Lifestyle Changes
Dongling was shocked that her miss is cooking breakfast.
And dishes she was not familiar with at that.
She wouldn't, as these are Japanese Dishes.
Beiyue cooked Miso Soup(because no seaweed nor bonito, she compensated with a lot of miso with a pinch of salt), Tamagoyaki, Nikujaga, Sashimi of some fish she doesn't know about after deboning the darn thing, and stewed vegetables.
'W-wow...'
'My illness made my mind foggy...its only recently I got my clarity back.' said Beiyue. 'Saa, before those jerks come here, let's eat.'
'Y-yes!' Dongling never dreamed her miss gained enough strength to steal stuff...and cook! Since when did she know how to cook?! Nevermind...they need to eat, and fast!
Not bad for her miss' attempts at cooking though. As long as food is decent instead of that stale steamed bread they usually get or rice with nasties!
On Beiyue's side...
BLAND AND FLAVOR MISHAP YUCK!
"...figuring out how this world works, is a must." many angry crosshairs popped on Beiyue's smiling face. But for now, these girls are malnourished. Getting health back, is a must. The vegetables here are weird-looking, chicken is twice as big and meaty and what is their livestock here? The condiments, she also fails to understand but thankfully, miso and tofu are similar to her world's!
'Dongling, take these.' Beiyue gave Dongling three pills. 'I'll give you one every month for a year, so you'll grow up beautiful.' she said. 'As well as get strong bones. I remember the pills mother used to give me and stole a bunch of it. We need to get stronger.'
'A-alright...I remember these two...they're beauty pills, right?' Dongling asked, recognizing two of them in her hands.
'Yes. The pearly-white one for an even fair complexion. However, to keep our secret, I deliberately stole a Grade 1 pill so by the year ends, you'll be a shade believable of a commoner girl instead of this uneven dark skin you have now no thanks to those older girls giving you unfair jobs in exchange for our food before bullying me here.' she said darkly.
'From now on, we'll wake an hour before sunrise to cook and eat breakfast.' said Beiyue. 'Those witches cook at sunrise at the family kitchens. That way at sunrise we can have breakfast, lunch and dinner safely stored in the Space Ring I stole. Too risky to cook at noon and night when anytime, we get unwanted visitors as usual and see the stuff I stole for our sakes.' Dongling nodded vigorously. 'And since there's hardly anything for us to do...we train.'
'Oh! We'll train in Martial Arts?!' Dongling cried in delight.
'Yes. Since my body can't do it, you'll be the one cultivating while I just do sorely physical work. I can gather and use ki, but I can't cultivate.' Beiyue sighed. 'I'll compensate in my own ways. Oh well. We'll begin an hour after we rested from breakfast.'
'Yes!'
xxx
Beiyue made it her own goal to master cooking in this new world. She was a good cook...thanks to Kanroji-san who was the best cook in the corps. She was optimistic, believing that one day, they'll live long enough to marry and cooking is a must-have skill.
Sadly, she died at age 18, after a year of training to gain the Demon Slayer Mark for her friends and comrades while she saturated her body with poison instead.
Mastering the taste and texture of everything. Since she can use magic, she created a spell that enables her to gain information. She once encountered a demon that can get information by touching an object or person.
She sported angry veins again.
"Never thought demons will prove useful for once!"
She studied all foodstuff she stole with a touch, and writing down notes while she made Dongling train her body to prepare for Breath Training.
All that work, while cruelly anticipating the inevitable.
She knows not the poison Xue has in her possession, but considering she wants her dead, she doubted the cure was accessible that easily.
She took three more pills, to punish the Charlatans who checked on her when she got proof they were BRIBED with her OWN MONEY to make false claims.
Rule of Thumb: You can easily get poison, but getting the cure is always hard.
By the time she was finished writing about Condiments and Meat, she hid the food and writing materials to rest her weary writing arm.
Calligraphy's a pain in the ass.
Thank goodness for western pens. How she really wanted a ballpoint pen right now! Sadly, back to the world of brushes she was!
For now, she'll read her books.
She herself cannot train, not until she knows how to fix herself, doggonit! She can get the poison out of her blood and bone marrows at least by using her Ki and mixed it with her blood and draw the poison out of her pores in the bathroom, but she is still plagued by poison in her muscles and organs. She still needs a cure, and has to weekly clean up her blood by this method before she can even think of Breathing Training.
Blood is very important.
She needs food good for blood production in the body. Without blood, no oxygen and its a vital part of her martial arts.
xxx
That day...the people of Xiao Mansion from Master to the lowliest of servants felt weak. Like, they have no strength whatsoever. Sluggish and fatigued.
Well, it's Winter. Cold and anyone can feel effects of cold on their bodies, reason enough to be sluggish.
But were they always this heavy-feeling and why is it hard to breathe?
However, unaware that they were poisoned, they felt weak. So weak. Non-cultivators like the Concubines, Xiao Ling and the Servants were hit the worst with the symptoms while Master Xiao, Xiao Zhongqi, Xiao Yun, Xiao Zhonglei and Xiao Rou had varying degrees of weakness based on how strong they are.
(Xiao Yuancheng hired the best doctors money can buy, but not even they can figure out what was wrong with the family)
xxx
'Waaaah! A whole winter and we haven't seen any of them around, miss!' Dongling cried in delight.
Beiyue cooked Osechi Ryori and they enjoyed the fireworks out of town when New Year's Eve came. By the whole winter, she mastered the weird foodstuff of this world to finally have this world's version of Japanese Cuisine! But their food is blood, bone and muscle-friendly in that order. With Xue out of her way, her skinny, malnourished body gained some weight and a growth spurt. However, to conceal their fortune, Dongling must still get their food from the main kitchens...which she throws away after when out of sight.
They enjoyed eating good food, her miss is finally feeling better, and they're finally training to get better! Not only that, Dongling can now cultivate. It'll take two years to form a Spirit Foundation though, but oh well!
But still, Miss invented her own style of swordsmanship. Her swordsmanship is based on agility without losing momentum and force was applied through speed, as well as precision and accuracy training.
Beiyue taught Dongling Iaido and Battojutsu, and Physical and Breathing Training From Hell. She managed to obtain thin swords made of expensively-strong material by stealing. They trained to get used to live weapons and knows tricks any child practitioner knows.
But it'll be a few years before they actually get any power. They're still young and worse, malnourished kids on the path to healing according to miss. Sigh. But...understandable. But still, their lives improved. Miss has also gotten laid-back, cheerful, playful and easy-going...which was quite, glaringly-incongruent with what she has them doing in a bid to get stronger. Her demands, were insane that her lungs BURNED AND ACHED!
But there are perks: lots of food, they can wear good clothes, access to great stuff! She even experienced warm Rose Petal baths and she's just a maid!
Miss steals.
She says 'Its not stealing if its yours to begin with.' because she steals money from Concubine Xue. She was easier to steal from than Concubine Qin. Xue was careless with her stuff while Qin was more guarded with her valuables in her bedroom.
And the Xiao Clan's money was HER money to begin with.
Princess Royal trusted Butler Zhou with management of Qinghe and Miyang should anything happen to her. However, the evil family has his ear! Hence her miss lived in poverty while they enjoy HER money!
She also steals from Bugi'er Bazaar out of contempt due to how everyone thinks of her.
For now, living inconspicuously is important. They must gain power in the shadows so when the storm hits...they can power through and win.
It's just them...against the world.
xxx
Beiyue has access to many Elixirs that combat against poison. She stole one of everything available in the market and consumed them all and still doing blood-purging to keep herself clean for training. Her pitiful ki can only do this much. Had she had plenty of ki, cleaning herself up would've been easy-peasy. But her spiritual powers were shit.
However, the stuff in the market are up to Grade 5 pills. Not strong enough for her problem, but at least made her...20% feeling better. She compensates by constantly healing and fortifying her body with stolen elixirs every time her poison degrades her body and purging blood off of poison when blood passes through her poisoned flesh and gains poison there. Progress is slow, like 1 percent a day...but better than no progress dammit!
If 1 percent a day...she needed 80 days to fully-cure herself. That's 2 months and 2 days and she's normal again.
She thinks the only one to cure her...would be that guy.
She remembered that during Princess Royal's Funeral, he approached her and promised he would be there for her when she needs him.
But...will he keep that promise? She was skeptical as considering how the whole country speaks of her in contempt, she wasn't sure.
So she'll find other ways to save herself.
Spring came.
Still cold.
Cold weather is ideal for the toughest breathing training.
That, and getting them plain white silk clothes...which Beiyue treats herself with dyes to have butterfly wing designs as well as appropriate flowers.
However, by this time, everyone knows that the whole estate of Princess Royal fell sick.
People just assumed that the illness of the Trash Princess spread to the whole mansion.
'Did you hear what people are saying?!' Dongling cried in anger, reporting to her miss.
'I don't really care Dongling.' Beiyue smiled coldly as she spoke just as coldly. 'They can think however they want. It just proves to us who is friend and who is foe. And everyone here, is our enemy. A day of reckoning will come and they will all pay. Worry not. Show no mercy for we don't care in turn.' she purred in dark glee. 'Let's focus on our small world within this shack for now.'
'OK...but I still don't like what's going on.' Dongling grumbled. 'We're all alone in this stinking country! Miss, what happens when our strength is satisfying enough?'
'Well, we leave of course, who wants to stay here?' Beiyue chuckled. 'Let's keep up the good work!' she said enthusiastically.