Since Nick knew the reason Meyer family invited him, he decided to increase his value. Few days later he organized a small gathering for his friends in Bruno's bakery. This time when auntie Maria and Ben saw the guests, they politely excused themselves and only asked to leave some leftover pizza for them. Bruno, of course, had to stay to supervise.
Mason, Chris and Steven watched with round eyes how Nick kneaded dough and made big, round and flat pieces of bread. Zia already saw Nick doing this earlier, so she considered herself an expert and decided to 'help' him out. After she made two 'things' that should resemble pizza, Nick forbade her to 'help' and ordered to wait and told that she would have to eat her own pizzas by herself. That actually made Zia extremely happy – she was getting whole two pizzas!
Also, Nick already previously planned to send one to the palace and one to the Meyer mansion – the two fastest guards were waiting at the door. He decisively declined Mason's idea to use a horse for a faster delivery – pizzas would easily become a mess by doing so. Bruno had a previous experience in boxing the new dish and this time he even thought of few improvements when he caught a wind of who the recipients were. After sending pizzas to the VIP's, Nick brought a pair to auntie Maria and Ben, and then joined the others to feast on the rest.
Zia was served to enjoy the results of her own work, but after having a taste, she made a weird expression and then decisively confiscated one that Nick made. The latter, of course, was prepared for this and made few extra beforehand.
From his own experience Nick knew that pizza was the child's best unhealthy friend, therefore this time there was no lack of food. The guards on the street were already instructed on the potential developments and this time wore their uniforms. Because of that there were no extra incidents and children could enjoy the feast without any interruptions.
Nick killed multiple birds with one stone – he threw a party for his friends, let Myles Meyer taste some pizza so he could ask for a higher price later, curried a small favor in palace and, what was the most important part, he finally got to enjoy pizza himself.
When two days later Nick arrived at the huge and glamorous Meyer mansion, Mason received him with a smile. He showed him around and then invited in for dinner.
In the large and beautiful hall filled with, what supposed to be, expensive artworks, there were only three of them dining. Turns out Mason was the only son and his mother that day was visiting one of the queens and was not present.
Therefore Nick, Mason and his father Myles ate exquisite roasted rank four beast and chatted.
Myles Meyer was anything but the typical merchant or businessman one would imagine. In fact, he more resembled a fit athlete a bit over his prime who could still take part in competitions if he decided to. He was taller than most, slender, but one could not overlook the muscles and a stature of a Qi sword master. The only thing that gave away his occupation were his eyes – mostly squinted and sometimes darting around like he was up to something.
At first their plan was to simply invite Nick, inquire about his strange product and purchase the idea and the manufacturing process. Meyers already did the throughout investigation and knew there was no such thing as the mysterious overseas merchant who sold the secret ingredient. They were business experts and gourmets themselves and knew everything there was to know about food and its production. Therefore there was only one option remaining, this child had somehow stumbled upon something new and it was so good that could even cause a commotion on the streets. After tasting it himself, Myles realized the value of this product, and he didn't even need to hear his son's exited story on how Nick was making this new, weird, but tasty 'pizza'.
Thus, after the dinner, they came to the main part of the evening.
Nick wasn't greedy. He didn't need cash or any items, so he made a proposal: he would tell in detail what the product was, the production method and the potential ways to improve it, the Meyer family would be the new owner of it, but Nick still could make it on his own for his personal use if he wanted. In return Bruno's bakery will always remain the first place pizza was baked at and Nick will have a right to a daily free meal for himself and one other person at any of the Meyer family restaurants.
Myles thought about it. The request about bakery was fine, since it really was the first place to bake pizza anyway, but the other part was tricky. Nick was a child now, but feeding him for free and even one more person for, let's say, ninety years could be too much. Especially since many of his restaurants were high class and had expensive food and alcohol.
Nick saw through Myles's dilemma and added rule: 'no alcohol', to which Myles instantly agreed.
Then Nick explained in detail his understanding of cheese making, the prospects of fermentation and aging.
"So there is no alchemy involved?" Mason was surprised.
"You can think of it as a primitive form of alchemy – you still have to heat the milk and you have to process it after. In fact, this is a true alchemy product, just a bit different than those we are used to." Nick explained.
After sharing his poor knowledge on the cheese production, Nick explained the pizza making process that was similarly simple. He threw few more ideas like using fruits in meat recipes and making sweet pizza with berries and sugar coating. The varieties were endless and Meyers just had to do their own research.
"Although I am certain you know how to guard your secrets, this recipe is extremely simple and, if leaked, every household could produce it. I am not against it, but I don't really care for it either – I just want my pizza." Nick smiled.
People lived and ate happily without knowing the existence of pizza and they would continue like that even if Nick ate it every day. Therefore it was not necessary to bring it to the masses.
"You are correct. For now it will be an exclusive product while we begin our research. Maybe later we'll leak it on purpose because we always will have a higher quality product and, if 'Meyer cheese' is known as the first and the best in the world, it won't matter how many households will make it themselves – our sales and profits will always be great." Myles added.
'Good thing I didn't study business. Compared to such old foxes I'm just a foolish rabbit waiting to be feasted on.' Nick sighed.
For Nick to be able to access his free meals, after pondering a bit, Myles gave him a family token that should open all the necessary doors. Nick already saw such token on the marketplace, although that one was gray and this one was silvery.
Nick took it, played with it in his hands and his following words stupefied Mason, "Thank you! Now I have two of these!" And he smilingly put it together with the one the king gave him.
After Nick left, Mason asked his father, "Dad, why did you give him the silver token? Even I only have the silver one and there is a sole golden token above it and you are the one holding it."
"Think!" Myles looked back at his son, "Do you believe that a child eight years of age who is capable of developing a new food product, creating those goggles and fins you told me about, defeating several years older Qi practitioner in one hit and living in a cottage in the Royal woods is some random simpleton? And that is even before I saw his majesty's token! If I knew, I would've given him our token for free even without any business deals. And what's more interesting – it seems he doesn't know the real value of these tokens, he's just collecting them like a child collects shiny pebbles on a beach. Hahaha!" At the end he started to laugh out laud.
"Pay attention to him." Myles instructed while still laughing, "I believe he'll come up with many different things, he definitely is a genius and as a real genius doesn't care for details like money. But we do! What's the motto of our family?"
"Money is everything!" Mason laughed alongside his father. He knew very well, that this motto was not something they went for over the mountains of corpses or swam the seas of blood. But it was something all the men in his family loved, including him.
Just because Nick got the token for a free daily meal, it didn't mean he would run to the city every day to use it. From time to time he did, but that was it. Mason originally thought that from now on Nick would frequent the "Sunshine" since it was so close to the palace, but when he didn't show up for several days, Mason sent a request to princess Zia to arrange him a visit to the Royal woods.
After getting a confirmation, he called Chris and Steven and a day later in the morning, with Zia in the lead, they proceeded to the mysterious cottage in the woods. Turned out there was nothing special about it – a small wooden house with few rooms. They were surprised that Nick was even practicing alchemy, but he clarified that it was more like a side hobby.
They sat and drank herbal tea with a little bit bitter taste. When the guys asked why would he drink something like that, Zia immediately started to complain, that from the very beginning she started to train with Nick, he is making her do and eat abnormal things. To what Nick smiled and suggested an experiment. Zia and Steven would compete in speed and run towards the distant rock, around it and then back.
Zia still pouted, but her competitive spirit was triggered and she almost started running the moment the suggestion was made. Steven and the rest of the guys couldn't understand why would there be a need to compete in speed with a girl who was three years younger than him. Still, he agreed.
The result astonished everyone except Nick. Steven barely won! Zia pouted again and complained Steven was cheating and they should try again. But there was no way Steven would agree to that – from the start of the race he ran so fast he hasn't done in his whole life and barely won! And there was no guarantee he will win the next time! He couldn't loose his face and get defeated by a little girl!
Nick calmed Zia down with words 'if she continued to follow the training program, soon she would be able to outrun the three aristocrats'. Then Zia made the confused Steven to bump her fist and for her this matter was settled. But to the three boys it was not as simple. They understood the implications and the reasons why this race was done in the first place.
Nick slowly explained his theory and methods of the physical training as well as the natural products that could help a young body to develop. For example, the tea they were drinking was a simple mix of neem, milk thistle and mugwort and the synergy of the three plants allowed to easier absorb Qi.
It was not some extreme alchemy stimulant – this tea didn't have any side effects, but wasn't particularly strong as well. It showed it's best result when consumed regularly for longer periods of time. He found this recipe in one of the Holy Order's research books and, after consulting with doctor Marbel, was drinking himself and giving Zia to drink for a few months already.
And this was only one example – he had structured his whole training program such way.