802 And He Has an Adorable Daughter
After exploring the entire food street in one afternoon, Mag and Amy both got onto the horse-drawn carriage with content expressions and bulging stomachs.
Mag had given Sinclair a handwritten recipe of his roast beef. During lunchtime, Sinclair had cooked a batch of roast beef according to that recipe, and Mag had been present alongside him to give him some instructions. From here onward, Sinclair’s talent and hard work would decide how much business his roast beef attracted.
As for his decision to ask Sinclair to reinstate the name of the restaurant, the reasoning behind that was quite simple.
Sinclair was indeed a very interesting person, but Mag had already done him a great kindness by giving him a complete recipe of his roast beef; there was no need to allow him to further improve his business by using Mamy Restaurant’s name.
If Sinclair’s roast beef kebabs were of a satisfactory standard to him the next time he came to Rodu, he could perhaps consider making his stand a branch of Mamy Restaurant.
When the horse-drawn carriage passed by Cary’s Rotisseries, Sinclair’s cart was already gone. As for the rotisserie, it remained to be seen how long it would take to recover from this slump. Perhaps the restaurant would be forced into a further decline by Sinclair’s brand-new roast meat stand.
The atmosphere in the second prince’s manor was still quite tense and gloomy. The horse-drawn carriage entered the manor through the side door, and Mag had only just disembarked when the butler rushed over to him with a slightly forced smile on his face. “You’re finally back, Master Mag. His Highness is still waiting for you to cook him dinner.”
“His Highness still hasn’t had dinner yet?” Mag swore internally. He had intentionally returned after dinnertime. Night had already settled over the entire city, but who would’ve thought that Josh would still be waiting for him to cook dinner?
“Indeed. His Highness specifically told us that he would only eat your cooking tonight, but you didn’t come back this entire time. I was just about to go out and find you.” The butler nodded with a hint of blame in his voice as he took the souvenirs that Mag had bought from him. As he did so, he urged, “Master Mag, I’ll hold onto these for you. Let’s go to the kitchen now.”
“Sure.” Mag nodded in response. It was his final night here, so he had to leave Josh with a lasting impression of him.
“Oh, by the way, Master Mag, His Highness says that he doesn’t want the spicy grilled fish tonight; the other dishes will suffice,” the butler suddenly added.
“That’s a real pity.” A genuinely forlorn expression appeared on Mag’s face.
Mag prepared a braised chicken and rice and a black pepper steak for Josh, and then gestured for the female servant nearby to bring it out on a platter. He then untied his apron, and was just about to return to his room when the butler from before hurried over to Mag again. “Master Mag, His Highness would like to see you. Please come with me.”
Mag’s expression stiffened ever so slightly upon hearing this, but he quickly nodded, and said, “Sure.”
After following the butler into the grand dining hall near the kitchen, Mag discovered that Josh was currently dining on his steak. Even though it had only been a day since Mag had last seen him, Josh seemed to have aged many years. His features were slightly pale, and there was messy stubble on his face. His hair was a complete mess, and the dark rings around his eyes suggested that he had yet to sleep following the incident on the fifth street. If one were to look closely, they would be able to see a faint scar on his throat that hadn’t been there the day before.
If it weren’t for the lavish robes that he was wearing, Josh would look no different from a homeless drunkard living under a bridge. Even as he ate his steak, he was doing so in a completely unrefined way with terrible table manners, just as if he were a caveman.
Josh put down his knife and fork upon hearing the sound of footsteps outside. He looked up at Mag, and his eyes glazed over slightly. For some reason, the image of the black claymore slashing toward him resurfaced in his mind, and his hand tightened around the knife in his grasp. However, his grip relaxed again at the sight of the smile on Mag’s face.
Josh looked at Mag, and nodded as he said, “Master Mag, you won the best dish award during the royal banquet yesterday, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that you’re the best chef in the world. However, are you really unwilling to stay in Rodu? Even if you don’t want to cook at my manor, I can grant you almost any plot of land in Rodu for you to open a restaurant twice as large as the one you have in Chaos City.”
Mag shook his head, and replied, “Thank you for your kind offer, but I refused His Majesty’s kindness yesterday, and I must also do the same again here.”
Josh looked into the Mag’s eyes for a while, and only withdrew his gaze with a smile after a brief silence. “So be it. Even Father couldn’t convince you to stay, so I certainly won’t do any better in that regard. It’s just a pity that I won’t be able to taste such delicious steak again in the future. My offer here stands indefinitely. If you ever want to come to Rodu, contact me, and I’ll sort out everything for you.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” Mag nodded with a smile in response; his expression remained unchanged throughout.
“You’re going back to Chaos City tomorrow, so you should go and get some rest.” Josh picked up his knife and fork again, and continued to dine on his steak.
“I’ll be taking my leave, then.” Mag cupped his fist in a salute, and then departed after shooting a surreptitious glance at the curtain beside him.
Not long after Mag had departed, two black figures quickly strode in through the door.
One of the black-robed figures half-knelt onto the ground, and reported in a respectful voice, “Your Highness, we found nothing suspicious in Mag’s room, nor did we find the Tian Du sword.”
“Your Highness, according to reliable sources, we’ve already verified Mag’s true identity. His real name is Noya Gould. The Gould Family was once a small noble family as one of their forefathers had been a chef for a former king, but they gradually fell from grace, and by the time they reached Noya Gould’s generation, their family had already lost their dukeship.
“Five years ago, they struck up a vendetta against Timothy of the Barkly Family over an elf, and his entire family was killed as a result, but he managed to escape from Rodu with that elf. Apparently, that elf was pregnant at the time, and judging from the time period that these events occurred in, the child should be around the same age was Mag’s daughter. It’s most likely the case that he forged this new identity for himself to avoid his enemies.” The black-robed man delivered the report in a brisk tone.
“Is this information accurate?” Josh’s brows furrowed as he recalled that claymore strike from the night before once again.
“It matches the information we received back from Chaos City, so there’s a very good chance that it’s accurate,” the black-robed man replied.
“Timothy of the Barkly Family, eh? He is indeed a smart man. Even after arriving at the royal palace, he knew that he was still no match for Timothy, so he decided to run away again.” A cold smile appeared on Josh’s face.
The black-robed man asked, “Your Highness, seeing as we were able to glean his true identity, there will most likely be other people in Rodu who can do the same. Should we deploy some people to protect him?”
“Protect him? Heh.” Josh chuckled coldly as a cruel sneer appeared on his face. “Take this information to Young Master Timothy as quickly as possible. Tell him that the one who stole his woman away from him is still alive, and he has an adorable daughter.”
The black-robed man was rather perplexed by this order, but he still accepted it in a respectful manner.
Josh chewed on his steak with a little more force than necessary as a dark expression appeared on his face. “Why do all of you have everything I want, yet I have nothing? All of you deserve to die!”