Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

"Master Gilbert, please take me along!" Melina pleaded with the old baker as he was about to set off on his weekly supply run.

"What are you plotting this time, Melina?" Gilbert glanced suspiciously at her, as did Knight, letting out a distrustful snort.

"I'm not plotting anything," she shook her head and made an innocent-looking face.

But Gilbert was clearly not buying it, deep ridges appearing on his forehead. "Who is going to watch the bakery while we're gone? I hope you do remember that we don't have a door, and if I understand it well, Lord Sinclair will go where you go."

"That is correct. My task is to watch over Sienna," Alistair confirmed.

"Milo will remain, and besides we can still lock the kitchen door," Melina said.

"Milo doesn't react to anything while he's working. You could set the whole world ablaze but he wouldn't even notice it. As for the kitchen door, you can open it even when it's locked with the right application of force." Gilbert shook his head and sighed. "Just tell me what you want and I'll try to buy it."

Melina frowned, feeling a bit bad about just listing the things she needed since she had intended to use the remaining bits of her stipend to buy the ingredients for her experiments. Once she was sure that she could make the pastries right, she'd ask Gilbert to procure the necessary ingredients.

"Go on, spit it out. I am your Master, am I not? You can rely on me," Gilbert's expression softened a bit.

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I wanted to make some fruit tarts to sell in the bakery, so I was hoping to get some fruit to decorate them with."

Gilbert scratched his beard in thought. "It would require extra time to decorate the tarts, not to mention that fruit doesn't keep for long. If the tarts don't sell—and customers might be reluctant to buy something so different from what they're used to—then we'd be throwing money and good food down the drain."

"We'll start small, selling only the bare minimum at first. We'll increase it according to demand."

They stared at each other for a while, then Gilbert finally nodded. "Very well, but I won't buy a lot this time. We'll see if you can even make them first because I certainly won't be making any tarts."

"That is fine by me!" Melina cheered and gave him a hearty wave as he and Knight slowly made their way into the town. She was excited at the prospect of making more colorful pastries.

Perhaps, if the people of Sunglow enjoy pastries, I could slowly work my way up to cakes. I mean, who doesn't love cake? They would surely sell as long as I can make them right.

"You're hoping to expand the business?" Alistair asked, curiously.

"Yes. This bakery would be much larger but the problem is the amount we make and diversity. Master doesn't bother to make more than he can or anything too time-consuming. Not that I blame him. At his age, it's surprising he's able to do even that much…"

"Then it's a good thing he now has a reliable apprentice, ready to take over the reins."

"It's way too early for that. After all, I've only been here for a month." It had been exactly one month since she rewound time, preventing the world from a slow and agonizing death. The fact that Alistair was standing here, young and strong and uninjured, made everything seem somewhat surreal. As if it was some fever dream she was having before her death.

"Is something the matter?" Alistair asked, prompting Melina out of her thoughts. She must have stared at him for too long.

"No, I just thought it was a great day to continue cleaning the garden. I hoped to slowly prepare an enclosure for Sienna in a corner at the back." She pointed to the most overgrown part of the garden where some pesky vines had turned the already dense foliage into a wall of green. Sienna let out a happy chirp, approving of her plan.

The dense growth of vines turned out to be a more formidable challenge than Melina had thought. Pulling them out with her weak hands turned out to be utterly fruitless, no matter how hard she pulled. Sienna let out a displeased huff as she watched her struggle, her mouth filling with fire.

"No, Sienna! Don't," Melina said hurriedly, blocking the wyrm's mouth with her hand. A dangerous move, but Melina knew that burning her hand was better than Sienna setting the garden on fire. Not to mention that their connection had made her more resistant to fire. "You can't just burn stuff."

The wyrm closed her mouth and let out a dissatisfied puff of smoke from her nostrils.

"That scared me for a moment," Alistair said warily, and she noticed that his hand was poised on his sword. He hurriedly removed it, but Sienna did glance at him dubiously. "Let me get those."

He grabbed a handful of vines and pulled until one of the nearby bushes came out along with them, and he fell backward to the ground with the giant mass of green on top of him.

"Those are some tough vines," Melina chuckled, pulling the mass off Alistair. But the damage had already been done, as his nice shirt was covered in dirt and splotches of green.

"These things are tougher than a goblin," he noted, getting up from the ground and trying to clean the dirt off his clothes. Unfortunately, the only thing he managed to do was spread it around more thoroughly, making it look like he had rolled in the grass and mud. "Well, I give up! Seems like I'm going to have to change my clothes."

"Leave that for the end of the day," Melina said, already used to getting her clothes dirty both in the garden and in the kitchen. That's why she had aprons in the kitchen and a special gardening outfit, which she wasn't afraid to get dirty.

"You're probably right. There's still a lot of work to be done."

"You don't have to do any of this, Lord Sinclair. Just rest."

"No, I'd like to help. It's a nice change of pace from wacking goblins day in and day out."

Can't deny that. I certainly don't miss the days when all I did was hunt one monster after the next, hoping that one of them wouldn't turn me into their next meal.

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They continued clearing the deepest parts of the garden while chatting about small things—the weather, the seedlings Melina was trying to grow which Alistair was quite interested in, as well as her plans for what pastries to make next.

It was almost like the good old days when they would travel together to slay yet another monster. Except this was even nicer, because there was no monster slaying to be done, and their worst enemies were the pesky weeds trying to claim the garden for themselves. But together they made short work of them—Alistair pulled the pesky vines where Melina could reach them, and she cut them with the gardening scissors.

By the time Master Gilbert had returned they had cleared away a large portion of the garden, leaving only a small corner uncleared. It was the most progress she had made in such a short time.

"This almost looks like a garden now," Gilbert praised their handiwork, as he released Knight. The nightmare went straight to the fresh pile of weeds, eating them and the tough vines with great vigor. "Perhaps, you'd make a great gardener."

"Master, I'm sure Lord Sinclair has better things to do than to grow plants. Now let's get these ingredients inside," Melina hummed, eyeing the contents of the cart greedily and trying to find the fruit she requested.

"It's a bit early for fruits but I did manage to get some strawberries, blueberries, and rhubarb."

"Let me help you carry it inside," Alistair offered, taking hold of one of the heavier bags of flour.

"You don't have to. You've already helped so much in the garden," Melina said, feeling guilty about Alistair helping them all the time.

"I'd feel better knowing that you and Master Gilbert aren't straining yourself carrying these heavy things. Besides, it's a good exercise," Alistair said, and Melina was forced to concede. Gilbert scowled at him a little bit but didn't say anything and hobbled inside. "Where do I take them?"

"To the storage," Melina said, taking a bag of pumpkin seeds from the cart and showing him the way. With Alistair's help, the cart was unloaded in record time, and when they were done, Gilbert had prepared a delicious and filling chickpea stew for lunch.

Melina called Milo for lunch, although it was incredibly difficult to get him away from his work. He kept saying that he wanted to finish one more thing, but would quickly continue to the next one. In the end, Melina had to drag him out of the shed by his arm.

As they ate, Melina kept asking Gilbert the best way to make a tart with the fruits they had. In the end, they agreed to focus on two types: strawberry-blueberry tart and rhubarb tart.

"But are fruits alone on a shortcrust pastry enough?" Melina wondered. "And with so little variety?"

"They won't be there alone. For the strawberry tart, you'll be making a pastry cream and for the rhubarb tart there will be a meringue," Gilbert clarified.

Melina felt excitement rise within her. Pastry cream and meringue were used in many fancy desserts, so learning to make them would be a huge boost to her skillset as a baker.

"I'll gladly be your taste-tester if you need one," Alistair said, and Melina could sense a tinge of excitement in his voice as well. He did have a sweet tooth so she wasn't surprised.

"Me too. Who'd be foolish enough to miss out on fresh tart?" Milo added with an enthusiastic nod.

"I'd really appreciate that, although I can't promise that the first few tries will be good," she warned, finishing the last of her stew in a hurry. Sienna also lapped up the last bits of her portion of stew. As it turned out, Sienna liked chickpeas quite a bit. That was a relief since Melina didn't want to make the dreadful-looking meat tarts again. It was a relief that the little wyrm ate things besides feyfruit.

Master Gilbert looked at Melina, then Alistair, and cleared his throat. "Lord Sinclair, why don't you head home to change your clothes? We'll be working in the kitchen, and I'm sure nothing will happen in the short while you're gone."

Alistair hesitated, looking at Sienna, then at the missing front door which was just barely visible through the kitchen, and finally at his clothes. He sighed. "I don't have much of a choice. I'll return shortly. Thank you for the meal!"

He inclined his head and left in a hurry.

"I'll return to my work if you don't mind," Milo said and disappeared before anyone could object.

The moment both of them were gone, Gilbert glared at Melina. "You two sure are getting along swimmingly."

She nearly choked on water that she was drinking at that moment. "Master, what are you talking about? He is merely here to guard us on Guildmaster's orders. I am trying to remain polite towards him unlike you. If it was another nobleman they would have strung you up by the cliffside for your constant glaring."

"I am not glaring, that is just how my face is, and I don't want you to lecture me on him being a nobleman. You seem to have completely forgotten the fact, fawning over his every word."

Melina's face flushed. Had she really been doing that? She thought she was doing a good job of hiding her affection for Alistair, but if Master Gilbert said it like this, then perhaps she was wrong. "I… I wasn't."

Gilbert let out a deep sigh. "I'm saying this for your own sake, girl. He might appear like the rest of the commoners right now, but once his punishment is over, he'll return to his world of glamour and luxury without so much as glancing back."

He's right. The only reason why Alistair is here is because he doesn't have a choice. He'd never come here willingly to help me clear the gardens or taste the pastries. Oh, how foolish of me to forget that.

"Yes, Master…" she said dejectedly, looking down at Sienna who was curiously peering up at her, confused by her sudden dour mood.

"There's no need to get so depressed. Let's clear the dishes and get started on those tarts."

Melina nodded and forced a smile, trying to divert her thoughts to the pastries. But an unpleasant sting still remained.

"Slowly, slowly," Gilbert instructed as he watched Melina pour hot milk into a mixture of eggs and sugar. The process was rather finicky as she had to pour milk with one hand and whisk the eggs with the other. If she poured too fast or whisked too slowly, the eggs would curdle from the heat and the cream would be ruined.

Sweat was trickling down her face, her eyes glued to the steady stream of hot milk.

Please don't curdle this time! Please don't!

This was actually Melina's third attempt at making the pastry cream. The first time, she overheated the milk and poured it much too quickly. It resulted in a weird gloop that looked like milk with scrambled eggs. The second time went a bit better—the eggs curdled again, but there was something resembling a very lumpy cream.

"Good, you got it this time," Gilbert hummed as Melina poured in the last bit of milk. "Now you have to cook it over the stove while whisking constantly for about six to seven minutes."

"There's more whisking?" Melina groaned but returned the mixture to the pot and put it over the stove. Then she kept whisking, and whisking and whisking watching how the cream slowly thickened and became more yellow. It was tiring but also a satisfying process.

"It's ready. You can take it off the heat now," Gilbert instructed. "Now pour it back into the bowl, cover it, and put the cream in the chill box."

"How long will it have to stay there?" she asked suspiciously.

"About four or five hours." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"That's a long time!"

"If our chill box would function properly then two hours would be enough," Gilbert shrugged.

"Is there any chance for us to purchase it anytime soon?"

"A new magitech refrigerator? What do you think?"

Melina shook her head. Magitech was ridiculously expensive—even their current half-broken chill box must have cost a fortune. Anything actually functional was way beyond their budget.

"Is there perhaps a skill that helps cool down things faster?" She asked hopefully.

"If such a skill exists, then I do not know it. Unless you count ice that mages conjure."

"Ice…" An idea popped into Melina's mind, and she hurriedly took off her apron. "Master, I'm going to visit Leon in the Adventurer's Guild."

"Leon? Why— Oh! I see what you're thinking. But what about the lordling?" Gilbert asked. Alistair still hadn't returned, but she imagined that he must be on his way back now.

"I'm sure I'll meet him along the way," she said and hurried away from the bakery with Sienna on her shoulder.