Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

The contest was moving forward in full swing as Melina transferred the risen dough to the work surface which she had generously covered with flour. She did not notice the audience around her, nor did she care about Curt's or Felipe's piercing gazes. Her only thought was to make the bread rolls as quickly as possible—time was not her friend.

She took a rolling pin and began rolling out the dough, spreading it out until eventually almost her whole workspace was covered with it.

I really did make too much. I'll make a test batch first, then continue making the rest.

With a knife, Melina began cutting up dough into squares. Once she had twelve of them, she took the cooled down pear and ginger jam and put a dollop of it in the middle of each doughy square. Then she carefully closed each and formed them into a round, doughy ball.

The first twelve balls got neatly lined onto the tray which Melina didn't hesitate to put into the oven. When that was done, she returned back to the workstation and formed the remaining dough into jam-filled balls. In the end, she was able to make twenty-four more rolls, which she also put in the oven.

As Melina added this second batch to the oven, Roxie hurried to it as well, carrying what looked like a pie. The girl was covered in sweat, and she appeared a bit panicked.

"Let it cook in time," Roxie prayed after she slid her pie in.

That pie looked rather large and there are only twenty minutes left. Can it really cook in such a short amount of time? I'm even worried about my rolls, and they are much smaller than the pie.

"Both of our lovely ladies have put their dishes in the oven so all that is left is to wait for them to cook," Auden announced. "If you're not too eager to stand and wait, but want to know the results, then now is a good time to take a break. Just be sure to come back before four."

Some people from the audience did indeed leave, while most still remained, chatting enthusiastically among themselves. Melina just turned her attention to cleaning up her workstation. The mess had been bigger than she had anticipated with dirty bowls, a dirty saucepan, and flour all over the place. But the distraction was a welcome one, and she didn't have to think so much about the rolls cooking in the oven.

I wonder if they will even turn out good. I've never made something like this although I cannot imagine what could go wrong. Maybe the jam could affect the structure of the bread in some way, but I don't know how exactly.

"Five more minutes left. Miss Melina and Miss Roxie, you should start preparing to present your dishes," Auden warned. Roxie grew visibly more nervous, and Melina began to worry as well. Her station was clean, so she got out four plates.

Come on, come on.

[You've made . You've gained +15 exp.]

Nine more such notifications appeared, and then two more with less experience as the quantity of the same dish diminished the gained experience.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 15.]

[New skill obtained: Haste Bake – Rank F.]

Haste Bake? Does it do what I think it does?

Melina willed the System to show her the explanation of the skill, while she grabbed the oven mitts and hurried to retrieve the cooked rolls.

[Haste Bake – Rank F: All baked goods cook a little faster without burning. Cooldown: 8 hours.]

That is perfect! I imagine at a higher rank I could reduce the cooking time in half and maybe even more. I guess the System felt like I needed it because I was worried if the rolls would cook in time. But I won't actually use any skills for the competition.

Melina checked the cooked rolls, perfectly round and golden brown balls, and nodded in satisfaction. Then she noticed how Roxie was nervously pacing by the oven, occasionally glancing inside at her pie. The crust had risen a little bit, but the color of it hadn't changed much—it would certainly not finish cooking in the next five minutes.

For a moment Melina considered applying to the pie to help the girl out but quickly abandoned the idea. It was too risky, not to mention that the skill's rank was too low for it to actually be useful in this scenario.

"Oh! It appears that Miss Melina is ready to present her dish," Auden announced, looking at the rolls as she arranged them on the plate, three on each.

"I suggest you wait a little bit. They are still hot," Melina said pleasantly, waiting for another wave of notifications to flood her vision.

[You've made . You've gained + 10 exp.]

Twenty-four notifications appeared before her in total, but this time she earned less experience than she had with the first twelve rolls. But there was another pleasant surprise at the end.

[Your skill has ranked up. It is now Rank D.]

She retrieved the remaining rolls, setting the tray on the workbench. There weren't enough plates for them all, but it didn't matter as these were just extras.

"Wow, that's quite a lot of rolls, Miss Melina," Auden chuckled.

"Master always gave me proportions to cook in large bulks since our goal in the bakery is to make as much bread as possible. But with these extra rolls, people in the audience can try them too," she replied.

"Indeed," he confirmed, then turned his attention to Roxie who was still pacing by the oven. "Miss Roxie, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to present your dish."

"O-oh… Alright," she deflated and pulled her pie out of the oven. As the girl brought it to her workstation, it became clear that it wasn't yet done—the crust was still rather pale. The market clock began ringing hours, signifying that the time truly had run out.

"We'll start with yours, Miss Roxie," Auden said, taking a knife and cutting a small piece for himself. Inside there was a nice apple filling with pieces of walnut in between. The man was careful to take a bite only of the filling and avoid the rather obviously raw dough. Roxie knew that too, tears beginning to well at the corner of her eyes.

"Oh, the filling is quite delicious. The sour apples have just enough sugar added to them to make the filling pleasant and the walnuts add a satisfying crunch. If this pie were fully cooked, then I can confidently say that it would beat both Curt's and Felipe's dish."

"Thank you very much," Roxie managed to force a smile, wiping at her eyes.

"Now, let's judge our final dish. What do you have here?" Auden walked up to Melina's workstation and invited the guest judges to follow.

"Pear rolls," she said and pushed the four plates closer. All the judges grabbed one of the small rolls and carefully bit into them.

"This is good!" The boy exclaimed, popping the rest of the roll into his mouth and grabbing the second one.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Despite looking simple, the flavors are quite complex. I love the pear and ginger jam in the center," the lady said.

"It is good. I like it," the old man said, his expression looking blissful.

Auden savored his roll slowly, not saying anything, his expression completely unreadable. Melina could feel herself tense as she watched him eat. Did he like it? Did he not? Was there something wrong with the rolls?

"This… This is pretty good. While the concept is simple as is the presentation, the execution requires skill. Making the bread dough in such a short amount of time is impressive, you'd have to time everything down to the last moment. The pear jam is also a great addition as it provides pleasant, but not overwhelmingly strong sweetness along with the spicy notes of ginger," he said, then turned towards the audience. "Why don't some of you come and try it?"

People were reluctant to approach at first, but some mothers urged their children forward and others soon followed. Before long all the rolls that Melina prepared were gone and in their stead, she saw happy smiles on the faces of many people.

"I believe our winner today is rather clear." Auden retrieved the basket filled with rare ingredients and put it in front of Melina. "Everyone, give a round of applause to Melina Dufour."

The audience cheered and began applauding, all of their gazes fixed on Melina. The feeling was pleasant at first, but then a memory flashed in her mind.

People used to applaud me all the time when I was an [Archmage]. They admired me and looked up to me, but I…

It took a lot of willpower to retain a pleasant smile on her lips, as guilt threatened to take over.

"Oh, come on! My fritters were better than that," Curt complained.

"If you think your crude fritters could beat these bread rolls, then you still have a lot to learn about cooking," Felipe said, enjoying a pear roll of his own. "It's a shame you already have a master, young miss, otherwise I'd be willing to take you on."

I highly doubt that. You don't know that I'm an orphan.

"Thank you kindly," she said instead.

"This really is tasty. I can see why Master Gilbert accepted you as his apprentice," Roxie noted, eating a pear roll as well.

"Wait, is your master Gilbert Backus?" Auden looked at Melina in shock.

"Yes. He is."

"How interesting! So he's finally accepted an apprentice," Auden leaned closer to Melina as if to analyze her. "I look forward to our next meeting, Miss Melina."

"Oh, I don't think I'll make a habit of participating in contests like these. I was just passing by today," she replied sheepishly. The attention of the large crowd had brought up some memories that she'd rather not relive. No, it was better to continue living a quiet life in Sunglow—to remain unseen and unknown.

"Even if you don't, I am sure that'll we meet again one day," Auden said in a hushed tone, then turned towards the audience. "With this, the cooking contest is complete! I hope you enjoyed the show hosted by none other than the Bakers Guild."

People began to disperse and Melina took the heavy basket of ingredients, barely being able to lift it, and headed back to where Remi was waiting for her.

"I knew you could win!" Remi cheered, giving a friendly pat on Melina's shoulder. "And you finally got the cocoa that you wanted."

"I think I just got lucky. I'm pretty sure that if Roxie's pie had cooked on time, she would have won."

"But it didn't, so you won! Congratulations!"

"There is one problem though… I don't know how I am going to carry this back to the inn." Melina adjusted the basket in her hands, but no matter how much she shifted it around, it didn't seem like carrying it would get any easier.

"Why don't I help?" Milo suddenly appeared from among the crowd of receding people and took the basket, lifting it effortlessly.

"Milo, hello!" Melina greeted her.

"Hello! And congratulations on your victory. That was quite impressive, and the roll was rather tasty."

"Thank you," Melina said, trying to think how Milo managed to approach her worktable and grab a roll without her noticing. Then again, the crowd was rather dense so it wasn't that surprising that he slipped by at some point.

"You actually ate one! That's so unfair, I wanted one too," Remi complained.

"Maybe I could make some once we get back to Sunglow," Melina soothed her. "But I'm surprised to see you here, Milo. I expected you to be hard at work in the workshop."

Remi cocked her head curiously, not following the conversation.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be making the sign for the bakery, but there's been a bit of a hiccup. The carving itself is coming along smoothly, but I can't get it to light up," Milo said, ruffling his hair and sending a few stray motes of sawdust flying. Both girls took a step back.

"Light up?" Remi asked curiously, and Melina cocked her head. What was he trying to do with the sign?

"Yeah, Melina mentioned that during early morning hours, nobody would be able to see the sign very well."

"Hmm… Yeah, I guess. Not that it's a problem since everyone knows where the bakery is even without the sign," Remi noted.

"Perhaps, but I'm sure Miss Melina would like to attract some new customers. So I thought of a way to apply these simple cords that they use to pass the energy from the crystal at the bottom of street lamps to the light at the top to illuminate the letters in the sign. If you take—"

"Get to the point, please." The elf said impatiently.

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain, to be honest. If you're interested, we could go to the workshop. I already got the lightbulbs I needed from the market. I could show you what I meant," Milo offered.

"Yeah, that sounds fine to me," Melina said but then paused looking at Remi. "But Remi doesn't really have anything to do with it. Perhaps we could lead her back to the inn first."

"It's fine. My curiosity has been piqued, so I'd like to see if it's not a secret," she replied.

"Alright, let's go then!" Milo said enthusiastically. They followed him, out of the busy market, through several side streets until they found themselves back at the carpenter's workshop. It was a good thing it wasn't too far from the market.

He led them inside, through the main workshop where Declan was busy cutting some planks on a large saw machine. The master carpenter didn't even notice them, so absorbed he was in his work.

Inside Milo's little workroom was covered in even more sawdust than before and a large, circle cutout of what undoubtedly would become the bakery's sign sat on the table. Next to it sat an array of thin wires and lightbulbs, some of them broken.

"Are you trying to put the light bulbs inside the sign?" Remi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, of course not. Who do you take me for?" Milo grumbled in response, then took one of the wires. Melina had never really seen one up close like that since usually they were hidden inside magitech. But looking at the unique deep purple color reminded her of something.

Could the wires be made from the fur of void rabbits? They are a rather common monster with fur that conducts mana. A bit tricky to defeat for a newbie adventurer but they wouldn't pose a problem for someone more experienced.

"You take those wires from some old magitech?" Melina asked.

"Yes. It won't conduct mana as well as new wires, but new ones are too expensive to buy here. You'd have to go to the capital or order them in bulk to get a fair price," he explained, then laid the piece of wire along the bottom of the sign, where the word "Sunglow" was carved out.

"I wanted to lay these wires along the "Sunglow" engraving and then put the little mana crystal from light bulbs to create the illumination needed," Milo explained.

"Alright, theoretically it seems to make sense," Melina said. "So what is the issue?"

"The issue is the same that it has always been—I cannot get the little mana crystals out of the light bulbs no matter how hard I try. I've tried everything—pulling it out with fingers, and tweezers, removing it along with the mechanism it sits in, even melting the metal around the crystal. But it breaks every time!"

"That's certainly a problem… although, I'm not surprised. Tiny mana crystals like these are very fragile. Most likely they were put in place using magic," Remi said as she took one of the bulbs and looked at a little blue crystal sitting in it.

"You two don't happen to know any magic do you?" Milo asked hopefully.

"No," Melina shook her head, a pang of pain running through her. Somehow admitting that she couldn't use magic anymore was more unpleasant than she had expected.

"I can use some very basic magic, but I don't think it'll be helpful in this scenario," Remi admitted, peering closely at the tiny crystal.

Milo sighed. "If I could hire a mage from the Adventurer's Guild to help me, but that'd take time. Not to mention that they are expensive."

Melina took one of the lightbulbs, removing the glass casing that protected the mana crystal. It was so tiny, barely bigger than a teardrop. However, it sat firm on a little, round metal disk, protruding outside like a tick that was latched on its prey.

To think that by flipping a switch, the mana within this crystal is activated. It lights up and illuminates everything in the area. Magic without any need of a mage—truly marvelous.

But it is utterly useless if the crystal breaks and mana disperses. They must have used some really strong adhesive to keep it in place. If only there was a way of gently nudging the crystal free from that adhesive.