“Order? Oh, right; you sell food, right. What exactly?” as he asked, his and his companion’s stomach growled. They shrugged and sat down.
Tasianna, keeping a professional and reserved smile, answered their question, “We serve two dishes plentiful enough for the daily hard worker. The first is curry rice—a stew-like dish with meat, vegetables, and spices added to a generous amount of brown rice. The second is stir-fried rice.”
“‘Curry rice?’‘Stir-fried rice?’ What are those?” they asked.
Firwood, and I presumed the Duchy of Greenveil as a whole, had multiple ways to prepare rice that resembled Mediterranean dishes, so Italian or Spanish. There were even rice soup and rice crackers that Saori managed to find when she wandered around the town.
“The mother of invention is a necessity.” Rice was a staple food for the dwarves, but as time went by and with the dwarves bordering Artorias to the north, the use of rice as another grain and carbohydrate eventually trickled down to the south—Firwood and the surrounding villages counted among them. With another food type, people became inventive and began creating dishes with it.
Sure, some dishes wouldn’t be known to them like curry rice, which was more of a levianewt food according to Master Kush and the saurians. The dish “stir-fried rice” wasn’t known as a word, but Saori mentioned locals sauteing food, though it was mostly reserved for more expensive taverns and inns where chefs could afford the good oils—vegetable, olive, sunflower—whereas the everyday worker had to compromise by using stinky monster fat or old butter to fry, so most tended to avoid sauteing and stir-frying.
However, if we ignored dishes requiring ingredients of higher quality, making some good food with cheap stuff was simple enough. You just needed one hungry person to experiment a bit and boom. It would be more realistic to assume Firwood would have dishes I’ve never seen before than them not inventing anything at all.
Back to reality, Tasianna, understanding their confusion, directed their eyes to the massive wooden stall standing in front of the group of tables and seats. From that direction, a stew-like dish was bubbling in a massive metal pot while a black-haired wolfkin woman dressed in a white work outfit reminiscent of a sushi chef was stir-frying some rice in a pan. It was the source of all the mouth-watering smells.
Behind the wolfkin was a dragonewt girl cutting vegetables and chunks of meat with a knife, the ingredients for the stew. Ahem, curry. And yes, I was that dragonewt girl, and the wolfkin was Saori, of course.
Man, that would have been a good promotion video if we had a camera. I can envision it already, ahem ehm ehm.
Jokes aside, team “Aurora” was currently preparing our weekday job, or city job, as I would like to call it. Which was our food stall with other services. Saori was the chef, Tasianna was our only waitress in a cute waitress outfit, and I was the, well, star of the show, kinda.
“Okay, I think I added everything. I’ll be starting the show now,” I told her, going outside the kitchen.
Our kitchen was actually our stall, a simple construction made out of four wooden beams and a tent to protect us from rain. A table for the cooking wares and an oven was added for Saori to use. As you would expect, everything was transported here with my storage.
This was a mobile store, after all. Zeather understood what we described when we ordered everything from him. He kept the pieces easy to build up and transport, as size mattered for the mana consumption of my [Storage Magic], and besides, we had to rebuild our store every single day, so the easier it was to put down, the better. This included the tables and seats.
As I left the tent, I saw the drooling faces of the workers, all too focused on the food to acknowledge me. Tasianna, taking their hungry faces as confirmation, told them the prices. “Curry Rice would be 40 Davi, or four medium copper coins, which includes a lot of vegetables, meat, and a mouth-watering experience. Stir-fried rice is 10 Davi, or one medium copper coin, which includes all that I said before. Also, included are complimentary additions.”
“F-four mid coppers?! What da hell, why is it so expensive!? I can get myself multiple meat skewers and ale for that price!” one of them blurted out, standing up from his seat.
His friend did the same, looking like he was about to leave after he gave his complaint, “True, true. Also, one mid copper for some cooked rice? A bag full of rice grains is seven small coppers and it’ll be enough to feed my whole family for a week. Why should I pay 10 smalls for a single meal?”
As we all expected, there was a commotion. Our restaurant-slash-food stall was located in the middle district closest to the merchant district, as our targeted demographic weren’t wage workers who had to live off paycheck every day, but rather locals who could live relatively comfortably compared to those in the slums. They had proper professions involved with the craftsman guild or were working for a merchant, which meant they had some money to splurge to improve their lives.
It was pretty hard to get this spot until the chef’s guild received a notice from the temple, specifically the High Bishop in his role as the brother of Firwood’s lord. With what I presumed was a bribe, the guild permitted us to open our stall here. Legally. The High Bishop could have coerced them through authority alone, but I believed he understood that using “appropriate” methods was less tyrannical. Although, was a bribe actually okay? Dunno, didn’t really care.
Still, even if the people around this area could pay more for food, it didn’t mean they wanted to. So, we needed to show them exactly why we were charging them more. We didn’t announce our shop’s opening beforehand, so the first impression had to be perfect. It was lunchtime, workers were coming out in dozens.
Taking out my borrowed geigler, a Peolyncian violin, I sat down on my fancy chair and put on my white mage robe. Closing it to look like a priestess, I began bowing my instrument to produce music.
“Huh?” the two let out, baffled to hear music suddenly playing. When they saw me, they were initially surprised to see me, asking why a priestess of Aurena was here, but that blew away once both sound and smell overwhelmed their senses.
People were already gathering due to the outburst from before, but even more people surrounded our stall the moment I started playing music. Like the Pied Piper, I was gathering all the hungry little humans and beastmen with the allure of my music.
It’s just a simple harmony. I haven’t even played anything complicated yet, but people are coming. Nice!
Seeing this, Tasianna put on her acting mask and took advantage of this situation, presenting our dishes once again as advertisement for the growing crowd. “Sir, that is one of the complimentary additions. Our Mistress has allowed us to serve these dishes, so I can assure you of the quality. You will feel full and satisfied before returning to work. May I ask again which dish you wish to order?”
With the smell of curry wafting through the air and my music to accompany it, the two workers swallowed and sat back down again. “Let’s treat ourselves” and “Smells better than the skewers at the marketplace,” they said as they caved in and ordered the curry with a mix of hope and worry.
Once Saori received the order, she began making the two dishes. Meanwhile, Tasianna brought the two workers ice water and steaming hot bread each. They were flustered as they thought they had to pay for them also, but Tasianna calmed them down after telling them this was also part of the complementary additions. Cold water made with Tasianna’s magic and bread right from the oven using yeast to give it a nice spongy texture.
Once Tasianna returned to the table with two bowls of curry rice, she couldn’t help but let go of her professionalism for a split second as she scowled in disgust at our two customers. They were devouring the bread as if it was the first thing they'd eaten for months, exclaiming how sweet, soft, and delicious it was with their mouths full. Once they were finished, their parched mouths couldn’t endure it any longer as they guzzled the crystal clear water, wetting their throats and appetite. They were impressed, just as we anticipated.
Firwood’s irrigation and water purification system was rather undeveloped due to issues with its past construction. Ellaine explained this was the cause for the commoner district’s stink, but it also meant the well water was a bit dirty. People still drank it, it wasn’t deadly and most have developed a good enough immune system against it. People just preferred fruit ale or juices.
However, water mages could easily solve the “dirty water” issue since they could produce pure water through mana. The normal yeomen you see walking through the streets, so not adventurers or soldiers, weren’t versed in magic, but even they knew from where pure, transparent water came from. To them this was luxury; water fit for nobles.
And they were just served some of it. Our complementary additions were fanservice to the extreme.
“Woah, jeez, what’s with this bowl. The portion is huge,” one of them said.
“True enough. We also got free spoons?! Damn!” the other pointed out.
However, to stop them from thinking it was theirs, Tasianna spoke up, “Please, take a look at the insignia. We are lending you the bowls and utensils, so please leave them on the table once you finish. Also, please do not bother our Lady. She is here to give a pleasant experience for everybody and that is all.”
Directed by Tasianna’s finger, the workers saw the “H” insignia at the spoon’s and bowl’s bottom, realizing that both belonged to me, the person in question. With the many embroideries on my white cloak and my insignia on my tools, they quickly realized what Tasianna meant with it. They had thought I was just a priestess before, but now they figured out I was a noble.
They sweated, began using more appropriate speech, as they tried to excuse themselves from their tables. The onlookers also looked like they were about to leave, as such …
“Come, follow my voice
The dark scares you, too.
I’ll be your guide
Oh, I won’t leave you alone.
Come, sing with me
Collide our voices
To break through this silence,
Till morning arrives. ”
I sang “Till Morning Arrives” and played the tune on my violin with closed eyes. If there was one thing that I had become proud of, it was that I could draw people in with my singing. It was always gonna be harder to attract normal workers, as most were either scared of nobles or uncomfortable around them, but we needed to make my name spread. Not only for the High Bishop but also in general.
After what I did at the tea party, there was exactly 0% chance that I wasn’t known among the nobility, at least in the Greenveil duchy. I experienced how much the girls gossiped and most of them were there intending to get to know me for their parents. Hiding wasn’t an option anymore, and I was slowly even considering divulging the fact that I was a dragon, but Saori and Ellaine stopped me.
Supposedly, dragonslayers were not only a profession, but also a System Job among some members of the hunter’s guild. Yeah, I didn’t want them to know about me just yet. Master’s words still echoed in my head about how I wasn’t “strong” enough yet.
With my song calming everybody, the two workers shrugged and picked up their spoons, saying, “Our wives would smack us if they knew we were wasting food” before digging in.
“… Mhmm! Damn! This is good! How many spices were added to this!” one commented while gobbling the curry rice down.
“Hey, hey, hey, have you eaten the meat?! So soft and juicy, I can’t get enough of them. Hey, you eating that one?” the other stated with a mischievous smile, eyeing at a piece of meat in his friend’s bowl.
And that was all that was needed to get people to be brave enough to join in, meaning Tasianna and Saori were about to experience our first rush hour on our first day. Onlookers slowly asked Tasianna for tables and what the dishes were before ordering either curry or fried rice with reluctant expressions. I guess the price might be too steep, even for this area.
Sadly, reducing it any further was impossible, since we needed to profit from this business. I was okay making a loss for exposure, but we weren’t made out of gold. The spices we spent on the curry cost quite a bit to make it delicious and fragrant. Saori didn’t want to neglect quality here due to her pride as a home cook.
The normal ingredients were cheap, on the other hand. Rice and wheat were bountiful, eggs could be gotten anywhere in the market since most have chocochuckles at home to produce eggs, our yeast was made en masse beforehand, and I could always make more, and foraged veggies from the woods were sold at a good price. The only part where we neglected quality a bit to save on money was the meat.
The curry meat was actually cheap rabbit and squirrel meat, but Saori managed to disguise the lackluster texture with spices and that weird preparation method she learned from the lizardmen we met in the Belzac forest. Somehow boiling it with mud made the flesh softer. Wild, huh? Then we covered the taste and smell with curry and voila. Only the meat in the fried rice was skorr meat, as it wasn’t possible to use lesser meat there.
It was deceptive, yes, but the meat actually tasted good now. I never minded them, but I wouldn’t say rabbit or squirrel were my top picks to hunt. Seeing as how we could get two-days old rabbit and squirrel meat in mass for a humongous discount, we could keep our dishes cheap enough to eke out profit to keep the operation going.
Unlike our adventurer lives and doing Quests, it was slow and steady and required long term work to become a money maker. Still, I guess the best part about this job was the creative fulfillment for Saori and me.
“Say those words, my Fireheart. Wow, it sure sticks in your head, huh? You don’t hear from many women bards, so her singing was a real treat. Whew, I’m stuffed!”
“Ahh, the price is pretty high, but the curry sure hits the spot. Would be better to sell it to merchants, though, but whatever. I’m just happy to get to taste something other than grilled bug meat. Good treat from time to time.”
“The noble sure didn’t do anything else than sing and play her instrument, huh? With all the singing I kinda forgot she was a noble for a bit. Still, I don’t think I can afford this meal every day.”
“Too bad for the food, but at least you can listen to her sing while walking to other vendors. Makes the boring walking more enjoyable, especially with those high-speed songs.”
It was feedback without us having to ask our patrons. Hearing from customers was important, after all.
Once lunchtime was over, Saori and Tasianna took a moment to take a breather. The reason why we only had two dishes to offer was to make it more manageable for them. We could prepare those two dishes before we opened and serving it all was quick and easy, meaning we wouldn’t make a mistake.
Saori had her speed and stamina to cook and bake bread as fast as possible, while Tasianna was a good maid if you ignored her lackluster attitude towards humans she didn’t know. They were immaculate considering we had to endure a rush hour on our first day at work, and it showed on their faces.
“You two did amazing. Good work, good work!” I told them in encouragement inside the kitchen. Saori was slightly winded while Tasianna frowned in annoyance, having had to endure some of the more annoying guests. In contrast, I sat on my little throne and did what I loved without a care for the downside of the restaurant business.
“Admittedly, I did not expect to work like this on the first day, but I already heard how crazy the kitchen can be from one of my students. Her parents own a Michelin star restaurant, and their daughter loved talking about them,” Saori stated, taking a sip of water to rehydrate. “Gastronomy is not an easy industry, neither for the chefs nor the waiters. However, we managed to go through a whole pot of curry and a half, while the amount of fried rice bowls we need to clean is a statement by itself. I need to do the accounting later to confirm, but I think we might be in the plus for today if the afternoon hours work well.”
“While that is nice to hear, Miss Saori, can we actually continue this on subsequent days?” Tasianna asked, having finished her sandwich. “The customers were satisfied with the food, even praising it as the best on the streets, but most complained about the price. Maybe it is a bit too expensive? If they can’t pay, then they won’t return.”
I shook my head. “Well, we have to worry about that, definitely. Honestly, if our clientele were the merchants it probably wouldn’t be a problem, but to do that, we would need a proper building. I don’t think they would like to sit on the street, even if a noble endorses it.”
I then stood back up, as it was time for me to properly work.
Putting some calm music on with [Aerokinesis] I took a deep breath and spoke loudly to the people on the streets, “Beloved denizens of Firwood, may the Goddess bless all of you on this calm RestDay. I wish you had a productive or restful day. My name is Hestia, and I am a priestess of the Goddess. I am here to provide my services. For the price of 200 Davi, or two large copper coins, I will heal any of your ailments. Whether it is a sickness, a broken leg, or even an itching on your back. In her benevolence’s name, allow me to help you with the white grace.”
I sat down with a smile and watched everybody whispering from afar. We already gathered some attention from passersby from the lunch service, and most should be aware I was a noble at this point. They were keeping a safe distance, but when I announced I was offering my services, most of them began whispering and looked at me with anticipation. Eventually, a young man in his early twenties moved forwards.
“Uhm, Miss Priestess, uh, I ask of ya-you for the blessing of the Goddess,” he asked me, bowing down a bit. It seemed he knew how to speak properly before a noble but his accent was still showing. Well, I didn’t care about that stuff but I guess the priests from the temple might?
“I don’t mind how you speak, so you can speak as freely as possible if it makes you comfortable. Can you tell me what is hurting you so I can know what to heal?” I replied, not wanting to use [Mana Eyes] to look at his profile.
He stuttered a bit, but seems to be relieved that he could stop speaking like an idiot. “O-oh, is dat so? Then thanks very much, Miss Priestess. Uhm, durin’ work, I got meself a wound on me hand. The others told me that it happens sometimes and time will heal it all up and nicely, but it’s startin’ to hurt and slow down me work. However, me boss told me it would cost a small silver and five large to heal it up at the temple. Uhm, I don’t have much money, but is it true that you can heal it for only two large?”
1 small silvite and 5 large copper coins, means it costs 1500 Davi for this white grace. [Medium Heal] would be used.
“Yes, even if you had a large bleeding wound, I will only charge 2 large coppers. On my honor and my faith for the Goddess, this I swear to you with a promise.”
He looked relieved about it and told me he would come back with the money for my services. Once he returned, a tall man with a beard accompanied him and paid for his healing in his stead. The man was his boss and he was lending money from his workshop to pay me. The bearded man came along to make sure he wasn’t wasting money, but he probably was also curious about me.
Once the young man pointed at the spot where it hurt, I touched his slightly dirty wrist and checked on it. The boss was simply surprised to see me touch his employee while the young man flinched in pain. “Major Heal” I called out, casting my healing magic after my checkup.
The young man looked in wonder as he tested out his wrist, noting in excitement that he couldn’t feel any pain and that it was moving properly. He then prostrated himself and thanked me profusely, only stopping after his boss pulled him up. “Please, excuse this young man’s behavior. He usually doesn’t interact with many nobles or merchants,” the bearded man told me before leaving with his employee.
And with that simple interaction, I was 200 Davi richer, yay. Well, to be more specific, I was richer by quite a few more Davi, since people saw this and viewed me as an authentic healer. People with the money to pay started to come over to me. I only stopped my services after the afternoon rush began.
After today’s work, the week progressed. Every day, until DarkDay, we would work at our restaurant. As Tasianna expected, our number of customers decreased, but the word on the streets seemed to have spread as merchants and adventurers with more disposable income came over to try out our food. Some were people our party even met at the hunter’s guild, so they were pretty comfortable to see us instead of a random noble. My daily training sessions with the guild master made me known among the guild members.
Outside of our cooking sessions, my priestess services bloomed with merchants and adventurers interested in it. According to them, my reputation seemed to be growing as people called me “The Generous Priestess” or “The Angel-Voice Noble,” and associated me with our food stall. Eventually, even the merchants from the upper district came, aiming for quick and cheap white graces.
“Thank you for your compassion, Lady Priestess. The Church of Aurena could use more talented, beautiful, and generous clergymen like you. I am sure the Goddess Aurena and Goddess Andira smile warmly on you and the people you have helped,” one of the merchants told me to butter me up, but I thanked him with a simple smile, causing him to go away.
Goddess Andira, hmm, that is a subordinate goddess of Aurena, if I remember correctly. The Goddess of Equality and Fairness, I think.
As our business began to stabilize with fewer rush and more calm hours, we also took this time to sell some of our potions, including the ones we got from Cernust. After we sold them, we gave him his cut.
After Saori added up our revenue and subtracted our costs and spending, which included taxes to the chef’s guild and merchants’ guild, our total profit from this whole week was a comfortable 30,870 Davi, which was more than what we earned for the Rashan Village Quest. While it was more money, the amount of experience we gained this whole week was zero.
Technically we could have earned experience by entering Quest contracts to work for local kitchens and eateries, but the amount was miniscule. The System intended for normal people to get to level 10 through white and blue collar work. At the end of the day, if you wanted to become strong, you had to go out and do some adventurer Quests.
This fact meant for the first time ever, we hadn’t used up our three weekly Job acquisitions. Honestly, for normal people, they rarely were able to do so in the first place. Even adventurers had problems keeping the streak on-going. Our party, to put it simply, was starting to become “normal.” Nevertheless, Saori wanted to evolve soon, so we couldn’t stay “normal” forever.
Back to our business report, I noticed the number of people who came for my services began to dwindle the more people I healed. It made sense, and it would affect our total earnings per day in the future. After all, healing people for 200 Davi for virtually zero costs made us a ton of money, and nobody could tax it from us. Not the Lord of Firwood, nor the guilds; not a single person.
We sold a lot of curry and fried rice, including a few potions, but as they had to be taxed by the chefs and merchants guild, we earned less from them than we wanted. Still, it filled out our coffers and it made us hopeful that we could pay for armor or maybe my catalyst in the future. The better we were equipped, the less risk we would face in the future.
On our day of break on DarkDay, Ellaine suddenly told me something.
“Lady Hestia, Lord Theodore wishes to meet you. It seems he wants you to accompany him to the Chezaic household in order to heal the eldest child of Lord Chezaic.”
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“Order? Oh, right; you sell food, right. What exactly?” as he asked, his and his companion’s stomach growled. They shrugged and sat down.
Tasianna, keeping a professional and reserved smile, answered their question, “We serve two dishes plentiful enough for the daily hard worker. The first is curry rice—a stew-like dish with meat, vegetables, and spices added to a generous amount of brown rice. The second is stir-fried rice.”
“‘Curry rice?’‘Stir-fried rice?’ What are those?” they asked.
Firwood, and I presumed the Duchy of Greenveil as a whole, had multiple ways to prepare rice that resembled Mediterranean dishes, so Italian or Spanish. There were even rice soup and rice crackers that Saori managed to find when she wandered around the town.
“The mother of invention is a necessity.” Rice was a staple food for the dwarves, but as time went by and with the dwarves bordering Artorias to the north, the use of rice as another grain and carbohydrate eventually trickled down to the south—Firwood and the surrounding villages counted among them. With another food type, people became inventive and began creating dishes with it.
Sure, some dishes wouldn’t be known to them like curry rice, which was more of a levianewt food according to Master Kush and the saurians. The dish “stir-fried rice” wasn’t known as a word, but Saori mentioned locals sauteing food, though it was mostly reserved for more expensive taverns and inns where chefs could afford the good oils—vegetable, olive, sunflower—whereas the everyday worker had to compromise by using stinky monster fat or old butter to fry, so most tended to avoid sauteing and stir-frying.
However, if we ignored dishes requiring ingredients of higher quality, making some good food with cheap stuff was simple enough. You just needed one hungry person to experiment a bit and boom. It would be more realistic to assume Firwood would have dishes I’ve never seen before than them not inventing anything at all.
Back to reality, Tasianna, understanding their confusion, directed their eyes to the massive wooden stall standing in front of the group of tables and seats. From that direction, a stew-like dish was bubbling in a massive metal pot while a black-haired wolfkin woman dressed in a white work outfit reminiscent of a sushi chef was stir-frying some rice in a pan. It was the source of all the mouth-watering smells.
Behind the wolfkin was a dragonewt girl cutting vegetables and chunks of meat with a knife, the ingredients for the stew. Ahem, curry. And yes, I was that dragonewt girl, and the wolfkin was Saori, of course.
Man, that would have been a good promotion video if we had a camera. I can envision it already, ahem ehm ehm.
Jokes aside, team “Aurora” was currently preparing our weekday job, or city job, as I would like to call it. Which was our food stall with other services. Saori was the chef, Tasianna was our only waitress in a cute waitress outfit, and I was the, well, star of the show, kinda.
“Okay, I think I added everything. I’ll be starting the show now,” I told her, going outside the kitchen.
Our kitchen was actually our stall, a simple construction made out of four wooden beams and a tent to protect us from rain. A table for the cooking wares and an oven was added for Saori to use. As you would expect, everything was transported here with my storage.
This was a mobile store, after all. Zeather understood what we described when we ordered everything from him. He kept the pieces easy to build up and transport, as size mattered for the mana consumption of my [Storage Magic], and besides, we had to rebuild our store every single day, so the easier it was to put down, the better. This included the tables and seats.
As I left the tent, I saw the drooling faces of the workers, all too focused on the food to acknowledge me. Tasianna, taking their hungry faces as confirmation, told them the prices. “Curry Rice would be 40 Davi, or four medium copper coins, which includes a lot of vegetables, meat, and a mouth-watering experience. Stir-fried rice is 10 Davi, or one medium copper coin, which includes all that I said before. Also, included are complimentary additions.”
“F-four mid coppers?! What da hell, why is it so expensive!? I can get myself multiple meat skewers and ale for that price!” one of them blurted out, standing up from his seat.
His friend did the same, looking like he was about to leave after he gave his complaint, “True, true. Also, one mid copper for some cooked rice? A bag full of rice grains is seven small coppers and it’ll be enough to feed my whole family for a week. Why should I pay 10 smalls for a single meal?”
As we all expected, there was a commotion. Our restaurant-slash-food stall was located in the middle district closest to the merchant district, as our targeted demographic weren’t wage workers who had to live off paycheck every day, but rather locals who could live relatively comfortably compared to those in the slums. They had proper professions involved with the craftsman guild or were working for a merchant, which meant they had some money to splurge to improve their lives.
It was pretty hard to get this spot until the chef’s guild received a notice from the temple, specifically the High Bishop in his role as the brother of Firwood’s lord. With what I presumed was a bribe, the guild permitted us to open our stall here. Legally. The High Bishop could have coerced them through authority alone, but I believed he understood that using “appropriate” methods was less tyrannical. Although, was a bribe actually okay? Dunno, didn’t really care.
Still, even if the people around this area could pay more for food, it didn’t mean they wanted to. So, we needed to show them exactly why we were charging them more. We didn’t announce our shop’s opening beforehand, so the first impression had to be perfect. It was lunchtime, workers were coming out in dozens.
Taking out my borrowed geigler, a Peolyncian violin, I sat down on my fancy chair and put on my white mage robe. Closing it to look like a priestess, I began bowing my instrument to produce music.
“Huh?” the two let out, baffled to hear music suddenly playing. When they saw me, they were initially surprised to see me, asking why a priestess of Aurena was here, but that blew away once both sound and smell overwhelmed their senses.
People were already gathering due to the outburst from before, but even more people surrounded our stall the moment I started playing music. Like the Pied Piper, I was gathering all the hungry little humans and beastmen with the allure of my music.
It’s just a simple harmony. I haven’t even played anything complicated yet, but people are coming. Nice!
Seeing this, Tasianna put on her acting mask and took advantage of this situation, presenting our dishes once again as advertisement for the growing crowd. “Sir, that is one of the complimentary additions. Our Mistress has allowed us to serve these dishes, so I can assure you of the quality. You will feel full and satisfied before returning to work. May I ask again which dish you wish to order?”
With the smell of curry wafting through the air and my music to accompany it, the two workers swallowed and sat back down again. “Let’s treat ourselves” and “Smells better than the skewers at the marketplace,” they said as they caved in and ordered the curry with a mix of hope and worry.
Once Saori received the order, she began making the two dishes. Meanwhile, Tasianna brought the two workers ice water and steaming hot bread each. They were flustered as they thought they had to pay for them also, but Tasianna calmed them down after telling them this was also part of the complementary additions. Cold water made with Tasianna’s magic and bread right from the oven using yeast to give it a nice spongy texture.
Once Tasianna returned to the table with two bowls of curry rice, she couldn’t help but let go of her professionalism for a split second as she scowled in disgust at our two customers. They were devouring the bread as if it was the first thing they'd eaten for months, exclaiming how sweet, soft, and delicious it was with their mouths full. Once they were finished, their parched mouths couldn’t endure it any longer as they guzzled the crystal clear water, wetting their throats and appetite. They were impressed, just as we anticipated.
Firwood’s irrigation and water purification system was rather undeveloped due to issues with its past construction. Ellaine explained this was the cause for the commoner district’s stink, but it also meant the well water was a bit dirty. People still drank it, it wasn’t deadly and most have developed a good enough immune system against it. People just preferred fruit ale or juices.
However, water mages could easily solve the “dirty water” issue since they could produce pure water through mana. The normal yeomen you see walking through the streets, so not adventurers or soldiers, weren’t versed in magic, but even they knew from where pure, transparent water came from. To them this was luxury; water fit for nobles.
And they were just served some of it. Our complementary additions were fanservice to the extreme.
“Woah, jeez, what’s with this bowl. The portion is huge,” one of them said.
“True enough. We also got free spoons?! Damn!” the other pointed out.
However, to stop them from thinking it was theirs, Tasianna spoke up, “Please, take a look at the insignia. We are lending you the bowls and utensils, so please leave them on the table once you finish. Also, please do not bother our Lady. She is here to give a pleasant experience for everybody and that is all.”
Directed by Tasianna’s finger, the workers saw the “H” insignia at the spoon’s and bowl’s bottom, realizing that both belonged to me, the person in question. With the many embroideries on my white cloak and my insignia on my tools, they quickly realized what Tasianna meant with it. They had thought I was just a priestess before, but now they figured out I was a noble.
They sweated, began using more appropriate speech, as they tried to excuse themselves from their tables. The onlookers also looked like they were about to leave, as such …
“Come, follow my voice
The dark scares you, too.
I’ll be your guide
Oh, I won’t leave you alone.
Come, sing with me
Collide our voices
To break through this silence,
Till morning arrives. ”
I sang “Till Morning Arrives” and played the tune on my violin with closed eyes. If there was one thing that I had become proud of, it was that I could draw people in with my singing. It was always gonna be harder to attract normal workers, as most were either scared of nobles or uncomfortable around them, but we needed to make my name spread. Not only for the High Bishop but also in general.
After what I did at the tea party, there was exactly 0% chance that I wasn’t known among the nobility, at least in the Greenveil duchy. I experienced how much the girls gossiped and most of them were there intending to get to know me for their parents. Hiding wasn’t an option anymore, and I was slowly even considering divulging the fact that I was a dragon, but Saori and Ellaine stopped me.
Supposedly, dragonslayers were not only a profession, but also a System Job among some members of the hunter’s guild. Yeah, I didn’t want them to know about me just yet. Master’s words still echoed in my head about how I wasn’t “strong” enough yet.
With my song calming everybody, the two workers shrugged and picked up their spoons, saying, “Our wives would smack us if they knew we were wasting food” before digging in.
“… Mhmm! Damn! This is good! How many spices were added to this!” one commented while gobbling the curry rice down.
“Hey, hey, hey, have you eaten the meat?! So soft and juicy, I can’t get enough of them. Hey, you eating that one?” the other stated with a mischievous smile, eyeing at a piece of meat in his friend’s bowl.
And that was all that was needed to get people to be brave enough to join in, meaning Tasianna and Saori were about to experience our first rush hour on our first day. Onlookers slowly asked Tasianna for tables and what the dishes were before ordering either curry or fried rice with reluctant expressions. I guess the price might be too steep, even for this area.
Sadly, reducing it any further was impossible, since we needed to profit from this business. I was okay making a loss for exposure, but we weren’t made out of gold. The spices we spent on the curry cost quite a bit to make it delicious and fragrant. Saori didn’t want to neglect quality here due to her pride as a home cook.
The normal ingredients were cheap, on the other hand. Rice and wheat were bountiful, eggs could be gotten anywhere in the market since most have chocochuckles at home to produce eggs, our yeast was made en masse beforehand, and I could always make more, and foraged veggies from the woods were sold at a good price. The only part where we neglected quality a bit to save on money was the meat.
The curry meat was actually cheap rabbit and squirrel meat, but Saori managed to disguise the lackluster texture with spices and that weird preparation method she learned from the lizardmen we met in the Belzac forest. Somehow boiling it with mud made the flesh softer. Wild, huh? Then we covered the taste and smell with curry and voila. Only the meat in the fried rice was skorr meat, as it wasn’t possible to use lesser meat there.
It was deceptive, yes, but the meat actually tasted good now. I never minded them, but I wouldn’t say rabbit or squirrel were my top picks to hunt. Seeing as how we could get two-days old rabbit and squirrel meat in mass for a humongous discount, we could keep our dishes cheap enough to eke out profit to keep the operation going.
Unlike our adventurer lives and doing Quests, it was slow and steady and required long term work to become a money maker. Still, I guess the best part about this job was the creative fulfillment for Saori and me.
“Say those words, my Fireheart. Wow, it sure sticks in your head, huh? You don’t hear from many women bards, so her singing was a real treat. Whew, I’m stuffed!”
“Ahh, the price is pretty high, but the curry sure hits the spot. Would be better to sell it to merchants, though, but whatever. I’m just happy to get to taste something other than grilled bug meat. Good treat from time to time.”
“The noble sure didn’t do anything else than sing and play her instrument, huh? With all the singing I kinda forgot she was a noble for a bit. Still, I don’t think I can afford this meal every day.”
“Too bad for the food, but at least you can listen to her sing while walking to other vendors. Makes the boring walking more enjoyable, especially with those high-speed songs.”
It was feedback without us having to ask our patrons. Hearing from customers was important, after all.
Once lunchtime was over, Saori and Tasianna took a moment to take a breather. The reason why we only had two dishes to offer was to make it more manageable for them. We could prepare those two dishes before we opened and serving it all was quick and easy, meaning we wouldn’t make a mistake.
Saori had her speed and stamina to cook and bake bread as fast as possible, while Tasianna was a good maid if you ignored her lackluster attitude towards humans she didn’t know. They were immaculate considering we had to endure a rush hour on our first day at work, and it showed on their faces.
“You two did amazing. Good work, good work!” I told them in encouragement inside the kitchen. Saori was slightly winded while Tasianna frowned in annoyance, having had to endure some of the more annoying guests. In contrast, I sat on my little throne and did what I loved without a care for the downside of the restaurant business.
“Admittedly, I did not expect to work like this on the first day, but I already heard how crazy the kitchen can be from one of my students. Her parents own a Michelin star restaurant, and their daughter loved talking about them,” Saori stated, taking a sip of water to rehydrate. “Gastronomy is not an easy industry, neither for the chefs nor the waiters. However, we managed to go through a whole pot of curry and a half, while the amount of fried rice bowls we need to clean is a statement by itself. I need to do the accounting later to confirm, but I think we might be in the plus for today if the afternoon hours work well.”
“While that is nice to hear, Miss Saori, can we actually continue this on subsequent days?” Tasianna asked, having finished her sandwich. “The customers were satisfied with the food, even praising it as the best on the streets, but most complained about the price. Maybe it is a bit too expensive? If they can’t pay, then they won’t return.”
I shook my head. “Well, we have to worry about that, definitely. Honestly, if our clientele were the merchants it probably wouldn’t be a problem, but to do that, we would need a proper building. I don’t think they would like to sit on the street, even if a noble endorses it.”
I then stood back up, as it was time for me to properly work.
Putting some calm music on with [Aerokinesis] I took a deep breath and spoke loudly to the people on the streets, “Beloved denizens of Firwood, may the Goddess bless all of you on this calm RestDay. I wish you had a productive or restful day. My name is Hestia, and I am a priestess of the Goddess. I am here to provide my services. For the price of 200 Davi, or two large copper coins, I will heal any of your ailments. Whether it is a sickness, a broken leg, or even an itching on your back. In her benevolence’s name, allow me to help you with the white grace.”
I sat down with a smile and watched everybody whispering from afar. We already gathered some attention from passersby from the lunch service, and most should be aware I was a noble at this point. They were keeping a safe distance, but when I announced I was offering my services, most of them began whispering and looked at me with anticipation. Eventually, a young man in his early twenties moved forwards.
“Uhm, Miss Priestess, uh, I ask of ya-you for the blessing of the Goddess,” he asked me, bowing down a bit. It seemed he knew how to speak properly before a noble but his accent was still showing. Well, I didn’t care about that stuff but I guess the priests from the temple might?
“I don’t mind how you speak, so you can speak as freely as possible if it makes you comfortable. Can you tell me what is hurting you so I can know what to heal?” I replied, not wanting to use [Mana Eyes] to look at his profile.
He stuttered a bit, but seems to be relieved that he could stop speaking like an idiot. “O-oh, is dat so? Then thanks very much, Miss Priestess. Uhm, durin’ work, I got meself a wound on me hand. The others told me that it happens sometimes and time will heal it all up and nicely, but it’s startin’ to hurt and slow down me work. However, me boss told me it would cost a small silver and five large to heal it up at the temple. Uhm, I don’t have much money, but is it true that you can heal it for only two large?”
1 small silvite and 5 large copper coins, means it costs 1500 Davi for this white grace. [Medium Heal] would be used.
“Yes, even if you had a large bleeding wound, I will only charge 2 large coppers. On my honor and my faith for the Goddess, this I swear to you with a promise.”
He looked relieved about it and told me he would come back with the money for my services. Once he returned, a tall man with a beard accompanied him and paid for his healing in his stead. The man was his boss and he was lending money from his workshop to pay me. The bearded man came along to make sure he wasn’t wasting money, but he probably was also curious about me.
Once the young man pointed at the spot where it hurt, I touched his slightly dirty wrist and checked on it. The boss was simply surprised to see me touch his employee while the young man flinched in pain. “Major Heal” I called out, casting my healing magic after my checkup.
The young man looked in wonder as he tested out his wrist, noting in excitement that he couldn’t feel any pain and that it was moving properly. He then prostrated himself and thanked me profusely, only stopping after his boss pulled him up. “Please, excuse this young man’s behavior. He usually doesn’t interact with many nobles or merchants,” the bearded man told me before leaving with his employee.
And with that simple interaction, I was 200 Davi richer, yay. Well, to be more specific, I was richer by quite a few more Davi, since people saw this and viewed me as an authentic healer. People with the money to pay started to come over to me. I only stopped my services after the afternoon rush began.
After today’s work, the week progressed. Every day, until DarkDay, we would work at our restaurant. As Tasianna expected, our number of customers decreased, but the word on the streets seemed to have spread as merchants and adventurers with more disposable income came over to try out our food. Some were people our party even met at the hunter’s guild, so they were pretty comfortable to see us instead of a random noble. My daily training sessions with the guild master made me known among the guild members.
Outside of our cooking sessions, my priestess services bloomed with merchants and adventurers interested in it. According to them, my reputation seemed to be growing as people called me “The Generous Priestess” or “The Angel-Voice Noble,” and associated me with our food stall. Eventually, even the merchants from the upper district came, aiming for quick and cheap white graces.
“Thank you for your compassion, Lady Priestess. The Church of Aurena could use more talented, beautiful, and generous clergymen like you. I am sure the Goddess Aurena and Goddess Andira smile warmly on you and the people you have helped,” one of the merchants told me to butter me up, but I thanked him with a simple smile, causing him to go away.
Goddess Andira, hmm, that is a subordinate goddess of Aurena, if I remember correctly. The Goddess of Equality and Fairness, I think.
As our business began to stabilize with fewer rush and more calm hours, we also took this time to sell some of our potions, including the ones we got from Cernust. After we sold them, we gave him his cut.
After Saori added up our revenue and subtracted our costs and spending, which included taxes to the chef’s guild and merchants’ guild, our total profit from this whole week was a comfortable 30,870 Davi, which was more than what we earned for the Rashan Village Quest. While it was more money, the amount of experience we gained this whole week was zero.
Technically we could have earned experience by entering Quest contracts to work for local kitchens and eateries, but the amount was miniscule. The System intended for normal people to get to level 10 through white and blue collar work. At the end of the day, if you wanted to become strong, you had to go out and do some adventurer Quests.
This fact meant for the first time ever, we hadn’t used up our three weekly Job acquisitions. Honestly, for normal people, they rarely were able to do so in the first place. Even adventurers had problems keeping the streak on-going. Our party, to put it simply, was starting to become “normal.” Nevertheless, Saori wanted to evolve soon, so we couldn’t stay “normal” forever.
Back to our business report, I noticed the number of people who came for my services began to dwindle the more people I healed. It made sense, and it would affect our total earnings per day in the future. After all, healing people for 200 Davi for virtually zero costs made us a ton of money, and nobody could tax it from us. Not the Lord of Firwood, nor the guilds; not a single person.
We sold a lot of curry and fried rice, including a few potions, but as they had to be taxed by the chefs and merchants guild, we earned less from them than we wanted. Still, it filled out our coffers and it made us hopeful that we could pay for armor or maybe my catalyst in the future. The better we were equipped, the less risk we would face in the future.
On our day of break on DarkDay, Ellaine suddenly told me something.
“Lady Hestia, Lord Theodore wishes to meet you. It seems he wants you to accompany him to the Chezaic household in order to heal the eldest child of Lord Chezaic.”
AbyssRaven Our girls being productive members of society.
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