Recipes

Nolan and Harley walked on their way home, together with the slaves. Nolan and Harley walked in front and the slaves followed closely behind.

When Nolan bought Kelton, he got a new quest, so as he walked toward Harley's house, he analyzed the quest.

[Hidden character quest: Kelton the mason]

[Kelton has lost faith in humans]

[Show Kelton that the good in humans still exists]

[Time limit: None]

[Reward: Hidden trait, Exp 15]

'Hidden trait? In the novels I read on Earth, I remember some characters had hidden traits, so I wondered why there was no such a trait on the status windows. Is it possible If you don't have one it wouldn't show on the status window?' Nolan thought.

"Why did you offer such a high price for that building?" Harley asked, clearly dissatisfied. "You could have bought that building for ten taels of silver."

Nolan closed the quest window and turned to Harley. "As I already said, I wanted to build a good relationship with the slave trader."

"But giving ten taels of silver away as a gift, isn't it too much? Why would we need his help anyway?" Harley couldn't understand Nolan. However, in the past few days he spend with him, he noticed that Nolan had rich experience in many fields, experience unbefitting for his years.

"You never know when you will need someone's help," Nolan said.

"But with those ten taels of silver, we could have hired a mason and reconstructed the building you bought."

"Why would we hire them when we could buy them?" Nolan smirked.

"What do you mean?"

"I know that man." Nolan pointed at Kelton. "Before, I was a beggar. While begging on the streets as a child, I saw him. At that time, he was a famous mason, so I bought him so I don't have to hire a mason. As for the other four men, I bought them so they could help him." Nolan made up a story. " Harley, we have more than two tons (4400 pounds) of grain. We could feed them forever." He added.

The fact that Nolan was a beggar before shocked Harley. However, as a noble, he had seen too many shocking things, so he quickly came to himself. "I see. Your plan of buying a mason instead of hiring one is not bad. And though I still don't approve of you wasting ten taels of silver just like that, I believe you know what you are doing."

Immersed in their chat, Harley and Nolan did not even realize when they arrived at Harley's house.

"Ihhhh!" Nolan let out a weird sound as he stepped back from the house in fear.

"What happened?" Harley asked, clearly scared by Nolan's sudden behavior.

"Do you think she has forgiven us?" Nolan asked in a low voice.

"Ahhh!" Harley sighed a sigh of relief. It turned out to be nothing serious. "Probably." He replied casually as he walked to the door and was just about to open it.

Nolan grabbed his hand.

"What are you doing?" Harley asked.

"You don't understand how serious the situation is. How are we going to explain this?" Nolan pointed at the slave.

It finally hit him. Harley felt the whole world fall on his head. Only now did he understand the seriousness of the situation.

He backed away from the door in fear. "Thank god I didn't open the door."

Creeakkk!

The door slowly opened.

Nolan's and Harley's hearts skipped a beat. At the moment, they had only one thought on their mind: "It's over."

To their relief, at the door appeared Henry. He was about to head to the street and play with his friends.

Seeing Nolan and his father, a wide smile spread across his face.

"Shhhh!" Harley placed his index finger on his mouth. "Keep quiet. Don't say anything."

Henry's smile widened as if saying: "Rest assured."

However…

"MOM!!!" He shouted from the bottom of his lungs.

Nolan's and Harley's bodies shook. "We are dead." They muttered simultaneously.

"Dad and Nolan are back with a group of people. They look like slaves!" Henry shouted again, and immediately after, he ran out of the house and headed toward his friends' gathering place.

"You burned me, Henry!" Harley screamed as he and Nolan watched Henry get further and further away.

Henry turned and waved to them with a big smile. "Good luck."

"What. Is. The. Meaning. Of. This?" Nolan and Harley heard Nara's cold voice from behind. Without any sudden movement, they slowly turned back.

They already knew the fate awaiting them.

…

Three days passed since Nolan and Harley bought the slaves.

When they arrived with the slaves at Harley's house, Nara beat the sh.it out of Nolan and Harley without listening to their explanation. Only after beating them did she agree to listen to their explanation.

After listening to their explanation, Nara said they had brought the right decision. She allowed the slaves to stay and let them bathe while she cooked food.

In the past three days, she has also accepted Layla, which now helps with most housework.

Nara found it funny that less than ten days ago, they had to consider If they would have enough to eat tomorrow. And now, she was cooking food for seven additional people. Nolan, Layla, and five slaves.

In the past three days, Nara had fed the slaves well. Though they all slept in Nolan's room together with Nolan, It was still far better than sleeping in cages covered by hay.

However, even though they were treated well, Nolan had still not completed the hidden character quest. Which only shows how bad treatment Kelton received as a slave.

The slaves also recovered from most of the injuries they had. They had not fully recovered, but they could work.

While the slaves were recovering, the slave trader moved all the cages out of the building. Now, the building was empty.

Now three days later, Nolan, Harley, and the slaves had a meeting in Nolan's room.

Nolan sat on the floor. Before him was the small square table, and on the table were placed ink, paper, and brush. On his left sat Kelton as a mason, on his right sat Harley as his partner, and opposite him sat Layla as the chief waiter.

The other four slaves sat on the bed.

"Hoooo!" Nolan let out a long sigh as he took the brush in hand and tapped the tip into the ink.

He started drawing something on the paper, and everyone in the room observed him carefully.

He was drawing a construction plan and design for the restaurant. He concentrated so much that he barely breathed, only taking light breaths.

He concentrated so much because when it came to drawing, he was not the best.

Back on Earth, he had a talent for everything. Academics, sports, writing, mathematics, and many other things. However, he did not have a talent for drawing. He drew so terribly that you could barely tell a human and a fish apart.

However, somewhere in the middle of his teenage years, a passion for drawing hit him out of nowhere. He wanted to become an artist, so despite not having talent, he practiced drawing for hours. And in the end, he did give up, but that does not mean he had not improved.

…

Half-hour later.

Nolan finished the construction plan. It did not turn out as bad as he thought it would.

He passed it to Kelton. After all, he was the mason so he would tell whether he could build it.

"This plan is very detailed. It is possible to build this, but with the manpower we have now, it would take at least a month to build. I suggest hiring a few lower-class people." Kelton said after carefully analyzing the construction plan.

"How much would building this take?" Nolan asked.

"If we include hiring people as I suggested, then it would take at least a hundred taels of silver."

"H-Hundred taels? Isn't it a bit too much?" Harley asked, shocked by the price.

"Actually, it's because you do not have to pay me, and I am a pretty decent mason. If it's any other mason, It would cost you at least three hundred taels of silver." Kelton explained.

"Is it worth it?" Harley asked.

Both Kelton and Nolan nodded.

"There would be a gambling facility in the basement, a restaurant on the first floor, and chambers on the second floor," Kelton said. "The gambling facility would always be full, and if the food is decent, this would be a huge success."

"Wait a minute," Nolan said and left the room.

About five minutes later, he returned together with Nara and Henry.

They carried various plates of food and one pot.

"Those are the recipes I taught Nara. Please try them." Nolan said as he placed the food on the table.

They brought two pizzas, one bowl of noodles, and a hot pot.

Of course, those dishes were nowhere near as good as the ones in modern times because they lacked some ingredients, and Nolan knew this. But they were still fat better than the food the people in this world had.

The pizza was a round bread with tiny sliced pieces of meat placed on top together with tomato and some cheese.

Nolan prepared the noodles the same way the people of this world did, with the only difference being that Nolan made some tomato sauce and added it to the noodles.

And in the end, the hot pot contained slices of meat, vegetables, and some other ingredients, as well as tomato sauce.

"It smells good," Harley commented. Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

Harley took the first bite. "Ahhh!" His eyes widened. "It's good."

After Harley, everyone else tried the food, and they all had the same reaction.

Nolan watched them devour the food with a satisfied smile on his face.

"This restaurant would definitely be famous," Kelton commented.

"Alright, alright!" Nolan calmed everyone down with a smile on his face. But the next moment, he became serious. "Everyone, I'm going to leave for a week."

Hearing this, everyone became serious, and the atmosphere in the room became tense.

"No need to be so serious. I have some things to take care of. But do not worry, I left a hundred and sixteen taels of silver to Nara. Use them to build the restaurant." Nolan spoke with a smile, trying to ease the atmosphere.

He had to leave. Not only the part of the city he was in now, but he had to leave the city. He needed to find a suitable place to build a village and place the foundation for the future.

Of course, everyone complained and tried to make him stay, but they could not make Nolan stay.

…

Nolan stayed in Harley's house till night. They discussed some important topics about the business and other themes unconnected to the business.

When the night fell, he bid goodbye to everyone, and at full speed from roof to roof, he headed south towards the city gates closest to him.