Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

The next few weeks were a bumpy ride while everyone more or less got used to Michael's presence. His snobbishness and desire to show his superiority in the kitchen didn't disappear, but he was more mindful of what he said. More importantly, he actually listened when Melina was teaching her recipes.

Mostly. He tended to ignore how Melina would make the elements that didn't involve Monster Realm ingredients, believing that he already knew how to make those. Melina didn't argue with that. He had been professionally educated as a chef, so in this regard, Melina could actually learn from him.

However, when it came to the Monster Realm ingredients, Michael listened very carefully and even took notes. Melina read out the System descriptions from him and explained how she discovered the best ways of using each ingredient.

At one point, Michael chastised her for being so open with her knowledge. That she could be demanding a lot of money for it. But Melina shook her head at that. Her goal was to spread the knowledge of Monster Realm ingredients and get people used to them.

Withholding knowledge about their proper use could only lead to trouble and mistrust, especially with more peculiar Monster Realm ingredients. So she urged Michael to spread this knowledge further, at least in Fenrora if nowhere else.

"But of course I would share it with other people in the Duchy. It is only right that they also know what I do. Otherwise, how are we supposed to thrive?" Michael shot back.

That was an awfully reasonable thing for him to say. Melina almost couldn't believe it. Perhaps, he felt some loyalty towards the Duke and the Duchess. Shame that it didn't extend further.

Nonetheless, the bakery once again became peaceful. Pastries were made each morning, while in the afternoon, Melina did her best to help Alistair as much as she could. Slowly but surely, they were tackling the giant pile of paperwork.

Melina was also learning a lot about management. Frankly, she had no clue how the Duke managed to deal with a whole duchy when one small town already brought so much trouble. Of course, it was aggravated by the fact that they were pushing its expansion rather aggressively.

But even so, the work Alistair and his team had to manage was ridiculous. Everything required approval—every newcomer, every house built, every new thing introduced, every ship arriving at port. Port was probably the biggest source of Alistair's headache as it required constant supervision.

During the two weeks since Melina had started to help him, there were two instances of illegal contraband from Su Xien. One included magical tools that amplified a System user's abilities. Another was an attempt to smuggle some dreamplums across the sea.

Melina knew that the pesky plums would cause trouble, hence why she refused to work with them and asked Count Speziale to entrust the dreamplums to the elves. Yet somehow a batch of them managed to slip through. Elowen instantly brought this matter to Lord Eidranis, as it was likely one of the drow who allowed this cargo to leave the Monster Realm.

However, despite those two incidents, it still felt far too calm for Melina. Life kept moving forward at a peaceful, even pleasant pace. She had time to spend with Alistair and occasionally meet up with her friends. Leon and Adrien were making great progress with their magic lessons.

But there was no sign of the Church anywhere.

This worried Melina immensely. Heiliger had escaped, yet nobody had seen even a hair of her. Nobody outside the Church. Ultimately, the Royal Guard was unable to do a proper search in the Monastery since the Archbishop still held a lot of power. Even the King didn't wish to force his entry, as the people wouldn't take kindly to such a drastic measure.

As such, they had to believe that the Heiliger wasn't there and continue their search elsewhere.

Melina was sure that Heiliger was actually in the Main Monastery, likely biding her time and trying to figure out a way to push her goal forward. It was a silent race of sorts—would the Royal Guard find a good enough reason to search the Monastery properly, or would Heiliger figure out how to proceed first.

"My father is still working hard on this case. She won't be able to hide in the Church forever. Eventually, she'll be caught like a rat in a trap," Alistair consoled Melina in the evening, when she had expressed her worries to him.

"The rat is most dangerous when it is cornered," Melina said.

"That's true, but she has only one Sacred Treasure with her. There's nothing she can do with only the Chalice, and there's no way we're letting her get the remaining two treasures," he said reassuringly.

Melina had to admit that he was right. Her own wards were protecting the Sacred Treasures. If anyone even came near them, she would instantly feel it. But her wards had remained undisturbed and the treasures safe.

"Don't worry. Eventually, she'll be captured, and then we'll be able to retrieve the last treasure from her. Once that happens, we'll have nothing to fear," Alistair added.

Melina nodded absentmindedly. What he said made sense, but nonetheless, this didn't settle her unease. She just couldn't believe that Heiliger would sit still and give up. The woman would undoubtedly try something.

The next morning started like any other. Melina woke up early, made breakfast for herself and Alistair. She ate together with Sienna and Mango and then headed off to the bakery.

However, as she left the house, there was a noticeable chill in the air. Melina had no choice but to head back to grab a jacket for herself. Sienna even snarled into the air, complaining about the cold. But there was nothing to be done there.

Tree leaves were already in bright yellow, orange, and red colors, and with each gust of wind, a swirl of these leaves was pulled off and thrown across town. Early mornings were also noticeably dark, and Melina couldn't help but lament the approaching winter. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

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Winters were some of the harshest times after the realms were split apart. There were many times she was on the brink of death.

"No, that's not going to happen," Melina shook her head. "Everything is heading down the right path this time."

Despite the words, the uneasiness refused to leave her. Usually it quickly faded once she got into work rhythm, but not this day. For some reason, it just kept pestering her.

"Melina, are you alright?" Roxie asked, gently tapping on Melina's shoulder.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Melina said.

"You've been levitating that particular piece of dough for two minutes now," Michael pointed out. "As impressive as it is, I don't think it'll help us do our work."

"Oh, sorry. I just have a lot on my mind, I suppose," Melina chuckled awkwardly and resumed work.

It wasn't a good morning. Everything seemed to go where Melina didn't want it to go, and things that had become as natural as breathing to her had become difficult. It wasn't even that time of the time, so she really had no clue what had her riled up so much.

She got her answer after opening the bakery. Barrett stormed inside among the customers, breathing hard and covered in sweat. This instantly brought everyone's attention.

Barrett was a strong man who could easily run for miles without breaking a sweat even while wearing heavy armor. Yet he was sweating. Just how fast he ran here.

"Is something the matter, Barrett?" Melina asked, cleaning the flour on her hands into her apron. She had a really bad feeling about this.

"L-Lord Sinclair requests your presence at the Town Hall. He says it's an emergency!" Barrett said through gasps.

As always, Barrett didn't have a single subtle bone in his body. All of the early morning customers had heard him and were now muttering nervously among themselves.

Melina smiled. "Oh, he must require some pastries for an important guest. I'll bring them over right away."

The customers relaxed and returned to browsing. Obviously, there was no such important guest, and Town Hall was always first to receive the pastries for the day, delivered by Adrien before the bakery even opened.

For Alistair to call her over like this—it must be incredibly important. Melina didn't waste time and hurried back into the kitchen.

"Sienna, Mango, stay here and help out Roxie," Melina said.

Her two familiars nodded dutifully, although they both stared at Melina for a long while. They likely sensed that something wasn't quite right. Mango seemed especially fidgety, likely sensing Alistair's unease on top of Melina's.

The moment Melina was out of sight, she used teleportation magic to appear in the storage room near Alistair's office. While it was an unusual place to appear in, it was empty, so she wouldn't be scaring anyone with her sudden appearance.

Exiting the storage room, she saw that the Town Hall hallways were empty, eerily so. She nervously hurried to Alistair's office.

"Lady Melina! You're here very fast. Please, head inside," one of the guards said, and she could see that he was visibly nervous. Just what had happened?

Unlike normal, Alistair's office was empty, with Alistair sitting alone behind his desk with a grim expression on his face.

"Please, close the door," he muttered.

The fact that his reaction to her arrival was so cold already told spades about the seriousness of the situation. Melina hurriedly closed the door and went up to his desk.

"What happened?"

"It'll take time to explain, so sit down…" Alistair said, massaging his temples. "You were right."

"Right? Right about what?" Melina asked as she sat down.

"The rat being most dangerous once cornered. Heiliger has been found."

"But that's… good news, isn't it?" She cocked her head in confusion.

"I wish it were, but sadly it isn't so simple. Heiliger has taken the position of Archbishop within the Church."

"What?! How did that happen?" Melina gasped. Out of all things she expected to hear this morning, this was not one of them.

"We don't know what actually happened, only the story they released publicly. The previous Archbishop was already rather old, but he was respected throughout the country. He was the main reason why the King couldn't just force the Monastery to comply."

Melina nodded. She was aware that the old Archbishop was well-respected. The populace saw him as a kind man who helped the orphans and the sick, as he often used his holy magic to heal people. He was the pleasant public face everyone imagined when the Church was mentioned, hence why not many questioned the Church's actions.

Obviously, those who did question them were promptly silenced by the Holy Knights, as Gilbert had explained to Melina before.

"However, somehow, the Heiliger managed to force him to abdicate his title to her. I don't know how. I would have expected a lot of resistance within the Church ranks, especially since Heiliger was about to be put on trial by the King. However…"

"Now that she's Archbishop, she can't be put on trial anymore," Melina finished.

"Exactly. They are considered integral to the Church's operation, hence why they cannot be persecuted unless their crime is proven to be treason or murder."

Melina wanted to throw up. To think that Heiliger managed to slip away and somehow set herself up as the Archbishop. But how did she convince the inner circle of the Church to give up the Archbishop's seat for her? The vote had to be unanimous for a new archbishop to be elected.

"Why would they give up the old Archbishop just to save Heiliger? He had a great public image, which they could leverage to their advantage. I can't imagine that all of those old badgers would agree on this matter," Melina said.

"Me neither. But I suspect Heiliger didn't exactly ask them nicely," Alistair said.

"You think she forced them to comply somehow?"

"Most likely. Or maybe she bribed them with something? But it's without a doubt that she used some sort of trickery. In either case, that's not even the worst of the news," he let out a deep sigh.

"Not the worst? What is the worst?"

Alistair pulled a page from his drawer and slid it over for Melina to read.

"Father sent me this in the morning. He got this information from one of our spies in the Church."

Melina read over the page. In summary, it was written that Heiliger was planning to launch some large reforms in the Church and try to strengthen its power through Alemahria. There was a lot of nitty-gritty of how various Church members viewed her rather aggressive overtaking of command, most being rather displeased by the fact.

However, any objections were quickly and merciless shut down by the Holy Knights, so nobody really could do anything about it. Most importantly, the first change Heiliger planned to announce was the existence of Sacred Treasures and their importance.

She intended to display the Chalice of the World to everyone and appeal to the public to retrieve Codex of Origin and the Stone of Sacrifice and brand them as national treasures. What's more, she was going to use the Sacred Treasures as the tokens left by the first human King and try to leverage people against the Monster Realm.

"This is bad…" Melina muttered.

This was how her fragile peace was broken yet again.