“Here we are,” Airi said as they rounded the corner and were presented with a large, government-esque building. Adam had been following Airi through what she called the Market District for several minutes, in which Adam smelled and saw many foods that he did not recognize. It was odd that Airi had called the food boring because all the food in the market made his mouth water. After exiting the Market District, they came upon the Guild District, this was the location that held all of the larger guild houses, and where citizens could go and make requests.

As they got closer to the large building, Adam noticed a sign above the main door that read “Guild Headquarters.” This must have been the place where business between guilds was taken care of, and most likely new guilds were registered. Aside from how large the building was, Adam noticed that it seemed to look quite a bit like what he would call ‘classic European’, lots of visible wood, mild colors, with contrasting white on every side. As much as he knew nothing about architecture, he couldn’t help but be impressed by what he saw in Alcasia.

“Let’s go, Adam!” Airi yelled at him from the door to the guild headquarters. Adam then realized he’d stopped moving as he took in the surrounding architecture. He quickly picked up his pace and met Airi in the foyer of the large building.

“Oh, well hello my lady,” a large man behind the counter said fumbling over his words. “How may I help you today?” My lady? Adam thought. The man spoke with a unique accent, what Adam would describe as Irish and Scottish mixed together… for the most part.

“Hello, my companion and I would like to register a new guild today,” her demeanor had suddenly changed, and she was speaking in a more elegant tone. Adam even noticed that her mannerisms had changed to become more regal.

“Certainly!” the large man exclaimed. “Let’s get this paperwork started. Now, I know you’re a Sprite, my lady, but everyone has to fill it out all the same.” He smiled as widely and brightly as he could. Adam definitely had a few questions to ask Airi about how she was being treated, but he decided to remain silent for the moment.

“Of course, I understand completely,” Airi said, still in her more elegant tone.

“Wonderful. What kind of guild are you looking to start?”

“We are looking to start a cooking guild,” she explained as-a-matter-of-factly.

“Cooking?” The large man was obviously perplexed by this. “Okay…” he said moving on, perhaps not wanting to question a Sprite. “What exactly will you be doing as a cooking guild?”

“First and foremost, we will find talented and creative chefs to recruit. We will then explore the land finding and creating new cuisines, and once we’ve mastered this, we will return and work for the people. We will do this by making food for them, teaching them how to cook properly, and also teaching them to improve on existing techniques. My plan is also to have a guild hall that will work as a restaurant in the future, so we can share all that we’ve learned with those who just want to eat amazing food,” she said, smiling confidently, but also a little mischievously.

“Well it certainly sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into this,” the large man said as he jotted down the notes for the paperwork. “And may I ask your name, my lady?”

“Of course, my name is Airi Averell, and this is my co-founder Adam Yuzuki,” she said motioning toward Adam.

“Yuzuki, that’s a unique family name,” the large man said chortling. “Well, my name is Loren. If you guys have any questions in the future, feel free to seek me out. I will file this paperwork, and of course, we will forgo any of the fees, my lady.”

“Thank you very much, Loren, it’s greatly appreciated,” Airi said with a slight curtsey. The man visibly blushed as she did this. Weird, Adam thought, I’ll definitely need to bring this up later.

“By the by,” Loren said. “I’ll be your first guild request if you don’t mind.”

“Oh?” Airi asked curiously.

“You said you would be cooking, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Well, we’ve got a big upcoming lunch today for the headquarters staff. If you can make something… tasty and exotic, we’d happily reward you for your efforts,” the big smiled as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Intriguing,” Airi said as she thought a moment. “This would be treated as an official guild request?”

“Certainly,” Loren said. “I could work on the paperwork while you cook.” Airi looked at Adam with a cunning grin.

“Are you up for it Adam?” Adam hadn’t quite considered cooking quite yet, but the thought of cooking with new and different foods from this new world could be very exciting.

“Oh yes,” he said as the ideas began to pop into his head, and he hadn’t even seen what he would be cooking with yet.

“Great,” Loren said heartily. “You’ve got two hours, and you need to prepare food for 12. We’ve got plenty to choose from in our kitchen.”

“Excellent,” Adam chimed.

“Step back here, behind the counter and follow me,” Loren said as he opened the latch to the counter. He guided them through a few small halls filled with pictures, paintings, some animal heads that Adam couldn’t recognize and some unique furniture. If it was up to Adam, he could probably have spent a day or two just looking at all the unique objects of this world.

“Here we are,” Loren said with a certain confidence. “You should be able to find what you need in here. I’m looking forward to what you decide to make. Good luck.” He bowed slightly and then left the kitchen.

“What do you think?” Airi said as she twirled around the kitchen.

“This is pretty impressive, actually,” Adam replied. Despite the fact that the world seemed to be several centuries behind his world in regards to technology, the amenities weren’t too far off. They seemed to have a grasp of some sort on technology, and Adam could only guess that perhaps magic had something to do with it.

The kitchen featured a large central counter, made of wood, where most of the prep would be done. Along the far wall, he saw what he guessed was a metal stove, it featured two open holes, small enough to fit a pot or pan over, similar to how woks are traditionally cooked with. Under the stove sat two ovens side-by-side, similar to what you’d see in a modern kitchen. There even seemed to be a walk-in freezer and pantry for the dry items.

With only two hours to come up with a meal, and prepare it for 12 people, he’d had to get started quickly. The difficulty was, he was unsure if meat here tasted the same, or if the vegetables did as well for that matter. He’d need to quickly check the pantry and freezer, and see if he recognized anything.

He dashed for the pantry and peered inside, he recognized a few items, such as bell pepper, what looked like onion, and garlic. These would be important. In the large freezer, aside from being surprised by how cold it actually was, he did recognize a few things. There were a few sides of what looked like beef hanging in the back, and some small poultry, which he hoped was chicken. With only two hours to cook, he wouldn’t be able to prep and taste much, he had to stick with what he knew.

He decided to play it safe and grabbed several portions of the poultry, luckily he could ask Airi what everything tasted like to help him produce a dish. In the future, he would need to spend some time taste testing meats and veggies. As he brought all of his prep items to the center counters he took it all in, trying to decide what to make. Airi had sat down at the counter, she had been watching him, grinning ear to ear.

“You’re enjoying this aren’t you?” Adam asked her, snidely.

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“Of course,” she said sincerely. “I love watching people cook.”

“Well today, you’re going to be my sous chef,” he said.

“Really? I don’t know much about cooking,” she confessed.

“Starting a cooking guild, and not knowing how to cook?” He looked at her, sarcastic sorrow filled his face. “Shame, shame.”

“It’s not my fault,” she said blushing lightly. “We have cooks that work for my family.”

“Is that right?” He looked at her curiously. “Well, today you’re going to learn to cook.” He looked around for cutlery and found a large butchers knife that resembled a Chinese cooking knife, and decided he’d use that for prep. He grabbed another for Airi as she rounded the counter and stood next to him. “This is your chef’s knife, obviously we’re only borrowing it for today, we’ll have to get our own knives soon, but treat this like your child, with love and care.” She nodded seriously.

“What are we making?” Airi asked.

“I have an idea, but it depends on how these items taste, and if I can make a sauce,” he said. “I need to know if the flavors of these items resemble the flavor from my world, specifically the poultry.” Air looked at the items in front of him as he spoke.

“They vegetables here taste fairly similar, but there is a mild difference… I can’t really describe it. You might just want to taste them,” she said grabbing a bell pepper. “The poultry is actually chicken, so we’re lucky about that.”

“Wonderful,” he said as some of the weight lifted off of his shoulders. He grabbed the bell peppers and began to slice them up into thin strips. He grabbed a piece and tasted it, as did Airi. The flavor was very similar to a bell pepper from his world, mildly sweet and watery, but it had a little extra something he couldn’t quite describe. It packed just a little more of a savory flavor, but it wasn’t overpowering, he could work with it.

“This is also called a bell pepper in this world, most of the vegetables you have in your world that are here share the same name,” she instructed. “We have many of the same animals as well, but unlike your world, there are several that are unique to this world.”

“Good to know,” Adam said. “Watch as I chop up these vegetables, this is what I’ll need you to do while I work on the chicken.” He slowly showed her the steps for peeling and cutting onions, as well as how to smash, peel and cut up the garlic. The onions in this world were just as intense but were also a little bit sweeter than Adam was used to. As much as he was not a fan of eating garlic raw, he tasted a small piece and found that it was almost identical to his world, which was perfect for him.

As Airi got the hang of chopping up the vegetables, Adam got started on cutting up the chicken. Each chicken was still whole, so he had to chop the head, poke through the sternum and separate all the limbs. Once this was complete he got to removing the meat from the bone. He needed the bones to start a broth, which would be the base for his sauce, it would take too long to make a soy sauce clone from scratch. His plan was to make a traditional Chinese take-out style dish, similar to Moo Goo Gai Pan, which features large pieces of vegetable mixed with chicken in a white sauce.

“Crap,” Adam exclaimed, realizing something. “Is there rice in this world?” He was so used to having rice already made in the rice maker in his parent's restaurant he hadn’t even thought about it.

“There is…” Airi said as she moved toward the pantry. “Hmm…” Adam continued to cut up the chicken while she searched for the rice. He would need to start the bone broth as soon as possible to give it as much flavor as he could. As he finished cutting the flesh off the bones, he had a sudden realized about the functionality of this world having running water or not. He looked around to see if he could identify a sink, and to his surprise, he saw one in the corner that actually resembled something you’d see in a traditional restaurant. He’d really have to ask Airi a lot of questions later on.

As he found two large pots, one for rice, and one for broth, Airi rounded the corner hoisting a large bag of what he assumed was rice, it was almost half her size, but Airi was not a very tall individual anyways.

“Found some rice,” she groaned as she managed to somehow fling the bag onto the counter.

“Excellent,” Adam said. He went to the sink with both pots and was able to fill both without any difficulty, which was a nice surprise. He next filled one pot with bones, and the other with rice, and mounted them atop the stove. Now there was the hurdle of getting the stove on as it didn’t have any knobs or dials that modern stoves had.

“Do you need help?” Airi asked confidently.

“Uh… yes,” he confessed. “How do I work this stove?”

“That lever there,” she said pointing above the stove. “That controls the valve which controls how much fire comes through to the stove.”

“Aha,” Adam said as he grasped the lever. “So it’s not flammable gas, but actual fire?”

“That’s correct,” she said, and she resumed chopping the vegetables.

“Where does it come from?” he asked as he lit a fire underneath both pots.

“The basement of this building has a large magical furnace that produces flames and keeps everything warm,” she explained.

“I’m going to have a lot of questions after this,” Adam said.

“About what?”

“Everything… my lady,” he said bowing his head to her, to which she blushed and began to chop furiously. Once he had finished cutting up the chicken, he removed the large pot for the rice, since it had begun to boil and set a lid on top for the rice to steam. He found a large pan and realized he’d need some sort of oil to fry the meat and veggies.

“Is there butter or oil or something?” he asked as he peered into the pantry.

“Yes, we do have oil here,” she said walking with him into the pantry. Adam noticed she was looking towards the top shelf of the pantry. As he stretched to grab it, translucent green-yellow wings sprouted from Airi’s back. If anything they resembled butterfly wings in shape, yet Adam was still taken aback with surprise. As the wings sprouted, Airi floated upward to the top shelf and grabbed the small bottle filled with oil.

“Uh…” was all Adam was able to get out as he watched her gently float back down to the ground, the smile on her face was filled with confident mischief.

“Here’s the oil,” she said as she handed it to him and walked back to the counter. Adam quickly snapped himself back to reality and quickly got himself back to the stove. He gently tossed in some oil from the small jar, with some of the aromatic garlic that Airi had cut up. As that fried he tossed in the sliced chicken, along with the onions and bell peppers, and let them cook, while he tossed continuously to help them cook evenly.

“That smells good,” Airi said standing behind him, quite closely. Adam figured she was trying to absorb as much information about cooking all the while enjoying the spectacle of it as well.

“That’s good,” he said as he continued to toss the food in the pan. It wasn’t as easy to toss since it wasn’t a wok, but it worked fine. “Is there any sort of thickening agent, like starch or flour?”

“Yes,” she said and quickly flew to the pantry, and zoomed back.

“Alright, mix a small amount of that in with a few cups of the broth over there,” he said motioning his head behind him to where the pot of broth sat. Airi quickly complied. She found a large bowl and scooped several cups of broth in then mixed the thickening agent she’d found.

“Done,” she said compliantly.

“Great, let’s mix it in,” Adam said. Airi brought the bowl over, and they slowly mixed it in with the pot, tossing it allowing it to coat everything evenly. “Now grab me some seasonings, like salt or pepper.” Again, Airi complied by flying to the pantry grabbing the item and bringing it back. As Adam continued to toss the food, he sprinkled in both what he assumed as salt and pepper. In hindsight, thinking he was ready to cook in this new world may have been a little arrogant of him, but he’d been too excited. He’d need to acclimate to cooking in this new world before jumping in again.

“Okay, food should be close now,” he turned off the valve for the fire under the pot, and let it sit a moment.

“Already? We still have some time before our deadline,” Airi said.

“True, but plating is just as important,” he explained. “We need 14 plates, and we need to make sure they all look beautiful. We’re trying to impress our clients, and also get the word out about us in the future, right?”

“True. Okay,” Airi said as she flew off and grabbed a stack of 14 plates and set them on the center counter. As Airi worked on spreading the plates out, Adam tasted the food. It was good, but he decided to add just another sprinkle of salt and pepper for more oomph. Then quickly followed Airi and placed a portion of the meat and veggie combo on each plate. After this was completed, Adam put a smaller amount of rice on each plate. He was glad the rice had cooked fully, and was now fluffy and perfect. As they both gazed over the fruits of their labor, Loren entered the kitchen.

“Perfect timing it would seem,” Loren chortled happily.

“Really?” Airi asked, apparently surprised the two hours had already passed.

“You’d be surprised how quickly time passes working in a kitchen,” Adam smiled.

“So what do we have here?” Loren asked as he inspected one of the plates of food.

“We have lightly fried chicken and veggies in a mild white sauce, accompanied with rice,” Adam instructed.

“It smells quite good, what do you call this dish?” Loren asked. Adam thought about it for a moment, calling it Moo Goo Gai Pan would probably be extremely odd in this world.

“It’s called Yasai Niwatori,” Adam said. “It translates to ‘vegetable chicken’ in my… ancestral language.” He couldn’t deny that it probably sounded just as strange as Moo Goo Gai Pan would have, but at least he had an excuse with this name.

“Yasai Niwat..tori,” Loren said fumbling over the words. “Interesting, well I’m excited to eat it. It looks like you prepared plates for yourselves as well, excellent. Let’s work on getting these into the dining hall!”