shiga nobles began to doubt where they were...
The menu of the Undead Canteen in Exile Town is relatively monotonous. Because Master Liu and Lao Geng both have to work part-time as "online GMs", these two veteran comrades from the national team do not have much time to spend on the dishes, and all the dishes they can provide are semi-finished vegetable packs (pre-prepared dishes).
What is served on the table now are all semi-finished dishes that can be eaten after heating: tomato and egg soup, shredded pork with fish flavor, and sweet and sour pork tenderloin.
After all, they were "friends from afar", so Master Liu decided to treat them well. He not only added some pickled meat that Butcher Manan had collected from the players, but also specially harvested a batch of fresh vegetables, put them in the convenient kitchen and cooked them together as the staple food...
Three dishes, one soup and a staple food, both meat and vegetables, are prepared in just over an hour. This is the greatest sincerity that Chef Liu can show.
As for this set of dinner... in the eyes of the guests, it can only be described as grand - after all, it is very difficult for the indigenous people to understand pre-prepared meals, which are convenient foods produced on industrial assembly lines. If you only look at the appearance of the food, anyone with a little common sense can see how difficult it is to prepare these dishes.
The green leafy vegetables that Master Liu really put a lot of effort into adding to the staple food were, on the contrary, not very noticeable... The Principality of Shiga, which excels in agriculture, had long ago developed the technology for growing vegetables in winter.
After tasting the dishes, Earl Dimos, a member of the royal family of the Principality of Shiga, the chief envoy of the delegation, could not help but say to Andre, who was sitting at the same table with him, "Brother Lowell is right. The Tarantan Undead are indeed hospitable."
Knowing that the visiting delegation was coming, they prepared meals in advance. These were delicate meals that were rich in spices (seasonings). To say that these ghosts were not warm and thoughtful would be a lie.
Andre nodded in agreement.
After the meal, the guests were very satisfied, and Chef Liu who prepared the food was also very satisfied.
"Newcomers are the best. They are not picky eaters. Look how clean this plate is." After the guests left, Master Liu happily showed the canteen helper a plate without any food residue. "Anthony and Xiao Ma's group are picky eaters. They always leave a lot for me."
The civilian women who were helping just laughed.
Anthony, who had just entered the room, pretended not to hear Master Liu scolding him, and said calmly, "Master Liu, do you want to call the visiting group over to talk to you?"
Master Liu thought about it, shook his head and said, "Forget it. These guests are still wary of us undead. Let them go see Brother Luo first."
Anthony nodded and went out to continue entertaining the guests.
Master Liu was not going to show up, but Andre, who had read Brother Lowell's letter and knew about the existence of the Undead Archon, was thinking about it. He took the initiative to find Anthony, who was in charge of hosting them, and asked, "Can we pay a visit to the Undead Mayor here?"
"No need." Anthony, who was arranging women to prepare bath water for the guests, said without thinking, "Our undead mayor here doesn't care about anything. It doesn't matter whether he sees it or not."
In the poisonous fog swamp, Brother Lahong, who was leading the elite group that brought me medicine, suddenly sneezed a few times.
"Can you catch a cold in the game? Or is it a DEBUFF?" His good friend Huanling looked at him in surprise and gave Brother Lahong a dark blessing.
"Don't waste mana." Brother Lahong waved his hands and shouted to the others, "Did you find the medicine slag? I must beat this bastard to death today. How dare he steal my monster!"
Andre was very uneasy about the Undead Archon's refusal to meet him, so he went to the residence of Count Dimos, the envoy, to report the matter.
Count Dimos was also someone who had read Lowell's letter. He still remembered the undead mayor of Westram introduced by the monk in the letter. Like Andre, he completely disbelieved the reasons Anthony gave.
But after all, this is the territory of the undead. Even if the undead mayor doesn't want to see them, they have no right to be unhappy - after all, they were given a place to stay and rest as soon as they arrived, and they were treated to good food and drink.
After sitting on the bed made of bricks and wooden boards and thinking for a long time, Count Dimos sighed and said, "Perhaps... we came too late, causing the Tarantan Undead to doubt our sincerity."
Andre, who was standing nearby, remained silent.
Brother Lowell had been writing letters frequently back to the Principality of Shiga since the beginning of last year (in the other world time).
Unfortunately, those letters were never taken seriously by the Prosperity Church, let alone sending a visiting delegation as requested by the monks.
Due to its hostility towards the Church of the Blazing Sun, the Church of Prosperity does not have such a deep aversion to the Nightmare Butcher, but the ascetics of the church have a close relationship with the notorious Nightmare Butcher, which still makes the Holy Land of Prosperity lose its glory.
If Brother Lowell had not had an extremely high reputation and a transcendent status, the Holy Land would not simply remove Brother Lowell from his position in the Holy Priest Cavalry Regiment... reprimands, forced recalls, or even expulsion from the church would all be possible.
Andre was only a small captain in a cavalry regiment and had no right to question the decisions of the Holy Land. He himself was skeptical about the undead regime described in the monk's letter - not that he did not believe in the monk's vision, but that he did not believe in the shameless black magician.
It was not until years ago that the Church of the Fiery Sun's publicity of the Nightmare Butcher's legendary advancement and the glorious achievements of the Tarantan Undead reached the Principality of Shiga, and the Holy Land of Prosperity began to take the letters sent back by Brother Lowell seriously.
The Nightmare Butcher and the undead he summoned did make the Church of the Blazing Sun feel threatened. This was one of the messages that the high-ranking priests of the Holy Land of Prosperity interpreted from these two rumors... After all, if the Church of the Blazing Sun really had the means to kill the Nightmare Butcher, there would be no need to spread the word about how threatening this black magician was to the continent of Nabarron.
Another piece of information interpreted by the high-ranking priests of the Holy Land of Prosperity was that the Nightmare Butcher and his undead regime had already established a foothold in the Rhine Kingdom.
This made it even more impossible for the Holy Land of Prosperity to ignore this matter - you have to know that when the Tarantan Undead first appeared in the world, the first person he encountered was the Holy Priest of the Church of Prosperity!
And that was just less than two years ago!
In less than two years, he marched out of Tarantine and openly dug out two earls from the Rhine Kingdom, and the Rhine royal family had to admit that the puppet lord had the legitimate right to rule... The potential of the Nightmare Butcher and the undead regime he represented was already obvious.
The letter written by Brother Lowell a year ago was once again dug out from the pile of old papers. This time, no one questioned the monk's vision and courage. He did not even celebrate the winter celebration and hastily sent out a visiting delegation. He also asked Andre, who was an old acquaintance of the Tarantan Undead, to lead the troops to escort the delegation... In the eyes of the bigwigs in the Holy Land, this was enough to show sincerity.
But for Count Dimos, who hastily took on the task, this was obviously not the case.
Andre didn't know how to comfort the envoy. After a long while, he could only say: "After meeting Brother Lowell, maybe he will be able to repair the relationship between us."
While the chief envoy and the captain of the guard of the visiting delegation were worried, Brother Lowell in Innadri was also worried about the visiting delegation.
After rushing from Westram to Innadli City and meeting the projection clone of Yang Qiu left there in the City Lord's Mansion, Brother Lowell talked about the visiting delegation in a constant manner.
Yang Qiu patiently listened to Brother Lowell for a long time, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, Brother, the undead in Exile Town have already settled them. If nothing unexpected happens, you will see them in Innadri soon."
Brother Lowell was a little embarrassed: "In that case, I am relieved. I am just worried that they will have friction with the undead."
"How could that be? The Prosperity Church is our friend. Our undead friends can clearly distinguish between enemies and me." Yang Qiu said calmly.
Players' eyes will only turn green when they see a red name, and they will not react when they see a green name. Yang Qiu is very relieved about this.
These soothing words made Brother Lowell look worried.
"Friends... I hope so." Brother Lowell did not deliberately hide his emotions from Yang Qiu and smiled bitterly openly.
"It's not a wish, but a certainty." Yang Qiu smiled slightly and said meaningfully, "Fellow monk, I believe that a deep, solid, and unbreakable friendship will be established between us."
