Morcster Chef B3 - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

“How about the town square?” Ming suggested. “There were more than a few spots where we could probably set up.”

“Would the authorities be okay with that?” Belmont asked with a frown. “There are likely rules keeping from people camping just setting up shop wherever they want to. I’d rather not have to run out of this town as well.”

“I doubt it’ll be anything too strictly enforced,” Malissa said. “But you’ve got a point. Then again, it’s a wagon. We can always leave or move if we need to.”

“More importantly, we don’t have enough to really do anything with yet,” Arek pointed out. “We have a cart. That’s it. No kitchen.”

“If we get our cart confiscated for illegally setting up shop, it won’t matter what it’s got,” Belmont said.

“Let’s just assume that isn’t going to be a problem,” Malissa said. “I saw some other carts along the street corners, and none of them looked all that fancy. I doubt anyone will care.”

Belmont grunted. “Perhaps. In that case, I will procure supplies.”

“I’ll help!” Ming said happily.

“Only as long as you don’t eat everything we buy before we get back to the cart,” Belmont grumbled. “I know that’s the only reason you’re volunteering. You’ve probably got enough food in your bag of colding for us to run this cart for a week.”

“Those are emergency supplies!” Ming snapped. “That can’t be wasted on situations like this.”

“Slow down,” Arek said, chuckling. “We haven’t even figured out what we’ll be making quite yet. There’s no point buying a bunch of ingredients when we’ll have such a limited kitchen. Best case scenario, we get a pan. I don’t think we’ve got the time or care to modify this cart any further than that. So, whatever recipe we cook has to be something doable with that.”

“Do you have something in mind yet?” Malissa asked.

“Well, the town has a lot of seafood,” Arek mused. “There’s probably a lot of fresh catch in the area since we’re next to the sea. I haven’t cooked much with seafood, but I’ve got a basic idea of what it should probably be paired with. It could be fun to start from there and see what we can do.”

“So we should go buy a lot of fresh stuff?” Ming asked.

“Let’s start with one type of meat, some pasta, garlic, butter, some peppers, and maybe any other veggies you find that look good. Use some restraint, please,” Arek said dryly. “Oh, get some lemons as well. Citrus goes good with seafood.”

Ming nodded intently. “Lots of snacks. I’ll find them.”

She darted off, slipping under Belmont’s arms before he could stop her. The warrior groaned and ran off after her, his armor clanking as she quickly grew the distance between them. Malissa watched them vanish into an alley with a small smile.

“It’s nice to finally get a chance to relax,” she said. “We all needed it.”

“Agreed,” Arek said, but his face wrinkled slightly in worry. “But I don’t think we’re going to be able to stay here long. Those monster hordes… if the Howlers are trying to do something, then they’re going to make their move sooner rather than later, especially with Magus pushing on them. Not to mention we don’t really know how long it will be until the Blessed One curse pulls me and Ming to Dortusk. We don’t know how long it takes for the spell to fully activate.”

“Yeah, but what can we even do about that?” Malissa asked. Arek shrugged and grabbed one of the cart’s handles. He nodded to Malissa, who took the other and the two of them started dragging it toward the town square.

“Right now? Prepare,” Arek replied. “Relaxing is good, but we should plan as well. Time is not on our side.”

“That’s reassuring,” Malissa muttered. They drew several curious glances as they passed through the streets, but the two ignored them.

Before long, they’d arrived at a corner of the market that was largely unpopulated. A posh woman wearing a fur coat stood up from where she sat on a bench and hurriedly crossed to the over side of the square as Arek released the cart with a grunt.

“We’ll have to get some surfaces to cook on as well,” Arek said. “I’ve got the utensils to cook, but if we’re actually going to serve somebody, we can’t just be working on old, rotted wood. A cutting board is an absolute minimum – as well as something for people to eat out of.”

“If we’re giving out bowls and plan to serve any significant amount of customers, that’s a lot of bowls. What will we do with them after we close up shop?” Malissa asked. “It’d be a bit of a waste of money, and I doubt we want to drag them around with us.”

“What about Belmont’s magic?” Arek suggested, grinning. “They’d only have to last long enough for a portion of street food, which probably wouldn’t take too long to eat. They could use chopsticks as utensils. Those are cheap and wooden, so it won’t cost much for us to get some.”

“Do people here know how use those?” Malissa asked.

“They’ll learn, or they’ll eat with their hands. The food will be worth it.”

“That’s one way to look at things,” Malissa said, laughing. “I suppose I’ll go try to find a cutting board and some chopsticks, then. What about you?”

“The wagon,” Arek said. “It needs a fair bit of polishing up if we want anyone to even check us out. I’ll get a sign or something and try to clean some of the mold and stains off the walls so we can at least look slightly presentable.”

Everyone broke away to do their respective tasks. Luckily, the crawl through the city took Arek considerably less time than he expected. He was able to find some polishing supplies at a general store and got a very rough wooden sign commissioned from a carpenter’s apprentice for just a few coins.

Only a little over an hour or two later, everyone had regrouped at the wagon. Luckily, nobody had bothered their run-down cart in its spot. That might have been because it was so shoddy that it probably been more work than it was worth to drag away, but Arek took what he could get.