Bab 18: Alma's Visit

Alma came and went with her childish excitement while talking about fighting against some big bad people who came to take her trees away. Alex on the other hand simply smiled and nodded as he let her talk all she wanted. After she left he stayed in the bookstore for the rest of the day while reading more things.

***

"Nolan, what happened? Getting that promotion you wanted?"

"I have no idea, the interview was really weird as if they knew everything about me. It came in two parts and in the first part they showed me that they knew I was probably going to leave the company if I didn't get the promotion!"

"They really figured that out?!"

"Yeah and in the second part of the interview, Mr. Preston simply spoke with me and talked about seemingly random subjects. It was super~ weird."

"Do you think you will get the bitchy Jenny's position?"

"Oh! You know that was even weirder! I wasn't nominated to take over! I was nominated to another department entirely!"

"You're joking!"

"No, I am supposed to be taking over from Shawn!"

"The narcissist Shawn?"

"Yeah, that Shawn."

"What department was he a part of?"

"It is the same type of job we are doing now except it is on floor 3. From what I know he was both a secretary for Mr. Abdul and ran a department like ours."

"Wait wasn't Shawn really good at what he did? That was why no one could really complain. I didn't even know why he lost his position. He was a narcissist sure, but he had the skills to back it up."

"That's the thing, he was so high on his horse that he abused his power a little too much and pissed off Abdul, but he couldn't find a good replacement so he stayed for now. From what I understand, after hearing the major changes that the CEO was setting up, Abdul did his absolute best to make sure someone new would take Shawn's spot."

"Damn~ What did Shawn do to piss of Abdul so much?"

"I am not sure, but it was enough to double my pay if I can get the position!"

Levi stood up and patted his friend's shoulder as he spoke, "I hope you don't forget me." He put his finger to his eye as if he was wiping off a tear.

"Haha! I can't forget you if I tried! Who else can do their job and still spend half their time on drawing?!"

Levi looked around panicked, "Hey hey hey! They might hear you!"

"Haha! No, remember that Jenny is gone?"

Levi's panicked look quickly calmed down as he glared at his friend Nolan, "Well, if you like to see me draw so much, why don't you hire me and I will show you what I can do?"

Nolan slowly stopped laughing before putting on a serious face, "I will make sure to find you a good position if I can."

Levi was stunned for a moment before shaking his head and casually saying, "I will be fine. I just hope you invite me to dinner with your big paycheck you will get!"

"All we can do is hope that everything works well."

***

"Lady Alma, what have you received this time?"

"This!" Alma held two books while speaking as the excited child she is.

Olsen looked at the books expecting the same fuzzy squiggles he had always seen while reading the book, but much to his surprise the words turned out very clear for him to read, "I can see words?... 'How to Build an Oven from Scratch, a Hybrid Book'... The other says 'Apple Recipes that Work Best with Crystal Red Apples, an Alex Original'... Lady Alma! I can read!"

"Looks like everything went well! Unlike the other books that had a restriction to me and my future bloodline with a pure heart, these books have a restriction that someone needs to be part of the organization I created, and~ be a good person! Lord Alex saw that these would be things that others would work on so he decided that this restriction should work best! Oh, that reminds me! He changed the fungus disease book to have the same restrictions!"

Olsen looked shocked for a while before his excitement exploded, "This is wonderful Lady Alma! HAHAHA!" The more he thought about it the more he smiled as he did his best to figure out what the best course of action should be.

"First call over Vicky and Renee over. They should learn how to cook and how to build this oven. Vicky may also want to read the fungus disease book so I will retrieve it first."

Soon the pair got to work as a new plan for the future quickly took shape.

***

"Welcome, sit down Nolan." A serious man sat at the only desk in the office. The office was fairly large and having only the desk as the centerpiece of everything really made it feel more palpable. The only other thing in the room was a few plants as decoration in the corners of the room.

Sitting down Nolan waited with baited breath as he looked to the man who was reading something on his computer. This man was the big boss of the corporation. The person who built the corporate empire within twenty years! Even then he hadn't hit forty! Fedrick Preston, a man defined by his ability to do business.

Preston on the other hand was feeling nervous as he was still getting used to using the information he received in the book. He looked up for a moment to see the dreamy eyes of Nolan. He knew that look. That look is what someone gives to their hero who they believe they could do no wrong.

This only heightened his caution as he knew himself well enough to say that he wasn't the best businessman and only became what he was today through luck and tenacity. Knowing it was time to start the interview he took a deep breath before turning to Nolan. Before he only really had his tenacity as his only skill, but now, he had a new skill gifted to him by the wizard in the bookstore. Yes he believed it was a wizard out of everything.

"Let's begin."

"Sooo~ how did it go?"

Nolan gave a defeated sigh as he flopped on his chair, "I have no real idea. He was so intimidating that I just blanked... Blanked LEVI! BLANKED!... I am so not getting that promotion..."

Levi sighed as he could feel his friend's pain. He could only pat his shoulder as an awkward comfort. "I am sure you did just fine."

"Should I just quit now that I know I won't get the job?"

"You should at least wait until they send you an email about it. Who knows you might still get a promotion, but maybe just not that one."

"Let's hope you are right..."

***

"Wow! You are already building it!"

"Yes my lady. The book allowed us to see the best ovens and how to make them! We are going with the Fanrick G5 stone stove and oven."

"That sounds fancy!"

"Yeah! It seems to be very good at cooking all kinds of foods! We also plan to cook alot with the help of these crystal apples, so we are making the G5 version which is nearly twice as big as the regular Fanrick oven!"

"When will it be finished?"

Renee looked somewhat embarrassed as she spoke, "We chose this oven over others especially since it was faster to build than some of the others, but it will still take a minimum of three days if everything goes right, but if there is a mistake, it could double the time it would take to build."

Alma looked completely disappointed as she gave a sad, "Oh..."

"BUT! That is why we have Olsen over there building that smaller oven in the church with the only downside being that it can only really cook one thing at a time, but it will take a full day at the latest!"

Alma's mood instantly perked up as she quickly became cheery again. She quickly said goodbye and ran to the church grounds to find her personal small stove. She had excitedly read the book on recipes best for Crystal Apples and desperately wanted to try to bake something. After all, if the raw apples tasted so good, what would a recipe that was made to bring out the best in the apples taste like?

Hopping over to the place where her church was being built she saw Olsen building something near the place where the books were stored. Noticing her arrival Olsen paused what he was doing before bowing and speaking to her, "My lady, I am currently building your personal oven. It should be ready before the sky turns red."

"Thank you! I just wanted to make sure everything was doing well! If everything is going according to plan I will head out to get the rest of the ingredients for my pie!"

"I hope to have the oven built before you arrive."