The morning began much like any other for lina. She woke up at the first rays of the sun, when most people were still soundly sleeping in their beds. Looking out of the window, the vegetables and fruits in the garden were growing nicely. It was a perfectly peaceful sight.
But lina's heart was anything but peaceful. So many things were going through her mind, so good, so not so good. First, there was her relationship with Alistair. Never in her wildest dreams did she dare to hope that her feelings could be reciprocated. But yesterday at the festival, she and Alistair confird their feelings for each other and decided to beco a pair.
She felt both happy and scared about the prospect. Commoner dating a nobleman wasn't generally accepted, even if Sunglowers might make you think otherwise. Duke Sinclair certainly wouldn't be happy about it, even if he did back off on Alistair marrying the princess.
But even putting that aside, lina had many things to face in the future. First, the expedition from the Church would arrive in Sunglow soti in late sumr to explore the new passageway to the Monster Realm. Heiliger would definitely return along with them, and at this point, the whole town knew that lina was not just a normal baker's apprentice.
According to Elowen, the past would inadvertently repeat itself as the Church would seek to sever the connection between the Human and Monster Realms. They were likely already training candidates to beco the new [Archmage] and would gain the power that lina had in her past life.
On top of that, Monster Lord rembered what lina had done in her past life and was sending assassins her way. Thinking back on it, ever since the ti rewind, monsters had always targeted her. During their trip to Pertia and back, the Hobgoblin and Nightshade wolves went after her specifically and ignored everyone else.
"Oh, Sienna… How am I to manage all of this?" She asked her little wyrm familiar, who was still sleeping in her stone trough.
Sienna let out a lazy chitter and stretched out her limbs. She was still a little sluggish after being poisoned by the drow assassin, but she was on her way to full recovery.
"This is serious… Not to ntion this…" lina said and pointed at the ice egg sitting on her desk.
Yet another problem on her plate. In the heat of the mont, she rushed to save the egg, but she didn't think about what would happen afterwards. The egg would eventually hatch. lina didn't even know what the egg held—she was no expert in monster eggs. The elves couldn't pinpoint what monster egg it was, either, and Etrian thought it would be fun to keep it as a surprise.
"I just hope you're not aggressive," lina muttered to the egg, gently brushing its icy surface with her finger.
She could feel the mana flow of the creature growing within. It was much stronger than initially, but it was still relatively weak. lina guessed that it would still be a while before the creature hatched.
"Sienna, what will you do if we have a monster spewing ice around here?" lina questioned.
The wyrm noticeably shuddered and let out a dissatisfied puff of smoke.
"We can't just throw it out now."
Sienna let out a sad chitter. It appeared it felt sorry for the little creature in the egg as well. But she didn't have a good relationship with cold, so that likely made the wyrm nervous. Ice was her weakness after all.
"We'll figure sothing out. The garden is large. I'm sure we can find a place for both of you. If this little guy doesn't grow too big…" lina sighed, and decided that thinking more about the unborn creature would be fruitless. It was ti to begin the day at the bakery.
Once lina washed up and got dressed, she headed downstairs. Master Gilbert was already up, preparing an olet for breakfast.
"Good morning, Master," lina greeted him.
"Good morning, lina and Sienna. How is Sienna feeling?" Gilbert asked.
"Much better today," lina said, and Sienna chittered in approval.
"That's good. It looks like there won't be any long-term repercussions on her health. But should we be worried? Will more assassins be sent after you?" Gilbert questioned.
"Yes… That is likely. Master, if you don't want to deal with it, I understand. I'll leave—"
"Nonsense! You think the Church didn't send assassins my way after I left their ranks. Ha! I've beaten more of them than you can think of," Gilbert snorted.
"But these guys are sent by the Monster Lord himself," lina objected.
"An assassin is an assassin, doesn't matter if monster or not," Gilbert shrugged. "So are you adding those festival pastries to our regular assortnt or not?"
"Of course! In fact, I want to make a whole line of pastries that could be used by adventurers. I definitely want sothing against poisons, so I wouldn't have to worry about anyone slipping anything into our food. Do you think it would be possible to create pastries that provide the eater with strength buffs?"
"Calm down! Let's do one thing at a ti. You want sothing against poison, you need to find an antidote first. Sothing tasty too," Gilbert said, setting three hot olets on the table.
One had thick slices of bacon—that's how Master Gilbert liked it. One had a generous helping of cheese—lina's favorite. And the final one was bright red, as it had a whole scorchvine pepper in it, along with chili flakes. It was Sienna's favorite.
"I suppose going into the Monster Realm and trying to find sothing wouldn't be the smartest option. With the whole assassin business going on," lina said, taking a bite of her cheesy olet.
"No, but you might be forced to do that. I certainly don't know of any tasty antidotes. Maybe you know so from your Archmage days," Gilbert asked.
"I wish I did, but antidotes are notorious for tasting atrocious. The more potent they are, the more horrible the taste," lina admitted.
She wasn't sure if it was even possible to make a tasty antidote pastry. She barely managed to make a tasty healing pastry. Antidote would be so much harder.
"I'll see what I can do with the ingredients we have. Maybe I can make sothing by combining saplons and feyfruit," lina mused while eating.
"It's worth a shot," Gilbert nodded. "But what are we offering for today? What about those festival pastries?"
"I don't think I could make all of them every day. Besides, people probably don't want to overload on sweets all the ti."
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"Indeed. So what do you think we should do?"
"Sell them on rotation? On Monday, we could sell the Wyrm Eclairs and Sunglow Cream Puffs. Maybe so pear rolls. Tomorrow we could sell muffins and then on Wednesday we could switch to Shimrtarts," lina offered.
"Sounds good to . You should probably make a proper daily nu. We'll keep selling bread and savory pastries every day without change," Gilbert said.
"Yeah, many use them for lunch. We should probably offer a larger variety of savory pastries."
"Aren't you biting off more than you can chew right now?"
"Yes, you're right. Let's focus on one thing at a ti. First, make a nu of sweet, magical pastries on rotation and then figure out an antidote pastry," lina said.
"Good! I don't want you overworking yourself again. Your lover likely won't be as lenient if you collapse again," Gilbert warned.
"Yes, I suppose Alistair will be angry…" lina admitted, sheepishly scratching his cheek.
Gilbert stared at her for a while.
"What?" She questioned.
"You didn't deny that he's your lover this ti…"
"I… Um… Yeah…" lina said, her cheeks flushing red.
Gilbert sighed. "I knew this was going to happen. Just know that this boy cos with his own set of problems."
"Don't all people?" lina retorted.
"I suppose you're right," Gilbert nodded, then finished his olet. "Alright, enough chatting. We've got pastries to make."
***
The first thing each morning was making bread dough. This ti it would be for their partial rye bread. It sounded a bit weird, but it was basically a cross between regular white bread and rye bread. Not as dense as real rye bread and fluffier, but also healthier than regular white bread.
It had a unique flavor which lina personally liked as did many people in Sunglow. It wasn't quite as popular as their sourdough bread or pumpkin seed bread, but there were still plenty of people who wanted it.
Another good thing about partial rye dough was the fact that it didn't require as much kneading. Two or three minutes, and it was good to go. This dough would rest for two hours until it was ready to be shaped into loaves and loaded into the oven.
Once the bread dough was resting, lina turned her attention to choux pastry. She'd have to make several batches of it to have enough for both eclairs and cream puffs. The batches couldn't be too large either, otherwise it beca all too easy for the dough to overcurdle or beco clumpy.
Thankfully, her high rank in
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