Alien Knights

Rachel half-lyed on the recliner made of wood and soft wadding, frowning and looking at the house, these items that don't match the style at all, and asked the young peasant woman behind her: "The 'Village Chief' and the guests, are you still chatting?"

The maid who was questioned knew that the other party was someone she could never neglect, so she quickly bent down respectfully and replied: "The master and his guests have been inside the big house and haven't come out yet."

The woman in the light green long dress clenched her fists and pounded on the wooden table in front of the reclining chair. The waves on her chest trembled like sea waves with her large movements. The maid who watched was stunned: "The sun has already set, don't they plan to eat?!"

"Um... sorry, what did you just say?" The peasant woman who came back to her senses took her eyes away from Rachel's chest, completely forgetting the other party's question, and had no choice but to ask for confirmation again.

"Eat, eat! When can I eat?!"

The maid struggled to focus her attention on the face of the questioner, and replied carefully: "The chefs have prepared the dishes, I believe the master will be here soon..." Seeing Rachel turn her face away, the young peasant woman took advantage of no one's attention, secretly opened the front of her chest, took a look inside, and then sighed in frustration.

"You mean that these symbols and calculations are not the codes and code names of alchemists, but that..." The loud voice sounded outside the room, and Rachel raised her head from the wooden table, looking exactly like a little beast that heard the command "serve dinner".

"Chemical equation." It was Todd who walked in first. He pushed open the wooden door of the big house, then stretched out his hand to block the wooden board, and led Theodore behind him into the room.

The old man didn't seem to care about these red tapes, but the woman in green rolled her eyes when she saw this move, and there was a hint of surprise in her face.

Todd turned his head and saw "another guest" who was half lying on the reclining chair, wearing only a tight-fitting gown, with exquisite curves. He quickly looked away and looked at the president of the Relief Society with some surprise.

The latter looked at the person at the table, stroked his beard in distress, and said in a deep voice while thinking about the words of the introduction: "Let me introduce, this is Rachel, she is one of my... acquaintances..."

Trying to tilt his gaze not to look at the other person's body, Todd nodded to the woman, then looked at the strange dining table and lounge chair in front of him with a headache.

The dinner table was square and surrounded by three upholstered and covered chaise longues, the edges of which were just above the table.

Todd watched Theodore take off his shoes and lie down on the recliner on the left, while the recliner on the right had been occupied by Rachel, leaving him with only one chair facing the main door.

You actually have to lie down for dinner?

What kind of rules is this? After all, isn’t it uncomfortable to eat while lying down?

In line with the idea of ​​doing as the Romans do, Todd also took off his shoes and carefully lay down on the upper recliner. His head was facing Theodore. But he really couldn't point his pair of feet, which hadn't been washed for several days, to the woman who looked down. He simply retracted his legs and feet into his arms, and assumed a "curled up" posture on the recliner.

Seeing the strange appearance of the person in front of her, Rachel suddenly understood what the other person was thinking. Overjoyed, she lay down with her whole body, covered her mouth with one hand, and patted the table with the other to laugh out loud.

Theodore glared at the woman opposite, clapped his hands, and signaled the maids to start the dinner.

First, a small wooden cup with a narrow bottom and a wide top was placed in front of everyone. The maids poured new red wine into the cups. Theodore picked up the wooden cups and raised them into the air. He said in his mouth, "The first cup is dedicated to the three gods of sky, war and order!"

After speaking, he drank it all in one gulp.

Watching the woman across the street say the same thing and drank the wine in the glass, Todd did the same.

The old man quickly raised the second cup and said, "The second cup is dedicated to the glory of Tai Luo!"

Everyone did so.

"The third cup is dedicated to the savior of the world - Sutherland!"

Listening to the content and sequence of the first three sentences, Todd had a faint realization.

After drinking three glasses of wine, Theodore put the wine glass by his side and clapped his hands again to indicate the next step of the dinner.

The maids brought all kinds of tableware and spread them on the dining table. There are knives, toothpicks, and a variety of spoons, including ladles, pointed spoons, and scoops for eating eggs or shellfish.

A sumptuous dinner menu was served, including tapas, two main courses, a barbecue and dessert. Tapas are salads made of lettuce and onions, served with eggs, sashimi, olives and cheese. The main course is fresh meat and vegetable soup, hare pot with fragrant leaves, grilled mackerel with flavor, and desserts are some fruits, such as pomegranate, citrus, plum, blueberry and mulberry.

In the process of pushing and changing glasses on the table, Todd found something strange. Unlike the first three glasses of sacrificial wine, the red wine after that was obviously mixed with honey and spring water, and the alcohol content was reduced to a level that was almost negligible. Naturally, he drank it more easily.

In order to take into account the moods of the hosts and guests on the left and right sides, Todd discussed with Theodore some phenomena and reactions in the field of microbiology and chemistry; while chatting with Rachel, he remembered some customs and travel delicacies in the Middle Ages. Instead, he found that the woman was not interested in other topics, but when it came to food and drink, she was most interested, so he simply followed suit and began to introduce some local snacks and local dishes that he had seen on TV in his previous life. The people at the table chatted naturally with smiles on their faces, and the host and guest had a good time.

At the dinner party, Theodore was chatting, and suddenly mentioned the sage Sutherland, and praised his achievements in his words, and one of the words caught Todd's attention.

"...According to Taylor's records, when he was young, Sutherland once built a hut in the Albano active crater for alchemy experiments and lived there for eight years. This spirit of devotion to the truth is really amazing! 』

Hearing these words, Todd's wine glass hung in the air, and there was a sudden roar in his head, like the sky after the rain, the dark clouds dispersed and the sun shone.

"Mr. President..."

"Call me Theodore!" The old man squinted at the person beside him.

"Okay, Theodore. I've always wanted to know a thing or two about the great achievements of the sage Sutherland, but you also know that within the sphere of influence of the church, these books and articles are strictly controlled. So, can you please...?"

The president of the "Relief Society" blushed from the stimulation of alcohol, and waved his hand: "No problem, as a member of the alien species, how can I not know about Sutherland's life?! Give Todd a copy of "Sutherland's History"!"

Seeing Todd's inadvertently excited expression after he got the book, the woman in green took a sip of her wine and smiled. The former caught a glimpse of her expression from the corner of his eye, and was startled. He quickly put down the book in his hand, and quickly changed the subject: "Miss Rachel, I see that you only ate the appetizers, and you didn't seem to eat the main course and grilled food."

Hearing this, Theodore looked at the dining table in front of the woman. True, the salad was all eaten, but the meat pot, grilled fish, and vegetable soup remained largely untouched. The old man turned around and took a look. The servants were frightened out of their wits and knelt down on the ground like chaff.

The woman picked up the dishes in front of her with a small spoon, and said absent-mindedly: "It's not their fault, it's just ordinary food, I can't eat it. If the alchemy in your mouth can make these unpalatable foods more delicious..."

The old man's eyes widened, and he wanted to refute, but he didn't know where to start.

Seeing Theodore's darkening face and the horrified and desperate eyes of the servants, Todd couldn't bear it and said with a smile: "Miss Rachel, this is not difficult."

Um?

Everyone in the room looked at the speaker, with expressions of disbelief on their faces.

Rachel raised her eyebrows in surprise: "Let me tell you in advance, I don't want to eat sulfur and mercury water!"

"Don't worry, it's absolutely safe to eat." Todd said while asking for a pen and paper from the maid behind him.

Theodore and Rachel climbed up from the reclining chair, and their larynx approached their heads from the side. The three of them watched Todd sitting on the dining table, writing the needed utensils and materials, and the more they watched, the more frightened they became.

"These things are really alchemy materials?" The woman looked at the old man and asked suspiciously. The old man nodded, then shook his head again: "I know some things, but I don't know some things."

It was a matter of his own wealth and life, and the servants quickly prepared what they needed, and Todd also started the food experiment in alchemy.

First, put wheat bran evenly into a beaker, open a bottle of reagent labeled "hydrochloric acid" in Latin, dilute the liquid concentration inside to about 34%, then pour dilute hydrochloric acid into the beaker, pressurize to accelerate hydrolysis.

Then, peel off and decompose in the beaker, a black hydrolyzate, and use the blood charcoal part (activated carbon) of the animal bone to decolorize and remove impurities.

Next, the obtained liquid object is subjected to high-temperature vacuum (deoxygenation) concentration to obtain a white crystal (glutamic acid).

Finally, the white crystals were reacted with sodium hydroxide, concentrated twice, and then dried on low heat to obtain a translucent granular crystal (sodium glutamate).

The experiment lasted almost two full hours, but Theodore and Rachel didn't find it boring at all, the former because of alchemy, the latter because of eating.

Todd instructed the cooks to add the last translucent crystal particles to the soup and meat pot, and brush the grilled fish on it before reprocessing.

The dishes were brought to the table again, and within twenty minutes, there was no drop of soup left, and no meat or vegetable left. Theodore's eyes were staring, but Rachel swept away all the remaining food by himself. It was only then that Todd discovered that this woman was a real big eater.

When the two finished their meal and asked Todd what it was, the latter blurted out: "MSG."