She couldn't believe that the Monster Lord actually had eaten her cooking and enjoyed it. Sure, he had attacked Elowen straight after he admitted that Melina had been the one who made the macarons. But the first impression didn't lie. Through Sienna's eyes she had seen it as clearly as if she had been there the whole time.
The way his eyes went wide with pleasant surprise when he bit into the macaron. She hadn't known that the formidable ruler of the Monster Realm could show such a delighted expression if only for a split second. It was another small but important step to establishing peace between their Realms. This should at least plant the thought into his mind that "Hey, maybe the Archmage really has changed."
Obviously, she didn't expect him to prance over and call her his best friend anytime soon. But by continuing to show him these small gestures of goodwill, they could establish a peaceful relationship. But obviously, the most important hurdle to overcome first was the Church.
Just as she thought about them, she saw a few priests pass by, giving her a long, distrustful look. There was no doubt that they were observing her every movement. Heiliger was convinced that Melina would do as she was told, but that didn't mean that she trusted Melina.
Although this made Melina wonder—why was the woman so sure that Melina would do what she wanted? She had been branded as the traitorous Archmage after all. Were they hoping to fool Melina to do their bidding without her knowing any better? Just like they had before. Or was it sheer faith that Melina would ultimately listen to the Church.
Melina was going through all sorts of scenarios in her mind, thinking of what she could do to counter their heinous plans. To stop them from finding and getting whatever it was that they wanted to get. The problem obviously was the firepower that the Church possessed. She had been watching the new people that had come into Sunglow, searching for other System users. The Guildmasters and the adventurers had also been trying to determine their exact number. For now, they suspected that there were around forty System users.
That was way too many for Melina and Elowen to deal with on just their own. Obviously, Sienna would be a powerful counter against them too, but it still wasn't enough. So instead of relying on firepower, Melina would rely on something more universal. Something that spoke to every person—food. That was the reason why she needed almond flour. Lots and lots of almond flour.
She had feared that initially she wouldn't be able to find any in Sunglow. The previous almond flour she had, she bought in Pertia. But as it turned out, she was in luck. The merchant from Pertia that sold the almond flour got it from Sunglow's port first. Apparently, it was a specialty item that can come all the way from Su Xien.
By asking around, Melina managed to catch him before he left for Pertia and bought all the almond flour he had, except for bags that he had promised to sell to the Bakers Guild in Pertia. Melina was more than satisfied with her haul. It should be more than enough to put her plan into motion. Best part about it—the Church could watch her all they wanted. All they'd see was a baker doing her job which was the most beautiful thing about the whole thing.
Even when she walked through the town, levitating the almond flour bags behind her, the priests couldn't do a thing. The Sunglowers watched her with an amused smile, looking even somewhat proud. The tourists however stared at her with eyes as wide as saucers. It certainly wasn't something you saw just anywhere.
"You actually found it?" Roxie asked, watching Melina levitate the almost flour bags behind her.
"I caught the merchant heading to Pertia. Got really lucky. A few more hours and he'd be gone," Melina said, bringing the almond flour into the kitchen. "Where's Adrien?"
"Practicing magic with Mango up in the attic," Roxie said. "He doesn't want to leave the bakery at all these days. I can barely convince him to get out into the garden."
Melina sighed. The boy had been very skittish and nervous ever since the Church's arrival. It made Melina wonder if he somehow remembered what happened in the previous timeline. She had asked him if he had any usual skills, but apparently he didn't. However, perhaps, subconsciously he knew what had happened in the previous timeline. His time with the Church had been nothing if not miserable.
"I'm a bit worried he might blow a hole in the roof…" Roxie said with a frown.
"His control has improved. It'll be fine," Melina said. He couldn't exactly levitate rocks as he wished, but he was past the stage of blowing things up by overloading them with mana. Perhaps it was also due to his diligent practice and actually using his mana instead of just letting it pile up without any discharge. "We should visit him up in the attic once in a while to keep him company."
"Why is he so jumpy around the Church?" Roxie asked.
Melina let out a strained smile. "Well, he likes monsters and wants to study them. You know how he is with Sienna and Mango right?"
Roxie nodded. Adrien was trying to get to Melina's familiars at every chance he got. Sienna didn't want to do anything with the boy—he was a bit too enthusiastic for her tastes. Mango initially was just scared of him, but lately she's been willing to indulge him, if just for a little bit. He'd managed to bribe her by giving up some of his pastries to her.
"You know that the Church wouldn't allow people to interact with monsters as closely as we do," Melina said.
"I really don't get it. Why are they so strict about it? Sienna and Mango are completely harmless," the girl said, reaching out and gently patting Sienna who was sitting on Melina's shoulder.
"Yeah, I agree. That's why we don't quite see eye to eye," Melina said, not elaborating further.
Roxie fidgeted nervously. "A-Are they going to punish you? Punish us all for keeping Sienna and Mango around?"
Melina smiled. "Don't worry it'll all be alright. I have just the plan to turn things around."
"Plan?" Roxie asked.
"I'll be making some luminfruit macarons. Will you want to watch?"
"Yes, please! Could I try making some too?" She asked shyly.
"Of course. I'll be making many batches. Watch how I make the first one, then join me afterwards."
"Yes!" Roxie cheered, and the two of them set off to work.
Melina showed her everything slowly, step by step just like Gilbert had shown her. The girl watched with great enthusiasm, and when Melina was making the second batch, she joined, making a smaller batch of macarons of her own.
"The most important part is adding the luminfruit pulp," Melina said, showing Roxie the pulp she had prepared in the early morning. She had to cut the fruit very finely and then crush into fine paste. Doing it by hand was rather difficult as she had to push the pulp through a metal sieve in order to cut up the fine grains within the pulp.
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It was easier with magic, but even then, she always put the pulp through the sieve in the end, just to make sure that there weren't any big chunks left. After that, Melina used a bit of fire magic to evaporate the moisture out, making it drier.
The first time she made luminfruit macarons, she used the pulp which ended up with horribly deformed cookies. She couldn't even get them off the tray—they were falling up instantly and sticking to her fingers like glue. Mango and Sienna thankfully helped her to get rid of that mess. Gloopy mess or not, it was still delicious.
"No more than a teaspoon. Anymore and the cookies will fall apart," Melina instructed.
"How do you know that? Do your skills tell you that?" Roxie asked, taking a trembling teaspoon of the luminfruit pulp and adding it to her mixture.
"Well, yes and no. I have
"Ten batches?! What happened to all the failures?" She asked.
"Those that had too much luminfruit had to be thrown out. It was too risky to feed them to Sienna and Mango. But those with too little luminfruit, I gave to everyone. You ate them too. Only my special client got the perfect batch," Melina explained, deciding that it wouldn't be wise to tell Roxie about the Monster Lord. It would only make the girl nervous, and there was no reason to involve her in that whole mess anyway.
"I feel that such valuable ingredients have to be thrown out…" Roxie muttered. "Dad hates wasting ingredients."
"That's why I keep test batches small. But it's only through testing that I can figure out how to best incorporate new ingredients. It is basically impossible to get it right with an ingredient you have never used before. Especially since nobody else has tried it either," she explained.
Roxie nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess there is no way to know how to use them. Monster Realm ingredients are different from our own fruit aren't they? Since they have magic in them."
"Exactly. Always have to account for how magic will interact once cooked. In this case, it actually works out well for us that we need only a bare minimum amount of luminfruit. We can sell the macarons without worrying about adverse effects," Melina explained. It wasn't guesswork either.
She had deliberately been using
But the skill did show that the macarons with too much luminfruit had a negative effect while those with just the right amount had a positive effect. It made finding the right amount necessary easier.
Roxie did her best to mimic Melina and make her own macarons, but the three attempts she made all ended in failure. The first time, she added too much luminfruit pulp, making the shells crack. It wasn't quite as bad as Melina's cracked shells, but these obviously couldn't be sold. Fortunately, they were good enough to eat for themselves, so Melina consoled the girl, saying that this way they'll get to enjoy the treat as well.
The second time she added too little, so there wasn't any effect applied to the shells. By the third batch, her hands had gotten tired and she couldn't quite whisk the eggs to the stiff peak consistency, resulting in flat and hard cookies. Not useful in macarons but a great snack for Melina's familiars.
"You'll get it right next time," she encouraged Roxie, who was munching on one of the failed cookies.
"It is still tasty…" the girl admitted somewhat dejectedly.
"Come on. We still have to cut out the gelee discs and assemble over a hundred macarons. You'll help me out, won't you?"
"Of course!"
By the time it was evening, the whole kitchen was covered in macarons. They had various gelee fillings—strawberry, cherry, blueberry. Even a few exotic fillings made it into the mix, like mango and banana. Melina didn't quite dare to make gelee out of any Monster Realm fruit. Not yet at least. She'd work on it later.
"What are we going to do with all these macarons?" Roxie asked. "Even if we are a bakery, there's enough here for nearly the whole town."
"Not yet, but we'll be making more tomorrow morning. And then we'll be selling them at a booth," Melina said.
"At a booth?" Roxie blinked.
"Yes. A special promotion to spread the name of our bakery far and wide. This is the peak time for tourism, not to mention all the members of the Church," Melina said, not disclosing the real purpose of her plan—gathering information.
She had talked it out with the Guildmaster and Elowen, and decided to use her macarons as a weapon of sorts. It even made the Monster Lord drop their guard. With it, Melina was going to figure out exactly how many System users were there and see if she could convince them to join up. Not to mention, that it really would spread the name of Sunglow Bakery far and wide. It was time for Alemahria to know what she was capable of. To join Auden Speziale on the front lines.
"I-Is it going to be just the two of us selling the macarons?" Roxie asked nervously. She was never put behind the counter during the work hours. The girl was quite shy around strangers, so Melina hadn't forced her to. Adrien had been more than enough to do the selling.
"I couldn't manage it all alone, but I can't force you into it either. Let me go talk to Adrien," Melina said, and headed upstairs to the attic.
She knocked on the door, and after a moment Adrien shuffled the opening aside and rolled down the ladder, Mango prancing happily next to him.
"Hey, Adrien! Thanks for watching Mango today," Melina said, slowly making her way to the attic.
"No problem. It was pleasure. I'm glad that at least one of your familiars has warmed up to me. She is fascinating!" The boy said with a glee in his eyes.
"It feels a bit cold in here," Melina noted, noticing the obvious chill in the attic.
"Yeah, she was creating little snow clouds at one point. She couldn't keep them up for long, just about half a minute. But it still made everything colder," he explained. "She is growing stronger with her magic by the day."
The last sentence was said with a bit of a sour note. It appeared that he hadn't made much progress with his magic practice.
"Don't worry about it. You don't even have the System yet. It'll be easier once you do. For time being, it's good that you can control your magic enough not to hurt anyone," Melina said.
"I can do that much at least!" He said fervently.
She nodded. "You can. I don't need to worry about exploding rocks anymore. But I do have a favor to ask of you."
"Of course, Melina. Anything," he said with a nod.
"You might not like it," she warned.
The boy tensed up. "W-What is it?"
"I'll be setting up a booth tomorrow to sell macarons. In the center of the town. I need someone to help me," she said.
Adrien instantly shook his head. "With the priests crawling all over this play? No way! Nu-uh!"
He sat down in his bed, hugging his legs with his arms, as if to shield himself from the Church. The reaction was really strong, unnaturally so. Theoretically, he hadn't even met anyone from the Church. It was his father who had the unpleasant encounter.
"Why do you fear the Church so much? I imagine it's not just because they wanted to bring you to their main Monastery."
She sat down next to him, but kept a respectable distance.
Adrien looked away from her, muttering quietly. "I-I don't know. I've never even met anyone from the Church, but whenever they are mentioned, I just feel… something. I don't know what it is, but something within me tells me that I shouldn't go anywhere near them."
It almost feels as if he can remember the other timeline. But since he doesn't have a System there is no way to confirm it. Maybe once he does acquire it he will remember the past. Is there a way to trigger his memories before then? Do I even want him to remember?
Melina pushed the last question out of her mind. It was not her place to decide for Adrien whether should or shouldn't remember. The best she could do was protect him from them.
"Please, help me out tomorrow. I can't do it alone, and you're very good with customers," Melina said after a moment of silence.
The boy looked conflicted for a moment, but then shook his head. "I bet some of the priests will come to the booth too. No. I can't."
Melina placed her hand on his shoulder. "Please. I know it's hard for you. Not too long ago, I feared them just as much as you do. If not more. But this is an important mission."
"Mission?" Adrien asked in confusion.
"Yes. We need to find out everything we can about the Church, and these macarons will help us do it. Help us find the System users they have brought along. And we'll be well protected. The Guildmaster will make sure of that," Melina said.
Adrien looked torn. He fumbled with his fingers for a long while until he took a deep breath, and finally nodded. "Okay. I'll help. You can't leave my side!"
"Don't worry, I'll be right there!" Melina assured him.