Emperor James walked through the hallway towards torturer room of the palaces dungeon. This was where they tortured most of spies or enemies they caught, for information after finding them. As soon as he reached the room he saw butler Smith wiping his hands with a napkin. Extreme anger and disgust was drawn out on his face as a young man laid on the floor often mumbling "Please let me die, I don"t want to live." The man had no wounds in his body, yet he was shivering and curled up like a ball.Seeing the emperor Smith knelt on the floor on one leg while bowing his head down. "I have failed you, you highness."
"How was he able to hide it so well?" The emperor asked Smith as he reviewed the information got from his agents. He had received information when John bought the shop and placed the order for supplies, and from it he concluded he was going to build a restaurant. However, he looked for any people John might have come into contact with that he would find talent in as a chef but found no result.
Unexpectedly on the same day, John called Smith and informed him about his talented Chef George, even the emperor was impressed by Georges" spread, that he had him put directly under the royal head chef to be trained. However, the emperor could make head nor tails about why John would give up his talented chef for some free advertis.e.m.e.nt. So, they all thought John had George make some spread to sell in his restaurant before he left. Because of that they purposely didn"t make it clear which royal child would open the shop, according to John, making a huge crowd gather before his shop. They thought once he ran out of spread he will learn his lesson, and admit his defeat.
But unexpectedly it seemed that he opened a restaurant that sold something else, other than the spread. And along with that he had so many rules and regulation that caused most of them to walk away.
It seemed he sold vegetable soup, steak and cream fruit salad. They never expected John"s shop to be so successful, right after its unpopularity in the morning, on the first day itself causing it to be busy and form a queue so big that it extended to the end of female district. People were even queuing for second serving, and this lasted till 8am in the morning.
It was from the pa.s.ser-by"s that they realised it was John cooking the meals, along with a ma.s.sive discount going on. They waited for him to close down the shop, so the emperor agents could ransack his shop for what he was using to make the food. But it seemed he wasn"t about to close the shop down, even after opening it for more than a day now. So, they sent one agent in to test what was so special about the food.
But he unexpectedly took so long to come out that they though John might have found out who he was and possibly poisoned him. But unexpectedly he came out, but the man that went in was not the man that came out. He was so energetic and happy, along with the scar disappearing from his face, no one knew if an imposter has taken his place. Only after proving his ident.i.ty, he revealed that the food caused his scar to heal and was advertising for its taste to the whole intelligence.
Later they found out that some of the other n.o.ble factions spies entered the shop, and similar to their agent, they were excited and happy as they left. After calming down their agent they got a detailed description of how he felt before, during and after eating the food, and what changes he observed. But the most shocking report was that agent saying that he felt his magi acc.u.mulation increase. Hearing that the emperor felt a bad premonition, so he personally called the agent and asked him to detail everything in the report to make sure. The emperor even had his magi acc.u.mulation tested to find about 10 days of acc.u.mulation was added. This shocked him. He knew this was going to get troublesome now.
Having talked with his head chef, to hopefully find that John must have some kind of trick, but unfortunately he realised these were the signs of conserving the nutrients and magi particles in the ingredients. How could that b.a.s.t.a.r.d make food like that? Could it be the n.o.ble backing him? If so which one amongst the remaining 3 commandment is it? But that still doesn"t prove how he could cook like that? Of the 15 years of John"s life he had him watched since his mothers" death, and no talent other than the one shown in studying was shown.
Suddenly the emperor remembered the spread and the new chef George. He had butler Smith take him to the torture chamber.
"Apparently this greedy b.a.s.t.a.r.d found the remains of soup when he arrived in the morning. Using the remains of the soup he made the spread. He had conned me your majesty. He never wanted any help for his condition, when he gave up this a.s.shole for the trade. All he wanted was us to personally advertise for him to get the attention of other n.o.bles and people keeping an eye on us. Is it possible to cover it up you highness?" Although he knew the answer he wanted to have some hope left.
Shaking his head James replied "I am afraid not Smith. He has now got the attention of the whole n.o.bles faction in the empire. They are all or will be aware of his food and cooking capability. Not to mention even if we try to cover it up his supporter won"t stand still."
"What about using force to make him close his shop down?"
"Once everyone gets the news that John is able to make food that is able to heal any exterior wound and increase magi particle acc.u.mulation, I am afraid that forcing him to close down and work for us will cause the anger of everyone out there, especially the magis.
Along with that those old cooped up commandments waiting for death will rush to John, when they realise he is capable of nutrient and magi particle conservation."
"Why not wait while the n.o.bles fight amongst for John, and we swoop in to benefit from their fight?"
Again, James shook his head while sighing "I wish it was that easy. I am sure you are aware of the benefits of eating food like that. Not only he is able to conserve nutrients and magi particle, all those beast ingredients managed to not lose their taste as well, and in fact seems to have so much taste to make even battle-hardened agents cry."
The emperor paused to remember the first time he ate a high conservation ingredient. 8 years ago, his royal head chef made a huge leap from conserving 15% to 30%. However, when he conserved the nutrient and magi particle, the food lost its taste so much that it was like eating water. His chef nearly gave up his job feeling that he failed his duty as a chef, but only due to his pressure he carried on and became successful as an innovator and received the t.i.tle Food Innovator.
"This will cause all the commandments and powerful magis to want the benefit of Johns food. None of them are willing to anger another party, when they can just pay some money to eat in there. It is like getting two birds with one stone, they can eat as much as they want while at the same time incurring no risk or angering anyone else."
"Why not take him out of the equation?" Butler asked, although he knew he was talking about killing the emperors son in front of his face, he showed no fear of being afraid of what he said.
"It is too late. Due to the same reason why I or anyone else won"t be able to approach John with an offer to work for me or anyone else. When I said they will keep each other in check I also meant they will also keep me in check as well. They will especially make sure I will not have the monopoly this time, as I already have someone capable of conserving 30%. They must have surrounded the restaurant with agents from each n.o.ble family to make sure no one can take him away and benefit on their own.
Smith when everyone can have a share of the treasure they will all stay calm, but if one person wants to be petty then they will make sure to supress him, if they can"t then they will make sure no one can benefit from the treasure. There is no profit but huge loss in trying to get John in their side. Besides I even doubt he will work for anyone else other than his backer." Suddenly he went silent for a while.
Seeing his lord thinking about something Smith sighed "It seems like our hands are tied this time your majesty. He made a fool out of all of us, he hid his talent and bid his time to use it against us. I guess this must be the reason why that n.o.ble is supporting him, even after finding him as an awardless. But the question remain how that n.o.ble became aware of his talent before us?"
"Hahahaha" Unexpectedly the emperor started laughing. Seeing this Butler Smith was curious. "Smith its not one n.o.ble that is aware of Johns" talent, but two n.o.bles."
Smith suddenly reeled back in shock. "Indeed, how could I forget that? One of them approached John to take him in his side, while the other not wanting his enemy to benefit from John tried to kill John. But failed that night due to failing to see that John was protected by his benefactor. So that means if we find one of the two n.o.bles, we catch the other n.o.ble."
"Or just make sure Johns" benefactor succeed in whatever he is planning, to the point the other party feels threatened by their success. Then when cornered he will approach us."
"That is a dangerous move you highness."
"But the only one we have. We just have to bid our time. Once we know the puppet master behind this game then we can start playing the game they started. We can"t blindly swing our sword in darkness hoping to hit the enemy, as it might hit out allies." Sighing the emperor turned back and walked out, only to hear a squeal behind him before everything went silent. Then after a few second Butler Smith came out following his Lord, with his hand dripping wet while he took his napkin to wipe his hand.