When it came to taste testing and feasting, there were no rules or ranks. Everyone snatched for the best and Noir was forced to fend for himself when Rino challenged Kragami to a game of elements for the last slice of mushroom pizza.

“Cat! Take this. I will secure roasted taro next. Don’t let them steal the buns. We can share later.”

An unknown lesser-ghoul lady shoved her buns towards Noir, who dodged someone else’s hand at the table. He did not have time to think when someone else tried to challenge him for those buns.

Dissatisfied, Noir let them know that he wasn’t a doormat and slapped the hands away using his tail while creating a barrier from shadow tendrils while hissing. His fur bristled, and the challenger backed off in haste, dropping their sliced toast with baked cheese.

Noir quickly secured that and heard Kragami cry foul play when Rino won his game of elements. The last slice of mushroom pizza was quickly gobbled, and Ace wondered what kind of empire Rino was going to rule in the future if the subordinates and king had the same kind of manners.

The mess caused by spilt food, drinks and unsteady grapples meant that it did not take long for a minor food fight to break out. People were mostly throwing garnish, crumbs and strands of noodles at each other in revenge for the food stolen from them.

The lesser-ghoul lady returned in defeat when someone else won the roasted taro. However, she managed to get some biscuit and cheese slices that they shared. Ace had to admit that eating like this was fun. People openly talked and laughed while sharing food and competing with each other. Nobody was actually starving because they were undead. However, they were greedy for taste, and the black cat wondered if this was a success.

With just a grindstone, so many new kinds of food were introduced. It was a huge pity that they could not accept these dumplings, buns and bread as offerings because the gods were too poor to afford better storage that was not affected by time. Ark should put more work into expanding their business contacts if he wanted to enjoy the delicious meals that Rino’s talented kitchen team could produce.

Nobody knew why Rino took to weaving the uncooked rice in leaves to boil them at first. However, Kragami soon understood that the leaves were very good at preventing the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pots as they cooked, as Rino claimed. In addition, the leaves provided a refreshing aroma that killed the pungent smell of meat and added to the sweetness of earthy nuts.

The buns were stuffed with different fillings, and the cooks were quick to notice a problem when someone accidentally knocked the tray over. Although they caught and picked up the buns in time, nobody knew what was inside, and it soon turned into a game of roulette where the unluckiest person in the game was made to choose one bun until all the ‘dangerous’ flavours were out of the way, then it evolved into a snatching game.

Ace had to admit that he did not expect to have this much fun when he saw Rino. If anything, the grand town tour at the start made him think it would be a proper ceremony. However, when Rino mentioned dinner, he literally meant just dinner with a crazy spread of food and a few invited people who pitched in.

“Do you think Rina will be mad at us for eating everything and not leaving any for her?” Kragami asked and took a swig of taro beer.

Rino looked at the mess that some of the lesser-ghoul ladies had started to clean. He hummed.

“Not if we create a better recipe for some of the food we made tonight and remove the awful ones. I really don’t know why salt rocks was a filling in one of the buns. The cheese one was also equally odd. Meat and bean paste stuffings were surprisingly good, so we should leave that on the menu.”

Kragami agreed. The rice pancakes went better with grounded nuts paste than with tofu blocks. Honey was a good option too, but they didn’t have enough of that now. Sugar was overly used on the butter biscuits, even if they were really good. Kragami complained that it made his old teeth hurt, and Rino decided that they might need to regulate his teacher’s diet if they had too much rich food. The necromancer was immune to injuries but not diet-related illnesses. He was still very much mortal, and Rino often kept forgetting.

“Does Rina like sweet things?” Rino asked, and Kragami nodded.

The discovery of sugar and honey was thanks to Rina, who complained that the salt was numbing her tongue. She was searching for sweet fruits and tasting literally everything without care if it was poisonous or not. The fairy was so determined to find a change of flavour that she discovered a whole pantry of spices that could be used if Kragami bothered to experiment with them.

“So she found fruits that made sour paste, seeds that were spicy and reeds that were sweet. Sugar is made from the juice of those reeds. We simply dried the water to make a more concentrated syrup for easy storage, but after realising it could crystallise, we turned it into this. On the other hand, honey was very crudely stolen from a hive that Rina smoked out.”

Smoked out? Rino knew that beekeepers normally placed a fire beneath hives to chase the bees away and collect their honey to prevent getting stung. How did Rina know that it would work?

“Oh, that was an accidental discovery. Rina was trying to set the bees on fire with her magic barrier, and she definitely tried drowning them before she realised they were terrible with heat. When it started getting hot, the bees fainted.”

Ah, so that was how it happened. Slightly amused but equally amazed by his junior disciple sister’s discovery, Rino decided to put together a special treat just for her when she returned with his goods in the sky palanquin. For now, he deemed that the party was a success. Noir seemed to enjoy it too.

The black cat curled up on the floor near the oven yawned as if listening to Rino’s thoughts. As a host, he wasn’t very generous tonight. Rino left Noir to fend for himself and fight for his food. He watched how Noir interacted with his subordinates. The black cat had no difficulty letting them know where they stood in his presence.

Valiantly defending his food and using his skills to punish challengers, Noir’s place in this community was very well-established. Rino hoped that the black cat would stay for longer this time and get to know the other subordinates in the town. After the meeting with Noir’s teacher, Rino felt a greater need to take care of Noir and integrate Noir into the empire he was building.

The cat’s history and background were still mysterious, but Rino wasn’t someone fixated on a person’s past. He came from humble beginnings, and anyone with the ability and aptitude to succeed should be given a chance. 

“Are you heading back to Cypress County tonight?” Rino asked his teacher, whose eyelids were heavy at this point.

“Not so soon,” Kragami drawled. “I still want to understand how the grindstone works. The water wheel design is also something we could use back in the sawmill and paper factory. I need to free up some hands for more delicate tasks. Those in Cypress County could spend more time studying and less time working. There’s just too much researching for Rina and myself to do alone, and I’m not getting any younger.”

Education was something at the back of Rino’s mind, and he felt slightly guilty that he wasn’t doing much to help the literacy rate of his ever-growing subordinates. The only person Rino ever taught was Erika and the secretary studied everything else under his teacher. Rino did not know what Kragami was teaching the villagers, but he was happy to know that Kragami was using his counting and writing system that he taught Erika to standardise common lessons.

Magic lessons were a little more different, and it was taught verbally with practical examples to pixies who were on the verge of evolving into fairies. Kragami did not always know everything because he did not have many elemental affinities. However, he was a good basic magic teacher who taught the pixies how to cast basic spells and utilise them practically.

Rino really owed Rina and Kragami for taking such good care of Noir Province. Without them, the goblin lord and shaman could only hold the fort and wait until Rino returned to give them instructions.

Savouring the taste of success in a mug, Rino took out his sketchpad. He had a lot to do before tomorrow arrived. The gods would certainly not hesitate to dump new responsibilities on him once his daily quest’s deadline was up.. Although he did not know what tasks they would assign him, Rino bet that he was going back to the abandoned mines.