The Insider System

Chapter 57: Big Lunch

After Millie and her servants had laid everything out onto the table Lake saw a distinct lack of cheese, but there were metal cloches covering two of the dishes so it was probably under one of them. Lake had noticed Millie liked to surprise people with things, so she was probably going to make the cheese into a show.

Lake was fine with that because if people saw it as something special they were more likely to eat it. "These are some of the recipes I will be teaching to the apprentices as soon as they get here so I thought it would be a good idea to get some opinions on them." Lake was already eyeing some of the things and he would say everything passed the visual test, everything looked good.

The meat wasn't in the form of a giant lizard today, and all the other dishes he could see had vibrant colors and were garnished. "I won't go into too much detail since you all can see what everything is and we can talk after the meal. You three make plates for everyone then go eat in your rooms."

A minute later Lake was looking at his plate of food then to the metal cloche that none of the servants had touched. There were two but Lake was sure this one had the cheese in it, because the other one was the one Millie used for dessert. Lake just started eating, he was in Millie's house so he was going to have to wait till the end to eat the cheese.

Lake started with the fish, as someone who loved meat it was hard for him not to. Lake had been eating Millie's food for the past few days and at this point it was the only thing he was eating. His skill Refreshed made him need less food so he was able to stretch this one meal. Lake was grateful that this food would be everywhere soon, because if it wasn't he might not be able to make himself leave.

Now that he had his two new skills in thief Lake was going to use tonight to start to plan the escape. He didn't think it was going to be that hard to just walk out the front door with his access to the elevator. Lucas seemed to think no one would try to run away from being treated like a king, but Lake didn't care about that.

Even if he did miss it he could just come back. "So Lake, I know the restaurants were your idea, but what do you plan to do to make the guild money?" Lake was happy Solomon wanted to know even if it was putting him on the spot a little because he had just done the same to Solomon. "I'm waiting till I get my next two skills to decide."

This was technically a lie but Lake hadn't told anyone he had maxed Alchemist because he didn't want to deal with their reaction to his amazing luck. Lake knew he could tell Lucas with no repercussions because Lucas already knew Lake had an Unique skill. Lake was pretty sure Lucas wanted Lake to become the Guild Leader in the future.

Lake met both of the requirements strength and Business acumen. This was the first time since the Mage guild collapsed that the Alchemist guild had hope of surpassing them. Once the restaurants started to open the guild would be everywhere. The money was secondary, the main benefit was everyone would be addicted to something only they could make.

There were problems with this plan though, and right now was a good time to tell Lucas and Millie at the same time. "Lucas, I think we should talk about the message from the king." Lucas was probably going to do this before he got engrossed in his food so Lake just said this to snap him out of the trance.

"Right Millie The king said he would approve any of our requests if he could see what we will be selling, so I told him we would be holding a feast in his honor, I need to know what you need to make this possible." This news seemed to hit Millie hard like she didn't think she was ready for this. "When is it?"

This was definitely the most important question Millie could have asked. "We have exactly a week but don't worry he wouldn't dare to give us a hard time." What Lucas said didn't seem to make Millie feel any better. "The biggest problem I'll be facing is the amount of food I'll be responsible for cooking. If I had apprentices it might be possible but we'll have to keep the party small if we're only going to be serving my food."

Lake saw a way to speed up this conversation so he said. "Millie, how long did it take you to cook what we are eating right now?" Lake had caught on to the amount of work Millie put into just making food for a small lunch; He was pretty sure it was why she never left her room if she didn't have to, she had no free time.

It could have been the situation with Solomon keeping her in her room, but the past two days proved that it wasn't, at least not anymore. "I've been working since yesterday's lunch." This meant unless they wanted to serve old food at the party they could only make enough food for about 20 people.

Lake looked over at Joy. This conversation was about to go to a place she couldn't hear. "Joy, would you step out for a minute? I don't want Lucas to have to silence you." This was said as a joke, but Lake said this mainly to keep Lucas from trying. Joy made his days much better, especially the time he spent in the dungeon. It was boring as hell down there.

"Yeah, I'll be in the hallway." Joy stood up and snapped her helmet back on. As she was leaving the room Lake saw Solomon was watching her kind of close. This was not a good thing if giant women were Solomon's type, Lake might have just created a dumb love triangle. Millie's feelings were kind of important to the current situation, so he needed to make sure this didn't get out of control.

Lake knew how to fix this before it got out of hand; he was just going to have to play with some feelings. Getting back to the conversation, Lake saw a chance to test Solomon. "Is there anyone else who would like to step out? I'm about to bring up Millie's specialty." If Solomon stayed it would be a point in the he was the one who broke into Millie's room, but if he left it would be a point in he was interested in Joy column.

"Yeah, me and Solomon don't need to be here." Nia kind of messed up Lake's test with this but it fit her character of protecting Millie from Solomon. This was her trying to keep Solomon from getting what he had come for when he broke into Millie's room. The fact that she didn't just tell Solomon to get out made Lake think Nia knew Millie liked him.

If she kept being mean to him in front of Millie, Millie might stop talking to her if they ever started dating. This made Lake wonder why Nia cared so much about Millie it couldn't just be about her food there had to be something else going on. Lake had a sudden realization that there might have already been a love triangle here.

Lake wanted to smack Lucas, didn't he know what happened when you put a bunch of young people together. With the fact that the three of them had been alone on this floor for years this was the only outcome that could have happened. With those two now out of the room Lake started. "Does the amount of time you spend on something help with the effect?"

"Yes, to make the food at the current level I have to spend a few hours processing the ingredients." Lake was happy Millie didn't try and dodge the question. He bet she was hoping he was about to fix their problem. "So the answer is obvious, reduce the effect for the feast." Anyone of them could have recommended this but Lake was the only one who saw it as a good thing.

"Isn't the food kind of important? If the food isn't that much better than normal, the king might not help as much." Lake knew this was how Millie would think but Lake thought the opposite. "I'm not sure how much power the king actually has over us, but I think scaring him with your full power food would have the wrong effect. It's a much better plan to make him think it just tastes good and that's it. If you play with his head he'll tell every person he knows it's dangerous, and we'll never get a grasp on the upper echelon."

Lake wondered why it was him and not Lucas saying this, surely Lucas was smart enough to identify this problem. "I think we should do a slow roll out, start with good food and do all the crazy stuff later after people are already hooked. Added benefit is we can open the restaurants before your apprentices are done with their training."

Lake was having fun, it was like he was planning world domination over dinner. Lake could tell Millie didn't like everything he was saying, but she was already committed so she kept it hush. "Millie does that work?" Lucas seemed to be fine with this plan because he was eyeing the food as he asked her opinion.