Saga of Astral Mysteries (LOTMxASOIAF)

If he were to name one of the things that he was spending instead of a lot of money on, then it would certainly be food. That was something that he really enjoyed spending money on together with the tea, as he loved tea.

His kitchen was rather simplistic, but the only notable feature was the enormous fireplace that was in the middle of the kitchen, where he put the meat to be roasted, high above the fire as he activated the small rotisserie mechanism.

After he finished the things, he returned back to Ashe; as he took out the tea set that he had in the drawing room and started brewing tea for his host. For this rather special occasion, he chose Long Jun Tea, which was imported from the Island of Nippon, which was located south of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti. 

It was rather a pricy brand because even a few grams of the tea cost several tens of Gold Dragon Coins. Fortunately enough, the connections of the Clan Ferros spanned through the majority of the known world, so it wasn't hard to have his steady supply of tea.

"You have a nice home... living far above the standards of the average adventurer..."

She said quietly as she observed Valkorion brewing the pot of tea for them. While this wasn't the first time she had visited the home of someone rich, it was the first time she had visited the mansion of the Lord Freeholder so Valkorion could understand.

Valkorion new that the Dragonlord Families loved flaunting their wealth too much, sometimes it was to the extreme; if not, then this forsaken manor, would be far more luxurious than the castles of various Lords of the Westeros or those of the Free Cities of Essos.

"Thank you very much for that..."

He just thanked her for the compliment, even though he wasn't really sure if it was a compliment, but whatever. He knew that it might not be really the best idea, but he was relatively confident in her personality and that she wouldn't be saying anything about his manor.

He was relatively confident that Ashe Avarosan was a trustworthy person, that one he was rather sure about. Soon enough, he finished the tea brewing process as he passed Ashe one of the tea cups while he served the other one for himself.

"This is one of my favorite subspecies of the Nipponese Green Tea, Long Jun, while the name is in the Yi Ti as it was originally brought by the Nipponese merchants from the Golden Empire of Yi Ti and crossbred with the local varieties..."

Valkorion explained the origins of the Long Jun tea that he had, as it was one of his most prized possessions. He was rather proud of his tea collection, which was constantly expanding at a steady tempo.

"And on a side note, you need to enjoy the tea slowly... also, the food will be finished in around forty minutes..."

The meat of the Iron-Headed Bull would take some time to cook, but as he was doing the meat above the open fire on the rotisserie, it would be done faster than usual. Nothing tasted better than beef roasted above the open fire; it was one of the heavenly pleasures that the Gods gave to man.

"So, I see that on your trip to Green Peak or whatever you went, you obtained a lot."

Valkorion muttered as he observed Ashe, who indeed should have obtained a lot from the journey to the Painted Mountains, though he was sure that he would have obtained more from the trip if they were talking about the gains. 

"Someone has sharp eyes..."

She muttered while drinking the cup of tea that her host made for her.

At first, she was somewhat surprised that Valkorion was able to tell that she had advanced to the Mid Sequence because she was aware that the man was only at Sequence 7 and didn't even have a Spiritual Vision, which meant that his Beyonder Path was one of the late bloomers or ones that were more focused on the close combat from the start.

This correlates with her initial observations of the Valkorion as she saw him fighting several times, especially during the time they spent together in the Painted Mountains, so she was rather well acquainted with his capabilities.

'Bloodline Lineage Abiliy...'

She could guess that Valkorion had some sort of Bloodline Lineage Ability... she knew that only those of the noblest and most powerful Bloodlines had them and were very well knowledgeable about them.

Why not if she had them as well...

For the next few tens of minutes, they spent talking, mainly about various types of Extraordinary Creatures and Monsters living within the Painted Monsters, as that was something that they had in very common. 

Valkorion knew that Ashe wasn't native neither to Essos or Westeros, that much was sure; he suspected that she was originally from a different continent, and most probably, this content wasn't in the canon of A Song of Ice and Fire, which was what his intuition was telling him.

He found that when he realized how much she was dodging around the topic of her homeland, because her appearance while similar to the Valyrians due to her silverish hair, it was clear that she had nothing to do with the Valyrians.

Soon enough, as they were talking, the meat from the Iron-Headed Bull was finished, and Valkorion swiftly disappeared to the kitchen and served them the meat from the Iron-Headed Bull. 

The meat was splendidly done, medium rare as it should be, as everything else was considered heresy when it come to making high-quality beef.

While Ashe wasn't much talker, and sometimes it was very hard to get read on her, as she remained stoic and expressionless most of the time, Valkorion had much interaction with her, and he could tell some signs when she started getting more relaxed or so...

"That's rather good..."

As they were eating, Valkorion noticed something that was out of her character too much when she was munching on a large piece of the meat from the Iron-Headed Bull.

It seemed that Ashe was a "foodie", judging by the expression she made when she bit into the piece of roasted meat; as her stoic and serene facade cracked for a moment as she devoured everything in front of her with lightning speed.

After they finished eating, Valkorion started cleaning plates and things, as they ate everything, though most of the meat was eaten by Ashe. Even though she was slim and petite, she had an even larger appetite than his own.

It was rather surprising...

"Are you preparing to leave the Cartharys before the monsters arrive or not?"

Valkorion was surprised when he heard her question, but not actually that much, as he knew that there were many adventures that would be leaving before the final offensive of the goblinoids down on the Valyrian Freehold.

He could partially understand the sentiment of the people, because he was aware that not many adventures would actually remain here for the moment when tthe goblinoids from the Paiinted Moutnaisn would attack.

The majority of the adventurers who were in the Cartharys were here only for a short period of time. Basically, they would flee the city the moment when the goblinoids would start marching and attacking en masse.