187: Uniform
Milo pulled out a stack of papers, along with a small book, shuffling through them before passing a couple to Hari.
I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.
“Right, so it’s important to note we don’t actually expect any trouble from House Valrith at the dinner. Word has reached us that they were visited by the princess and have been told if they attempt to intimidate or basically interact with you in any way, they'll be stripped of their ranks,” Milo began.
“That’s good, right?” I asked.
“Sort of. You won’t get any direct threats, or anyone obviously trying to take advantage of you at the dinner. However, what you will get is people going all out on their scheming nonsense,” Milo said.
As I thought about it, the solution seemed really simple.
“I’ll just take Lily with me as well.”
Milo and Hari both looked troubled for a moment, so I decided to continue.
“Look, Marcus knows I am not a noble, and he knows I was confronted in the market. It would stand to reason he would know I will bring Lily along to keep me safe.”
“I suppose. The invite is only for a single plus one, though,” Hari said.
“Do none of the houses come with guards?” I asked.
Liane just let out a snort of laughter.
“They do… but they usually wait outside,” Milo said.
“Who’s going to tell Lily no if she tries to walk in though?” Liane asked.
“Good point,” Milo muttered. “Well, we suspect David Greyrock and Marie Belwyn are absolutely siding with Valrith. House Boltron, we’re unsure of. Outside of that, you have House Blackmere, who I suspect wants to stay neutral, with Fairmont, Lindberg, Calder, and Fellwood taking your side, and subsequently the side of the King.”
“That all seems simple then! I’ll just hang around them and the royals. If they try anything before or after, Lily will deal with it. For now, I’ll be honest, I’m over the political thing, and I want to get back to cooking. I got a bunch of lemon tea grass to dry and candies to make,” I said happily.
Milo let out a sigh, but Hari chuckled before commenting, “I should start looking for what we are going to do when we leave the capital then, eh?”
“Yes, please!” I said excitedly, before Liane put a dampener on it all.
“If we leave the city now, it won’t take us long before we’re knee-deep in snow, but you still have your runes to learn, right?” she said.
“You’re right,” I muttered.
“And the sugar reed rum to finish,” Milo added.
I made my escape from the table of boring politics and slipped back into the kitchen. I needed to check the smoking meat, make sure it’s not too hot.
I spent the rest of the afternoon making basic sugar candies, twenty-four at a time. I made the first batch with mana tears, which provided minor mana regeneration and +2 intelligence.
On the second batch, I had a large blunder. I got distracted and, without Crisplet’s help with heating; I came back to burnt sugar in the bottom of the pot, which took me far too long to clean. On the second attempt, I was successful, using frost cherry again but making sure I never took my eyes off it, getting candies with +1 perception, minor stamina regeneration.
The third and final batch was made with Ril berries, which are a small blackberry that is incredibly sweet. I had just recently purchased them from the market, so I was curious what buff I’d get from them. Following the same steps I did for frost cherries, these were one of the most interesting candies I had made yet. They were common with +2 luck.
If I wasn’t mistaken, to date I had only got the luck buff a single time, which came from the razor crab.
Checking the meat again in the smoker, I saw it still wasn’t ready. So I figured I would leave it overnight and pray to the goddess it didn’t overcook or spoil.
Deciding I would make dinner while I was in here and go back to my roots, which would help me get used to the new knife. I would make a simple Baelvryn stew. I wouldn’t need Crisplet to help me cook it, and I could get in plenty of practice chopping up the vegetables.
The afternoon had passed in a blur of cooking, and I was joined in the kitchen by Liane and Lily, who again both appeared at the same time, along with Crisplet, who came bursting through the kitchen door.
I attempted to reach out with my mana. Rather than just pushing happiness like I usually would, I attempted to push across the feeling of a greeting, which was easier said than done. How do you convey the feeling of a greeting?
I don’t think I was successful though because all I got back was brief confusion followed by happiness, so I suspect the greeting didn’t work, but Crisplet was just happy to communicate. I tried several more times, but all I got was happiness and excitement from Crisplet. I’d need to have a proper chat with him later about what the goal is.
***
The next morning, the first thing I did was go out to check on the jerky. I was pleasantly surprised to see it felt ready. It wasn’t completely hard, and it had some bend in it, but it snapped cleanly, and taking a bite I was pleasantly surprised. This was one of the grarok pieces and it really intensified the flavour. There was a good amount of chew to it, but it wasn’t overly dry. The hint of pepper that came from the virfolium was just right as well.
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I ran into a slight issue with what I would hold the jerky with, as I’d need to keep it together to infuse it as a group, or I’d be out of mana instantly, when an idea struck. I could use the crates from the lemon tea grass, since I would take the grass out anyway to dry it.
Removing three crates, I placed the grass on the nearby counter as I pulled down the meat, keeping each type separate. I expected it to be more difficult than this. When I was hanging it, the Baelvryn and Grarok looked very similar, but now the Grarok had a much deeper red colour, with the Miremaw having a light brown, almost white colour.
Once all three crates were loaded, I infused them all, happy that all went off without a problem, then looking at the buffs before I tried them.
[Uncommon] Miremaw Smoked Jerky
+3 Perception
+ Minor Health Regeneration
[Uncommon] Baelvryn Smoked Jerky
+2 Strength
+1 Endurance
+ Minor Fear Aura
+ Minor Stamina Regeneration
[Uncommon] Grarok Smoked Jerky
+3 Endurance
+ Minor Health Regeneration
I then started to lay out all the lemon tea grass. The store opened tomorrow, so I didn’t have a lot of time to get this all done, but I figured it wouldn’t take anywhere near as long as the jerky did since it had a tiny portion of the moisture content.
I was interrupted by a cough behind me.
“Well, what do you think?” Liane said, standing at the doorway.
Turning around, I could see she was not wearing her usual clothes; instead, she was wearing a dark outfit, but without there being a lot of light in the smoking room, I couldn’t really see it well.
“Uh, I can’t see you,” I laughed.
Making my way outside, I got to take it all in. She was still wearing a full outfit, not going for the dress like the princess wore, but she had a well-fitted jacket that I noticed had the same symbol that I wore on the chest. The jacket went over the top of her armour, but hid it remarkably well.
The pants she had, I couldn’t even tell if there was armour under there or not, but I just assumed there was.
“You’ve got it made!” I said excitedly, walking around her, inspecting.
“Yep! The tailor remembered the design from when he had done it for you. Although I am a little worried about him right now. Lily and Sylverith came along, with Lily staying behind when I left,” Liane explained.
I looked at her, shocked. “Wait… Lily is talking to the tailor? How did you even get to speak to the royal tailor!”
“Archie, and he’s not alone with Lily, she’s talking to Sylverith, who is talking to the tailor,” Liane laughed.
I couldn’t help but cover my face. This was because of the chest plate, and I could only imagine what Lily would find acceptable to have her face on to cover it.
“I’m going to be wearing a scarf by the end of the day, aren’t I?” I said.
Liane just burst out laughing.
“I think it looks really good. You sure it won’t cause too much trouble?” I asked.
“I don’t really care,” Liane shrugged.
I didn’t really have a response to that. It wouldn’t be right for me to scold Liane about the suit when I was myself knowingly wearing the same.
I went back into the smoker to set the fire as it had mostly burned down. While I did that Liane was looking around.
“How’d the jerky go?” she asked.
“Really good! I got three different kinds and several hundred pieces. The buffs are pretty nice too, I think,” I said happily, pulling out a piece of Miremaw jerky and handing it to her.
She took a bite, seeming to ponder if she liked it or not, which made me nervous that maybe it didn’t taste good?
“This one is interesting. I’ve never had anything other than Buvul as jerky really, but the perception is really useful. You’ll have a lot of archers and scouts wanting this. The flavour is really mild. If you make it again, maybe add a lot more spice to it,” she said.
“Want to try the other two?” I asked, just getting a nod.
“This grarok one is by far the best tasting. It’s incredibly gamey, but the Baelvryn you should put some aside for Hari. He would love that one!”
Leaving the smoker and closing the door behind me, I didn’t want to wander far away as I would need to check it in half an hour, so I made my way through the house with Liane behind me.
“Oh, by the way, Trev, the tailor is going to make a uniform for your staff with the same symbol as well,” Liane said casually, nearly making me trip as I tried to spin around and walk at the same time.
“What?!” I sputtered.
“It’s normal for house staff to wear a uniform,” Liane shrugged.
“And does that uniform usually involve the phoenix?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you don’t really do things by the book,” Liane grinned, giving me a light push to keep walking.
Walking down the front of the stairs, I was immediately spotted by Crisplet, who came down from the tree with a burst of sparks. I also got the overwhelming emotions of pride and happiness.
“Nearly ready?” I said, looking past Crisplet at the tree of fire.
I got a burst of sparks before Crisplet beckoned me over.
As I approached the tree, I was staring up in awe as sparks softly rained down from above. None of them seemed to hit me, instead just floating around me as they made their way to the floor.
The first statue, and the one I had seen the most, was right at the base of the tree where Lily was asleep. She was significantly larger than I had seen her in real life as she wrapped halfway around the tree.
On the lowest branches sat Hari and Milo, a book in Milo’s hand and a sword in Hari’s. On the branch above them sat Alira in her humanoid phoenix form, but unlike the others, she was purely made of fire.
Next was Liane, who was standing on a branch and leaning casually against the tree trunk, and looking closely, I had to ask…
“Crisplet, is Liane eating something?” I looked down, getting a burst of sparks.
I couldn’t help but laugh as Liane tried to get a closer look, clearly not wanting to touch the tree.
A branch above Liane sat Jen with a smile on her face, and she appeared to be holding a copy of the brazier in both her hands. Sitting next to her was Sylverith, but like Alira she had dragon wings added to her humanoid form, which I had never seen before, so I had to guess Crisplet was taking some liberties there.
Finally, right near the top on the final set of branches, there was myself standing proudly with hands on my hips, and on my shoulder sat Crisplet with a burning crown above his head.
“This is incredible, Crisplet. Will the fire run out?” I asked, looking back down.
There was a pause before Crisplet let off a single spark, indicating no.
This… this was permanent?
“Can I touch it?” I asked.
There was a slight pause before Crisplet burst into sparks.
“I promise to be gentle,” I said happily as I stepped forward, inspecting what I could closer.
My inspection was interrupted by Liane, who reminded me about the grass, and since I had no idea how much time had passed while I was inspecting, I raced back inside hoping I hadn’t burned the grass.