635. The Difficulty Lies Here

Dusk.

The rain poured down.

This long, torrential rain had become the everlasting background noise. The floodwaters stored up on the mountain kept cascading down, loosening the soil and turning it muddy, forming mountain torrents that scoured every tree in the forest.

The scene was enough to make anyone who saw it believe that the steep cliffs where the villa stood had been formed by years of relentless erosion.

Inside the house, Byron was eating the food in his bowl.

Meat broth and bread were what the servants usually ate. Byron was not picky either. As a streetwise drifter, he could hold forth at a banquet and chat idly with the cooks in the kitchen. He wolfed down his food so eagerly that even Xiya felt hungry.

"Get me a serving too."

Xiya went to ask a servant for a serving and ate with Byron.

Byron tore the bread apart, soaked it in broth, and put it into his mouth. He even sucked his fingers afterward, looking thoroughly satisfied. Xiya followed his example and ate the same way.

"This bread tastes like what I used to eat on the outskirts of the Black Forest. Especially on rainy nights—lighting a campfire, then eating bread with soup inside the tent. It was incredibly cozy."

Xiya gave her assessment.

"When you're hungry, this kind of staple food is what satisfies you most."

Byron nodded as well.

After the two of them had eaten and drunk their fill, Byron asked for a glass of red wine. He gulped it down without the slightest trace of elegance, belched, then contentedly closed his eyes and composed himself for a moment.

"Gaud didn't tell me everything about this mansion in detail, but to help me act like a master, he did tell me some of the secrets