After he returned from Arango Forest, Nico had rented out his old room for the semester to store some items he had made in advance for the Fenrir shop, a segment of the Karkardo shell, and the Karkardo egg.
He felt bad for killing a lot of rabbits to test the cure-all spell, but it was necessary. Unfortunately, the cure-all spell recipes used on humans were very different.
****
Jinson Day, a day of celebration for everyone in Kelsera, including the Windel Academy. On the same day 574 years ago, the Empire of Kelsera was formed under the leadership of Jinson Kelsera.
With the day off, Nico arrived early to Killo Restaurant Inn and attempted the Beef Pastry for the first time.
He had prepared pieces of manabeef tightly wrapped in a triple layer of paper to set its shape overnight.
He removed the paper, then quickly seared the manabeef fillets in a hot pan with a little mana-olive oil for 45 seconds until it was browned all over and rare in the middle. He removed them from the pan and left them to cool.
He then chopped the manamushrooms and fried in a hot pan with a little olive oil and the manathyme leaves. When the manamushrooms begin to release their juices, he continued to cook over a blue flame for about 10 minutes until all the excess moisture has evaporated and left with a manamushroom paste (known as a manaduxelle). He removed the manaduxelle from the pan and left to cool.
He cut the pastry in half, placed it on a lightly floured surface and roll each piece into a rectangle large enough to envelop one of the manabeef fillets. He used the purple ice talisman to chill it.
After laying a large sheet of paper on a work surface, he placed 4 slices of manaham in the middle to create a square. Finally, he spread half the manaduxelle over the ham.
Using the paper, he rolled the manaham over the manabeef, then rolled and tied the paper to get a nice, evenly thick log.
He brushed the pastry with egg wash, removed the paper from the manabeef, and then wrapped the pastry around each manaham-wrapped fillet. He trimmed the pastry, brushed all over with the egg wash and used the green ice talisman to chill it.
In the meanwhile, the assistant helped to make the red wine sauce.
Once the pastries were prepared, he scored the pastry lightly and brushed with egg wash again. Nico placed the pastries into the stone oven, and used black flame to bake the pastries until they were golden brown.
Nico served the pastry on the dish....
....
....
No response from the system.
What the f****!!!! Nico wanted to pull out his hair, he had worked so hard. This is a failure! I have all the right recipes and my flames are correct!! What kind of b***** recipe is this!?
"Stop spacing out! Bring me the food!" Mumu demanded.
Nico gave Mumu, and everyone else the pastries.
"Oh my f***** goddess! You've been hiding these from us!?" Cried Anya gobbling up the pastries. "Why didn't you make us the food sooner?"
"It's okay," Nico wasn't happy the system didn't give him a grade.
Mumu bit into the pastry, shaking his head and crying at the same time.
"This is like a volcano on Grisham highest peak with its molten lava of deliciously cooked manabeef inside. Only thing preventing this from being complete is the wine sauce."
"Oh!" Nico pounded his fist to his palm. "You're right! But shouldn't wine sauce be considered an add-on like the side dishes?"
"You amateur!" Mumu snapped. "The wine sauce is inherently a part of the beef pastry. You might as well call it beef stuffing!"
"But I don't have an extra pair of hands!"
"Blah, then let me do the wine sauce next time!"
"You can cook!?"
"Shouldn't that be obvious?"
"You should quit the academy and work full time as a chef!" Jack requested.
Mumu teared up with happiness, madly nodded and agreed. "The academy is worthless! If you cook for me everyday, I'll teach you something useful!"
"What do you know?" asked Nico.
"Hee hee, you have to promise me first."
Nico narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Mumu. "You're not going to teach me something useless like how to be a crazy loon?"
"Of course not!"
"How about after we finish the pastry?" Nico actually wanted to consider, considering the strange vibe Nico sensed coming from Mumu. Nevertheless, he wasn't sure he if wanted to cook everyday.
Everyone dispersed after lunch.
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Nico still had extra Talismans he would like to sell.
Walking into the Fenrir Shop, Nico looked at any available new inventory.
"Little Nico! You finally came again," Manager Bosin greeted him for the first time
Nico wondered what was different about today, none of the managers paid him any mind.
"Yes, I was busy for the past two weeks with school."
"That is to be expected for an Academy student. Are you looking to buy or sell today?"
"Probably both. What new items do you have today?!"
"You are in luck! We finally acquired a special distribution deal with one of Nil Eda's inventions, have a look!" Manager showed off the new instrument with eight different crystals. Each one could produce a different sound. "These are the latest craze amongst the bards!"
As interesting as it was, Nico wasn't interested in music.
Sensing the lack of interest, Manager changed the topic. "Ah, little Nico, are you selling more talisman today?"
"Yes, I only have a few today." Nico took out ten Fireball Talismans.
Manager took the talisman. "Young Nico, the head manager would like to meet with you, is that all right?"
"The head manager?" Nico was wondering how long it would take them to notice his talismans. "Sure."
Manager Bosin took Nico to the second floor. Nico saw a young woman finely dressed in green dress with an extremely confident air.
Manager Bosin bowed politely to the young miss.
"Young Nico, this is Miss Merci, the head manager of the shop," Manager Bosin introduced.
"Hello, Miss Merci," Nico bowed.
"Hello Mister Nico," Merci eyed the boy. He wasn't that much shorter than her, and had a face that was easy to forget and blended into the background. Merci could understand why Manager Bosin couldn't remember the boy. "Have a seat."
"Thank you," Nico took a seat across from her.
"I have been hearing many compliments about your talismans. Do you make them yourself?" Merci went straight to the purpose of her invite, she wasn't the type for small talk.
"Yep," Nico nodded arrogantly and proud.
"You're quite confident in your ability. Are you interested in a business deal?"
"What sort of deal?" Nico wondered how much Miss Merci knew about him to make such a deal so quickly.
Miss Merci presented Nico with a contract around ten pages long. Nico scanned through them briefly, not because he was a quick reader, but because most of the jargon was beyond his understanding.
Does Kelsera have lawyers? Nico wondered. The lease contract was so much simpler than this.
"Can you summarize the main points of the contract?" Nico questioned, still exuding a confident air.
Miss Merci thought the kid was cute, pretending to be all confident. "Fenrir Clan would like to officially hire you as a consultant for the Fireball Talisman and the healing balm jars. In return, you will receive 25% of the profit."
"So you want the recipes for all the items?" Nico pretended to think. "Unfortunately, I already have a better deal."
Miss Merci narrowed her eyes. "From another shop?" Miss Merci had not seen it in her report. She wondered if it was the Jantillo or the Camber. "Name their price and I will add 5% to it."
"40%."
"40%! Fine, you can have 45%."
"Miss Merci, I apologize, it's 40% for them and 60% for me."
Merci glared at Nico, he was obviously baiting her. "You little brat, you seem to be prepare for this contract," Merci looked remembered Nico's small shop. "You're preparing to open a small shop in Rinlin? And you're planning to expand here?"
"I wouldn't say expand, I just need another distributor. Either you help me, or I will help myself, the end goal is the same," Nico needed more money if he needed to complete the system's tasks, which he anticipated becoming more difficult in the future.
"I'll give you 65%, but you must have an exclusive contract with us for anything you plan to sell in Launtel City and the central region."
Nico didn't have many options. He didn't have connections or the time to handle a business, and his financing skills was lacking. He left most of the Ollie Shop planning to Shirley. Shirley had hired villagers to create a basic version of the healing balm, and Wundron was in charge of distribution around the eastern. However, he needed the Fenrir Clan's assistance to expand across the central region.
"You have yourself a deal," Nico took the contract. "I'll review this first and send it back to you the following week with the recipe for the healing balm."