Chapter 48 Looking out for her
She pursed her lips, extremely unhappy because he was mocking her with his voice, his eyes and his tone. Was it fun to laugh at someone more stupid than he was?
"Hey," she shouted at him, "I know a lot of things that you don't know."
Esong chuckled again because for some reason her childishness when shouting at him was sort of adorable.
"If you laugh again you will not ever taste my food." she threatened.
Esong raised his hands and smiled, "In that case I apologize. You are knowledgeable about many things I admit. Like these weird looking foods and the mutated beasts. In fact, I would like to request you to put together a record of all the beasts you have come into contact with, their characteristics, weaknesses and strengths. Also include which ones are edible and which ones are poisonous. The center for mutated beast studies has noticed that you are quite well learned when it comes to these things and they wanted me to put in a request for them. They will pay you of course, one hundred star coins for each beast you record."
"One hundred thousand." she made a counter offer.
"I see that you still like money." he commented.
The tone of his voice was neither mocking nor flattering. It was just flat, like he was informing her about an observation he had made.
"Do you know how dangerous it is to identify a deadly beast from one that is not deadly? If anyone could do it then the empire would be filled with butchers, slaughter houses and pet shops at every corner. But that is not the situation because not everyone can go into dangerous areas to study mutated beasts." she had to make not only him but others the danger involved in the process of identifying the differences of mutated beasts.
If she did not have the capabilities of a grim reaper for identifying the deadly beasts, the edible ones and the poisonous ones, she would not be anywhere near the Blue forest.
If she allowed them to assume that it was so cheap and simple then who knows how many people would blindly fall into danger trying to be her?
"Is it really that dangerous for you? If it is then why do it? I can provide for you and our son you do not to endanger your life." Esong told her. His brows were burrowed to make it look as if he was frowning but she was not sure. She decided to tease him a little bit.
"Aww, are you worried about me?" she said in a childish voice.
"I am just wondering why you make it look so easy." he answered. "But since it's dangerous I will triple the amount of money you are asking for. It's only fair that you demand for more."
He actually surprised her. It appeared as though the great general was actually looking out for her.
"How much are you going to ask for?"
"One million per identification." he replied.
If she knew how to whistle, she would be doing so right now.
"What about plants? I thought the royal family would want this information first before everyone else."
"Why else do you think Markay is here? The royal family wants to invest in the Blue star. They will offer you money for a portion of the food and what you earn when you start selling food to every star in the empire. A time is going to come when the eating habits of the citizens are revolutionized and the royal family wants to be involved right from the beginning. They also want some land, this development plan of yours is intriguing. Your father has showed me some of the buildings you intend to construct, I think by the time you are done the empire will personally be tempted to move here."
"Are you speaking on their behalf?" she asked him.
"I am a member of the royal family Scarlet, I do not always need the emperor to sign off on what I think is good for the family. If you would prefer to speak to someone higher up on the ladder then I am all too happy to get the emperor on a video call with you."
The oven dinged, meaning that the lemon butter chicken was ready. The rice cooker had done the same thing two minutes ago. Because she opened the rice cooker and looked inside when it dinged, Esong presumptuously did the same thing for the oven.
He opened it and stuck his head inside like a kid.
"That smells wonderful." he said. "I would have loved to meet the teacher who taught you this. Do you have any idea how valuable this gift you have is?"
She ignored his question and started placing food on the different plates.
"I have not prepared a lot so none of you should be expecting to fill their bellies until they swell. If you are not satisfied there are porridge distribution points outside. Take a bowl and get some porridge." ๐ง๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐๐ฆ๐ซ๐ท๐ฐ๐ทโฏ๐.๐ฌโด๐ฎ
She carried two plates to deliver and he assisted her by carrying two more. All of the guests were thrilled to receive to see the steaming plates of food.
"So this is the food that the general was talking about." Oak said. His nose was buried in his plate.
"It smells so good." Bell said.
"I thought that the juice was the best thing in the world but I was wrong brother, there are better things." Oak said with a laugh.
"It's too bad that they have no night lamps otherwise we would go and look at the gardens right now." Bell said with a sad sigh.
As the guests dug into the food with gusto, so did the members of the Su family.
"Brother Adler," Folsom said jovially, "Your family is so lucky that you get to eat like this everyday."
Members of the Su family wondered whether they should reveal the fact they had only just started eating food recently. This was their first time tasting these foods as well.
"I think I am ready to migrate to the Blue planet now." Cedric said.
Markay and Esong were the only ones in the living room who ate gracefully like the royalty they were. As for Scarlet, she ate little too quickly and excused herself.
"She is going to sleep at this time, it's still early." Markay commented.
"It's part of her treatment." Dorian told him.?She goes to bed early every night and we do not wake her until she personally comes out of her bedroom in the morning. Honestly she works too hard during the day. Way more than she has to because sometimes she ends up pale, sweaty and occasionally with nose bleeds."
He was saying all this to ensure that the royal family did not attempt to force his daughter to become a full time worker growing plants and raring animals for them. The more sickly and pitiful she looked, the less they would push.
Esong contemplated on Dorian's words, In his mind, he was fifty percent certain that if Scarlet was ill, it was the darkness. Was sleep the cure to that dreaded illness?
By this time, Scarlet was already on her way to the underworld.