"Your Highness he is crazy! We have to do something about him soon, before it gets out of our hand." Smith screamed while pointing in the general direction of Johns' shop.
"Smith you have got to calm down. I understand, but you still seem to be in deep shock of what happened to you in the restaurant." The emperor explained calmly while sat on his throne, in the middle of night.
"You DON'T UNDERSTAND! HE ..." Suddenly Smith fainted while two hands caught him.
"Take him to his room." Albert said as he passed him to a nearby guard.
After the guard left Albert turned toward the emperor and bowed.
"I trust that Smith told you my reasoning before he left for the restaurant?" Albert asked the Emperor.
"Yes. Coupled with what Smith just said I think we have released a loose cannon. Do you have any solutions Albert?" The emperor frowned as he massaged his head.
"I do have one, but it is not really a solution." Hearing Albert the emperor suddenly sat up.
"What we can do right now is let him do whatever he wants, while avoiding him and hope that this loose cannon fires towards our enemies."
"And?" The emperor said hoping there was more to the plan
"That's it. Just make sure we do everything to avoid getting in his way, till he enters the competition. At which point we can just take him out. But make sure to delay his entry into the competition as long as possible, as he doesn't have much long to live"
"Why did you even come here, in the middle of night, with this crap plan in the beginning?" The emperor asked, as the plan suggested by Albert was just the most basic thing they could do.
"Oh, that? I was told I am supposed to distract you, while my sons steal some of your Level 5 beast ingredients from your storage."
'I knew it, this man was up to no good coming here in the middle of the night', "I am going to alarm the bells, I hope you are ready." The emperor asked Albert
"Yeah I already had everything I needed ages ago. Those assholes wanted a share of my level 5 beast food, so I thought to screw them up big time. I told them I am lacking some ingredients and to steal from here, so those fools blindly trusted me, as I told them I would distract you.
Keep them locked up here or even better torture them for me. Then in their darkest moment I will come to rescue them, and they will finally start respecting me. Hahahahaha" The emperor sighed as Albert disappeared while laughing, while the alarm went of in the palace. He felt his headache growing 'Why do I always end up with crazy people in my Empire?'
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The reason why I rejected the title is that without supporters or any form of backing I won't even enter the competition as it is like offering myself in a silver plate to be slaughtered.
As for the reason why I didn't make a trade with Smith, was simple. I wanted to make them think, I am unpredictable and crazy, to the point of using my own life and the empire as a barter like it was vegetable found in stores.
Imagine being able to get whatever you want only to reject such an offer.
There are only two kinds of people who would do something like this: a stupid person or a crazy person.
This way they will put up their guard against me, along with that they will never force my hand from now on and know that if they want something from me, then they should expect to give something in return. They will raise their security measures against me for sure because people always have their guard up against the unknown.
After a while, they will think they have me figured out after observing me, like how I think, how I behave etc. Then they will loosen up as although people have their guard up against the unknown, however, to the known no one fears it.
And this will be the time that I will strike them. One of the many times when you show your weakness towards your enemy is when you turn your back to them, thinking everything is over.
The last and most important reason being I had no pain pill with me. Although I didn't take a pain pill, my acting was enough to fool and trick that old dude. Poor guy, I thought he might have a heart attack. I knew he would be convinced by my acting, due to him relying on his experience and his award to spot and read a lie.
But unfortunately for him although he is able to read my behaviour, it is useless against someone, who doesn't uses their brain to think, but rather their soul, along with the fact I have a spent a good deal of centuries acting, in order to not blow my cover while I was in front of God. Not to mention having a near-perfect control of the body, it will only take the heavenly citizens, angels and God to spot me lying.
Besides if I had asked for something, they would have given me, but later on, they would have investigated where I got the pain pill form, to attempt a revenge attack for supplying me with one. And if they find I never did have one, then they will never believe me when I actually use the same trick again, and besides that, I fear for my life. I don't want to go through judgement again.
Now I just have to bid my time, for them to grow weary of me.
I let my thoughts wander as I finally entered light sleep. Some spies did come every few hours, but after eating their fill they all left.
To the stake-out agents, this must be the best stake-out they ever had. Being able to eat the best food of their lives 3 times a day, while at the same time being able to accumulate magi particles.
Soon it was morning 8 am, I woke up pretty excited to test out new ingredients. Only ingredients up to level 2 were sold in the markets, the rest were not sold but kept to be eaten by whoever captured them, for the benefit acquired from them.
I decided that I would only use 60% of my skills to cook the ingredients brought in today. Without testing the full effects on myself I will only use 60% of my capability to cook, as making any of my future enemies accidentally too strong will be really stupid.
I didn't bother to make any breakfast as I wanted to experience the full effect of level 3 and level 5 beast ingredients, without being stuffed full from the high energy and nutrients.
I only had to wait for 30 minutes as the crown prince and his bodyguard came in while I was brushing my teeth. Seeing me brush my teeth, while sat on top of the desk, the unusually joyful prince and his gloomy bodyguard stood there awkwardly, holding a massive sack containing what I presume to be the ingredients while waiting for me to finish.
"2 minutes please" I demanded as I washed my face in the sink in the toilet near the garden. I took my paste and brush to a drawer in the desk and wiped my face with a towel.
"Sorry for the delay. You seem to be really happy today prince. May I know the reason why?" I inquired for his happiness, although I seemed to partially know why.
"Smith got out of commissioned by my dad for 2 days. He seemed to be resting in his home, outside of the palace. Along with that, it seems Alberts' sons got arrested last night for attempting to steal from the palace. This is what I call 2 birds with one stone." I smiled as I saw the increasing dark expression of Tom. The last part was unexpected. I bet some kind of gimmick by that old man.
"It is good that you are happy your highness. May I have to ingredients so I can start cooking?" They passed me the sack. I slowly dragged it towards the kitchen, seeing my struggle, Tom was forced to help me by James.
I soon started preparing each ingredient and finished cooking after 1 hour. It took so long because the meat and ingredients took a while to be cooked. I usually have all my food cooked in advance, and just reheat them when customers need them, thus the reason for being able to cook so quickly.
After 1 hour I moved the leftover ingredients that was for me to the side and went out to the prince to ask him something. "Will you be eating in or taking out?"
Both the prince and Tom seemed to be unaffected by the smell, it seems Tom did something to block out the smell.
"Eating in. I just want to eat as I haven't had my breakfast yet." He replied. I nodded as I went in to bring each of the dishes out in 2 trays, for 2 people. There were: Spring vegetable broth with shredded cloud sheep meat, Sea Duck stew, Fire bird burger, and finally grilled floating cow steak with Parsley-Parmesan Salad. All the ingredients used to make these were from the ingredients of level 3 beast ingredients, including the salt, oil, seasonings etc.
The fluffy meat of cloud sheep, the melting breast from sea duck, the spicy yet calming meat of fire bird and the floating cows drizzling oil all tempted their will power as they kept on looking at it, while swallowing their saliva. Soon both the prince and Tom grabbed a tray each and sat in a corner as they started to eat.
Both of them started with the vegetable broth first followed by burger, stew and steak with salad. As they took the first bite from vegetable broth their bodies started emitting a dazzling bright light. Expecting something like this Ez, controlled his pupils to limit the light flow. But the two people eating the food seemed unaffected by the growing light intensity, as they kept on eating. Soon, their body started emitting heat along with the bright light. The light was so bright that Ez had to now turn away, so as to not be blinded, literally and figuratively.
A device in Ez's hand alerted Ez of the room temperature rising by 20°C, as the magi crystal appliance tried to keep it in ambient temperature.
After eating the 2 light bulbs, got up while coming closer to thank John who went back into the kitchen as they came closer. He told them that they were glowing too brightly for him to look at the, and they were too hot.
The spies standing outside informed their masters as soon as both James and Tom started glowing beyond human possibility. After 30 minutes both of them stopped glowing. They soon realised the clothes both they wore had tiny holes here and there.
Tom was shocked. 'These are clothes made out of level 1 beasts. To think the light emitted was so strong to the point of burning the clothes in their weak spots. Then what about the place where we sat?' He thought as he looked to see the place where they sat, and their trays were perfectly fine. 'Interesting, everything here including even the trays seemed to be made out of level 2 beast materials.'
Tom couldn't feel much change other than, they were filled with vitality and energy, but he did notice that both his and James' hair grew by almost a metre. Each strand of hair was filled with energy.
"John that was the best meal ever. It tasted so good. In fact, I want to make an appointment for tonight as well..."He carried on listing all the items he wanted to be cooked, most of them being level 3 ingredients. John instructed them for the ingredients needed to be bought in.
Soon both of them left while promising to be back in the evening.
While this was happening Ez was thinking 'It is good I further restricted my skill level to only 50% when cooking, otherwise it would have been bad.'
Then he walked over to the kitchen ready to use his full ability and skill to cook the meal to see what effect it will have on his body, when 50% conservation of nutrients and magi particle, was able to cause an effect similar to looking at the sun.