The next day, Melina hurried back to the bakery first thing in the morning. Or perhaps it was unfair to call it morning because the sun hadn't even risen yet. But Master Gilbert had warned her to come early. He even gave her an old alarm clock for her to wake up on time. Granted the alarm was barely audible so it was only thanks to her overly sensitive nature that she even heard it.
But she had heard it, so after a quick wash-up, she hurried straight to the bakery. The streets were dark as were all the windows in the houses. Only an occasional street lamp illuminated her way. Along her path, she ran into a few patrols but they paid her no mind and instead focused intensely on the surrounding dark, searching for hidden threats.
I suppose monsters are a common occurrence here if the town watch is so vigilant. Guards in the cities basically sleep through their shifts, waking up only if there is a rowdier fight at the bar.
Before long, she was inside the bakery where Master Gilbert was already busy adding firewood to the large oven in the kitchen.
"Good morning, Master Gilbert," she greeted him.
"Morning. It's nice to see that you're able to wake up on time," the man said, not bothering to look away from his task.
"Of course! Waking up early is not an issue," she said proudly. While Melina was by no means a morning person, the fact that she could sleep each night peacefully without worrying meant that her sleep quality was much better than before. Her mind felt like it was on a vacation almost—fully rested and alert.
"Good," he stated flatly and then pointed to a crate of carrots and lettuce which stood by the sink. "Wash those."
I see this man doesn't like wasting time. Not that I mind. I prefer such people rather than those that yapper on without stopping.
She nodded and got straight to work, first washing the large cabbage heads and then the carrots. A strong nagging in the back of her mind feared that she'd be on the vegetable peeling and cutting duty again.
Even if that's true, I can't complain. It is still not a given that Gilbert will accept me as his apprentice. I have to show that I can be of help in the kitchen as well, not just as a cleaning lady. Good thing that Brock taught me some things on the ship so I am not completely clueless.
"I'm done," she announced after a while. The fire in the oven was roaring now, its hot tongues heating the surrounding stone. The temperature in the kitchen was getting increasingly warmer.
"Good. You know how to peel and cut vegetables, don't you?" Master Gilbert asked skeptically.
"Yes, of course. That is basically all I did aboard the ship on my way to Sunglow."
"You worked as a cook on a ship?"
"Not quite. Just as an assistant. Brock was the one who did all the cooking," she explained, fondly remembering the gruff sailor.
"Oh, you came here on"Searay". I bet Brock put you through quite the wringer. Show me what you can do. I want to see," Master Gilbert rummaged through one of the cupboards and then placed a vegetable peeler in her hand. She took it and quickly peeled one of the carrots. The baker took the root, examining it from all sides and then taking a look at the peels as well.
"Hmm… the peels are a bit too thick, but I suppose it's not bad for a newbie. Now show me how you cut it. In small cubes," he said and pointed towards the counter with a cutting board already set out on it.
Part of her was tempted to just use
Once she was done, the baker once again examined her work, picking up some of the cubes and taking a closer look at them, "Some are too big and some are not cubes at all. Not to mention that it took you way too long."
Sweat formed on Melina's forehead. Was it not good enough? How was she supposed to form cubes from the sides? Just throw out the sides? That seemed so wasteful. No, surely there was a different way of doing it.
"But for a newbie, it is acceptable," the man finally nodded, and Melina exhaled a breath of relief. "Now start cutting the rest of the carrots. Don't worry about the shape for now. Just make sure they are not too big."
So continued Melina's vegetable-cutting endeavors. It was tedious work, cutting one carrot after the next while trying to keep them all approximately the same size. So while Master Gilbert was busy with dough, kneading it and then making it into buns of various sizes, she decided to finally try out the
If the pieces seem too perfect, then I'll just mix them along with the rest and Master Gilbert will be none the wiser. But if they're not—then this skill could save me some effort.
Activate
[Skill
Melina resumed cutting, finding that she was able to cut the pesky carrots faster now. It was also easier to make them in exact cube shapes as well as avoid her fingertips. First, she cut up just one and compared the pieces with the rest of her work. Much to her delight, they were quite similar to the ones she cut before but it took much less effort with the skill.
Wonderful! Since the skill is still at Rank F, then it isn't much better than I am. That means it shouldn't be an issue if I use it.
Satisfied Melina continued to cut the rest of the carrots with the help of the skill, activating it one more time before she was done. After that, she was tasked with thinly slicing the cabbages. That's when she used the skill for the third and last time that day. She'd have to level it up soon—it made this arduous task much more streamlined and pleasant. Just like the first time she had unlocked
She could still remember how much she initially struggled to control her spells—aiming them, controlling their size and power. As soon as she unlocked
"Alright, come here," Master Gilbert said, breaking Melina out of her thoughts. "Watch carefully."
He set a few buns on the peel and then carefully slid them into the hot oven, leaving some distance between them. He repeated the process several times, placing them carefully. Melina noted that the distance between all the buns was identical.
"Now you try," he handed the peel to her. She nodded and placed the buns on the peel, then slid them into the oven trying to keep the same distance away from each other. It was harder than the baker made it look—he slid them in effortlessly. Melina had to carefully shimmy them off the peel while the blistering heat of the oven hit her straight in the face.
After she had slid six buns inside, Master Gilbert nodded, "Good. Keep placing the bread in the oven. Try to go systematically, row by row, so you know which ones were placed first."
"Got it!"
"I'm going to get started on other pastries," he informed her while she continued on her task. The rest of the morning passed much in the same manner. Master Gilbert gave her small tasks around the kitchen while he handled all the real cooking. She wanted to observe him making the pastries with fillings, but by the time he got to those, she was busy pulling out the ready buns and stacking them on the shelves or in boxes.
Four hours later, breads and pastries were ready for eager customers. Best of all, at some point when Melina was pulling a batch of pumpkin seed bread out of the oven, she leveled up. The amount of experience she gained from these breads must have been miniscule since she was barely assisting Gilbert, but the sheer quantity of them made up for that. Melina instantly invested the free stat point into
[Name: Melina Dufour]
[Level: 5]
[Class: Cook]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Strength: 7]
[Skill: 7]
[Charm: 5]
[Active Skills: 1]
[Refined Edge – Rank F]
[Passive Skills: 2]
[
She didn't have much time to assess her Status as it was time to open the bakery. Melina felt hot and sweaty as the kitchen could be compared to a sauna. Even the open windows did little to cool the air down. The smell on the other hand was to die for—delicious aromas enveloping her whole being and seeping into her clothes and skin.
It doesn't even matter that I'm a bit sweaty. The smell of fresh bread and pastries is so strong that nobody would be able to tell anyway. I wonder if I remain here for long would I just constantly smell like bread? That would be nice. Certainly better than smelling of blood.
Melina shook the unpleasant thought and went to flip the sign in front of the bakery to "Open". People were already coming towards the bakery, despite the sun barely peeking from beyond the horizon.
"Get ready, girl. It's about to get busy," Master Gilbert said, motioning her to get behind the counter. She nodded and waited. Waited until the door creaked and people began coming inside the bakery one after another.
"Morning, Gilbert! Two loaves of pumpkin seed bread for me, three meat buns and three raisin pastries," a middle-aged woman said, having barely crossed the threshold.
"Morning, Irma. You get that, Melina? Put her order in the paper bag," Master Gilbert instructed. She was caught aback by the sudden order, but quickly gathered her wits and placed requested breads in a separate bag.
"Oh, who is this young lady? Could she be your apprentice?" The woman smiled mischievously, and Melina knew that by evening the whole town would know of the girl in the bakery. Who knows, maybe as news traveled from mouth to mouth, she will be made into his long-lost niece, now an apprentice about to inherit the business. Engaged to some noble perhaps. Such things got out of hand rather quickly.
"We'll see. That'll be 1 silver and 2 copper coins," Gilbert grumbled. The woman just snickered and gave him the coins before waving goodbye. After that, things really did get busy. People came asking for bread, and Melina put their requests in bags, making sure not to mess anything up as multiple people began to call out their orders.
"Good morning, Gilbert! Oh, and Melina is here too," Erina came into the bakery, smiling warmly.
"Good morning, Erina," Melina returned the greeting, already preparing the bag where to put her order.
"Oh, you know each other?" Gilbert raised his eyebrow.
"Of course. Melina is staying in my inn right now. I do hope you'll keep her as your apprentice. We need more young ladies in Sunglow," Erina snickered.
"That depends completely on her," Gilbert deflected then pulled out a note and gave it to Melina. "This is Erina's order. It should be in the back—go and confirm that everything is correct."
"Oh, you're already trusting her with such an important task?" the innkeeper asked conspiratorially.
"I'm just very busy at the moment. I'm sure she knows how to count," he waved dismissively, but Erina just smiled at his words and followed Melina into the kitchen.
"I think your position here is basically secured," she whispered into her ear.
"I hope so," Melina replied awkwardly. It did feel that way, but she still wasn't completely sure whether she'd risk staying in the same house as another System user. It might be that her worries were unwarranted and the old baker wasn't even interested in Church's decrees. But she didn't know that. If only she could find out.
"Oh, he would never even let you into his kitchen if he wouldn't consider you," she said, then she smiled. "Besides, he needs help."
"You seem to know him quite well," Melina hummed, an idea popping into her mind. Could she obtain some information from the innkeeper perhaps? Surely she knew something about the baker.
"He's been in Sunglow since I was a little girl. I basically grew up on his bread," she chuckled as Melina took a look at the order. It contained a large amount of all sorts of breads and pastries, no doubt what Erina offered to her customers.
"Must have been nice eating this delicious bread all through your childhood. The bread in my orphanage was nowhere near as good. The best I had before coming here was given by Church," Melina said, carefully watching Erina's reaction as she started to check whether the amount Gilbert had set aside for the innkeeper was correct.
"The Church? They give out bread?" The innkeeper looked skeptical. Success.
"Yes. Doesn't the Church give out any here?" Melina asked although she knew full well that the Church rarely showed up in these parts.
"Hah? Those nasty bloodsuckers giving anything? No way. The only reason they ever show up here is to search for fresh System users," Erina scoffed.
"Is that so?" Melina said, pretending to not be too invested in the conversation.
"Yes. Once, some five years ago, one of them claimed that Gilbert is a System user," Erina waved the thought away as if the suggestion in itself was insulting.
"Really? He doesn't look like one at all," Melina did her best to appear shocked.
"Right? Accusing an old man like that and trying to drag him away. Everyone's been more wary of them since then, and Gilbert hates them more than anything. He chased the last preacher away together with the adventurers. Now that was quite a sight to see," Erina chuckled, and Melina held out the two boxes filled to the brim with bread out to the innkeeper.
Master Gilbert chased the priests off himself. If this is true, then it's safe to assume that hates the Church. Even if he did find out that I'm a System user, he wouldn't report me. I'll need to confirm this information, but I see no reason for Erina to make this up.
"Everything is in order," Melina announced.
"Wonderful. How much will it be? I ordered some extra pastries this time," Erina asked, pulling out her pouch.
"It says 24 silver and 5 copper coins here," she replied, showing the paper Gilbert had given her.
"Here you go. I'll be back again in two days, could you give this list of what I need to Gilbert," Erina asked. Melina nodded and took the list. Then the innkeeper smiled. "I expect you'll be moving out of my inn soon."
"We'll see what Master Gilbert says," Melina replied with a smile.
"If he does accept you as an apprentice, then we're celebrating," Erina said as she took the boxes and then left the bakery with a wide grin.
"Melina, are you done? We have more customers," Master Gilbert called.
"Coming!" She replied and hurried back to the store. Something about this process felt right and now that she knew that Gilbert hated the Church, the only thing left was to convince the baker that she was a worthy apprentice.