It was the type of answer that they expected from the little girl and had no response for it yet. In their own experience, magic wasn’t sentient. However, at this point, they had also seen enough odd things around the little girl that they no longer knew for sure.

  All of their original explanations were as unprovable as what the little girl was claiming.

  Cleaning his hands, Draden moved them all to the front of the restaurant. “So, what did you two decide in regard to Macron? I assume that is what you were talking about so quietly.”

  “It will need to be confirmed, but the timeline is right for him to possibly have experienced a qi deviation event,” Marcus told him softly.

  Draden closed his eyes, looking through his memories for the specific meaning of those words.

  Qi deviation. It was something that could occur when a cultivator attempted to progress to the next tier before they were fully ready. If you weren’t ready, then normally the process would simply fail, and you would regress to the beginning of your current realm. However, there were some rare occasions where the cultivator would manage to pass through, regardless. Normally, they would be fine, but… of those rare few, some would experience a deviation in their qi.

  It was caused because they had too little qi for their new realm, along with the strain they had just put their body’s, dantian, and core through.

  As a result, they would lose control of the qi inside their bodies, and the damage it caused would change the cultivator. Just a little at first anyway, but the changes to their personality would grow with time. Warping who they once were, as their very perception of the world shifts.

  “How would you even confirm something like that?” He asked, placing his daughter on top of a nearby table. “More importantly, is there a way to reverse the problem or fix it?”

  Coradine slowly nodded. “You have to remember, we’re mages, not cultivators; what we’re saying here is based solely on what we have learned from our friends and companions over the years, not personal experience.”

  “I understand.”

  “Good, now, from what we know, there is a method, though it isn’t fast by any means,” She began, slowly outlining the fix. “He needs to go back to the basics and reinforce his foundation. This happened in part because that was weak. Then he needs to consolidate all his previous gains, which will also help to reinforce his foundation. Changes to his diet, sleep, and lifestyle can be made as well. The last two are cleansing his qi of any impurities and using acupuncture to correct any problems that have manifested in his meridians.”

  All of those items were focused on his cultivation, not the man’s personality. He could understand why this would take a while. It had taken years for Macron to become the way he was now. If they were lucky, it wouldn’t take that long to cleanse him of impurities or strengthen his foundation, but it still wouldn’t be a quick process.

  “It’s a good thing he has family here. I can’t imagine you would have much luck convincing him this is necessary otherwise.” He commented wryly.

  Marcus scowled and shook his head. “Even with their help, it will be hard to get him to agree, let alone continue to make the needed changes. We also need to have someone with the proper experience inspect his cultivation to make sure that our guess is actually correct.”

  Years ago, Draden would have been able to perform that inspection himself. However, he was no longer capable of that, not to mention he had never possessed the knowledge to do so either. While his cultivation tier had once been higher than the city lord, there was plenty he had not known.

  Draden had not belonged to a sect or a family. He had been what was commonly known as a rogue cultivator. He had largely depended on his prodigious cultivation talent to get where he had been, as coming across proper information had been a rare and hard thing to do.

  “Is there someone nearby that you can contact?” He asked, curious as to the possible timeline they were looking at.

  The two shook their heads in the negative. “No, the closest one that we know well enough to ask such a favor of is several weeks away,” Coradine replied after a moment. “She was closer to where I was when I received Marcus’ message. Though it’s possible that she may be able to make the trip faster than myself, depending on the method she uses.”

  “How long will it take for your message to get to this woman?” He asked, noticing Emilie, her daughter, and Alice arriving from the front window.

  “It should reach her tonight, assuming she is still where she was last time we spoke. If she has moved since then, it may take more time.” Marcus told him, scratching his chin.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Draden opened the door for the three, pushing the matter about the city lord from his mind for the moment. Everything that concerned the man was beyond his abilities; it was hardly worth thinking about. He would let others take care of the matter for him.

  If he could help, he would, but the odds of that were doubtful, at least in his opinion.

  Leah and Eowin promptly began playing to the side while Alice and Emilie began setting up the restaurant for the day.

  Marcus went outside to send the message without delay, while Coradine chose to watch over the girls. While she was only meant to teach Leah, the older woman didn’t appear to mind taking care of Eowin as well. In fact, she seemed to enjoy watching how the two little girls played off each other at times. Both were cute little girls, but it was their innocent and slightly odd personalities that truly made them adorable.

  Even Draden had to admit that was the case, and he was clearly biased.

  Heading back into the kitchen, he started preparing the food for everyone’s lunch, ensuring that it would be filling but light.

  In this case, he brought out the chicken wrap from the day before, along with the street tacos. He was interested in seeing how everyone would react to the tacos. Then, just to get an early estimate, he also brought out small bowls of the chili. He didn’t want to load everyone down with the chili, but he did want their opinion on the food.

  They enjoyed the food, especially the portability of it all, something that he encouraged this time by having pre-wrapped everything. That said, it was to no surprise that the star of the show was once again the desserts. Even though it was just pudding and donuts, which they had already eaten, they still thoroughly enjoyed them. Of course, once it was revealed that Leah had a hand in forming the smaller donuts, everyone had to take turns guessing at what each one was.

  Leah laughed and giggled as they would get them wrong or right in turn, and saw them playing with their food.

  It was a pleasant meal, and by the end, Draden had begun to change his plans for how the restaurant was going to do lunch.

  Instead of opening the restaurant properly during that time, for the few people who may or may not arrive, he would do something else. They would do two things. The first would be a takeout window, which meant he would need to have some more work performed on the building. The second would be a food cart with an insulated container to keep the food from spoiling.

  Emilie and Alice would take the cart around the city each day. Depending on how it did, he might expand it from one to two carts, even with additional offerings. However, those carts were not the focus of the restaurant and would only be done if they were profitable. If people started causing problems for either of the women or himself, then the carts were done.

  Simple as that.

  Draden was doing this for a specific reason, not to become rich or some sort of tycoon. He had no reason to compete against people who couldn’t appreciate what they had in front of them.

  As they finished the meal, he mentioned his revised idea to Alice and Emilie. Apologizing to them both, as they would need to pull the carts to and from the city. Getting a beast of burden was definitely on the list of needs… or at least it was until Emilie spoke.

  “You don’t need to worry about the journey being tiring for us. Don’t forget, my husband taught me a few things about cultivation, and now Alice is able to cultivate as well.” She grinned and leaned across the table. “If you don’t hurry up and finish healing, then soon enough you might be the weakest one here.”

  Draden chuckled and nodded. He wanted to deny it, but it was the unfortunate truth. Even Leah would soon surpass him if he wasn’t careful, though her form of strength would be different than what his had once been.

  That was an image that had him scratching his head. How did one deal with the terrible-twos when the baby in question was stronger than the parent? Luckily, he didn’t have to deal with that, and from what he knew of this world, no one here did either, but it was still enough to bring a smile to his face at the ridiculousness of it.

  Once the meal was over, he clapped his hands once to get their attention. “Alright, today, and yesterday, you got to experience the new menu items for the week. What did you think of them? Any complaints or ideas, changes that I should make to them?”

  “The not snot is weird!” Leah shouted, raising her spoon with the dessert in question.

  “I hate to agree with the little one, but in this case, she is right,” Coradine said. “Pudding is an odd dish. Even last night, the customers here were hesitant to try it until someone finally got up the nerve and went first.”

  Draden nodded, it was true. They had reacted well to pudding once they tried it, but as the others had predicted, the dish’s appearance had been… polarizing.

  “Yeah, I’ll give it a week, and then if people are still having problems with it, I’ll remove it from the menu. There isn’t much I can do about its appearance. Is there anything else?”

  Emilie held up her bowl of chili. “This is going to sell well, especially if you pair it with some bread.”

  Draden blinked and laughed. “I completely forgot about that. I don’t suppose you know a baker, do you? I can do it, but it’s not something I have done a lot of yet, so it tends to be hit or miss for me. Flaky biscuits would be best if they have them.”

  He had made them from the can before, and he might have even seen bits and pieces of the process in videos. However, he was sure that he had never come across the actual recipe for the sort of flaky biscuits he wanted. In this case, if he wanted to make them, then he would have to recreate the recipe himself with the limited information he possessed inside his memories.

  Alice timidly raised her hand. “I might know someone. They don’t do biscuits, but their bread is really good. I can bring in some tomorrow for us to try with the chili. If we like it, maybe boss can speak with them.”

  A few minutes later, the impromptu meeting finished, and Emilie and Alice began clearing the tables. Meanwhile, Marcus and Coradine took over watching Leah and Eowin. At the moment, they were teaching the girls the basics of magic. It didn’t matter that Eowin couldn’t use magic yet, as she would likely need to know the information at some point in the future.

  Meanwhile, Draden was in the kitchen prepping more chili on Emilie and the others' recommendation.

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