Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

Never again…

Melina groaned as she fell into her bed. She didn't have any strength left after the incredibly long party. Leliana and her group kept dragging Melina along everywhere, talking with literally every person, trying to appear like a new gracious friend to Melina although she was mostly talking about herself. It was a clear ploy for Leliana to get as much attention as possible, forcing everyone to forget that Melina was the whole reason behind the party.

Not that I really minded, in fact, I loved that nobody really paid any attention to me. However, listening to her yap all evening is torture in itself.

Not to mention that towards the end of the party, some young men began squabbling over who would get to escort Leliana home. It resulted in quite a fight with at least three broken chairs and a broken table. At that point, Melina slipped out of the inn and headed back to the bakery, deciding that nobody would hold it against her if she ran off during a fight.

Melina laid in her bed for a few minutes then forced herself up to remove the dress—she didn't want to wrinkle it—then promptly fell back into the bed. The good thing was that the next day was Sunday and there was no work in the morning. Or so she thought as she fell asleep.

"Wake up, girl!" An angry knock resounded on Melina's door and she sat up with a jolt.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking around the room bleary-eyed, almost expecting a monster to jump out from behind the wardrobe.

"I need your help with something. I left some breakfast for you in the kitchen, so come to the backyard once you're done," Gilbert informed her and then left.

"This man is always going at his own pace, isn't he?" Melina grumbled as she saw it was only eight in the morning. "He could have let me sleep in on the weekend at least."

Sensing a lot of work ahead of her, Melina decided to wear her pants and shirt today and tie her hair into a ponytail. She felt rather grouchy, being woken up so early, however, once Melina saw that Gilbert had prepared a large heap of blueberry pancakes for breakfast, her foul mood quickly disappeared.

This food alone is worth living for. Master Gilbert has to be the best cook in the whole of Alemahria.

Once she was done eating, Melina headed to the backyard, careful not to break off any more pieces of the barely hanging door. If it even could be called a door at this point. In the backyard, she saw Gilbert pull some overgrown bushes out of the soil and throw them into the burnable trash pile.

"Took your sweet time, didn't you?" the man grumbled.

"Sorry. Those pancakes were too delicious," Melina scratched her head and smiled at the man, her stomach blissfully full.

"At least you have a good appetite. Shouldn't take long to put some meat on those bones," he said, pulling out yet another bush.

"What did you need my help with?"

"I'd like to clean up the backyard and garden a little bit. It's been a while since I've cleaned it," he explained, pointing to what was basically a small forest. Any resemblance of a garden was gone, wilderness claiming back what belonged to it.

"Alright, I'll start from the other side then," Melina said, putting on the gardening gloves that Master Gilbert must have left for her and taking a scythe.

Looking at the garden was painful. Everything was overgrown with so much grass, weeds and bushes that she didn't even know where to start. There were wildflowers growing everywhere and the few remnant rose bushes had gone completely wild, their thorny stems, creating a prickly labyrinth of sorts.

This will take more than a few days to get cleaned up. I wonder if anything of what Master Gilbert used to grow even survived.

She began by cutting off the largest grasses and weeds with a scythe from a small plot and throwing them in a separate pile. With grasses cleared, Melina began pulling at the bushes, trying to uproot them just like Master Gilbert was doing. After several attempts, it became clear that she didn't have the hand strength needed to do that.

Instead, she took a small hand saw, cut off the largest branches, and dug out the roots with a shovel. Once that was done, she begrudgingly began pulling at the overgrown rose bushes.

Initially, she just tried to reduce their size, trying to shape them into a more coherent structure. But the stems were so long that they couldn't hold their own, instead holding onto nearby bushes for support or falling to the ground entirely. Melina had no choice but cut it all off entirely, poking her fingers on the thorns more times than she could count.

"Master, why don't we plant something in the garden?" Melina asked as she tried to shovel out a bit of old roots while ignoring the pain in her hands.

"Somebody will have to take care of the crops then. I'm too old for that now, bending every day to get rid of those pesky weeds is too much for my back," he grumbled.

"I'll take care of them," she suggested.

"Are you sure you're up for it? I will not go easy on you in the bakery just because you took up this extra chore."

"I'm sure. If we grow some of our ingredients ourselves, then it could save us a good deal of money, right?"

"Yes, it would certainly make things easier," the old baker agreed.

"Then it's decided! I'm going to clean up as much of this garden as possible," Melina smiled to herself and returned to work. She felt somewhat excited—never before had she grown anything with her own hands. She only knew how to cast magic and destroy, never create or grow.

I wonder what we should grow. Wheat and rye for bread? No, it'd probably be bothersome to grind into flour, especially without the right tools. The most logical thing would be to grow things we need for pastry fillings—vegetables and fruits. So maybe some carrots, cabbages. Apples and grapes would be great but I can't grow fruit trees in one year. Maybe strawberries then?

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The more Melina thought about it, the happier she got. She redoubled her efforts at hoping to get as much of it clean as possible. But as time went on and Master Gilbert went inside to prepare lunch, she realized that her dreams of a lush vegetable and fruit garden might not be so easy to achieve.

Is this place just huge or am I too slow?

She had managed to clear out only a small portion of the garden. But the more she had cleaned the bigger the piles of trash grew. So now she had some clean space, a giant pile of grasses and weeds and a giant pile of old wood or bushes.

I'll have to burn the wood, it's taking up too much space. The grass and weeds… maybe those can be made into compost. I'm not sure how to do it properly, but maybe I can set those aside in some separate corner.

After enjoying the rich pumpkin soup Master Gilbert had prepared for lunch, Melina returned to the garden. His soup had the [Regeneration(minor)] effect on it, helping her recover her muscles and sore hands from morning work. It was likely that the baker applied it to help himself recover, but it seemed like it wasn't enough as the man did not continue clean-up after lunch. She didn't blame him—for his age it was amazing that he was able to keep this bakery going all on his own.

I wonder how old Master Gilbert is. He looks somewhere around seventy, but I'm not sure. Would it be insensitive of me to ask him directly? Perhaps it's better if I ask someone from town. Erina would probably know.

Melina carried the grass and weeds and made a pile for them behind the nightmare's stable. The beast eyed her suspiciously at first, but after a while, he emerged from the stables and began eating the grass.

"I suppose that works too. Enjoy," Melina said as she brought the last of the wildflower to the pile. The nightmare snorted at her but continued eating.

Even if I know that it's a familiar, having a nightmare just roaming around freely is a bit unnerving. It wouldn't go around causing people nightmares and then feeding on those, would it? No, the townsfolk would have long since noticed if something like that were happening. Not to mention all the adventurers.

With grass taken care of, Melina began lining up rocks in circles in order to create a place where to burn all the unneeded wood. Largest branches and some surviving planks of wood she took to the shed and deposited next to firewood—it would serve as a good kindling. The small branches and splintered remains of boxes she threw in the middle of the burn pile and then set them on fire.

"Girl, what are you doing?" Master Gilbert shouted after throwing the window of his room open.

"Burning the small branches and remains of old boxes," Melina said, then began coughing as smoke got into her nostrils and nose.

"Don't leave it unattended and be sure to put out the fire before nightfall," the baker grumbled and then shut the window.

Once Melina was sure that the fire was well contained within the circle of rocks, she continued cleaning the garden. She even developed a cleaning system of sorts. First, removing the grasses and weeds and taking them to Knight's snack pile. Then, cutting out the bushes, putting the larger branches in the kindle pile and smaller ones straight into the fire.

The work was tiring, to say the least, and by the end of the day, she was sweaty and dirty and all of her muscles were sore. Unfortunately, all of that effort resulted with only one fifth of the garden being clean.

This is better than nothing, but I had hoped to clean at least half of this today. I doubt I'll have as much time to work on this during the days when the bakery is open. If I still had my magic I would have been able to clean this in two hours.

But I don't and I never will. Oh, enough dreaming about magic. It's not coming back, not ever.

With a sigh, Melina tossed some soil on the smoldering remains of the burned branches. She made sure that the fire was well and truly out and then headed back inside to clean up.

The next free day went much like the last one with Melina working hard in the garden. Master Gilbert did not join her that day, instead he took Knight first thing in the morning and headed into town. When she asked where he was going and whether he needed help, the baker just mumbled something incoherent in response and left.

Unperturbed by his attitude, she just continued working, hoping to clean as much as possible. Sometime after lunch, Gilbert returned looking like an angry storm cloud, constantly muttering something.

"Master Gilbert, is everything alright?" she asked him curiously after the nightmare had lowered itself enough for the man to safely get down.

"I can't believe they saddled us with someone like that. After I specifically requested no nobles," he grumbled as he removed the saddle from his familiar.

"No nobles?" she asked, trying to piece together what he was talking about.

"The guild, girl. The guild. I went to check whether somebody had agreed to escort us to Pertia. Several adventurers agreed and one of them is a noble! I hate nobles!" The old baker raised his fist angrily at a cloud passing by as if it had been its fault. Somehow it felt like the cloud actually felt guilty, floating away faster.

"There are nobles working as adventurers in Sunglow?" Melina looked at him suspiciously.

What would a noble be doing in this backwater? Aside from the one governing this place, I doubt any noble would go out of their way to live in this monster-infested land. Unless…

"They're one of them System users sent here by the Church as part of their training or some nonsense like that," Gilbert explained. Melina's blood ran cold.

System user from the Church is the last kind of person I want to encounter. If they're already affiliated with the Church then it is guaranteed that they'd report me the moment they figure out I'm a System user too.

This is the worst. Is there no way of avoiding them?

"Would a noble even be inclined to help us? They look down on simple people like us, especially orphans like me. And what if I accidentally say something that would offend them? I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders," Melina said, trying to use the rift between nobles and commoners as her leverage.

"Yeah, that's what I said to the Guildmaster as well. I don't want to deal with some noble brat any more than you do. But apparently, he's supposed to be "positively inclined" towards common folk and is "the strongest warrior" the guild currently has."

"But we don't necessarily need the strongest warrior."

"I agree. Knight here is capable of taking care of some stray goblins and kobolds on his own, but apparently, there have been griffin sightings in the area and Guildmaster insists on providing the best protection possible."

"But griffins normally don't even attack travelers," Melina mused aloud and flinched at her words. Had she said too much?

"Yes, but apparently it's better "safe than sorry". I swear that the noble brat paid Arianne a bribe or something. She never used to show favoritism like that," Master Gilbert seemed unperturbed by her remark, instead continuing to grumble. "In any case, it seems we don't have much say in the matter. So keep your guard up."

Melina sighed and rubbed at her temples. A trip that was supposed to be mundane and uneventful just became a whole load of trouble. She hoped that this noble would remain largely uninterested in them. After all, they were just a baker and his orphan apprentice. But Melina has dealt with enough nobles in the past to know that wherever one was involved, trouble followed.

"I'll do my best…" she said. Gilbert nodded, taking the reins off Knight and letting the beast roam free. It instantly went to its snack pile, munching on the fresh grass and weeds. She took the reins from the old baker and went to return them to the stables.

"Oh, and one more thing," Gilbert suddenly said, making Melina turn around and look at him.

"Do not read your System messages when that noble is around. The first thing Church teaches its newbies these days is how to recognize other System users," he said casually and hobbled back inside the house.

What?! He knows I'm a System user?!