Marcus stayed behind as the rest of the people left the restaurant; his eyes were shadowed as he watched the city lord’s group leave. “Those people are going to be a problem for us at some point. You realize that, right?”

  Draden nodded. “I saw the looks a few of them were giving Leah. I don’t think they completely believed your story.”

  “It’s not a matter of whether they believed it or not, but what they stand to gain by having another magic user in their family.” Marcus corrected him. “The food you dished out tonight may have bought you some time. People who can make such potent qi-enriched food are rare out here. Just in case, though, I will contact an associate of mine and see if she is willing to come out and help.”

  He didn’t seem particularly excited by the idea of asking this associate for help.

  Behind them, Emilie finished wiping down the last table and approached the duo. “So, what is the plan? Do you plan on opening tomorrow or what?”

  Draden massaged the aching muscle in his leg and nodded. “Do you think you’ll be able to handle it alone, or do we need to find a second person to help?”

  Emilie hesitated as she turned to look around the room and thought over the last couple of hours. “Honestly? We’re probably going to need at least one more person, possibly even two. This room wasn’t even half full, and there were still times when I couldn’t keep up with all the people. I’d say normally that two of us would be able to handle everything, but during rush times we’ll need three of us.”

  “Do you think you can find another couple of helpers? People we can trust by tomorrow afternoon?” He had been telling everyone as they left that the restaurant would be open the next day for dinner, politely asking them to spread the word.

  Normally, he would also make a lunch of some sort, but he wanted to start slowly.

  She nodded slowly. “I know of a girl who needs work. Her father was injured recently, and the mother… Well, the less said about that woman, the better. Regardless, the girl is a hard worker and has been trying to provide for her family while the father recovers.”

  Draden thought for a moment and tilted his head at them both. “Follow me.” In the kitchen, he indicated the food that was left over. “I don’t know how much of this you can bring back with you, but I had been considering letting you bring some home each night to serve as your and Eowin’s breakfast or lunch. If you want to bring even more back with you this time for the girl and her family, that’s fine. The food does have some healing properties, so it will help her father as well. Or it does when it’s fresh. I’m not sure about when it’s been left out overnight.”

  He patted his leg. “Some wounds take more time to fully heal than others though. I can use this leg again, but it’s still somewhat weak. That said, it’s getting stronger, far faster than it would have otherwise.”

  Draden decided to keep his cultivation issues to himself. Those were of a more personal nature than a physical problem they could all see.

  “Um, how am I supposed to bring the food home?” She asked curiously.

  Draden blinked and then smacked his face with a chuckle. Right, this world didn’t have Tupperware, and a claypot would be far too heavy for her to carry all the way back to her house. He had prepared something for his and Leah’s use, but it was too small for this much food.

  “You have a bag, right?” She nodded. “Then we’ll just prepare the burritos this time and wrap them for transport. The soup won’t travel well. You’re free to take some donuts, though they may end up getting a tad squished.”

  Marcus had intended to stay and talk with Draden about the arrangements for teaching Leah; however, it was getting late. So, he might as well escort Emilie and Eowin back to the city and make sure they got back home safely.

  Inside the house, they found Leah and Eowin curled up together on the girl’s bed, sleeping peacefully.

  Emilie smiled gently down at her daughter and picked her up with a soft grunt of effort. “Thank you for letting me bring her with me.”

  Draden nodded. “Of course, you can always bring her. If you’re going to be working here at night, then it makes no sense to leave her at home alone. Besides, I think it gets lonely out here for Leah, so having her friend come out will be good for her.”

  With any luck, now that the restaurant was about to open, the little girl wouldn’t be lonely anymore. Regardless, having people her age around was a good thing.

  Carefully, Marcus took Eowin from her mother and carried her out of the house. The walk back to the city was a long one, but he was still spry for his age and could manage it.

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  “I’ll be back tomorrow, so that we can talk while Leah is in school,” The mage told him before walking out the door.

  “That’s fine. I’ll see you then.” He waited for them to disappear into the night before closing and locking the door behind him.

  There were a few things he needed to finish before he was done for the night. Namely, storing the food and going through, and making sure everything had been cleaned. Emilie had cleaned the dishes and wiped down the tables, but it only just now occurred to him that no one had checked the washroom.

  He knew for certain that at least one woman had rushed to it after beginning to break through. In the future, he would need to hang a sign on the doors to let the patrons know that they were responsible for cleaning their own messes.

  Gingerly, he opened the door and sighed. It was… actually not as bad as he had feared. This one was probably his fault, in all honesty. It looked as though the woman had made an effort to clean and had done a good job with the resources at hand. It was just that he hadn’t put anything in there meant for that purpose.

  Draden wrote a note down to change that, and after grabbing a mask and cleaning supplies, got to work.

  ***

  Leah yawned, stretched her little body, and carefully hopped down from the kitchen into the fishpond he had finished the day before. “Is the pool ready for fishies again?”

  The concrete he had mixed together probably needed a few more days to properly set, but he couldn’t say for sure since this wasn’t a modern mixture. It felt hard to the touch, even the stuff he had placed the day before was completely hard.

  He wasn’t an expert by any means, but he had done a little work with the material growing up, and more recently, when he was building his house. This wasn’t how day-old concrete was supposed to feel.

  He continued to inspect the place, making sure the grate at the exit pipe was firmly in place, before finally shrugging. It didn’t make much sense to him, but this was a different world, with different physics. Why couldn’t something like this be different as well?

  “I think we can count this one finished for the moment and begin to fill it up.” He announced at last. “That means you get to play in the mud outside as we work on the pond for the restaurant some more.”

  She laughed happily and then rubbed her tummy. “Later. Leah is hungry right now. Playing with her magic friends takes a lot of food energy.”

  He tilted his head curiously at her word choice, wondering if she had done that on purpose. Food energy. Was she talking about energy in general? Or the qi energy that his food specifically contained? Curious.

  “What do you want to eat for breakfast? Leftovers from the dinner I made last night, or something else?”

  “Golden rings!” She yelled instantly.

  “No, you can’t have donuts for breakfast,” Draden told her in exasperation, picking her up and lifting her onto the floor of the kitchen above.

  Outside of the house, they worked to open the pipe that they had blocked off before.

  Draden kept it partially blocked, as he wanted to introduce the water slowly, ensuring that there truly were no problems. After that was taken care of, he took his daughter back inside, and after washing their hands, they ate a breakfast of burritos.

  They were more breakfast-styled burritos with egg and cheese instead of rice, but plenty of meat. They were filling and gave the duo a lot of energy for the day, regular energy, and the special qi energy contained within his Earthly ingredients.

  Leah patted her belly as they walked along the road to the city. She was on her way to school for the day. “Burritos aren’t as good as golden rings, but they are filling.” She licked her lips, remembering the taste.

  “You’re a little sugar addict, aren’t you?” He asked his daughter, while gently poking her nose.

  Leah scrunched her face and wiggled her nose. “What is sugar? Leah is food additt.”

  He chuckled as she slightly screwed up the word. “At least you’re self-aware.”

  Emilie was waiting for him at the school gates, as she wanted to confirm when she should stop by the restaurant later. They agreed that she would come over directly after school ended, the same as the day before.

  Draden didn’t see Mirna and left the school without having a chance to say anything to her.

  After that, Marcus met him just outside the gates of the city, sitting on a decent-sized boulder while leaning on a staff. Groaning, the older man jumped from the boulder and joined him on the road.

  “I take it you have made your decision concerning my daughter?” Draden asked, somewhat wearily.

  The walk into the city from his house was only about a mile and a half outside the city. However, there was also the distance inside the city and the trip back. All told, each time he made the trip to the school, he was walking over four and a half to five miles. A good portion of that was carrying his daughter.

  It was good exercise, but it truly was brutal on his still weakened leg. At least the exercise was forcing it to grow stronger quickly. Each day, it was slightly stronger than the last. In the beginning, there had even been a difference between the afternoon and morning after his healing sessions.

  The changes were no longer quite so pronounced, but they were still there each day.

  Marcus nodded, falling into step beside him. “You know I have. She’s too talented to be left to her own devices, and your food isn’t something I can just give up on either.” He scratched his head. “Besides, after what Macron did last night, a lot of people are going to have their eyes on her. She needs to be protected.”

  Draden cracked his neck angrily. “Yeah, don’t even get me started on what he did.”

  He was going to need to start practicing with his sword again, just in case. Draden might not be a proper cultivator anymore, but he still had the skills that the original piece of his soul that had been inside this body had worked to acquire.

  Whether or not his body could handle using any of those skills was another matter entirely.

  After a certain point, those skills started to naturally use qi. You could, of course, put more qi through them, but turning off the flow of qi was much harder. Since he was no longer a proper cultivator, using his sword skills might not require any qi, or they could wring what little qi he had from him.

  It was a gamble, and one he would need to work at later, carefully.

  No matter what, he wouldn’t let anyone harm his daughter.

  Turning to Marcus, he opened his mouth. “Alright, let’s talk about what you can teach her, and how you can help keep her safe.”

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