In the evening hours of the day, Jon, his daughter, and his knight walked into Westfall Restaurant since, according to many, it was the best restaurant in the city and one of the reasons many came here. They had to book a VIP room hours prior to their arrival.
They went straight for their VIP room and sat. Jon's expression was casual as he picked up the wooden board placed on top of the table.
The first thing on the menu was roasted hexakad chicken.
He blinked. Maybe his eyes might have read wrongly, but after scanning it again and again, he discovered it was still the same.
There was a diamond-ranked chicken as the first thing on the list!
As he went down the list, Jon began to doubt if these people even had what was on the menu. While he pondered, a waiter walked into the room.
"Good evening, what would you like to order?"
"Give me the highest-tiered warm milk on the menu along with this King Bread."
The waiter nodded and turned to Jane.
"I'd like a plate of spicy Moonlit Starhorn meat."
"Give me the Golden Fragrant cornmeal."
Jon's eyes went up. He couldn't believe he missed another great item that was on the list. 'They also have Golden Fragrant corn that only grows in the imperial capital of the eternal immortal empire?!'
His doubts lingered until the waiter came back with two waitresses. The moment they entered the room, a mouthwatering aroma assaulted their nostrils, causing their eyes to be drawn to the meals on the trays.
Jon couldn't take his eyes off the King Bread until he grabbed it and took a bite. As the soft, extremely tasty bread touched his taste buds, his eyes twinkled.
He exclaimed internally.
His eyes went toward the milk. As he took a sip and felt the warm sensation, Jon's defenses melted.
He began to eat and drink like a starved man. The same for Jane. The woman, though more controlled than the men, had moist eyes.
The knight, on the other hand, ate without reserves.
"This kind of food needs to be in our empire." Jon sighed regretfully. It was a painful thing to know that he would not be able to eat such a great meal anywhere except here.
And he could feel that his strength and health had increased from just eating!
Goshen was like a paradise in an unseemly place.
He would have tried to hire the cooks and get the recipe if he had the means. In fact, the higher-ups would love to have him stab the lord of this city in the back and steal the recipe for the meals in this restaurant.
The recipes alone would go for millions of silver coins if auctioned in the Sacred Flame Empire!
"Tomorrow, when we meet the city lord, we should ask if at least one recipe is for sale."
The next day, when the sun was high and the teleportation channel kept flashing, indicating the arrival of visitors, merchants, and much more, Jon and his daughter Jane stood outside the Lord's Hall.
Someone was inside with the City Lord of Goshen, and after that person, it would be their turn.
Jon looked at the elite Desolate Wolf soldiers with their tower shields.
He simply admired the soldiers. Their discipline was so good that it was terrifying to think of the kind of training they went through.
It must have been torture.
Above that, their armor was something else. He was pretty sure their armor was gold-ranked!
To be able to flaunt such wealth, his city lord must be as rich as Sacred Flame dukes. The Eternal Immortal Empire's dukes were known for their military might more than their wealth, but it was a well-known fact that wealth could easily buy such might.
After all, the Everad kingdom, the paradise of slave armies, still exists and would continue to exist. No kingdom or empire ever thought about attacking them because secretly, almost all the nations traded with them.
The doors opened, and a man clad in a violet coat walked out. Both Jon and his daughter walked into the Lord's hall as the man left.
Their shoes tapped the polished marble floor. The pillars were white; so were the walls and the ceiling.
Even the throne where the city lord sat was white.
When they saw Claude Flameheart sitting on the throne with a solemn expression, they fell on their knees.
"We greet the City Lord."
"You're from the Norde Merchant Guild." Claude smiled, got to his feet, and approached them.
Seeing how he welcomed them, Jon felt relief.
"We came because of the evergreen olive oil, but your city has more than that. Your restaurant is enviable."
"It's my lord's great vision. He thought about it and established it. Although I'm the baron of this city, I do not own the glory."
"Your Lord?!" Jane was stunned.
Claude looked at her. "It's been published that House Flameheart is now a vassal of a greater house."
"I see. We came solely because of the evergreen olive oil, but this city has more to offer."
Claude sat on his throne. "We do. We plan to open the trade for iron ores with silver meridians."
"The iron ore can alloy with any other metal and boost the flow of mana!"
Jon's eyes trembled. Wasn't that the same thing his old friend Kelvin wanted him to trade?
"My Lord wants to trade with a big guild, and your guild is one of the biggest. You even have your cargo ships on the seas."
Jon furrowed his brows.
"Your Lord? Apologies, Lord Flameheart, but who is your lord?"
Jon feared that his old friend and his lord had been slain and a powerful lord had claimed the mines.
This was bound to happen because such unique ore was too big for a small lord to own.
"Count Asher Ashbourne, the great white wolf of the north."
Claude responded, his tone deep and reverberating in Jon and Jane's ears.