Living in the mansion (2/2)

Even after walking down the corridor and turning left he could still faintly hear the man speak "...etic... Treason!...." and two gasps soon after . 'Thank you, random soldier'. He could hear them talking even after he arrived at his room and walked in. Rafael took a look around that cubicle of a room and depression hit him.

'Why things seems to be getting worse and worse for me?'. He sat at his bed and ate the food before leaving the plate on the ground, finally noticing the stone floor. 'At least this place has it's perks'. Lying on his bed, he stared at the ceiling, thinking how he could make his life better.

'If I want to play on easy mode I need my book back.... Okay, first I need to get my shit together. I need to get some influence, some power. If I stay as a captive criminal under Frederic's command things aren't going to get better'

'... Did I throw away my only chance to get back my book by staying here?'

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On the next day he woke up. His room was entirely dark, with only some faint light coming from under the door. He put his hand on his head, "why the fuck am I having a headache?". For people like him, feeling bad, having a headache, or things like that weren't common. 'Headache.... Maybe stress. No, it would be necessary a huge fucking amount of stress to start a headache. Sleep? No, I slept fairly ok this night. Mmm... Water'

Rafael realized he hasn't drank the bare minimun these last days, only having the liquids coming from the soups. Grabbing the plate from the floor, he went to the kitchen. "Hey Bob, how you doin'?". The soldier following him kept in silence all the way.

Walking throught the hallways he got surprised by seing so many servants there working, cleaning the floors, walls, carrying things and more. 'Please don't turn me into one of them!'

Arriving at the kitchen, he had to open path for two servants walking out of it with plates of food on their hands. 'This early in the morning and there's a banquet already waiting for him?! How do I take his place? Wait, was that pizza?'

"Hey my friend!". Rafael walked in and saw the chef and his apprentice working fast to cook diferent food. "Hello Robert, pardon me but I'm busy right now. Wait until I finish these before you take something". He took an onion and quickly chopped it before throwing inside a pan.

Rafael initialy came to see if he had clean water to drink but after seeing all that food and smelling it, his stomach grumbled. He found a place to sit and wait. After 10 minutes Brandyc asked what he wanted.

"First I really need water, clean water. In preference, water that you boiled before". The fat man and his helper were still preparing food but more relaxed now. "There's some inside that large jug over there". He pointed before Rafael grabbed it, drinking a lot.

"I've been trying new ingredients on the pizza and I can say for sure that I've mastered it. Officialy now"

"I'm sure of it, there's no better cook than you. Actually, can you make one for me please?". They kept talking about food and other things while the chef prepared his pizza.

"I've been thinking on something new these days, you know. It's something simple". Rafael spoke while taking a piece of his pizza. "A new recipe, again? If you keep like this Frederic is going to make you the new main chef. Hahahaha... ᴾˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵈᵒ ᵗʰᵃᵗ. Hahahah"

'Damn'. Rafael smiled but his eyes didn't.

"So, tell me this new idea of yours!"

"Pick a potato, cut it into strips and then fry it. That's it. Oh, and then speckle some salt over"

"A potato?". The man spoke slowly, as if it was the first time he heard that word.

"Yes"

"..... We don't have it here. Maybe it's common at the capital or the north but I've never heard of it". It was then that Rafael realized he had never seem or eaten potato since he time traveled there. It wasn't till the sixteenth century that potato would be introduced to europe.

'No way...'

"Wait. Potato... It's a tuber and it grows from the roots of a plant and- and... It's yellow..."

"Sorry Robert, but I don't know that ingredient". The chef shook his head and looked at his apprentice that shook his too. "I don't know it either"

"But are you sure something so simple is good?". Both were a bit skeptical.

"Forget it". He drank more water.

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Five people sat around a table, about 4 meters long. Frederic at the end of it, his wife Avice and daughter Ella to his right while his three advisors sat to his left. After the breakfast with his family, he called the people that were in charge of important tasks, given to them the other night.

"Ella please, wait outside until we are finished". Her mother spoke. She had the apearance of a middle aged woman, around 35 years old, tied black hair and bulky white, yellow and green dress. "Don't you always says that I need to start learning how things work? I'm here for this and- that's all!". Everyone noticed she had more to say.

"Leave her. It's good she finally decided to grow up, diferent from her brother. Now, let's decide these last details so we can start working on our house ascension". He waved to one of the men sitting to his left. He stood up and opened a large roll of paper over the table, covering almost half of it.

"My lord, we think the church is in charge of that construction near the river", he pointed at the map on an area outside the city and near the river, "the people we sent there told us that it's almost finished. Maybe another week and it will start production. They chose a good place to build it so I think we should do the same. We think this area here is similar, also being adjacent the river". He pointed at a diferent location on the map, on the other side of the city.

"We shouldn't built it too far from the fringes of Calistoga. It is going to be better if we built it here, inside the inner circle". Avice spoke.

"Unfortunately there won't be enought space for it here, that's why we have to find a good place outside". One of the counselors spoke back.