A single pot of [Duncan's Delight] filled four bowls, and there was enough sludge in the bottom of the pot to sop up with a heel of bread if I wanted an after closing snack. I did my best to get a good mix of the meat and vegetables into the four bowls, even though it wouldn't make a damn difference as far as the buff was concerned.

The [Slice of Beef] had lost its structural integrity during the cooking process. It was just tiny chunks of meat, almost like shreds, that permeated the thick broth. Like I had guessed, the [Common Mushrooms] had almost disintegrated in the high heat, lending their color, flavor, and more importantly, stats to the dish, without leaving behind slimy chunks of goo that people would question with an upturned nose and sour face.

At the bottom of the pot were chunks of [Carrot] and [White Potato] that were almost caramelized from being up against the edge of the cooking pot. Some bits stuck to the metal, but the rest came clear and looked absolutely divine.

There was a little buff icon above the meal, and I got very excited for just long enough to see what it said.

Hot Food: This dish currently gives full stat effects. As it is meant to be served and eaten hot, the buff will degrade by 10% for every ten minutes it is left to cool off. If you are not ready to eat yet, find a way to store it so it stays hot for longer.

Damn. So it wasn't a well crafted meal. The dish didn't have a bonus to stats, and there was no shine to it. Which made sense. I was a level four chef (yay for dinging when the meal finished!) but that was a drop in the bucket of where my skill could go. I'd be lucky if I saw a [High Quality Meal] buff before ten, and luckier still if I saw a [Highest Quality Meal] buff before I capped out at fifty.

But, this was still as close to a home-cooked meal as they came. It was also above and beyond normal eatery fare. Not only would it be delicious and filling, but it would boost stats in ways only adventurer-made meals did.

I was... hopeful. Excited. Enthusiastic.

There was nothing more that I wanted to do except somehow balance three of the four bowls on my arms and hands (ignoring the potential burning) and share the meal with my friends.

But there were a few small details I had to adjust first.

First, I gathered spoons and made sure to insert them securely into the three bowls. I didn't exactly want to send one flying as I walked since that would mean stopping to clean one or more of them. I also covered the last bowl with an upside down ceramic mixing bowl. It wasn't a perfect solution, but I was able to confirm the little timer next to the buff had stopped moving during the time it was under cover, so at least that was something.

And then, despite me being an overexcited puppy that wanted to pour stew down my friends' throats instead of incessantly hump their legs, I grabbed only two bowls and marched them out into the dining area.

Mel and Berry had done a great job at moving the tables and chairs. Not that I doubted they would. I just didn't do well with giving control of something I wanted to do to someone else. Mel's faux surprise at my delegating a task hadn't been too far off from the real thing.

We could actually navigate the room. No longer were there a thousand legs of a hundred chairs between me and my destination. I didn't feel like I had to idly continue to walk forward, pushing chairs out of my way slowly as I passed, just to get to a guest at the door. Perhaps I could even traverse the room with a bucket draped over my head now.

That would be a fun challenge.

It made the room feel so much more comfortable. No longer overcrowded, it felt warm and inviting.

I put the two bowls of [Duncan's Delight] down, even though Mel and Berry hadn't returned to their seats. Perhaps they were mucking around with the placement of the tables and chairs outside, which like, I could appreciate. As a control freak, I took comfort in the fact that they were doing everything they could to get things right.

It also gave me enough time to fetch my own bowl of stew, after checking once more that the cooldown on the fourth bowl hadn't mysteriously restarted. It was safe, and so I surmised I at least had a temporary way to store excess stew. I'd run out of room really quickly, but perhaps I could build some shelves (like the ones in the cellar) to store them on.

As I wandered back into the dining area, I made a note to ask Berry how long that buff lasted, even under cover. Because if I could somehow keep days worth of meals prepared and just hiding under a ceramic bowl, I wouldn't have to worry so much about how I was going to cook everything ahead of time.

If the system was going to be vaguely exploitable, I was absolutely going to exploit it.

Just who I was.

The pixie and adventurer still weren't in their chairs.

I looked at the buff ticking down on the meal and clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. "Fine. I'll just have to fetch them," I said to myself in my most motherly voice.

Do have to say, it was a lot easier to leave the eatery.

But I really wish I hadn't.

Mel and Berry were standing just in front of the doorway, almost like a barricade. They were both facing away from the door, with arms crossed over their chests, but there were no weapons drawn or other impending violence that I could see.

Although I really wish there was.

Beyond them, smiling a careful smile, was Duncan.

"Oh, good. Harper. You've decided to join us."

"Go back inside," Mel said without turning her head.

"He's not just gonna go away because you're standing there."

"Back door is locked, isn't it?"

"Yep," I lied, immediately and without hesitation. "Locked it up when I grabbed water last."

"Then go back inside. We'll take care of this."

"Mel. Berry. I appreciate you defending me against literal monsters, but your stew is getting cold. And I've even got an extra bowl." I smiled, even though I didn't want to. Even though smiling at Duncan made me want to murder everyone and everything in a ten block radius just because it made me feel like slime.

Worse than slime.

The slime that a slime poos out when it is sliming its way across the floor. Like little nuggets of slime you just knew were going to ruin the floor and attract every bit of dirt in the room.

But I had little choice, so I barreled forward anyway. "Duncan. Would you like to come inside and have a bowl of beef stew? It's fresh out of the kitchen."

Mel made a high-pitched noise of protest the second the words left my mouth. Berry gaped at me from over her shoulder, noiselessly. But then they both immediately loosened up, as if they trusted this was part of some master plan.

And, believe me, I wish it were.

Right now, I had three objectives.

The first was to get in off the street. We were way too exposed here, and someone could call a constable or worse, grab Phelps. Didn't need my landlord knowing my dirty laundry.

Second objective was to get Mel and Berry out of harm's way if shit went bad. I knew for a fact that Duncan would go after them first, since they were obviously people I cared about. I didn't know if it was like, in the Bad Guy Handbook or something, but it just seemed to be something he'd do. And I wasn't here for it.

The third thing I wanted to do was know how the fucking stew was so I knew if I needed to make any adjustments to the spices. Duncan could bark and snap all he wanted, but he wasn't exactly my top priority in the long scheme of things.

Duncan, for his part, grinned just a little wider. I wonder if he thought he had some upper hand here. Or that he could out think me.

But like... you can't play four-dimensional chess against someone who isn't even at the fucking board.

I had other things on my mind.

Outsmarting the conman wasn't one of them.

I led the group into the dining area, pausing only long enough to wait for my eyesight to adjust to the lighting before I stubbed a toe or shin on one of the remaining chairs. Like a maitre de I brought them all to the table where three bowls of stew waited, slowly ticking down on their timers. I even flourished with one arm, miming something I'd seen at a ridiculously fancy eatery in Kinon. From the outside. While wearing rags. And drooling over the elaborate courses that comprised the meal.

Duncan took the seat in front of my bowl and I immediately regretted not spitting in it or something. Just a little act of defiance would make me feel so much better.

But who would spit in their own stew before eating it? It sounded silly, and my past self couldn't have known that he was going to show up unannounced.

Mel and Berry stood behind their chairs, both white-knuckling the furniture instead of sitting in it.

"Seriously, you guys. I need to know how it tastes and I'd like to know while its still hot and you're getting the full effect of the meal. I'll go get the fourth bowl and then we can all have a nice chat, okay?"

Neither of them said anything, but they sat and then immediately scooted their chairs away from Duncan.

It didn't even make sense that Berry was so hostile to Duncan. Maybe Mel had told more stories than I thought while I was cooking, and Berry had just remembered the name and the dickheadery.

Mel smiled thinly up at me, and I could see a thousand questions behind her eyes.

I didn't have answers to any of them, so I went and did what I said I was going to: I fetched my bowl of stew.

Lurking under the ceramic bowl, it still had most of its full cooldown timer. It started ticking down like normal as soon as I exposed it to the air.

I made for the dining area once more before remembering I'd need a new spoon and making a pit stop to grab one.

The dining area was much as I left it, although Duncan was merrily diving in to the provided meal. A little stew ran down his chin as he slurped at the stew on his spoon. "You know," he said, talking around the full bite he'd taken, "I thought the name was going to be a bit of a misnomer. Like that it would be made poorly or with shoddy ingredients. Something that would make me feel ill." He chewed on the potato he had stored in the pocket of his cheek thoughtfully. "But it's really quite good."

"I'm so glad?" I sat down next to Mel and Berry, and the end of the table and the farthest from Duncan that I could get. Not that it helped. He happily smacked his lips and slurped at his spoon so loud they must have heard him back in Kinon. Moon's light he was obnoxious. I wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not, but he was doing a good job with it, either way.

I nodded to Mel and Berry to eat, but neither of them seemed very inclined. So I took a bite myself.

My earlier assessment was correct. This was a good meal. The broth was rich and velvety but had a distinctly meaty flavor that didn't come just from the [Slice of Beef]. The [Carrots] and [White Potatoes] were soft and pliable, but with the caramelized crust and skin still in place (for the potatoes), they stayed together well until the teeth broke through them. The [Yellow Onion] was a nice textural difference, since it was soft and pliable, but retained the broth well.

All in all, it was a pretty delicious meal.

A grayed out icon showed up in the corner of my vision, a small chunk of it filled in. I'd only get the actual buff if I ate the full bowl, which was one of the things that made adventurer meals so great. It wasn't like you just had to take a nibble.

The stew did need something though. I wasn't sure what it was, but maybe Berry would be able to point me in the right direction.

Perhaps celery? I wasn’t sure if another crunchy-turned-soft vegetable was going to save things, but I knew my mom used to add celery to her stews sometimes.

I watched the others eat for a moment.

There was something so satisfying about seeing people enjoying a meal you cooked. Sure, it would get old eventually and I'd just be a jaded chef like Lizbeth. But for the moment, I reveled in the feeling.

Even Duncan.

Slurping and smacking and making a thousand other disgusting noises.

I swear he never used to eat like this. It must have been for a show. But who was the show for? Mel and Berry? All it did was make him look like an uncultured ass.

"So. Duncan." I loaded up another spoonful of stew but didn't take a bite, just let it sit there cooling. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company."

"Mm. Right." He wiped at the corners of his mouth and then ran his hands down his pant leg. "Your first payment is due."

My brain choked on that statement. "I'm sorry, what?"

"First payment. Of our new arrangement. It's been a week."

"Like hell it has," I said, although my brain told me it had actually been at least eight or nine days.

"Over."

"It doesn't matter if its been a week or six, Duncan." Mel's tone was sharp, and it got progressively more high pitched as she spoke. "We aren't open yet. You can't possibly think he can pay you back right now!"

"That was the arrangement, pixie."

"Yeah, well, Harper didn't know how many issues we'd run into. We couldn't get the place inspected, there were supply issues, and more. You've backed him into a fucking corner."

Duncan said nothing at first. Instead, he picked up his bowl and tilted it back, slurping and drinking his remaining stew like it was a bit of well water. He paused to chew carefully on something that he might have choked on, but then resumed his noisy consumption.

Mel looked at me, confused, and all I could do was shrug.

Once Duncan was done he let out a ringing belch and lowered the bowl to the table. "Well. I'd say that was a lovely meal. Finished it before it lost too much durability, too. My compliments to the chef," he said, with a toothy smile.

"You're welcome?"

"But now, Harper, you need to make a decision. There are three choices. The first one, you pay me my hundred gold and we reset the clock another week. Two, you come with me to Kinon and we just forget this whole thing ever happened."

He stopped and looked at me as if expecting something. I knew what it was, but I didn't want to play this game. But he would just keep holding until someone did, as if he didn't fucking play this game every time.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "And what's option three, Duncan?" I asked in a monotone reserved for only the most boring of questions.

"Option three is we go out back and I beat a hundred gold worth of debt out of your hide." He grinned, wide, as if it was the funniest thing he'd ever said. "So, which option is it going to be, Harper?"