"That shouldn't be the case." After hearing his servant Ake's words, Cyril Sack frowned deeply. "We brought our own chefs from Xia Ya. Now that Shalin's chefs are gone and no one is sabotaging us, they should be even more capable of making the flavors I want."
"But, my lord, we brought chefs, not ingredients." Ake gave a bitter smile. "All the ingredients are supplied by Shalin. No matter how hard our chefs try, they can't turn meat into vegetables. Still, they did their best to make the food lighter for you."
"This is indeed light—so light it makes me want to vomit." Cyril Sack speared a piece of greasy bird meat, glanced at it, and tossed it back onto the plate irritably. After thinking for a moment, he spoke again. "Say, can't we procure ingredients ourselves? If Shalin won't give us what we want, we can buy them ourselves."
"Our chefs already thought of that, my lord," Ake said. "Since yesterday, they've been sending people into Atlantis City to look for reliable ingredient suppliers. But Atlantis City differs greatly from Xia Ya. Bulk purchases seem to require certain procedures, and we're trying to find a way around them."
"Idiots," Cyril Sack judged. "Why send only our own people? Just have Shalin's servants at this reception house handle it. They're more familiar with Atlantis City's procedures and would save us a great deal of time."
Ake smiled bitterly again, his face nearly twisting into a bitter melon. "My lord, you forgot again. Last night, you reprimanded the reception house servants for working inefficiently. Not long after Shalin withdrew their chefs, they withdrew all the servants as well, using the same reason. So now, nearly everyone in the reception house is one of our own people, and we have to handle