Chapter - 7

nom nom nom

GULP!

Between the munching sound of Arthan eating his grilled meat, the gulping sounds of his roommate sound loud and clear. Yet, Arthan ignores them and fall deeper into his own flavourful world.

‘Whoa… the nutty and salty flavour juices are killing me…they drenching my tongue and liberating it… the umami bombs keep exploding in every bite, I take… I should stop before swallowing my tongue out… but the salty yet savoury aftertaste traps me in and not letting me go… uwaah…’

nom nom nom

Beholding Arthan in delights while munching his grilled meat, all of his roommates even forget to gulp their saliva.

Arthan continues to delightfully munch his meat while shaking his head from time to time, to make sure his hair does not touch the grilled meat and smear on his pleasure.

"Aaaaaah! There is nothing that could challenge meat after all!" while stretching his upper body, Arthan let out a cheer of delight after stuffing his belly to the brim.

Back to reality and seeing all eyes were on the, a realisation flash in Arthan mind.

'Ah! Is this the reason why he left the meat?'

In this world, agriculture wasn't much developed like on Earth. Not because it was hard to develop it, but more because the nobles of this world tacitly suppressed its development.

Thus, it made meat a little bit scarce and being monopolized by the rich and powerful. The better one especially is a rare item to be in the kitchen of ordinary people.

Among meat producers, Douglas house is one of the best beef producers in the Westernfront dukedom.

Not because Douglas house is more advance in agricultural development, but more because of two things, the bloodline of its cow and its fodder.

From its seductive scent and its delightful flavour, Arthan knows that the meat he has eaten is the meat from that cow.

 “Ahem…all of you should already know how strong I was,” asserts Arthan, acting like he was some big shot protagonist of some badass movie.

Yet Arthan crappy act is wasted when he hears the fat boy and the silly boy readily acknowledge him as their boss, “Yes, boss!”

"Hahaha... you may look silly. But your head seems not that silly after all!" compliments Arthan while pointing at the silly boy with laughs.

The rarely praised silly boy, grinning shily while scratching the hair behind his ear.

glace!

Glancing at the scrawny boy and narcist boy who have yet acknowledged him, Arthan saw that they were pensive in thought.

'Heh... some little rascals had yet succumbed after all!' Arthan thought in amusement.

With some chuckle as the opening, Arthan slowly enunciates, “Don't worry, I'm an outgoing boss. If you know about what I did in Harry town, then you should also know that I'm in a good boss, who will reward every of his vassal dearly.”

"Yes, I know it well, boss!" claimed the silly boy earnestly.

The other boys were rolling their eyes at his answer and mocking him as 'ass-kisser' at their minds.

“Hehehe... Then have all of you decided to become my underling?” utter Arthan, eyeing all of his roommates with the warmest smile he could show.

His eyes especially last longer at the scrawny boy and narcist boy.

In their eyes, Arthan could clearly see reluctance.

Both boys tried to eye the other two for cooperation yet were ignored.

At last, they are staring at each other eyes and find that there is nothing that they can do.

Thus, with a tacit sigh, they respond to Arthan with a polite yet lacklustre voice, "Yes, boss."

"Hahaha... I assure you that’s the greatest choice you make in your life!"

Hearing their answers, Arthan is delighted.

Although he knows they may only succumb out of pressure, crafty planning for the future, or even just because of meat from Topaz.

Still being recognized openly as their boss will make his life in this castle a lot easier.

“Alright, since all of you decided to come under me. Now, tell me your name and your backer... so I can give you the right task when times come… and as the reward..”

STARE~

Seeing all eyes on the skewered meat and not focused on him. Besides, the eyes of the fat boy even shining with craving, with chuckles Arthan, add "...And this meat is the prize."

Tak!

Before the fat boy could open his mouth, the silly one takes a step forward first and introduces himself, “Greeting boss, my name is Toby, my backer is uncle James who is head of the warehouse keeper, and he has a good relationship with Mr Topaz."

'James? That sly looking baldy was the uncle of this silly boy? What a dang scary world!’ thought Arthan remembering a middle-aged man who was awkwardly bear-hugged by Topaz yesterday.

‘…But now it made sense, for how this silly gorilla could think many ass-licking sentences!’

Tak!

“Boss, my name is Daren. The head cook is my father. If you need something in the kitchen, you can count on me, boss!”

silence

No voice can be heard after fatty Daren, no matter how many seconds he waits and ruining Arthan mood.

“Alright, so fatty Daren and silly Toby it is? It's a good name! I will remember it.” replies Arthan as if putting jeer title is a natural thing to do.

turn~

Arthan turns his body and stares amiably at both scrawny and narcist boys, “And you are?”

“Sigh…” the narcist boy let out steam inside his head, and with a clear unwillingness face, he says, “…My name is Mart, I am their bo—”

Mart suddenly stopped when he wanted to say he was their boss.

He glances at Arthan and sees no waves from his eyes.

“Sigh…” after another sigh, he continues, “My backer is Roa, the head maid.”

“His father is accountant Jerry. He positioned at Albea and should be under Mr Topaz right now.” wanting to get another point, Toby casually tells Arthan of Mart's background like it was nothing to the party involved.

Glare!

“upss…” getting deathly glares from Mart, Toby quickly add, “Ah! He also knows anything that is in trend in Albea.”

Being introduced as someone who is up to the trend, Mart raises his chin proudly.

“Eh! You know trends in Albea? Cool!”

Although Arthan is not very interested in the general trends of this world, the trend at Albea is still attractive to him, “So, what kind of trend is ongoing in Albea right now?”

“Can't we get the reward first, boss? And the story comes next?” interjects fatty Daren impatiently.

The meat in the skewer is already starting to lose its warmth.

He was in hellish torture seeing Arthan kept blabbering with the other.

 “Haha…my bad, my bad! But, let's hear the last one introduce himself first.” after giving fatty Daren a look for a second, Arthan reassured the fatty Daren with a smile.

STARE!

“Sigh…” finding all eyes on him, the scrawny boy also let out a sigh like Mart before he starts introducing himself, “…My name is Zack. My backer is the lowest. He is merely a stableman. I'm not very well connected with the people of the castle since I'm also a new handyman.”

'Eh… so you mean, just don't bother—'

“Boss the reward!” yell fatty Daren, losing his reasons from the restless anticipation.

CHILL!!!

Whoosh~

For a second, the room suddenly became so cold before it's back to normal as fast as the change happened.

GLARE!

'Damn fatty! You can buy your coffin on your own!’ all eyes were glaring at fatty Daren.

With a smile that hid his irritation, Arthan handover the skewered meat to fatty Daren, “Here, you guys can share it yourself.”

Daren swiftly takes the skewers-handle from Arthan and take a big bite under the scowl of the other boys before reluctantly giving the handle to Toby, Mart, and Zack in turn.

nom nom nom

"HMMM…hmmm.." each boy let out loud profound hums after tasting the meat.

After tasting the grilled meat, all eyes back to Arthan, they had the same question inside their head.

“Boss…” Daren's face has a priceless expression. It was a mix between hope, satisfaction, worry, and other emotions that can't be fathomed by others, “…How is it so good? When you not even using any honey condiments?”

nod! nod! nod!

All three boys nod with serious expressions at Daren question and then look at Arthan for an explanation.

‘Yuck, honey condiments!’ Arthan faces change at these two words.

There are many things Arthan abhors in this world, but honey condiments are on the top three of the lists, only under the goddess of fate and his father.

Honey condiments were like ready-to-eat condiments from contaminated factories, except it was naturally created or gathered by some peculiar bees.

After consuming it, you would get closer to the world's mana that's means faster mana accumulation. 

Plus, honey condiments also can make the food taste heavenly. 

And thus made the honey condiments become the absolutely needed condiment in everyday cooking in this world. 

But it needed continuous strenuous effort to expertly filter and process before the condiment is safe to consume.

The noble has a great chef to process the honey for their foods. Hence, they could eat scrumptiously without fearing food poisoning.

Without expertly care, though, then the eater can only pray to god that the food is safe, does not smell rotten or fishy, is nontoxic, and your belly can process it.

Therefore, in the tale about the old-time, people in the olden days, in droves, would come to the healer home every single day for constipation.

How to stink that healers place be? don't let the healer in the heaven start to mourn their life!

Thus Arthan needed to make his own food. So he did not get constipation every single day and made his home stink like hell. 

That's why Arthan became a foodie after being reborn in this world, or that is what he wanted to believe.

With different reasons from Arthan, yet the same goal, Daren always aspiring to be a chef like his father, yet the qualification to be one was too high, and he did not even pass the internal bar set by his father.

Thus, he can only bury his dream as a chef.

But now, when he saw how Arthan so easily prepared the meat with little to no condiment and then cooked the beef by the open fire, and yet it still tastes so wonderful.

Daren buried dream was ignited back to life, and he even decided to make Arthan his master and learn cooking from him.

Finding all eyes were on him and waiting for his answer. 

Arthan racked out his brain, trying to find the coolest answer for the question.

'AHA!' getting the answer, with the sunniest smile and shiniest teeth he can show and some corny wink he learned from watching Topaz, Arthan says, “You will know it yourself when you see how I do my best shit!”