"Girl, what were you thinking?!" Master Gilbert growled at Melina as they finally arrived home, stopping the cart by the still-broken backdoor. "Why would you deliberately give that noble brat a way to discover us?"

Melina winced when he called Alistair a brat but remained calm. She had expected him to be angry. "I believe I am actually making it harder for him to discover us."

"By having him ask this "friend" questions? Clearly, you want me to look into the problem that the brat is having. I must be becoming an old fool myself, giving into your ridiculous charades." The man threw up his arms in anger and got off the cart.

"No, Master, this is a way for us to buy time," Melina explained, getting off the cart herself. The night was already settling over Sunglow, so she hurried to untie the secured ingredients. "If we didn't offer any help, then he'd feel forced to call the Church here."

"The Church has been here before. They'd come and leave like they always have. It's not worth taking such a risk," the old baker grumbled, untying Knight from the cart. The nightmare looked suspiciously at Melina for a moment before trotting back to his stables.

"No, Church coming here is always a risk, especially if Lord Sinclair wishes to meet someone more experienced. They could have the same <Identify> skill as you and who is to say that they wouldn't stop by the local bakery for a fresh loaf of bread?"

The frown on Gilbert's face only deepened. "So how is making up a pen pal going to help?"

"First, the letters always take time to travel so while they are traveling we get to relax. Besides, it is possible that you could just solve Lord Sinclair's issue," Melina lifted the sack of almond flour, ready to take it inside the bakery.

"What if he gets curious about the identity of this friend of mine? If we give him someone's real name, he could seek them out. If we give a fake name, then for a lordling like him it wouldn't be difficult to find out that such a person doesn't exist," the old baker retorted, opening the old broken door and turning on the light in the hallway.

"I believe if we explained to Lord Sinclair that your "friend" doesn't wish to be troubled in his retirement, he'd respect those wishes."

"That is nothing more than wishful thinking, girl," Gilbert reprimanded, then let out a heavy sigh. "I'm too tired for this. We'll talk more about this mess tomorrow. Make sure to unload the cart."

The old baker clambered upstairs, occasionally rubbing his temples.

I'm sorry, Master Gilbert, but I couldn't leave this whole matter up to chance. I am sure that if I maneuver this situation carefully, it'll all work out fine in the end. I believe I understand Alistair enough to know how not to arouse suspicion in him. Then again it might be that I am just unable to see him as a threat.

Quite honestly I am more worried about Auden Speziale than Alistair. Thankfully, I didn't use any of my skills during the contest, and neither did I linger in my System screens. I dismissed them as soon as they appeared. But if he had <Identify> then it doesn't matter—seeing my profile would have been enough.

With a sigh, Melina returned to the cart and continued unloading all the ingredients they had bought in Pertia. There was no use wondering about the what-ifs. She would have to be extra cautious in the foreseeable future.

As Melina moved their purchases into the storage room, the day's events came to her mind. Mainly the nightshade wolf attack and the fact that she had been powerless against them.

This can't go on. I have to find a way to defend myself, at least against the weaker monsters and maybe against people too. My older body had already been trained by decades of hardship, but this young body is so ridiculously weak.

Once she finished carrying everything inside, Melina's body whined from exhaustion only solidifying her previous thought. She went to her room and for a while just stared into the ceiling, wondering what she could do. But her only conclusion was that there wasn't much she could do. Her physical prowess was way below average and she had no access to magic.

Show basic combat classes.

[Currently, you may unlock these basic combat classes: Fighter, Hunter, Rogue, and Monk.]

Should I unlock one of these and use it as a secondary class? It'll be harder to level up my [Cook] class but perhaps the trade-off would be worth it.

She stared at the screen for a while, measuring each class and remembering all the times she fought monsters in the past. How slowly she got stronger and stronger, beating more impressive monsters. Defeating monsters that others could not. Until finally…

No, I only got stronger because of my magic. Strength based classes wouldn't do me any good, not to mention that me suddenly being able to use a sword would arouse suspicion among the people of Sunglow. I just need to be able to defend myself, that's it.

She kept tossing and turning in the bed, trying to come up with a solution, and in the end, fell asleep from exhaustion.

In the morning, she was once again woken up by a loud knocking on the door. "Get up, Melina. We have lots of work today."

She got out of bed quickly, despite feeling tired, and put on the more casual pants and shirt, preparing for a long day of work. There was still restlessness at the back of her mind, but she put it aside instead trying her best to engage in conversation with Master Gilbert.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The baker on the other hand looked like he didn't want to talk to her at all, mostly just grunting in reply. Was he perhaps regretting the decision to accept her as an apprentice? She had made such a mess in Pertia and promised to help Alistair with a problem only a System user could solve.

"I'll be teaching you pastry recipes today," he announced when she had finished her herb omelet.

"Pastry recipes? Like the stuffed braided bread? And the little raisin squares with sugar glaze?" Melina perked up, excited to finally get back to cooking. It felt like it had been ages since she made something since they'd been away to Pertia for so long.

"Yes, the very same. We'll perfect your pear rolls too while we're at it."

"But what about the door and the sign?" Melina asked, taking Gilbert's dirty plate to wash it.

"You think you'll have enough strength in those scrawny arms of yours to help me?" Gilbert looked over at her skeptically.

"It couldn't be that hard, could it? Besides, how long are we going to live without a proper back door? Sunglow might be small, but there are still enough strangers coming from the port that might plunder a house or two."

"Alright, alright. We can at least give it a shot. Let's get the old door out first," Gilbert nodded, and they both made their way to the back of the house. Somehow the broken door looked even worse than before, bits and pieces of it had fallen in a small pile on the floor. At least the door frame was still in good condition—it must have been made from some sturdier material.

"We'll need a screwdriver. Go get the toolbox from the shed," Gilbert ordered, and Melina did so. Most of the shed was occupied by firewood, however, on the far end there was an old wooden table with all sorts of tools lying on it. After some digging around Melina found the toolbox and brought it back.

Removing the door was quite easy. Melina unscrewed the old hinges while Gilbert made sure that the old door wouldn't fall on top of her. Unsurprisingly, as soon as the door was free of its hinges it fell apart, disintegrating into planks and splinters.

"I guess we'll be using that as firewood," Melina said, looking at the pieces of wood that used to be a door less than a minute ago.

"Move those out of the way. Then we'll try installing the new door," Gilbert instructed. Melina quickly threw the pieces of the old door into a pile, then hurried over to the cart, standing by the back entrance.

"So how do we install it exactly?" She asked. Melina had done many things as an [Archmage]. She'd even fixed doors before, but that was with the help of magic. How did normal people do it?

"First, let's get it out of the cart," Gilbert instructed. She got inside the cart and waited for Gilbert to approach it from the other end. "Now, let's try lifting it."

This part worried Melina the most. Master Declan had lifted the door all by himself, but he was a man in the prime of his strength. A single door was hardly an issue for him. Master Gilbert, on the other hand, was way past his prime. He could lift heavy bags of ingredients, but it was difficult for him. Melina… well, it was pretty obvious that she wouldn't be of much help in this situation.

Gilbert took hold of the door on one side, while Melina grabbed it from the other. They shared a nervous glance and then tried to lift it. They tried. But unfortunately, the door proved to be too heavy for either of them and combining their strength wasn't much of an improvement.

"I've really gotten old…" Master Gilbert scowled, looking down at his hands.

"We'll find somebody to help us out," Melina comforted him, although she felt pretty bad about being useless yet again.

"Yes, I suppose. Although, now that the old door is gone, we need to find someone to help today," Gilbert noted, looking over at the empty back entrance. Having an old door without a handle was one thing, but having no door at all was another.

"Maybe I could go into town and find somebody to help?" Melina offered, hoping to save her master from the trouble of running around.

"No, I'll go. But first I'll give you some work to do. Let's go to the kitchen," Gilbert said, heading inside the bakery. Melina followed him, looking at the now doorless entrance with a piteous glance.

"Put your apron on. I'll have you make some dough for tomorrow while I head into town."

"Oh, I bought a new apron and gloves for the kitchen. Let me get them," Melina said and went to retrieve her new purchases. They were in her room, still packed in the shopping bag. She slid the apron over her head, tied it at the back, and then looked at herself in the mirror.

Not gonna lie, this cook look kind of suits me.

Nodding at her reflection in satisfaction, she put on the gloves and hurried back to the kitchen.

Gilbert assessed her for a moment then nodded. "It suits you."

"Thank you."

"We'll start with stuffed braided bread. What do you think we need to make first?"

"Dough."

"What do you need to make proper dough?"

"Yeast, warm water or milk, sugar, salt, flour, and butter," she recited dutifully.

"Good. Go on and make a batch then. Enough to fill the tub," he instructed. Melina nodded and got to work. She had already memorized all the proportions so it didn't take long for her to make a doughy mass, waiting to be kneaded.

"Is it alright for me to use the skill <Rhythmic Kneading>?" Melina asked, just in case. It felt a bit odd talking about her skills when she was actively hiding the fact that she was a System user.

"Of course. We want to make that dough as good as possible. Which Rank is it at currently?"

"Rank E."

"Hmm… means you have about a five-hour cooldown between uses right? Try to use it whenever you can to increase the rank. We can never have too much dough," Gilbert said. She nodded and activated the skill, kneading the dough for the whole fifteen minutes it was active.

The baker inspected the dough after and nodded. "Not perfect, but you'll get better with time. Leave this batch to rest and make two more. In the meanwhile, I'll go find someone who could help with that door."

"Got it," Melina nodded and started working on the second batch. Measuring out the right proportions became easier each time she did it. Unfortunately, the kneading was more difficult without her skill to help her. Her hands were screaming from exertion by the time she was finished with the second batch. She had hoped that <Rhythmic Kneading> would rank up from her efforts, but alas it did not.

A knock resounded from the shop's door while Melina was wondering whether her arms could handle kneading another batch.

Who could that be? It certainly couldn't be Master Gilbert. He wouldn't knock to enter his own bakery, especially when there is no back door. Did somebody think that the bakery was open? No way. People from Sunglow probably are well aware of our work hours. So it must be a stranger.

Melina's blood ran cold as a possibility entered her mind. What if it was somebody from the Church? It was certainly a stretch to assume that, but Auden Speziale was a System user. If he had identified that Melina was one as well, then he could have informed the Church about her.

The knock resounded on the door again, more insistent this time, and Melina flinched. For a moment she considered pretending to not be at home.

No, I can't do that. What if it's someone searching for Master Gilbert? It could be something important. I need to at least check who it is.

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