TBE Chapter 42
Ezekiel left his brothers to their devices and went to the dining room house to prepare breakfast for the three of them and after several minutes called Robert and Luke over. He prepared a bowl of chocolate porridge called “Champorado” that he prepared before and the ever-present milk but this time he didn’t cast a spell on them to check what his brothers' reaction would be when they drank regular milk. He also prepared their vitamins since Luke would probably ask for the pill if the kid didn’t see it.
When Robert and Luke came over, they ate their breakfast and drank their milk and vitamins without complaint and Ezekiel remembered that they were still in the grateful phase of having something to eat instead of enduring their hunger.
Ezekiel still felt sad whenever he thought of those times in the boys’ lives and hoped that they would never encounter the same thing ever again. After breakfast, the boys ran somewhere to continue playing with their new favorite toys which were the wooden blocks tiny servants. He understood since if he had something like that when he was a kid, Ezekiel would be highly enamored as well.
Yuki Onna the snowy owl familiar was still above the trees looking after the boys so Ezekiel was not worried about them. He could always check the internet map in his system site to check their location anytime he wanted.
Ezekiel remained in the dining room house since as planned, he wanted to make several healthy lunchboxes that the two boys would bring to school once school started. He began by searching the internet for the best healthy lunchboxes that young boys could bring to school then spent 10 silver coins to purchase the ingredients as well as the disposable plastic boxes that he could put the lunches and the thermal small lunch bag where he could put in the plastic boxes and plastic spoon. He didn’t even care If anyone would wonder what those plastic boxes and spoons were made of.
He prepared five types of lunches and the ingredients that he bought would cover 15 days. Ezekiel then spent the next three hours preparing the food. He was so thankful for the 4th tab space that would allow him to store the food indefinitely without it going bad. He checked his brothers' situation briefly and saw them playing some sort of tag together with the wooden tiny servants.
He then went back to preparing the boys’ lunchboxes. Separating the boys’ food in plastic lunchboxes looked convenient and neat and Ezekiel wondered if he should do the same thing with the rest of their food so he immediately spent 2 silver coins and purchased a total of 200 plastic microwavable boxes.
The good thing about the boxes was with one spell, he could clean them and reuse them. Not only that, it would be very convenient for him to serve food for the three of them. He then separated the remaining food in his 4th space tab into the boxes and it actually took him a total of three hours.
It was noon when Ezekiel was done and he now had a total of 189 boxes of food which would cover roughly 21 days of breakfast lunch and dinner for the three of them. Robert and Luke suddenly ran inside the dining room shouting that they were hungry so he immediately served lunch for the three of them. The boys curiously observed the plastic boxes that contained their lunch for the day.
“From now on we will eat using those boxes since it’s convenient for me to prepare our food in them,” Ezekiel told the boys.
“What are they made of? Are they glass?” Robert asked while examining the microwavable plastic boxes.
“They’re not glass but some kind of material conjured by my magic,” Ezekiel then showed them the thermal lunch bag that he purchased for the boys.
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“I’ll put your lunch box inside this bag which will keep them warm then you will put these bags inside your backpacks,” Ezekiel told his brothers and the boys just nodded.
After lunch, the boys went back to playing with their tiny servants toys while Yuki Onna looked after them. Ezekiel cleaned the plastic boxes they just used and stored them in his 4th tab space then he went to the workshop cum store. When he arrived there, he opened the window, entered the workshop, and began working on all the wood that he stored there. He planned to smoothen everything using a wood planer and sandpaper after cutting all the rough edges using a hand saw. Of course, Ezekiel was still planning to use his Mage Hand spell to do all the work.
Working with wood using his tools being controlled by the Mage Hand spell satisfied Ezekiel deeply. It was like one of those ASMR actions that if he videotaped it, would certainly allow those who would watch to fall asleep. The actions also allowed Anton to think while working.
Ezekiel then heard some noises outside the workshop so he stopped immediately. He didn’t want anyone to see him using magic since he didn’t know how the villagers would react to something like that. When he looked outside through the display, he saw the burly butcher looking at the wooden products on display and the man noticed him inside.
“Zeke, is that you!” The butcher asked looking very surprised.
Ezekiel told the man to give him a minute and after that, he went outside to talk to the butcher. When he met the man outside the store in front of the window full of wooden items for sale, the man was still studying all of the items. He couldn’t fault the man since the items that he purchased from the system shopping site looked exquisite.
“Is this our store?! Did you build this small building?” The man asked.
“Yes I built it using the materials from the forest,” Ezekiel answered.
“This is a sturdy little building! I didn’t know that you were this capable. I just wanted to check up on you and your brothers since before, you were at my store almost every day delivering animals but for a few days you haven’t been, so I got curious,” The butcher said.
Ezekiel was touched. He thought that nobody from the village truly cared about them but the butcher took time to check up on them.
“I realized that what I was doing was dangerous and I can’t leave my brothers behind since they’re still very young. So I decided to continue my father’s legacy of becoming a woodworker. He taught me everything I know and left me his tools of the trade. He didn’t become a woodworker himself because he wanted to indulge what my mother wanted which was to explore the forest,” Ezekiel told the butcher.
“That’s a good idea. At least, you have a good head on your shoulders. Let me purchase some of your items then to celebrate. I must say, all of them looked wonderful.”
Ezekiel then told the man the prices of the items and from the butcher’s reaction, the prices he set were fair. His rule of thumb was that he would set the prices of anything that he purchased if they were regular items five times the price cost.
The butcher purchased a wine bottle holder and by the way the man looked at the item, he was pleased with the wooden item. When the butcher left, Ezekiel spent a total of ten silver coins to purchase more things so that his display shelves would contain more items. He then suddenly thought of one important fact. He didn’t know the butcher’s name. He always called the man, “Sir”. He decided to ask Robert later.
Inside the store, Ezekiel prepared one of the boxes that he had made and put one of the notebooks and pens that he purchased before inside. He planned that he would put all the coins that he earned from the store in that box and keep the finances of the store separate from his current total coins of 8 Gold and 37 Silver give or take a few copper coins. He did spend a total of 20 silver coins as seed money but he planned to give that back to his original coin.
Ezekiel didn’t know why he was making his life complicated by keeping separate finances but it was a bit entertaining so he would proceed with that plan. He started by putting in the copper coins that he earned from the butcher in the box.
Basically, he planned to keep putting all the earned coins in the box and would only count the total once every item in the store was gone. Since Ezekiel’s rule was to sell the items five times their worth, he was expecting that the total amount of coins in the box would be a gold coin or 100 silver coins.
Ezekiel happily continued smoothing all the wood that was stored on the shelves until twilight arrived. He looked at the pile of wood that he could immediately use to craft items and was pretty proud of himself. He thought that he was getting used to using his Mage Hand spell and thought that it was a good idea to begin his newly found hobby using the said spell.