Your Majesty, Wonders are Harmful to the Country!

While the new recruits were struggling in the military camp, Bruno was busy in the castle's kitchen.

Ever since Bruno arrived in this world, his daily meals consisted of various boiled vegetables paired with white bread, with the occasional dried pork strips.

However, the dried pork was tough and hard to chew.

Moreover, people in this world hadn't yet discovered the practice of castrating pigs, so pork carried a strong, unpleasant odor. Even after being dried, the smell lingered when chewed.

Because of this, Bruno usually rewarded the castle servants with the pork jerky as an incentive, while he himself primarily ate chicken and fish.

Yet, even with chicken and fish, the limited cooking methods without an iron pot made meals repetitive, and Bruno had long grown tired of them.

Now that the iron pot had arrived, Bruno couldn't hold back his cravings any longer he was determined to treat himself.

The ingredients weren't particularly fancy, and Bruno's cooking skills were limited to basic home-cooked dishes he was nowhere near the level of a professional chef.

Holding back tears, he chopped an onion, cracked an egg, and ordered the servants to catch a chicken. Once the chicken was plucked and cleaned, he began his cooking mission.

The first dish was a simple onion scrambled egg. Though there were no seasonings like MSG or pepper salt, the dish still glistened with oil and smelled fragrant. The castle's kitchen staff stared at it in amazement.

Next was fried chicken. Originally, Bruno wanted to make spicy stir-fried chicken, but since chili peppers didn't seem to exist in this world yet, he had to change his plan and try making fried chicken instead.

In his previous life, everyone knew fast food from places like KFC wasn't exactly healthy, but Bruno still loved it. Even though he felt a tinge of guilt after eating it, he couldn't resist indulging from time to time.

Bruno first chopped the cleaned chicken into eight pieces, then used a fork to poke holes in them to help with seasoning absorption. He sprinkled some simple seasonings over the chicken and let it marinate.

Once the flavors set in, it was time to coat the chicken in batter and breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumbs were technically optional, but Bruno had planned ahead and prepared plenty, knowing that white bread was abundant in this world.

Making breadcrumbs was easy: he simply had to slice some white bread and let it dry in the sun or air. Once dried, he crushed it into fine crumbs—just like that, he had homemade breadcrumbs.

Bruno mixed flour and starch with water to make a thin batter, stirring it into a smooth consistency. Then, he heated a pan of oil.

He dipped the chicken pieces into the batter, coating them thoroughly before rolling them in the breadcrumbs. Finally, he carefully placed the coated chicken into the hot oil, which instantly sizzled and crackled.

Before long, the rich aroma of fried chicken filled the kitchen.

The kitchen staff, catching the scent, couldn't help but wonder—

What exactly is the lord cooking?

It smells so good…

No wonder the lord never seemed interested in the pork jerky. Now they understood why.

When a plate of golden, crispy fried chicken was finally served, the onion scrambled eggs suddenly looked dull in comparison.

Since this was Bruno's first attempt at making fried chicken, some pieces were slightly overcooked while others were a bit underdone but that didn't bother him.

This would be the only time he cooked it himself; from now on, the castle's kitchen staff would handle everything, refining the cooking process as they practiced.

"From now on, allocate ten extra gold coins per month to the castle kitchen. Have the cooks practice this new method of cooking."

"Yes, my lord," Lister responded.

Bruno nodded in satisfaction. Lister had this one advantage unlike Old Ford, who always tried to persuade him to spend less, Lister never questioned his spending. Though a bit slow and forgetful at times, he had no major flaws.

…

While Bruno was feasting in the castle, the new recruits had begun their afternoon training.

The morning session had been about standing at attention, and in the afternoon, they had to do a long-distance endurance run while carrying full gear.

Ignoring Old Ford's prior objections, Bruno had ordered Sam to bring out nearly all the armor and weapons in the Idar territory's inventory. They managed to gather 300 sets of imperial standard armor for the new recruits.

At first, the recruits were excited. After all, clothes make the man, and the sight of 300 soldiers in matching armor looked much more impressive than their previous ragtag appearance.

However, their enthusiasm quickly faded when Sam ordered them to run laps around Idar City's walls while wearing the heavy armor.

The imperial armor might have looked cool, but it was anything but light. Even though it was classified as "light armor," it still weighed around ten kilograms. With their swords strapped to their waists, their total load exceeded a dozen kilograms.

Barely halfway through the first lap, the recruits were already gasping for breath.

By the time they completed two laps, they felt like they were on the verge of collapse.

But at least Bruno didn't skimp on the rations for his standing army. Each recruit received a large bowl of vegetable soup, unlimited black bread, and most astonishingly meat!

For commoners, going ten or fifteen days without a single bite of meat was entirely normal. But here in the army, they were given meat every day! The portions weren't large, but it was real meat nonetheless!

Young Torren, who had been lucky enough to be selected for the standing army, was now devouring his meal.

The training had been far tougher than he expected, but they were given three full meals a day with meat!

This kind of treatment was unheard of for people like them, who had lived their whole lives in poverty.

Although the lord had given them one last chance to withdraw after today's training, Torren had already made up his mind. No matter how exhausting or grueling the training was, he would stay.

Pain and hardship? Every person here had endured worse before. But here, enduring it meant earning three gold coins a year and eating well every day who would be foolish enough to leave?

Thus, when the first day of training ended, not a single one of the 300 recruits chose to quit.