Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

I had woken up the next morning early, making my way downstairs with Crisplet. I was again surprised at the number of people working in the house now.

“Greetings, Lord Trevor,” a voice called as I turned around to see Tony bowing.

“Oh, it’s not Lord, just Trevor is fine, and you don’t need to bow,” I said with a nervous chuckle.

“Ah, good. I was just coming to wake you up,” Milo’s voice called out.

Waving to Tony, I quickly made my way over to Milo, who had a look of concern on his face.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

Milo let out a sigh. “Nothing we can’t deal with. Come with me, the others are already waiting. It’s not taken long for your surname to spread.”

We entered the dining room, where the entire party, including Micca, was already seated.

“Take a seat, Trev. As I mentioned, word has already spread to everyone who matters that you’ve taken a surname. The King has already acknowledged it and announced your house is to be recognised as a noble house in this kingdom,” Milo began.

I was a little confused about why this was a big deal. I thought this was the plan.

“It’s nothing we didn’t expect, but it has added another social event to your list, as you’ve been invited to another dinner with the King. You also have your meeting with the Fairmonts tomorrow,” Milo continued.

“Tomorrow?!” I blurted out.

I was expecting a few days at least, not tomorrow.

“Yes. Now we need to decide who is going to go with you. I believe Hari will not be an option due to his ties with a house already, so it wi—” He started to say, being interrupted by Liane.

“I’ll go with him. None of you will be blunt enough,” she said.

“I don’t really know if that’s best,” Milo started.

“Truthfully, I think it’s the best choice,” Hari said, earning surprised looks from Liane and Jen. “We already decided we’re not going to hide, so it’s safe to assume you’ll be joined by Crisplet and Lily, right?” he said, looking to me.

I just nodded. I believed Lily would at least be watching, if not directly there.

“And we could wait and send him in with Sylverith, but arriving with a dragon and a shadow cat would likely be too much. So Liane as his voice to put a stop to any backstabbing, and Lily and Crisplet as backup to reinforce it, it’s ideal,” Hari explained.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll go,” Liane said.

“Okay, but please don’t be purely antagonistic. We don’t need everyone as an enemy in the capital,” Milo pleaded.

“I will not turn everyone against Trevor, but they will understand he’s not a pawn for them to manoeuvre in their plans,” Liane said, folding her arms.

Hari laughed, earning another look from Jen.

“How are you okay with all of this? I thought you’d be wanting to play nice,” Jen asked.

Hari shrugged. “Liane’s right. If Trevor wants to stand outside the game, or above it, he needs to assert himself as untouchable. Either that or play the game yourself.”

“So when is the meeting with the King?” I asked.

“In a week,” Hari answered simply.

I sighed. I wanted to leave the capital already; it was too much to deal with.

“Could I possibly do some shopping today? I want to get some supplies, and I really want to check out what is available in the capital,” I said, looking around.

Jen nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that too. We can go past Micca’s store, then make our way to the lower district where we can do some shopping.”

“I’m coming with you this time. If you discover any magical bookshops, I want to be there!” Milo said with a chuckle.

“Seems we have a plan. I’ll take Darren and George to the guild training halls today,” Hari said.

Noticing everyone was about to pack up, I asked the question that had been bugging me the most.

“What did you mean when you said I was recognised as a noble house?” I asked.

Hari let out a chuckle. “It means in the future you’ll likely be granted some land to look over. I doubt you’ll be assigned any responsibilities other than not destroying everyone. Then your children, or anyone you accept into your house, will carry on your name like any other noble house.”

“So I can grant my name to other people? What about Liane?” I said, blurting out the first person who came to mind without a surname.

I heard Liane let out a gasp mixed with a cough, and I knew immediately I had probably stepped into something I didn’t understand and said something stupid, but how was I to know if I didn’t ask?

“Well… that’s complicated. Technically, yes, you can adopt people into your household and grant them your surname. However, I don’t know that I have ever heard of a sixteen-year-old boy doing it to someone older than them,” Hari said with a laugh.

Milo, who seemed to have taken the question seriously, spoke up. “That said, despite it usually being reserved for adopted children or particular staff, it wouldn’t technically be against the law, as far as I’m aware, for him to do so. It would be an interesting turn of events. Liane, a noble… could you imagine?”

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“What’s wrong with me being a noble!” Liane called.

“I don’t know… the part where you want to murder them all?” Jen said with a snort.

“Not all of them. Trevor is alright, I guess,” Liane said.

And I was about to ask why it was just alright when Crisplet threw a piece of coal directly at her forehead.

“Hey! Don’t you get upset with me! If you were a noble, you’d be better than alright!” Liane said, rubbing off the dark mark.

When another coal hit her as Crisplet posed, this made me wonder.

Crisplet Ashmoon (Ashborne Elemental)

Level: 24

Experience: 2658/22200

“Wow, Crisplet shares my last name,” I said, shocked.

All eyes turned to Crisplet then, who was still posing.

The silence was broken by Liane. “Trevor is alright, and I like Crisplet. See, not all nobles!”

Crisplet burst into sparks, clearly happy with this.

“Do you think Lily shares my surname too? Or is it a bonded companion thing?” I asked curiously, looking at Milo.

“It’s not a companion thing I have ever heard of, so who knows,” Milo said.

“Right! Let’s get to the shops then, shall we!” Jen said happily.

As we all made our way out the hall, Crisplet took his place in the brazier by my side. I also felt the presence of Lily arrive.

Entering the main hall, Archie was waiting.

“Morning, sir. I wanted to let you know I’ve taken the liberty of reaching out to several builders in the capital to start your butchery room. I have also organised several carriages for your use out the front,” he said, bowing slightly.

“Thank you, Archie. That’s amazing to hear. Do we need anything at the markets for the house?” I asked.

“No, sir. We can handle all the day-to-day supplies,” Archie said with a smile.

I still wasn’t okay with being called sir, but it was better than being called Lord.

***

It didn’t take us long before we parted ways with Hari, Darren, and George, and found ourselves standing outside what was to be Micca’s new shop.

To say it was excessive was an understatement. The shop looked like a grand house all on its own. It was made of uniform grey stones, with deep red wooden trim, leading to the roof where it had red tiles. The front of the store had two large windows, and what appeared to be a heavy wooden door that had some of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen carved into wood.

“This is it? It’s too much,” Micca said next to me, in awe.

“We’re going to need to do a lot of work to get this as a store for your needs,” Milo said, looking at it.

“We’re happy to help if it’s required,” a female voice came from behind.

I turned around to see Kathrine stepping out of a small carriage.

Milo didn’t even turn his head. “The issue we’ll have is I don’t know if it’ll be suitable for what we’re planning on selling here. I think a large portion of our patronage will be adventurers. Granted, well-off adventurers, but still, this area seems to be exclusively for nobles.”

I looked around and we had already caused a scene, as small groups of very well-dressed people were watching us and whispering, no doubt because the princess had shown up.

“Could I enquire as to what you’ll be selling then?” Kathrine asked, looking at us curiously.

This was a question I was worried about. It had crossed my mind that asking for this shop for my friend and it then starting to sell rare candy would probably link the two of us together and make it very obvious, the source. But I had not put enough thought into this scenario before asking.

“Candy,” Milo said simply.

Her eyes went wide. “Candy? Why would rich adventurers be your target audience for candy?” She asked, confused.

Milo pulled out one of the ones he had in his storage and handed it to her.

“It looks very crude, but I don’t see how this would be aimed at high-level adventurers still,” she said, turning the candy in her hand.

“Try it, you’re a mage, right?” Milo said.

A moment later, a guard rushed forward to stop her from eating the candy, but it was too late. She had already put it in her mouth.

“Princess, please. You cannot eat random food you’re given like that. What if it were poison?” The voice of Liam came from under the helmet.

“If they wanted me dead, do you think they’d use poison?” She said with a laugh.

“Though I don’t see what’s so special about the candy? I mean, it doesn’t taste bad, but it’s certainly not the best,” she said.

Milo chuckled. “Look at your stats.”

“Oh… OH!” she said, her eyes wide.

“How? Who?” she turned to me.

“We have an outside supplier who won’t be named, but we intend to sell it in the capital with limited supply. These are the weakest ones,” Milo explained.

As the words seemed to sink in a moment later—

“Weakest? If you have stronger than this, then we’ll buy them all. This would be invaluable for the kingdom,” she said, looking at Milo.

“The supplier would prefer that these are distributed around and used actively by people, not stockpiled,” Milo said, looking back to the shop.

“Why?” she asked, before something seemed to click. “Experience? Someone has a candy-making class that provides buffs?”

She turned her eyes back to me, but I did my best not to make eye contact or seem suspicious. I’d never been called a candy maker before, so perhaps they won’t put it together.

Sighing internally, who was I kidding? Of course, they would. I would only have to hope they didn’t tell everyone.

“Well, enough standing outside. Let’s take a look inside. We can certainly facilitate allowing adventurers to come to the store here, since I have to imagine these wouldn’t be for the general population as a whole,” she said, approaching the front door.

“Correct. There will only be thirty to forty a month to start with, then we’ll see how it goes,” Milo said as they both walked into the store, followed closely by Micca before the rest of us made our way in.

Entering the ground floor of the store, I couldn’t help but admire the shelves and counters. They all appeared to be hand-carved, the same as the door.

“That’s not many. Will there even be enough for adventurers?” She asked Milo as they entered.

Micca, clearly not happy with not being in the conversation, spoke up for the first time. “That’s why it’s important that what supply we do have goes toward active adventurers. They don’t need to use it right away, of course, but there will be the expectation that it’s used.”

The conversation with the three of them went on as I began to look around the store. It must have been an old alchemist’s shop, because heading through the back door, I entered a nearly entirely stone room, with a large cauldron in the middle.

Wondering if there were any left-behind petals or leaves, I activated Arcane Foraging.

I was initially disappointed as I looked around; nothing at all glowed.

It was only out of the corner of my eye that I noticed an incredibly bright blue spot above me. It was almost white, like it appeared to be in the roof, or the floor above?

The question though: how do I get there? I have not seen any stairs yet?