"The old man selling matches?" Mai Ge paused, noticing Amy's pitying gaze. He suddenly remembered the story of the little match girl he had told her before. It seemed she mistook Crassus, who had been waiting outside the window for so long, for a poor man who had no money for food.
However, this mage did not seem to be a poor person. Judging from his demeanor and temperament, he was either a hermit or someone who had long held a high position. He did not show the slightest surprise at the various decorations in the restaurant, which showed that these things were not unusual to him. A person's vision and background can often be seen from small details.
"Yes, look how pitiful he is. He's been waiting outside the window for so long, and no one has bought a single match from him. Why don't we buy one from him?" Amy looked at Mai Ge and nodded, then looked at Crassus with pity, comforting him, "Grandpa, don't worry. Even if we buy a match from you, you'll still starve to death, but it's still better than that little girl who didn't sell a single match. You should be able to die without regrets."
Crassus, listening to Amy's words, was somewhat taken aback. The little girl seemed to have misunderstood something. He shook his head with a smile and said, "Little girl, I'm actually not selling..."
"I know you must be cold and hungry, wanting to eat roast goose, right?" Amy interrupted Crassus, hugging the Ugly Duckling and shrinking back slightly, a hint of wariness and difficulty in her voice. "But the Ugly Duckling is still a baby. You can't eat it, you have to raise it until it grows up."
"Meow!" The Ugly Duckling turned its head to look up at Amy, its eyes wide, realizing that things weren't so simple.
"..." Crassus was momentarily at a loss for words. He hadn't even said anything, yet this little girl had already given him a strange identity, turning him into a destitute old man who couldn't afford food but still wanted to eat roast goose? The key question is, what is the relationship between this and the little cat-like beast.
Mai Ge almost burst out laughing when he saw Amy looking wary. Seeing Crassus's troubled expression, he quickly smiled and said, "I'm sorry, Amy heard a little story I told her earlier, and the little girl took it seriously. What would you like to eat? The menu is on the table, you can refer to it yourself. The La Zhi Rou Jia Mo is sold out."
"Okay." Crassus didn't think much of it and sat down directly opposite Amy at the table. He leaned his tall mage staff against the glass window behind him, smiled kindly at Amy, and picked up the menu from the table.
His purpose in entering the restaurant was to test whether Amy had any talent for learning magic, and also to find out what the restaurant owner thought. However, asking such a question as soon as he sat down was obviously a bit too abrupt.
Of course, he was not worried at all that anyone would refuse his request to take on disciples. As long as he revealed his identity, people all over the Nolan Continent who wanted to become his disciples could line up from the Imperial Palace all the way to the gates of the capital.
Taking a half-elf as an apprentice would subject him to some external pressure, but after he turned 120, he no longer cared about these things. Now he just wanted to find a suitable apprentice to pass on all the knowledge he had learned in his life.
Whether they are human, elf, or even half-elf, Crassus doesn't care. Let others say what they want. Does anyone really dare to teach this old man a lesson?
This restaurant was the most comfortable he had been to in Chaos City these past few days. Of course, it was only comfortable, compared to the palace of the Los Empire, it was far from luxurious.
The restaurant was bustling before. Given that it was located in such a corner, it must have a wide variety of dishes to attract customers. However, when he opened the menu, he found that there were only two dishes listed. The owner had just said that the La Zhi Rou Jia Mo was sold out, meaning they were now only serving the top item on the menu, Yang Zhou Fried Rice.
"Boss, what is this Yang Zhou Fried Rice?" Crassus looked up at Mai Ge and asked. He was over 120 years old and had never heard of this kind of food before. Moreover, the price of 600 copper coins was not cheap. One serving was enough to cover the food expenses of an average family of three people for ten days.
"It's so delicious! Super delicious rainbow fried rice!" Amy answered eagerly, then looked at Crassus with a hint of worry, "I know you really want to eat it, but we don't accept matches as payment, only cash. If you eat it and don't pay, I'll set you on fire!"
"Actually, I have money." Crassus smiled gently, a withered, aged hand emerging from his loose mage robe, flattened on the table, revealing two dragon coins in his palm.
"Huh? You don't sell matches?" Amy looked at the dragon coins in Crassus palm, her face puzzled.
"I don't sell matches, but if you want one, I can conjure one for you." Crassus snapped his fingers on the table, and a match, about the thickness of a little finger and two fingers long, appeared from his fingertip.
Mai Ge watched this scene with some astonishment. This was magic that was even more advanced than magic itself—creating something out of thin air. Such a technique was truly impressive.
Compared to Amy's fireball spell, which could only cause destruction, Crassus's effortless conjuring of matches seemed more like a technical skill, a feeling of magic integrated into everyday life, done with effortless ease. Mai Ge thought to himself, "This must be a very powerful mage."
"Wow! You know magic?" Amy's eyes lit up as she looked at the match in Crassus's hand.
Crassus smiled and nodded, saying, "I am a mage, of course I know magic. This is just a little trick. The truly powerful magic can drive away dragons and stop trolls. Do you want to learn it?"
"Huh?" Mai Ge had thought Crassus was going to order food, but he hadn't expected him to change the subject and start trying to persuade Amy to learn magic. This made Mai Ge somewhat wary.
Although Amy also wants to learn magic, their identities are somewhat special and cannot be revealed yet.
Back then, Mai Ge • Alex secretly left the capital with Amy and came to Chaos City because he didn't want to live a life of humiliation under the mocking gazes of those people.
Those people spared his life that night, intending to see him make a fool of himself. However, he later staged a suicide, changed his identity, and settled here. Four years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Most people probably thought they were dead, but since it concerned the safety of the father and daughter, no amount of caution was too much. Moreover, Amy's magical talent was very likely inherited from her mother. If it was a talent unique to the elven royal family, then it was even more important to find a trustworthy mage as her teacher.
"No." Amy shook her head almost without thinking, pointing at Mai Ge with considerable pride, and said, "My Daddy is also a super powerful magician. He conjured up a beautiful restaurant and can cook all sorts of delicious food. Can you?"
Crassus paused for a moment, he really didn't know how to cook.
However, when he looked up at Mai Ge, Crassus did not sense any magical fluctuations from him, and the restaurant was built and decorated with normal materials.
Although the materials were much better than those of an average restaurant, but it had nothing to do with magic. It seemed the owner had told some lies to create a more impressive image in his daughter's eyes.
"Boss, I'd like a Yang Zhou Fried Rice." Crassus said to Mai Ge with a smile. Since he couldn't reason with the young girl, he would have to start with the boss.