Although she tried to hide it the next day, Daron had noticed the slight changes to her expression. Naturally, it was not him noticing, but Sirious noticing.

“Priestess Joanne, what happened? You look sad.” Daron asked with some curiosity.

“Nothing, just that Anna is, ack. Nothing Daron. Nothing at all” Joanne came to her senses and smiled at Daron.

[Her smile is forced.]

‘Even I can realise that. However, there seems to be nothing I can do about it since she does not want to tell me. All I know is that everything is somehow related to this Anna.’

[That is an accurate prediction.]

‘Alright then. Instead of pondering over something that will not help us in any way, we should begin the ‘distraction plan’ right?’

[Yes, Master Daron]

“Priestess Joanne, we need to begin the preparations! Customers should be coming in any second now. I sent over Hans and Greta as well to bring in customers, since we don’t have any customers at the moment. With Lily also out there, someone is bound to come in to eat. Especially now that it has turned into lunch time.”

Joanne nodded and began preparations.

As thought the world was acknowledging Daron’s wishes, 2 people walked in, being escorted by Hans and Greta like knights escorting their lord.

After handing over the money to Mako, Daron timed everything, and at the perfect time, two portions of meals were in the hands of the two customers. However, Daron did not let them eat in this secluded alley, but sent them off into the street.

This was a plan he came up with. If the kids were not enough to bring in customers, then customers themselves, eating the food should be more than enough.

And just within 2 minutes, another customer came in, and another, and another.

Within 30 minutes, Daron had served nearly 20 people, earning himself 300 copper, at which point the stall closed for business. It was nearing 1 in the afternoon, and most people had to return to their jobs, which meant buying more ingredients would not be very useful now.

Yesterday, he had had to spend on of the precious silver coins to get a total of 200 copper worth of ingredients. Although he had the knowledge that investing more would yield more, he simply could not part with the silver coin.

And now, he had 300 copper, which meant he could buy even more ingredients and sell even more tomorrow.

The next day, as soon as it turned 12, half of the people he had served to yesterday barged into the alley and bought themselves a meal before being sent off by Hans and Greta. Naturally, no one dared to cause trouble for the children of the church, especially when the priestess was right in front of them.

Even more people kept pouring in until Daron was out of stock. He had sold out within 30 minutes flat, selling a total of 25 meals and collecting a total of 375 copper, almost the same as he had earned on the first day.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Naturally, he had kept a sum of 10 copper per person working here other than priestess Joanne, who still refused to take money.

Naturally, he would spend all of the 10 copper it per day on food, and went back to training, while reinvesting all the rest of the money on ingredients.

Over the next few days, Daron had earned a lot, and by now, he was collecting a total of around 750 copper per day.

On this day, he finally decided to rent a stall in the Food Lane.

After some negotiation, he had bought a stall with a proper kitchen in the back, hidden from the customers, for a monthly rent of 500 copper. Which was a lot for normal stalls, but enough for him to pay off with the money he earned from a single day of business.

Naturally, Sundays were shut, since the kids, Joanne, and himself had to attend church school.

The next day, on Monday, Daron began business. People naturally rushed to his stall, and he often heard most of the talk of the town here.

“Did you hear? Old Jacob was dragged off by the city guards?”

“Yes, yes. I heard that he committed a grave crime and was to be hanged.”

“Nonsense. I was there. Let this venerable one enlightens you. He was selling a cheaper version of the ‘String bread’ sold here. Since he had dared to offend the church, it was only right for the city guards to take action against him. Naturally, they will not be too strict, and only reprimand him a little before returning him with a warning not to repeat the same thing again.”

Hearing this, Daron was truly enlightened. He had not thought of the possibility of people copying his recipe. He had completely forgotten about that, which even Sirious did not inform him about.

[This situation was well within my calculations. However, based on the fear shown by outsiders towards the church, my calculations made the assumption not many people would dare to offend us.]

‘Well, things worked out in the end, did they not? I will have to figure out how to thank the city lord soon’

However, now that his goal of earning money was more or less on its way to completion, Daron had another thought.

‘How do I get stronger?’

After countless interactions with the people who came to eat food, he had come across a lot more information that what he had gained over the past 4 years combined!

He had learned that this city was surrounded by a forest with many magical beasts, which normal humans could not fight. The only way to pass through this forest was by being escorted by an official knight, multiple knights in training, or a mage.

Yes, this world had mages, however, where they lived and what they did was not to the knowledge of the people that came to this city.

Most of the people coming into the city would only do so along with large caravans, who were able to chip in a little, accumulating to large sums of money, enough to attract an official beginner knight to protect them through the journey.

Therefore, in order to understand more about mages, and magic as a whole, he needed to leave this city. However, in order to do that, he needed to become stronger. He did not want to rent an official beginner knight to leave the city, and then become completely defenceless in the outside world, as soon as the mission of the official knight was completed.

[Why not become a knight yourself?]

This thought reverberated in his mind life thunder as his face represented a light bulb switching on. Quickly, his face darkened once more as he began to think,

‘How will I become a knight?’

[The only official knights that stay in this city for the long-term basis are those in the city castle. Lord Zack Bard is an intermediate knight, and he is training 3 other official beginner knights. Just find them.]

‘True’

[However, you will not be able to begin any sort of training until your body begins to accept training. According to my analysis, you will only be able to begin this at the age of 6, or later. Naturally, you need to start this training before the age of 10, or else your hope of growing stronger as an official knight.]

‘Alright then’

With that, Daron decided to put aside becoming a knight until his body turned 6, and put all his attention on earning a lot of money, and continuing his body training, while eating as much as possible.