My Servant System

Brunch was a splendid affair for us, though not so much for the officials of Khisba; the citizens were still blissfully unaware of what had happened, and I didn't envy the work they had before them for this piece of news that they needed to break to their people.

Perhaps it was because they weren't 'my people', or perhaps it was just because I was always - and will always - more worried about the emotions and health of Anput, Leone and Jahi than anyone else whenever we were out and about, and the rest of my family whenever we were at home.

I didn't have a good amount of empathy anyways to go around sharing it with random people, and the little bit that I had left over from caring for those close to me tended to be barely enough to fuel a single reaction for random people, let alone an entire city of people I didn't know anything about.

Anyways, back to brunch; I managed to scrounge together quite a few things I was familiar cooking with and a few things I was willing to experiment with, like a small jar of seasoning that was called baharat; I had heard of it before, that it was just a large quantity of spices mixed together into a single blend that apparently tasted quite delicious.

Besides that, they had quite a few salted meats of a few varieties that I hadn't seen before, but as soon as Anput idly told me I was holding worm meat, I made sure to ask her where the normal meat was located, finding a few filets of lamb and some chicken breasts lying around.

Since everything was salted, I got together making a wet sauce from the chicken stock, tomato paste, olive oil and some milk alongside some of those spices I had found, mainly that baharat since it didn't have a cloying spiciness that suggested a heat I would regret eating.

Then I got to work making something as similar to naan that I could manage, which was also why I considered this brunch; I wanted to try making curry - since Anput was so desperate to eat some - and didn't have any breakfast ideas in mind from this culture, at least none that I could think of off of the top of my head while I was in the middle of a kitchen with hungry people.

Though I think their breakfast did still revolve around eggs and bread as staples for their dishes with other meats or vegetables acting as complimentary dishes, something that some of the cuisine in the Empire did most of the time too.

I also didn't want to limit myself to cooking the same thing as always, so there was that, and that meant testing myself with someone as important as the Sultana as one of the tasters of my dishes, but I wasn't one to shy away from a challenge with no valid reason.

It all came together quite well while they were still discussing things we needed to do upon our return to the Empire, like throwing Anput into the forge to make us more gear and lock Leone inside the alchemy room to concoct us more pills and potions.

I wasn't saved from that either since I was going to be made to draft up tattoo ideas for each person after Leone verified that we could still get them after her alchemical purification of our bodies, and if we weren't I was going to then have to help not only with the enchanting - which was a given since I was the most comfortable and experienced in that field - but also in drafting up some spell ideas for everyone to make use of.

And finally, Jahi had her own obligations to fulfill, but whereas we were all 'craftswomen' of a sort and she wasn't, her obligation was going to be to match our time spent doing what we were doing to improve everyone's strength by training with Lady Fenryas, which... yeah, she did agree to, surprisingly enough.

Obviously - and something that we didn't say out lout with our current company - she was going to be sufficiently compensated each and every night for that torture with whatever she wanted us to do, which meant we were probably going to spend some time out in the city shopping around for outfits and toys that she wanted to eventually get us anyways.

All of that was discussed as I was making us brunch, and by the time the curry sauce was ready and the naan had baked, we were all very hungry and ready to eat anything at all - except maybe worm; I don't think I could bring myself to eat worm meat, even if it was a 'staple' and normal food here in the Sultanate.

I would like to think that I did a pretty decent job at mimicking and replicating their cuisine, and I thought it turned out rather good for a first attempt at the Sultanate's spicy food, but since Anput seemed happy - and somewhat impressed - yet still rather tame with how she was eating and not devouring everything.

The Sultana ate slowly as well, which made me purse my lips before I let out a sigh as I decided I needed to take a visit to the kitchens back at the palace in order to learn more, so there was that, but still, I was impressed with myself since it was tasty and not too spicy.

I could handle spice, sure, but I preferred savory or sweet things over spicy things, so there was that too; either way, finishing brunch and going to grab our gear and rewards from the battle against the Fiend, Ka'Volan, before the Sultana pulled us over to the treasury of the capital building, which felt rather odd...

Opening the doors and pressing a few hidden buttons and levers, she opened yet another door that was hidden behind a bookshelf to reveal a few small chests bulging with gold ingots and some Platinum coins, as well as quite a few sparkling, mana filled gemstones.

Hoisting a gold bar out alongside a few of those gemstones, she handed them to Jahi before locking everything up again, leading us back out into the 'treasury' that was filled with just normal Gold coins and some small pouches of normal gems.

"I have my wealth in each city just in case of emergency. Those rooms are all perfectly hidden from normal people, and the people who could potentially find them have no need for that paltry sum."

We all just stared at her for a few moments before shaking our heeds and heading out into Khisba, mounting the Jackals and setting off into the desert once more, leaving the people of Khisba just as quickly as we had arrived, though I doubt any of them will complain since the Fiend that was undoubtedly going to kill them all.

It was a very brief visit into Khisba, and a small part of me was saddened that we were once again rushing back to another place to prepare to rush out to another fight, but now that the news of Jillian and Ayla reached us, I had to admit that more of me was desiring to get back to training even though we had already been doing so much training.

Besides, being handed a literal gold bar that had to weigh a few pounds was reward enough to admit that I wasn't that exhausted from training, and the addition of those gemstones had me salivating as more ideas for things to make entered my head, primarily the idea of crushing those gems into powder and using them to inlay runes into something to make them even stronger, followed by the more normal idea of making a few high intensity weapons that would need a 'battery' like those stones.

Who knew that being incentivized with riches galore would make you push yourself even harder, hm?

That gold bar could be used to buy ourselves a property and outfit it with most of what we wanted, like a nice, large bath lined with some decent mana laden tiles that would react well to both Fire and Ice Mana so that we could enjoy some baths in the winter or escape the heat in the summer.

Like how I was already wanting to escape this heat as we rushed over the sands of the Sultanate, the harsh rays of the sun embracing us constantly as the entire desert became an oven specifically designed to irritate me and make me despise this sort of area.

It made me a tad angry at how easily the temperature could become an 'enemy' against me, and I wanted to hide under some shade and cover myself in rime so that I could cool off, but we had to get back to the palace before I could do that, and by then the desert would be cold anyways since it would be nighttime.

At least Jahi had transferred the gold and gemstones over to me, so I could spend this time basking in the wealth we had received, while Anput was appraising each of the bones she had harvested from the Fiend; all in all, we did receive a good amount of rewards for merely a day's work.