Ch 34: Restocking with new spices.
The next day. . .
The family woke up easily due to the baby's crying, I took the baby and things improved from there.
I sent a letter through Meadow to Orson to ask if he could work right now, due to having short staff and me being in the city for the majority of the day.
Thankfully, it didn't took him much time to arrive with Nathan like before.
'By the way, I have the posters ready.' I showed them to him. 'How do they look.'
'Wow! They look amazing!' Orson complimented me as he read through them.
"Restaurant staff wanted at Spice Delight in Bakingwood town.
Do you have what it takes to work at an all serving restaurant? Well, lucky for you we have a whole lot of positions to choose from!
We accept both part-time and full-time employees and we'll have a WHOLE week just to see you for an interview. See?! A whole week!!
From Monday ** to Saunday ** only!
Main assets required:
— Multitasking (being able to work on different tasks at once at the same time). For example: cooking meat, chopping vegetables and preparing sauce in at same time in the kitchen.
— Professionalism and dedication. Things like this do NOT include:
1) Judging.
2) Gossiping.
3) Gender harassment (both male to female and female to male. Harassment is harassment).
4) Being ignorant or aggressive towards others in general.
5) Innapropiate attire.
6) Narrow minded. (Everyone IS welcome. Treat others mean or even cruel and your are OUT).
— Friendly demeanor. We need someone who can smile at our clients despite the difficulties.
— Organized labor.
— Huge desire to learn new things that may come with the job aquired.
Experience: NONE.
— We offer training if necessary, although even the smallest skills such as the ones below can be considered experience, so be sure to add it to your employment letter if possible:
1) Cleaning the house and the bathroom.
2) Laundry.
3) Washing dishes.
4) sweeping and washing the floors.
The main positions most wanted are:
— Cooks.
— Servers.
— Hosts.
— Cleaners.
— Dish washers.
Please be sure to send or bring your employment letter to: Restaurant Spice Delight, Bakingwood Town of Kingom of Silverenity.
We'll welcome you with open arms!"
I smiled. 'Ehe, thanks.' I put my hands together with happiness.
'Say mom, what are these for?' Charlie called my attention as he showed me the other posters.
'Oh! Eh, those are advertisement posters for the apartment complex.' I let him know.
'Oh. I see.' Charlie nodded to that.
'I'm going to put them inside the city and some in the Centre building of this town for more people to know about it.' I told him. 'I already made that but the handy men just finished the last couple of houses so I thought of respecting the process in order to actualice the information.' I murmured the last part.
'Yeah, more likely.' Charlie as he gave me the posters back and went back into bringing his luggage.
I started into the posters.
"You are thinking of moving and you don't want to loose all your life saving? We have the solution for you!
We have apartment complex with all necessities that a house include! Just in mini size!
We have finally finished construction all the houses inside the complex and 14 out of the 16 apartments/small houses available still!! Yeah, two people have already moved in!
This complexes have been decided for single people, so if you are single young man or single woman wanting to move out of the nest and start your new life, this is the place for you! We also accept people who are retiring or just want to take a small or long yet temporal vacation.
Each house includes:
— 1 bedroom which includes: 1 bed, 1 nightstand, 1 wardrobe.
— 1 kitchen which includes: cabinets, 1 small cupboard, 1 stove + oven, 1 kitchen counter.
— 1 living room which includes: 2 single sofas, 1 rocky chair, 1 small coffee table, 1 small fireplace.
— 1 small dining room: 1 small circle dinning table, 2 chairs.
— 1 free space: this space is free to use as you see fit with no discrimination or harassment.
The building also includes:
— Common area.
— Library.
— 2 Gardens (in front and inside).
— 2 bathrooms to bath —> One for men and the other for women.
— A patio in the center of the inside garden which includes: a pit fire, a pond, tables and chairs for tea and other activists.
If you are interested, what better deal than to check the place with your own two eyes! Also, don't be afraid to come and check out the houses with your friends and family to have a better criteria!
And we are also looking for workers to keep the place afloat! The jobs include but are not limited to:
— Self-employed housemaid.
— Cleaner.
— Guard.
— Gardener.
— Librarian.
Be quick, because the place might get filled out so don't miss this chance to start either your financial freedom, your retirement and even the best vacation in the countryside you'll ever have!!"
I sighed and started packing.
Then I went back to my office and came out with what Nathan tends to call: the golden envelopes.
Nathan, obviously gasped. 'The golden envelopes!!' He exclaimed.
The rest of the employments turned around to see me like wild animals to a prey.
'. . . . A line please!' I asked them.
They all lined up including a confused Orson who just went along with it.
Of course, everything changed as soon as he opened it. I bet he never saw so much money in a tiny envelop with his name written on it.
And yes, I also gave the twins their payment of 13.50 per day each one.
'Well, I'm going now! Sipfra, please take my baby with you if I'm not here by tonight!!' I asked her.
'Don't worry!' Sipfra assured.
'Bye-bye!' Minerva said goodbye with my grumpy baby girl who was pouting for not being alowed to sleep just yet.
. . .
A few hours later. . .
'Here are your lunches, Charlie's berry tarts and Lottie's chocolate tarts, plus all the butter cookies you can eat in the boxes.' I gave the servant staff the last two boxes. 'Am I missing something?'
'Yeah!' The twins said while accommodating their fringes and cleaning their foreheads.
'Oh! Right.' I smiled and kissed both their foreheads. 'Be good kids now!' I started to walk to the chariot away. 'And don't run off from the school again!!' I warned them one last time.
'Yes mom!' They waved goodbye.
I went inside the chariot which drove away as I waved at them too.
I sighed and Liam (who insisted in coming), took advantage and sat on my lap.
I really need to teach the kid how to be alone someday. I sighed while looking at the rooftop. I then felt how I am hugged from the waist. Well, maybe not today.
I then asked the chariot to take me to the witch's professor direction and he did so.
. . .
In a place called East Witch's coven. . .
The place on the outside had a board that said "East Witch's Coven! In beautiful normal letters and looked like a normal store with the unusual exception of being black color while the rest of the building were white and light yellow.
As I entered, the place gave more cave like features, with trinkets books, cauldrons and much more stuff.
'Wow.' Liam's ear went down. I think he was nervous.
'Don't worry, witches are not that dangerous, as long as you don't bother them.' I let Liam know softly.
'Heh! I wish everyone would share the same sentiment as you mam.' A male voice made us jump and as we turned, we saw a man with long silver hair, a black pointy hat and a tunic in the register counter.
He wasn't there before. Liam and I noticed it a bit nervous.
'Welmcome to the East Witch's coven!' He exclaimed with a sarcastic smile. 'No, we don't do love potions. No, we don't curses unless we know the person actually deserves it. No, we witches are not born out of eggs, we are born just as any human being.' He declared with the "I'm answering before you even try to ask because I don't want to bother with it," tone and then gave a more genuine smile. 'What can I do for you?'
'Oh, well. . .' I came up to him and thought of a small detail. I think I should use an alias. 'You may call me Amy, this is my son Liam and I'm searching for some herbs. The Witch Professor at the Bismuth Academy told I could get some of those in here.' I told him the summaries.
'Oh, you mean thee Witch Professor?' He asked.
I nodded.
'Hah! Took you long enough.' He commented. 'The Witch professor let me know that I might receive a visit from a very,' he checked me out, 'beautiful, human being, which believe it or not, it's almost impossible to miss since not a lot of "real beauties" would visit a witch whop. Much less a coven.' He explained.
I laughed a bit embarrassed. 'Yeah em, something came up and I had to take care of it before even having time to come.' I admitted. 'Anyway, do you have any mint, ginger or chocolate?' I asked.
'We do sell the first two but not the third one.' The male witch admitted.
'Oh, that's fine.' I let him know.
'Follow me then.' He stood from his seat and guided me to what it seemed like a green house.
'Do you also sell tea?' I asked,
'For potions and remedies, yes. For food and normal consuming no.' The witch responded and we came to a warehouse full of spices. 'As for the spices, they can be used on anything, which is why I'm willing to sell it to bake owners and restaurants.' He admitted a bit grumpy about it.
'We already have some jars ready to consumed.' He showed the mint and ginger in different size jars already in powder. 'The big jar costs 5 coppers, the medium one is for 3 and the small one is for 1 copper.' He let me know the price.
'Okay.' I took my pouch out. 'I'll take one jar of each size per spice I asked for please.'
The witch doctor gave the "wow, she's a good client! Nice!" And collocated the jars carefully in a box and we went to the register. 'It would be—'
'Eighteen coppers.' I finished for him and gave him twenty-two coppers. 'Keep the other four coppers as tip.' I told him and took the box with me.
Liam followed me behind and opened the door for me. We came out and entered the chariot to go to the other witch places.
. . .
In a place called The Witzard's tower. . .
It was the tallest tower in the city. Full of glass that burned your eyesight.
As me and Liam entered we saw a whole bunch of magic people in groups walking alone and even flying in brooms.
I walked to the principal counter and cleared my throat. 'Excuse me?'
The woman in her seat behind the counter and checking documents looked up to me. 'May I help you?'
'Em, yeah. Em. . . The witch professor of the Bismuth Academy advised me to get some thing that I—' I stopped because her hand went up to my face.
'Your name is is something along the lines of "Amy," right?' She asked.
I nodded a bit more nervous than before. 'Y-Yeah.'
'Please wait here a moment.' She told me and took out what it look a heavy ball made of glass which was shingling with different colours.
Liam must have sensed powerful magic through it because he went to make little jumps and making grabby hands wanting to be up. I took him in my arms and we both watched what would happened.
The woman put a hand on the crystal ball and it shined a small but brightful yellow light for a few seconds. After that, the ball went normal with it's usual colours and the woman put it away. 'A wizard will assist you soon, please take a seat over there.' She pointed to an area with small wooden chairs and a coffee table.
'Oh, okay.' I brought Liam with me and to pass some time we played played rock paper scissors.
Just as I was about to win two out of three, a wizard landed abruptly in front of us with a room and got out.
'Hello fair lady!' The good-looking wizard bowed to me. 'You may call me Ambrose! Your name must be along the lines of "Amy," am I right?' He streched his hand to me.
'Yes I am.' I stroke his hand with a bore expression. Liam changed his amazed expression with the same one as mine as soon as he saw how I took the "great appearance."
'Hoho! Not easy to impressed are you?' Ambrose raised an eyebrow at me. 'Well, doesn't matter, please come with me.'
I sighed and begrudgingly did as he asked.
We came in the middle of a beautiful, detailed circle, with symbols and what it seemed like words I would not comprehend.
'Hold on to your feet mam.' The Witch Ambrose told me to.
'Eh?' I did as he asked, although a bit more confused.
In that instant, the floor started to tremble and the beautiful circle started to shine like a star in night time, I yelped and Liam screamed while Ambrose laughed at our reactions. 'Don't worry! It's a teleport spell!' He tried to reassure us.
'Teleport what?!' I asked concerned but then, the world became blurry and almost loose balance. 'W-WoAos!' I tried to keep my balance with my free arm and partly kept my composure.
Ambrose laughed at me for a moment until he received a nasty look from Liam. 'Ehem, here! Let me help you mam!' He hold me by the shoulders to help me.
'T-Thanks!' I closed my eyes and hugged Liam tightly as the teleporting thingy did its job.
It went on what I could feel like forever until, my hair stopped flowing in the air and I didn't felt the vertigo anymore. I opened one eye and saw what it could be described as a giant green house the size of a mansion. 'Woah!!' I was amazed.
'It's beautiful!' Liam exclaimed.
'Right?' Ambrose nodded in agreement. 'Welcome to the herb farm! It's where we can get the ingredients both raw and already ready to consume. Please follow me again.' He motioned us through a straight a head trail between all the herbs and plants.
The tower looked thinner and smaller from the outside, probably some short of space spell or something. I followed without putting Liam down. Liam seemed to want to get close to some plants but I made it possible for him to stop and reach for them.
The air smell humid and fragrant with the escence of the flowers and other specific specimens, I could feel the warmth of the summer despite being in late Autum through my body and clothes, the last ones were making my skin sweat and I started to fear the smell that it could come.
Thankfully, we entered through some door through the other side of the road and as we entered, I felt the same type of breeze I would feel back in my old world when it came to entering a building with air conditioning.
The place looked exactly like an old fashioned warehouse, full of ready to eat herbs, spices powdered inside jars and jars full of seeds.
'Witch professor told us that you need mint and ginger, as well some especial teas. Can I ask why?' The witch professor took out a book and started to put some jars and bottles inside it.
'Well, I have a restaurant and I've been thingking of some new recipes. The mint and ginger will be used for seasonal ingredients and maybe flavors if everything goes well.' I told him with honesty.
'I see.' He nodded. 'Any, especific tea you are missing?' He asked.
'I would mostly want lavender, ginger and mint, other types of teas are much easier to find.' I answered.
Ambrose nodded and went back to what he was doing.
'Say, do you also sell potatoes or sweet potatoes?' I asked.
'Yeah, in fact, they so cheap and easy to grow that most of the time we are overstock of them.' Ambrose admitted with embarrassment. 'We tend to donate great part of it to communities with necessities so they don't go bad, but. . . It's. . .' He scratched his head.
'Waste of money and effort.' I answered him.
'Yeah.' He sighed. 'Do you want to take some home?' He asked turning to look at me.
'I don't have that much space on the chariot, much less on the warehouse.' I admitted. 'But we can come to an agreement to how many you may send per week or per month if you allow me.' I offered.
Ambrose turned to look at me with awe. 'Really?!'
'Yeah!' I nodded with a smile. 'Although, I will have to talk with the manager of that field.' I reminded him.
'Oh okay!' Ambrose went into thought for a second and then he smiled again. 'Ah! When will you able to come again?' He asked.
'Well, next week I'm going to go full recruitment of staff since the business is booming and we are short on staff, and during the next two weeks approximately, I'll be training them, therefore, I'll only be free until after mid-November.' I let him know with honesty.
'Oh, don't worry it's fine.' He let me know. 'In that case, let's get back with these things in the box downstairs and exchange contacts.' He proposed taking the box full of tea boxes and jars.
'Okay!' I nodded and we went out of the warehouse. 'By the way, how much for these things?' I asked.
'Oh don't worry about it.' Ambrose told me. 'The Professor Witch told us that she will pay for the precise amount of spices that I gathered for you. She said something of the lines of, "she gave me pastries, I'll pay them with the spices," or something of the sort.' He explained.
'. . . Ah.' I nodded and we stood on the circle again. 'Here we go again.' I sighed.
'Can I ask though, what kind of pastries did you have her?' Ambrose asked with curiosity.
'I gave her mini pies.' I answered with simplicity.
'Of what kind?' He asked getting to close to my face.
'Pumpkin and pecan pies.' I answered as I stepped back.
'Ah. . .' Ambrose got the circle working and then looked at me again. 'Wait. . . You made those pies?!' He asked in shock.
We teleported back to the main floor in an instant.
. . .
20 minutes later. . .
After hurling everything from my insides (teleporting is no joke nor fun), Ambrose gave me some strong ginger tea and while the after taste made tongue numb, I was able to feel much better afterwards.
I took the boxes with me as he started to remember what he wanted to ask. I wanted to be out of there quickly right then and there.
Fortunately, the chariot did what he did best within the city and sped away as soon as the coachman saw a tiny (yet big enough) path for the chariot to pass and did not miss it.
I sighed of relief once we were far from the gate entrance of the witch tower and immediately told the coach man to go for the next place.
He did so and in less than ten minutes we were in front of call could described as a mall with a Victorian style.
Like the place was called "The Backstreet market," and it had a lot to shops and stores on site. Three floors with with shops of food, products, clothes, books and even a few small restaurants and coffee shops!
Of course, there was always that one spoiled kid that was creaming and kicking for a baked good from a specific store and the mom was trying to console him. Shortly after, the mother gave up and bought the baked good to her kid and he was smiling in triumph while eating his "reward" for stopping his trandrum.
I shook my head and continued walking with Liam around the place.
'Wow.' I was in awe. Liam was also looking everything and everyone. Once we were at the center of the place (aka, where all the roads and stairs to the different points of the market connected), I realized that I had no idea to where the store or shop was, so I walked to a few ladies who were sitting in a table with some sweets and tea. 'Ehem, excuse me?'
They all turned to see and quickly started to judge me with their eyes.
I was about to formally introduce myself but then I noticed that one of them had pointy ears. A fae, be best to be discreet. 'Em, my name is Amy, and I'm looking for a witch store or shop? Can you let me know where it is?' I asked nervously.
The fae herself smiled. 'The shop should be upstairs and where it's most darker. You should be able to find it easily.' She responded pointing to the stairs that were close by.
I turned briefly to see the stairs and then nodded to her. 'Thank you.' I made a small bow and quickly took Liam's hand to walk away and go upstairs. But of course, there was a huge lollipop with vibrant colours that made Liam's eye pop out and tugged and pointed for it.
'Liam please.' I tugged him back. 'Are you mute?' I asked him.
Liam shook his head.
'Are you cursed without a mouth or voice?' I asked.
He shook his head again.
'Is this how I taught you how to ask things?' I reminded him.
Liam shook his head.
'Then what do we do when we want something?' I asked him.
'We ask with please and thank you.' Liam responded with a smile.
'Good. Now, what do you want to ask me for?' I asked once more.
'I want that lollipop, please.' Lima pointed to the big giant lollipop that was throwing wild colours.
I'm getting diabetes just by looking at it. And I'm barely twenty years old again! My eye twitched. 'How about this? First, we go what I came looking for, we have lunch and then we come back for the lollipop. Sounds good?' I proposed.
Liam nodded with excitement. 'Yeah! Yeah!' He raised his voice.
'Okay, okay! Come on now, let's go upstairs.' I took him in my arms and climbed up the stairs which had a height too bug for his little legs and feet. Why do I feel like I'm getting weird stares though? I wondered but shook that feeling from my mind. Must be nothing. I calmed myself down and kept going up.
. . .
5 minutes later. . .
From what I noticed, the Victorian mall was divided into three categories from main, second and third floor.
The main (or first) floor, most of the stores were bakeries, restaurants, shops of equipment for jobs like cooking, cleaning, gardening and laundry, and few were like offering services of housemaids and serving as well as big yet very good Miscalleanous stores. I was able to see a small yet very well kept welding shop too due to the medieval weapons and beautiful jewel holders (tiara's, bracelets, necklaces) that were made by metal, silver, gold and a lot more if things that I couldn't make out as I went up to the second floor.
The second floor seemed more for the normal plus rich class. Stores with sophisticated and expensive clothing, jewelers, furniture with beautiful designs and even bookstores. There was also two elegant restaurants (pretty much formal and expensive too) and a small yet full of clientele hair salon. There were shops for expensive food ingredients and spices, like coffee and chocolate already powdered for consuming. These stations were bigger and seemed to have both more profit and maintainable than the business in the first floor. Some people of higher status started to stare at me so I just went higher up the stairs to the third floor.
The third floor, was mostly empty, for the exception of a pretty humble and somewhat "cuestionable-looking" stores.
Like there was a place for betting on some random games of chances, a brothel (I covered Liam's eyes for that one), a creepy bookstore and what it should be the witch store. I walked over there and saw that it had store counter window with a bell on the right.
I made the bell sound, and waited for someone to come. If there was any.
'May I help you?' An old voice startled me.
'Ah!' I jumped back. I saw that it was what you would call a stereotypical witch. Old and haggard skin, wrinkles everywhere, pointy had and a black dress. 'Your voice startled me, mam.'
The old lady only smiled softly and sighed. 'Anything I can help you with?'
'Oh, well, the Witch Professor at Bsmuth Academy had told me I could get some spices here.' I told her.
'I see, your name must be along the lines of Amy, am I right?' She asked and I nodded. 'Took you quite sometime to finally come.' She chuckled.
'I'm terribly sorry.' I apologized sincerely. 'Being a mom of four, plus a restaurant plus an incident that took me days to resolve made it hard for me to clean my schedule to come.' I sumarized the whole thing to her.
'Oh no, no don't worry.' The old witch winked at me. 'I have little to no customers so expecting someone made it easier to want to come to work.' She let me know.
'Wouldn't it be easier to move the store down below?' I asked.
'The second floor is only permitted to those who have an annual income of 500,000 gold coins per minimum.' The old witch lady responded as she gathered some spices. 'And there are far better looking stores than this one, so it makes sense. But don't worry, I'm already retired, but I couldn't just stay at home all day.' She rolled her eyes and put the spices in the register counter. 'Would like a box dear?' She asked.
'Oh, yes please.' I nodded at seeing all the different spices that it contained besides mint, ginger and chocolate. There was also hot peppers, cinnamon, garlic, oregano, rosemary, salt, pepper, paprika, cloves, etc etc., all in small doses yet they looked incredibly delicious to use.
The witch took a box and placed the jars carefully in a specific order from the big jars down below to the small ones on top of everything else.
I took my pouch and saw that the payment was way cheaper than the other two stores. I shall come where often. I smiled to myself. 'Thank you mam!' I put Liam down and took the box with me. 'Come Liam!'
Liam followed me to the stairs.
'Come back soon!' The old witch said goodbye.
We passed through the brothel and, despite the old looking decor, I could see very beautiful women getting ready and practicing for tonight most probably.
'It's a mess.' A very young looking girl stepped out in a very revealing dress (for this world) and took a smoke. 'That old bastard just exploit us and doesn't pay us as he should, things are definetely not improving.' She scratched her head.
I just a bit of my skirt to cover Liam's pure eyes and walked along to the stairs. 'One foot in front of the other.' I whispered to him softly.
Liam nodded as he slowly came to plactice his walk down stairs.
I don't know whether it was the carefulness and calmness that helped Liam go down the stairs carefully, or the Jasper goodluck bracelet because he made downstairs all on his own without much help.
'Very good, Liam!' I exclaimed. 'I would give you an applause but my hands are on this!.' I chuckled showing the box.
'That's okay!' Liam clapped for himself.
'Hahaha!' I laughed a bit and then cleared my throat. 'So, shall we go for lunch?' I asked.
'Yes!' Liam nodded enthusiastically and the he turned to see the lollipop he saw before. 'And then we go for my lollipop! Please?' He made baby eyes.
'Of course, come on, help me find a table and I'll go buy lunch.' I told him.
'Kay kay!' Liam followed me side by side and we quickly found a table for two. 'Here, mama! Here!' He exclaimed pulling a chair out with great difficulty.
'Hahaha! Yeah yeah.' I put the box on the table and sighed of relief. 'Any especific that you want to eat?' I asked him.
Liam sat on the chair that he pulled out and put his hands on the table. 'Em . . . Vegetables?' He asked looking at his side indirectly.
I look where he was looking and saw a group of elves that were eating vegetables as well. 'Well, if that's what you want.' I shrugged. 'But let me remind you that you are just half elf, unlike them, you require some of the human foods that humans are able to eat.' I reminded him that little fact.
Liam blushed a bit and nodded. 'Em. . . Maybe. . . Bacon and sausage?' He asked playing with his little fingers.
I smiled at him. 'Sure.' I nodded and went to the mini place called "Eat in and out."
. . .
10 minutes later. . .
It was like a fast food restaurant, just in Victorian style.
I asked for two mushroom bacon soups, a medium salad to share, and one of those table boards that hoard sliced ham, salmon, bread, fruit, cheese, plus a mini bowl of a sauce, and small much of grapes all in it. I also bought orange juice for Liam and I got myself some tea.
I would prefer wine with the wooden board, but it's best I don't. I told myself and we got eat.
'Are you liking the food?' I asked Liam.
Liam nodded. 'Although it's not as good as mom's food.' He declared while munching on.
I giggled at the compliment.
. . .
30 minutes later. . .
We finished eating and we left the Victorian mall.
We then found the chariot waiting for us and our things still there, which was a relief. We hop on the chariot and drove home for the day.
'Did you enjoyed the day out?' I asked Liam.
Liam stopped nibbling his giant lollipop and smiled at me. 'Yeah!' He nodded and then went on to munch on the lollipop.
I giggled once again and pulled the kid close enough to make sure no brute stopping would make him fly. He's still so tinty.! I cried out of cuteness and sighed at the thought of having HUGE amount of spices in my care. Tired yet satisfied, I pray that every single item that I bought wouldn't brake and feel asleep until we got right back home.