"You can also let me know if you have a question or two about the recipes," He added and Jade was left speechless by the words coming out of Zach's mouth.

He seemed like an entirely different person from the little brother she had known for so long.

'Since when did Zach become so dependable?' She wondered to herself.

Now she wasn't sure about how to repay him for the kindness he had shown to her.

While her mind had drifted off, she suddenly felt something soft touching her lips.

Her eyes widened when she realised that Zach just pecked her.

He noticed that Jade was shocked and confused by what he did, and this made him smile, so he tried to explain his actions.

"That, and a hundred more kisses will be my payment for the list of recipes I just gave you," Zach jested before heading towards his room.

It took Jade a while to comprehend what he just said after the shock of feeling his lips on hers.

"Huh? A hundred what?!!" She exclaimed in shock. 'He must be joking. There's no way he would really do that,' She said internally.

However, Zach didn't give any response to her words and simply waved goodbye as he continued to head towards his room. But then, he recalled something and turned to face Jade.

"Oh, that reminds me. Aunt Sue will be returning home for my mana core awakening in two days. You have until then to hone your skills and then we will have another contest with her acting as the judge this time around. Try not to lose a second time," He winked before finally heading to his room.

Jade watched as Zach shrunk farther into the distance. She couldn't understand what was going on, but the way Zach spoke just now, made it sound like he knew she was slowly losing confidence in herself and her cooking ability.

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This was the reason why he made himself available to teach her some recipes and why he wanted her to perfect her skills in preparation for another cook-off.

It also meant that if she wanted to avoid being kissed a hundred times, she would have to work harder.

Jade couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude towards Zach for indirectly telling her not to give up on what she really loved.

However, while she thought of this, Jade suddenly recalled some of Zach's words while touching her lips.

'How can you call us a family after kissing me not once but twice?' She thought to herself as a smile appeared on her lips before she returned to the kitchen.

She was now determined to improve her skills.

_______

Meanwhile, Zach continued to walk along the corridor leading to his room. He hadn't eaten anything yet but he wasn't bothered about this, his mind was completely focused on his primary goal, which was to have a source of income.

'Once I have my own source of income, it will be easier for me to implement my future plans.'

'Also, I will be able to help big sister Jade save her job, but I'm certain she would prefer to save her job by herself, which is why I'm only going to support her the best way I can.'

'She might not say it but the reason she risked losing her job in two days was because she currently owed the culinary guild three months' worth of rent.'

'The rent was for the cart she was using, her monthly tax payment, and the spot she also used when cooking and attending to customers.'

'In the novel, shortly after losing her job, the tragic incident involving the demon invasion occurred and we lost Aunt Sue. This dampened big sister Jade's mood even more as she stayed at home for months without a job, and continuously mourned our aunt.'

Although Jade didn't have a job, she continued to cook for everyone in the house, and when she finally found a new job, it was glaring for everyone to see that she didn't like her new job as much as she loved cooking.

This was why Zach vowed to change her fate by giving her a way to earn a lot of money to pay for her rent and prevent Jade from losing her licence.

With a smile on his face, Zach hurried to his room, and upon arriving there, he quickly grabbed the tablet he had previously left on his bed.

There were a bunch of places Zach knew he could work at, however there was only one place he had his heart set on for now.

In this world, the most important and influential job was without a doubt, being a hero. Aside from this, being a knight or an adventurer came next.

But, how about a job that was directly linked to those who were already wealthy?

"This is where my art skill comes into play," Zach said as a smile spread across his face.

Zach visited a site relating to an art guild in the city. Just as there were culinary guilds, there were art guilds as well.

In fact, there were different types of guilds in the city, ranging from culinary guilds, adventurer guilds and merchant guilds to name a few.

Each of these guilds had a specific function they played in society.

Upon noticing a guild on the web, Zach inputted his name and other information in the application form, but he didn't submit his application.

There were two ways to be recognized as an artist. The first was to register directly with a guild, just as he did just now.

The second was to register under an experienced artist.

Registering in a guild was good but the gains were significantly low for new artists compared to the experienced ones, and the competition was fierce.

However, the same could also be said about registering under experienced artists, but in terms of fierce competition, there was little to none when working under experienced artists.