He set the wide pasta bowl and the small side bowl of curry together on a serving plank.
He basically repeated that exact same plating process five times. He picked up one of the finished planks and looked down at Aria.
"Take this one and go hand it to the carriage driver," he told her with a smile.
Aria nodded immediately.
She grabbed the wooden tray and carefully walked over to the older man sitting quietly at the front of their parked carriage.
While she was gone Adrian looked back at Claire and Serena.
"So," he smiled. "What do you guys think? Isn’t cooking kinda fun?"
"It was actually just really stressful." Claire answered with a completely deadpan look.
Adrian frowned. "What do you mean stressful?"
"Well," Claire muttered. She crossed her arms. "I just kept grabbing small bites of rice from the pot every few minutes to make sure it didn’t get mushy or stay raw. That was the only way I could cook the thing without messing it up."
Adrian just chuckled.
"Okay. But just tasting food while you cook isn’t exactly stressful now is it?"
"Well I really didn’t want to disappoint you..." Claire said slowly. "So it was pretty damn stressful for me."
Adrian just shook his head.
"Hey, everyone learns at their own pace," he told her gently. "You don’t need to take it so seriously."
Claire stayed totally quiet after that.
’Well I actually wanted to impress you.’ she thought bitterly to herself. ’But at least you actually liked what I made so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much.’
She still looked a little bit annoyed but Adrian didn’t even pick up on the sudden shift in her mood. He just turned his attention over to Serena.
"You finished your steaks a lot faster than Aria or Claire," Adrian pointed out. "Weren’t you afraid you might accidentally mess one of them up by rushing?"
"Well I really just did my best," Serena replied while staring down at her own food. "And I felt like I actually followed all your instructions perfectly. So I decided to just pull them off the fire and leave them alone. I didn’t want to accidentally overcook them by second-guessing my own timing."
She let out a heavy breath.
"But I do totally agree with Claire," Serena added. "It was super stressful. While I was actively cooking the meat I completely forgot about everything else happening around me so that part was totally fine. But the real problem was what happened right after I finished. Just standing there and waiting... I honestly couldn’t help but panic about how it would actually turn out in the end."
Adrian just smiled.
"Well this was really just a casual practice competition," he told them. "I actually plan on hosting a proper massive cooking tournament in Oresfall in a few months. Basically whenever my schedule finally clears up and I don’t have too many political headaches to deal with. I’ll host a big one right in the middle of town."
He crossed his arms over his chest.
"And I’ll invite people from all over the empire just to see if there’s anyone out there who can actually cook really well," he added. "And maybe I can just hire the winner to be my own personal head chef."
Claire nodded in approval.
"Does that mean we might get a really good chef who can actually make all the crazy stuff you do?" Serena asked eagerly. "Because honestly speaking I’ve never tasted anything even close to the food you make anywhere else in the empire."
"Well I’ll definitely teach the winner what I know," Adrian agreed. "Let’s just hope they’re a fast learner. We’ll see how it goes."
The two women nodded.
Aria came jogging back over to the campfire right at that moment. She looked down at her tray of food on the table and noticed nobody had eaten anything yet.
Then she looked at the other three plates. They were completely untouched too.
She looked up at Adrian.
"What are you guys waiting for?" she asked in total confusion.
"Obviously we were waiting for you."
Adrian smiled and pulled a large carpet out from his storage. He rolled it out over the dirt.
"I wanted to eat my first bite with my cute daughter," he told her.
He reached out to ruffle her hair again.
Aria quickly grabbed his hand to stop him. She pulled him a little closer and quickly pressed a soft peck against his cheek. Then she immediately looked away and acted like she didn’t do anything at all.
Adrian just chuckled before leaning down to kiss her right on the forehead. He gave her cheek a playful pinch right after.
"Why are you being so adorable all of a sudden?" he laughed.
Aria looked up at him and stuck her tongue out.
She quickly grabbed her food and sat down on the carpet before digging straight in.
She took her spoon and scooped up a massive pile of rice along with a thick strip of beef totally dripping in curry. She shoved the whole thing right into her mouth.
It was basically the perfect combination and she slowly chewed on it while Adrian watched her reaction.
Soon enough her eyes shot wide open.
She looked back at Adrian and started chewing really fast.
"Papa, this is super good."
Adrian nodded.
"Well it’s the stuff you guys made so you should definitely be proud of yourselves."
He looked over at Claire and Serena. The two girls just smiled as they stared down at their own bowls before they started eating too. Adrian finally dug into his own food and the four of them just sat around eating and chatting.
After they finished their meals they piled back into the carriage and the driver got them moving again.
A few days went by.
Adrian looked out the window when the carriage finally rolled to a stop.
He was in a very familiar place. It was none other than Oresfall and the very first thing he saw was literally just his own mansion sitting right beside the parked carriage.
He stepped out and looked around.
The place was way more developed now since it had been almost a year or maybe a little longer since he left. He could see that there were multiple new apartment complexes built up and the roads were pretty well paved with smooth stones.
Though there was one thing that caught his attention even more.