The first official night of the restaurant was slow. Word about the place had begun to spread. However, even with his lowered prices, the place was still too expensive for most people to go to everyday. Going once, or perhaps twice a week, was manageable, but little more.

  Still, each day, the restaurant had a steady flow of customers. Draden had worked out the basic menu, and though they were still only open for supper and dinner, it was enough. Adding lunch hours to the mix would be something for the future after they had gotten used to running the restaurant.

  Three days after the grand opening, Coradine made her appearance.

  It was that world’s equivalent of a Saturday, and Leah was splashing around in the finished pond behind the restaurant. Marcus was nearby, watching as the young girl randomly created bubbles of water to play with, occasionally carrying a terrified fish into the air.

  Coradine walked around the side of the restaurant, hearing the girl's peals of laughter. “She really is as young as you were saying.” She said after a few moments of simply watching Leah have fun with her magic.

  Draden started in surprise at her appearance, while Marcus had already known she was there.

  “I told you,” The older man said simply. “She is going to cause more than a little bit of trouble for us once word of her talent starts to get around.”

  In the water, Leah was now acting like a chef and was stirring a couple of small fish in a shaky orb of water. All the while, she was chanting out random ingredients she had heard her father use. “A dash of salt and pepper. Some papleeka. One table of ora-ghano. Finish it off with a shake of garlic powder.” She was doing a little dance in the water as she spoke.

  Draden was doing his best to hold back his laughter as his daughter mispronounced words and shook her bum in the water. She looked ridiculous, but it was obvious that she was enjoying herself.

  As she called out ingredients, different shapes would form next to her. Each object was far more controlled and steadier than the orb she had created. At first, he had thought Marcus was the one who created these, but soon enough, it became clear that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was her magical friends who were doing it.

  Now whether that meant she was doing it subconsciously or that magic actually did have a mind of its own, he didn’t know. All that mattered to him was that she was happy.

  Coradine’s brows rose in amazement as she watched all this happen. “Who is this girl’s parents?”

  Draden glared at her in annoyance. “She is my daughter, born between my wife and my efforts. I assume I don’t need to explain to you how babies are made?” He finished drolly.

  The older woman flushed in embarrassment. “But you’re not even a cultivator!” She protested.

  He rolled his eyes and looked away from the woman. “I was injured a few years ago and lost my entire cultivation. At the moment, I am no better than a normal person. Which is why I need the two of you to help guard her. If I still had my former strength, I could have done it on my own.” He hesitated and then continued bitterly. “If I still had my former strength, her mother would still be here with us.”

  Marcus sighed and turned to Coradine. “Leah’s mother is Lorna, the elven saintess.” He said, correcting any assumptions before she could misunderstand. “She was taken when they declared her as such.”

  “Oh,” Her eyes filled with sympathy, and said nothing more.

  ***

  In the last couple of days, Marcus had finished creating the addition to the house that connected it to the restaurant. There was also a small teaching area for Leah and a room for Coradine.

  They introduced the woman to her living space and the rest of the house, before stopping in the kitchen for a late lunch.

  Marcus swirled his cup of juice and eyed the woman. “What do you think? Will you be staying to help teach Leah?”

  Coradine chuckled softly. “You know I am. After seeing her playing with the water, there was no chance I could leave her future to just you.”

  “Leah wasn’t playing with the water. She was playing with her friends.” The little girl said in between bites of her sandwich. She was sitting on a tall stool, and her feet were happily kicking the air.

  “The magic in the air…” He replied uncertainly, seeing her questioning gaze. “Is friends with Leah, and actively responds to her, or at least that is the way it seems.”

  Coradine’s mouth opened and closed several times, seemingly in confusion. Remembering how the shapes in the water had varied, with some holding their form extremely well, while others hadn’t.

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  Marcus merely shrugged. He had no true opinion on the matter one way or another. Leah was an odd little girl and while he didn’t truly believe that magic had a will of its own, he also didn’t think it mattered. It made the little girl happy and helped her practice her control, either subconsciously or simply because she was using her magic while playing.

  Either way, there was no downside.

  Coradine sipped at her juice, and then paused, her eyes widening in surprise. The qi-energy in the sandwich had been one thing, but it was made from restaurant leftovers that Draden had toned down. The juice, however, was fresh from Earth and stuffed full of energy.

  It was hard for Marcus and Coradine to drink more than a sip of it at a time, due to how much energy it contained. Meanwhile, Draden and Leah easily drained their cups without concern.

  Seeing that made the corner of her eye twitch violently.

  “What’s for dinner tonight?” Leah asked as she patted her tummy in contentment.

  Draden chuckled and poked her little belly, glad to see that she was finally getting some meat on her bones. She was still a long way from getting anything, even remotely akin to some belly fat. Besides, the little girl was too active for something like that to happen, not to mention the food he prepared for her was fairly healthy.

  Leah mewed and protectively guarded her stomach from him. “Mine, no touchy!”

  He snorted and lifted her onto his lap. “It’s time I introduced a few new items onto the menu. I meant to do it earlier, but well, running the restaurant was more hectic than I imagined. Anyway, I’ll be making tacos, gyros, wraps, and chili.” He was silent for a moment. “Actually, I might just do it this way for the next while. The weekend is when I will introduce new menu items. I’ll still keep one or two items from the old menu, but I want to keep things somewhat fresh until I decide on the final menu anyway.”

  Two of the menu items, namely the tacos and wraps, were meant to be lunch items, or snacks instead of dinner items. They also wouldn’t be made fresh. Instead, he would be making them in bulk and then using parchment paper to keep them from drying out.

  Leah tilted her head back so she could see his face. “What are they? Will they be tasty?”

  He shrugged. “I like them. I guess we’ll find out what you think of them later.” He replied, resting his chin on her forehead.

  She squealed with laughter, struggling under his chin.

  Most of the new recipes used chicken, except for the chili which used beef. As usual with his recipes, the choice of meat could be swapped as needed. The main appeal for them -at least in his opinion- was the vegetables that filled them. They brightened and took each item to a whole new level. Without the veggies, they were alright, still tasty, but they were so much better with them.

  More importantly, they were relatively quick to make. You wanted to marinate the meat to help it absorb some extra flavor. But that was something you started the night before and only took a few minutes to do.

  Now that he was starting to do lunch as well, he wanted items that he could do fairly quickly. Not only because he didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, but also because he was determined to find a way to turbocharge his healing.

  Draden was glad that Marcus and Coradine were here to guard and teach Leah. However, he refused to depend solely on them. It was past time for him to regain his ability to cultivate and former strength.

  How he was going to do that though, was another thing. He needed to make something entirely from Earthly ingredients. It also needed to be made from the right ingredients and be small enough so that he could eat a lot of it. Not all ingredients contained the same amount of qi or healing energy.

  Certain spices and herbs could be extremely potent, while others would contain very little energy.

  The problem was, he didn’t know what to make. He had continued to write down recipes as he either remembered them, or parts of them. However, nothing fit what he wanted to do. That left him with only one option, to create a brand-new recipe from scratch, which was something he had never done before.

  He still wasn’t sure why he had gotten a cooking system, or maybe it would be better to call it an ingredient system. Thinking that brought him up short. He had been focused on cooking for himself and Leah at the time, which was why he leaped to calling it a cooking system, but it really was more of an ingredient system.

  Frankly, if he had been thinking clearly at the time, or had just been chasing money, then becoming a merchant would have made more sense. That hadn’t been and still wasn’t the goal. He was looking to heal himself and use the energy to regain his former strength.

  Besides, he enjoyed making his daughter happy with his cooking. The old Draden had never known what he was missing by not cooking for her.

  It was a simple pleasure, but a meaningful one.

  Shaking his head, he refocused on the group, pushing the matter to the side for the moment.

  “Will there be a new dessert?” Leah asked after calming down, a gleam in her eye.

  Draden raised his hand to poke her belly again and then chose to stroke her hair instead. “You’re a sugar addict.”

  “Nope!” She shook her head, the ‘P’ sound popping off her lips. “Leah is a food addit.”

  Marcus and Coradine snorted in amusement, enjoying the play between father and daughter.

  “Hmm, well, I hadn’t thought about doing another dessert, yet.” He had thought about other desserts, but most of them involved chocolate, and that ingredient was particularly rare and prized here. Anything made with it would sell well, but would also garner far too much attention. Thankfully, he did know a few other dessert recipes. “I do have something that I can make… I just hadn’t intended to pull it out just yet.”

  The little girl tilted her head back to look at him. “What is it? Is it good?”

  Her father slowly nodded. “If it comes out right, then yes, it will be very good. Speaking of which, Leah, what do you like better, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries?”

  Leah licked her lips at the mention of the delicious fruit and grabbed her chin like she had seen adults do when they made difficult decisions. Her eyes narrowed, while her brows drew close in concentration. For others, the question was relatively simple, but for the little girl, food was one of the most important things to her.

  “Mew,” She groaned after a few moments. “Leah can’t choose. She needs to try them all.”

  Draden, having already expected that answer, merely chuckled and picked her up. “Alright. Come on, let's go to the kitchen and I’ll make a new dessert for you.”

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