After we ate breakfast we got dressed, in the same room. There was not a trace of shame, due to the events last night. The change of clothes for the girls came from an older maid, named… I actually don’t remember her name. I suppose she was the one to bring the change of clothes because Olivia was too embarrassed, not that I blame her.
Ah, looking back at last night, man I wouldn’t have had to fend them off if I knew we would stick around the palace for a few months. Geh, I could cry from this, but it was for the best. What if one of them got pregnant? The baby itself is not a problem, however if one does get pregnant and we get stuck travelling for a few months, that would not be wise.
In a perfect world, if that happened I could send them back to palace or cancel the adventure for a while. However, also in that perfect world, there wouldn’t be a need to find a cure. Ah, when I find a cure, I will absolutely not take a ‘no’ for an answer! I will have them! I guess when we return, I’ll hold a surprise marriage ceremony. I wonder what expressions they’ll make…
“Hey, Alexander, are you thinking of something naughty?” Princess Ashley inquired.
Ah, I’ve been found out. I guess I couldn’t keep my thoughts from showing on my face. I thought about denying it, but decided to come clean. With a dramatic voice I say, “Ah! It is as you say my princess! I just can’t help myself from fantasizing what I’m going to do you when we get back from our trip!” I take my hand stroke her cheek.
Ashley gazed into my eyes with a kind of longing in them. As if she just understood my words she turned her head quickly sporting an enormous blush. Haha, oh that was fun. Hehe… Oh. Turning around I saw the jealous faces of three girls staring at me… I could include them in this conversation but I’d rather leave before the word of our activities spread to far in the palace. I’d rather not have those looks of curiosity, envy, lust, and disgust staring daggers in my back.
I change the subject before it even began, “Hmm, when was the last time you guys went shopping?” Everyone but Aria got excited at the mention of shopping. Aria became really quite. Ah, I need to confirm nothing will happen to her. “Don’t worry Aria; I will not turn my back on you while we are out. I have everything I need already in my Void Space. The items you guys need to purchase are, a comfortable weapon, a few changes of clothes, and a few stocks of food. Ok, now everyone grab onto each other.” As I instructed we were holding hands. We did a quick jump in the air and fell into the Void Step beneath our feet.
When we landed back on the ground, we were at the center of the Commercial District. The Merchant’s Guild was right behind us; I had them follow me to a map post on the building’s wall. “Alrighty, along this street are many clothing shops, such as these ones,” I point to a few squares bordering a road on the map, then pointing to a few small shops, “These are smithies, here you’ll find weapons.” Pointing at many smaller squares, “These are little food stalls. They are much cheaper if stick along this road. This building here is the Merchant Guild, it is not the biggest building, but it is the tallest. If you get lost head here, this will be the meeting point in a few hours.” They started to disperse, but I just remembered something, “Oi! If you want a big discount, just say my name.”
With bigger smiles, they all nodded before heading down the road, leaving me with Aria. Aria had a cute, confused expression, she then asked, “How do you know your way around so well? Oh and why will they give a discount at the mention of your name?”
“Well my young grasshopper,” she looked a little confused at the reference, put I continued, “I used to insist on helping the maids with the shopping. My reasoning was so I can learn about trade transactions, but my real goal was to study the city I live in and get closer to the people who share this glorious city as home. As to why they give out such large discounts is because I helped them develop a certain trade system that has made them all extremely prosperous.”
I remember those few weeks of trying to get them to follow the free trade system and a certain system that I excelled at in certain games on Earth. They respectfully refused to do it. So I made a challenge, those who adopted the system and still struggled to make four times the amount they were used to making would receive a stipend each month from the castle for a time. That got them so fired up. The smarter of the merchants, usually Water Demons, listened intently to my process.
The process required them to take some stock into a nearby certain cities that had inflated prices for the merchandise. They will sell it there, travel to another city to and buy some of the same stalk at deflated prices, and repeat until enough money was gained. The all the merchants set out to the cities I mentioned. Eventually this process will spread, but until then it would make Starwind City the most prosperous in the world. Even then some of them still weren’t satisfied with the plan and refused to participate, so I opened a stall of my own and set out for travel of my own, though of course limited due to not being an adult. I did travel with Melinda so I could do it. I set out for certain ingredients.
By the end of the third day, I had my own employees. They travelled to the places Melinda refused to do with me. I paid them handsomely as well; the ones that remained in the shop had helped install stoves and shelves for cooking. I had made it a bakery. I was rolling in cash at the time, so I expanded my shop until I owned a massive building on the money I solely came up with on my own. I taught the employees how to make sweets such as cupcakes and pastries that weren’t even invented on Zugrielia. It had quickly became a tycoon on its own. I had planned to close it after the challenge was done, but the demand for the sweets was so high, I felt guilty for the thought of closing it. With much money to be thrown around, there were a ton of sweets created by all the employees, many did not get on the menu but became famous either way. Eventually they figured out the recipes to candies on their own.
At the time, my 18th birthday was approaching so I gave the ownership to the hardest working employee. She happened to be human, which shocked most of the employees, but I explained the equal opportunity laws that had passed months before. The human’s name was Maddison Appleroot. Her story was that she had no family left due to a flu like disease that had spread around in her town. I hired her even though she had nothing to offer at the time. I hired her because I saw the resolve in her eyes to become the hardest worker and make a name for herself. She travelled from a faraway human kingdom, to make a start in life.
The person most shocked at me handing Madison the rights was Maddison herself. Before I made it official I made connections with a poor farm in the nearby village that bordered the Commercial District. The village’s name was Cometa, in that village; I had formed a contract with the poorest farmer with a decent sized plot of land. He would send in the needed supplies for the excess demand of the bakery/patisserie. In return he would receive a hefty sum of gold. I gave him a huge deposit to start his farm renovation for the three field rotation process. Growing wheat in plot, soy in another, and cotton in the last.
When I gave Maddison the rights, I basically gave her control of the Commercial District. In a few months, they grew and bought rights to several clothing and food markets. Maddison had a monopoly on candy and most sweets and was working on the monopolization of other materials and goods. Even a famine came over this Kingdom that shop will never go out of business with the buying and selling of stock. Even though had grown like a cancer, she still remembers me and is grateful. Most of the time I got free stuff from that shop.
Remembering that had me subconsciously walking in that direction. I turn to Aria and ask, “Would you like to try some sweets?”
Aria began to smile from ear to ear; shaking her so vigorously I thought it might fall off. Aria was starting to skip alongside me, humming in delight.
…
We had arrived at a massive café styled shop at the place I had set up shop many months before. I thought they had changed locations until I saw the sign it read:
Sister Appleroot’s Sweets.
Ah, they changed the name, well since I am no longer the owner, it does make since to switch the name on the sign. I sighed and walked into the door. We were greeted by a Water Demon dressed in a maid’s outfit. That’s right. I created a maid café, well without coffee at first. It grew extremely popular with the commoners. It had maids and I was not ashamed in the least, I mean come, their maids.
“Good afternoon Master and Mistress. I will show you to your…”
“ALEX!!! Is that you?!” I look over the counter and see a very voluptuous woman with Auburn hair scramble over the counter and practically bulldozed through many customers as she came toward me. This eccentric woman is the owner, Maddison.
The Water Demon maid had a horrified expression and quickly moved far away… wait a moment, I turn my view back on to the rapidly approaching Maddison. She looks like she is going a little fast… Oi, she is ten feet away and she doesn’t seem to have the intention of slowing down! I try to dodge the oncoming train but to no avail! I received the full impact of a shoulder lodging itself in my stomach. The impact was so strong, my feet left the ground and we quickly landed outside the shop.
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“It’s you! It’s really you! Alex it’s been so long!” She rubbed her face on my chest.
“Oi, what if it wasn’t me? You could have killed a random customer! Even if it was me, you have killed ME!” I stressed the graveness of her actions. This seemed to fall on deaf ears. I sigh for the third or fourth time today.
“Don’t be silly, there are only four Void Demons! Besides you, only your Uncle comes out of that palace! Speaking of, I haven’t seen him in a while.” She trailed off.
Oh. I guess not many merchants attended the funeral a week ago. The word was spreading slowly though. The word four rang in my head. Even with Uncle gone, there was still four according to his letter. My train of thought didn’t seem to leave my face blank, it made Maddison inquire, “Alex? What happened? Did something happen to him?”
With a voice that was way quieter than I wanted, “He is dead.” Her eyes widen, “He had contracted Soulless Anemia.” She got off me and went silent, she moved her mouth but I cut off her apology, “If you apologize it would bring down the good mood that my companions worked hard at improving.” I say with a smile.
Maddison remained silent for a moment then said, “As long as you’re ok with it.” From the door way, we heard a small noise. We turned our gazes toward the door to see a very worried Aria looking between the two of us.
Maddison chuckled and I got up to pat Aria on the head, which had calmed her down a little. Maddison led us back into the shop where we were met with many curious onlookers. With a glare from Maddison, they quickly began stuffing their face with food looking anywhere but at us.
Looking around I could see many new decorations and renovations, “Wow, you aren’t doing too bad.”
She walked past the line and got behind the counter and motioned us to front of the line, “Haha, you handed me an empire that would take an act of a deity to destroy! Bwhaha!” she raised her voice and loudly proclaimed to the heavens. She then continued, “This isn’t even our only shop!” We have several branches in this Commercial District and one in just about every city in the whole world!” What are you, McDonald’s? “Ah, so what can I do you for?” as she leaned across the counter.
I took a glance at the menu and blanched. This menu almost had every kind of food you would find at a food court in America. They didn’t have the same names, such as Smashed Potato, Oily Chicken Legs. You could figure the connections; they were identical to Mashed Potatoes and Fried Chicken Legs. Fried foods were new to this world, along with usage of milk in some of the foods. Whoa, did I see cereal up there?
Regaining my composure I said, “I would like to buy in bulk please.” When she nodded, I began to list some things I needed, “I need four pounds of various spices, 40 meat slabs: pork and bovine, five gallons of milk, five pounds of dried oats and barley, three pounds of sugar, thirty tomatoes, eight pounds of potatoes, three gallons of oil, a two pound block of dried, hard wheat (for noodles) and 400 pieces of hard candy please.” She had written the last of it down and hollered the order through the window behind her.
“Such a big bulk, are you ever going to come back again?” She asked in a worried voice.
I pondered for a moment, “I will someday, I am going on a potentially long trip. I had packed all kinds of silverware but not enough food. By the way, I have a new recipe that I doubt you have. Mind if I go into the kitchen?”
Before I had the word kitchen out, my collar had been grabbed by the very eager Maddison, and I was dragged across the counter and into the enormous kitchen filled with at least a hundred cooks. Aria was following very closely behind me, she seemed at a loss on what to so. I will have to explain things before she has a minor panic attack.
I was then lifted up in the air and set on my feet in front of a gargantuan stove. Maddison called out across the kitchen, “Come all you aspiring chefs! Watch a master at work! We had snagged a certain Crown Prince and Founder of this very company! Remember to put your projects on the back burners! I do not want another fire.” We were completely surrounded by what seemed like an endless amount of cooks. Some faces I recognized, many I did not, and the ones that I recognized had a sparkle in their eyes. I turn to calm Aria from earlier to see the very same creepy sparkle in her eyes as well.
I had asked for the tomatoes, oil, sugar, a block of dried wheat, Parsley, Oregano, various other spices, ground beef, salt and water. When I had the necessary ingredients, I started to boil the water in a big pot. I grabbed the block of dried wheat and had it soak in a little water before slicing it into very thin noodles. I wasn’t exactly sure how to make noodles, but this method worked. I then moved to the tomatoes and mashed them up as finely as I could in a smaller pot, adding a cup of sugar, oil, and a combination of spices that made it taste like Italian Seasoning.
I turned the heat under the tomato sauce to very low temperature; I had the ground beef starting to sizzle after I put the noodles in the boiling water. I had added a little water to the tomato sauce. After I finished browning and straining the beef, I added the tomato sauce and mixed the two. Once the noodles had gone tender, I grabbed a small load of noodles and put them on a plate and covered them in the sauce. “Ah, this is my favorite food,” I say as I turn of the stove and look for a table to sit at. Ah, I completely forgot about the crowd. Most of the cooks had a notepad in hand taking notes.
Maddison who was also taking notes had fire in her eyes when she heard it was my favorite, “May I?” as she pointed at the stove. I gave a nod after I fixed a second plate for Aria.
As I walked out the kitchen doors the crowd dispersed, with Maddison yelling, “I want you all to perfect this by tomorrow!” They all moved to their own stoves and began to mimic their notes.
I found a small table and sat down both plates while Maddison set hers down as well. We all sat down and I began to stir it with a fork before I had a bite of this nostalgic master piece. “Ah, this is called Spaghetti. To me, it is my most favorite invention in the world.” I say as I encourage them to eat up.
Aria had slurped the noodles and slung the sauce on them all over her face. Awe so cute! She screamed in satisfaction, “Hyaa! This is really good! So rich in flavor! I had no idea you were a master chef!” Ah this praise is going to make me blush. On Earth, my cooking skills could be found in the average homes of America; here the food was so bland or bad, that my foreign food was almost considered the best thing they’d ever eaten. I was really an amateur, but some revered me like a chef god.
Maddison gave a small frown after a small bite and lowered her head. “Ah is it no good, Maddison?” I asked.
Maddison slowly lifted her head and I could see tears streaming down her face as she had the look of downright worship in her eyes. She began to speak in a hushed tone, “As expected of the Chef God! Every time you come up with a creation or advice, only a miracle of food is created!” She stood up with her fist clenched at her heart, and loudly proclaimed, “This is clearly not food for us mortals but for the gods! This must be ambrosia!” I might say this again, but chef god. It felt embarrassing, so when I taught her a many of my recipes and told her to experiment on it to come up with more creations, she came up with a reaction very much like this one the last time I was here.
“You exaggerate! Quickly sit down and eat before it gets cold!” I say hurriedly. She did as was told and held a look of praise every time she took another bite. I left riches to a nut case! I take another sigh as I eat more of this spaghetti. It did turn out pretty good.
“Wow, I did not know you were a god!” Aria had spoken with sauce all over her face and a twinkle in her eye.
“Not you too! Look, I am mortal!” I exclaim as I draw out the Void Sword and run my hand against the black blade. When I pull my hand back, a small stream of black liquid oozed from my hand. It didn’t hurt until the air blew against it.
I showed my hand to Maddison to show my argument; she quickly brushed it off, “That is a mere trick you use to blend in with the mortals!” Meaning I had to die in front of her to prove I was only mortal. Hmmm, as tempting as it was to prove her wrong, she might still disbelieve claiming it to be another trick. This woman. Sigh.
It really did not help my argument when I made the ton of food I ordered disappear. I quickly paid for the food, even though they insisted it was free, I still left the money on the table. I said my farewells to my old friends before exiting the shop. With Aria munching on hard candies in tow, I made my way to the best tailor I knew of.
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Hey Author-sama, I thought you were redoing chapter 22?
Oh. Is that you Louise? I was going to do it, however, I lost the chapter I was working on. The file was deleted when the computer went on the fritz.
Eh? So you give that poor excuse when My Prince could be a father of my babies right now?
... You don't have any children. You speak as if you do.
There as good as real! The only thing left is to do take his seed!
Oi, come back! Come back to reality! Stop drooling!
Hah... hah... I will have many children their names will be....