The rest of the casks were fine, and he ended up buying them. Five casks of juice, right as they were about to begin serving a lunch menu as well… it was less than ideal, but that was the way it worked sometimes. If nothing else, it would give them an accurate idea of how much juice he actually needed to order each time.

  Before the two could leave, Draden asked them if they wanted some food. There was still roughly an hour before the restaurant opened for dinner, which meant it was time for the staff to eat.

  The two cautiously accepted his offer and entered the restaurant, taking a seat at one of the tables. Alice moved a second table next to it and then began bringing out pitchers of water and cups.

  Inside the kitchen, Draden took over for Emilie, who had been doing an excellent job of cooking the chicken. She had been diligently turning them and then taking them off and replacing them with fresh pieces as needed. A couple of them had been slightly overcooked and were too dry, but there was a somewhat easy fix for that.

  He cut all the chicken into strips and then added the barest smidge of oil to the bowl that held the strips. The dry pieces would take in the oil, adding some moisture, while not overdoing it.

  Turning off the stovetop, he quickly handed a couple of bowls to Emilie, before grabbing the bowl of meat and then the tortillas he had prepared the night before.

  “Alright, everyone, grab a seat. You get to prepare your own versions of these. I’ll show you how to put them together, twice as I make mine and Leah’s, and then you can make your own,” Draden called out, having already decided to do this meal differently than the others.

  Obviously, this wasn’t how it would work for actual customers. However, there was something about the act of preparing food together that brought people together. This was the bare minimum in that regard, but it counted, hopefully.

  Leah and Eowin stood on their chairs and watched as Draden placed a tortilla on two plates. “Now, first up, we have chicken gyros with a tzatziki sauce.” He took the large serving spoon and dipped it into the salad bowl, the holes in the spoon letting the liquid drain away. “Take some of this salad mixture and put it on your tortilla. Not too much, mind you, and make sure you get rid of any excess liquid. After that, place some chicken on it, and then top it with the tzatziki sauce.”

  Draden did all of this a second time with Leah’s gyro, before folding both like tacos instead of burritos. After that, he took two more tortillas and began working on the chicken wraps.

  “Now with these, the steps are similar, just in a different order. First, you spread the sauce, then you lay down the lettuce.” A second serving spoon went into the bowl containing the corn, beans, and chopped tomato mix. “Add some of this, then the chicken, finally a little cheese, and a little more sauce if desired. Then fold the tortilla, that’s it.”

  Once more, he showed them the process a second time and then let them loose on the food.

  While they were busy constructing their gyros and wraps, he passed Leah her plate. The little girl promptly began inspecting the two separate dishes, vibrating with the desire to try them as her father held her back from digging in.

  Draden had to pull her chair back from the table as her fingers began stretching out toward the food. What little self-control she possessed failed her after a few moments of actually being able to see the food. In the seat next to her, Eowin had a finger in her mouth and was drooling while she watched her mother prepare the plate for her.

  Finally, everyone had prepared their food, though by that point Leah was positively beside herself and had large tears at the corners of her eyes.

  “Why are you making me wait?” She pouted sadly. “Mister Yeero is so sad. He wants to enter my belly through my mouth-hole.” She pointed at her mouth, as though her father had suddenly forgotten what a mouth was.

  Eowin leaned over and put her ear to Leah’s belly. “Feed me.” She whispered. “Give me friends. Where are the tasties?”

  “Is that what it’s saying?” Leah gasped before putting her ear to her friend’s tummy. “Let me hear what you're saying.” She was silent for a moment as she listened. Suddenly, she jerked back and suspiciously poked Eowin’s belly. “Why is your tummy speaking in Elvish?”

  The little girl stared down at her stomach in confusion. “I don’t know. What was it saying?”

  “Feed the belly god, give me nomskies!” Leah replied, doing her best to remain serious, before breaking down in laughter.

  The two’s antics had everyone chuckling and momentarily forgetting their hunger. Only until they glanced at the food waiting on their plates, that is.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Seeing that everyone was ready, Leah grabbed her gyro and took a large bite.

  She bounced happily in her chair, a large smile stretching across her face, while her eyes narrowed into slits of delight. “Sho’good,” She mumbled, barely having finished swallowing before she took another large bite. Her cheeks puffing out like an adorable little chipmunk.

  Eowin had chosen to go for the chicken wrap first and was enjoying it just as much. Her head was doing this little dance as she ate, bobbing along to whatever music the food was making her hear.

  Oddly enough, the two young ones were having less difficulty eating the food than the adults. Eowin still wasn’t able to eat it as easily as Leah or Draden, but she was still able to handle the influx of energy better than most of the others now. It had taken her a few days, but eventually her young body had adjusted to the constant influx of useful energy.

  For the relatively low amount of energy in the food, she could eat it rather easily.

  Alice clapped a hand over her mouth as she bit into the gyro, barely muffling a shout of pleasure. “This sauce with this salad mix, it’s so good! The way it blends together, and the crispness of the vegetables.”

  Draden nodded, swallowing his own bite. “I’ve always thought the same. Gyros are good no matter what, but it’s the mix of vegetables that really takes them to the next level.”

  Over the next several minutes, the inside of the restaurant was filled with different moans of approval and laughter as the adults watched Leah and Eowin dance happily in their chairs.

  Everyone’s opinion of the gyros was outstanding, while the wraps were a little more muted. They still enjoyed them, but compared to the gyros, it just wasn’t as impressive. Which was fine, since it was meant to be the lunch item and not a pure dinner item.

  Once everyone was done eating, Draden brought out the pudding he had prepared, along with the different fruits.

  It was obvious right from the start that the dessert was a little too odd for some of them. Eowin dug in right away after mixing in some raspberries. Alice chose blueberries, and after prodding it a couple of times, took a tentative bite and then began to wolf it down. It was Emilie and the two juice merchants who were being hesitant to even try the unfamiliar dish.

  It was a fairly expected result that Draden had known would happen at some point. The food he was making was unfamiliar to these people. It had only been a matter of time before he made something that someone would be unwilling to try.

  He mentally shrugged and left them to it. They would either try it, or they wouldn’t. Either way, it would remain on the menu for the entire week. If that wasn’t enough time for a sufficient group of people to try it, then he would make it again. The matter was as simple as that.

  A weeklong test phase would give each recipe a decent shake, while also allowing the customers to have a voice, somewhat. Not that he would be letting them know any of this. If they knew, then they would try to game the system. Down voting every dessert that wasn’t their favorite simply because they could. People were stupid like that.

  It took several minutes, but after seeing how much the others were enjoying the pudding, the hesitant three eventually gave it a try as well.

  They may have been the last to try the dessert, but somehow they were the first to finish. Great heaping spoonfuls of pudding were shoved into ravenous gaping maws, creating a show that had the others pulling their bowls back protectively.

  “I take it you, uh, enjoyed the pudding?” Deckard asked, somewhat scared of their answers.

  Alice looked up at him sharply and slowly licked her bowl, her eyes staring into his soul. Finally, she blinked as though she was coming out of a fugue state and shrugged. “Yeah, it was pretty good.” She said nonchalantly.

  The two merchants mirrored her actions. “Yeah, it was good, thank you.”

  “Daddy, they’re scaring me,” Leah said while climbing onto his lap. “They’re acting weird. What happened to them?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie. The pudding might have broken their brains.” He joked.

  The little girl looked at the dessert in awe. “Is pudding such a fearshome weapon?”

  He chuckled and ruffled her hair. “No, I was just kidding. They’re just being weird.” He hoped. He had never seen anyone act the way they had, and it was more than a little freaky.

  Alice finally settled down and slowly shook her head. “No, the pudding just gave me enough energy to complete the connection between my dantian and my core. Before now, I could circulate qi inside my dantian, but without access to my core, I could never properly store it or become a cultivator. It would always leak out over time. This pudding,” She shoved the bowl at him. “Just made it so I can become a proper cultivator.”

  The two merchants, the father and daughter duo, nodded. Apparently, the same thing had happened to them.

  “But why would the pudding have been what completed it for you? It has less energy than many of the other foods I have fed you since you started working here.”

  “As I said, without access to the core, the qi in my dantian would leak out over time. I guess it was just building up each time, leaking a little, building up again, and then this was the final amount I needed. I stopped trying to cultivate properly years ago when I realized I had this problem. So, I wasn’t checking.” Alice explained tentatively.

  Draden took this information in while resting his chin on his daughter’s head and hugging her. “This… sounds like something that could become a problem.” He glanced at Marcus and Coradine. “What do you two think? How will the grand lord idiot respond once news of this gets out?”

  Marcus snorted at the way he addressed Macron and put a spoonful of pudding into his mouth while he thought.

  “Most of his power is based in the city. However, he is responsible for keeping the area outside the city safe as well.” Coradine began to speak. “It’s lucky that you aren’t inside the city, but you are still inside his sphere of influence, even if to a lesser degree.” She frowned. “And from what I understand, he has already marked your daughter for some reason. Which was part of the reason I was called here.”

  Draden nodded.

  “This might make him back off, if I’m being honest,” Marcus said suddenly. “Before, he was focused on Leah for some reason. This will shift his attention to you. Every city wants more cultivators. If you can provide him with those… Well, then he should be willing to offer just about anything. As we have seen though, Macron isn’t exactly responding according to what is normal these days.”

  (The recipe I use in this chapter can be found on my Patreon for free.)

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