Chapter 122: Reminder
Lake and Nancom had finished after three more rounds of brewing. Thankfully he had been able to shorten the amount of time they were spending on each batch or he wouldn't have had time to go get some food before he went to his room to sleep. Sadly the food had been slightly sub par, it was still better than normal food, but he could tell Millie had never even touched it.
He guessed she had trained her apprentices to a level where she thought they could start to handle food on their own. He was sure she was relieved to not have to cook for hundreds of people everyday anymore. Stepping into his room Lake didn't see any of his servants which made him think they were probably out on the balcony.
Stepping outside Lake saw four people, three being his servants, and the fourth being Millie. Lake wasn't too surprised she was here if there was a fight happening at the moment and with the sun officially being down he was sure there was at least a small scuffle somewhere in the city.
"Hello." Lake kept his greeting short, and walked over to get a better look of the city. "It hasn't really started yet, but there was a small fight over there a few minutes ago." Millie was pointing towards the part of town that had received the most damage during the various battles. Lake wondered if that part of town had something important, or if it had just been unlucky so far.
Since there wasn't anything happening Lake guessed he might as well confirm his thoughts on the food in the cafeteria today. "Did you work today, or did you spend the whole day watching fights?" If Millie said she worked today he would probably drop the issue of the quality being lower than normal and just chop it up to a bad day for her.
"I tried but I couldn't focus, so I told my apprentices to do their best, and I'll tell them how they did tomorrow." Lake guessed Millie didn't want her students to realize she wasn't up to the task, so she made it into some kind of test. "Did you eat today? How'd they do?" Lake always liked to tell people his opinion so he just told her straight.
"They need some more time if they ever hope to match your work, and I don't see any of them ever making any improvements to any of your recipes." Lake was actually exaggerating because if he was right Millie would just agree with him but if some of the Apprentices were any good Millie would probably tell him about them.
"You're right, it makes me wonder where the guild even got them from. It's like they just brought all the Alchemists they could find who had the Chef job as well. Half of them hadn't even leveled it up before coming here, and none of them even like cooking." It seemed it was actually worse than he thought.
This didn't spell a bright future for the restaurants, there was no way they wouldn't be successful but they would probably underperform if Lucas didn't find Millie some better students to teach. The way Lake saw it Lucas had taken the wrong approach, probably because of lacking time. Lucas should have instead looked for chefs who they could try to help unlock the Alchemist job.
At least that was how he would have done it but he didn't know how hard it was to unlock Alchemist usually, or how much training the chefs would need to be able to perform the Alchemy part of whatever Millie did to food to make it so much better. He still had a suggestion though.
"I know it isn't possible now with the city in chaos, but could you get some chefs for the next batch of apprentices and try to teach them Alchemy, or would that be more work?"
"I don't really mind the work as long as I can actually successfully get any of them to unlock the job. From what I know about Rare jobs Like Alchemist, the odds of actually getting someone to unlock it isn't very high." Lake knew this as well, and said. "It doesn't matter you'll need to train normal chefs to work in the restaurants anyway so any that fail to unlock Alchemist can just be used as normal staff."
Mille seemed to think this was a good idea but they both understood they didn't really have access to outside personnel at the moment, so she was just going to have to make do with what she had. Changing the subject, sort of, Lake asked. "Why couldn't you focus today?" Lake understood not paying attention if you were doing repetitive work but that wasn't the problem Millie was having.
"I left in the middle of the battle that took place this morning, I don't know if you heard, but it was revealed there is more than one Holy mage in the city, but even with the two of them it was obvious that they were struggling to protect the city from whoever the Demon Lord sent." Lake could understand not being able to focus with something like that happening right outside, but there seemed to be more to what Mille wanted to say so he asked a question.
"Are you regretting staying inside the guild instead of leaving when Lucas offered?" Lake could kind of tell he was right, and Millie was feeling guilty by how her face looked after he asked. "I didn't really understand when I made my decision. I'm pretty sure everyone should be fighting for the city even if they aren't particularly strong because if the Light temple is forced to retreat everyone who's anywhere close to the city will be killed."
Lake could see what the problem was so he cut Millie off and said. "Millie the Temple is going to win so you'll be more helpful if you're still alive for when that happens. You need to remember Lucas promised to feed all the people affected by the war with the money you'll be making the guild with your restaurants."
Lake was 100% sure this argument would talk Millie out of trying to join the army that was fighting the Demon Lord. He had put together Millie had probably come from a poor family that had been starving while she was a child during his first few interactions with her, so the thought of feeding everyone who would be starving because of the war would probably make her stop feeling guilty for not helping.
"You really think the Temple will win?" Lake nodded and said. "The Demon Lord was only able to get a half victory last time because of The Betrayer who's dead now so unless something like that happens again I'm sure the God of Light will restore the status quo soon." He was also aware that the Temple was working on reviving the Goddess of Light/Holy Goddess, and once that happened Holy Mages wouldn't be the rarity they are now and the Demon Lord would lose his biggest advantage.
It was all a matter of time, and Lake knew they were probably in the best place someone could be if they were trying to wait out the war. Today inside the Master Guild had made him realize just how many resources they had. Every one of the masters had been working on something to help them defend the Guild until the war was over.
"All you really need to be thinking about is the best way to make sure the restaurants make enough money that we will be able to fulfill our promise to the king." Lake looked towards Millie's face to see her deep in thought which he took as a sign that she was taking his advice. Lake was done talking anyway so he didn't snap her out of it, and instead looked back towards the streets below.
Her thinking probably meant she was motivated to make her restaurants as good as possible so his words worked as intended. After a few seconds of scanning the streets below he saw something weird. There was a person wearing the Temples garb looking up at them. There was no chance they were actually being seen because of the barrier the Guild had in place but the person Lake thought was probably a woman was looking directly towards them and it was giving him a weird feeling.
After a few seconds Lake saw the person disappear and reappear a few moments in a different place. This happened a few times before they disappeared for good. People disappearing wasn't anything new because loads of people could move faster than he could see, but this seemed different because the amount of time it took for them to reappear in a new place meant they weren't moving fast enough for him not to be able to see them.
Realizing he should have Marked them while he had the chance, Lake started to look around to see if he could see them looking up at the guild from a different spot. While he was looking for them, Lake started to see massive flashes of golden Light in the sky meaning the actual fight had started up again, and he quickly lost interest in the person he had seen looking at the guild.
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