Gourmet Emperor: Master Of Culinary World

Sluggishly, I stand up from my bed and wash my face. The cold water in the basin somehow gives me some refreshment after that h.e.l.lish training. After change the clothes that wetted with my sweat with a dry one, I left my tent to see the condition of the salt cooking pot. The firewatcher seems just changing shift, and to this new shift, I told them not to add more seawater to the pot, and inform me if the water level is already low. I want to see how much salt I can get within these three days.

Since my uncle hasn"t come to see me, I just walk around the beach. When I see a wooden stick carried by waves and send ash.o.r.e, I pick it up and start swinging it around like a sword. Without I realize I already moving that stick in the swordplay that man teach me. Until a voice awakens me from this unconscious training.

"Hoo, so you can do swordplay too, Henry"

It"s my uncle voice that looks for me here.

"Oh uncle, I just move it in a random way, that"s not a swordplay"

I try to cover my swordplay teaching from my uncle. I don"t what to say if he asks me who teach me that swordplay.

"That does not look like a random move in my eyes. Let"s play a while"

My uncle takes a tree branch that lied in the ground, cleans the twig and leaves from that branch, and makes it like a stick. After that, without any warning, he already swings that stick toward me. I, by reflect, raise my hand to parry his attack. When his attack failed, my uncle sends another attack and I keep parry the attack using the stance that man teach me. Without we realize, it already takes like hundreds of strikes between me and my uncle. He keeps attacking me with that stick while I only defend myself. This continues until my uncle stopping his attack because his breathing is already heavy. While panting and catching his breath my uncle said,

"You still said that"s only random moves, Henry?"

Oh d.a.m.n! I forgot about to cover my swordplay, it"s just too exciting to have a real opponent to test this swordplay, and just with the stance only I can withstand my uncle attack. What should I say now?

"Hehe…it"s just something that after a long time I haven"t use again uncle"

I said that while scratching my head. I don"t know if my uncle will buy that reason or not.

"Haha… Don"t be so shy like that Henry. Your father is also a great swordsman when I met him for the first time. I"m not wondering if your inherit his sword talent"

"Is that true uncle?"

"You can ask him about his valor during the war. I"m not a bad sword man too, but you see, I can"t even land a strike on you"

"Haha…I just don"t want to get hit by that, uncle"

"Hohohoho…okay, at least now I can feel calm and not worried anymore about your safety, Henry. I"m sure you can protect yourself now. Let"s back to the camp and inspect the work"

I follow my uncle return to the camp and inspect the clearing work. Thank G.o.d, my uncle did not dig anymore about this swordplay. Maybe he thinks it"s my father that teaches me his swordplay. When we arrive at the clearing site, an open s.p.a.ce already made there, after the tree stomps removed. Some crews are also already digging the land to make a pool. It"s quite fast for this era standard since they not using the chainsaw to cut the trees and bulldozer to clear it.

"That"s fast uncle, considering we just three days in here"

"Haha, of course. They are my best men that I"m carefully selected. I"m sure within a week the pool is ready"

I"m checking the soil that the crews currently digging. If this soil is sand soils, all we have done will be a naught because the seawater will be absorbed into the ground instead of evaporated. Luckily, it"s just like ordinary soil, not sandy soil, so our plan will not be disturbed by that. I examine the lump of soil in my hand, it textures is rather solid and slippery, just like….CLAY!

"Uncle, check this soil"

I handed the lump of soil to my uncle. He receives it and examines carefully

"Henry, this is…clay?"

"Clay or something similar with clay. Uncle, we can make bricks from that or even earthen wares"

"Hahaha, this is great! I can see this area will more prosperous in the future with this clay. Alright, I will ask some potter to be included in the next batch of worker"

"We still can make bricks first uncle. Just make some mold to cast the brick, dried under the sun, if we can build kiln then we burn it on the kiln to make it stronger. When we have bricks, we can make a house from that"

"Oh, that"s a good idea! I"ll ask the carpenter to make that mold. Now I start to feel we should bring more men with us"

I just smile hearing my uncle words. If we come with too many people, that would attract attention, right? And this mission would no longer secret anymore.