Chapter 146 - 146. Main Ingredients Are Ready

It was yet an unhurried day for the interns as I walked in the kitchen and they seemed intent to finish up the menu for lunch and made some final touches.

Even the rice was decorated with sprigs of parsley and the colour of the rice was slightly reddish-orange due to the tomato extract that the rice was steamed in.

I checked on the baked chicken with pineapple and it looked just right. I told them that something is missing and then I made a quick batch of curry gravy with some potatoes in it.

After preparing the light gravy, everything seemed to be running just fine and I made sure the interns took the recipe down for the light gravy as it would be prepared for lunch the next day.

When we were about to have our lunch, our children came back unexpectedly and were welcomed to join us for lunch. The 4 children had narrated how the 2 days had gone and how each 4 of them had paired up and completed two quests so far.

"Daddy...how come the quests there are quite terrible compared to the North and Central? At least we knew we would be up against those trolls that you had mentioned to stay away from and to collect a certain gem for the Quest Master."

Kayla started to complain right when she had begun stuffing her face with the tomato steamed rice and baked pineapple chicken with a generous spread of light curry gravy.

"That's the beauty of it, Kayla. An Adventurer would not only be gathering resources, saving a kitten from a tree or hunting for a certain mythical creature to bring its eyebrows back for the quest master."

"What did you do for your quest?" I inquired as I was also interested in finding out how they all fared on these two battle quests.

Adam who had paired with Kayla narrated how the quest had taken place as he first described meeting a quest master that hired a few mercenaries but had turned against him.

....

"Forgive me, champion. Please, help me out."

"I've been betrayed, betrayed by my own foolishness. I knew I shouldn't have hired mercenaries, instead of fighting the enemy they joined them."

"Hero, teach them a lesson in honour and make sure they remember it. Curse those ugly creatures. It'll be dangerous, but I'm willing to come along if you need me to."

"We're counting on you to deal with those creatures. Try to take down as many of them as possible, the less of a threat they pose the better."

"It pains me to say I won't be able to reward you with a lot, but I'll do my best to make it worth your while. I'm looking forward to your return, hero. Good luck."

....

Adam told us how he and Kayla had tracked those mercenaries in the Southern Plains and had to battle several beasts along the way such as desert wargs, mutated beetles and scorpions before they discovered the hideout.

"It was a bunch of blue coloured yeti and we had no idea how to defeat those monsters as they were huddled close to one another. Even we tried to distract them by throwing a rock at them, they took little notice and one got irritated by the stone that it got into a scratching frenzy." Kayla told the story to us on how difficult they were to kite a single monster from that group.

"Daddy, we remember the time you told us that we need to ask 'Pretty Please' to them so I walked up to one of them and kicked its butt while saying, 'Could I kill one of you at one time, please?' and you know what, Daddy? It worked...!!!"

"One of them started to chase me around and once we both got tired of playing tag, it was Kayla's turn and she was shrieking around while being chased."

"Those blue coloured yetis got so worked up by Kayla's shrieking that all of them started to chase us around and we started to shoot our crossbows blindly. Those yetis were slow lumbering creatures but we had managed to kill all 5 of them and brought back its toenail as proof that we had killed all the mercenaries. The quest master gave us a vial of good luck potion and that's it."

"However, we both managed to Level up and we are now Level 8. I grouped up with the others and they too had levelled up the same while the members were 2 levels behind us." Adam concluded as he took another serving of tomato rice and discovered that it goes well with the light curry gravy and tomatoes.

Even without the naked pineapple chicken, the rice and gravy alone would just do fine.

"We would be leaving right after this, Daddy. Thank you for a wonderful lunch. It makes me feel lazy already. Hah hah... All those running the 5 km daily and going through the obstacles did improve our agility in those Plains."

Kayla exclaimed as she had finished her meal and was sitting around with a packet of snack in her hand. I was half wondering how this child could munch right after her hearty meal.

Both Adam and Kayla soon bounded off for the direction of Southern District and I've decided to follow up on Pointus' and Joan's progress for the materials that I had wanted. At the mean time, I discussed with Patricia on the upcoming projects.

"It would be better if the day operations take over the new products while the second shift would resume its normal processes."

"Furthermore you had informed me that there would be more than a hundred new products and the 22 production lines would be better off handling the new ones as we would be able to monitor them."

"Therefore, the work would be halved so production still would be moving at a much slower pace but the output would be the same."

Patricia shared with me her ideas and I find it very feasible since it would greatly increase the outputs for the new products. I drew up a plan where 5 production plants would be handling the nail polish of 70 hues with and without glitter.

1 production plant was assigned to enhance the eye shadow with glitter while 2 production lines would be handling the perfume and acetone.

Patricia liked the idea of delegating of the following tasks and wished to follow me to meet with Pointus and Joan for the pigmentation, glitter, acetone and organic polymer.

The interns were briefed on their next menu and they had gotten the rough idea on how it would be prepared and served. Since there weren't many people in the Castle, the jobs are now much more relaxed and they were able to be more creative in recreating their own styles and preparation of the cuisine.

.....

Patricia and I arrived at Joan's and we peered from her glass from that she had a pair of bright yellow dishwashing gloves on, a bright green apron and a pair of steampunk googled over her face.

From the looks of it, she was busy pouring her whole head into the projects and from the looks of it, she had gotten to the part where the organic polymer was being processed.

We knocked on the glass window and Joan looked up and gestured us to enter the alchemist store. We opened up the glass door and peered inside for any kind of boobie traps that may be lying on the floor or any test tubes that might topple over if she walked carelessly around.

We walked in and I could smell the familiar scent of organic polymer that smells like rubber but with a non-intoxicating after effect unlike glue for woodworking. I sniffed around and much to Joan's liking, she asked what this organic polymer would be used for.

She showed me a vial containing a clear colourless liquid that swished and swirled and I knew that she had found the right ingredient for nail polish.

"Well, Joan... This clear, colourless and slightly odourless liquid organic polymer is what is used to make your fingernails as tough as nails."

"You need not worry about chipped fingernails as it would coat it very nicely. After the organic polymer hardens, it protects your nails and nourishes them as well because the organic polymer is a breathable compound."

I explained and she exclaimed in a very ecstatic manner, "I am so glad that I am involved with this project. Uh... Does it mean that this store becomes a subsidiary of Castle Keating-Macleod?"

"Err... Not really, only a small part of it when you are being contracted to make this organic polymer for us. So how many litres have you got for us already?" I questioned as I am as excited as Patricia as she starts dabbing her fingernails with the organic polymer and made a mess with it.

"You don't dip your fingertips inside dear. Later I will see if Paul have the right porcelain bottle for us or not." I shook my head at Patricia as she and Joan had wiped their fingertips clean with a piece of rag and smirked foolishly at me.

"How about this ethyl acetate that you had asked me to? I've got 500 flasks of 1 litre of them ready in my backroom. Do you want them now? I could get it for you, you know." Joan just casually spoke up that she had accomplished the main ingredient for nail polish remover as well as a base ingredient for perfume.

"Oh wow... That's wonderful. 500 litres had already been produced. How could you manage it alone, Joan? You really surprise me." I praised Joan for her effectiveness and she simply replied, "Arch... You are not the only one with the wisps you know. Hah hah hah... I got mine as well and how do you think I would come up with 500 flasks of that? What are you going with that?"

"Heh... 200 of those would be made into nail polish remover. While 300 of them would be made into perfumes. It would be filled with all kinds of scents and it would be used to dab on your points where you would be smelling great all day long."

Joan and Patricia looked at one another and held their fists under their chubs and gleefully giggled like elementary school girls. I looked at them and rolled my eyes instead.

So after taking the 500 flasks of the ethyl acetate, I paid 500 credits per flask and for a total of 250k credits. It was actually a small sum to pay since her mana and health generation potion already costs 500 credits each and the adventurers had bought quite a lot from her already.

We went to Pointus and found out that he had already gotten the 8 colour pigmentation that I had asked for and they were ready in 10-litre barrels. There was 5 barrels per colour and a total of 40 barrels altogether. We chatted for a while and I paid the same amount per litre as I handed him 500 credits per litre and he received 200k credits.

He was surprised at the amount and he informed me that he would generate more in the next few days and I could come and collect them when it's ready. I agreed as I swiped everything off into my storage.

Next would be Paul's in the Northern porcelain shop of his and after scouring the types of bottles for the perfume, nail polish remover and the nail polish with its applicator, we had found what we are looking for and paid for the three items and made our way back to the Castle.

"Darling, help me with these barrels and flasks, please. We are going to store them in the HQ first and from there I need to wait for 4 more days before the equipment has been completely forged by the wisps." I requested for Patricia's help as she assisted in stacking those precious, volatile, ethyl acetate flasks in crates filled with hay and stacked them maximum two crates high.

After labelling the crates and arranging the barrels of 8 colour pigmentation accordingly, we left the HQ and went to Keating's Day Care Centre that we had not been visiting for quite some time.