Annie's Otherworldly Adventure

On this day of this year, a down-on-her-luck noble girl named Annie Aishi set up a small mobile food stall at the entrance of the academy, magically creating spicy and sweet konjac snacks from various seasonings of the Gerson Continent.

By the gods, Annie not only broke the continent's established eating habits, but also pioneered the mobile hawking trade.

With her few gold coins, she bought some necessary tools and, with the help of fire and earth magic and her own hands, created a small round furnace from her memories of Earth. Because she was small and weak, she asked a blacksmith to add wheels and a chain to the bottom of the furnace, so she could easily drag it around.

With ingredients, coal, pots, shaved wooden skewers, bowls and plates, deep-fried konjac, and mashed potatoes—typical Chinese snack preparations—Annie started her konjac business.

At first, Kane's commoner students were full of curiosity about Annie's little stall, while the noble students treated the little girl with the stall at the school gate as a joke.

With the gods above, hawking one's wares along the streets is something only the poorest of the poor would do.

The nobles scoffed at it.

I don't know who first tried that peculiar way of cooking konjac. The deep-fried konjac boldly challenged people's taste buds. Sprinkled with seasoning powder (which is actually chili powder), it can make your eyes red and your lips dance. Oh, Gods above, this kind of thing is hard to accept at first, but it is an addictive delicacy if you eat too much of it.

If you can't enjoy the "spicy" version of konjac, the refreshing version, roasted in oven ash, is also exceptionally sweet and can be a good option for students who can't handle spicy food.

One serving of konjac costs one silver coin. Annie did not raise the price because of her unique cooking method, because as a commoner's food, konjac's most important thing is that it is good quality and inexpensive.

Gradually, Annie's konjac snacks became very popular among the ordinary students in the academy. However, Annie was still a child, and she could only bring a small amount of ingredients each day. Therefore, her konjac snacks were sold out as soon as they were sold out. Since there was only one Chinese-style konjac snack shop, Annie's actions actually increased the brand's strength.

Gods above, please allow our protagonist to be a little smug. Using fried potatoes as a brand, uh, this is really... cough cough. Look, the flowers over there are blooming so beautifully!

Every day, Annie only sells a hundred servings of potatoes before closing up shop, which makes the students who arrive late very frustrated. Annie herself is also frustrated. You don't know until you do it, and once you start doing it, you'll be shocked. Only when she actually started did she realize how tiring it is for one person to prepare ingredients, cook, and collect money all at the same time!

Fortunately, she only needs to sell at noon each day to sell all the konjac she has prepared, so she can go back to the hotel to rest in the afternoon.

A net income of 50 silver coins a day was much higher than the wages of ordinary workers, and equivalent to the daily wages of soldiers. Anne carefully put it away.

When winter came, she had a certain income and no longer needed to help Mary, so she moved into a heated house.

As winter approached, many prices rose, and the inn, needing to provide heating and hot water for its guests, also raised its prices to eight silver coins per day. Anne and Aunt Mary bargained and eventually settled on a price of two gold coins per month, becoming inn guests instead of the pitiful little servants they once were.

Now, Annie's konjac stall has become a unique sight at the academy, not only because the konjac she sells tastes special, but also because of her methods: using fire magic to help heat it, using wind magic to control the size of the fire, using water magic to clean the ingredients, and in winter, she even used earth magic to erect an earthen shield to protect the stall from the wind...

Annie became infamous at the academy. Everyone knew about this weirdo who cooked konjac with magic right outside the school gate. Gods above, how could such great and noble magic be used like this—for cooking! This is truly, truly, blasphemy!

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The common people were astonished that magic could be used in this way, while the nobles were furious. Then, a letter of protest signed by many students was delivered to the desk of the academy's executive principal, Garget.

The letter listed Anne Ash's various crimes at length.

First, setting up stalls at the school gate disrupts the school's order and will have a terrible impact on people, causing congestion on the main road and turning the beautiful city into chaos.

Second: Anne Ash's act of running a business without paying rent has harmed the interests of those who honestly and kindly paid the rent for the school cafeteria.

Third: Using noble and mysterious magic for cooking and selling snacks is a desecration of magic and magicians, an unforgivable crime!

In conclusion, the students demanded at the end of their letter that the school severely punish this blasphemous individual!

Anne continued running her small business, never expecting to cause such a stir. She would occasionally chat with Lynn, who came to buy konjac, and after returning to the inn, she would intensify her magic practice. Her life was a testament to hard work and dedication.

If Annie reads this letter, she will definitely agree with the first and second points. She also knows that setting up stalls haphazardly is indeed wrong.

Therefore, the existence of urban management officers is necessary, but the reason why there are illegal street vendors is simply because people are too poor.

Garrett looked at the joint letter, stroked his beard, summoned someone to ask about the situation, and finally decided to have someone buy some fried konjac to try.

Sigh, as the principal of the college, he didn't even know that such a famous delicacy had appeared on campus. What a failure!

Great Principal Garget, aren't you focusing on the wrong thing? If the students who signed this letter knew that your first reaction after reading it was to buy Anne's snacks, they would cry.

As one of the few holy mages in the world, Garget's only hobby besides pursuing magic is eating, which is why he suggested building such a huge canteen in the academy.

Of course, with the gods above, he wasn't doing this for his own cravings. In fact, he had tasted the food from every piece of land on the continent of Gerson. Now, apart from a few favorite dishes he usually ate, it was rare for any new food to tempt his tongue and revitalize his long-dormant sense of taste.

When Garrett first heard about this little girl who invented a new way of cooking, he found it quite intriguing. Moreover, this little girl seemed to know multiple magic systems. He just didn't know why she didn't apply to the Royal Magic Academy of Kane.

Out of sheer curiosity, Garget asked Minister of Magic Leo to help him check if such a candidate had ever existed.

When the konjac that Annie was selling was delivered to his desk, Annie Ash's application materials also appeared on his desk.

Anne Ash, a user of all magic types, has extremely low talent but high mental strength and insufficient mental control. She failed the Ministry of Magic exam but passed the Alchemy exam.

After glancing at it, Garrett put down the file, picked up the small wooden skewer Anne had made, poked a piece of konjac that had been cut into the size of a thumb, dipped it in what was supposedly a special seasoning powder, put it under his nose, and sniffed. He roughly knew what the seasonings were, but mixing them together was a bold attempt.

Garget put a konjac into his mouth, and the spicy flavor of the seasoning hit him. Combined with the soft and glutinous texture of the konjac flesh and the crispy golden-brown skin, Garget's eyes lit up.

In fact, Gareth had eaten all of these seasonings. The main ingredients were chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns from the Western Continent. Chili peppers were food for the giants. Because of their naturally dulled sense of taste, they ate this food directly. Ordinary people could not withstand such a strong stimulation, so other people in the Western Continent used it as a seasoning, throwing in one or two when cooking monster meat.

Sichuan peppercorns were the substitute for black pepper that the people of the Eastern Continent were looking for. However, black peppercorns have a much milder flavor than Sichuan peppercorns and are very suitable to be paired with fried meat. Therefore, Sichuan peppercorns were only used by the lower classes.

Peanuts are a common food, and people in mainland China usually eat them directly or make them into peanut butter to make various snacks.

Grind these three ingredients into powder, mix them together, and add salt—it's a genius creation!

Gods above, the history of food is constantly evolving. Perhaps one day, the people of the continent will gradually discover the uses of various seasonings and different ways to pair foods. The cuisine of the continent of Gerson will eventually become as dazzling and colorful as that of Earth. Today, Annie is merely using her familiarity with food culture to make a pioneering effort.

After enjoying his konjac, Garrett picked up Anne's file again, his gaze falling on the back of the document where a note had been added.

"Due to the internal turmoil in its country of Prisat, the new king has not yet signed a peace treaty, therefore it will not be accepted."

What a pitiful child! He has such a high talent for alchemy, but he was rejected from school because of his nationality. He has to support himself with his own hands at such a young age. Garget decided to meet this poor child.

When the Minister of Magic learned of this news, he couldn't help but roll his eyes, but of course, he held back in order to maintain his serious image.

If time could turn back several decades, back to the days when he and Garget were adventuring on the continent, he would definitely kick Garget in the butt and yell at him for being a glutton. Back then, for the sake of food, Garget could always find a legitimate reason to lure everyone to go on adventures in places of delicious food, disregarding life and death, with food as their everything.

Of course, once they became famous magicians on the continent, those crazy days were gone forever. Garrett, who had tasted all the delicacies of the continent, was no longer the carefree guy he used to be. He had long since become a kind academy principal, and he had transformed from the irritable magician Leo into a serious Minister of Magic.

Time is truly something to cherish.