Taste of Magic: General's Echo [Slice-of-Life LitRPG]

Melina carefully tiptoed towards the shop, trying to remain as quiet as possible, when another knock resounded. She peered over the threshold and saw that behind the glass door stood… that red-haired girl she met at the party.

What was her name again? Le… Leila… No. Laila? No. Leilani? No. Oh, right—Leliana. What is she doing here?

Melina opened the door, looking curiously at the visitor.

"Hello," she greeted the redhead.

"Hi, Melina! It's so nice to see you again," Leliana said in an overly exaggerated, high-pitched tone. Then she leaned forward, pulling Melina into a brief hug.

Why is she hugging me out of nowhere? We've talked only once before.

"How can I help you?" Melina said, and only then noticed the same two girls that were together with Leliana last time, peeking out from behind her shoulder. They were younger than Leliana and looked really similar—dark brown hair tied into a high ponytail, brown eyes, and nearly identical facial features. They had to be sisters for sure if not twins.

"We came here to visit you. Can we come in?" Leliana asked with a bright smile.

I'd rather not deal with them at all, but that'd be incredibly rude, wouldn't it? Curse the social norms of polite behavior. They continue to haunt me to this day.

"Of course. We could talk in the living room." Melina plastered on her best fake smile and stepped aside to let the three girls enter. Oddly enough, Leliana's minions followed her without a single word, acting more like dolls rather than actual people. "This way."

They went to the spacious living room next to the store, and Melina pointed towards the old sofa. In reality, the space wasn't used much so everything looked untouched and unused. She also didn't have to clean it often—just a quick sweep with a dustrag once a week was enough.

"Would you like some tea?" Melina offered. She believed that was how people usually treated their guests, but she wasn't sure if this was the right occasion.

"Yes, please. Perhaps you could offer some of the goods from your bakery too?" Leilani suggested.

Have you just come here to eat our pastries for free?

"I'd love to but unfortunately, we do not have anything made at the moment. But I'll bring something else," Melina replied and went back into the kitchen. She poured some water into the kettle and put it on the stove, feeling rather annoyed.

Good thing that the fire still hasn't gone out since the morning–it'd be a bother to start it back up just to entertain these girls. But why did they come? I doubt it was out of the kindness of their hearts. Surely, they want something more than just pastries.

As she waited for the water to boil, Melina heard hushed voices coming from the living room. Curious, she sneaked closer to the door and listened.

"This place looks so old."

"And so decrepit. Who'd want to live here?"

I don't recognize these voices so they must belong to the minions. I'm well aware that the place looks old, but surely it shouldn't be a surprise to someone in Sunglow.

"I believe it suits her quite fine. A tasteless girl deserves to live in a tasteless place," Leliana said, and her minions laughed as if they had just heard the funniest joke ever.

Oh, great, I was right. She really is one of those petty girls who bullies others. I hope they leave soon. Or perhaps the Master could return and throw them out by saying that we have a bunch of work to do. That'd be great.

A bit annoyed, Melina brewed the first tea that she found in the cupboard and put some long-forgotten cookies that she found in one of the drawers on the tray. They were a bit hard, but with the guests being how they were, she didn't want to search for anything better.

Melina took the tray and brought it to the living room where Leliana and her minions smiled at her innocently, batting their large eyelashes at her. Did they really believe Melina would fall for this petty act?

"So what brings you here, Leliana, and uh… I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever been introduced to you two." Melina's expression was equally pleasant as she gazed at the minions.

"I'm Larah."

"I'm Sarah."

"They're my little sisters," Leliana informed.

"How lovely! It's nice to meet you."

Not. You are dragging your little sister down along with your childish schemes. Good job, Leliana.

"We've come here to make sure that you're feeling comfortable in Sunglow. It's not every day that a girl our age comes to live here," Leliana said, taking a sip of the tea.

"Yes, I am comfortable."

Now leave. Maybe I can clean some dust from the corners. That seems like a more meaningful task. Or perhaps I'll pluck some weeds from the backyard and feed them to Knight. He did seem to like those.

"That is so wonderful to hear. We were so worried, you see. We heard that you and Master Gilbert went to Pertia so we lost sleep thinking whether you'd be attacked by monsters or not," Leliana said with an overly exaggerated expression.

She could at least try to look a bit more sincere.

"We were attacked by monsters." Melina took a sip of the tea too and nearly winced. It was way too strong and bitter. Perhaps, she should have paid a bit more attention to what she was brewing. Then again… maybe this bitter tea was well-suited for her guests.

"You were?!" Both minions exclaimed in shock, eyes wide.

"Did you get hurt, Melina? Is Master Baker fine?" Leliana actually managed to pull off a rather convincing worried expression. Perhaps a few more years of these theatrics could help her master the art of lying.

"We're fine. We were escorted by adventurers from the Guild. They protected us."

"Oh, really? That's wonderful. Who was it that escorted you?"

"Remi, Leon, and Lord Sinclair," Melina said and noticed a glint in Leliana's eyes—as if she had been waiting for this exact answer.

Wait, she already knew this, didn't she? It's not surprising, somebody from the town must have seen us leave, but why all these theatrics then?

"Oh, Lord Sinclair too?" Leliana pretended to be shocked.

"Yes."

"Oh, how admirable of him! Although he is from the noble Sinclair family and his father is a duke, he is still humble enough to help the commoners. People of Sunglow are really lucky to be blessed by his gracious presence," the redhead praised, her eyes looking dreamy and distant.

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Wait… she's not acting now. Is this whole charade because of Alistair?

"Yes, he protected me from certain death." Melina batted her eyelashes, making sure to add her own dramatic flair by activating <Mask of Deceit>. Leliana's eye twitched just a little and for a moment it seemed like she'd get angry. Even her minions looked a bit worried.

But she managed to temper her expression. "Of course, he would. He is an honorable nobleman after all. But we mustn't forget that he's worlds apart. Commoners are mere flies in his presence and they should be grateful to even breathe the same air as him."

The way she worded it implies that she doesn't think of herself as a commoner. Is she actually going to try to seduce Alistair? She is going to end up in a world of pain then. After all, he'll marry the third princess sometime in the future—random country girls are of no interest to him.

But I'm not going to be the one to break her out of her delusions. I probably couldn't even if I tried. She can learn the truth about this world the hard way. Nobles and commoners cannot be together.

"Of course. I feel unworthy to be protected by such a gracious and noble person," Melina said with a smile while sipping the bitter tea.

Leliana's expression softened, and she also took a sip of the tea. "It is wonderful that you understand that, Melina. Everyone in this world should know their rightful place."

"Yes, mine is right here."

"Indeed," Leliana agreed with a satisfied smirk. "Well, thank you for the tea, but we should be going now. There is still much work to be done today."

"Of course. Thank you for stopping by."

"You're welcome, Melina."

Leliana and her minions left without so much as a wave, disappearing just as quickly as they had appeared.

Thank System, that's over. That girl sure is annoying, but I don't think she'll cause me any real trouble in the future. After all, I plan to stay here and make bread. She can try and woo Alistair all she wants. Not that she'll get any results from it.

Melina cleared away the bitter tea and stale cookies that in the end remained untouched. Not even five minutes later, she heard the familiar shuffling of Gilbert's footsteps.

"Did you have some guests over?" He asked, noticing the teapot in Melina's hands.

"Yes, some girls from the town came to visit. I served them tea," Melina replied, putting the cleaned teapot back into its place.

Gilbert raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Are they bullying you?"

"I believe they are," Melina replied nonchalantly.

"You sure seem calm about it."

"Oh, don't worry about them, Master. These girls have nothing better to do so they bother me. They'll grow tired of these charades sooner or later. Besides, they are quite harmless," Melina explained. "More importantly, did you find somebody to help with the door?"

"Yes, I got a few men taking care of it right now. They'll put up the sign too, so we don't need to worry about it either. Did you finish the dough?"

"I did. I believe that the first batch should have had sufficient time to rest by now." She nodded and retrieved the tub, showing it to the old baker. He looked at it thoughtfully then nodded.

"Indeed. Let's get to work then."

Before touching the dough, Gilbert instructed Melina how to make proper herb butter filling. It was quite simple—mix softened butter with garlic, oregano, basil and parsley. Apparently, it was great to spread on regular bread and eat with various toppings.

With the filling done, they returned their attention to the dough. Gilbert demonstrated how big the ball of dough was for a single pastry and how to properly roll it out into a long log. Obviously, his balls and the following logs were all the exact same size. Meanwhile, Melina's varied greatly.

"Master, do you have some skills that allow you to make them perfect each time?" Melina grumbled, looking at her misshapen creations.

"It's just the higher rank of <Chef's Intuition> that lets me do that. I believe you should have that skill too."

"Yeah, it's at Rank D right now."

"Then you'll need to upgrade it twice more to get this perk," he noted. Melina sighed. There was nothing to it but keep practicing.

With all of the dough rolled out, it had to be filled with the prepared butter. It took a few tries for Melina to get it right. First, she had to roll the dough over the filling from the long side and then pinch the edges shut. Once the filling was secured inside, she braided the log and pinched the end firmly.

Unfortunately, Melina's braid could hardly be called that. It was more like the dough decided to grow some deformed, bulbous extensions. Master Gilbert's pastries, on the other hand, looked absolutely perfect.

"I don't think we'll be able to sell yours," the baker grumbled, looking over her braided pastries.

"Perhaps at a discount? I do have a skill that allows me to sell things more easily," she suggested.

"At a low rank, I doubt it'll be of any help," he sighed. "I wish I could just take over, but if you don't practice, you're not going to improve."

"I'll do my best to make them pretty!"

Gilbert quickly finished braiding his share of the pastries and turned his attention to the second prepared batch of dough. Meanwhile, Melina continued to slowly braid her logs, doing her best to make them look pretty.

The rest of the day continued at the same pace, both of them working in the kitchen and preparing pastries. They would be cooked in one huge batch in the evening so they could be sold to the customers in the morning. Gilbert also taught her how to make the sweet raisin squares.

It was much simpler to make than the braided bread as she merely had to add raisins and sugar to the dough and then shape it into squares. The sugar glaze that went over the top was also simple enough for Melina not to have much trouble with it.

The day went by quickly and evening came. Melina sat in the kitchen watching over the oven and waiting for the pastries to cook. Gilbert had already gone to sleep, entrusting the task to her. She didn't hesitate to apply her <Haste Bake> skill to make the process faster.

[You've made <Braided Herb Bread – Rank E>. You've gained +3 exp.]

Seems like my creations are ready. But even the System thinks that my braided bread is ugly, giving it only Rank E.

Her vision got flooded with notifications again, and she slowly dismissed them, noting that a few pastries of hers did manage to reach Rank D.

[Congratulations! You've reached Level 16.]

As she began pulling the pastries out of the oven and setting them down on the counter to cool, Melina pulled up her status screen. It had been quite a while since she could look at it since she avoided doing that while Alistair was around.

[Name: Melina Dufour]

[Level: 16]

[Class: Cook]

[Intelligence: 9]

[Agility: 6]

[Strength: 8]

[Skill: 9]

[Charm: 5]

[Active Skills: 5]

[<Refined Edge – Rank E>, <Rhythmic Kneading – Rank E>, <Mask of Deceit – Rank E>, <Gilded Tongue – Rank F>, <Haste Bake – Rank F>]

[Passive Skills: 2]

[<Archmage's Shadow>, <Chef's Intuition – Rank D>]

[Unassigned stat points: 3]

Right, I never had the chance to use those skill points. What should I use them for?

As she pulled out her braided breads, Melina noticed how ugly some of them looked, and decided that perhaps it was time to invest a little in her <Charm> stat. There was no way anybody would buy these without a little convincing and some help from her <Gilded Tongue> skill.

In the end, she invested 2 points in <Charm> and 1 in <Skill>. In all honesty, it was tempting to invest a little bit in speed because sometimes it felt like she was moving at a snail's pace. But Melina knew that superhuman speed was not something she required right now and decided that she'd invest in it sometime in the future.

"Wonderful. All the pastries are ready for tomorrow," she said, looking over the large quantity sitting on every counter available in the kitchen. With a satisfied nod, she turned off the light and went to sleep.

"I couldn't sell them," Melina stared at the leftover pile of her <Braided Herb Bread>. The regular bread that she had made in the morning and the raisin squares all sold out without any issues. But even with increased <Charm> and <Guilded Tongue> active, she could not sell her failed creations.

"I had suspected as much," Gilbert said, cleaning crumbs off the store counter.

"But they taste exactly the same as the rest of them," Melina whined.

"And look much worse. Why would customers pick the bad-looking pastries over the good ones?"

"Yeah, but we sold them at a discount."

"Clearly that wasn't enough of an incentive."

Melina sighed, looking at the sad pastries. She took a bite of one to confirm its taste—yes, it tasted good, just like the rest of them. To think that presentation would be so important to people.

"What do we do with these now?"

"We eat them, of course. What else can we do with them? We're not going to throw out good food."

"No, of course not. It's just eating only bread—you know what, never mind. I'll eat them all."

Did I just really think that eating only bread wasn't very satisfying? Since when have I started to think about food in such a way? Less than three weeks ago, I'd be grateful to eat a scrap of bark, yet now bread is too simple for me. No, I should be grateful for what I have.

Melina was about to take the unsold bread back into the kitchen when the front door creaked and the most unusual group entered the bakery—Alistair, Leon, and Leliana with her two minions.

Why are all of them together? And why is Leliana clutching onto Alistair's hand as if they are a newlywed couple?