That night, Claude ate with his sister and brother in the attic.
The meal was simple. It consisted of white bread with bacon, stewed beef ribs with potatoes, dried venison and a few boiled apples.
His sister ate happily, but the chubby boy was even happier. He bounced around on Claude's bed and hid behind his pillow to play hide-and-seek with Angelina and Claude.
Claude didn't know what his parents said to Albert, but he didn't return home after that night.
Two days later, his sister told him that Albert had moved to Sir Fux's manor and wouldn't be returning home for a while.
Two days later, Claude began his equestrian training in the academy. The four youths who already knew how to ride horses were rather comfortable in the lessons. It only took them a week to pass the basics of the course.
That meant that for the next three weeks, they could choose whether or not to attend the two classes in the afternoon and go home early.
Going home early wasn't a problem either, so they might as well ride more horses in school. Since they had already paid for the lessons and two horses were specially provided for the four of them, they would feel like it was a waste to spend two thales to use the mounts if they didn't attend the classes.
Claude didn't want to go home early at all. The atmosphere in the house wasn't right at all. Both his parents had dark expressions on their faces.
Even though the two of them didn't say anything about Claude beating up Arbeit that night, Claude still felt a little guilty.
No matter what, Arbeit was his elder brother in name. Yet, he didn't tell his parents about the secret he discovered and even ignored his father's attempts to stop him from doing so. Not to mention, he did it right in front of his father.
It didn't seem like he was giving his father any face, or so Claude thought.
However, if he wasn't attending equestrian lessons in school, Claude would be dragged along by Welikro and Borkal to accompany them fishing by the lake. The two of them were really good at fishing and could sit by the lake for an entire afternoon. Whenever a small fish took the bait, they would happily show it off in front of Claude. It was a sign that they were addicted to it.
He didn't like fishing. Even though he liked peace and quiet, he didn't like to waste time staring at the lake.
But there was nowhere else to go other than fishing, so Eriksson could mix in with the old women at the docks and repair their nets. After reading the Little Royal Uncle novel from the bookstore, he liked to mingle with them.
He wasn't interested in listening to the dirty talk of old women. He would rather … go fishing.
Fishing was rather pointless. He stayed up until five in the morning and decided to return home.
When he got home, he found that there was a guest. A young man in his twenties was talking to his mother. There was a small square paper box on the table. It seemed to be a gift box from Lisa Cake Shop in the south of town.
The young man said a few more words to his mother before leaving politely.
"Who is he?
I've never seen it before, "Claude asked.
Mother answered, "He is Mr. James, a new tenant. The cake in the box is to thank us for letting him."
Tenant?
Claude hadn't heard of anyone moving out from next door.
"By the way, he rented the attic next to yours," his mother added.
The attic next to yours?
Claude hurriedly asked, "What about Miss Christina?"
"Oh, she's already left Whitestag.
Your father went to do some work, and the owner of the business promised to transfer the woman to another city. She won't be coming back for the rest of her life. That way, she won't bother Abel anymore … "Mother seemed to have a deep grudge against Miss Christina. She didn't even mention her name. She only mentioned the woman. She probably blamed Miss Christina for everything, thinking that she seduced her well-behaved, sensible, and promising eldest son …
"That woman left this morning. In order to get her to leave Whitestag willingly and not cause trouble, your father had to give her ten crowns to keep her mouth shut.
What a venomous and greedy woman. She'll definitely get what she deserves. No god would be willing to protect such a lecherous woman. "
In order to let Miss Christina leave Whitestag in peace, Morssen had no choice but to fork out a huge sum of money.
Ten crowns was equivalent to fifty thales, which was equivalent to a year and a half's salary.
But he had no other choice. Morssen didn't want the scandal of Arbeit and Christina to spread through the entire town, so the safest way was to spend some money to get her to leave. Being bitten by Morssen was only to be expected.
"What are we having for dinner?"
Claude hurriedly interrupted his mother. It was the first time he'd seen his mother so angry since he transmigrated.
"Oh, it's the same as usual.
But your father said he won't be coming back for dinner. Arbelle won't be coming back either. There's only the four of us at home. "
"How about this, Mother? Let's have noodles for dinner. I believe the noodles I make will be better than the ones from the Big Fork Restaurant in town," Claude volunteered.
"You know how to make noodles?" his mother asked doubtfully.
"Of course. I can make it after seeing it twice. I guarantee it'll be good."
He washed his hands first before cleaning the basin. Next, he poured in the flour and water. He even cracked three eggs into the mixture before kneading the dough.
"Why did you crack the eggs in?" his mother asked curiously as she held the boy in her arms.
"That way, the noodles will taste more delicious," Claude replied as he kneaded the dough.
He poked the boy's nose and made him look like a traitor. "Come down. You're already six years old and you're still letting your mother hug you. Aren't you ashamed?"
"No, I want to watch Big Bro make noodles," the boy said.
"Brother, can I watch too?" The little girl joined in the fun.
"Alright, alright. Just watch from the side. Let Big Bro make delicious noodles," Claude explained as he kneaded the dough.
"You have to knead the noodles as hard as you can. That way, the noodles will have more elasticity and won't stick to your mouth."
I seem to have added a little too much water. That's fine. I poured some more flour in, but it seems a little hard. I need to add some more water.
Cold sweat beaded on Claude's forehead. He looked no different from the idiotic daughter-in-law in those jokes. The last time he added water, he poured it into the flour drop by drop. It was more or less done. However, there seemed to be quite a lot of flour. Even though it wasn't a huge bowl, it still took up more than half of it.
Fortunately, his mother and sister didn't notice that they had made a mistake.
When he was almost done, Claude picked up a small piece and gave it to his mother and sister. "Pinch it and feel it. This is the right amount of elasticity and stickiness.
The gravy noodles at Big Fork Restaurant don't really need to be kneaded at all. They don't actually call them noodles. They're more like sliced noodles. They're cut into strips after just a bit. They're not elastic when cooked and stick to your teeth. It's not tasty. "
It was a pity that he didn't know how to make ramen in his previous life. He could only press the dough into paper-thin strips with a rolling pin and cut them into thin strips.
The other pot in the kitchen was boiling beef bone soup. Originally, it was supposed to be beef bone stew with potatoes. Since the potatoes hadn't been thrown in yet, he decided to use the beef bone soup as the base broth.
He sliced the potatoes and the broccoli into small pieces. There were too few vegetables in the house. These were the only two vegetables that were thrown into the pot to stew. He had no choice but to fry the two vegetables with some salt first. Then, he fried four eggs before starting to cook the noodles.
He made four large silver plates for the main course of a banquet. He placed the cooked noodles in the middle of the silver plates and placed the stir-fried potatoes and broccoli pieces around it. Then, he poured the beef bone soup over it and placed a fried egg on top of the noodles. Just like that, Claude's beef bone soup noodles came out of the oven.
It's really delicious. The little girl ate happily. Her eyes were squinted into crescent moons and the dimples on her cheeks were filled with happiness and satisfaction.
The chubby boy ate the noodles with his hands. Since it wasn't convenient to use a fork, he used his hands to grab the noodles and slurp them into his mouth.
"Yes, it's really delicious. You're too considerate, Claude," praised his mother.
But when she saw that there was still more than half a basin of dough left, she asked hesitantly, "Are we going to make all the dough into noodles?
Why don't I bake some bread for tomorrow? "
"Sure, you can take it and bake it. I don't mind."
Claude was overjoyed. "To be honest, I forgot that there are only four of us. We can't eat that much.
When we kneaded the dough, we added so much flour and water. I was still thinking about what to do. As long as we don't waste it, it'll be fine. "
After finishing the large plate of noodles, Claude returned to the attic, satisfied.
He loved eating noodles in his previous life. Had it not been for the gravy noodles at the Big Fork Restaurant, he wouldn't have remembered to make noodles.
In his previous life, he could buy any kind of noodles he wanted in the supermarket. He didn't need to spend any effort to make them.
Not to mention, he didn't know how to make ramen. So, when he transmigrated to this world, he could only make noodles and pancakes when he had a craving for noodles. Those were all simple noodles that could be made.
He couldn't remember how the noodles were made. The fresh noodles in the market were all machine-made. He had seen it once. It seemed that flour and water were poured into the machine, and the other end of the noodles came out. It was still warm, but it seemed to be a little difficult for him to make it.
Of all the noodle dishes, the transmigrator's favorite was noodles. He remembered how the countryside made sweet potato vermicelli. They ground the sweet potato into powder and soaked it in water. The remaining starch was then poured into a metal cylinder filled with small holes. When the top was squeezed, the starch would be squeezed out of the holes into strands. Then, they would be cooked in a pot before being scooped out to dry.
However, he didn't know if he could try making vermicelli with flour. Perhaps it would work, but he couldn't do it at home. He decided to go to the Altronis' private jetty when he had the time. When his father sailed out to sea, the jetty would be empty and there would be plenty of space for him to work on.
Making noodles was a little troublesome. After transmigrating, he thought about making buns and steamed buns. However, he would have to buy yeast powder to make them in his previous life, which definitely couldn't be found here.
He remembered that making bread also required the dough to be fermented. He wanted to ask his mother how she made it. If it was possible, he could try making those two as well. But where was he supposed to find a steamer?
After thinking about it for a long time, he wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth and snapped out of his fantasies.
The news he got from his mother was quite shocking. He didn't think that his father would pay such a huge price to get Miss Christina to leave Whitestag. That would stop the scandal from happening at its source.
It seemed that his father was still as shrewd and experienced as ever. Even though it looked like he had suffered a huge loss, as long as Miss Christina left Whitestag, even if she were to return after some time, it wouldn't affect the reputation of House Ferd even if she were to announce her relationship with Arbeit. No one would believe her. Instead, they would suspect that she was trying to frame Ferd and that someone was behind her actions.
Of course, all of this was on the premise that Arbeit did not go looking for trouble with Miss Christina again.
However, Claude was confident in his father's ability to prevent that from happening again.