Going to school is meaningful

The observation continued.

However, considering that the previous observation behavior was too conspicuous, causing many passing guards and maids to stare in astonishment, and then show knowing smiles after walking away.

Although Ryan didn’t really care what others thought, perhaps because he slightly regarded these people as family, he felt a little embarrassed for some reason.

So he thought of a good way: he took out an invisibility cloak from the treasury and ordered a secret guard to follow Flora behind her.

Of course, the invisibility cloak wasn’t omnipotent.

It only made people unable to see, but the killing intent emitted by the person wearing the cloak, the sounds they made… could not be hidden.

Therefore, the secret guards still had to be those with strong stealth abilities, and they had to wear props that shielded mental perception when facing enemies with strong mental perception…

The latter still couldn’t completely immunize them from perception.

In short, it was a case of “the Tao is one foot high, and the Devil is ten feet high”… No matter what means or props you used, what both sides were competing for was who was stronger and who wouldn’t be discovered.

Even if there were no problems, it was certain that Flora’s mental perception was strong.

Ryan also knew very well that his subordinates, because they all came from lower-class nobles and commoners, had low starting points, and their abilities were actually below average at the moment.

So he estimated that Flora should have known about the existence of the secret guards from the beginning and knew that there were secret guards watching her all the time.

But Ryan didn’t think that Flora had been acting all along.

On the contrary, Flora often behaved frankly, and even if the secret guards were by her side, she didn’t use the hiding techniques to conceal her actions, which were even more excellent than the secret guards.

Now she didn’t use them at all.

“Your Highness, is there anything I can do for you?”

Flora didn’t pretend anymore and turned her head to ask the air.

“I rarely have free time today and wanted to see how you work on weekdays.”

Ryan didn’t hide his thoughts.

“Okay, please tell me when Your Highness needs me to introduce or explain something.”

Flora didn’t have the slightest awkward or embarrassed expression and quickly threw herself into her work.

Ryan didn’t disturb Flora, who was doing her work seriously, and silently followed behind her, avoiding those guards and servants who couldn’t see him…

And because of this, he discovered that his guards’ reconnaissance and observation abilities were a bit weak.

(It seems I have to train them well in the future.)

Even if it wasn’t to protect him, it could also prevent his guards from falling victim to the poison of influencers.

Flora’s work wasn’t very special… until the two of them came to the kitchen together.

Feeling the heat rising in the kitchen, the harsh environment that would make people sweat after staying there for three seconds, Ryan couldn’t help but be stunned.

(This is too hot, isn’t it? Will they really not get heatstroke?)

Many places in the mansion had magical props with cooling functions to lower the temperature, but those magical props were only installed in Ryan’s main activity areas.

The kitchen obviously didn’t have them.

(I’ll install one here later.)

Watching everyone busy for a while, Ryan’s expression became serious.

Too busy.

All along, he had heard Flora say that the kitchen was very busy and difficult… But he hadn’t actually observed it.

The secret guards he had sent to stay in the kitchen were mainly responsible for observing whether anyone was poisoning the food or whether the people in the kitchen intended to betray him…

As for how the people in the kitchen were doing and whether they were busy, he hadn’t cared at all.

In fact, he actually thought that Flora was exaggerating, until he heard that Flora had hired two new people, and then he thought that the problem had been solved.

After all, every meal he usually ate only had many dishes, and the portions weren’t large, so it shouldn’t be difficult to make.

After witnessing their work now, he quickly understood that preparing food for him alone required wasting almost half of the kitchen’s energy.

The problem mainly appeared on the fact that there were too many dishes.

Even if the portions were small, the specifications and tastes of his food were different from others, so each item still needed to be made separately, and they still needed to be carefully selected…

Ryan began to understand the meaning of Flora’s previous suggestion to him to reduce the specifications of his food.

Therefore, his first reaction now was to reduce the specifications of his food again.

『Your Highness is thoughtful, but I don’t think this is a good approach,』

Flora transmitted her voice to Ryan.

『Why? Is it because I said before that you can’t reduce the specifications of the food too much? That was to deal with distinguished guests, I don’t care about myself. It would be more convenient to make the same food as everyone else, right?』

『Thank you, Your Highness, for being so considerate of everyone, but I think it’s already very good now and doesn’t need to be changed…

This isn’t to say that everyone finds it troublesome to do, but being able to cook specifically for Your Highness is actually a kind of honor, a kind of motivation, and a kind of learning.』

Ryan was slightly stunned and immediately understood.

High-end cuisine had high requirements.

Cooks and apprentice chefs generally wouldn’t let apprentices with insufficient strength do it.

But once approved, any apprentice would feel extremely honored by this and feel that their manpower had been affirmed and that their efforts had paid off.

And other apprentices would be inspired by this to study harder, with the goal of being able to cook for Ryan.

Even if they couldn’t do it in the end, they could still improve their abilities… There were many benefits.

『I didn’t consider this thoroughly.』

『There’s no such thing. Your Highness must have understood this principle long ago, but you were deceived by the appearance and didn’t realize that many things, even if they seem unrelated, have the same principles and essence.』

【Indeed,】

Ryan thought carefully and acknowledged this comfort.

It was as if ever since that person was granted the unique title of Marquis, ambitious nobles had been aiming to be granted a marquisate. The morale of the entire empire had risen to a new level.

There was a reason why whether it was a lord, marquis or official position had to be divided into different grades…

Because it itself had an encouraging effect.

His mistake wasn’t always in being rash, but in being foolish.

He subconsciously regarded titles, armies, and official positions as high-end things, but in reality, the principles in them were also applicable in the small kitchen.

No one was nobler than anyone else.

【In other words, if I want to reduce your pressure, the best way is to hire more people?】

【That’s right, Your Highness shouldn’t be short of money, right?】

【No, add as many people as you need.】

In fact, Ryan was relapsing into his old habits and subconsciously wanted to save money.

But now he already knew that if he spent more money, spent money in useful places, and spent money on others, it would be more helpful to the empire.

【For now, let’s still follow the original rhythm and prioritize hiring the relatives of our subordinates, and the number of people hired must also be strictly controlled… After all, this is also a kind of incentive.】

Ryan immediately understood that Flora planned to make the matter of entering the mansion to work a glorious thing to encourage the subordinates, and to make the people who were already working in the mansion cherish this opportunity even more.

(She even thought of this?)

He didn’t say anything more, because instead of admitting mistakes, reflecting seriously, and seriously changing, it was more meaningful to actually make changes.

At the same time, Ryan also realized the benefits of going to the Royal Academy.

But it wasn’t that the school had become meaningful.

It was that he could spend more time learning with Flora.