Smirking as he gave an additional condition that was truly preposterous, Algernon waited for Marcus to refuse.
He had no desire to engage in a bet to begin with and would rather deal with this situation with political power.
His family was one of the leading powers in the kingdom, and honestly it would not be difficult for them to crush a baronetess no matter how strong they were individually.
Still, with all of the onlookers around and his own lackeys seated next to him, he had to make it seem like he was at least willing to take this bet, or he would lose some face.
Of course, the prospect of getting an adamantine weapon made was tempting but he figured that once his family was done, they would have taken all of Marcus’ wealth as compensation.
Unfortunately, for this arrogant noble that was far too used to everything going his way, he had no idea who he was really dealing with.
“Sure, you can add that on. I agree to your condition so let us get started.” Marcus said with absolute confidence.
He then turned towards Algernon’s server and said, “How much longer would it take to have Lord Scriven’s and his entourage’s meal ready?”
Squeaking the young server who was still feeling the tension of the situation, looked terrified when Marcus addressed her suddenly..
Luckily her boss Viscount Lahodné approached behind her and said, “Ainsley go ahead and answer Lady Geist truthfully.”
Steeling herself the poor young server looked towards Marcus and said, “When I last left the kitchen they said it was going to take another twenty-six minutes to finish preparing everything. But that was about four minutes ago now.”
Hearing this Marcus nodded his head and said, “Then I shall be back within eleven minutes with all of your meals. Just wait patiently until then.”
After saying that Marcus quickly turned towards Viscount Lahodné and said, “If you would not mind coming with me and explaining what is going on to the kitchen staff.”
He then headed towards the kitchen with the viscount and Ainsley on his heels.
On the way there he had Ainsley tell him everything Algernon and his company had ordered so that he could mentally prepare.
‘Damn they really did order some complicated items. Not like I am any better though. Oh well, if I actually do fail I can just have Algernon have manic episode and kill all of his credibility.’
When they entered the kitchen the chefs and other workers were rushing around to complete the orders of the customers.
However, they were down a very important figure and that was the kitchen’s lead chef who had to leave on an emergency.
And along with this the other top chefs who would normally take over were not on shift today leaving the leadership a bit lacking.
Of course everyone here was a professional, but none of them had an overwhelming amount of experience leading a brigade.
Luckily Marcus did, having been in charge a number of times in running patched together groups of cooks during his time in Tralenstein.
Quickly the viscount got everyone’s attention and told them that Marcus would be taking command of the kitchen.
At this point now that this bet was on, his reputation was also on the line and if Marcus succeeded it would look good on him and his prized restaurant.
Once the Viscount had finished the short introduction and gave out his order, Marcus wasted no time and established a telepathic link with the dozen kitchen workers.
‘Okay I have no time for dissent or back talking, so anyone who will not follow what I have to say to the letter can get out. I have a cooking skill of six and I know that is higher than all of you. Now whoever is currently in charge give me a rundown of all of the orders currently in progress and what station they are at.’
Taking charge of the kitchen, Marcus got a complete grasp of everything that was currently going on, and began giving orders while flying around the kitchen.
At first the staff thought Marcus was crazy to tell them to finish up certain items twice as fast as what they thought possible.
Yet, he proved to not just be full of bravado and quickly ascertained what needed to happen to move as efficiently as possible.
Like a whirlwind he moved from station to station, doing everything from cracking eggs, to putting the finishing frosting on items.
At one point when they needed to use a torch to caramelize the sugar on top of one of the items, he did not even wait for the tool to arrive and created a small flame on the tip of his finger.
He even summoned his iron golem of course much smaller than normal, and had it help out as well, along with using his spectral arm to give himself a third limb to work with.
Unfortunately, as hard as Marcus worked their was one item that was going to hold them back.
‘Chef I am afraid that the egg souffle simply needs more time to rise. It will not be ready until a few minutes after your time limit is up.’ One of the kitchen staff said to Marcus over the telepathic link.
Still, Marcus was not wiling to give up and practically warped over to the oven where the egg souffle was.
Looking into the oven he could tell that it would indeed take longer than he had left before his time was up.
Though that was only if he continued to let the oven do the cooking.
Grabbing the souffle out of the oven, Marcus cast his floating lantern spell and surrounded the souffle.
He also made sure to use his control flames spell to regulate the heat and prevent it from burning the souffle.
‘To think all my time controlling heat in the forge would be paying off here.’ Marcus thought as he worked on the souffle.
Controlling the heat Marcus cooked the souffle with near microscopic precision so that it would be evenly done and rise up quicker.
In fact when it was done far quicker than the oven could accomplish without causing damage to the souffle.
Looking at it, this souffle almost seemed a bit unnatural in how perfect it looked being nearly symmetrical.
Of course this was due to Marcus’ incredible precise cooking that made sure that the entity of the souffle was cooked exactly the same.
‘Well this would not have been possible without magic and my high level skills, but I managed to get it done.’ Marcus thought as he examined his work.
He only had a little under a minute left but everything was now completed and ready to be served.
But as the first server who was on standby began taking out the trays, the door to the dinning room would not budge.
Seeing this Marcus figured that there was some foul play involved. With Algernon not wanting to leave anything to chance.
‘Whatever, not like a door is going to stop me anyway.’ Marcus thought his determination blazing.
Swiftly he sent out his iron threads to all of the items that had been ordered by Algernon and those at his table.
Then once he had them wrapped up he went ethereal not caring about those around.
Passing through the door he floated all the way to the end of the hall before become tangible again, and walking out into the dinning room with a smug expression on his face.
With five seconds to spare he set down the last plate at Algernon’s table and said, “Your food is served. I hope you enjoy it.”
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