Chapter 15 – Food is a priority

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The back courtyard was normally home to a two-story building in a courtyard traditional house, but mine was somewhat different. That was where I had hidden my secret.

I put a hot spring bath at the back of the house.

Of course, I was definitely going to upgrade from a cottage to a ranch house, but even if I put a bathtub in my house, a hot spring facility was a bigger upgrade.

Though my bathing facility was tiny, it had all the best features of a Japanese onsen: a hidden entrance with a door that had a secure lock, a dressing room with alcoves on the walls where one could store personal items, a shower room for cleansing, and, finally, a pool of hot water fed by a magical hot spring for soaking.

The decorations were minimal since I had chosen plain white walls and floors, along with a few pretty ceiling murals of abstract swirls and flowers. This was meant to be a cozy place for me to rest after a long day of manual labor on the farm, not a design showcase.

I’d been in it yesterday, luxuriating in the feeling of all my cares melting away amidst the hot water. The hot springs in Adventure Incarnate were all extremely expensive add-ons that provided a very nice energy bonus for players, and using it made me feel refreshed and invigorated. Curiously, the water of the hot spring was filled with golden sparkles, as though it was full of gold flakes, but no matter how I tried, the gold specks always eluded me when I tried to catch them.

***

Once I had finished the courtyard house, it was time for me to upgrade my own place.

[Ranch-Style House:

A one-story house with a simple design, perfect for a laid-back lifestyle. The interior is open and airy, with large windows and comfortable furniture. The front porch is a great place to hang out.]

That sounded good to me.

Shuye had emphasized that I needed to take charge of the main rooms of the courtyard house. Traditionally, that type of house was inhabited by one big extended family, and the head of the household occupied the northern rooms. I personally didn’t intend to stay in it because I liked my privacy, and I didn’t want to live cheek by jowl with a bunch of people I wasn’t related to.

With this in mind, I spent the next two days packing up my stuff that was in the cottage and temporarily moving it to the main residence. Then I selected a space that was some distance from the courtyard house by cutting a path through the trees to a small clearing where I set down the new ranch house.

Right out of the box, it was pretty nice. I was especially happy that I wouldn’t have to use an outhouse anymore.

Yes! It had a real flush toilet!

I did a little dance right there and then as I repeatedly flushed the toilet just to watch it happen, marveling at this most convenient of modern inventions.

The living room was just the standard type, with a cream-colored sofa and an armchair. The kitchen was small but had all the usual appliances, such as a stove, fridge, and oven, but my characteristic as a disastrous cook meant that the kitchen would be mostly unused. I was very pleased to see that the bedroom was much larger than the one in the cottage, and that I had plenty of storage space for my clothes and shoes.

One thing that I did add to the ranch was a bigger front porch with a small table and a rocking chair where I could relax when the weather was good.

All of this kept me quite busy, and time flew by until Shuye arrived with the chef and his wife.

“Nice to meet you!” I said to the middle-aged man and woman who had arrived for an interview, and possibly a contract signing, if we both thought it would work out.

They had arrived in an ox-drawn cart with Shuye walking beside it.

The chef’s name was Deming, meaning “brilliant virtue,” and he was a middle-aged man, probably in his early fifties. He was of average height and build, with salt-and-pepper hair that was thinning on top, and watery brown eyes. He was wearing a plain dark blue robe and a pair of well-worn boots. As was common in this part, he was clean-shaven but had long hair. He was of average height and build, and gave off an air of calmness.

Though Deming was the one applying for the job, his wife, Fengying, whose name meant “phoenix beauty,” was the one who did all the talking. Fengying had obviously been a great beauty in her youth. Though she was around fifty years old or thereabouts, she was still a strikingly lovely woman. Her hair was still black as night, and her eyes were a warm dark brown.

The two of them bowed from the waist.

“It is an honor to meet a great lady such as yourself,” said Fengying.

“Oh no, I’m just a humble farmer. Please call me Violet,” I said.

“Thank you. That’s very gracious of you,” she said.

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“Good morning, Shuye.” I didn’t forget to hand over another crocus flower to my helpful Farm Guide.

“Good morning.” After we exchanged greetings, Shuye wandered off to inspect the potato plants. He was always interested in their growth.

I turned to the couple and said, “Let me show you the kitchen and living quarters.”

As we walked to the main house, Fengying gave me a short rundown of Deming’s background as a chef. He had been working as the head chef of the Duke of Xishan’s household for the last ten years.

“May I ask why you left the Duke’s employ?” Since I was a newcomer to this world, I wasn’t familiar with the noble families in the Westerlands, but being the head chef of a Duke had to be quite a prestigious job.

“Internal family politics.” That was all Fengying would say, but she did mention that she had an excellent reference from someone whose name I didn’t recognize but was undoubtedly someone quite prominent from the way she said it. The fact that Prince Baiyu’s staff had chosen Deming meant he was probably a good choice, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

“Okay, so here is the main gate.” As I ushered them into the new building, I was quite pleased with their reaction.

“How beautiful. What an elegant courtyard! These rooms are so spacious, don’t you think so, dear?” Fengying kept up a running commentary as we moved from room to room. Deming had yet to open his mouth.

I saved the best for last. After showing them the rooms that would be their quarters if they accepted the job, I showed them the kitchen.

“If you work here, this will be your workplace,” I said as I opened the door to the room full of gleaming modern appliances.

Fengying and Deming’s jaws dropped when I showed off each item’s functions. There was a bit of a snaggle when the piece of bread I tried to toast turned into a coal brick, but that was a minor snafu compared to the sheer magnificence of the commercial kitchen.

“So, what do you think?” I asked.

The two of them locked eyes together for a few seconds. Deming made an infinitesimally tiny nod of his head, and Fengying said, “We’ll take the job.”

“Both of you?” I asked.

“Yes, I can work as the head housekeeper,” she said.

Shuye had already warned me that I shouldn’t expect the chef to work alone, so I would have to hire a complete staff for my “household” even if it only consisted of one person, me. I suppose that a person of Deming’s caliber did not expect to do his own cleaning, for example, so it was necessary to hire more people. Fengying and I came to an agreement that she would hire some locals to work in the house.

“There’s just one more thing. I expect to welcome three apprentices into my household,” I said. “I would like you to supervise their daily lives. I mean stuff like making sure their rooms are clean, that they eat their meals on time, and so forth.”

“Yes, that is quite within my capabilities,” she said.

“All right, before we finish, can you please take a look at this?” I took a ripe cherry from my inventory and handed it to Deming. The fruit was something that I had foraged, so it was not one of the items from my inventory that were bound to me. “Can you cook with spiritual ingredients?”

The moment that the fruit touched his hand, Deming went through a starting transformation. The formerly quiet and unassuming man turned into a demon. He straightened up, the expression on his face became fierce. Even his watery eyes turned cold. He gently squeezed the fruit and sniffed it before saying, “This Is a low grade Spiritual Black Cherry. If you had more, I could make a cherry pie that could you could serve to the greatest cultivators in the land, no, the world.”

Fengying noticed my surprise, and said, “He’s only like this when it involves his work. He is a very passionate chef.”

Demon Chef! His eyes had turned black, like a bottomless abyss, and I seemed to see flashes of red in them. Deming was exactly like Adventure Incarnate’s Demon Chef! That was the most expensive, top-of-the-line chef that players could hire.

I’ve hit the jackpot! According to the in-game description, the Demon Chef’s cuisine was extremely scrumptious.

We went back outside to where Shuye was waiting for us. He assured me that the Prince’s staff would take care of all the details for me. All I needed to do now was wait a few days while they got everything in order for their move to my house.

“I look forward to it,” I said. I gave Fengying a few [Dewy Glow Potions] as a present, then went back to the house. Things were really looking up!

There was only one minor problem. I didn’t have enough food for the Demon Chef to cook.