Swords, magic, and martial arts

The next morning, Rod was woken up by Baron to have breakfast.

Last night, he sat on his bed practicing Shenzhaogong for most of the night before finally going to sleep just before dawn. He had originally planned to sleep until noon and then have lunch.

He was woken up for breakfast just hours after he had gone to bed, which made him very uncomfortable.

After practicing the Divine Illumination Technique for most of the night, his total internal energy increased somewhat, and he felt an itchy sensation at the wound site, which should be a sign that the wound was about to heal.

The right hand, which was originally charred and numb, is now able to perform some simple activities.

Whether it was psychological or real, Rod felt that his physical condition had improved a bit after he had been working out intensely.

The all-night practice had produced so many beneficial effects, but now he couldn't even open his eyes, and he didn't even have the strength to stand up.

"Why did you wake me up so early?" Rod mumbled sleepily as he lay in bed.

"Of course I'm calling you to eat breakfast. You've suffered so many injuries, you need to eat more to heal faster. You've cut yourself so many times and lost so much blood, if you don't eat, do you even want to grow tall? I don't expect you to grow as tall as me, but at least you should be about the same height as Jon Snow..."

Rod ignored him and closed his eyes to continue sleeping.

I don't know why Baron is talking so much this morning. Could it be that they've been drinking since yesterday and he's acting drunk?

Rod closed his eyes and fell asleep again. When he woke up again, the setting sun shone through the window.

He heard someone snoring, so he sat up and looked around, only to find Baron fast asleep on the floor of the room.

There are many fireplaces throughout the castle, and even the floorboards have pipes for hot water, so you can clearly feel the warmth when you walk barefoot on the floor.

It seems my guess was right; he really did drink too much this morning.

Rod got out of bed and stood on the floor. He could clearly feel that the injury in his leg had healed a lot and was not as painful as it had been yesterday.

It seems that practicing the Divine Illumination Technique more often in the future will only bring benefits, with no downsides, except for making it hard to stay up late.

Just then, his stomach growled, and he prepared to go downstairs to find something to eat.

Rod glanced at Baron on the floor, recalling how Baron had woken him up that morning. He resisted the urge to kick him awake, covered him with the blanket, and went out.

He struggled down the stairs, holding onto the wall for support. Yesterday, Baron had carried him down. Now, injured, it was difficult for him to go down the stairs alone.

Upon arriving in the hall, he noticed that the long table was not laden with food as it had been the day before. He asked a male servant who was wiping the table where the kitchen was.

The servant told Rhodes that the kitchen hadn't started cooking yet. Rhodes asked him for directions to the kitchen, and after the servant told him, he limped toward the kitchen.

The kitchen was right next to the living room, so Rod didn't have to climb the stairs this time.

As he reached the kitchen door, he overheard the cook muttering, "The guests Lord Jon has invited this time have quite the appetite; they've almost finished all the meat in the castle, and there aren't many eggs left. Making bread for them requires sifting the flour so finely; even the Lord has rarely eaten bread made with such fine flour before..."

As Rod stood at the door, he heard the cooks inside being too embarrassed to go in and ask for food.

But he was really hungry; it had been almost a whole day since he last ate. He went into the kitchen.

The cook, who was kneading dough, stared at Rhodes curiously. "Who are you? Why have I never seen you in the castle before?"

Rod scratched his head with his left hand: "I'm one of the guests you mentioned who can eat a lot."

"Oh dear, what brings you, esteemed guest, to such a messy place as the kitchen?" the plump cook said with a smile.

"I'm a little hungry and want to see what we can eat in the kitchen," Rod said awkwardly.

"I'm really sorry, there's not much food in the kitchen, just some leftover bread from yesterday. If you want fresh bread, you'll have to wait a while, I'm still kneading the dough," the plump cook said with a smile as she kneaded the dough.

Rod looked around the kitchen but didn't see anything resembling a modern oven.

He asked curiously, "How do you bake your bread?"

"Isn't that simple?" the plump cook replied without looking up. "Put the dough next to the fire on the stove, cover it with a cloth, wait for it to rise, then take it out and knead it again, and then put it back in to bake."

Rod glanced at the stove covered in soot and felt a little uncomfortable. He had always thought the black stuff on bread was burnt, but it turned out to be stove ash.

Even nobles eat this kind of bread, so you can imagine what they ate in the tavern before.

This stove looks similar to an igloo used by the Inuit, with a chimney attached. One side of the stove has an opening like a door, through which firewood is put in, and bread is placed next to the firewood.

It was nothing like the earthen stove with a fire underneath and a pot on top that Rhodes had seen before his transmigration.

He observed the other kitchen utensils in the kitchen. Apart from the stove, the only thing he recognized was a large pot. He didn't know what the other odds and ends were for.

The large cooking pot is a ceramic pot that is similar in shape to a pressure cooker, suspended from a rope, with a stove underneath.

Rod stepped into the kitchen, feeling an urge to show off his culinary skills and let them experience the magic of the foodie nation.

He observed the ingredients in the kitchen and began to think about what dishes he could make.

There aren't many types of ingredients, and even fewer seasonings. It's quite difficult to make a good dish with just these things.

"Besides these ingredients, is there anything else?" Rod asked.

"There are still some in the cellar. Why are you asking about these?" the plump cook asked.

"I'd like to cook a meal myself," Rod replied.

The plump cook looked up at him warily. "What exactly do you want?"

Rod noticed the plump cook looking at him like that and found it strange. He wondered if she was afraid he would poison the food or if she didn't trust his cooking skills.

Or perhaps she thinks I think her cooking is bad, so she wants to cook for herself?

"I don't mean anything by it, just take me to the cellar to have a look," Rhodes said.

"Then I want to watch you cook the whole time," the plump cook said, wiping her hands on her apron before leading Rod down to the cellar.

Rod, supporting himself against the wall, descended a long flight of stairs and reached the cellar.

The temperature inside the cellar was about the same as outside the castle, both below zero. He was dressed very lightly inside the castle, and suddenly being in such a cold place made him very uncomfortable.

This temperature had no effect on the plump cook, who was also wearing only a single layer of clothing.

It seems there are advantages to being fat.

The cellar contained a considerable amount of food, but it was not the main warehouse for the entire fief, so the amount of food stored was limited.

Rod took half a pig and half a sack of stale rice from the cellar and carried them back to the kitchen with the fat cook.

He decided to make braised pork, braised spare ribs, and fried rice with eggs.

To make meat taste good, you need spices like ginger and star anise to mask the pork's gamey smell.

Rod couldn't find these in the kitchen, but he did have spices with similar functions.

The most crucial problem now is that there is no soy sauce in the world, so Rod decided to try what it tastes like without soy sauce.

There are ingredients in this world that can be used to make soy sauce. He had also learned how to brew it before, and he hopes that one day he will have the opportunity to bring this magical condiment, soy sauce, to the world.

Cutting meat is hard work, especially meat with bones. Since his injury hadn't fully healed, the task of cutting meat was handed over to the plump cook.

The plump cook was also a fairly professional butcher. She picked up the bone-cutting knife and, like a master butcher, neatly cut up each part of the half-pig.

While she was cutting the meat, Rod used the large pot to cook the bag of stale rice first.

Then, boil water in a large pot and put the chopped premium pork belly in to boil out the blood and remove the fishy smell.

He then found a pan that was barely big enough to make fried rice and used it to make egg fried rice. He found a clean piece of wood, washed it, and then used a dagger to roughly shape the spatula.

Fried rice requires drier rice, so he deliberately added less water when cooking it. Cooking in a large pot resulted in rice with a lot of crispy bits at the bottom, making it even more fragrant. However, it took a long time, so he ate a piece of bread that the plump cook had just baked to fill his stomach.

The eggs here are all traditional free-range eggs; the chickens grow up eating insects. Even without Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, the fried rice made by the master egg-fried rice chef smells incredibly delicious. The plump cook had never seen such food before, and she kept swallowing her saliva.

That bag of stale rice was a specialty gift from a merchant from the Kingdom of Fish to the former lord. Because the plump cook didn't know how to cook it, it had been stored in the cellar for months. Just now, she had been intently watching Rhodes prepare it, almost taking notes in a small notebook.

The salt in the castle is refined sea salt from the Kingdom of Fish, unlike the unprocessed mineral salt that Rhodes had been eating before.

The meat in the large pot was taken out after it released a little water, then it was stir-fried briefly in oil, seasonings were added, and the pot was covered and simmered.

If you don't have rock sugar in braised pork, add honey; if you don't have cooking wine, pour in some fine ale.

I wonder if this braised pork can be considered the king of culinary disasters.

The ribs had been simmering in the large pot, and now that they were out, Rod realized that without soy sauce, he couldn't make any braised dishes.

So he took another pot, put some fatty meat in it to render the lard, then took out the fatty meat, put the ribs in to fry, and after frying them until golden brown, he poured out most of the oil, then added water and seasonings, covered the pot and simmered for a while.

He used to add Sichuan peppercorns when cooking ribs, as he loved the numbing sensation they provided, but he hasn't found a substitute yet. However, the world is so vast; he'll surely find Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers in the future.

By this time, the water in the braised pork had almost boiled away, and the kitchen was filled with a wonderful aroma. Even with the addition of some honey, it still smelled delicious.

Then I took a clean plate and put the braised pork in it. I took a piece with a fork to taste it. It tasted okay. It would be perfect if it had rock sugar and soy sauce. The spices I added were even better at removing the fishy smell than ginger. The meat tasted fragrant and not fishy at all.

The pork ribs were almost done stewing. As soon as the lid was opened, a meaty aroma filled the air, making Rod's mouth water.

The plump cook tentatively asked Rod, "May I have a piece?"

Rod immediately nodded in agreement; delicious food, especially what you make yourself, should of course be shared.

The plump cook ate a piece of braised pork and felt unsatisfied, her eyes fixed on it. Since it wasn't served with soy sauce, it should be called braised pork with white sauce.

"The taste is very good, but you're making too much oil and smoke when you cook," the plump cook commented.

Rod knew that Chinese cooking produces a lot of oil fumes, and that in this world, without range hoods, chimneys alone are far from enough.

After receiving approval from the plump cook, Rod decided to call Baron and the others to share the meal together.

The plump cook called the servants to place the dishes Rod had prepared on the long table in the hall, and then she grilled sausages and fried bacon herself.

It took Rhodes almost two hours to cook. After he finished, he went to the toilet. There was no toilet inside the castle; the toilet was in the open area surrounded by the castle.

His old clothes were so tattered and unwearable that they were taken by the servants who had taken care of him in the castle and burned as firewood.

He borrowed a piece of clothing from the housekeeper and then ran outside to use the restroom.

When he returned to the castle hall, he found that Baron and the others were already sitting at the table eating, and the food he had worked so hard to make had been almost completely eaten.

"You're back," Baron said. "Sit down and eat. The food in the castle is delicious today. I've never had anything this good before. Nobles really know how to enjoy life."

"I've never eaten this before. If I had known the food at home was so delicious, why did I ever go out? I should have stayed home and freeloaded. That way, my brother wouldn't have met with such a disaster," Jon said between bites.

Rod hesitated whether to tell them that he actually did it. If he told them, what would he do if they made him cook every day? Cooking is so tiring.

"Why didn't you serve it on separate plates today?" Rod asked.

"There's no need. It doesn't matter whether we split up or not. I don't mind either of you," Jon said.

"It's because you ate too fast and thought dividing the food into plates was a waste of your time," Hammer mocked.

"Haha, it's clearly you," Jon laughed. "I think these eggs and this stuff taste really good together, it's just a bit too little. Matthew, ask Jenny to make some more for us."

The butler nodded and walked towards the kitchen.

Matthew is the name of the castle's butler, and Jenny is the name of the plump cook.

Soon, the plump cook Jenny came into the hall and said to Jon, "Sir, I didn't make these. I only grilled sausages and fried bacon today. This fried rice was made by that gentleman; I haven't learned how to make it yet." Jenny pointed to Rhodes.

Rod told Jenny the name of the fried rice, so she knew the name of the dish.

"Why don't you just stay here and be my cook instead of going on adventures with your uncle? You'll earn way more money than going on adventures with him," Jon said to Rhodes.

……