Kit opened the culinary guild interface and went to the bronze section to browse the available cooking items. As his eyes drifted over the contents on the screen a frown pulled at his brows.

He had completely forgotten that the culinary shop utilised culinary points to unlock blueprints for items before they could be purchased!

Kit felt a pout form on his lips, he didn’t want to use his hard earned culinary points for the market stall, he had a feeling he would need as many as he could get his hands on for the restaurant promotion to a one star.

The line in his brow deepened as he closed the culinary shop. Kit took out another piece of paper and asked Kettle if there was anywhere else he could buy the items needed for the market stall. Kit explained his reason in not wanting to purchase them from the culinary guild.

Kettle tapped his chin in thought. “We can go to the camping store to get the camping kitchen. Most of the other items we can get from a cabinet maker and general store.”

With his business completed at the culinary guild Kit turned to Claire and Kate and bid them goodbye. Kettle then took them to the camping shop, by the time they arrived Kit could once again speak.

Kettle stopped the party outside a plain looking wooden building, above the door hung a sign ‘Middles camping collection.’

Kit followed Kettle into the building, the others decided to wait outside. Neat rows of shelves lined the walls of the store, in the middle of the room stood various tents fully erected.

Instead of browsing through the displays, Kit headed straight for the front counter. He already knew what he was after, so he didn’t want to waste time trying to find it. An old man with grey hair and yellowing eyes stood behind the counter.

“Afternoon boys, what can I do for you?” A croaky voice greeted.

“I’m after a camping kitchen, could you show me the ones you have in stock?” Kit jumped straight in to ask for what he needed.

The old man shuffled to a cabinet behind the counter and pulled out a pouch, he then ambled over to a large plain mat on the floor next to the counter. Kit followed the man to the empty rug.

Soon three large boxes stood at the edge of the mat. The old man pointed to the first one, “You can open it and have a look, just place it in the centre of the mat and press the yellow button, then move back to the edge of the rug.” Instructed the old man.

Kit didn’t waste any time and moved the box first box onto the rug, then clicked the button. When the camping kitchen unfolded a familiar sight sat in front of him. It was the same camping kitchen he already had.

This was the basic model of self assembling camping kitchens. For his market stall he wanted something bigger and with more functions. He packed the camping kitchen away and moved to open the second box.

This time when the box unfurled a more luxurious model was erected. Kit moved closer to the camping kitchen to have a closer look. The stove top had six elements and the oven underneath the stove oven was larger than the previous model he viewed.

Each side of the oven still had cupboards, one side had a longer cupboard than the other. He started to open the cupboards underneath the benchtops and found a wide range of pots, pans, and cooking utensils.

Kit pursed his lips, this was better than his current camping kitchen. He would be happy using this in his market stall, it was just he wouldn’t be ecstatic about it. Kit folded it away then moved to the last box.

As soon as he picked it up, he noticed a difference in the outer casing. This box was made of a highly polished dark wood. Just looking at it, Kit could tell it was good quality. His interest in this box spiked.

As he pressed the yellow button and moved off the mat, Kit felt a shiver of anticipation race down his spine. As the contents of the box started to appear Kit felt his eyes sparkle, cupboards of the same dark wood as the outer casing started to emerge.

When the camping kitchen finally assembled itself, Kit had a satisfied smirk on his face. This camping kitchen was three times the size of his current one and not only did it have two ovens with accompanying stovetops it also had a dishwasher tucked under one of the benchtops!

This was the camping kitchen he was after! He even wanted to purchase one for his restaurant! “Sir how much is this one?” Kit turned twinkling eyes towards the old man.

A surprised breath escaped the old man’s mouth. “You really want this one? It’s not cheap, it’s the deluxe version.” The old man looked a bit worried as he spoke. “I’ve actually never sold one before.”

Money wasn’t going to be an issue for Kit, he wasn’t paying for it anyway. “I’m sure about this one.” Kit firmly told the old cashier.

“That one is 30 gold crowns. The second one you looked at is only 1 gold crown.” A surprised breath of his own left Kit’s mouth, he didn’t expect the camping kitchen to cost so much. He guessed the old man told him the price of the other camping kitchen because he thought Kit would change his mind after hearing the amount.

Kit turned to Kettle, even though it was expensive, he still wanted it. Kettle assessed Kit’s face, then immediately pulled out a string purse and took out 30 gold crowns. When Kit turned back towards the old man he wanted to laugh. The old man was frozen in shock staring at the glittering gold coins.

When the old man finally moved to take their payment so did Kit, he disassembled the camping kitchen and tucked it into his pouch with giddy joy. The camping kitchen was the most important feature of his market stall, not only would it be used for cooking it would also be seen by all the customers.

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If his new customers saw that he was willing to spend money on kitchen appliances it would reflect that he was serious about his market stall. That should make them feel confident that his goods would be worth purchasing.

With over half his budget gone, Kit would have to be mindful to make sure the rest of his money would stretch to cover the rest of his needs. Now that his camping kitchen was purchased Kit was in a hurry to move on to the next shop.

When they left the camping store Kit felt like he was on the right track to making his market stall a big success. With a skip in his step the headed towards the cabinet maker, once inside he went straight to the counter just like in the camping store.

Kit showed the cabinetmaker the design he wanted and was quoted 10 gold. A panicked breath whooshed out at the cost, then Kit thought about what he just ordered. He wanted the cabinets to match the camping kitchen wood.

This wood was what had dramatically driven up the price of the construction, most of the money was needed just to purchase the materials. Kit started to do calculation inside his head, if he went ahead with the cabinets, it would still leave him 10 gold crowns. He was sure he could get the rest of the things he needed with that amount.

Also the bonus to making a custom order was that the cabinet maker would do all the installation as well, that saved Kit time finding a builder. Kit was very pleased with this when he found out.

Kit made up his mind to go ahead with the purchase and went to find Kettle to pay the cabinet maker. Kettle was browsing wood pieces when he found him. “Kettle, I need 10 gold crowns.” A furrow appeared between Kettle’s brow when Kit spoke.

“Kit are you sure you want to spend so much? There are still more things to buy for the market stall.” Kettle looked nervous as spoke his concerns to Kit.

A chuckle left Kit’s mouth, he was happy Kettle was worrying about his budget. But the things that were left to buy were not that expensive. So Kit was positive he would have enough money.

Honestly Kit could get the whole market stall up and running for under 1 gold crown if he wanted too. If the funds had needed to come out of his pocket that would have been just what he would have done.

Kit smiled at Kettle. “Don’t worry there will be more than enough money left for the rest of the items.” Kit showed a confident expression to his friend, it seemed to settle Kettle’s worries and the man headed over to the counter to pay.

When Kettle returned to his side Kit felt an itching to keep moving, he couldn’t wait to start the construction of the market stall. He turned to Kettle with a large smile, “I can’t wait to see your design come to life Kettle!”

A deep blush reappeared on the man’s face, Kit was happy with his reaction. He could tell Kettle was happy that he was using his design. “Thank you, Kit. I just hope it doesn’t disappoint you once it’s done.”

“I don’t think that will happen my friend.” Kit clapped Kettle on the shoulder then led him out of the shop.

After leaving the cabinetmaker’s shop Kit felt that his stall was going to be very eye catching and hopefully elegant. It would be the fanciest market stall in Fairweather town. Kit hoped it would help him to make sales.

The last stop before he returned to the Travellers Bed was the general store. When Kit was busy with the camping shop and cabinet maker the others had made a list of the other items needed for his market stall.

In no time at all Kit had completed the shopping for the day and returned to the Travellers Bed. Kit flopped down on the couch with a relived sigh, all his shopping was done and tomorrow they would start the construction of the market stall.

Tired sighs met Kit’s ears as the others filtered into the room. Kit took out some preprepared meals and handed them around the table. Kit’s stomach was screaming because he forgot to eat lunch, he had a feeling the others had also skipped that meal.

As they all tucked in Kit’s eyes kept drifting towards Milka, curiosity started to rear its ugly head. He wanted to know why she had signed a soul contract with Chef Nutmeg. As if sensing his gaze Milka lifted her head.

Kit averted his gaze, he didn’t want to accidentally slip the question out in front of everyone in the room. Only he and Mars knew about her situation, but as he started glancing around the room, he noticed the others giving Milka a curious glance.

A frown pulled at his brow, then he remembered that he hadn’t explained why Milka was with them. He didn’t want the others to pry into her private matters and dig out her secret. He thought about what he could say to stop the curious stares.

Then an idea struck him, was she not the sister of his two employees back in Spartan Fire! If anyone asked, he could just say that was why he asked her to come and work at the restaurant. Then he thought he might be overthinking things, this wouldn’t be the first time he recruited staff while he was out and about.

Kit cleared his throat and returned his focus back to the beautiful girl. “Milka, now that you’re going to be an employee of my restaurant, I should fill you in on the contract.” This sentence killed two birds with one stone for Kit. It let the others know why Milka was here and he could also see if she was still willing to work for him.

Kit explained about the working hours and the boarding house. Milka’s eyes had gotten bigger the longer he spoke. “Does that sound acceptable? Oh and I also thought that I would give your brothers a day off when we return so that they can help you settle in.”

Tears started to stream down the delicate cheeks, Kit instantly became flustered. “T-That is only if you want! You don’t have to accept. You‘re free to work anywhere.” Kit didn’t want her to feel obligated to work for him, he just thought she might like it because her family was there.

Milka started to wave her hand frantically. “No, no you misunderstand Kit. I’m just so happy! Of course, I accept.”

Bree stood up and came over to the overwhelmed girl and gave her a hug. “Welcome to the family my dear.” She patted the girl’s back in comfort. “By the way, who are your brothers?”

“Oh, Cadbury and Dove.” Milka squeaked out.

Bree started nodding as if she expected that answer. Kit raked his gaze over Milka once again, he couldn’t see how Bree came to that conclusion. Milka looked nothing like her brothers.

Now that Milka had accepted to work for him, he didn’t waste any time pulling out a contract for her to sign. If she was going to help him with the market stall set up, he needed her to keep his recipes confidential.

He slid the contract over to her. “You can read it over and hand it back to me when you’re ready. It is also ok if you decide not to go ahead working for me. I will bring you back to your brothers either way.” Kit gave her a soft smile, so that she wouldn’t feel pressured.

She had just gotten out of a contract, so he didn’t want her to rush into this one. To Kit’s amazement Milka pulled out a quill and scribbled her name on the contract right in front of him. “It is I who doesn’t want you to change your mind.” Milka eyes held a fire of determination as she spoke.

Kit happily watched as a gold thread wound its way around her wrist, it looked like he had just gained another employee! A big, pleased smile appeared on the beautiful girl’s face, tears started to well in her eyes once again.

This time Kit didn’t get flustered at the sight, he was positive they were tears of happiness. A swelling of joy also spread through Kit, it made him happy that someone was so ecstatic to join his family.

Now that things were settled with Milka, Kit made them all head in for the night, tomorrow was going to be a big day!