A/N: Thank you for your support, adventurers! We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you!!
Special thank you to the awesomes who sent gifts, golden tickets, voted, reviewed, and commented!
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"Iron ores?"
"So we can use the Smithy..." he said, thumb pointing at one of the buildings.
"..."
It was here that the newcomers really absorbed the new place. They got so distracted with their old friends that they failed to realize they were surrounded by several buildings instead of one.
"Yeah, the place really got so big..." Marcus gasped. He was surprised to see the roads; he didn’t think actual buildings would pop up.
Leiah nodded. "I still hadn’t absorbed it until now, in fact."
"How long were we away, again?"
At this point, they were already questioning their own memories and their own sense of time.
The new ones were also looking around, and they spread out to study the place. They literally toured the territory, entering where they could, marveling at the sight.
"Wow...we have a smithy in the middle of nowhere!"
"It’s empty for now."
"We have a potion store!?"
"Still (mostly) empty..."
"Not for long, I bet."
"A canteen? What’s that?"
Finn smiled. "Look inside."
Curious, Marcus and the others entered, read the instructions, and were absolutely excited. "Food!?" they gasped. " Insta -food!?"
"Yes," Finn said. "Since it might be too difficult for me to feed everyone, especially when they arrive in large groups.
"As for my Essence food...I’ll ask the staff to open reservations," he said. "I’m thinking of just cooking a limited amount of dishes."
"I am not sure how many for now, but it probably won’t be my main focus anymore," he said. Now that his level was higher, he’d have to work harder to upgrade.
"Of course, for my old friends, I promised a few favors, I can cook for you as you want." He promised them quite a few meals for free after saving his sister, and he had not forgotten about it
As for the others...heh. He was well-known now, had more value, and a meal he made could be sold for much more. For the same amount of money, he would need to spend much less time!
Someday, when his quality was publicized, it’d rise even more. Who wouldn’t want to eat food made by an ’S-Class’ fighter?
Sure enough—
"The famous essence food of the inn will no longer be available?"
"It will, just not as much as before," he said. "I guarantee the taste of the canteen food, don’t worry."
"But—"
He pointed at Micc, who was making a few pots. "I’m training an apprentice. He is already capable of making E-class meals. You can order from him if he’s available."
Micc-who-was-busy: "..."
"What about the D or C-class food?"
"We’re still figuring it out, but it won’t be cheap."
"I’ll pay a high amount!"
"I, too, am willing!"
Finn saw many of the other guests, who he did not promise free meals, also said that they would buy from him. He smiled. Just as planned.
"Well, we’ll talk about it later."
...
Everyone headed to the queue at the canteen this time, except for Marcus’ team, who were promised an essence meal. They headed to the kitchen. Interestingly, he saw two familiar faces approaching them on his way there.
It was none other than Remus and Marie, with whom he passed the exam!
They were gaping at him and then the different buildings in his inn, in disbelief. Before approaching him, they had naturally heard about his role here.
"You...own this place?" Maria couldn’t help but ask, just to confirm.
He grinned. "Didn’t I tell you? I live in the danger zone."
"..."
...
Remus and Maria—who had officially become lovers—somehow found themselves among the circle of friends who’d be blessed with Finn’s essence food!
Some of the newcomers with them looked on in envy and jealousy. On the other hand, the couple just felt awkward. Who’d have thought the bloke they took an exam with was such a big shot?
While Finn, Micc, and Ranran cooked the meal for the dozen or so friends he had, the group of them went to check in as well. Fortunately, they took mostly ’newbies’ with them today (most of whom were unfamiliar with the inn); otherwise, people would’ve scrambled to get registered to get the room first.
The group of them managed to all get beds, though Leiah, Nona, and Leez preferred the upper floor so they could also get their own living room.
"Which one is Finn’s room?" Leiah asked, and both Leez and Nona couldn’t help but look at her.
"I was only curious."
Ranran blinked and pointed at Finn’s door. Leiah looked at the door next to his. "Is there anyone booked there right now?"
Ranran shook her head, and Leiah’s eyes sparkled a little. "Can I have that one?"
Ranran shook her head again, this time apologetically. "Sorry, pretty guest, that room has owner."
The ladies were confused. Didn’t she say no one was there? Curious, they asked who the owner was.
"That is the boss-lady room."
The women gaped, Leiah looked a little pale, while the other two’s eyes sparkled in gossip.
"... what ?"
...
Finn was stared at a lot while he cooked, but he had long learned to ignore them, just focusing on his craft and looking handsome while he did so.
The small crowd allowed themselves to be seduced by the aroma of food being made. They hadn’t tasted it yet, but they knew it’d be amazing.
Marie and Remus felt extremely lucky to have experienced this.
After this, Finn would definitely be more difficult to commission to make food like this!
The redhead looked at them. "Well, you’re in luck to have joined the mission. Not to toot my own horn, but the services here are top notch!"
The two smiled a bit, really not knowing how to interact with him now that he was, in a sense, a ’noble’. Even their superiors in the adventurer guild were treating him with such favor.
Further, in this continent, only nobles could own land as large as this one, even if it was in the middle of nowhere.
(In fact, Finn really didn’t know, but the adventurer guild and merchant guild, especially the Lotus town branches, pulled a lot of strings to avoid problems. They were afraid that the precious S-class talent would run away!)
Anyway, Finn saw the slight discomfort and shrugged. He knew they’d get used to it eventually.
Speaking of which, how Remus and Maria ended in this party was quite interesting. After all, this was a ’subsidized’ trip by the Adventurer team, so the newbies were definitely not the priority. The guild was much more likely to sponsor those toughened-level and above, and the awakened with high potential, at least C-Class.
However, the elders found out about their connection with Finn and thought that maybe, just maybe, they’d get more perks.
In fact, after hearing the reports, several elders wanted to see the place as well, but with great power came a lot of boring stuff, so they couldn’t just casually go away.
They certainly promised themselves to take a look at one of these days tho!