NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: Bread and Gravy
(Extra Chapter! Thank you for the review)
[Potato Stuffed Bread (FFF)]
It's a six inch long bread with spiced potato stuffed in the middle, giving both flavour and taste while filling up the stomach. Made using more than two special ingredients, giving it an addictive effect.
Effects: +5 Vitality, +4 Perception, +1 Durability, +1 Endurance
Additional Effects: +30% Satiety, +12 Addiction
'Five kilos isn't enough, I'll need more.' Lukas thought as he made a decision to double it next time. He cut up the 6 inch pieces into three equal parts since he planned on giving them out for free as samples.
One by one, he stuffed the pieces of bread and put them in two medium sized pots. He gave one to his sister and carried the other one himself before walking to the door.
"You take care of distributing to the houses nearby and I'll go a little further away. Once the pot is empty, you can come back and restock." he said and paused for a moment before giving her a wry smile, "We might lose money now, but this will help us make a lot more in the future."
Nina said nothing and simply walked out of the house, leaving him behind.
He silently watched her knock on their neighbour's door and chuckled inwardly, 'Yup, she's pissed.'
With that, he closed the door and left, not bothering to lock it as they didn't exactly have anything valuable. 300 silvers were already deposited in the bank under Lukas's name and the remaining money was with him.
He headed towards baker's cross, an area that had a huge population of single workers who preferred sharing rooms in an attempt to pay low rents.
Stopping in front of a two storey building, he saw that there were two doors in the front. Feeling puzzled, he climbed up the stairs and saw three doors on the second floor.
'Hmm… a total of five small houses?' he thought, but right at that moment, he saw one of the doors open. From inside came a young woman who was short and extremely lanky. His attention went to her high cheekbones as she looked at him.
"Is there anything you need, sir?" she asked and then, she noticed the pot he was holding. With a frown, she said, "We do not wish to buy anything."
'Right… no more sir huh?' Lukas thought as he shook his head, "No, ma'am. I'm not here to sell anything. I plan on opening a restaurant in the future so I thought I'd get some feedback from the locals. Here, could you take a bite and tell me what you think?"
The woman hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded as she took a step forward, allowing Lukas to see what was beyond the door.
'Ah… a toilet. It's probably a shared toilet… pretty inconvenient, especially in the morning.'
While he was busy with his thoughts, the woman had already finished eating.
"It's very good." she said as she looked at him, her expression not changing much.
Lukas saw the lack of reaction and felt a little bummed, the urge to tell her about the stat buffs getting stronger as he watched her open another door.
Seeing this, he hurriedly said, "Ma'am, do you have any suggestions? What would you prefer to eat for breakfast?"
Behind her, he saw three more girls look through the gap and added, "Here, please share these with your friends."
The woman passed them to her roommates and thought for a while before saying, "If it's cheap, then I'll buy it everyday. Making breakfast costs around one to two bronze coins per person but I've never seen any place selling food for that cheap. If possible, it'll be nice to eat the usual stuff, which is bread and gravy."
'Another bread and gravy… hmm.'
Lukas then talked to the other women in the room before moving on to the other rooms, remembering the feed back from each and ever one of them. Specifically, the negative comments.
The one that stood out, was that the bread was too dry. Having mashed potatoes stuffed in the middle didn't exactly help it.
Noting this, Lukas looked down at his almost empty pot as he walked back home. There was just one and he realised that he hadn't tasted it yet. This was slightly different since it wasn't using white bread from before.
'The stat boost might be the same but I don't have the ability to magically make it taste better.'
Hoping that it turned out good even though people complained, he picked it up and took a large bite. After chewing for a few seconds, he couldn't help but grimace.
White bread was soft, chewy and slightly sweet but the one he had used was very different. It was extremely dense, had a thicker crust that made it feel like he was biting into a cracker, and the little bit of mashed potatoes in the center wasn't able to do much to elevate the taste.
Thanks to the highly dense bread, he couldn't help but feel thirsty as it easily made his entire mouth feel dry.
'This one is such a failure….' he thought before letting out a sigh.
Once he was back home, he saw Nina sitting at the dining table while she chewed on the same stuffed bread that Lukas had finished eating. She had no noticeable change in expression as she ate her meal which made him question if he was way too picky when it came to food.
He immediately shook off the idea as he placed the pot in the kitchen. Nina had always been a girl who kept her feelings to herself, especially the negatives ones. In a way, she had learnt it from her mother who suffered in secret while smiling for her children.
'The more I spend time with her, the similarities between her and my sister on earth keep increasing…. she couldn't have transmigrated too right? Well, it's possible since I'm a glaring example.' he thought and paused for a moment before shaking his head, 'This is something I can think about later.'
"We'll need to get a different bread right? It's too dense and many people said they'd rather eat this with gravy instead of mashed potatoes."
Nina turned to look at him and nodded, "I liked that flat bread you made back in the village."
'Nope, never. That's way too hard to make. Preparing hundreds of them is hell… yup, never.' he thought as he sat opposite to her, 'Maybe I'll make some for her in the morning.'
"It's getting late. Let's brush our teeth and go to bed."