Chapter 21

After Eva reached home,

Melanie asked Eva in a teasing tone, "It seems that even you are learning from John nowadays . Hah, I wished I had a filial granddaughter and learned pharmacy from me, I guess love triumphs all . "

"Well, it's okay since I anyway hope that you and John come together . "

"Grandma its nothing like that, I was only training with John so I can improve my magic and combat abilities . You are only overthinking . " Eva flustered a bit and said to Melanie in an irritated and calm tone . Even Eva had only begun to realize her own feelings for John now after she felt irritated about John training with Josephine .

"Huhuhu . . . . . I understand you youngsters the most . You don't have to hide from Grandma you know . " Grandma Melanie said nodding her head as if she knew all before she got back to prepare the table for dinner .

Eva didn't bother continuing and changed the topic on whether she will attend the banquet tomorrow . Melanie thought about it and said that she was busy experimenting with her herbs and wanted to observe the changes as much as possible and write it down for later references .

Meanwhile, John helped the servants for the banquet preparations at the mansion .

Next day at the banquet it was very lively,

Most of the people from the village arrived this included Sam, his family, and the Ten leaders as they wanted to express their gratitude towards John for his help previously in farming .

John had invited Ron, George, and Paul as well . John thought he should invite George as well since he had helped him in making the Soap machine plus this would anyway cultivate good feelings . George had known about the matter of Antonio but he still thought business relations mattered more and he didn't have any problems with John so he decided to accept the invite and arrived at the Mansion .

At last Jack and Joseph arrived together while Eva's team and Jay arrived a bit earlier . While the factory workers arrived as well .

Most of the people who arrived here were amazed by the Mansion as they had never seen such a mansion with such furniture . The same was the case with Jack and Joseph .

John had already known about Melanie not coming so he didn't wait and hosted the guests .

All of the guests were amazed by the delicacies provided by the servants in the Mansion . It was especially for the newly made Ice-cream which took the show . An ice-house was made in the Mansion using saltpeter he had brought for gun powder .

During the Banquet, even George and Sam's wife asked about the recipe's of various items provided at the mansion .

"John you have a lot of new delicacies here which I hadn't eaten earlier," Jay asked John in a very happy tone .

"Yeah, I think the same . I never ate these things earlier when I came for training . Did you plan to surprise everyone this time around . " Josephine agreed to Jay asked John .

"Well, this time I wanted to surprise everyone so I decided to make the servants learn the new dishes and prepare for the banquet this time around . I hope you all liked the food provided . " John answered the questions of everyone .

He even let the servants give a few recipes to everyone while he kept a few so that it remains a specialty of his mansion .

The banquet concluded successfully and John thanked everyone for attending the banquet and started important talks with people .

He also handed George and Ron their blueprints for the machines on Guns and paper .

"So are the preparations done for the journey and did you get any news about Baron from your family?" John asked Joseph in a serious manner .

"Well they are done and it seems that as we thought Baron was only stalling for time since he wanted more money for the north-frontier town . So during the Journey, we can meet him and conclude our business with him after terms are agreed between both of you . " Joseph said to John in a serious manner .

While they were talking Eva's team and Jay also heard that John was going South with Joseph .

"Hey, Hey, you are going south and you didn't even inform us . Don't you take us as a team?" Eva asked John angrily after she heard their conversation .

"Well, I actually wanted to buy slaves for the operations of my factory so I wanted to go south with Joseph since he was more familiar with the market . I was going to inform you guys today . Do you want to join me? Plus won't you guys be bored?" John answered as it wasn't that important .

After a while,

"We don't have anything important these days plus it would affect our training if you are away so I guess we will join you" Eva was still angry but she thought about it and agreed to John's proposal .

"Okay we will be leaving tomorrow with Joseph via the east seaport"

Later John asked Jay to join him since he wanted Jay's opinion on the hunter's and archer's he was going to buy . Jay thought for a while agreed to him since the pay was good and he anyways wanted to travel around because he was bored with the monotonous Hunting life .

Jack wasn't joining them since he had other work so they would meet up when John will be returning from the south via carriages at Dolores for his negotiations with Baron Mendez . Jack wanted to prepare as much as possible for the winter disaster this time around since the north-frontier city was his area of domain in his family and he didn't want to lose it .

So it seems that everyone was going south with Joseph and John this time around . They were going via the sea because there was a whole fleet of Morgan family going south to conduct their trade and it would be much safer going with a group . Plus it would anyways save time and reduce tolls going via the sea . The only problem was the Noble funded pirates but it was safer with a fleet this time around . Hence all of them got busy in their preparations for their journey the next day . This time Grandma Melanie didn't nag as she hoped Eva and John got closer while John was also learning at an alarmingly fast speed so she wanted a breather in teaching him as she thought John would learn everything in no time . As there was no time everyone was in a hurry to make preparations for the journey . Sally as always joined them as she didn't want to be left behind while Josephine had no qualms about this issue . This made Sally very sure that there was something going on as both Josephine and Eva seemed proactive nowadays but she couldn't figure it out but knew that it was related to John somehow . However, she was more interested in food served in John's mansion this time around so she didn't bother much about other things and hence started doing the preparations for the journey .