173: Chefs
Liane laughed. “Before you continue, Trev, you do not know what any of these items are actually worth, so let me get Milo.”
She soon left the room, leaving me with Reginald, who had come back to the table.
“So this is how to get you in a room alone,” Reginald joked.
I just shook my head. “No, not alone. Lily is still watching.”
“I should have guessed she’d be watching everything. Very useful protector, that one,” he said.
We sat for only a few minutes before Milo walked into the room, taking the third chair at the table before pulling out his own notebook.
“Just to confirm, this is only to buy sugar and salt?” Milo said, looking at me.
Nodding, Milo started writing on his pages.
“Well, Lord Fellwood, I would be happy to make a deal right now, but I feel if we do, we’d be denying a young merchant the opportunity for experience. Since these items will be used in a predominantly business capacity, I think it’s best we allow her to make the deal,” Milo explained.
Reginald was just nodding along, clearly in agreement. I felt, again, like an idiot for not even thinking about it. Of course it would help her!
“What we can do, however, is work out just how much you’ll require,” Reginald said.
“Salt is something we require the most. Perhaps thirty barrels’ worth should suffice for a first order. For sugar, it’s not something we need as much of. I would say five barrels is a good starting amount. I think we also should look at getting honey, sugar-reed syrup, and sugar-sap, as these will all be useful. In addition, are you able to get certain herbs in bulk?” Milo asked.
I was very curious about where he was going with this. Initially, I was happy to just get some salt and sugar, maybe some fire salt for the jerky I was going to make, but now Milo was asking about herbs. When I looked at him, however, he just gave me a knowing smile and a tiny wink, so I felt it was best to keep my mouth shut at the moment.
Reginald seemed to regard the question for a moment, pulling out a small notebook of his own. “The salt and all the sugar items are absolutely no problem. I could have that here within hours of striking a deal. The herbs, however, depend on what you’re after. Obviously, I can’t get anything that’s under the control of the alchemist guild, but I’m sure there are some cooking herbs I can certainly get ahold of. What did you have in mind?”
“Lemon tea grass, virfolium, mana truffle, and mana tears,” Milo said simply.
My eyes widened at the request. Well, for just one of them. Was Milo going to go down the route I thought he was?
Reginald flipped through his book, pulling out a similar eyepiece to what I saw Troy with all those months ago. “Mana tears won’t be possible. You might get a small supply through the guild, but nothing substantial. Lemon tea grass, I suppose I can get. It’s mostly worthless, though, so you won’t be paying for the product so much as the labour to collect it. Truffles are easy enough to source a couple dozen. They won’t be cheap. And virfolium—if you’re after it fresh—I believe I can get that for you?”
“Fresh is fine,” Milo said simply.
“Very well, I can get that for you, but I have to ask. This product you’re making, is it possible for me to buy it directly from you? I could distribute it?” Reginald said, looking over to me.
Milo just shook his head. “For the time being, Micca will be the only distribution point, and so you don’t feel we’ll go off to another house with it, you should know that even the royal family wished to purchase it all, and we refused. That said, however, we have something you might be interested in.”
Reginald’s eyes went wide at the mention of the royal family, but the smile returned when Milo offered him something.
“Oh?”
Milo pulled a scale out of his storage ring, which I recognised immediately. “We are in possession of drake scales, as it were—lots of drake scales,” Milo said.
“Now you really have my attention,” Reginald grinned.
“They are all in a perfect condition, like this one,” Milo said, handing over the scale for Reginald to inspect.
After a short time, and while turning it in his hands several times, he handed it back.
“That was no regular drake it came from.” Reginald commented.
Milo laughed, clearly expecting this. “You’re correct, it’s not, and we have around a thousand scales of that quality.”
Reginald didn’t respond. He just stared at Milo, his mouth open as he attempted to form words and failed. Milo didn’t say anything. Instead, he just chose to sit there and wait for him to process it all.
Shaking his head finally, he spoke. “If you’re really talking a thousand scales, we’re talking a deal for multiple large gold coins, or platinum coins for that matter. For that, I’ll need to bring in some other members for the deal. It won’t be something we could do over tea here, but I can speak for the company and the house, but I can say we’re interested—very interested.”
The conversation didn’t go much further than that, with Reginald saying he would drop by the shop and meet Micca and Hari to organise a time for a meeting.
Shortly after, he left the house still holding the scale that Milo had given him as a gift, and to show the other investors who would take part.
Staying in the sunroom, Liane took his seat. “Bold move you’re thinking of there.”
“The only reason we didn’t do it before was to not step on the toes of the alchemist guild, but if they want to play dirty, we’ll break their hold over that market. You wouldn’t mind making a bunch of candies with the speed buff, would you, Trev?” Milo said with a grin.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“How will we sell them, though? If we make it exclusive and limited to just Micca, we’d hardly be breaking that hold?” I said.
“I know the perfect thing to make. Micca is making a cafe, so why go to the effort of making candy? Just sell the tea—Ashmoon’s Lemon Tea. You could even use the smoker to dry the grass, then we won’t get the fire immunity buff on it,” Liane said.
“If you’re happy with it, and Micca has the guards to deal with the fallout, I think that would be the perfect solution,” Milo said, rubbing his chin.
“Would it really cause a lot of damage, though?” I asked curiously.
Both Milo and Liane laughed. “Trevor, remember back on the road to Boltron when you first made it? I told you they would kill you over it. That wasn’t an exaggeration. At the time they absolutely would have tried to. However, now they can’t do that—if we sold the tea for a silver a pot, or even just gave it out complimentary with a cake purchase, what would have cost five gold per dose crashes entirely overnight,” Milo explained.
“That’s going to really piss them off,” Liane smirked.
I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the front stairs, watching as Crisplet worked on his tree. As the sun dipped below the buildings, Lily joined me. The tree only became more magical as it grew darker. Each leaf was burning in the twilight.
When it got dark, the tree lit up the front of the mansion as if it were bathed in an incredibly bright campfire. I also noted that it felt warm out here too. Part of me was worried it would all fade to dust when Crisplet left it, but as he came up the stairs towards Lily and me, it stayed there, burning in the night.
Heading to sleep that night was strange, as I followed Sylverith’s advice and got Lily to drain the mana from me. It was far gentler than the potion, and I was already asleep before the mana was completely drained, just seeing it slowly tick down as she slept across my legs. Crisplet was far calmer as well, choosing to go outside and work on his statue since Lily was protecting me.
***
The next morning, I woke up early. Today was the day the chefs were going to visit. I didn’t know exactly when they would arrive, but I knew it would be sometime in the morning and they would be here for two days.
I jumped out of bed so fast it startled Lily, who stood up suddenly, looked around, then collapsed back onto the bed, causing it to groan as she made sure to put some weight behind it for once.
Rushing down the stairs, with Crisplet hot on my heels, I made my way towards the kitchen. I didn’t even check whether or not Archie got the supplies I asked for.
As I got close, the smell of baking bread and fried meat hit my nostrils. They are already here?
I didn’t even pay attention to the people sitting around the dining table as I burst through the kitchen door, and sure enough, inside were three individuals all wearing matching clean grey jackets, with an embroidered phoenix on the chest.
“Ah, Lord Ashmoon, you’re here. Excellent. We’ll get started,” a man said.
He looked older than the other two, but his uniform was clearly in better condition.
I didn’t even get time to take in what I was seeing before the other two: a middle-aged lady with short brown hair and a hard look on her face, and a young-looking man, who had short blond hair and appeared to be much shorter than the other two.
“First introductions. My apprentice, Torrel,” he said, pointing to the younger man. “Then you have Julia, who specialises in desserts, and myself; I am executive chef of the royal palace, Auguste. However, while you’re in the kitchen and working with us, you will refer to us simply as chef,” he said.
I nodded, and Crisplet let off a burst of sparks.
“That’s ‘Yes, Chef.’ Communication is key in a kitchen,” he said sternly.
“Yes, Chef,” I said. Again, Crisplet let off a burst of sparks.
Crisplet got an odd look from Torrel and Julia. However, neither said anything.
“Sorry, Crisplet doesn’t speak, so a burst of sparks is yes, a single ember is no, but he cooks with me and will be with me the entire time,” I explained.
The conversation was interrupted as Archie came into the room and collected the last of the plates on the counter, bowing to me before he did.
“Right. Well, I think it’s best we figure out where both of you are in terms of skill then. I want you to both prepare a basic dish for me—something that includes vegetables, a sauce, and a protein—just so we know where to start from,” he said.
I got to work straight away. I completely forgot to check the supplies that Archie purchased, and instead, I pulled out items from my storage. With the recipe fresh in my mind, I was going to keep this first dish simple, choosing to go with a Skywolf steak, with mashed tuber with garlic grass butter and a red wine sauce on top.
Pulling out one of the skinned skywolves I had in storage, I placed it on the bench and cut the fillet, figuring I’d go with the most tender steak. Once it was removed, I also took some of the bones off the partially butchered carcass, putting them into a large pot.
“Crisplet, could you brown those bones for me?” I asked, getting a burst of sparks as Crisplet went to work.
I put the rest of the carcass away, not noticing I had the attention of all three chefs on me at this point, as I wiped down my bench, remembering the instructions Martin had yelled at me what seemed like a lifetime ago.
Laying out the fillet, I portioned off two steaks, storing the rest away. Pulling out the vegetables next. I’d need onions, garlic grass, red wine, and stock for the sauce. I didn’t have any stock, so not thinking too much about it, I did what I had last time and pulled out the grarok soup.
I started peeling and dicing the vegetables, also getting the tubers peeled and in a seasoned pot of water to become soft for the mash.
When that was done, Crisplet gave me a burst of sparks to let me know the bones were ready, which was perfect, and at the bottom of the pot there was all the fat and juices, exactly what I needed.
Storing the roasted bones away, I brought the fat and drippings to the fire, adding in the onions which I started to slowly cook off, ensuring to get all the flavour off the bottom of the pot. When it was soft, I added the red wine and half the garlic grass, as Crisplet brought it to the boil.
“First thing I’m noticing is your over-reliance on your companion. You need to know how to cook, not just how to prep and wait. Crisplet, I understand you primarily do the cooking, but from my understanding, you have the ability to form items, so you should be able to form utensils to use for your own prep. But please continue for now,” Chef Auguste said.
“Yes, Chef,” I said, focusing on my work. Crisplet let off a burst of sparks as well.
I then added a cup of the grarok soup to the sauce pot, seeing Auguste raise an eyebrow, but he didn’t comment further.
I continued to work the pot, reducing it while ensuring I got all the browned bits off the bottom from where Crisplet roasted the bones.
After roughly fifteen minutes, I took the tubers off the fire, drained off the water, and pulled the sauce to the side, adding in two small cubes of butter to give it a glossy finish. I then stored the whole pan away to wait until I had finished the steaks and mash.
While the tubers sat in the pot, I added more butter to them along with plenty of salt and the remaining half of the garlic grass, then used the mashing utensil hanging on the wall.
When it was smooth with no lumps, I stored that away as well. Taking the two steaks, which were now at room temperature, Crisplet formed a grill over the fire while I seasoned them.
They didn’t take long to cook as Crisplet gave me a burst of sparks.
Finally, I put it all together, pulling out two plates, scooping two spoonfuls of mash neatly onto the plates, where I placed the perfectly seared skywolf steak on top. Removing the red wine jus from storage, I gave it a quick mix, ensuring the butter was properly infused before spooning a small amount on each plate.
Looking at them both, I was proud of what we had done, even going as far as to reach out to Crisplet, expressing pride and happiness.
However, when I turned around to Chef Auguste, I didn’t see happiness there. He looked annoyed.
“You made one major mistake with that meal that would have it thrown out in the royal kitchen,” he said sternly.