"But it's accurate. You are all jumping clowns.I like your metaphor, General Falcon."
Although Evan felt ashamed, there was nothing he would do to change the stalemate. He should be considered generous if he didn't backstab them. He would be sincere to the four Empires only in their dreams.
"As if you aren't one of us, Your Highness.."
"Haven't I told you? I am just a pure Priest. By the way, where are the mages?"
In the meeting, the participants were princes and generals. He didn't see the mages in the camp either. The fire mage Stephen Miller was stationed here since the war started. Being a rare level 8 mage or Emperor's father in law, he should get a seat in the meeting.
"Their camp is on the hills. They participate only if the demon generals surface from the Abyss."
After talking for a while, Evan dismissed him. He should take a proper rest before he takes on his responsibility as a Prince and as a Priest.
Demons didn't have day or night when they attacked. The time they climbed out of the Abyss was when they attacked because the Abyss didn't have day or night. It was mainly dark.
Evan threw a cleansing spell on himself and drifted off to sleep. His magic reserve should be squeezed out if the battle takes place tomorrow.
*******
I lost the direction to go after I settled down. I thought that building a kingdom was not hard before. However, not hard wasn't equal to easy. The tree houses were done perfectly.
Elves had individual treehouses to live in. They built a small palace for me in the centre. There was even a forecourt in front of the palace to provide a place for ceremonies or formal activities.
Humans were farming with the elves, making good use of their talents. To be honest, aren't they a bit weak? My children started from level 4 while they were still on the starting line after more than ten years.
But I couldn't let them go wasted, I didn't have much population to begin with. I trained them with this kind of mentality. They were saved by me and they should belong to me.
[ We should have specialties, master. If you don't know how to do it, we should rely on kingdom building games….]
[ Do you have it? ]
Elves and humans were busy farming and hunting when I was bored with nothing to do. I was eager to try Veronica's advice.
[ There are outlines. Food culture, entertainment, machines, medicines and cosmetics. Which way do you want to choose, master?...]
I held my head in pain. I honestly don't know. I haven't been human. My first human food was eaten in the magic world. In the Kingdom of God, even the lowest level serving fairies could solve everything with spells.
Food? We only eat nectar.
Entertainment? I could play the instruments and sing but I knew nothing about this industry.
Machines? I haven't seen one. We used spells.
Medicines? We didn't need it. There were no sick gods or fairies. They are healthy before death.
Cosmetics? We are all natural beauties. There are no ugly ones in the Kingdom of God.
[ Geez, I shouldn't kick that fairy down randomly. I should pull her down here with me. ]
I had a rare regret. I felt like I wasted such a good resource.
[ But I guess I can try food and medicine. Alice's alchemy talent can't be wasted. In the meantime I can tinker with food. Who else but us can feel the taste of nature contained in the vegetable. ]
I had international recipe books in the database. Veronica searched for a while and we agreed on three books,Chinese cookbook, bread recipes and Italian recipes. It was just a primary choice. We didn't have captive chickens and cattles to get eggs and milk.
We could only try Chinese recipes first. Korean dishes looked sour and spicy. I don't think our tongues could accept the intense stimulation.
[ To try Chinese recipes, what do we have in stock?]
[ Let's see. Wheat, tubers and spices… As for rice, we don't have it…]
I could only try to make noodles then. Bread was the staple food in this world. So I had wheat planted in the small world and some flour ready.
"Let's make some noodles for lunch. Children…. Come here."
I called the elves over. Of all the recipes, making noodles was the easiest. The general workflow was also easy.
"Rolling pin? Hmm .. Liam, break a branch. This thick and this long, with two handles at the end…"
I gestured with my hand to show the size. With just a snap, the rolling pin was made. I took out a long knife to cut the dough. The preparations were ready.
"Flour, water and salt… With just a few ingredients, is that easy?"
Combine flour, water and salt to form a dough? How much water is needed? I don't know. A pinch of salt? How much is too few and too much?
[ Veronica!!!! Ahhh.]
[ Don't worry. Form a cup with flour, add water little by little…salt is not that hard. Put a pinch…]
With Veronica's guidance, a ball of sticky dough was formed. It didn't look the same as I imagined.
[ You put too much water.. Add some flour in..]
The ball got bigger and bigger as I added more flour and water.
[ What now? ]
It became stiff enough after the size was more than doubled.
[ Cover it and let it rest for half an hour…]
During that time, I started a fire and boiled a pot of water.
[ Some recipe let it rest for 10 minutes. ]
Actually I'm not that patient. Just in twenty minutes, I wanted to start working.
[ It's 30 minutes. Flatten the dough into a thin sheet with a rolling pin….]
As I rolled, the dough became uglier and uglier. It started to stick on the rolling pin.
[ Spread some flour on the dough to avoid sticking.. ]
I wanted to do it too. But my hands didn't listen to me. Couldn't see the disaster, Adam stepped in. He took the rolling pin from my hand and started working on the ugly dough.
Under his hand, a thin square sheet was formed.
"What's next?"
[ Um.. Veronica. What's next? ]
[ Fold the sheet then cut the dough into narrow strips….]
"Fold the sheet then cut the dough into narrow strips…."
In a few strokes of the knife, the dough was cut uniformly.
[ Unfold and loosen the noodles. Cook the noodles in boiling water…]
"Unfold and loosen the noodles. Cook the noodles in boiling water…"
"Isn't the water a bit too much?"
The water was already boiling. I didn't know the right amount so the water I boiled was deep enough to boil triple the amount of current noodles.
[ Put some salt into the boiling water…]
[ How much is some salt? ]
[ I don't know. The recipe said "put a generous amount of salt"...]
Shit!!!
I put a spoonful of salt into the water and put in the noodles. Next step "don't overcook" was easy as we can smell the best flavour from the noodles.
The noodles were fished out and put into the water cooled by Alfred. He still couldn't form ice but cooling a bowl of water was not hard for him.
After draining the water from the bowl of noodles, we each tasted a bite. The taste was a bit bland but it can still be saved by adding sauces or broth.
"Adam saved them."
Natalie said while laughing at me. I glanced at her but didn't say anything. My speciality was not cooking, I admitted.
"How do you want to eat them? Fried noodles or noodles in broth?"
"Let's eat both."
We still had a few games the elves hunted. The two humans took the games, cleaned them and boiled to get the stock.
I was stunned when Veronica showed me the fried noodles recipe. We lacked soy sauce. There was dark soy sauce and light soy sauce in the recipe. Tsk… it didn't matter. Trying didn't hurt…
None of the people here haven't eaten noodles anyway..
"Alex and Noah. Go find some bird eggs and mushrooms.. Don't pick all the eggs from a nest. Leave half of them... As for mushrooms, don't pick the poisonous ones this time."
"But mother, poisonous ones are tastier. We are not afraid of poison."
"No Alex, we have humans here. We won't get poisoned but they can die with a sip."
Alex shrugged and left with Noah. He liked to pick the brightly coloured mushrooms the most. Because of his "poison" talent, he was attracted to all the poisonous foods. He ignored the poisonous insects but he loved to catch snakes.
They came back after nearly an hour. There were more than two dozen eggs in the basket and two baskets full of unattractive mushrooms. Non-poisonous mushrooms were not pretty.
The rest was left to the humans. They took the lead and the elves were learning by the side. Watching the skillful hands of fatty and Daisy, the elves learnt the essence quickly.
Oh, I gave the two human servants names. One was called fatty and another one was called skinny. We found out that fatty was a good cook after living for a while. The human's eldest sister Daisy could also cook.
The two demonstrated once and a group of elves followed the steps. To my surprise, they cooked better than the humans by relying on their keen senses.
Me?
I'm not good at cooking. Alice cooked the best food amongst the elves. It must be her talent "alchemy"at work.
"Your Majesty, the Queen. It's the best food I've eaten in my life."
"Yes, yes. Dani hasn't eaten many kinds of food because Dani is young. But Dani can guarantee that these noodles are the best…"
All the children echoed the praises. Even though I didn't have much contribution in noodles making, I felt proud.
"Believe me. It will be better if we can find the correct ingredients."
I patted my chest hard, promising the deliciousness of the blue star's recipe.
"Children, we need to explore the forest thoroughly. I heard beans can be made into many delicious dishes and snacks."
All the people presented nodded hard. They were determined to explore the forest for the delicious meals.
"Noah, you lead Adam, Bryan and Natalie to the human city. We need chickens and ducks for eggs. And buy some buffaloes, goats and cows for milk."
"Mother, why is Noah the leader? I want to be a leader too…"
Natalie pouted and complained coquettishly.
"Because he is the most slick guy in the group. Don't complain. Go early and come back early…"
I waved and drove them away.
[ Master, have you perhaps forgotten the law of nature? You need to buy them in pairs if you want eggs and milk….]
[ Umm…Have I? ]
[ You did. You said cows… What if they bought cows without bulls?... ]
"Hey, wait !!! Buy them in pairs. Do you hear me? Buy.. them.. in ..pairs !!!"
"Got it , mother!!!"
I lost sight of them but Bryan's voice floated back from the distance…