One of Kai’s favorite desserts is tiramisu. Maybe it’s because he loves coffee, so he naturally loves tiramisu as well.

Since he has a supermarket system that connects him to various stores around the world, he can buy tiramisu from different countries. They’re pretty similar, but of course there are differences in flavor because the ingredients are different too. But whether it’s tiramisu from Japan, South Korea, or Europe... Kai loves them all. Well, even though there are some he can’t eat because they contain rum.

Eating tiramisu in the morning, while sitting on the pavilion’s balcony and watching the swans swim gracefully, accompanied by a gentle breeze blowing softly.

The fog still looked quite thick in the forest, indicating it was still too early for anyone to be active.

While eating tiramisu and enjoying a warm cappuccino, Kai was thinking: why does there have to be a forest around the pavilion? What if part of the forest were cleared, so it wouldn’t be so eerie? Instead, it could be planted with more useful plants. For example, fruit trees, or it could be turned into a garden full of flowers.

Kai knew that there used to be no forest around the pavilion except behind it. This was evident from a rough sketch of the pavilion from when Hendry was still a child. Back then, between the main castle and the pavilion, there was a beautiful expanse of flower gardens. He didn’t know what had happened since then to turn it into such a dense forest.

"Young master, Lady Jessica would like to speak with you."

Kai snapped out of his random morning thoughts. When he turned his head, Jessica was already sitting next to him, gazing off into the distance as well.

"I came this early because I want to discuss the business proposal you submitted. I’m one hundred percent on board, but you know I’ll be selling within the empire’s territory, right? There, I’ll be starting from scratch—just an ordinary noblewoman launching a business. I think I really need to challenge myself so I don’t fall too far behind you. My goals and my mother’s are clearly different, Kaileon—don’t you know that yet? My goal is to leave here and gain experience in a new place. Meanwhile, my mother intends to make me the crown prince’s bride in the empire. I don’t like that prince—I’ve never even seen him. I’m sticking to my plan to focus on business. Can you give me some tips on running a business?"

Kai handed her a slice of tiramisu he hadn’t touched at all, then bought Jessica a drink she’d like: palm sugar coffee with creamy milk.

"Have some of this, Jessica."

"Thank you."

Jessica accepted it without asking too many questions, just like the first time. Since there was no point in Jessica antagonizing Kaileon—and she wasn’t as ambitious as her mother—as long as Kaileon had whatever she needed, she would consider him a mutually beneficial friend.

"Actually, Jessica, I don’t really understand business either. I just do it as I go. All I know is that I need to find good employees, then train them in the norms and manners expected in society. Teach them how to greet guests properly, teach them how to take care of themselves, because little things like that are very important. You wouldn’t like it if you walked into a store only to find that the staff had body odor..."

Jessica’s jaw dropped at that, because Kaileon knew full well that Jessica really didn’t like it when employees were rude or had body odor. Jessica would choose to leave and never go back to that store again.

"You know all about that, even though you’ve never shopped at anyone else’s store?" Jessica asked.

Kai just chuckled in response. It was true that in this new world, he’d never gone to any store other than his own. But back on Earth, Kai had had plenty of bad experiences while visiting stores or malls.

"One thing’s for sure, Jessica: use those bad experiences as a benchmark for hiring quality staff. Make your customers—or potential customers—feel comfortable; only then should we think about the quality of the products we sell, or other factors. Once all that’s taken care of, then we can focus on effective sales strategies. Recently, I implemented a marketing tactic that’s been quite successful. I demonstrated how to cook a certain dish, and afterward, my staff sold a package containing the ingredients and spices I used. Of course, you can’t do that exactly when selling clothes, but there’s a similar approach for that," said Kaileon.

"Oh, I didn’t expect you to be so smart—tell me right away what method you’re talking about!"

Kaileon held out his hand, then said with a broad smile.

"Three large gold coins for valuable information, because you won’t find marketing tricks from anyone but me."

Jessica furrowed her brow, annoyed by Kaileon’s words, but she knew he might be right.

"I’ll give you five coins and you can tell me everything, but remember not to tell anyone else."

"Don’t worry, I’ll only tell people who work with me, like you."

Jessica nodded, "All right, now tell me everything I need to do—I’ll write it all down."

***

A small part of Jessica’s problem had been resolved. So Kai had to face another problem this afternoon: rebuilding the orphanage.

It took Kai longer than he’d expected to explain to Pablo and his team how to rebuild the orphanage.

This time, the team had grown larger, so there were new people who didn’t quite understand yet. However, Pablo was a man capable of rephrasing Kai’s intentions in simpler terms.

After everything was finished, Kai—who was supposed to be resting—was invited by the children at the orphanage to go to the forest.

The forest behind the orphanage did indeed have several tall, large teak trees, as well as other even taller trees. In addition to these trees, there were also various wild plants, such as daisies, edelweiss, and dandelions. There were also herbs and other plants that were very familiar to Kai, namely ferns.

"Have any of you ever eaten this plant? It’s called a fern," asked Kai as he picked a young, edible fern frond.

"But that’s a wild plant..." replied one of the girls.

"Some wild plants are edible," Kai replied.

"Well then, try cooking it!" another child said enthusiastically.

Hearing that Kai had to cook, the other children got excited.

"What about these plants? They’re wild too, and there are plenty of them over there," another child pointed out, showing green and red spinach.

Kai was happy to see the spinach.

"I forgot that spinach can grow wild. This is edible too, and it’s easy to cook. "Do you guys want me to teach you how to cook?" Kai asked.

They cheered enthusiastically.

After that, Kai bought a long, fairly large folding table; he also bought a portable stove, then took out a pan from the system storage.

System storage is a space that can be purchased at various prices. The larger it is, the more expensive it is. It can be used to store inanimate objects or to preserve food so it stays fresh. When the stored food is taken out again, its quality remains the same as when it was first stored.

Kai also took out some simple seasonings like garlic, shallots, galangal, powdered mushroom broth, salt, and pepper.

The children watched as Kai cooked—it looked very easy. Kai stir-fried young ferns, while the spinach was made into a clear soup.

Once the food was served on small plates, they ate together while enjoying the cozy atmosphere by the forest edge.

Since they were on slightly elevated ground, they could see the orphanage and the locals’ simple homes from where they stood.

Amid this peaceful atmosphere, a loud scream suddenly rang out from two boys.

"HELP!! THERE’S A BLACK FIRE COW!" shouted the two boys as they ran frantically.

"Oh no! How could that monster be here?" said one of the boys in a panic.

"Wait, what’s a black fire cow?" asked Kai, confused.

"It’s a monster that’s supposed to be deep in the forest; they can shoot fire from their bodies, and their skin is indeed black."

Kai couldn’t imagine a cow-like monster; when he heard "black cow," he pictured Wagyu beef—which he’d never eaten in his entire life back on Earth. Of course, that was because of its high price.

The two running children had reached them and then fell to the ground. Then, from the direction of the forest, a large black animal that looked like a cow came charging at full speed to attack the two children.

Fearing the monster cow would hurt the children, Kai quickly drew his dagger, channeled his magical energy into it, and then threw it at the monster cow’s neck.

Of course, Kai managed to take down that one monster cow.

But then, another herd of cows appeared, charging at high speed.

The children began to panic and scream; some had already run away to escape.

There was no way Kai could defeat them all. He threw ten daggers, but only six cows were hit.

Then one of the cows realized that Kai was the most dangerous, so it lunged at him.

"STOP!!!!" That familiar shout managed to halt the movement of all the cows that hadn’t been taken down yet.

When Kai turned around, Angeline was running toward him in a panic, shouting "Stop!"