NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: Tacos!
By the time it was eight, the street was almost empty. Lukas looked around to see some spilled gravy on the gravel road, making him shake his head. This was one of the disadvantages of running a food truck, be it in the modern world, a medieval one or the one he was currently in, a world that seemed to be in a time that's similar to the victorian era on earth but with status screens, levels, knight and much more.
Most of which, Lukas didn't know about yet.
He looked at Robinson who was staring at a wooden box with a dumbfounded expression. Slowly, he looked up at Lukas and said, "We sold 280. That's a total of 560 bronze coins."
Lukas nodded as he had expected these numbers. There was still a few loaves left along with some gravy but he didn't pay it any mind. Instead, he took out a small paper from his pocket and began to write on it using a sharpened pencil.
10KG Onions = 1 Silver / 20 Bronze
10KG Tomatoes = 1 Silver / 20 Bronze
10KG Potatoes = 10 Bronze
500 Grams Garlic = 1 Bronze
Spices = 2 Bronze
25KG Flour = 50 Bronze
Total: 5 Silver + 3 Bronze / 103 Bronze
At first glance, it looked like Lukas had made a lot of profit but one also had to consider the cost of buying the bakery, the weekly salary of Johmir and Robinson along with the price of buying the cart.
Baron Frascine had taken up the brunt of the finances, investing in Lukas' ideas with confidence. If not for this help, Lukas knew that the scale of his business wouldn't have been this high.
'I'm not sure if I would even have the permission to sell this way…' he thought as he got off the cart and gave Robinson 17 bronze coins.
"It was a successful first day so this is your bonus." he said as began to split the money.
After taking out 120 bronze coins which went into ingredients and paying his employee, he cut the remaining 440 coins into equal parts.
"Here's fifty percent of the profits." Lukas said as he gave 220 coins to Robinson who nodded and pushed them all into a medium sized leather bag
Then, he looked at Nina who seemed pretty energetic as she ate her breakfast on the cart before handing over the rest of the money to Robinson too.
"Convert these to silver for me please. I don't like carrying so many coins or even storing them."
Robinson nodded and transferred those coins into his bag too. Then, he left while Lukas pulled the cart back to the bakery The two of them took twenty minutes to clean up the cart, utensils and the inside of the bakery before they locked the door and left.
"I'll head over to the Baron's place. Miss Alicia has invited a lot of businessmen, nobles and high society members to attend a party. I'm responsible for helping their team of chefs and entertaining the guests… It's going to be soooo tiresome."
Nina nodded and glanced at him for a moment, seemingly hesitating about something before she looked to the front. A few moments later, she leaned closer and pulled his shirt's sleeve.
"Can I…. go to school?" she asked softly as she gave him an expectant look.
For a moment he didn't know what to say since he hadn't expected such a question. Anyone could go to school in their kingdom but Lukas didn't like the way the schools taught the students. The whole system was tilted towards mentorship.
The ones who managed to get a teacher to mentor them would get more time to study and they would also have better opportunities in the future due to that connection. As for the rest, it was nothing but a lost case.
He thought for a while and probed, "What do you wish to learn?"
"To read and write Hentic."
"Sure. I'll talk to the baron and see if there's someone who's willing to tutor you."
He wished to teach her himself but he also knew that he would be pretty busy in the near future.
After walking her back home, Lukas changed his clothes and left. On the way, he checked his system screen to see what the whole thing about feedback was. There wasn't much of a change except for his Unique Skill, Divine Farm. It said (98.4%) beside it.
When he rang the doorbell, he expected the butler to open it but saw Alicia instead.
"Oh it's Chef Lukas." she said, her bright expression suddenly switched to one of politeness as she made way for him.
Lukas walked in and glanced at her as she closed the door, "You were expecting someone else?"
"Yes, I was expecting a very dear friend of mine. She said that she would come early and help with the preparations. I also told her about your…. special ability."
'Ah right… Robinson works for these guys.' Lukas thought as he nodded, 'When I made the burgers, I didn't use any of my ranked ingredients so the stat boost wouldn't have been much. Robinson probably told them about his stats getting a boost of above ten.'
Alicia looked at him and thought for a moment before saying, "We have hired a well known team of chefs to prepare the buffet. They'll take care of the starters, mains and the desserts but our main goal is to showcase how your food is different from the norm. Do you have anything you wish to make today?"
"Right, this is basically an advertisement." Lukas said as he put both his hands in his pockets as he thought, "Well… I'll decide once I see what the chefs are preparing. It'll be awkward if I make something similar."
"You're very thoughtful, Chef Lukas." Alicia said politely as she guided him to the kitchen where he only saw two men working.
Before he could ask if there were more, Alicia already began to speak, "The others are setting up the tables and the dishes that have already been prepared."
Hearing this, Lukas walked into the kitchen and took note of all the ingredients that were available. Then, after talking to the chefs there, he looked at Alicia.
"I'll be making something called a Taco."