Chapter 007: The Banquet

 Using a spoon, just scrape off a little bit and light it up.

Then do the experiment again.

Richard watched as a really hot blue flame shot up at first, but then it quickly turned into a lower temperature red flame and didn't last long.

Meanwhile, the clean grease turned black and started to smell like burnt feathers.

Richard recognized that smoky smell from burning proteins, probably caused by impurities in the grease.

"So, the red grease isn't pure magic stuff; the real magic is hidden inside. I need to extract the pure magic substance from the grease before I can use it for anything,"

Richard thought out loud while squinting his eyes. Just then, someone knocked on his lab door with a regular rhythm:——"Knock, knock, knock, knock!"

"Come in," Richard said already knowing who was there.

The door creaked open and Lucy poked her head in timidly saying, "Hey my master."

"What's up? Got any news?" Richard glanced at the maid, kept on working as he was, getting ready to extract pure magical stuff from the grease.

"Uh, well," Lucy said nervously, swallowing hard. "The Baron's back from his rounds of the estate."

Richard kept doing what he was doing, and shrugged a bit. "So what?"

"But..." Lucy hesitated, then gathered her courage to continue, "the Baron specifically told me to let you know that he wants to have dinner with you."

"Hmm?" Richard paused briefly in his movements but then continued without much interest.

"Well then, go tell Baron Leo that I'm busy and don't have time to join him for dinner. He can dine alone."

After saying that, Richard took out a pound of blood-red grease and put it in a ceramic pot before placing the pot in a basin of water. He started gathering various bottles and jars to set up all kinds of equipment.

Richard had already made up his mind to try distilling magic stuff from the grease; it seemed like the simplest and most practical way.

Watching Richard keep himself occupied so busily made Lucy open her mouth for quite some time without making a sound."

Finally, after a while, she nervously said, "Um, well... my master, Baron Leo really wants to have dinner with you. He's waiting in the main hall and won't start without you."

Richard frowned at the maid Lucy.

Their eyes met and Lucy looked anxious as she softly asked, "Master... are you... going?"

"Hmm." Richard sighed, his eyes showing annoyance. Then he turned to wash his hands and spoke sarcastically, "Yes, of course I'll go! The great Baron is so 'thoughtful' inviting me to dinner. How could I refuse? That would be rude, wouldn't it?"

"Uh..."

"Fine. Let's go," Richard said as he pushed open the door and left the attic to walk down the side of the building.

The main castle where Baron Leo lived was in the center of everything—a towering structure built entirely of blue stones over twenty meters high.

To its left and right were slightly shorter buildings. Richard lived on the right side while the knights and other higher-ranking helpers for Baron lived on the left.

The rest of them lived in cottages behind the main castle next to smelly stables.

As Richard walked towards the main castle area he glanced back at those cottages before heading onwards.

Opening the door, he was greeted by the grand hall of the main castle.

The floor was made of old stone slabs, some of them damaged and carefully repaired. After years of use, the surface had become smooth from all the walking.

In the middle of the hall sat a long black walnut dining table, over four meters long and more than a meter wide. Baron Leo Anglay, tall and thin, was sitting straight across from the door.

"You're here, my son," he said when he saw Richard approaching.

Richard didn't reply but took a seat at the other end of the table opposite Baron Leo.

He knew his father wouldn't have invited him to dinner without a good reason behind it. The dinner itself was just a front; Richard couldn't shake off his suspicion about what might be going on.

Feeling Richard's gaze fixed on him like an inspection, Baron Leo forced out a few awkward laughs to lighten up the atmosphere.

Richard took one look at the food and had zero appetite—despite living in this world for fifteen years, he still couldn't stomach the medieval grub.

The lack of seasoning and cooking variety made the food almost impossible to choke down.

The soup was sour...the steak was burnt...and the cabbage was wilted...

And don't even get me started on the bread. It was like a hard, tasteless biscuit—definitely not like what we're used to in modern times.

The flour used in this bread wasn't even sifted properly, so it's full of bran and just tastes awful.

Some shady bakers even added sand or gravel to their flour, making their black bread nearly indestructible.

They could probably use it as a medieval weapon!

But unfortunately, some poor peasants ended up with that bitter black bread because of those deceitful bakers.

But I'm sure the bread served to Richard and Baron Leo isn't that bad. It's definitely not mixed with sand or stones, and it has been sifted multiple times.

The white bread just baked only has a slight smell of wheat, but it still tastes bad to Richard.

He ripped the bread into little bits, then dunked them in meat soup until they got soft. He used a knife and fork to eat it.

As he swallowed the bread soaked in meat soup, he forced down some really tough steak and a few pieces of yellow cabbage to barely fill his stomach.

Baron Leo from across the table had just finished eating.

He wiped his mouth with a napkin, drank the last bit of wine left in his glass, and looked like he wanted to start a conversation.

Richard knew that dinner was about to get interesting.

"Lately, I've been checking out my land," Baron Leo said with a concerned look on his face.

"To be honest, things aren't looking good. Some villages are constantly getting robbed by bandits, and even our two towns have been raided now and then. A lot of merchants are scared to do business here because they're worried about making less money this year than last year when we made over two thousand silver Krell（——money here）. This year we might not even reach eighteen hundred."

Richard stayed quiet as he continued watching Leo, curious about what he was planning to say next.

"Okay, so here's the deal," Leo said, leaning in. "I really need to beef up our knight and soldier numbers to bring some order to this place. Money can buy soldiers, but knights? They want more than just cash - they want land. Problem is, we're tight on land for loyal knights. So I need something else to sweeten the pot, you know?"

"Hmm... like what?" Richard asked.

"Well," Leo replied, taking a deep breath. "I want you to make me two top-notch knight swords like the ones you showed me earlier. I figure if we give these out as rewards, it'll keep our knights happy and things will settle down real quick."

Richard grinned and said casually, "Sure thing."

"Wait, really? You agree?" Leo was surprised at first, but then his face fell when Richard added calmly,

"Yeah, for six hundred silver Krell per sword."

Leo was taken aback. "That's way too expensive! It's almost four months' income for us!"

"I'm telling you, these swords don't come cheap," Richard insisted.

"I can get you the materials and help from our blacksmiths right here in the estate," Leo offered.

"Why not just find someone else then? They'd probably do it for free," Richard shot back.

"You..."

"You know, the most expensive thing here is my effort," Richard said calmly. "Without my effort, I can't make the kind of sword you want."

"But I'm your father," the baron said indignantly.

"Hey, no need to get all worked up, dad," Richard replied calmly, thinking back on his fifteen years in this world.

"Since three years ago, when I was twelve, you threatened to cut off my pocket money to stop all experiments. That's when I told you that I wouldn't spend your money anymore; I'd earn all my living expenses myself."

"Actually, over these three years, I've earned enough through the two shops I opened in town to repay all your previous expenses based on average prices. Then later on, you didn't allow me to command the castle's soldiers. Fine by me - I directly recruited the first castle guard and paid them myself so they only obey my orders, nominally yours too."

"In a way, I owe you nothing. Dad, we are equals now with a bit of conflict thrown in there since three years ago. So if you want something from meh hah gotta pay up an equivalent amount. Remember though that the sword you want is an alloy sword - technology at least hundreds of years ahead of our world - worth three hundred silver Krell which is just thirty thousand copper Krell – really cheap! So don't even think about bargaining."

"Sorry, but I don't have that kind of cash right now," Leo said, looking a bit annoyed. After taking a deep breath, he added, "How about an IOU? You're my son and heir. Sure, maybe I made a mistake three years ago, but you're still set to inherit my title and estate. Isn't that worth more than three hundred silver Krell?"

"Hah." Richard smiled and raised a finger. "First off, I'm actually your second heir. When I was a kid, my five-year-old 'beloved' brother—Edward Anglay—followed tradition and left the estate to become a knight at his mom's nobleman's place to toughen up. He's the real number one heir for sure."

"And secondly," Richard held up another finger, "I never really thought about inheriting the title. What would I even do with it? Become some boring farmer or quietly build an army to conquer the world? No thanks. What I want to do is way more exciting and doesn't require me to inherit any title. So yeah, not interested in being your successor."

"Finally," Richard said, holding up his third finger, "what I'm doing now isn't payback for what happened three years ago. I'm not a kid—I only care about what's right and wrong, good and evil. Grown-ups only care about their own interests. My rule is simple: you give me money, I give you a sword. And if you can't pay with cash, goods will do just fine. There are lots of things I need that we don't have here at the estate. I'll get Lucy to make a list for you, and once you've gathered everything on it, I'll give you the sword you want."

Leo stayed quiet for a while before finally speaking.

"Fine... Okay," Leo replied, sounding a bit grumpy and defeated. He looked at his fifteen-year-old son Richard with deep unease that had been building up inside him for quite some time now.

Many nights he'd wake from dreams and stand by the window in the main castle bedroom, staring at the lights still on in the attic of the side castle, wondering: Is this really my son?

How did I end up with a kid like him?

What is he trying to achieve?

"Well then, that's all from me. I'll head off now. Goodnight dad—Baron Leo Anglay," Richard interrupted Leo's thoughts as he turned to leave the main castle hall.

But just as he was about to go out, the baron suddenly called out,"Wait!"

"Hey?" Richard stopped walking and looked at the baron with a puzzled expression. "What's up?"

"I heard..." The baron took a deep breath, carefully choosing his words. "I heard that before you came back from checking out the estate this time, you took Butchery and the others into the Black Forest and killed a bear?"

"Yeah," Richard nodded.

The baron looked at him, hoping for more of a response from Richard, but when he didn't get one, he had to ask again, "The bear you killed, it was a Fire Bear, right? The kind that's supposed to be on fire?"

"Yeah," Richard replied shortly.

"Ah..." The baron sighed heavily and furrowed his brow with concern. Unable to hold back, he asked, "What do you plan to do about it?"