He hadn’t set an actual time for the grand opening of the restaurant, consequently, people began arriving around supper time. Not to be confused with dinner as while on Earth the difference had largely disappeared, here on this world the difference still remained. That meant that they had begun arriving around four-thirty or five.

  The first ones to appear were the group of workers who had helped build the restaurant, along with their families and friends. All told, over thirty people arrived in one go, and Draden began to fear that he had seriously underestimated how much food he would need to prepare. If this continued, he might need to add limits on the number of people he could serve in the future.

  He was only one person, and not even one capable of cultivating properly again. Not yet, at least. Hopefully, that would change soon, but he still wasn’t there. If what Emilie had said earlier was true, then the amount of energy his food gave was far more than he had realized. It also meant that his body had truly been in dire straits since it was still sucking up all that energy without a problem and that Leah was an odd little genius.

  Which to be fair, he had already suspected simply due to her mother’s ability with magic, and his original ability to cultivate. She had demonstrated a ridiculous level of ease with magic already. Whether her eating his food had helped or not, being able to consume the energy-packed food was also apparently odd.

  Oh, well, too late for that now. All they could do is warn people in the future and give smaller portions to kids.

  He might also need to decrease the amount of ingredients he used from Earth more. With what he had originally planned, the chef’s supper might cause people to explode with a preponderance of qi overload at this rate.

  Well, he would discover what everyone thought soon enough.

  Emilie showed the workers in escorting them to their tables and explained how the process would work. For the moment, Draden had decided to give everyone a half portion of each dish, except for one person at each table. That random person would get a full serving, allowing the others to actually see how much food was in a normal portion.

  Was it needed? Probably not, but he was running a restaurant and wanted to make sure everyone knew how much they would normally get if they came back.

  In the corner of the restaurant, Leah and Eowin played together, providing a form of entertainment for everyone.

  Soon enough, the inside of the restaurant was filled with the sound of talking and laughter. Then, abruptly, it all ceased as Emilie began bringing out their bowls of soup. Half were the vegetable version, and the other half were shredded chicken.

  The smell of the soup filled the room, causing everyone to gulp hungrily. It didn’t matter if it had chicken or just vegetables, they just wanted to eat. Which is exactly what they did, or rather, what they tried to do.

  Each person only managed a few bites, before they needed to stop and either circulate the qi, incorporating it, or simply release it as Emilie had been doing. It was rather wasteful, but unless they knew how to properly incorporate it, then there was nothing else to be done.

  Before they could finish, more people began to arrive. An entire procession of them this time. It was Mirna, along with her husband, the guard captain, several guards, and several well-dressed people that Draden didn’t recognize.

  Yeah, he definitely hadn’t made enough food. Well, there was nothing to do but get back to cooking and fix that problem.

  Seeing their teacher, the two girls ran over to her and greeted the woman happily. After giving Leah and Eowin both hugs, Mirna introduced her husband, and then her mother and father, who had been among the well-dressed people behind them.

  Draden hadn’t recognized the man, but apparently, he was the city lord. A reveal that shocked everyone currently in attendance.

  Leah tugged on Mirna’s sleeve, urging her to lean over. “Is that really your mother and father? Their clothes look so nice.”

  The teacher chuckled and ruffled the little girl’s hair. “Yes, they actually are my parents. The school was created by my maternal grandmother years ago and is run by my family.”

  Draden, who was helping Emilie bring out their food at the moment, happened to overhear her, paused. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but does that mean you are also related to the headmaster, Miss Dajra Dheni?”

  She nodded. “She’s my aunt.”

  “If I had known that, I would have mentioned it earlier, but I also invited her and Miss Tasri Havenhoff as well.” He told them before heading back to the kitchen for another round of plates.

  Draden had greeted everyone, but he didn’t have time at the moment to truly speak with them all. Besides, he hadn’t invited Mirna and her family with the knowledge that they were actually even remotely important. She was Leah’s teacher, and a woman who had gone above and beyond in her job, nothing more.

  When he next came out, he found more people entering the restaurant. In this case, it was the headmaster, holding Marcus by his ear, while Tasri came in behind them. Both of the women were dressed nicely, with long cloaks that protected them from the elements and the dust from the road. Marcus, on the other hand, looked as though he had been rolled along the dusty road the entire way from the city.

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  Draden burst out into a chuckle at the sight. “Did you catch a ball of dust there, Miss Headmaster? You could have just left it outside instead of bringing it in, you know.”

  “I was tempted to, but this one speaks and kept protesting.” She replied dryly. “I assume he was invited?”

  He nodded and then pointed to the restrooms. “The washrooms are over there, Marcus. If you would clean up first before taking a seat at the tables, it would be appreciated.”

  The man nodded, grumbling to himself. “Next time I’m bringing a horse. Who was it that said this place was close to the city? A bunch of liars, all of them.”

  “I take it you and he know each other?” Draden asked Dajra, as she and Tasri sat themselves at the same table as her younger sister and niece.

  The two women shared a look and began laughing. “Marcus is rather well known among people from our age group. He used to be quite the little troublemaker, before abruptly disappearing for a few years to study magic. When he returned, he was still a troublemaker, but now he had the power to back up his antics.”

  Leah’s eyes grew wide with delight as they found the now clean man coming out of the washroom. “Grandpa Markie, are you going to teach me to be a troublemaker?” She asked, silencing the entire restaurant.

  The older man stopped mid-stride; his eyes wide before locking onto the women he had entered with minutes earlier. “Um, Dajra, what sort of outlandish tales have you been telling these nice people about me? I’m a perfectly respectable and upstanding gentleman.”

  Leah’s face fell as her hopes of learning an interesting curriculum were utterly dashed. She sniffed while continuing to stare at the man.

  “Don’t look at me like that, little one. I’m sure I can think of something that will qualify.” He crumbled instantly under her teary eyes.

  “And what exactly is it that you are going to be teaching the little one?” The city lord asked, delicately cutting the burrito apart with a knife and fork.

  Marcus tilted his head, taking in the rest of the table, his eyes growing flinty. “Macron,” He ground out. “It’s been a while since I last saw your ug- I mean face. I would have preferred if it had stayed that way. As for what, I will be teaching the girl. Draden has asked that I begin preparing her for when her magic ability develops. She still has a few years, but apparently, the girl’s mother developed early.” He indicated the food on the table. “And frankly, he was rather persuasive.” He finished with a shrug.

  One of the officials looked as though they wanted to say something, but a sharp look from the city lord cut him off. Draden didn’t miss the looks several of them were giving his daughter though.

  Marcus had answered the question the best he could, but it had been a loaded question from the beginning. Guaranteed to cause trouble as soon as it was asked, and frankly, the city lord should have known better. No matter what his problem with Marcus was, the man had just dragged Leah and Draden into their feud as well. And that was inexcusable!

  Thankfully, Mirna, her mother, and Dajra all seemed to agree with him as they rounded on the man and began to whisper yell at him.

  “Leah,” Draden called out. “Why don’t you and Eowin head on next door to play for a while.”

  The little girl looked as though she wanted to protest, before abruptly giving in and taking hold of her friend’s hand.

  He didn’t want to keep his daughter around the government officials longer than needed.

  Macron took a bite of his burrito and sighed in pleasure. Following his example, the other government officials finally began to eat as well.

  Beside Mirna, her husband was ignoring the drama and sipping at the soup with delight. He was used to his wife’s family being the center of attention and mostly just ignored everything that happened around his father-in-law. He loved his wife, and his mother-in-law was a delight, but Macron tended to be a drama queen or rather in his case drama king.

  Mirna was just about to take a large bite of her burrito when he stopped her. “Maybe, try a smaller bite first, honey.”

  She glanced at him in confusion, and then the food with a slightly worried eye before nodding. The resulting bite was far smaller than the one she would have taken.

  Marcus, meanwhile, sat next to Dajra and Tasri, talking quietly to them as they ate.

  While that group was just starting to eat, the construction workers and their families were nearly finished. That was Emilie’s clue to begin bringing out the donuts.

  One of the worker’s wives broke through into the next realm mid-bite and began to cry happily as she rushed to the washroom. Breaking through realms were rarely clean affairs while breaking through stages could be downright gag-worthy in nature.

  Before any of them could begin to get up, Draden had pulled up a chair to their table, along with a notepad. “Before you leave, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” He asked them quietly.

  Each person looked satisfied and more than willing to answer anything he might ask.

  Draden started off with an easy question. “What did you think of the food?”

  “It was so good!”

  “It was delicious!”

  Various forms of effusive praise filled the air, and they all seemed genuine as well.

  “Did the food being different from what you were used to make you hesitant to try it?”

  All of the construction workers who had already tried his food shook their heads; their family members were a little more hesitant to respond. Which was the response he had been expecting.

  “That’s fine. How hesitant were you?”

  The foreman’s wife leaned toward him. “I think I can speak for the others here when I say that if this is how you are going to run your restaurant, then the order in which the food comes out will be key. From what my husband has told me about the food you cooked for the work crew, it was always good, but it was often different.”

  She took a breath. “That said, the soup, while somewhat different, was familiar enough to be an excellent introduction to your style. If you had waited to bring out that second item, the white, uh, round sandwich, I think it would be helpful. As by the time people have finished it, they know the quality of your food.”

  She waved a hand in the air. “I’m not trying to guess your menu or anything. I just think it would be a good idea to have some sort of initial introductory dish that is familiar to people. Um, either way, once I tried the soup, trying that sandwich was easy, and that ring at the end even easier.”

  The other wives all nodded in agreement, and he made sure to take plenty of notes.

  “Thanks, that’s really helpful. Okay, I only have two more questions. Was the energy contained inside the food too much? And how much would you be willing to pay for a meal like this?” He hesitated and then added to that. “Actually, let me correct that. How much would you be willing to pay for a meal that filled you with energy, but not to this extent? It doesn’t do you any good if you have to keep purging it anyway.”

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