Steel Empire
Adela's Birthday 2

The next day arrived with Berengar sleeping alone in the room reserved for him; he deeply missed the warmth that Linde's body had given him these past few months; therefore, he had difficulty falling asleep. After all, she was used to scooping with her lover in the mall*m day, so much so that something was wrong without it.

Berengar decided to make today one of his rest days and thus spend his morning lazing in bed; it wasn't until eleven in the morning where he finally got up from his much-needed break and prepared to face the day. As a man who used to sleep until dawn, he was happy with the length of sleep he got, especially considering how long he slept the night before.

After getting up from his bed, Berengar chose to take a bath and was very disappointed by the primitive wooden tub with a linen cover, which the Adela family used; this was undesirable, to say the least. It reminded her of the painful days when she first reincarnated to this alternate Earth. Needless to say, he made his bath as short as possible because there was no way he would enjoy himself with such a sad excuse for the tub.

Berengar spent the rest of his free time meeting Adela, who was deeply concerned about his ongoing conflict with the church; he himself personally studied the Ludolf Manifesto and the teachings of the Berengar Reformation. Although he agreed with most of the points, he still felt that the Church was not as corrupt as described in the paper. Moreover, now that Berengar was excommunicated and condemned as a heretic, he felt the need to discuss religion with him now more than ever.

"Listen, I worry about your soul; the Pope has condemned you as a heretic! Are you not worried about the afterlife?'

Berengar only smiled as he hugged Adela, he was happy that Adela cared about him, but in fact he did not believe in such things; at most, he would reincarnate again as he had already experienced. Otherwise, he would be food for worms, as he had thought before his brief experience with death. As for the existence of heaven and hell, he was sure such things did not exist. Nevertheless, he did not acknowledge it and instead tried to comfort the girl with a similar message he had conveyed to the Pope in the past.

“Pope may have the authority to excommunicate me, but when I finally perish from this world and placed in front of the gates of heaven. In the end it is God, not the Pope, who will determine whether or not I am worthy to enter heaven. The kingdom of heaven."

Although Adela wanted to complain, she knew her words were true, or at least according to the Bible. On the other hand, Simeon and many previous Popes would definitely try to convince him otherwise. But since he had read the Bible where Berengar had been accurately translated into German, he was convinced what Berengar said was the truth.

After their intimate moment ended, Adela could hear her mother looking for her. When she finally found the two of them, they had already separated, and Adela, in particular, blushed. The Countess had a worried look on her face but decided not to ask the question in her mind and instead told Adela and Berengar that it was time for dinner.

"Quick, you two, come to the dining room. It's dinner time!"

Berengar hosted Adela and her family, as well as other guests who had come. He was currently sitting at the dining table opposite Adela, where all the nobles who had gathered for this event were present. The food on the table is one of Berengar's recipes where he has given Adela as a parting gift when she leaves his family's land. After eating such exquisite cuisine, he could not let it return to the relatively bland medieval food in his home.

Because of this, there was all kinds of food across the table, which Berengar had already used; however, for many visiting nobles, it was common for him to be used, this was the first time they had eaten such a delicious meal and were very surprised by the quality of the food. With a very fat noble giving his praise to Count Otto

"Count Otto, this dish is very tasty; you should share the recipe with me!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't have the authority to do so; this recipe is a gift from Viscount Berengar and was made in his territory. If you really want to get it, I'm sure he'll be willing to sell it to you at a reasonable price."

Berengar that meticulous merchant could smell an unthinkable opportunity before; why did he not think of selling his recipe to the entire German world? It was absolutely brilliant; he was able to spread traditional German culture from his old timeline and make a profit while doing so! Although it would not be as profitable as the trade of steel, textiles, and weapons. She had already planned to expand into the jewelry trade by showing off Adela's gifts in front of the Steiermark nobility. However, the Count had given him another source of income that he had never thought of before.

The fat nobles quickly asked Berengar about the details of such a transaction.

"Viscount Berengar, name your treasure, and as long as you can fulfill it, I will purchase whatever recipe you have!"

Berengar smiled, but before he could make his statement, some other nobles interrupted.

"The movement is exposing sexual violence in order to eliminate it!"

"I also want a good recipe!"

eventually, the whole table switched the conversation to business, where Berengar sadly had to include a pin in their plan.

"We'll discuss this later, now's not the time to discuss business."

Although the nobles were impatient, they could not deny Berngar's words and, thus, forced themselves to calm down as they enjoyed the food at hand.

The rest of the meal was quite pleasant as Berengar chatted with the nobles, and Adela chatted with the noble ladies who were all very envious of her fiance. On more than one occasion, one of the invited noble daughters approached Berengar in an attempt to win his heart but was quickly shut down by him. Berengar already had two women who fulfilled their roles perfectly, and he lacked the emotional capacity to deal with the third. Therefore, he had polite conversations with these girls but never hinted that he was interested.

Adela, of course, watches her closely, like a vulture, but she finds that Berengar has never tried to tease any girl who approaches him, even some of the prettier ones. This greatly delighted him when he began to believe that perhaps Berengar was not a complete and total man, although he was still convinced he and Linde were items. Thus, for the time being, her fears could be assuaged, and she enjoyed her Birthday Eve celebration.