Chapter 399: Fried Fish?

Adrian looked back at the nervous Hugo.

"Okay. I will officially change your posting today," Adrian said with a nod. "Make a dedicated medical team for yourself. Find people who can properly support you. You can recruit a few of the low circle mages to help you out with everything."

Adrian smiled.

"I will make you the official Head of this new medical group," Adrian offered. "You will be responsible for everything related to the soldiers’ healthcare when it comes to war, and also during their daily training in Oresfall. If anything bad happens to anyone, you will be in charge of healing them. And you are also in charge of directly hiring people into this group."

Hugo’s eyes went wide.

"You are free to name the medical division whatever you want," Adrian continued casually. "So hire however many people you need into this group. Not too much, of course, but a little bit more manpower than you require is good enough for redundancies. Just give Cassius the official numbers on how much pay your staff would need, and he’ll handle the budget. They can discuss their pay directly with Cassius."

Hugo just stared at Adrian with his mouth hanging wide open.

He had genuinely never expected Adrian to actually agree to a sudden retirement, let alone fund an entire new division for him. He had already convinced himself over the last few days that Adrian was already doing him a really massive favor just by taking him off the streets, giving him food, and turning him into an elite knight. Asking for even more felt like he was being incredibly ungrateful.

But he had still done it because he felt in his heart like it was the right thing to do to save lives. And now, he had just received an answer that he absolutely did not expect, but it was exactly the answer that he had desperately hoped for.

Hugo immediately bowed down low. He bent perfectly at a sharp 90-degree angle.

"Yes, my Lord!" Hugo yelled, his voice filled with pure excitement. "I will get to work immediately!"

Adrian was slightly startled by the sudden, booming loudness in the quiet restaurant floor.

"Oi, oi, there, there," Adrian chuckled, waving his hands to calm Hugo down. "Calm down, Hugo. Eat your food with your friends right now. You can do whatever you want to do after the week-long holidays are officially done. Just take this time off to actually rest your body."

Adrian smiled at the group, "Enjoy your meal and just igore the fact at I’m here. I just wish to spend time with my family and nothing else."

Saying that, he walked over to a quiet corner table near the window and sat down. He carefully lifted Aria off his shoulders and placed her down on one of the wooden chairs, taking a seat directly next to her. Serena and Claire gracefully sat down opposite to them.

A young waitress immediately rushed over to their table with a menu.

Serena looked up at the girl.

"I would like some rice and curry, along with some roasted chicken," Serena ordered politely. She paused and frowned. "No, wait. Not roasted chicken, sorry. Roasted goose? No, wait. Roasted goose? Roasted duck. Yeah, roasted duck."

"No, no, no, wait," Claire interrupted with a massive grin. "You’re completely missing out, Serena. It is currently the prime fishing season in Oresfall."

Serena immediately opened her eyes wide in realization.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot!" Serena gasped. "How could I even forget something like that?"

But then her excited expression fell slightly.

"But we never really had good fish back home," Serena admitted. "There are no major rivers in my father’s territory. So even though there was a fishing festival, and it was prime season time, and we did travel to different territories specifically to eat the fish... it wasn’t something that I really liked as much as other meats. It was just ’good’, but I don’t think it ever lived up to the novelty, and it certainly didn’t live up to the massive praises that everyone kept giving it."

Claire shook her head adamantly.

"No. Well, here’s the thing," Claire explained like a food critic. "Different places have vastly different ways of cooking their catch. And I’m pretty sure that you probably went to one of the traditional, expensive noble restaurants in the capital."

Claire leaned forward.

"But I also never really liked eating fish growing up either," Claire admitted. "Mostly because I hate having to carefully find and fish around for the tiny bones every single time I take a bite. I just want to comfortably eat my food without constantly thinking about accidentally choking or harming myself."

"Then why do you want to eat it so much right now?" Serena asked, confused.

"Well, I guess you didn’t hear about it yet since you’ve been busy," Claire grinned. "But there’s this incredible new dish that the chefs here have recently invented. It’s got zero bones in it, and it’s deep fried so it’s incredibly crispy on the outside, but perfectly soft and flaky on the inside. Apparently they use some sort of batter to make the crispy layer outside, so it’s very similar to the fried chicken that Adrian makes for us sometimes, but I just like this specific fish dish so much more."

Adrian immediately placed a hand over his heart and gasped.

"Wow," Adrian acted incredibly offended. "You actually like someone else’s cooking more than mine? The betrayal!"

Seeing him act so dramatically, Claire just rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively at him.

"Oh, come on. Don’t be like that," Claire laughed.

Adrian dropped the act and chuckled.

"Wait," Adrian paused, his curiosity piqued. "So you’re saying it’s a fish dish that has no bones, and is deep fried to be crispy on the outside but soft and flaky on the inside, you say?"

He thought about the specific description for a little bit. It only reminded him of a specific dish from Earth.