In her chaotic life mixed with magic, madness, and baking, Grandma Holly had one thing as a constant. It was the soup that Willum had been making for her for the past decade. It was an unchanging rule that the old witch would arrive every morning at the appointed time and have the soup served to her.

It didn’t matter whether wars were going on, a fire broke out, a natural disaster struck, or even if Willum got sick. No matter what happened, within seconds of her sitting down at the table, the bubbling pot of green soup would be placed in front of her.

However, those in the know were aware that Grandma Holly had made preparations for most of those predictable unfortunate circumstances.

She had called forth arcane magic users called engineers who had mulled over days drawing strange symbols to make the Bear & Beer Inn resistant to most disasters. It was also widely known that she had taught Willum the strange ritualistic magic dance called exercise to keep him healthy.

It was basic knowledge around Sherry Town that nothing could come between Grandma Holly and her soup. So much so that the famous inn that is almost always full remained empty when it was time for the old witch to arrive. It had become a part of the town’s lore.

Grandma Holly didn’t see anything wrong in this either. She had to negotiate with old devils, fight off cultists, and trick the orcs to finally gather all the magical ingredients used to make that soup. And it wasn’t just a one-time thing. She had to do it at least once if not twice a year.

Anyone who has had to sit down and listen to a devil rambling about the rising inflation, the supply and demand, and the economics of herbs would agree that she deserved to savor every drop of that damn soup. Dealing with a demon is never an easy task even for a wise old witch.

There is a reason why retired heroes caution the young’uns to either cut off the devil’s tongue the moment they see one or run away before they talk you into taking on a debt that you will never be able to recover from. Many promising heroes lost their careers as a hero and were doing door-to-door sales because of the debts they had taken through the devils.

The gathering of the ingredients got easier over time once you got the hang of it. It took quite a lot of thinking in the beginning years when she had to come up with new ideas to trick the orcs into giving her the herbs but she later found out that the dumb orcs didn’t even remember the tricks she had used last year. She even sympathized with the dumb things and made the relationship transactional by paying with small things in return for the herbs. The things she paid didn’t even come close to the value of the herbs but you had to be dumber than the orcs to pay the full price to an orc.

Grandma Holly tried her best to avoid fighting as much as possible by negotiating, tricking, or sometimes even making fair transactions. But, as if by providence, she always ended up having to fight at least once during her adventures to gather the ingredients. It made one wonder if the rule that every adventure must have at least one fight was hard-wired into the source code of the universe.

Sometimes it was the cultists, other times there were dark wizards, wild dragons, or wraiths. The world was full of beings ready to pop out of nowhere and pick a fight with her for one reason or the other. And by some twist of fate, the convoluted reasons they picked a fight with her would somehow always be related to the herbs she would be looking for at the time.

One time, she had to fight a minor god who had gambled away all his powers and followers. The reason why he wanted the Sacred Basil of the ancients was so that he could make a crown out of the undying golden leaves and sell them to some other god to make up for some of the debt.

The minor god had then attacked Grandma Holly for the rude act of coveting the same herb as the mighty god. No matter their stature, to be recognized as a god, you could not have an ego that was too small. And so, the old witch had to run away while the hero who accompanied her bought her some time while fighting the god. Even a god who had lost his powers was dangerous.

Right, Grandma Holly had learned after her third or fourth adventure that it was easier to just bring a hero along on her journey. Those guys were always looking for an adventure to prove themselves and you never ran out of heroes in this world. There was always a new one ready to go out of their small farming village after finding a mysterious rusty sword.

Even after finding the ingredients, it was an uphill battle to find a decent chef who could handle magical ingredients and cook up delicious food. After the last chef died, it took almost 15 years until Grandma Holly found Willum. He was probably the best chef she had ever had and his soup was simply magical, not just literally but also in the metaphorical sense.

Cooking delicious food was one thing but cooking delicious food out of magical ingredients was a whole different genre altogether. First, the chef had to find a way to combine all the ingredients in a way that the dish does not explode, and that is in the best case scenario. In worst cases, it could summon unimaginable horrors, create portals to hellish places, turn the chef into a puddle of flesh and blood, and so much more.

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Each ‘magic chef’ has a large book that is passed down through generations that records not just the successful recipes but also every mistake their ancestors made and the detailed accounts of the horrors that befell them. It was a recipe book as well as a guide on how to avoid death.

Willum was also a chef who came from the lineage of chefs who had strived to become ‘magic chefs’ but fortunately or unfortunately, he was the first to have a successful recipe recorded in the book passed down to him. And although he was only mildly famous around Sherry, he was a very talented chef both with and without the use of magical ingredients.

There had been a few idiots in the past who had either had too much courage or lacked any sense and had asked Grandma Holly the question, “Why go through all that trouble? No matter how good the magical food tastes, isn’t it too much of a hassle?”

The answer they got was a cold, suffocating silence on good days, and on days when the old witch was in a particularly bad mood, the population of the cats in the town would suddenly be found to have increased. Nobody had ever found out the reason for the eccentric habits of Grandma Holly.

But, one thing that the people living in and around Sherry knew very well was that you never disturbed Grandma Holly when she was enjoying her soup.

…….

Being the mayor of Sherry, Horatio was also well aware of the unwritten, unspoken rule regarding the old witch. Although it was unpleasant as a ruler that there were unspoken and unwritten rules in town that you had no hand in creating, he neither had the will nor the power to change or remove it either.

So, Horatio sat in his carriage parked outside the Beer & Bear Inn, waiting anxiously for the witch to come out. Even though he had a big auction planned for the next day, he had to leave all the preparations to his secretary and come out to wait for Grandma Holly early in the morning.

It all started when he was told that there was a suspected cult planning to overthrow him and do whatever nefarious things that the cults that were successful in their schemes did. Now that he thought about it, it was very rare that you heard about cults that were successful in their schemes.

Horatio shook his head. It wasn’t the time for such thoughts. He had to meet Grandma Holly and ask for her assistance. Horatio would like to avoid interacting with any witch if he could but he couldn’t afford to do so in the current situation. Literally. His secretary had told him, “Sir, we can’t afford to hire any hero or a wizard at the moment. The only option is to ask for help from the witches.”

“Why would the witches help us? I have never heard of witches fighting against anything. Don’t they usually just treat sick children and brew grotesque potions in giant pots?” Horatio had asked dismissively. He had never really liked witches.

His secretary Pipsmith had barely held in the sigh and explained, “In most cases, it is true that witches keep away from fights. They are usually aloof and live separated from society so they rarely get involved in battles. But we have a unique opportunity in Sherry. Grandma Holly, who lives near Sherry is well known for her love for the soup at Beer & Bear. We can use this to our advantage.”

Horatio still couldn’t understand his secretary’s intentions. “What do you mean? So the old witch loves soup at Willum’s place. What has that got to do with anything?”

Pipsmith tried his best not to frown and hid the contempt flashing in his eyes at his boss’ question. And although Horatio caught all of that, he acted like he didn’t notice. It was hard finding a secretary as capable as Pipsmith, and even though his bluntness was annoying Horatio was smart enough to accept his own shortcomings. It was also helpful in most cases so Horatio had practiced ignoring his secretary’s reactions.

“Sir, a cult acting up in Sherry will disrupt the entire town. This means that Willum’s inn will also be disrupted. What do you think will happen when Grandma Holly who is well known for her short temper learns about this? The old witch has never missed a single day of that soup. You can see how important it is to her. We just need to instigate her into helping us root out the cultists from Sherry.”

Horatio had been very impressed by Pipsmith’s plan. The plan also reaffirmed his conviction in swallowing his anger against his secretary for all his humiliating reactions that the man thought he was hiding well. It was a small price to pay for a competent employee. And, he could always cut the bastard’s salary for his petty revenge.

While he was thinking back on the conversation he had with Pipsmith, Horatio saw the inn’s door opening. From the door, the old witch came out holding her large broom. Horatio quickly got off the carriage and ran toward the witch before she flew off on the broom.

(On a side note, the idea of debt itself did not originate in this universe. One day, an evil deity with a weird name like K.P. Morgan or something from some other universe managed to find an apostle in this universe. The gods who sensed the kind of darkness and malice that they had never seen in their immortal lives quickly banded together to chase the evil deity out of their world.

But the damage was done. The apostle who had learned of the concept of debt in that short amount of time quickly became rich as a merchant and the concept of debt itself stuck around and spread all around the world, reaching even the gods.

The gods could have purged the idea of debt itself from the universe but by the time they had discussed it in their council, argued, and made a decision, a new concept called ‘too big to fail’ was born in this universe. Individuals, organizations, and nations were all already in debt with the estimated worldwide debts reaching such absurd amounts that mathematicians had to stay up late to come up with new numbers with dumb names like ‘billions’ and ‘trillions’.

The god of wealth Prosperos himself was famously quoted to have asked, “If the whole world is in debt with such absurd amounts, who is everyone indebted to?” The priests of Prosperos, known worldwide for their mastery of finance were unable to provide a straightforward answer to the question.)