Rising from her seat, Victoria shook hands with Manager Joyce after concluding her fifth deal of the day.
Victoria had toured many different vineyards around Crystal Lake, striking bargains to purchase sour salt, or cream of tartar as Lucas called it, from the local wineries.
To an outside observer, and even to the vineyard managers, Victoria’s high-priced acquisition of this seemingly useless waste product was... well, a waste.
Victoria, however, knew better.
Unlike her new business partners who had no idea what the white residue was used for, Victoria had been taught by Lucas exactly how valuable it was.
Putting it simply, it was a food stabilizing agent, one that helped keep whipped egg whites fluffy when used in cooking. Cream of tartar was also one of the critical components in sothing Lucas called baking powder, which was supposedly an ingredient that could rapidly levin cakes and other baked goods.
Had Victoria been told this before that fateful banquet in Iron Rock, she would probably not understand what was so important about this; after all, as a true noble daughter, she had barely stepped foot inside a kitchen, much less cooked or baked anything for herself.
After having a piece of Lucas’ sponge cake though, she saw things differently.
Even now, almost half-a-month later, Victoria Moore could still clearly rember that first bite of sponge cake. It was like she was biting into a fluffy piece of Heaven, one that lted in her mouth and filled her with delight.
There was nothing Victoria could compare it to; no dessert she had ever tasted at any banquet, even ones held in the Royal Capital, could even co close.
After that first bite, Victoria’s mories beca a bit fuzzy, like she was lost in a euphoric fog. All she knew was that before long, the small piece of cake on her plate had disappeared, leaving her longing for more.
If soone had offered to sell her their piece of cake that night for 10 Gold Coins, Victoria would have agreed in a heartbeat and still considered it a bargain, but that was simply impossible.
Everyone in the banquet hall, from the lowest ranking stewards, to old Great Elder Tobias Drax himself, had guarded their piece of sponge cake like a rare treasure, each and every one of them savouring the delectable dessert with absolutely no intention of sharing.
When Lucas, Celestina, and the rest had returned from dealing with the arrival of Frey and Bron’s Snow Spirit Fox pack, Victoria had swiftly t up with her new boss and asked him if there was any more sponge cake left, earning her a few strange looks and several bouts of laugher.
Even Victoria felt like she was acting quite disappointingly and shalessly, but if it ant she could have more of that incredible dessert, she didn’t mind.
She had already agreed to step down from her position as a powerful Viscount and beco an employee of a 10-year-old boy, so what did it matter if she asked her new boss for a small advance in paynt?
To her great delight, Lucas invited her back to the guest villa he was staying at and allowed her to join the ’after-party’ being held there, were several large pieces of sponge-cake had been carefully stashed away.
As she was helping herself to her third piece of cake that night, Lucas had ntioned to Victoria about how this sweet revelation was actually just a semi-finished product, and that he needed a few other ingredients and pieces of equipnt to perfect it.
Cream of tartar was one such ingredient.
Gathering enough of the white powder these wineries were just throwing away was a critical step in her being able to have as much sponge cake, and other light, airy confectionaries, as she wanted, so Victoria’s enthusiasm for this task was naturally quite high.
On her advice, Lucas had also authorized Victoria to use extra resources to bribe the winery managers so they would keep the sale of cream of tartar a secret, preventing others from discovering the usefulness of this product for as long as possible.
With his own private supply of sugar, flour, eggs, milk, butter, and now cream of tartar, Victoria was certain that if Lucas opened a chain of bakeries in the Rockwell Kingdom’s major cities and started selling sponge cake, he would be swimming in orders from the nobles and wealthy, all of whom would literally be throwing money at him to have his desserts featured at their own banquets.
In any case, Victoria had gone out determined to succeed in her mission today, and she had done just that, even managing to purchase a small amount of cream of tartar from one of the wineries she had visited in the process.
It was only about 200 grams of the white powder, and Victoria didn’t know just how much Lucas would need to bake a more-perfect sponge cake, but the young forr Viscount was eager to find out.
Hopping back into her rented carriage with a slight spring in her step, Victoria made her way back into the city.
The traffic in Crystal Lake was naturally much heavier than in the open fields surrounding the city, so it took nearly half-an-hour for Victoria’s carriage to reach the Radiant Gem Inn where her boss and the rest of his group planned to stay for the night.
Radiant Gem Inn was the highest-class hotel in Crystal Lake and offered the best available accommodations to those who could afford their sky-high prices.
Naturally, Lucas’ group counted among such people.
Of course, had they wanted to, Lucas could have easily gotten a private villa at the City Lord Manor’s by simply showing up at the gates and asking, but that would have also ant dealing with the local Lord and all the fanfare and politics that entailed.
Treating this trip more as a vacation than a work venture, Lucas and his group had opted to avoid contact with the local nobility as much as possible, resulting in them choosing to stay at a hotel instead.
Victoria whole-heartedly agreed with this sentint.
When she was the Matriarch of a rising Viscount-Rank Family, Victoria had to spend almost every day dealing with nobles, a task she had grown to despise despite being a noble herself.
If her new boss wanted to lay low and not draw attention to himself, then Victoria, as a faithful manager, would do her best to support Lucas in his efforts.
With that thought in mind, Victoria confidently walked into the lobby of the Radiant Gem Inn and was imdiately greeted by the sight of her young boss and several other mbers of their group from the ship.
Victoria was just about to call out to Lucas when she noticed the look of exasperation on his face.
Raising her brow, Victoria glanced over in the direction her boss was looking and soon understood what was stressing him out.
3 young n, all about 20 years old and sowhere around the top of the Vein Opening Realm, were sprawled out on the floor of the lobby, each of them groaning in pain as blood dripped down their faces.
Standing nearby was Tina, her face a mask of cold composure and her clenched fist still outstretched.
Eris was a few steps away from the chaos, comforting an unfamiliar little boy and girl with her one good arm while occasionally glaring with disgust at the fallen young n.
All around, other guests where whispering to each other while pointing at the unusual scene.
Had Lucas, Eris, and Tina been ordinary children, Victoria would have imdiately charged forward to intervene, but there was nothing ’ordinary’ about these 3, so instead, she hung back, perked up her ears, and tried to gain so more information first.
From the bits and pieces of conversation she was able to hear, Victoria learned that the 3 young n, who had clearly been beaten up by Tina, were famous figures in Crystal Lake. Each one of them had strong backgrounds which allowed them to act like little tyrants and not face any real consequences.
Extortion, harassnt, and causing general chaos were a common thing for these 3 young n, but it seed they still had so limits as no one among the gathered guests in the hotel lobby ntioned anything about ’darker’ cris like kidnapping, rape, or murder.
Within seconds, Victoria already had a fairly good idea about what happened.
3 spoiled young masters had been picking on the 2 children Eris was currently sheltering, then sohow Lucas’ trio had gotten involved, ultimately leading to an exchange of fists.
Realizing what was going on, Victoria let out a sigh and shook her head.
These 3 wannabe tyrants had chosen the wrong people to pick a fight with.
Even if she didn’t consider Tina’s true identity, sothing Victoria had only recently co to learn, she didn’t have any doubt that Lucas would be able to settle this situation with relative ease.
As for the prospect of things turning violent; or rather, more violent, if these 3 young n tried to escalate the situation further, Victoria could only offer a silent prayer that they would be blessed with more intelligence in their next life.
These 3 spoiled Vein Opening Realm young masters were totally outclassed.
An unknown young girl being able to effortlessly take down 3 young n was a shocking sight to the crowd, but not to Victoria who was well aware that even she wasn’t a match for Princess Christina in one-on-one combat.
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