61: Fully staffed (thank you for your recommendation and monthly tickets)

Airo smelled the stench of rotten salted fish early in the morning.

She stopped, lowered her voice, and warned the two people beside her, "We're being watched."

Old Joe glanced around nervously.

They had just left the spice shop a short while ago, having purchased a good amount of goods at a very reasonable price.

They were now in the middle of a deserted alley.

With no one around, it was the perfect time for a robbery.

The alchemist quickly turned the donkey cart, wanting to return to the main street, but it was already too late.

Two stalkers blocked their retreat, and three more appeared from the front.

The girl they had chased away earlier now stood with one hand on her hip, her face full of rage.

She pointed at Airo and her group, yelling, "It's them! These two bitches ruined my plans!"

Clearly, this was a professional fraud gang.

They typically used pretty girls to extort money from impressionable youths, or set up honey traps to ensnare lustful men.

Airo had seen too many such gangs.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Old Joe cried out in a panic, his hand, however, quietly reaching for his waist.

Catherine also drew her dagger, saying guiltily, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have interfered."

Only Airo curled her lips, her knuckles cracking, "Five against three, I like those odds!"

Jessica counted the number of people; including the enraged veterans, there were exactly forty.

Considering his status as Amn's number one most wanted criminal, traveling with everyone would be too conspicuous.

So, he had Bruce lead the group to the small building, while he chose another route to return.

When Jessica returned to the small building, he immediately saw six children standing in the front yard.

He asked Drax, who was watching the children, "Is the lord in?"

The orc pointed at the small building and said, "In the kitchen. He said he wanted to cook himself."

Jessica looked at the children again, thanked Drax, and then quickly walked into the house.

He followed the scent of stewed meat all the way to the kitchen.

He saw Arthur and Vanka busy in the kitchen.

"Remember, Vanka, the meat needs to be blanched so it doesn't have a gamey smell.

Onions aren't for eating raw, and apples shouldn't be stewed!"

In the month since he transmigrated, Arthur had almost been driven mad by the world's strange eating habits.

Now that he finally had some free time, he could prepare a meal to his liking.

The little maid who had rushed from the castle to deliver news was also roped in as a temporary kitchen assistant.

In Arthur's vision, once Vanka learned to read and write, and then learned to cook.

Then he would be able to live a life where everything was handed to him.

"Ah, Jessica, perfect timing, have a seat. The stew is almost ready, we can eat together."

Jessica thanked him and sat down at the small table in the kitchen.

"My lord, I've recruited some people, all of whom used to follow me."

Arthur handed the frying pan to Vanka to watch, then turned and said, "How many people?"

"Forty people."

"That many?"

This number far exceeded Arthur's expectations.

He had originally thought Jessica could recruit at most twenty people.

He quickly pressed on, "How many combat personnel are there?"

"Eight, all enraged veterans who have been through life and death with me. They are absolutely loyal, I can guarantee that."

"Good, good." Arthur was overjoyed to hear this. "With this, the numbers are almost complete, my pioneer group is pretty much established!"

Jessica's eyes lit up, and he asked, "My lord, have you decided to accept them? Do you not need to observe them further?"

Arthur waved his hand and said decisively, "No, I trust you.

But let me make things clear first: one, I don't keep idlers here; two, no causing trouble; and three, there are no distinctions of rank, status, or race.

We have only one goal: to establish ourselves in Qingfeng Valley and survive."

Jessica stood up and bowed solemnly to Arthur: "You can rest assured, I will definitely keep them in line."

"Very good. Go call Drax and the six children outside to come eat. Remember to tell them to wash their hands."

After Jessica left, Arthur returned to the stove, "Add a little salt, and this fish can come out of the pot. Get the utensils out."

Vanka agreed while sprinkling salt on the fish.

After serving the fish, she first poured Arthur a glass of wine, then began to set the table.

It had to be said, Vanka was very clever, quick to learn, efficient in her work, and very perceptive.

Arthur couldn't help but feel that buying her for seven silver coins was truly a bargain.

Thinking about so many people accompanying him to that godforsaken place, Qingfeng Valley, his heart felt much more at ease.

Now he needed to figure out how to convince Godwin to accept all of this.

Arthur could imagine that his chief strategist would surely be furious when he returned and saw this scene.

Due to the kitchen being too crowded, Arthur had to change the dining location to the dining room.

The six children ate the stewed meat, fried fish, and bread ravenously, completely disregarding dining etiquette.

In contrast, Jessica was much more refined, but Arthur could see his fondness for the pot of stewed meat.

When Arthur mentioned that it was a broth made from potatoes, onions, and pork.

Jessica couldn't help but praise it, calling it the best pork he had ever eaten.

This wasn't to blame him for his lack of experience.

It was just that according to the quacks and alchemists, birds flying in the sky were the most noble meat.

Because they were closest to the gods, followed by aquatic creatures, with land animals ranking last.

Pigs, being the lowest-tier land animals, thus became the most commonly consumed meat among the lower classes.

This led to noble and powerful chefs disdaining to cook pork, resulting in very few ways to prepare it.

The most common ways to prepare pork were salting it or making it into sausages.

As for the taste, well, it couldn't be called unsatisfactory, but it was certainly hard to swallow.

Arthur believed that if soy sauce existed in this world, he could make that pot of stew even better.

After the meal, Arthur said to Jessica, "These six children are entrusted to you for training."

Jessica didn't ask further and readily agreed.

During dinner, Arthur had noticed that this seasoned warrior had been observing the children.

He was like a wild beast whose territory had been invaded, cautiously observing these young cubs.

And the children were also observing him, no, they were observing everything.

Upon returning to the small building, Arthur had Drax unlock the shackles on the children.

Sure enough, someone quickly tried to escape; it was the boy numbered Six.

He was caught by the orc as soon as he made a move.

But then the other children also ran out.

Number Twenty-seven was very clever, trying to climb over the wall, but he was knocked to the ground by Arthur with a stick.

The others rushed towards the door, but the orc was faster than them, catching them one by one like an eagle snatching chicks.

This scene played out three times, and each of the children's escape plans, without exception, ended in failure.

What was surprising was that in the last escape attempt, they changed their strategy.

Five boys tried their best to hold back Drax, so that the youngest girl could escape.

Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes.

When the girl opened the door, she happened to crash into Vanka, who was coming to deliver a message. Both fell to the ground, and the escape plan failed again.

After multiple failures, these restless young cubs finally grew tired.

They chose to stand quietly in the front yard, waiting for dinner.

"You need to keep a close eye on them, Jessica," Drax reminded him. "They run very fast."

Jessica laughed. He first asked Arthur if he could deal with these children.

After receiving Arthur's consent, he said to the children, "I'll give you a chance: fight me.

If I lose, you can leave; if I win, you will swear allegiance to this lord."

The children were startled at first, then discussed in a language that others couldn't understand.

Finally, the boy numbered Six asked in the common tongue, "All six of us against just you?"

Jessica nodded.

After a heated discussion, the children agreed to the contest.

Airo skillfully searched the thug for a money pouch and tossed it to the dwarf.

Then she turned her gaze to the girl who was slumped to the side, trembling with fear.

Seeing the girl's incontinence due to fear, Airo ultimately decided to let her go.

In the recent conflict, she had killed three of them.

Another one was left for Catherine and Old Joe to handle.

Airo had underestimated the abilities of her two companions.

By the time she freed up her hands to help, that thug had already been dealt with.

She walked towards Catherine, saw her swollen cheek, and said, "That'll take a while to go down."

Catherine exhaled, shaking her head and laughing, "You should see the guy who hit me."

"I saw him."

Airo glanced at the burly man lying on the ground, a dagger plunged into his liver.

His cause of death was not hard to guess: massive hemorrhage after liver rupture.

"First time?" Airo asked.

Catherine nodded, her hands still trembling.

"You're getting the hang of it, young lady."

The two women smiled at each other.

Only Old Joe rolled his eyes, muttering, "Ah, two madwomen."

The personnel recruited by Jessica arrived one after another.

To avoid being questioned by the patrol guards, these displaced people, after leaving the slum, dispersed and arrived as family units.

The enraged veterans each escorted a family to prevent any accidents along the way.

For a time, the small building was crowded with people, but fortunately, with Bruce's command, everyone quickly settled down.

The displaced people rested in the front and back yards, preparing to head to the dock warehouse after eating.

According to Jessica's plan, they would camp near the warehouse until the day of departure.

Jessica introduced Bruce to Arthur, and after a brief conversation.

Arthur gestured to Bruce that the kitchen ingredients could be used freely.

Any missing items should be listed.

After finishing his immediate tasks, Jessica began to fulfill his agreement with the six children.

This battle attracted many spectators, especially the enraged veterans.

They even lent their weapons to the children.

The battle quickly began, as the six young cubs, wielding ill-fitting weapons, charged at Jessica.

Their attacks were disorganized, and they lacked coordination with each other.

The outcome of the battle was almost without suspense.

In just a few minutes, Jessica ended the first round of fighting.

But he didn't call a halt; instead, he told the children to pick up their weapons again and continue attacking.

The second round of fighting began.

Drax, standing beside Arthur, mused thoughtfully, "The best way to tame a wild beast is to let it know who's boss."

This was exactly what Jessica was doing at the moment.

He wanted to completely subdue these little brats, to wear down their wildness.

Then reshape this wildness, making it controllable.

His father had once refined him in this very way.

From the first time he saw these children, Jessica sensed something similar to himself in them.

The battle ended once again.

This one-sided situation quickly made the onlookers lose interest.

"Quite lively," Airo appeared behind Arthur at some point. "Don't be nervous, big guy, it's me."

The orc, hearing this, loosened his grip on his axe.

Arthur turned to the female rogue and asked, "Was the procurement smooth?"

"Very good, we even made a small profit," Airo replied. "These people?"

"All recruited by Jessica."

Airo looked at the enraged veterans who were whistling and making strange noises.

After observing for a moment, he whispered, "These people are good, all veterans.

What's with those children?"

"Chult slaves," Arthur explained. "I plan to have Jessica train them into competent warriors."

"I never thought you'd assemble such a team in just one day," Airo sighed.

"Neither did I."

As the two conversed, Jessica knocked down the children once again.

Multiple battles had already left the children showing signs of fatigue, but they seemed to have no intention of giving up.

A new round of fighting quickly began.

However, this time, the six children clearly changed their tactics.

It should be said, they changed their target.

The boy numbered Six seized an oversight by Jessica.

If he had attacked as before, he most likely wouldn't have succeeded.

So, he bypassed his target and quickly charged towards Arthur.

As he took two steps, Airo's hand crossbow was already aimed at him.

On his third step, he saw the orc's battle axe cleaving down.

On his fourth step, Jessica had already dealt with the other five and turned to stab his short sword into Six's back.

At this point, Six was still seven steps away from Arthur.

The instinct for survival made the child stop and drop the short sword in his hand.

All the weapons aimed at him also stopped instantly.

At the same time, a beam of light descended from the sky.

The dazzling, scorching white light burned a pitch-black pit in the ground next to the boy.

Gasps of surprise erupted from the crowd.

Everyone's attention was first drawn to the audacious Six.

Then it shifted to Airo, Drax, and Jessica, who blocked him.

Finally, all eyes focused on that pure beam of light.

"It's divine magic!" someone in the crowd shouted.

"It's the magic of the gods!" another voice rang out.

The crowd immediately became agitated, many even kneeling on the spot.

Even the enraged veterans looked towards their new leader.

Arthur had merely cast a Holy Fire spell, unexpectedly drawing so much attention.

He realized he should leave for a while.

So, he stepped out from behind Drax and Airo, picked up the short sword, and walked directly to the boy, returning the short sword to him.

"If you want to kill me," he said, "then learn well."

With that, he turned and left.

Jessica angrily hauled the child back.

This time, the boy did not resist; he merely stared at the receding figure.

Bruce and the other soldiers stepped forward to confiscate the children's weapons.

He walked to his old friend's side and whispered, "Now I understand why you said he was different.

He's not just a noble; he's also a priest who can use divine magic."

Jessica, however, shook his head and replied, "You're wrong, my friend.

What makes this lord different isn't his magic."