Brooks, the chief cook, made some more jokes; eventually he accepted Arthur's surrender.
He raised the plate of bread and gave the boy five loaves. As he dropped them into the open sack, he said seriously, "As demanded by the treatise between the state of Arthur and the Kitchen, five loaves of bread must be used to buy one day of peace."
Arthur accepted the loaves of bread and sped towards his next destination. On his way out of the kitchen, he grabbed a large cup with a strong handle.
Then he waved back to Brooks and said, "See you tomorrow morning."
Brooks waved back and smiled. "I await your visit, young master."
Arthur left while the chief cook hummed as he resumed his cooking. Without the need to watch out for Arthur, the old chief can finally relax and cook without fear.
It is as the servants think: young master Arthur is a real terror. If he were not and if he were the victim, why would they give him five loaves of bread even though he failed to steal them?
It is because worse things will happen if he doesn't get his way. It is just better to buy him off for a day than to antagonize him and cause him to come after them.
Arthur is somewhat notorious in these parts of the Dyson compound. Many of his targets give him what he wants without much resistance, but there are still some strongholds that have refused to capitulate to his demands.
His next target is one of those strongholds. It is the kitchen belonging to another mistress of the Dyson family.
He and his mother are living in a two-story building on a street designated for mistresses and concubines.
The Dyson family is quite large. Even though many descendants leave the compound every year, it is still populated with a lot of people.
Just his street alone is populated with 11 concubines and their children. Some of them have more than one child, and some of them don't have any children.
His mission every morning for the past two years has been to hit the kitchen of every one of these households. If he can steal, he will steal. But if he can't, they must give him something. Those are the rules.
But some people are stubborn, or they are new. They don't know how bad things can get if they don't let him have his way, so they try to resist.
He can't allow this kind of insubordination. It will give others the wrong ideas and delay his progress with his secret ability. So he must teach them a lesson.
His eyes were cold as if he was going to war. It might as well be war because what he is doing is very important to him. It is his lifeline. It is the only thing he can rely on not to be mediocre, so he is willing to do anything to make progress in it.
That's why he took sand from the ground and poured it into the cup he took. He made sure that the cup was full of sand before he resumed his journey.
Soon he approached the house. It is identical to his own. It is a two-story house with five rooms on each floor.
It also isn't painted. The white stones used to build it are exposed to the air.
The house doesn't have a fence. There is nothing to stop him from approaching the house and sneaking to the backyard where the exit of the kitchen is.
When he reached the windows beside the door, he raised his height by standing on his toes and peeked into the kitchen.
He saw at a glance that everyone was relaxed. It was clear that they were not on guard against him. He didn't like it one bit.
He sneered and said, "Let's see how you like this."
Then he threw the cup of sand into the open pot of soup that was being prepared for breakfast.
The cup sailed through the air and landed in the soup. It caused the soup to splash everywhere. A drop of hot soup splashed on the face of the servant stirring it and burned the skin.
It wasn't a serious burn, but the servant screamed. This, coupled with the abrupt appearance of the flying cup, caused the kitchen to become chaotic.
Then they heard the sound of smug laughter from the window of the kitchen. This caused all of them, including the stubborn chief cook who didn't know what was good for her, to turn towards the window.
They didn't see who it was that threw the cup because he was too short, but they saw the head of wild red hair, and they knew who the culprit was immediately.
The chief's face was livid. She was a young woman who had just got a job to work for the new concubine of the Dyson family. But even she knew which brat in the whole Dyson family had red hair.
She roared, "You're out of line, Arthur. You've gone too far, you stinky brat."
Arthur laughed as he ran away. "This is war, and all is fair in love and war."
He called as he ran, "Surrender Sheila, or face the consequences."
He didn't bother to wait for her reply because he couldn't trust her to be reasonable after sanding her soup. Besides, whatever she says now might be a trick to get close to him and nab him.
He ran away quickly, which was a good thing because she chased after him. However, she didn't chase too far. She only stood outside her kitchen and cursed at him.
Her reprimands were like music to his ears. He laughed as he ran with his short legs to the next house.
The chief cook there had stopped what he was doing when he heard the shouting and cursing. He even looked in the direction of the noise, so he was able to spot Arthur as he approached.
Arthur cursed inwardly, "Drats. Looks like stealing is off the table this morning."