Melina stood silently, trying to come up with something to make Alistair less suspicious of her. Dozens of options went through her mind, but none of them seemed convincing enough. Just as she opened her mouth to respond, Gilbert's distinct footsteps could be heard on the stairs.

"Oh, Master Gilbert is up!" Melina said, dropping the topic entirely and running up to the baker. "Did you have a good rest?"

"Yes…" He eyed her suspiciously and then looked at Alistair, who greeted him with a polite nod. "I see Arianne still insists on us having a bodyguard."

"She is concerned for your safety, but the Guildmaster allowed me to go to Pertia tomorrow. In the meanwhile, Barrett will watch over you."

"Bah! We are not children who need to be babysat," Gilbert hobbled into the kitchen. Sienna stopped her exploration and made her way onto Melina's shoulder, settling underneath her dress. The wyrm probably enjoyed her warmth.

"I believe it is only a temporary measure until we are sure that Sienna poses no threat. Although, it seems to be acting much like a familiar," Alistair noted, taking a bite of his sandwich. Much to Melina's surprise, Gilbert started laughing.

"Familiar? Sonny, I'm not even a System user and even I know that familiars are far more impressive than this little lizard."

Sienna peeked her head outside the dress and let out a dissatisfied growl.

"Yes, yes, you can growl at me, you little monster, but you're no familiar. I once met an adventurer with an actual familiar," Gilbert said, settling down by the kitchen table across from Alistair. Melina hurriedly grabbed a teapot and filled it with water, setting it to heat up on the stove.

"Really?" Alistair asked curiously.

"Yes, and what a sight it was. The man and the beast were basically one, fighting as a single entity in the battle. While the man slashed with his sword, the beast struck the enemy from behind. Not to mention that a true tamer and his familiar share their magic and if their bond is close enough—even senses," Gilbert said with a distant look in his eyes, making Melina wonder whether he was actually thinking of somebody. But then his gaze snapped to Sienna, and he scoffed. "This little lizard is nothing more than a parasite who came here to snack."

Sienna released an angry puff of smoke, and Melina had to retrieve a chili nut from the cupboard to settle her. "There's no need to be so harsh, Master. The most important thing is that nobody got hurt."

Alistair nodded his head. "Indeed. All's well that ends well, familiar or not. I suppose Miss Melina's tartlet was too good to resist."

The sudden praise caught Melina off-guard, and she flushed, turning her attention to the teapot to hide her embarrassment. The water was hot enough now, so she took it off the stove, put some tea leaves into it, and got some cups from the cupboards. "It is the feyfruit that did the majority of the work. Tea with honey, Lord Sinclair?"

"Yes, please," he hummed, taking another bite from his sandwich. Melina poured the tea for everyone, honey in hers and Alistair's cup, and just plain tea for Gilbert. "But if you hadn't won that competition, then who knows what would have happened to us."

Alistair's older face with the prominent scar on his left cheek flashed before Melina's eyes, and she shook her head. "It's no use thinking about what could have happened. We can only think of what we can do now."

"Yes, like the dough we need for tomorrow. Did you finish that puff pastry?" Gilbert grumbled whilst blowing on his tea.

"I did. If you're worried, I can fold it again later."

"No, I'll trust you. I'd rather teach you how to make shortcrust pastry so you can make those tartlets for the little beast."

"Could we also decrease the amount of feyfruit used? I'm afraid it won't last very long if we use it as much as the first time."

"Yes, I believe we should. In time we should replace it with a different fruit entirely."

They continued chatting about possible variants of the feyfruit tartlet and what to feed the ember wyrm in general. Alistair suggested meat which made Melina wonder what kind of diet would be optimal. Tartlet would no doubt classify as a dessert. Nuts seemed like a better option but realistically where would a fully grown ember wyrm find enough nuts in the wild to sustain itself?

Maybe I should read up on ember wyrms in the library to figure out what Sienna might like and dislike. After all, I was already proven wrong when I thought she hated water. It was the cold she actually hated.

Once they were done with their tea and Alistair had eaten his sandwich, Melina and Gilbert turned their attention to making shortcrust pastry. Much to her relief, it turned out to be much easier to make than any other dough. All she needed was flour, a large helping of butter, some eggs, a bit of salt, and the bare minimum of water to bind the whole mass together.

Due to Alistair's vigilant presence, she didn't dare to use <Rhythmic Kneading>, but even without it, the shortcrust dough was much easier to work with and didn't require nearly as much kneading as bread dough did. Less than twenty minutes later she had it ready for cooking.

The main problem was figuring out how to make the filling for the tartlet. Gilbert and Melina both agreed that one feyfruit for a batch of twelve tartlets was quite enough. The fruit was filled to the brim with mana and Sienna hadn't shown any signs of aggression. A minimum amount of feyfruit should suffice. The problem was what to use with the feyfruit to make the filling.

"Perhaps, we could try pears?" Melina suggested thinking of her pear rolls. Many people seemed to love it, despite its simplicity. She retrieved a pear from the storage and cut a small slice from it, offering it to Sienna.

The wyrm sniffed it cautiously, then took a tentative nibble at the fruit. But she didn't seem to enjoy the taste, hiding herself under Melina's clothes again.

"I guess that's a no," Melina sighed, taking a bite from the fruit. It was mellow, sweet, and juicy so the fault definitely wasn't with this particular pear.

"This might not be as simple as we think," Gilbert said, scratching his beard thoughtfully.

"Then perhaps we could replace it with something else? Like meat," Melina said, cutting the rest of the pear into slices and putting them on a plate. She offered it to Gilbert first, but he shook his head so she passed the plate to Alistair who thanked her and began eating the pears.

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"Combining fruit with meat is tricky," Gilbert said and hobbled over to the storage room. After a while, he returned with a small container of minced beef left over from the morning.

"Well, luckily we don't have to please a human palate this time. Just a wyrm one."

"That does make things easier. Try combining the fruit and meat in various proportions and with various amounts of spices. Cook a small batch for the beastie to try and then use the best one as a filling," Gilbert instructed and then turned to leave.

"Aren't you going to stay?" Melina wondered.

"I'm tired, and the little lizard is your responsibility, so you deal with it!"

Fair enough.

"That's quite nonchalant of him," Alistair commented, watching the old baker hobble away.

"I take it as a sign of trust."

"Trust?"

"Yes. I believe he trusts me enough to make it right by myself," Melina explained, although she did still feel a bit nervous where meat was involved. The lamb pastry bundles were the only recipe she made that involved meat.

"Can you do it?" Alistair asked, cautiously eyeing the wyrm on Melina's shoulder. She understood his worry. From his perspective, if the food she made wasn't good enough, then Sienna could go berserk again.

"I'll do my best," she replied and got about a dozen small bowls out of the cupboard. She put a bit of the minced beef in each bowl and then turned her attention to the feyfruit.

I wish I had more of this fruit to experiment with, but since I don't, I won't put it in the testing batch. It is clear that Sienna loves it as much as any magical creature would. The main problem is getting her to like the filling enough even without feyfruit.

Melina got various spices and some vegetables from the storage and began putting them in bowls with beef. She left one sample plain without any spice as a tester, then added chili flakes to six bowls. It was clear that Sienna liked it, so it was a safe bet to add it to most samples. Then she experimented with cooked onions, garlic, ginger, paprika, salt, pepper, and cumin in various proportions.

She made sure to note what she put in each bowl and then quickly cooked each sample in a pan while Alistair curiously observed the process, occasionally asking about which spice was in the particular sample or commenting on the smell.

"Alright, Sienna! It is taste-testing time," Melina exclaimed once every sample was cooked. The little wyrm looked excited and scuttled down from her shoulder quite readily.

"Let's hope she likes at least one of them," Alistair said, watching the wyrm closely.

Sienna went up to the first bowl, the one that had no spices to it and nibbled at the meat. She ate a little bit but wasn't interested in finishing. Next came the bowls without any chili in it. It appeared that the spices added to those didn't make much difference to Sienna, she reacted to them the same way as the plain sample. Except the one with onions in it—that one she didn't even bother trying.

"Definitely no onions," Melina noted, watching the wyrm try the samples with chili flakes in them. She appeared much more eager to try those, except for the one with onions. Her absolute favorite turned out to be the one with chilli and ginger as that was the only bowl she actually finished.

"It seems we have a winner," Alistair said.

"It appears we do! I'm going to flash fry the shells and prepare the filling while they cook."

Melina rolled out the shortcrust pastry, laid it into the tartlet molds, and then added the baking beans. Thankfully, the oven still hadn't gone fully cold so after adding a bit of firewood, she could load them into the oven. But since Alistair was around, she didn't dare to use <Haste Bake>.

Once that was done, Melina turned her attention to the feyfruit, carefully peeling off its skin and dicing its soft, shimmering insides.

"So that's what feyfruit looks like on the inside," Alistair said, peering over Melina's shoulder. He was a bit too close for comfort, but she didn't comment on it, instead trying to keep her focus on the tartlet filling.

"Yes, it's unlike any other fruit. I suppose it's to be expected for something that can only be found in Monster Realm."

"I wonder what it tastes like." He reached out to take one of the cubes, but Melina hurriedly grabbed his hand, stopping him.

"You can't eat raw feyfruit! It's filled to the brim with mana—it's toxic for humans," she warned him.

"Oh, excuse me, Miss Melina. I didn't know," he said sheepishly. She released him, then returned her attention to the mixture—adding the feyfruit cubes to the beef. "But if feyfruit is toxic to humans, why would they give it as a prize in the cooking competition?"

"If prepared properly, it is harmless. It is actually great at restoring mage's mana and improving their magical abilities," Melina explained.

"But would every cook actually know that? I mean, I am no cook, but I certainly didn't know this, and I assume you learned it from Master Gilbert, who has many years of experience under his belt," Alistair pondered.

"That's a good question…" Melina hummed. "I assume that the majority of cooks would simply sell an ingredient they don't know how to work with, especially something as valuable as feyfruit. But some without a doubt would try to experiment with it."

"It just feels irresponsible to hand out something that could be potentially harmful. After all, anybody could have entered that competition and won."

"I suppose…" Melina muttered as she fried the beef and feyfruit mass on the pan. Just as it was when she cooked plain feyfruit, the steam coming from the pan was shimmering ever so slightly, indicating that mana was being cooked out by the heat.

"It's shimmering, Miss Melina!" Alistair exclaimed as he noticed the steam.

"Yes, it does that," she said. "Apparently, it's mana that causes it to shimmer. Try not to breathe it in."

Alistair took a step back. "Shouldn't you cover your mouth and nose? Isn't it dangerous?"

I wonder what would happen if I inhaled the mana-infused steam. It happened to me plenty of times when I was an Archmage but I just converted it into usable mana then. But what would happen to a person who has absolutely no mana in their body if they inhaled it? I'm almost tempted to try.

"I don't think it's dangerous, just not recommended," Melina said and turned off the stove. The beef and feyfruit mass didn't look very appetizing, the brown color of the beef mixing with the pink and purple of the feyfruit. It looked almost like the mass one would get when trying to make wart brew.

It was a horrible thing that would cause the victim to become covered in itchy warts. It wasn't deadly, but getting rid of warts created this way was nearly impossible. Noblewomen loved using that concoction on their love rivals.

"Even so, you should be more cautious. You warn me to step back, but don't bother to protect yourself," he grumbled.

"I'll be fine! It's not deadly in such small concentrations," Melina said, then scooped a bit of the filling into a teaspoon, and offered it to Sienna.

The wyrm lapped it up with great enthusiasm and then scuttled down her shoulder, heading straight for the pan to get more.

"Hey, no! Wait until it is ready," Melina grabbed the wyrm before she could reach the pan and set her on the cupboard. Sienna let out a dissatisfied hiss but remained where Melina left her.

The remaining part of the process was simple enough. Melina retrieved the cooked shells, put the filling inside, and topped them off with Sienna's favorite chili walnuts. All that was left to do was wait for the notifications to appear.

"It seems like I'll be able to leave tomorrow without any worries," Alistair noted. Melina cocked her head curiously at the sudden remark. "I mean the wyrm. You just blocked it from getting food and all it, I mean she, did release a bit of smoke."

"Maybe Sienna was never that scary to begin with. Maybe she was just scared," Melina voiced her theory.

"I suspect you are right. But then—" Alistair looked at Melina and then closed his mouth. "You know what—it doesn't matter. All that matters is that it is over now."

Melina nodded, wondering what exactly he had wanted to say when notifications appeared in her view. She willed them to disappear, before her eyes could linger too long and began pulling the tartlets out of the oven.

[You've made <Beef Feyfruit Tartlet – Rank C. You've gained +15 exp.]

[Congratulations! You've reached Level 22.]

As she pulled out the last tartlet, Melina barely managed to keep her expression straight. The tartlets didn't look nice like the ones she had made before. Instead, the combined juices from feyfruit and beef had bubbled over during the cooking process, making it look like a monstrous, sludgy mess.

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