My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 14 Business has to be done; it can't be left undone.

After sighing, Alex directed the villagers to pour the collected wheat grains into the holes of the millstone, while she climbed onto the waterwheel and pulled down the clutch lever of the millstone.

As the millstone rattled and clattered, it crushed the wheat grains into coarse, unappealing flour.

Just as Alex was figuring out how to sift the coarse flour she had ground into fine flour, the brushing machine not far away started acting up again.

The speed of the brushing machine's winding gears visibly slowed down, gradually falling behind the speed at which the brushing machine produced wires. The previously relatively stable winding bar became a jumbled mess almost instantly, clearly indicating that the waterwheel's power was insufficient to meet the power requirements of both the stone mill and the winding machine.

With a helpless expression, Alex simply removed the coil wrench, letting the wire from the brushing machine fly freely.

After a few seconds of internal struggle, she finally decided to put all the power of the waterwheel into the stone mill.

Firstly, the output of the brushing machine is endless, so wasting a little bit is not a big problem.

Secondly, everyone in the village had worked all day and finally managed to grind this little bit of flour. They hadn't even had time to eat before they had to stop. Nobody could stand that, including herself.

He casually waved his hand, watching the crowd around him looking at the wire-brushing machine with some surprise, telling them to go back to where they came from, and that they didn't need to worry about the wire-brushing machine today.

A few of the more clever villagers had already taken the broken iron pot they used to cook soup the night before to the river to fetch water. As soon as a little flour came off the stone mill, they quickly swept it into the pot, as if they didn't want to waste a single moment.

It wasn't until much difficulty that they managed to knead a pot of dough that was a mixture of gray and white, and you could tell how coarse the flour was just by looking at the color.

However, at least there wasn't any sand or pebbles inside, so you can treat it as a way to supplement your dietary fiber intake, like eating whole wheat bread.

Just as Alex was comforting herself, Thorne, who was on the stone platform not far away, crushed all the wheat while holding the large stone pillar, and came over carrying several square furnaces, which he neatly placed on the ground.

The impatient villagers, seeing Thorne's gesture, immediately rolled the kneaded dough into round cakes and placed them in the furnace. Then Thorne threw in a few pieces of coal.

The coal ignited immediately after being thrown into the furnace, followed by the aroma of the dough being roasted by the flames.

Gudong!

A series of swallowing sounds reached Thorne's ears. It's no wonder the villagers couldn't resist; the aroma of the toast immediately reminded him of the soft, sweet white bread in the capital, made with eggs, sugar, and butter.

Creamy white mushroom soup, thick and creamy, paired with a roast pork chop fresh from the oven, complete with ribs and cartilage—how long has it been since I've had this? Ever since I boarded that carriage that left the capital…

Before Thorne could finish recalling the taste from his memory, several constantly changing colored specks of light floated out of the furnace and merged into his body. All the bread in the four furnaces was now baked.

Seeing the eager expressions on the faces of the villagers around him, he nodded, indicating that they could eat.

Immediately, the villagers took the bread out of the furnace. Then, the villager closest to Thorne, while gesturing and moving his hands rapidly, held the scalding hot bread in front of Thorne.

"Thank you." Thorne smiled politely, picked up the bread, and was then patted on the back by Alex next to him.

"What's wrong?" Thorne asked.

"Did I just notice those points of light?" Alex asked curiously.

"Hmm... magic, after all, alchemy and spellcasting are inseparable." Thorne thought for a moment, gave a relatively reasonable answer, and then took a bite of the bread in his hand.

For a moment, Thorne felt as if he were chewing on a piece of rubber. The outer skin was hard, the inside was firm and had a strange resilience. In addition, the dryness that almost instantly dried up the moisture in his mouth, along with that special earthy taste, successfully made him completely forget the wonderful memories of the capital.

Disgusting. That was Thorne's only assessment of the bread. Perhaps it didn't even deserve to be called bread; it was more like a lump of stale dough baked at high temperatures.

Thorne, who subconsciously wanted to spit out the lump of doughy rubber in his mouth, glanced down at the other villagers who were holding bread in both hands, chewing it with great effort and looking happy. In the end, he didn't do it.

He mechanically swallowed the unleavened bread in his hand, then kicked Alex's boots beside him. The two exchanged a glance and decisively walked to the side.

"What's going on? Why does it taste so bad?" Thorne asked in a low voice, hoping to get an answer about the kitchen cooking from a mechanical nun.

Although he knew the probability of getting the answer was extremely low, he still...

"Because it wasn't fermented. Normal bread should be fermented with yeast, or kneaded into dough and left to ferment naturally. But obviously, those villagers had neither yeast nor patience, so... wait until tomorrow... Actually, if it had fermented properly, it would have tasted bad, because we didn't have yeast for the former, and it had a strange sour taste for the latter."

Unexpectedly, Alex explained while munching on the unleavened bread in her hand.

Thorne, who was figuring out how to move the dead dough into his stomach, looked at Alex with a surprised expression.

"How did you know?"

The latter swallowed the last bite of the unleavened bread, rubbing his throat as he replied, "After all, not everyone in the capital is rich."

After Alex finished speaking, she rubbed her stomach, then walked to the furnace, picked up a piece of dead bread, and started eating it.

Seeing this, Thorne glanced at the villagers who were eating with relish and Alex, who was forcing herself to swallow food even though she didn't like it, and couldn't help but click her tongue.

He glanced down at the rubber-like flatbread in his hand. To be able to eat this thing with such a blissful expression, one could only imagine what kind of awful, miserable life he had been living before.

Thinking about this, he felt it was necessary to put his previously planned village business startup into action.

So Thorne watched as the villagers sat in a circle not far away, happily tearing into their flatbreads, and he simply sat down on the ground and joined them.

Unfortunately, neither Alex nor I remembered to bring a map when we were expelled from the capital, so we should ask the local inhabitants about this.

such as……

Does anyone know of any towns around our village where we could do business?