My Food Stall Serves SSS-Grade Delicacies!-Chapter 208: Experimenting with Rootknots

The next day, Marron’s apartment smelled like frying oil and experimentation.

She’d bought two dozen rootknots from the morning market—the ugly ones, the ones vendors sold cheap because they weren’t pretty enough for display. Perfect for crisps, where appearance before cooking didn’t matter.

Now her small kitchen was a laboratory. Rootknots sliced paper-thin on her cutting board, some with her regular knives, some—experimentally—with Edmund’s grandmother’s spoon used as a makeshift slicer. A pot of oil heating to precise temperatures on her stove. Small batches frying, cooling, being tasted and evaluated.

Mokko had wisely retreated to a corner with a book, occasionally offering opinions when Marron asked for input.

Batch 1: Sliced too thick, fried at 175°C. Result: Crispy outside but slightly underdone inside. Needed thinner slicing.

Batch 2: Thinner slices, same temperature. Result: Much better, but some burned while others were perfect. Temperature inconsistency issue.

Batch 3: Thinner slices, copper pot instead of regular pot for better heat control. Result: Perfect. Even frying, consistent color, ideal crispness.

"The copper pot is cheating," Mokko observed.

"The copper pot is helping," Marron corrected. "And there’s a difference." She seasoned Batch 3 with simple salt and tasted one. Exactly right—crispy all the way through, not greasy, that perfect crunch that made you want another.

Now for seasonings.

Salt and Vinegar: Traditional, crowd-pleasing. Mixed malt vinegar with salt, tossed warm crisps in the mixture.

Smokesalt and Herb: Smoked salt from a specialty vendor, mixed with dried herbs (rosemary equivalent, thyme, sage). Sophisticated but still accessible.

Spicy Pepper: Dried chilies ground into powder, mixed with salt and a touch of sugar to balance heat. Would appeal to people who liked bold flavors.

Cheese Dust: This was trickier. She’d need to source cheese powder or figure out how to make it. Filed under "future experiments."

She was frying Batch 6 (spicy pepper seasoning, different thickness to test if it mattered) when there was a knock at her door.

Mokko went to answer it while Marron kept her attention on the frying crisps—timing was crucial, ten seconds too long and they’d burn.

"Marron?" Mokko’s voice was carefully neutral. "You have a visitor."

Marron looked up from the fryer.

Petra stood in her doorway, looking uncomfortable and determined in equal measure.

"I went to the Guild to find you," Petra said without preamble. "They said you weren’t in class today. Gave me your address when I said it was urgent." She looked around the apartment—at the Legendary Tools visible on shelves, at the frying setup, at the evidence of obsessive recipe testing. "Are you... making crisps?"

"Testing seasoning variations," Marron said automatically. Then her brain caught up with the situation. "You came to find me?"

"You didn’t come back to the restaurant," Petra said. "I told you to come back. You didn’t."

"I thought—" Marron pulled the current batch out of the oil, set them to drain. "I thought I should give you more time. Not pressure you by showing up exactly twenty-four hours later like some obsessive—"

"I changed my mind twelve times yesterday," Petra interrupted. "About whether to talk to you, whether to hear you out, whether I was making a huge mistake even considering your ridiculous story about magic knives." She pulled something wrapped in cloth from her bag. "And then last night I was using my knife to prep for today’s service, and I paid attention. Really paid attention. To how it felt in my hand. To how my cuts were always exactly right. To the way the blade seemed to know what I wanted before I did."

She set the cloth bundle on Marron’s table, unwrapped it slowly.

The mythril knife gleamed in the afternoon light, symbols shifting along its spine.

"I need you to explain," Petra said. "Everything. What this knife is. What it does. Why you want it. All of it. The full truth this time, not the carefully edited version."

Marron looked at the knife, at Petra’s face—wary but open, scared but curious—and made a decision.

"Okay," she said. "But let me finish this batch first, or they’ll burn. And then I’ll tell you everything. I promise."

Petra blinked. "You’re seriously prioritizing crisps right now?"

"I’m prioritizing not wasting food," Marron corrected, pulling out the spicy pepper batch. "But yes. Sit down. Try some of these. And I’ll tell you about Legendary Tools, and pre-cataclysm craftspeople, and why your family’s knife is one of the most important objects in Lumeria."

"That’s insane."

"I know," Marron said. "But it’s also true."

She pulled up a chair for Petra, offered her a small plate of the salt and vinegar crisps she’d made earlier, and prepared to tell the whole story.

No careful editing this time. No protecting herself from sounding strange. Just the truth, offered to someone brave enough to come looking for it.

And maybe—just maybe—that honesty would be enough.

+

Marron carefully transferred the last batch of crisps onto the cooling rack and turned off the heat. Her apartment was thick with the smell of fried rootknots and different seasonings: salt, vinegar, herbs, and spicy pepper.

It was comforting, but she opened a window to let fresh air in, too--just in case Petra’s nose was more delicate with strong smells.

Petra sat at the small table, looking determinedly patient despite obvious anxiety. She’d tried one of the salt and vinegar crisps and was now methodically eating more.

Huh. I wonder if that’s how I look when I’m anxious about something and...just need my hands to do anything. Marron chuckled a little as she remembered shoveling crisps into her mouth during late nights in the office. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Overtime wasn’t good for her waistline, but it padded her bank account well enough.

Never again, Marron thought. I don’t want to be that anxious about metrics again.

Which was ironic given she was now a chef, but at least it was in a different industry.

"These are really good," Petra said.

"Thank you." Marron pulled up a chair across from her, Mokko settling nearby with his usual quiet presence. Lucy’s jar sat on the counter, the slime watching with what seemed like rapt attention. "Okay. You wanted the full truth. Where should I start?"

"Start with what you are," Petra said. "Not just a Guild chef. You’ve got three Legendary Tools, apparently. You know things about pre-cataclysm craft that most people don’t. So what are you?"

[New Quest Development: Petra came to you--meaning she is ready to hear the full truth.]

[The opportunity for an honest explanation without pressure is here.]

[New Skill Discovered: Rootknot Crisp Mastery (Apprentice)]