Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

"One berry tart and a dozen pear rolls for me, please," said Mieve, an older woman who was a regular at Sunglow Bakery, her expression glowing with anticipation.

"Of course," Melina said, getting a carton box to place the pastries inside. As it turned out, the people of Sunglow loved tarts. In fact, they loved them so much that during the last few days, Melina had to double the amount she made each morning.

"These tarts are just a wonderful addition to the bakery! Oh, I can't wait to serve these to my friends at the tea party today. They'll be absolutely delighted," Mieve gushed.

"I hope you enjoy," Melina said, her polite mask on. Over the week, her skill ranked up, making it easier for her to remain pleasant even towards the most annoying customers. Like the ones who just couldn't decide what they wanted and held up the line for like five minutes. Or those who demanded that the list of ingredients be recited to them five times because they have this or that allergy. Mieve was one of the more pleasant customers, if a bit too chatty for Melina's liking.

"You've been a really good influence on Gilbert. He never cared for any fancier desserts, and getting him to make a cake for some bigger occasions was like pulling teeth. But now you've introduced these beautiful tarts on your own accord. I hope you'll keep up the good work," Mieve chattered, handing over a silver coin.

The price was a bit high for the tarts, but Melina believed it was justified, given that there was no other place in Sunglow where one could get such things. She also had Leon stop by each evening to apply a new layer of ice inside the chill box. The mage didn't demand any payment, but he certainly didn't pass up the chance to flirt with Melina.

But even so, Melina was excited at the prospect of introducing other new pastries. Her mind was already whirling at the possibilities.

Shimmertart would surely attract even more people. It even had a special effect that made it more likely that people would buy it, although regular tarts are already selling well enough on their own.

But she quickly dismissed the thought and turned her attention to the next customer. She couldn't waste time thinking, because today was the first time Gilbert left her alone during sale hours.

He was forced to go on another supply run to get enough ingredients for tomorrow's tarts. The old baker already had to go on one after the first day of introducing the tarts to the townsfolk. Those who didn't come early enough to buy the desserts were so enraged that they had no choice but to make more of them, although the initial plan was to do it more gradually.

"Will you eventually sell cakes too?" A little girl who had come along with her mother asked while looking at the berry tart with a sparkly gaze.

"Maybe. It depends on what Master Gilbert decides," Melina replied as she packaged the requested bread for the woman.

"To think that this bakery would change so much in just a month. I really hope you introduce more new pastries. My little Alice is always looking forward to some sweets," the mother cooed, patting the head of the little girl, who giggled in response.

"I'll try to," Melina said, handing the bag to her, while the woman set the necessary coins on the counter.

"You are so admirable, Lord Sinclair. Guarding even the smallest of peasants so dutifully." Leliana was cozying up to Alistair, who looked increasingly more miserable in her company each morning.

Leliana didn't lose her opportunity—as soon as she learned that Alistair would be in the bakery for as long as the door remained broken, she came each morning. Master Gilbert even threw her out the other day, because she was getting so overly obnoxious with her flirtatious advances. But Gilbert wasn't here today, and Melina was too busy to waste time arguing with her.

Hang in there, Alistair. It won't be much longer now.

The sight grated on Melina's nerves, but customers did a wonderful job of distracting her. It was obvious that the people of Sunglow were starved for something new. Their continuous encouragement made Melina wonder whether it would be alright to sell the shimmertarts after all.

No, no—it's absurd. It is too dangerous, not to mention that I would run out of feyfruit all too soon. Buying them is out of the question—feyfruit are far too expensive for a small bakery to buy regularly. The only other way of getting them would be to harvest them from the Monster Realm.

But then I'd have to find a passageway to it somewhere close to Sunglow. With Sienna by my side it probably wouldn't be a problem to get them—she's quite powerful. But then people would start questioning how I got them. No. Better stick with regular pastries.

But the idea just refused to leave Melina's mind, no matter what. She tried to think of ways to explain herself to regular people and avoid the eye of anyone more powerful. None of her imaginary scenarios ever ended well, but even so, she didn't stop trying to come up with a plausible workaround.

"Miss Melina, are you alright?" Alistair asked as she kneaded a batch of shortcrust pastry for tomorrow's tarts. He'd been quiet most of the afternoon, recovering from Leliana's assault. At this point, he wasn't shy in rejecting her, but she kept coming back like a determined wasp.

"Yes? Why are you asking?"

"You've been kneading that dough for like twenty minutes."

Melina looked down at the dough and saw how the butter within had started to melt—the whole work surface and her hands were covered in a thick layer of it. She hurriedly threw it into a bowl and then took it to the chill box, praying it was still salvageable.

When she came back, both Alistair and Sienna were staring at her quizzically, demanding answers with their gazes. In all honesty, his presence was starting to wear Melina down. It was difficult avoiding her skills as she knew that if she could have used them, and might have ranked up.

Not to mention that she couldn't even take the time to read her System messages or check her status screen. All she could do was hurriedly invest a point in and in after she reached Level 25 and 26 earlier this week.

"I'm just excited that we'll have a door again," she said.

"Right. Milo did say it would be ready today, didn't he?" Alistair said, and for a moment, Melina thought she heard a twinge of disappointment in his voice. But there was nothing to suggest it in his expression, so she dismissed it as her imagination.

"Yes, you'll be free to go. As long as the Guildmaster approves of it, of course," Melina said, hoping that her fears had been alleviated, since Sienna had been a very good wyrm the whole time. Well, most of the time, but nobody had to know that she almost burned down Melina's curtains with her sneeze. Melina managed to take control of the fire and snuff it out before anyone noticed. Although one corner of the curtain had an odd hole now.

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Alistair cleared his throat, looking a bit uncomfortable to the side. "Yes… She said I was free to return to my post at any time. I decided to remain here until the door is fully fixed since I'm the one who broke it."

Melina nodded as she tried to wash the butter off her hands. It was proving to be far more difficult than she thought, cold water not being of much help.

Alistair has always been rather dutiful. I'm not surprised he wants to see this through until the end.

As she wiped her greasy hands with the towel instead, she heard the distinct sound of Knight's hooves and hurried outside to help Master Gilbert unload the ingredients.

"It's so much better than before!" Melina looked at the new bakery door in awe. One might wonder what was so amazing about a door, but the fact was that it wasn't just a regular door.

Milo had gone beyond duty and carved "Sunglow Bakery" in the same type of letters as on the sign and planted a little lamp just above it so it would always be illuminated. It wasn't anything as complex as the lighting used in the sign, but it was very effective.

"You certainly outdid yourself, boy," Gilbert agreed, inspecting the sturdy door frame and lock. While the door lacked the delicate glass pane that the previous one had, it was far sturdier and was unlikely to be broken so easily. Overall, it was certainly an improvement.

"I'm glad you like it," Milo said with a sleepy, sort of euphoric expression. He was barely standing on his feet, having pulled two all-nighters to get the door done as soon as possible.

"How could we not? Thank you, Milo!" Melina smiled at him and hurried inside the bakery to collect some of the tarts and pastries she had set aside that morning just for him. "These are for you."

"Thank you," Milo slurred, reaching out to grab the box of pastries, he almost fell face-first on the ground. Alistair pulled him up by the scruff and took the pastry box with his other free hand.

"I'll make sure that he reaches the inn safely. Tomorrow, I'll take him back to Pertia."

"Wonderful. I assume your watch duty also ends. I heard that the Guildmaster feels that there's no need to watch over Sienna anymore," Gilbert said, barely hiding his irritation. Melina wished he wouldn't act so hostile, as over these four days, the old baker was getting increasingly more annoyed with Alistair.

"Yes, that is correct," Alistair replied, and this time Melina was certain that he sounded disappointed.

No, don't think about it. I'm sure he merely isn't keen on returning to his lengthy patrols. They are, without a doubt, the worst part of being an adventurer.

"Good. I thought it was a bit of an overkill. I mean, just look at her," Gilbert said, pointing at Sienna, who was sticking to the store window and darting her tongue out, trying to hit the sign it.

"Better safe than sorry." Melina chuckled at the sight of the supposedly fearsome monster.

"Agreed. I believe the time I spent here was not wasted," Alistair said, inclining his head towards Gilbert. He then looked at Melina, and for a moment, it felt like he wanted to say something more, but Milo slumped further down, his eyes barely holding open. Alistair was forced to catch him.

"I think you should take Milo to bed," Melina said, waving her hand in front of the carpenter. He didn't react.

"Indeed. I'll come to see you once I have escorted him back to Pertia." Alistair took a firm hold on Milo. He began to half-pull the exhausted boy while holding the pastry box with his other hand. Even with his strength, it couldn't have been easy, so Melina decided to give Alistair a pastry box later on. For his efforts and help.

After they left, she returned to the bakery, half sullen and half cheerful. Melina had grown used to Alistair's presence. He'd been rather helpful around the bakery, carrying the tubs of dough and packs of ingredients. He even tried his hand at cleaning once, but the result was a bigger mess than before, so Gilbert forbade him from cleaning anything again.

But she could use her skills without holding back now. Melina was tempted to start another batch of dough just to use again, but then another skill crossed her mind.

I wonder…

Melina started on dough, however, it wasn't a huge batch. It was enough for just a single tart. Sienna looked curiously at Melina, as if to ask her what she was making.

"Just testing something," she said to the wyrm, combining butter, flour, egg, and a bit of water to make shortcrust dough. But instead of activating , she instead focused on . "Lend me a bit of your power."

Sienna scurried up Melina's outstretched palm and sat on her shoulder, her gaze fixed on the dough. "We'll imbue just a little bit of mana into it with the intent of recovering stamina."

Melina felt the connection between herself and Sienna open up, and mana surging towards her. She took this mana, guided it to her palms, and kneaded the dough. With each push and pull, she put more mana into the dough and focused on the intent of recovering strength, pushing away exhaustion, and regaining stamina.

At one point she started feeling resistance and figured that the dough was full of mana and unable to hold anymore. "That's enough."

Sienna broke off the connection, and Melina stopped kneading. The dough looked no different from any other dough she had made. But without a doubt, this one was filled with mana.

"Let's try baking this," Melina said, lining a tin with the dough, pouring baking beans inside, and then putting it in the oven. Sienna let out fire underneath it, holding a steady stream until the oven was hot enough. In the meantime, Melina worked on the filling.

She took some rhubarb, cleaned it, and cut it into pieces. Then she heated it in a saucepan with some sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and potato starch. Melina was gentle with the rhubarb, stirring it carefully so it wouldn't turn into mush and instead would retain its shape.

After that came the dreaded meringue. This time, she was determined to get it right, so she whisked the egg whites with great vigor. It didn't take long for her hands to tire, but she persisted, watching how the egg whites slowly grew in volume, becoming thicker and fluffier. Finally, she was left with a nice, almost firm consistency.

Once the shell was pre-baked, she put the rhubarb filling in the middle, added meringue on top, and put the tart to finish cooking in the oven. She was pacing the whole time it was cooking. It was only twenty minutes, yet it felt like an eternity because Melina was wondering whether her intent had worked.

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

Sienna let out a chirp at the same time the notification came up, as if she too could sense that it was ready.

"It's ready!" Melina exclaimed and put on her oven mitts to pull out the pie. There were a few tiny tips of meringue that were a bit too charred, hence why it didn't go up to Rank B. Otherwise, the pie looked wonderful and smelled delightfully sweet.

However, Melina could not tell whether she had succeeded in applying an effect on it. Sadly, the System wasn't prone to giving that information even if it was your own creation. Hopefully, she would get a skill for it at some point.

"Let's go ask Master Gilbert."

It took a lot of self-control for Melina to walk upstairs slowly as she was dying to know the result. She knocked on Gilbert's bedroom door with a bit more vigor than intended.

"What is it?" He grumbled, somewhat sleepily, then noticed the pie in her hands. "Oh, you made the rhubarb meringue pie! Not a bad result, even if the tips are a little burned."

"Could you examine it with your skill?" Melina asked nervously.

Gilbert arched his eyebrow. "You did something to this pie didn't you? Added some feyfruit again?"

"Not quite."

He sighed and then looked at the pie. His eyes widened in shock, and he began reading the System message.

[

Pie with a tangy rhubarb filling and sweet, airy meringue on top. Eating it makes you feel like you're resting on a cloud.

Effects: Recovers a bit of stamina.] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"How'd you do that on your own?" Gilbert asked with a suspicious gaze. "Does this have something to do with your future memories?"

Melina flinched, a bit of cheer disappearing. She never properly explained herself to Master Gilbert. Perhaps it was time to tell him the truth. Or at least part of it.