lina barely slept the night—she had been so nervous thinking about the reopening. She was constantly wondering whether she had forgotten sothing, and the most efficient way of preparing the pastries. In the end, she got up at four and went to the bakery, unable to endure her own thoughts any longer.
Just like the previous day, she and Sienna made it to the bakery early. Gilbert and Roxie weren't even awake yet when lina already began preparing her first cakes. She kept them simple—sponge cake biscuits with fresh strawberries and whipped cream with her shimrglaze on top for increased appeal and shelf-life.
It was tricky to make a large batch of the sponge cake batter—she suspected that without her careful stirring using magic, she'd have lost the airiness of the batter. In fact, she was sure that she had lost so, so she sneakily inserted tiny air bubbles in it.
Sienna was up to her task of cooking the sponge cake. lina started with just one, just so the wyrm could get a feel for the right temperature. But she had gotten it right on the first try, so lina loaded the rest of the sponges in without worries, letting Sienna take care of it.
"You're up early today," Gilbert said as he hobbled into the kitchen.
"I couldn't sleep knowing how many things there were to do this morning."
"Have you eaten yet?" He asked.
"No."
"I'll make so waffles. Sienna, would you mind lighting the stove for ?" Gilbert asked.
The wyrm carefully manoeuvred to the stove and shot a fireball inside to heat it. Gilbert then placed a few logs inside, and she set a gentle fla to them. He then began his breakfast preparations while lina prepared the buttercream for the cakes.
At so point, Roxie also ca downstairs, looking a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry I'm up so late."
"No, don't apologize. I'm just up early."
"Wait at the table. I'll have waffles ready in a few minutes," Gilbert instructed.
The whole kitchen was already filled with various pleasant scents. With the oven and stove running simultaneously, it was also becoming increasingly hotter. It didn't bother lina, but she saw sweat forming on Gilbert's and Roxie's foreheads.
"Let cool down this place a little," lina said and concentrated on the air in the kitchen. She tried to lower the temperature by applying a bit of ice magic to the air. It was a bit difficult—her natural affinity had always been fire, and her bond with Sienna had only strengthened that.
Perhaps, once Mango's ice magic was stronger, she'd be able to grasp ice magic a bit better. But currently, she managed to lower the temperature just enough so that it wasn't overbearingly hot.
The sponge cakes, with the help of , finished cooking just in ti for breakfast.
[Your skill has ranked up. is now Rank B.]
lina left the sponges to cool and quickly tucked into her waffles.
"Where are you rushing?" Gilbert asked.
"There are still many things to make. I want as many things available on the opening day as possible. I'll be working on choux next."
Her waffles disappeared in record ti, and she was back to work in no ti while Gilbert and Roxie continued their breakfast. Gilbert obviously didn't hurry, but Roxie looked nervous.
"Don't mind her, lass. Eat slowly," Gilbert told Roxie.
She nodded, her mouth filled with waffles. She hurriedly chewed and swallowed them. "I'll help out as much as I can."
"I'd be grateful if you could retrieve the bread dough from the storage," lina instructed Roxie once she was done eating.
The girl obeyed. lina worried she wouldn't be able to lift the heavy tubs, but she managed, if with a little difficulty.
"What do I do?" Roxie asked.
"Shape them into equally sized loaves," lina said, and showed her the size of the loaf. It was a bit regretful that she couldn't pass her skill to Roxie. At its current rank, she got an extra pastry with each six made. "Then put them in the oven and let Sienna take care of cooking."
"The wyrm is going to cook them?" Roxie asked in disbelief, pointing at Sienna.
"Yeah. She already cooked the sponge cakes," lina shrugged.
"This has got to be the most unusual but also the most amazing bakery ever," Roxie exclaid.
"Most troubleso too…" Gilbert added.
Roxie flinched at his words, appearing nervous.
"Don't worry. He ans . But I can't bottle up who I am. You saw try."
"I wouldn't really call it trying. You lted the mont that boy appeared," he pointed out.
lina didn't reply and instead turned back to work. He wasn't exactly wrong, but she'd rather not admit it aloud.
"Should I score sothing on the loaves?" Roxie asked.
"Score?" lina cocked her head at the unfamiliar term.
"Scoring is the last cut we make in the bread, so it wouldn't explode into a ss. I have always done just simple X, but you can always score in a more interesting fashion."
"Hmm… I certainly wouldn't mind, but it's not like it can be anything too complicated, otherwise we'll be spending too much ti scoring bread."
"How about a sun? It's simple, and this is Sunglow Bakery," Roxie suggested.
"Sure, that sounds great," lina nodded.
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Roxie turned out to be rather quick at making loaves and scoring suns on top of them. It was clear that she had done this a lot as more and more loaves made their way into the oven. Once it was full, Sienna used her skill to cook them.
anwhile, lina had prepared a batch of choux pastry and was piping them into shape. It was a very busy morning. lina wished she could involve Roxie more in her magical recipes, but the girl was plenty busy with bread alone. Not to ntion, when lina asked her to fill out the choux with healing caral, the girl grew visibly tense.
She tried filling a few, and it was then that lina realized that Roxie was indeed clumsy. Sohow, she got the caral everywhere, except inside the pastry itself.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She apologized profusely.
"Don't worry about it! There's still plenty of other work to be done. Why don't you cut up the strawberries for the cake?"
The work continued at a steady pace. At so point, Adrien woke up and began helping out where he could. Mostly taking care of dirty dishes and carrying the finished goods into the store.
The closer it ca to the opening hour, the more nervous lina grew. Would anyone even co? Would people enjoy the new selection of pastries? Looking at the bakery now, with displays filled with shimrtarts, strawberry cakes, eclairs, and spark pies, it was completely different from before.
Breads that didn't look as impressive were put on the shelves in the back, while the colorful pastries were put in the display cases. Adrien took care to display the nicest pastries at the window case, turning them at the nicest angle. As expected of a son of a rchant.
"We're ready!" Adrien announced proudly.
"It looks really great!" Roxie stared at the bakery with an admiring look.
"It's certainly more colorful…" Gilbert noted.
"Is that bad?" lina asked nervously. Perhaps, she had strayed too far from Gilbert's original vision of selling simple breads and pastries.
"No. You did well," he said, gently patting her head. "I think your first custors are here."
Alistair was waving at her from the window, Mango clutched in his arm. He was also holding a large bouquet with various colorful sumr flowers.
lina went to open the bakery's front door. "Good morning!"
Mango yipped at lina happily while Alistair handed her the bouquet. "Morning, and congratulations on your grand reopening!"
"Thank you." She said, accepting the beautiful flowers.
"Many are already heading this way," Alistair said and pointed to the end of the street.
lina saw the familiar group of adventurers chatting among themselves as they ca towards the bakery. Among them, she saw Remi, Barrett, and Illitran. Remi was waving at her enthusiastically. A little distance behind them ca Elowen, who appeared a bit uncomfortable, likely because Leliana had attached herself to him.
"I suppose it's ti to turn on the sign," lina chuckled.
Sienna darted out of the bakery and pressed the button, which turned on the sign, chittering excitedly.
"Sienna! lina was supposed to do that," Alistair huffed.
"That's alright. She's helped out a lot this morning. She's an official baker wyrm now," lina chuckled.
"lina, these cakes look absolutely delightful!" Erina praised, looking eagerly at the cakes through the display case.
Many eyes were glued onto the cakes as well as the colorful eclairs and tarts. Children had their little hands glued to the glass, and lina gave herself a ntal note to wash those after the service was over.
But overall, it was going great. lina hadn't shied away from the fact that her pastries did indeed have unusual effects, and many people asked eagerly what those effects were. As expected, the most popular were the cloud muffins as they could relieve fatigue.
But just because a pastry had a certain effect, it didn't an that people would buy it purely based on it. After all, plenty of people wanted to try wyrm eclairs and spark pie, although it was doubtful that they needed fire and lightning resistance.
The cakes were the first to sell out. She had made only ten since she wasn't sure how they would be received. But lina's worries turned out to be unwarranted as people eagerly asked for cakes and wondered if she'd be making other kinds in the future. lina replied that she will.
However, in the midst of this cheerful atmosphere, she had let her guard down. She, along with Adrien, served each custor in turn. He turned out to be a great help, actually, dealing with custors swiftly and gracefully. He certainly looked far more comfortable in the bakery than he ever had in the Church. lina felt like in the future it wouldn't be a problem to leave the service hours up to him if he was up for it.
Roxie, on the other hand, stood nervously to the side, trying to appear invisible. She flushed whenever lina introduced her as the new baker, and muttered that she hadn't really done much. The crowds didn't seem to be her favorite place to be.
"One of your Sunglow puffs, please," a gruff voice said.
lina initially didn't think much, but then their eyes t and she recognized him. This was the sa man who had stalked her bakery for weeks, except this ti he was dressed in more regular clothes, likely to blend in better with the townspeople.
"Curious that you'd decide to order sothing after all this ti," lina narrowed her eyes, but retained her pleasant smile with the help of . She couldn't make a scene on her opening day.
"Oh, I always wanted to order sothing, but I never could quite decide on what I wanted," he said, his cold gray eyes peering at lina. "Yet once I had finally made up my mind, the bakery suddenly closed."
"We were undergoing renovations. I'm sorry for the wait," she replied, trying to keep her voice steady.
Why was this man, who had always remained sowhere in the shadows, talking to her now? Sothing must have changed.
"I can see that. The bakery looks truly lovely now. Much better than before. The pastries on offer are also most unusual. It's as if they were made by magic," he drew out the word magic, then looked around the bakery. His eyes fell onto Sienna, who was hanging on one of the walls and blowing rings of smoke to entertain the children.
"Maybe they were," lina said as calmly as she could, but she wondered if the Sunglowers would mind much if she apprehended the Church spy right then and there. It was certainly tempting, but at the sa ti, it would ruin all the cheer.
"Truly fascinating. As is your pet. Never thought that a monster could ever be accepted in a human town," he spat, not hiding his distaste.
At this point, so of the other custors were starting to sense that sothing wasn't quite right. They were talking for too long. lina grabbed a paper bag and retrieved one of the cream puffs. But she didn't package him the healing version; instead, nimbly substituting it for the regular one.
"Here's your order, dear custor," lina said, offering him the bag and hoping he would silently leave.
"And the new hire you have is most unusual. The boy seems very talented, as if he has experience in selling things," the man said, grabbing the paper bag along with lina's hand. His grip was cold, almost painful. "One would say it's unusual for this boy to have appeared here so suddenly."
His grip slowly tightened, becoming painful, but lina wasn't about to let this creep get away with it. She allowed mana to flow out of her fingers and crush the man's hand. Not enough to actually injure him, but enough for him to release his grip.
"It's not unusual at all. He needed a teacher, and I'm ready to beco one," lina said with a smile.
"I would reconsider that decision in your place. There are far more suitable teachers for him out there," the man hissed, pulling his hand away.
"No, I don't think I will," lina said confidently. She was sending a clear ssage to the Church. She wasn't about to let them do as they pleased.
"I wouldn't be so hasty in your decision. You still have ti to take the correct side," he said.
"I'm already exactly where I'm supposed to be," lina said, then turned to the next custor in line. "Next, please. What would you like?"
He scoffed and skulked out of the bakery, glaring daggers at lina. But she wasn't about to let him go without sending a ssage.
As she packed the pastries for the next custors, she whispered, hiding her mouth behind her hand, so it wouldn't appear that she was talking to nothing. "Remi, did you hear that?"
The elf instantly poked her out of the kitchen. Her mouth was stuffed full of cake, but her gaze lingered on the man as he left the bakery.
"What's up?" She asked.
"I think it's ti for so phoenixflies."
Remi's eyes lit up with joy. "Oh, I thought you would never ask!"
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