There were far more urchins in Ayhan’s particular little gang than John had expected. There were quickly a couple dozen gathered in the back alleys. John hadn’t been so far off on his estimations of what he would serve that each of them could have a full burger… but Ayhan had already anticipated that. The kid was already dividing the food into equal portions, and given the generous size of the patties and buns and the lack of size of the kids- some as old as their late teens- it was probably still a pretty decent meal by their standards.

The exception were the few ‘cultivators’, if they could be called that. Certainly, John felt they had some spiritual energy within them, but most were only in the first rank, with one in the third. Early Spiritual Collection Phase might not be bad at their age, but there were still risks with eating spiritual energy infused food.

John held the attuned food in front of him as he addressed them. “Now I’m going to need all of you to listen to me very carefully. I know you are hungry… for both food and spiritual energy. But you need to handle this carefully. I’ll be going over some basic instructions you’ll need to follow to tame the elements, which you’ll have to put in practice while you eat. Which means each of you go one at a time.”

John wasn’t sure if it was intentional or random chance, but each of them had chosen a different element. The strongest was the air element cultivator at the third rank, who introduced himself as Barakat. He had a sort of protective aura about him, and volunteered to go first. That could have been selfishness, of course, but John chose to interpret it as accepting risks first.

With a simple demonstration of him circulating his own energy and an explanation, John let the kid eat. He watched to make sure nothing was going wrong, but the bison meat wasn’t that potent. It was simply that nobody here could afford to end up with any internal injuries.

Next was another young man. Water element, but he felt more like crashing waves during a storm than the calm sort like Tirto. And a good bit younger, now, though it felt just like yesterday when the triplets had been that age.

Third was the lone female among the budding cultivators. She had some fire element within her, but it wasn’t much just yet.

Finally, there was a darkness cultivator. The young man seemed to have chosen it more out of a desire to be hidden than any actual affinity.

After they finished, John was thinking about the situation. None of them had chosen totems yet… and they could easily change their elements still, if they found a particular affinity. But for that, someone would have to properly guide them. And that person would be… well, it wasn’t going to be someone else. Or that would have happened already.

The older one known as Barakat stepped forward. “Senior. Do you expect to have extras again tomorrow?”

John shrugged. “Well, it is leftovers. So I can’t guarantee anything.”

“I understand. So, what do you want?”

“Isn’t that something you should ask before eating the food?”

He shook his head. “That’s not something we can afford.”

“Well, one thing I want is to not toss out perfectly good food. As for the rest, don’t worry about it for now. It won’t be anything crazy.”

Barakat didn’t look like he fully believed John about that… but as he had said, they couldn’t afford to turn down food.

Which was exactly why John planned to have plenty of leftovers the next day. And every day thereafter.

-----

“So what’s the plan?” Crystin asked when they were alone. “Do you intend to feed urchins every day?”

“Do you think I shouldn’t?” John raised an eyebrow.

Crystin frowned, “I don’t know…”

“It’s easy to pretend it doesn’t matter,” John said. “That they don’t matter. Obviously the Tenebach clan takes care of all of our members and servants. But that doesn’t make the rest of the world perfect. Having seen this, however, I can’t just forget what they looked like. And ultimately… this might feed into the other plans.”

“You’re planning to have urchins be part of your merchant guild, or your cultivation sect?”

John shrugged, “I’m planning to make use of youth with currently undeveloped skillsets. And if things don’t pan out, I can still feel good about what I’ve done.”

“It will be a lot of work, to mold them into something worthwhile.”

“That’s true,” John admitted. “But that’s the case with everybody. Sometimes the work just starts sooner.”

-----

John made certain to buy plenty of ingredients and buns for his stall. He wanted to make sure he had enough to feed his customers… with a sufficient amount left over.

The morning was just about as expected. Very few people out and about looking for food, especially not the sort of food he was selling. That gave John time to think, both about the future in general and about burgers in specific- things like finding other sorts of cheeses and alternate toppings and condiments. And potentially different meat. Not that the bison wasn’t good in its own way, but options might be good.

Lunchtime came, and business began to pick up. Viriato dropped by with a couple people. John found himself fairly busy.

Then a few burly dudes walked up. A couple of them sniffed, and the other grinned. “See? I told you. Hey, we want two dozen of these uh… hot sandwiches.”

“Cheeseburgers,” John provided. He accelerated his cooking, tossing down patty after patty on the grill as he bolstered the power of his flames. Something like that was simple even if he had been a normal Foundation Phase cultivator. Even if his skill with fire was less than his others, that just meant he could improve faster.

He handed over a big pile of burgers to the group. They began to step away, and John felt a chill behind him. But before anything could come of that, the one who had placed the order turned around.

“Oh. Almost forgot to pay.”

John smiled. “That would have been a problem.”

“Yeah we need people like you around. They’ve got a ton of us working on one of those new towers, it’s hard to get something in quantity besides tasteless slop.”

Ah. Construction. That would explain their defined muscles when combined with only mediocre cultivation. John wasn’t concerned about not getting paid, of course. Either he or Crystin could have handled it… but it would have been a pain to have to force it.

But the construction workers weren’t the only large order to come in around lunchtime. It seemed word had spread significantly in just one day of business. John wasn’t sure if his food was all that good… but it was different and affordable enough. Enough for people who didn’t cook for themselves or have chefs making all their meals to give it a try. Near the end of the lunch rush, John was almost out of buns and veggies and the like. He probably didn’t have enough to last until dinner time. Certainly not through it… and then there would be no leftovers. Plenty of bison meat, given the mass of each, but he wasn’t in the business of serving plain patties.

“See if you can snag Ayhan or someone, would you?” John asked Crystin as he continued to fulfill orders. “You won’t have to go far.”

Indeed, she found them just a short distance away. And John sent them out shopping for him, since he needed to man the stall. The task ultimately involved a half dozen of them given there was a limit to what they could carry. John didn’t worry about the money he gave them, because ultimately if they thought it was worth running off with that amount then he didn’t want to see them again anyway.

They returned quickly enough, and John made certain to let them keep a few coins for their work. He didn’t want them to get in the habit of being ordered around without getting paid. The food was an entirely separate thing.

Dinner rush came, and John actually had to push himself. It wasn’t as intense as a proper battle, but he still had to push his spiritual energy a little to properly keep up with the cooking and serving. His hands moved with great speed, using the quickness of air, while the stability of earth kept him from knocking things over as he stacked burgers. Pushing himself a little bit outside of meditative training or actual combat was a rather pleasant feeling, and getting practical use out of fire was a good feeling.

The second day ended, and John had to work hard to make sure he had more leftovers than the day before. Which was good, because there were more kids that showed up in the area. There had to be some limit to how many urchins the city housed- or at least that got along with Barakat and Ayhan’s group- but there were more than thirty this time.

John had some questions about where they all slept… but those were not things he wanted to ask them directly. Instead, he would make use of his own senses, and Crystin’s expertise. A bit of spying might be rude, but it would also let them get a grasp on what the kids acted like with others.

-----

The third day, John was already tired of doing the shopping himself and had plans to somewhat permanently assign some of the kids to the task. But beyond that, he also wanted some help with the cooking and serving, and there was also the fact that he would have to go gather more meat… or get a reliable hunter to go out for him. There was some bison available in the markets, but he wanted it fresh. For the moment, the best option was himself.

John noticed how closely everyone paid attention when he was instructing people in basic cultivation. And he knew that sooner or later he would have to make things more formal. And maybe running a food stall and small cultivation group would be enough, but he still had his eyes on potential trading. Working with Viriato there seemed like a good bet. Then there was Raul and to some extent Filimena to consider.

John was also aware he couldn’t remain in Lunson forever. He had other responsibilities that would at least draw him away for some period of time… so he wanted to make things as stable as possible before such a day came. He could invite allies to meet with him in Lunson, of course, but a random inn was a few significant steps short of a proper sect or clan.

Busy busy busy. That was John’s life… and he liked it. Unlike the period immediately after Matayal’s death, he wasn’t just distracting himself with frenzied cultivation. He was doing something. And even if some of it seemed pointless, anything constructive that ended up in the world had real meaning.

He also intended to make sure he stayed in communication with his family. Tirto and Melanthina were rather busy with clan stuff, but Ursel could get away with going wherever she pleased since she still maintained her value to the Order.

It was strange how much doing something on a whim could lead to getting other things done he’d been holding back on. John was just about ready to actually tell people about his greater ambitions, instead of just wandering around Lunson taking in the city. Though to be fair, all of that exploration had been valuable in its own way. He’d learned a lot, though he did realize he’d missed some things given the preponderance of urchins about. Then again, he couldn’t expect to know a whole city in just a few weeks. He was likely missing a good bit of the upper echelon politics as well, something he wasn’t looking forward to getting involved with. But ultimately, he knew he would bump into it if his ambitions got anywhere close to taking their final form.