The following day was rather busy, the word had begun to spread so we had a sudden influx of customers. I began teaching Corgas. No matter how bad he was at cooking (pretty bad), making pizza is easy, it just requires a little practice. I coached him step by step and he quickly caught on.

In the evening I helped Berel load up the caravan for the journey home, I gave her my thanks for everything and waved her goodbye.

Okay, the current task is renovating the image of the shitty restaurant and pumping up the marketing. If I learned something from Eric of the sales department, is that marketing is the most vital part of selling any product. Even the shittiest piece of junk can be a success with the right advertising.

After a week the place was unrecognizable. I had Corgas change the restaurant name to "Pizza Heaven" and we hired a couple of pretty girls to attract customers and serve the patrons. Sex sells, the oldest trick in the marketing book. Thanks, Eric.

I have spent most of the earnings in renovations and advertising. The iron had to be struck while hot to gain the edge before anyone else entered the pizza market.

Corgas regained his culinary confidence and now stands straight and proud. Dude it's just pizza. When we started raking in cash he was literally in tears and hugged me like a lost son or something. I guess this is kinda fun, but there was something I hadn't considered...

I'm starting to hate pizza!

I knead pizza, I bake pizza, I breathe pizza... all the fucking day!

I can't go on. I gotta shift my focus to the managerial side of things, Corgas has gotten good enough that we can train more personnel to keep up with the demand. And thus, we hired and trained more pizzaiolos.

The adventurer's trio stopped by various times and brought occasional acquaintances as well, I have to thank them for spreading the word.

Also, thanks to them and Corgas I had many occasions to practice the language, so I'm finally able to have conversations!

About. Fucking. Time.

I gazed out the windows with a satisfied smile. It's been a month since I've been staying in this city. Things are going well.

My smile faded.

BUT I STILL HAVEN'T LEARNED ANYTHING ABOUT MAGIC!

According to Ellin, learning magic costs a lot of money and you need a good teacher to get started. She wasn't confident in explaining the basics because I could hurt myself.

While I was wondering about those things, Corgas came rushing to me.

「Corgas: Allen! Allen!!」

He was panting, panic painted on his face.

「Allen: What?」

「Corgas: Nobleman... pizza...」

He pointed frantically at a well-dressed man accompanied by two menacing guards.

「Corgas: You cook, make the best one!」

And so I did, I used the best ingredients and cooked it at the right point.

The waitress served it to the noble, while I and Corgas were watching from the kitchen's door.

Corgas was sweating cold and gripping the door frame as if his life depended on it.

I myself had enough experience with upper management and CEOs to be unfazed. Besides, it's just a fucking pizza, for fuck's sake.

The man took a bite, munched for a few seconds, then nodded to himself in approval and kept eating.

Corgas bear hugged me with excitement choking me out.

I hadn't realized Corgas was so strong, it's good he didn't collapse my face when I walked into his kitchen.

「Allen: Can't... breathe...」

I struggled hopelessly.

Later that day a messenger came to tell us we had been chosen to cook our specialty for an important banquet.

I'm not sure how I felt about that, attracting the attention of nobility so soon. But it's s also true that we could use the money they offered to open up a second Pizza Heaven on the other side of the city.

It didn't look like we had much choice about it, Corgas was excited and dreaming about fame and glory.

We ended up in the massive kitchens of that noble that had paid us a visit, Lord Radenrouge.

One thing that caught my eye was that dishes and cups were made of black glass. Or painted ceramic? I didn't ask. Gotta be what's trending.

In the same room, there were various other chefs going about their work, preparing desserts, firsts and seconds, but it felt fishy. Some of them kept stealing glances our way.

Was it a mistake to accept this jig? Are they going to sabotage us or beat us to a pulp?

The banquet proceeded smoothly, and we received the agreed payment, 9 gold coins. According to Corgas, this is a lot. All chefs including us were kept in the kitchens so we did not get any chance to make important acquaintances. Well, no matter... with this money we have enough for opening that second pizza restaurant.

A few days later we heard about legit knockoff pizzas being sold from a rival restaurant, Corgas inquired around about it and apparently, that place was one of Lord Radenrouge's assets.

I spit out a string of profanities. I guess those chefs were really spying us that day, greedily stealing my average pizza-making secrets.

Not much we can do it about now.

But who cares! I just wanted to secure funding to learn magic!

I'm not mad at all!

Definitely not mad.

I'm fucking mad. I was hoping it would take a few months more for competitors to catch up.

I shook Corgas who was staring at the wall, probably picturing his dream of glory coming to an end.

「Allen: C'mon, we got stuff to do.」

Time to anticipate my next plan: take away pizza.

Sadly paper in this world costs too much, so mass producing the classic pizza boxes is not an option. But I found a compromise...

We talked about it with a woodworker, a friend of Corgas, and we came up with a wooden equivalent. They'll be bulkier but they'll be reusable. So we can give them to our clients in exchange for a small deposit, which they'll get back as soon as they turn in the pizza box.

I left the matter in the Corgas' hands and our other pizza chefs.

I've had enough of pizzas, for now, I need a breath of fresh air.

Might as well ask Ellin to join her party, I want to experience some damn adventuring.

So I took a day off and went shopping to gear up with some cheap stuff.