I stop by at the kitchen to make adjustment preparation for the lunch since we have another person who will have lunch with us. I said my order directly to Mrs. Martina who in charge of the kitchen to make an adjustment on the menu and number.
"Mrs. Martina, we have a guest that will have lunch with us. Please prepare one more serving for the lunch, make it enough for 9 people. What do we have for lunch today?"
"The cooks want to make the new recipes that they learn today, young master. Noodles, Curry and Gyoza"
"Add vegetables tempura, frikadel, and croquette into the menu. Also during lunch, prepare about fifty frikadels and a dozen hamburgers and put in the boxes for rations"
"Yes, young master. Anything else?"
"Ah, yeah one more thing, My father like the gyoza and ask to make it more for the snack, also I need to cook meat dishes for dinner tonight. Do we have meat on the storage?"
"That will be delivered from the butcher in town, young master. What do you want with the meat, and what kind of meat?"
"Beef, sirloin part if possible. I need them to beat until tender, cut in palm size, around one-inch thickness, then smeared with salt and pepper on both sides, keep them in room temperate for couple hours"
"Consider it done, young master"
"Thank you, Mrs. Martina. I leave now"
Yes, I'm in a hurry and I must quick because I also have a date with Claire at noon. I must finish these ingredients matter with Gandolf before I can meet with Claire because he will leave after lunch over.
When I enter my father's office, I see my father is playing board games with Gandolf. My father greets me when I enter his office. He looks like having fun because can dominate the board game against Gandolf
"Oh hey, Henry, did the counting and verification for taxes finish, yet?"
"I let uncle Jake finish it, father, soon he will come with the report. I find something interesting there and want to ask Mr. Gandolf here about that"
"Oh, then ask him. Gandolf, I tell you, this game is Henry's creation too"
"Really? It seems young master Henry gifted with many talents. Uncle John, you really lucky to have such a wonderful son"
"Haha…that's something I make to vent some boredom, Mr. Gandolf. And call me Henry, since you call my father with uncle"
"That's right Gandolf…you and Henry also at the same peerage, I hope you two can get along like me and your father did in our younger days, although I and your father still a good friend until now"
"Alright…I call you brother Henry then, is that okay?"
"No problem…I don't have any blood-related brothers from my father so I will happy if I have brothers although not blood related, I call you brother Gandolf, too"
"It will be my honor to be able to become your brother, Henry….so what do you want to ask?"
"Ah right…about these goods from your taxes, I wonder if you know about the resources and these goods use in there"
I show Gandolf, the sample of the soybean, raisin, and rice that I take some from delivered goods to him. Gandolf take the soybean first and examine it before giving the reply.
"These beans are delivered from a certain village in the south of Lumon town. In there, the residents cultivated this as a spice, they fried this bean dry, make it into powder and sprinkled it over the dishes to improve the taste"
After giving explained about the soybean, Gandolf takes the raisin and give the explanation.
"This raisin comes from the area that cultivates grapes. These raisins come along with the wine as the taxes paid from that place"
"Are they having wine distillery too in there?"
"Where the wines come from if they don't have the distillery, brother Henry? They have some wine distillery although the quality of the product may be not too good. And the last one, this horse feed come from a village that already exists in the western region even before Lumon town founded. The people in that village use this as their food. I don't know how they eat this thing since the horse like to eat it, we called it horse feed then"
"Can you take me there when I visit Lumon town?"
"Brother Henry wants to visit Lumon town?"
"Not now, but maybe someday in the future. I want to explore any potency for each region for further development"
"Ha! Let me be your guide when you visit our town then. I'll show you places that you want to visit"
"One more thing, can I get a regular shipment for this soybean and the horse feed? I already thinking a product to create with this soybean in here and maybe I can make it too in the place where this soybean cultivated"
"I can ask the people in that village to grow more of this soybean, brother Henry"
"That will be good if you can make it happen, brother Gandolf"
"I'll do my best to make it happen, brother Henry"
"Thanks, what do you think about this board game, brother Gandolf?"
"It's fun. If I'm don't have to return today, I will spend my time here playing this game"
"Haha…glad if you like it, brother Gandolf"
"Don't worry Gandolf, you can bring back one set of this board game to your home and play with your father. Later on, when I meet him again, we can compete with this board game to see who the best in this game"
"Really? Thank you very much, Uncle John"
"Please continue with your playing, brother Gandolf. I still have matters to take care, I'll see you in lunch"
"Oh? You surely a busy man, brother Henry"
"His fiancé will come tomorrow, of course, he can't relax and ignorant"
"Ah…So that's why…congratulation in advance, brother Henry, I'm expecting the wedding invitation from you"
"That's still not settled, yet brother Gandolf…by the way, there'll be a banquet for that the day after tomorrow, I hope you and your father can attend the banquet"
"We surely will come, brother Henry"
"The official invitation hasn't made yet, so this only unofficial invitation thou"
"I feel honored to be the first one to invite in the banquet, brother Henry. I guess we can see your fiancé at the banquet?"
"Of course, that will be the formal introduction of our engagement to the public, although maybe some people already know it"
"Oh, which girl that lucky enough to be your wife, brother Henry?"
"Earl Stamfort's daughter"
"Earl….Stamfort…daughter…Wow! You will marry an Earl's daughter? Really? I must use my best clothes when to attend the banquet later"
Although looks surprised, it seems Gandolf not showing any bad impression about my fiancé related to bad rumors about her. Either he doesn't know or he doesn't believe that rumors. Whatever it is, it's good for him to not get influenced with such rumors. It seems he's a good guy and worth to become a friend.