(▽`)
As she spoke, Annie seemed to find the topic dull. Her eyes shifted, and she immediately remembered another important reason she had come today.
So!
She licked the crumbs off her fingers, then leaned forward over the small table and gazed up at the old woman, asking in a sweet, cloying voice:
"Oh, right!"
|▽)
"Auntie, why doesn't your restaurant have that especially, especially delicious spirit-beast meat I had last time?"
"The kind that was a little hot on the tongue, but incredibly tender and full of spiritual energy. It made my whole body feel warm after I ate it!"
|˙˙)
"Go get some more! I want to eat it a few more times!"
○(^︶^)っ
As she spoke, she gestured dramatically. Her bright green eyes blinked with longing, and she looked just like a little cat wagging its tail for a treat.
"..."
The old woman was taken aback. She glanced at Annie, her expression caught somewhere between amusement and exasperation, with a faint, wistful look.
Then she shook her head and replied with a hint of helplessness—and a barely perceptible pang of loss:
"Oh?"
"You're... still thinking about that?"
The old woman let out another helpless sigh.
"Do you even know..."
"what kind of meat you ate last time?"
She didn't answer whether they had any. Instead, she asked Annie a question of her own.
"Nope!"
(ω)
Annie looked utterly innocent and continued blinking her adorable big eyes.
"I just know it was delicious. Was it something really rare?"
(^▽^)?
"..."
Seeing Annie's fearless, clueless expression, the old woman looked both annoyed and amused.
After a moment's hesitation, she could only lower her voice and explain:
"That was the spirit-meat of a cub of the 'Cold Abyss Devouring-Eye Beast,' raised by specialists in the Imperial Garden of the