"You're right. Shielding you from this would only stunt your growth. Okay, we'll accept the job. But I have two conditions." Glenn turned to Paul, standing from his seat.
"Anything, you name it. As long as it's within my power I'll adhere to any request you have." with stars in his eyes, Paul was ready to accept the two requests without batting an eye. He was already grateful.
"First, I want to be paid half of the commission upfront."
"Done!" Paul went under his desk and pulled out five gold coins placing them in a bag before handing them to Glenn."
"Next is, I want our travel expenses to be taken care of. Just the necessities. Anything other than that will come out of our own pockets."
"A simple request." Paul handed another five golden coins to Glenn.
"Now tell us the details about the job. What are we transporting? I know it's customary to not question what the goods are, but I think in this situation, you can tell us what the goods are."
"A custom-made dress fitted with the finest jewelry for my client's wife's birthday. Alongside the dress are many custom-made necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings. All worth a fortune. Previously, I had transported minor things such as quality food, clothing, weapons, and so on. But this is different. If this gets taken, then it's over for me." Paul explained
"Who's your client? He has to be important enough for you to be worried about going out of business." Glenn asked
"It's Viscount Harold. His wife's birthday is in two months and this needs to be delivered before then."
"Viscount Harold?! That arrogant bastard?! Of all the people you could work with." Glenn's face palmed in frustration.
"Yeah, I know, but I was in a financial crisis and he paid me 100 gold for this. If I don't deliver, it's over for me. So, please cut me some slack." he pleaded
"Who's Viscount Harold?" Joren asked
"He's a noble two territories over. He's known for his extravagant parties and heavy spending on expensive items. He's also a complete asshole. If you get on his bad side, you're on it forever and he will do anything in his power to make sure you know that. I worked for him once, it was a poor experience." Glenn sighed
"We'll come back early in the morning to prepare for our departure. Make sure everything is ready for when we arrive. Also, make sure no one knows about this. As far as they know, you're helping out an old friend who came out of retirement."
"Don't worry Glenn, I'll make sure no one knows about this. And thank you for accepting my request, you don't know how much this means to me."
"Don't worry, I understand your situation, I'll do my best to make sure you make it out of the other side with your business intact. Come on Joren, let's meet with the others, we need to explain everything to them." Glenn walked out of the office with Joren following behind. They exited the building and started walking on the road.
"Where are we going now?" Joren asked
"To meet up with the other like I said previously."
"But we don't have a rendevous point. You just sent them on their duties and didn't even say where we'll meet up. So where are we going?"
"Haha, don't worry. They'll all be at the local tavern. It's kind of a normal thing to meet up at a tavern if you don't specify where your meeting point will be. You'll get into the groove of things once you journey with us for the next few years."
They continued walking until they were in front of a large wooden building with saloon doors and a sign reading "Welcome to Bakers Tavern. Please come in and have a good time. If you break something we'll break you. You have been warned".
"What kind of sign-"
"It's to stop people from starting unnecessary fights. It's also a part of the reason why the Mercenary Guild has a dining hall, to stop mercenaries from trashing this place." Glenn explained before Joren could finish his sentence.
The atmosphere in the tavern was pretty normal. People were having their meals while casually chatting. No chairs being thrown, no rowdy people talking at the top of their lungs, no drunk men flirting unsuccessfully with women, just a normal tavern.
"There they are." Glenn pointed to a round table in the middle of the tavern.
As they walked over, the others greeted them with a warm smile. They all had already ordered their meals and were eating as Glenn and Joren sat down at the table. At that moment, a waiter approached them and asked them what they would like to eat.
"I'll take a large steak," Glenn answered
"One large steak. And you?" The waiter asked looking at Joren.
"Ya'll got fried chicken?" He asked
"Fried chicken? I'm not sure I know what that is dear customer."
"What?! You don't know what fried chicken is? You have steak but not fried chicken?"
"I apologize dear customer but we do not have this fried chicken." The waiter bowed apologizing.
"Yeah, Joren, what's fried chicken? Do you mean chicken when it's cooked over fire? If so you just need to order regular chicken." Lenny asked
"No no no, fried chicken isn't cooked over fire. It's cooked in oil." Joren explained
"What?! Cooked in oil? I've never heard of cooking chicken in oil before." Lenny exclaimed
"I'm interested in what this fried chicken is," Derry spoke as if she was researching something.
"Sigh, is there a way for me to show you how it's cooked? You can keep the recipe if you want." Joren asked.
'I really want some fried chicken man. Everything in this world is either stewed or cooked over fire. Not that it's a problem but I'm really craving fried food right now. Oh, it would go well with a sprite. Wait, FUCK they don't have Sprite here! God dammit!'
"I-I'll have to talk with the boss. I'll be back shortly." The waiter bowed once more and left for the kitchen.
"Joren what's fried chicken?" Glenn asked
"You'll see if I'm allowed to make it. I promise it'll be the best thing you've tasted in a long while."
After about 10 minutes, the waiter came back and informed Joren that the boss who also happened to be the head chef allowed him to make his fried chicken as long as he gave him the recipe if it turned out well. Agreeing to that, Joren got up from his seat and headed to the kitchen alongside everyone else.
"So you're the brat who wants to make a new dish huh?" A man with a chef hat on spoke when Joren entered the kitchen. He had a curly white mustache that reached up to his nose. He had well-defined muscles, more than what a chef would have and he radiated an aura of confidence and authority.
"Yes sir." With respect, Joren replied. 'Why the hell would the boss of this establishment work at his own restaurant? It's not family-owned, is it? Shouldn't he just manage it?'
"Well, let's see what you got." Leading him to where the kitchen ingredients were, the chef allowed Joren to cook his fried chicken.
'Hmm, let's see. I'll cook it the same way I did for myself when I lived in my apartment. First I'll need-'
Joren looked around for all the ingredients he needed. Salt, pepper, leafy seasonings, flour, eggs, oil, and chicken legs.
"What a weird combination." The chef spoke.
Joren cleaned his chicken and started cooking. He first seasoned his chicken lightly with salt, pepper, and leafy seasonings. Then he cracked the eggs and put them in a bowl where he seasoned the eggs as well. After that, he dipped the chicken in the eggs and let it marinate for a bit. Finally, he coated the egg-dipped chicken in the slightly seasoned flour as the oil started to boil.
He lowered the chicken into the oil as a loud simmering sound reverberated through the air. He let the chicken sit for a few minutes, letting it get to the crispy brown color he was familiar with. After the few minutes were done, he took the chicken out and let it cool off, putting it in a basket.
"This is fried chicken," Joren said proudly pointing his nose into the air with pride.
"Woah! Although it looks pretty weird, it smells good. I wanna eat one right now!" Pantera reached out to grab one but her hand was swatted away by Joren.
"Wait, woman. Let the oil settle down. It's not good to eat oil like that."
"Ahh, okay. Sorry." She wiped the drool from her mouth and stepped back.
After 3 minutes, the chicken was finally ready for consumption. Joren handed out the chicken from the basket and grabbed his piece once everyone got their own.
"Now bask in the greatness of what is known as Fried Chicken." With those words, everyone took a bite out of their piece.
As soon as Joren swallowed his first bite, he started to cry. 'Yes! This is what I needed, what I longed for! It's so good! The crispness of the skin, the tender meat inside, the perfect amount of seasoning and spices. It's beautiful, truly beautiful!'
"Th-This is...AMAZING! I've never had anything like this in my entire life!" The chef spoke
"Wow! This is really good!"
"This shit good as fuck!"
"You should make this on our travels"
"You're a good cook Joren."
"You have to make this again Joren! Mmmm! This is so good!"
"Why haven't you made this at home Joren? This is really good!"
They all spoke their opinions, complementing Joren as they cleaned the chicken off the bone, licking their hands once they were done.
"Kid, I know I said you'll give me the recipe but this is too good to be handed over for free. How about we make a deal?" The chef cleaned his hands and walked to Joren.
"What kind of deal?" He asked
"I like this town because it's known for its amazing food. I'm not actually a chef working at this tavern, I own this tavern alongside the meat industry in this town. People all over the kingdom come to this place or order meat from me because of how premium it is. The steak here is the most famous dish. I'll buy this recipe from you right now and I'll incorporate it into the menu and every sale I get of the fried chicken, I'll give you a 10 percent cut for life. How does that sound?" The chef looked at Joren with the eyes of a businessman.
"Cool, I'll accept that deal. But I have another proposal for you. Would you like to hear it?" Joren smirked internally. He wasn't going to let this opportunity pass. 'The amount of money I can make! Haha, I'm going to be rich! I have no idea why a person who owns the meat industry works in a tavern though. Different times maybe.'
"W-What's your proposal?" The chef asked
Joren went on to explain and show the many different ways chicken could be cooked. The standard way like he did previously, and the many other ways that exist in his old world. He didn't go over every single type of chicken, just the ones that were popular and the ones that he liked. It came out to a total of ten different types of chicken. His proposal was
"I'll give you all these recipes for 25 percent of all of them for life. I guarantee you will own the entire chicken industry, and once you see how successful this is, I'll tell you different ways you can cook steak." Joren looked at the chef who was drinking milk from the spicy chicken he just ate.
"I'll take it. You have a deal." The chef didn't hesitate to accept the offer. 'With this, my business will skyrocket! He is someone I need as a business partner. He's only what? 13 at most, not even the academy age. He'll definitely become a great partner once he grows up.' The chef thought to himself
They shook on the deal and solidified it in writing. "The name's Gus." The chef spoke. "Joren" he replied back.
"Come back tomorrow, I'll make a bank card for you to withdraw money from. Or, do you have an ID? If so, you can use that as a bank card as well." Gus asked
"I do. Here." Joren handed his ID metal plate to Gus. Nodding his head, Gus ran to a door in the distance and quickly ran back to Joren with a stamp in one hand and a bag in the other. He stamped Joren's ID and a glowing blue logo of a steak with a fork and knife appeared on his ID before disappearing.
"That my stamp. It will allow you to access the bank under my business to get your share of the profit whenever you need." Gus explained
"Thanks, Gus. Pleasure doing business with you."
"Likewise." Gus handed Joren the bag which contained 100 gold coins. Everyone was shocked at the amount of money in the bag but didn't question it.
"Alright, time to go. We have work early in the morning so let's go to the inn." Glenn spoke and everyone agreed. Saying their goodbyes to Gus, they headed to the inn.