Core Status.
It fills up so fast when I’m under the sun.
“Yeah, 100%, no problem like always,” I answered as I chomped on a meat skewer, one of the many “snacks” I placed inside my storage.
“Good. This is something neither us nor the saurians could answer, so monitoring it is important. Such a weird biological phenomenon,” Saori uttered. “You can transform all that energy into nutrients, right? Similar to photosynthesis? Last time I checked my biology class memories, humans, or most animals, cannot survive on photosynthesis alone.”
“I don’t know, ask my biology, instead of human biology.” I shrugged to her tidbit, considering I was alive with the ability right now. Why did it matter? “Meh, it’s just my mass. The size change from rank C to B was a huge leap. I don’t have any problems living with either solar power or conventional food alone … But, I do have to eat more.”
Touching my new physical characteristic under my clothes, I felt an incredible heat radiating from my chest. My solar core, a feature I got from my evolution, was bursting with energy, filled to its maximum capacity from absorbing all the sun rays.
Saying goodbye for the day to the saurians, my party walked outside of the woods where sun rays were illuminating the area without being blocked by the woods’ orange foliage. From how huge the leaf piles were, it shouldn’t be long until the trees lost all their leaves.
Since my core was something Tasianna and the saurians couldn’t explain to me, Saori and Tasianna decided to monitor my condition to learn more about it. I also couldn’t say much about it. Everything I knew about it was from its description and the tests we’ve done the past days. At least I was sure my core wasn’t my heart; instead, it seemed like it was an entirely different organ.
The tests we’ve done on it were mostly to see how much stress it could take. As I could absorb sunlight and turn it into energy like a plant could, I had to know what its limits were. Using it only as a way to feed myself would be a complete waste of potential.
In battle, I could activate the core to increase my Health, Mana, and Stamina regeneration at a certain rate. One trick I found out was if I concentrated fully on either Mana or Stamina, I could continuously use spells and dragon abilities and offset the costs with the increased regeneration speed. The Health regeneration my core could do was a nice backup plan in case I ever was at risk of [Arcane Fever], as it didn't accumulate arcane corruption, but its healing was far inferior compared to [Major Heal] or [White Flames]’s automatic healing.
While it might sound all fine and dandy, doing this while I wasn’t absorbing sunlight was foolish. In one of my duels with Master, we fought under an earth dome where the sun was blocked while I had to continuously use my core’s energy. In this situation, my core depleted quickly, and an intense lethargy made fighting pretty insufferable.
Eating food helped restore some power, but it couldn’t alleviate the energy consumption in an intense duel. As such, never use the core while fighting inside a cave or during the night. Easy to remember. In any other condition, beware enemies of mine, for the sun hungers.
However, after thinking about it, I felt a little bit disappointed by my new organ. Slouching a bit, I shook my head in denial. “It still can’t replace eating and drinking stuff, though. Using solar energy fills me up, alleviates hunger, sure. Nice. It’s just no fun. I still have cravings. My solar core can’t stop that, soooo … we have to deal with [Young Solar Dragon]’s description of always feeling hungry.”
“My lady, I believe Miss Saori was worried about that exact problem. If you could emotionally and mentally survive from solar energy alone, it probably wouldn’t worry her,” Tasianna interjected herself into the discussion.
Realizing Saori was talking about money again, I gave a shy laugh as Saori sighed about it, looking more depressed. With our usual ramblings, we entered the village and went directly towards Lorena’s and Ruld’s families’ house.
We knocked on their door and entered once Lorena let us in. Inside, lively sounds of a filled house could be heard as I saw two teenagers, a boy and girl, a young man, an older woman, and lastly a tall, muscular man all crowding around a table. Instead of a warm and friendly atmosphere, an intense argument was currently being held between the two men.
“Goddess’s mercy upon you, Ruld, have you learned nothing from your job? If you’re selling something, make sure you keep it lookin’ good! You ain’t sellin’ these to a fucking villager!” the muscular man scolded the young man, meticulously cleaning something black with trained movements.
“What do you mean by that, old man?! It ain’t my fault, here! They were looking perfect, the best shoes I’ve ever made! Shout at Wendy for messing around in the house,” he then snapped his head in the direction of the two teens, glaring at the girl with unbridled anger. “Fuckin’ hell! Those shoes are for the noblelady, Wendy. Why did you have to jump around like that when you should know how much work we all put into them?! Argh, Wendy, dammit, dammit!”
“C-come on, bro, you're being too harsh on her” the teen boy spoke up for, I presumed, his weeping sister. “The shrine maiden was doing this dance and sis was only copying it. She's crying, she already said sorry.”
“Hick, I’m so s-sorry,” the girl sobbed uncontrollably, only to be soothed by her mother.
… Okay, what am I looking at?
After a moment of being shocked and frozen at what I was seeing, the family of five eventually noticed us and Ruld quickly apologized for his family’s “embarrassing” display.
From Lorena's explanations, it seemed his younger sister Wendy accidentally spilled some water on the shoes our party requested, which caused both Ruld and his father to panic. They immediately cooperated with each other to dry and clean the shoes, all while throwing insults at each other for different reasons. Ruld was angry at his sister and his father was angry at Ruld for shouting at his sister. Family drama, a classic.
“I-I’m so, so, so, so very sorry, m’lady Priestess. I-I didn't mean to do it, so please forgive brother Ruld,” the girl, Wendy, apologized heartfully, crying her eyes red as she bowed repeatedly.
Overhearing she was copying my dance, I couldn’t exactly be mad at her. To be honest, it was only water, and our shoes would have to endure long travel distances anyways so if they fell apart just ‘cause of that, then only then would I become mad.
I told the girl how flattering it was for me to have my dance copied and that I wasn’t angry at her or her brother. She quickly calmed down once she saw me smiling, realizing I was more focused on my performance than something trivial like water. She even informed me how enthusiastic she was for my next sermon and hoped I could show her my dance again.
Uh, nah, sorry, Wendy. Never doing a sermon again if I can avoid it. I’m not a big fan of doing them.
With that behind us, Ruld finally had the chance to reveal his creation to us. The nervous expression he and his father made me giggle a bit, as I began inspecting my shoes—I mean boots.
Before me stood a pair of knee-high boots, colored black from a charcoal-made paint I could see on the table. They were flat, either ‘cause Ruld couldn't make high heels or ‘cause Saori made sure they were combat-ready, as high-heeled boots would be risky to use in battle.
“As you requested, the shoes are made from orc skin and the soles from wyvern skin. They were tough to work with, especially the wyvern skin, but the results should tell you everything,” Ruld explained to me.
“Gotta say how lucky I am to get my hands on some orc and wyvern leather. Honestly, m’lady Shrine Maiden, I heard from Glenn that you rescued him from those bandits, but I thought those lizardfolk did most of the work. It was a real shock when I came home to see Ruld work on them leathers,” Dierck, Ruld’s father whose name I just learned, recalled that in the most stoic way possible to hide his excitement and anxiousness. “Never had the chance to work on these fine leathers around the village. Thankfully, Ruld had enough experience with monster leather from his time at Firwood. Praise the Goddess for that.”
From what I heard from Saori, Ruld was a cobbler at Firwood. Compared to a normal cobbler from Earth, Ruld’s job wasn’t just creating shoes from animal leather but also monster leather. As a town with monster slayers inhabiting it for work, Ruld had many chances to create shoes out of those materials.
Ruld’s whole family was specialized in creating anything leather related. His father was the tanner, his mother a seamstress, and his siblings were trained in leatherworking just like him. The shoes might have been Ruld’s request, but it seemed the whole family worked hard on it to finish them as soon as possible with the highest quality they could muster.
And it showed, the boots honestly displayed their hard work.
All the components of the boots came from the materials we gathered in the Belzac forest. We used the orc skin I got from the ones I defeated in the cave, while the wyvern leather came from the three rank Cs who pursued me. Ruld couldn’t process the wyvern leather with his tools so Saori had to help him with her claws.
Ability-wise, they weren’t anything spectacular but what was more important was the design. They exuded a modern vibe, probably a result of Saori's design, as they heavily contrasted the villager’s shoes.
Both the toe box and the heel counter—the front and hind ends of the boots, in other words—were missing as it needed to accommodate the claws and scales on my feet. It might seem weird that the hind part was also missing but, from initial wearing tests, my scales would scratch on the leather, causing some unwanted damage. It was decided that both the front and hind had to be removed to ensure the boots’ longevity.
To finish its design, black shoelaces kept them tight to my legs while I was wearing them. Sleek and fashionable. Wonderful.
Feels awesome. I traced my hands along the boots, feeling the soft and clean touch on my fingers. Smiling, I turned my ankles and stretched my legs; doing cute poses with my now finished outfit
Looking over at Saori’s and Tasianna’s, I could see similar design choices to mine.
Saori’s looked exactly like mine, only with heel counters as the fur on her feet didn’t irritate the boots. As her claws were also long, the front had to be removed too. Ruld mentioned that most beastmen he worked with had sandal-like designs due to the claws on their feet, so he was already used to it prior to our request.
Tasianna was the only one among us who had shoes. Hers looked similar to the ones “maids” in maid cafes always wore. No idea if it was the same design in this world, as Tasianna never wore shoes in her fairy form.
With that good feeling making my chest feel so light, I turned around to the Ruld family and smiled. “These are awesome, thank you very much, everybody.”
After Saori gave them a huge amount of meat as payment, which shocked the whole family at how much we had, we said our goodbyes as our business was done here.
Before I walked outside, I leaned close to Lorena to whisper into her ears, “How was it? Did you tell your parents?”
She paused for a moment, looked at me for a second before giving me a nod, “Yes, thank you and Saori for telling me to do that. My parents … they were a bit hard to talk to, but Saori was right. They really just wanted me to be happy. Still … I told them I wanted to leave the village. I guess I don’t feel very safe around here, after what happened.”
She shrugged but hearing her want to leave made me remember she probably couldn’t. She was a serf; her freedom was tied to the fief lord, so Lord Helvas. To free a serf was to buy off her freedom from him. Considering she didn’t sound too enthusiastic about it, she probably knew.
“Mother told me it was a stupid idea, as problems like these can happen anywhere. Brigands aren’t uncommon. Father even mentioned how having such ideas could lead others in banditry. Horrible to say …” Lorena scratched her head, feeling a bit perturbed, but not as sad as our last discussion. It seemed she did get most of her emotions off her chest. “Instead, they want me to marry if I don’t feel safe by myself.”
Marry, huh?
“Do you want to marry?” I asked her in a serious tone.
“I mean, I have to eventually. Hiehie, Mother and father do want grandchildren, and I can’t say I don’t want a little lad or lass following me around and calling me ‘mother,’” she replied with a wide, hopeful smile. “But I’m not sure who to choose. It has to be someone I can trust with what happened with the bandits. I don’t want to keep it all to myself … It’s scary.”
I thought it through for a moment, before turning around to the young man who made my shoes. He was currently celebrating with his family like the happiest person ever, to the point he was kissing his young sister and brother for forgiveness, to the point the latter two wanted him to be angry again instead of the cringey brotherly love.
“… Maybe consider Ruld? You’re always blushing around him ever since he arrived.”
“W-what?!” Her face instantly turned red like a ripened tomato. “No, no, no, no, I couldn’t. H-he’s a childhood friend, a very dear friend, I just couldn’t—”
Speaking of the devil, before she could finish her sentence, the man himself appeared.
“Ahh, thank the goddess you are still here, m’lady Shrine Maiden. This here is a special cleaning wax made with tree sap and honey used for cleaning monster leather. You gave us enough meat to last us through the whole winter, so this is on the house. Thank you so very much for your patronage!” he said before dashing back into the house, where his family already began processing the meat into jerky.
Seeing how Lorena was blushing in the direction of Ruld, I gave her a small knock on her shoulder and wished her luck, before rejoining my party. We returned home and immediately started the dress-up session, with Saori testing out a few prototypes on me before we finally decided what fitted me and the boots.
As this was my only footwear, my outfit for Count Helvas’ dinner invitation had to suit it. Saori also took the chance to remind Tasianna and me that we shouldn’t be fighting in our new footwear, as they weren’t made with mana threads. If Saori or I were to transform mid-fight into our original forms, then the boots would rip apart and be ruined forever. Tasianna wouldn’t rip apart her shoes ‘cause she turned smaller, but they would fall off and might get destroyed in the crossfire.
They were there for us to look normal, in other words. The saurians themselves weren’t wearing any sorta shoes either, suggesting people from Caedhul weren’t shoe fanatics and that there weren’t any rules in this country which forced you to. Still, we wanted them.
After the dressing session, Saori went back to work and started adding more details to my dress until it was time to sleep. I heard Saori and Tasianna were staying in their normal outfits as they were technically my retainers according to their titles, and this was the impression they gave Count Helvas’s head butler Barathan.
The next morning, the day before my meeting, our yeast had finally finished cultivating. Seeing the bubbles forming above the water and taking in the sour, vinegary smell was nostalgic to experience. It had been a while, but nothing was better than homemade yeast water made with delicious fruits to entice you to bake.
“Wow, so this is how ‘yeast’ is made,” Tasianna commented with curiosity, saying yeast in Common tongue for us to understand. “The elves always brought the finished version to us, so I didn’t know how to make it. Especially this ‘sourdough.’ This was a wonderful experience.”
Apparently, the concept of yeast wasn’t unknown in this world. Yeast was used in elven bread, something Tasianna has tasted before. I wasn’t sure if this country knew about it but considering how close it was to the elven kingdom, it would be weird if they didn’t. I expected at least nobles, merchants, and alcohol makers to know about it.
Then again, anybody who left some fruits out for too long should know about them.
With the yeast finished, we took the three yeast starter bottles and went to the village’s bakers. Tasianna, unexpectedly, followed us as she was interested in learning how to bake bread.
“Ahh, Miss Saori! Welcome, welcome, are you here for more flour and rice? My husband hasn’t finished today’s batches yet so I can’t trade you any yet, haha!” a woman around Saori’s height cheerily answered the door, smiling like she was greeting a good friend until she noticed Tasianna and me. “And a fe-! Ah, m’lady Shrine Maiden! I apologize for not greeting you first, a-ahaha. I didn’t get the chance to thank you but bless your soul for all that you’ve done for us. You saved one of my childhood friends, you see, so may the Goddess always keep you safe. I will keep you in my prayers, m’lady.”
Saori shook her hand to calm the slightly nervous baker down, before introducing us.“No need to be so formal. Lady Hestia, this is Resha. Resha, my mistress.”
Resha looked like she was a few years younger than Harriet, Colwyn’s wife, as she only had a few wrinkles. Her belly was bloated, not ‘cause she was obese but due to pregnancy, I believe. I haven’t seen a single obese person in the village yet and I didn’t think Resha would be the single exception here.
She gave me a friendly prayer bow, before resuming speaking, now less tense, “I do apologize for sounding so tense. We villagers don’t get to speak with nobles much, not even with the clergymen who visit us. Most of the time, they only stay at the Lord’s mansion, and when they do come down here for the sermons and white grace, they always have this, pardon me my Goddess, fake smile on them. It’s a bit unnerving. So, please, could you forgive the villagers avoiding you?”
I nodded, causing the baker to put her hands on her hips with a wide smile.
“Thank you! We also had some problems in the past with beastmen adventurers from the south, so some of us might be a bit scared.”
“You aren’t?” I asked her, tilting my head to the side.
“Nah. You get to meet them a lot in Firwood, so I understand some are just a handful. My brother owns a tavern, you see, so I know having black sheeps and troublemakers isn’t just restricted to beastmen. Idiots in our village, too, m’lady,” she answered before beckoning us to enter, swinging her medium-length hair around. “Now, come in, please. If you are here, m’lady Hestia, then does that mean you'll make me a new oven?"
As we entered her house, Resha tried to strike up a conversation with Tasianna but as our fairy friend wasn’t a human lover, she simply thanked Resha for letting her inside and stayed quiet. Hey, it was better than the time she met the unconscious Lorena.
Inside, we quickly noticed how large the interior was. I probably should have noticed the size of the house before we came in, but I only realized it after we came inside. Compared to Lorena’s and mine, Resha’s house was large enough to fit two family bedrooms, a living room with plenty of tables, a separate space for the hearth and, possibly, ovens. It looked like a bakery was mixed in with the family part of the house.
In the cooking area, I asked Resha how many ovens she needed and how they were supposed to look. She told me she needed two ovens as the demand for bread was extremely high throughout the year, especially with unmarried men as they rarely learned how to bake properly. She didn’t give me any details for the appearance as it only needed to be large enough for her to put multiple batches of dough inside them.
Knowing it had to fit inside their house, I went outside and constructed two [Terra Wall]s. In the middle of them, I carved a large hole in the shape of a half-circle, and emptied its inside for the kindling and dough to fit in. It was a very simple construction I saw on TV, but it seemed none of the villagers could craft one now as houses were a priority for the builders. Well, none of them could make ovens this sturdy, so I guess waiting for me to do it was better in the long run.
Putting them inside my storage, I went back into Resha’s house and placed them inside like in that one life simulation game. That Sim game, I mean. With Resha expressing shock at how fast I made them, I ignored her and took out the three yeast bottles.
Two of them were filled with bubbly red water while one was doughy with holes like cheese. These three were all yeast starters, although different in their preparations.
“Huh? What are these? Is that juice? And why did you put dough inside a stone bottle? Some kinda food preparations where you came from, m’lady?” Resha asked with genuine confusion at what she was looking at.
“You don’t know yeast, Miss Resha?” I asked her, actually baffled. Wasn’t this, like, super easy to identify?
She frowned, scratching her head as she replied, “‘Yeast?’ Sorry, never heard of it. What is that?”
Not knowing if she had her own preparation for yeast, I explained to her the process of making yeasts and what they were. Essentially, yeasts were fungus responsible for the creation of those bubbles inside my three yeast farms. In baking, they were responsible for making bread fluffy and soft to eat, helping it rise and grow during the baking process.
There were two ways to make them, one way was with fruits and the other way with only flour. Both methods worked and the only difference between the two was the end appearance and the taste of the bread.
With the fruit method, you placed your fruit of choice inside a bottle and ‘fed’ it sugar and water before closing the lid and giving it a good shake. In our case, we chose fragassa, the Peolyncian strawberry, and used honey as refined sugar wasn’t available to us.
The process took around four to five days, and you had to periodically open the lid to allow oxygen to get in for the yeast to use. Always give it a good shake after you close the lid, again. Bubbles would start forming on each day, growing in size and number, until the top was filled to the brim with bubbles.
This, with the sour smell of fermented food, was the sign of ready yeast water. Simply remove the fruits and the foamy water was ready for baking.
The other method was a bit more complicated. Add two spoons of flour, sugar, and water inside the bottle and give it a good twirl with the spoons. Close it up with a lid and let it cultivate. Again, we used honey as our sugar while our flour was made from wheat and rice.
On each day of this five-day process, repeat the instructions above until a sticky, slimy dough with tons of air bubbles was created. Compared to the yeast water, this was called sourdough and gave a nice sour-ish taste if you made bread from it. It was immediately usable so you could start baking with it anytime.
In both cases, it was important to use natural water. Thankfully, Tasianna’s and Saori’s water was pure water without anything dangerous for the yeast, like chlorine. If this were Earth, I would say “don’t use tap water” as I heard chlorine was inside it. Instead, use filtered water or pure water.
In any case, both methods delivered great-tasting bread, so I would recommend home bakers to try making some just for the experience like my Mama and me. Unfortunately, it seemed Resha still couldn’t understand what yeast was so I concluded that this village at least had no idea of its existence. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t stop me from doing what I came here for—to make a cake!
According to our agreement, as I made her ovens, my party was given permission to use them whenever we needed to. Using a bottle of the yeast water, my party immediately began the cake making process. Resha tried to intervene, telling me that Harriet would be unhappy if I was to bake. Apparently, using magic to create an oven was fine for me to do, but baking? Heavens no!
M’lady Priestess, you’re a noble and as a noble you are not allowed to join the fun of cooking and baking. Bah, what a joke, I complained to myself.
Stating that I would handle Harriet’s complaints, Resha shrugged it off and began inspecting the baking process. It seemed her inner baker awakened once I began using the yeast water. Normally, you would use baking powder as a leavening agent to soften the mixture, but as we didn’t have any, we had to accommodate this in our recipe. My Mama taught me I could either use yeast or add more eggs into the mixture to help it rise, alleviating the need for baking powder. As I was planning to make a strawberry pound cake made with fragassa, this was just perfect.
The yeast would help the cake rise up. Without it, the pound cake would feel dry and hard. You wanted a fluffy, flaky feeling when you bite in, after all.
While instructing Saori and Tasianna, we added in the necessary ingredients. Wheat flour, chocochuckle eggs, horned gheeper butter and cream, wild honey, and a bit of fragassa juice. Give it all a good stir and pour it into a rock pan I made for the occasion. Of course, I remembered to butter and flour the pan, so nothing stuck onto it. Once that was done, put it all into the oven with the flames on.
Wait until it finishes rising and boom—a delicious, moist fragassa pound cake. Compared to a vanilla butter pound cake, the interior was sweet pink, showing off a cutesy appearance.
Yum!
“W-wow, it’s so soft. This is some incredible bread you made there, m’lady,” Resha announced after touching a sliced piece of pound cake, before biting a piece off. “Mhmm, incredible, wow, so sweet! Damn, this is even sweeter than fruit juice! A noble’s dessert…Hrk!”
While Resha was enjoying the taste, she suddenly tensed up, looking behind her as she noticed Tasianna exuding an aura of hostility, forcing herself to utter through clenched teeth, “Miss Resha … this is Lady Hestia’s. Her treat with her tea …”
She shot right up from her seat, bowing in forgiveness despite her large belly. “O-oh, I- I apologize. That was really, really rude of me. I’m sorry, m’lady Hestia, I think I acted a bit too, uh, friendly there. This is a noble’s food.”
“Ah, it’s ok, don't worry about it. In fact, I’m happy to hear that my cake is so popular with you. That’s good to know,” I replied to soothe her before looking over at Tasianna to reprimand her. “Sharing is caring … Don’t be like that, okay? Especially when we’re guests inside her home.”
Realizing she was the one who made the mistake, Tasianna imitated Resha and apologized profusely for her rudeness. Seeing her also apologize to Saori made it clear she knew Resha was also her friend. Our fairy really had a long way to go …
Shrugging it off, the four of us then began tasting and eating the cake. Tasianna offered to hand hers to Resha as an apology but I told her it was ok. I knew her trauma was controlling her actions, so I understood I had to have patience for her. She was learning, seeing as she was here instead of inside our house.
Ahhh, this is the best! Tea with cake. A tea party with cake. I feel so fancy.
Once we were done with this sample, I knew my recipe would work as a gift for a noble. Resha insisted she wanted to make the next one but after telling her this was for the lord of the land, she submissively gave up on the idea. Instead, I told her it was alright for her to make some good ol' fashion bread with the sourdough mix.
Elated, she boasted she would bake something amazing as payment for the delicious cake. Using the other oven for her pleasure, she began to bake something wonderful.
After the cake and Resha's bread were finished, we packed everything inside my space storage and said our goodbyes to her. We were planning to come over once in a while to do more baking, so we told her to welcome us the next time we came over.
As the sky began to darken, we called off our training session with the saurians and instead used this time to help me familiarize myself with noble customs. Colwyn and Harriet had to be capable enough to welcome the lord of this land in their house, so I finally took the chance to ask them some very important questions.
I used the excuse that etiquette could differ between countries, and they were genuinely excited to answer everything. For the most part, it was information I already knew. Nothing that would shock me really.
However, a few questions were impossible for them to answer, like dining etiquette and noble-to-noble interactions. All I could do in this case was to use the information my etiquette teacher pounded into me. Probably the first time I really appreciated that woman’s hellish courses …
There were things that differed but I could count them as differences in culture and worlds. Peolyncian, or Kingdom of Artorias, versions, if I may call them so.
Once that was done, we went back home. We ate some of Resha’s bread for dinner and then called it a day. Once morning came, it was finally time for my meeting with the first noble of this world.
Time to dazzle, dazzle!
AbyssRaven Not a perfect recipe, but the instructions should be understandable! I wrote this chapter during the height of Covid, lol.
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
Core Status.
It fills up so fast when I’m under the sun.
“Yeah, 100%, no problem like always,” I answered as I chomped on a meat skewer, one of the many “snacks” I placed inside my storage.
“Good. This is something neither us nor the saurians could answer, so monitoring it is important. Such a weird biological phenomenon,” Saori uttered. “You can transform all that energy into nutrients, right? Similar to photosynthesis? Last time I checked my biology class memories, humans, or most animals, cannot survive on photosynthesis alone.”
“I don’t know, ask my biology, instead of human biology.” I shrugged to her tidbit, considering I was alive with the ability right now. Why did it matter? “Meh, it’s just my mass. The size change from rank C to B was a huge leap. I don’t have any problems living with either solar power or conventional food alone … But, I do have to eat more.”
Touching my new physical characteristic under my clothes, I felt an incredible heat radiating from my chest. My solar core, a feature I got from my evolution, was bursting with energy, filled to its maximum capacity from absorbing all the sun rays.
Saying goodbye for the day to the saurians, my party walked outside of the woods where sun rays were illuminating the area without being blocked by the woods’ orange foliage. From how huge the leaf piles were, it shouldn’t be long until the trees lost all their leaves.
Since my core was something Tasianna and the saurians couldn’t explain to me, Saori and Tasianna decided to monitor my condition to learn more about it. I also couldn’t say much about it. Everything I knew about it was from its description and the tests we’ve done the past days. At least I was sure my core wasn’t my heart; instead, it seemed like it was an entirely different organ.
The tests we’ve done on it were mostly to see how much stress it could take. As I could absorb sunlight and turn it into energy like a plant could, I had to know what its limits were. Using it only as a way to feed myself would be a complete waste of potential.
In battle, I could activate the core to increase my Health, Mana, and Stamina regeneration at a certain rate. One trick I found out was if I concentrated fully on either Mana or Stamina, I could continuously use spells and dragon abilities and offset the costs with the increased regeneration speed. The Health regeneration my core could do was a nice backup plan in case I ever was at risk of [Arcane Fever], as it didn't accumulate arcane corruption, but its healing was far inferior compared to [Major Heal] or [White Flames]’s automatic healing.
While it might sound all fine and dandy, doing this while I wasn’t absorbing sunlight was foolish. In one of my duels with Master, we fought under an earth dome where the sun was blocked while I had to continuously use my core’s energy. In this situation, my core depleted quickly, and an intense lethargy made fighting pretty insufferable.
Eating food helped restore some power, but it couldn’t alleviate the energy consumption in an intense duel. As such, never use the core while fighting inside a cave or during the night. Easy to remember. In any other condition, beware enemies of mine, for the sun hungers.
However, after thinking about it, I felt a little bit disappointed by my new organ. Slouching a bit, I shook my head in denial. “It still can’t replace eating and drinking stuff, though. Using solar energy fills me up, alleviates hunger, sure. Nice. It’s just no fun. I still have cravings. My solar core can’t stop that, soooo … we have to deal with [Young Solar Dragon]’s description of always feeling hungry.”
“My lady, I believe Miss Saori was worried about that exact problem. If you could emotionally and mentally survive from solar energy alone, it probably wouldn’t worry her,” Tasianna interjected herself into the discussion.
Realizing Saori was talking about money again, I gave a shy laugh as Saori sighed about it, looking more depressed. With our usual ramblings, we entered the village and went directly towards Lorena’s and Ruld’s families’ house.
We knocked on their door and entered once Lorena let us in. Inside, lively sounds of a filled house could be heard as I saw two teenagers, a boy and girl, a young man, an older woman, and lastly a tall, muscular man all crowding around a table. Instead of a warm and friendly atmosphere, an intense argument was currently being held between the two men.
“Goddess’s mercy upon you, Ruld, have you learned nothing from your job? If you’re selling something, make sure you keep it lookin’ good! You ain’t sellin’ these to a fucking villager!” the muscular man scolded the young man, meticulously cleaning something black with trained movements.
“What do you mean by that, old man?! It ain’t my fault, here! They were looking perfect, the best shoes I’ve ever made! Shout at Wendy for messing around in the house,” he then snapped his head in the direction of the two teens, glaring at the girl with unbridled anger. “Fuckin’ hell! Those shoes are for the noblelady, Wendy. Why did you have to jump around like that when you should know how much work we all put into them?! Argh, Wendy, dammit, dammit!”
“C-come on, bro, you're being too harsh on her” the teen boy spoke up for, I presumed, his weeping sister. “The shrine maiden was doing this dance and sis was only copying it. She's crying, she already said sorry.”
“Hick, I’m so s-sorry,” the girl sobbed uncontrollably, only to be soothed by her mother.
… Okay, what am I looking at?
After a moment of being shocked and frozen at what I was seeing, the family of five eventually noticed us and Ruld quickly apologized for his family’s “embarrassing” display.
From Lorena's explanations, it seemed his younger sister Wendy accidentally spilled some water on the shoes our party requested, which caused both Ruld and his father to panic. They immediately cooperated with each other to dry and clean the shoes, all while throwing insults at each other for different reasons. Ruld was angry at his sister and his father was angry at Ruld for shouting at his sister. Family drama, a classic.
“I-I’m so, so, so, so very sorry, m’lady Priestess. I-I didn't mean to do it, so please forgive brother Ruld,” the girl, Wendy, apologized heartfully, crying her eyes red as she bowed repeatedly.
Overhearing she was copying my dance, I couldn’t exactly be mad at her. To be honest, it was only water, and our shoes would have to endure long travel distances anyways so if they fell apart just ‘cause of that, then only then would I become mad.
I told the girl how flattering it was for me to have my dance copied and that I wasn’t angry at her or her brother. She quickly calmed down once she saw me smiling, realizing I was more focused on my performance than something trivial like water. She even informed me how enthusiastic she was for my next sermon and hoped I could show her my dance again.
Uh, nah, sorry, Wendy. Never doing a sermon again if I can avoid it. I’m not a big fan of doing them.
With that behind us, Ruld finally had the chance to reveal his creation to us. The nervous expression he and his father made me giggle a bit, as I began inspecting my shoes—I mean boots.
Before me stood a pair of knee-high boots, colored black from a charcoal-made paint I could see on the table. They were flat, either ‘cause Ruld couldn't make high heels or ‘cause Saori made sure they were combat-ready, as high-heeled boots would be risky to use in battle.
“As you requested, the shoes are made from orc skin and the soles from wyvern skin. They were tough to work with, especially the wyvern skin, but the results should tell you everything,” Ruld explained to me.
“Gotta say how lucky I am to get my hands on some orc and wyvern leather. Honestly, m’lady Shrine Maiden, I heard from Glenn that you rescued him from those bandits, but I thought those lizardfolk did most of the work. It was a real shock when I came home to see Ruld work on them leathers,” Dierck, Ruld’s father whose name I just learned, recalled that in the most stoic way possible to hide his excitement and anxiousness. “Never had the chance to work on these fine leathers around the village. Thankfully, Ruld had enough experience with monster leather from his time at Firwood. Praise the Goddess for that.”
From what I heard from Saori, Ruld was a cobbler at Firwood. Compared to a normal cobbler from Earth, Ruld’s job wasn’t just creating shoes from animal leather but also monster leather. As a town with monster slayers inhabiting it for work, Ruld had many chances to create shoes out of those materials.
Ruld’s whole family was specialized in creating anything leather related. His father was the tanner, his mother a seamstress, and his siblings were trained in leatherworking just like him. The shoes might have been Ruld’s request, but it seemed the whole family worked hard on it to finish them as soon as possible with the highest quality they could muster.
And it showed, the boots honestly displayed their hard work.
All the components of the boots came from the materials we gathered in the Belzac forest. We used the orc skin I got from the ones I defeated in the cave, while the wyvern leather came from the three rank Cs who pursued me. Ruld couldn’t process the wyvern leather with his tools so Saori had to help him with her claws.
Ability-wise, they weren’t anything spectacular but what was more important was the design. They exuded a modern vibe, probably a result of Saori's design, as they heavily contrasted the villager’s shoes.
Both the toe box and the heel counter—the front and hind ends of the boots, in other words—were missing as it needed to accommodate the claws and scales on my feet. It might seem weird that the hind part was also missing but, from initial wearing tests, my scales would scratch on the leather, causing some unwanted damage. It was decided that both the front and hind had to be removed to ensure the boots’ longevity.
To finish its design, black shoelaces kept them tight to my legs while I was wearing them. Sleek and fashionable. Wonderful.
Feels awesome. I traced my hands along the boots, feeling the soft and clean touch on my fingers. Smiling, I turned my ankles and stretched my legs; doing cute poses with my now finished outfit
Looking over at Saori’s and Tasianna’s, I could see similar design choices to mine.
Saori’s looked exactly like mine, only with heel counters as the fur on her feet didn’t irritate the boots. As her claws were also long, the front had to be removed too. Ruld mentioned that most beastmen he worked with had sandal-like designs due to the claws on their feet, so he was already used to it prior to our request.
Tasianna was the only one among us who had shoes. Hers looked similar to the ones “maids” in maid cafes always wore. No idea if it was the same design in this world, as Tasianna never wore shoes in her fairy form.
With that good feeling making my chest feel so light, I turned around to the Ruld family and smiled. “These are awesome, thank you very much, everybody.”
After Saori gave them a huge amount of meat as payment, which shocked the whole family at how much we had, we said our goodbyes as our business was done here.
Before I walked outside, I leaned close to Lorena to whisper into her ears, “How was it? Did you tell your parents?”
She paused for a moment, looked at me for a second before giving me a nod, “Yes, thank you and Saori for telling me to do that. My parents … they were a bit hard to talk to, but Saori was right. They really just wanted me to be happy. Still … I told them I wanted to leave the village. I guess I don’t feel very safe around here, after what happened.”
She shrugged but hearing her want to leave made me remember she probably couldn’t. She was a serf; her freedom was tied to the fief lord, so Lord Helvas. To free a serf was to buy off her freedom from him. Considering she didn’t sound too enthusiastic about it, she probably knew.
“Mother told me it was a stupid idea, as problems like these can happen anywhere. Brigands aren’t uncommon. Father even mentioned how having such ideas could lead others in banditry. Horrible to say …” Lorena scratched her head, feeling a bit perturbed, but not as sad as our last discussion. It seemed she did get most of her emotions off her chest. “Instead, they want me to marry if I don’t feel safe by myself.”
Marry, huh?
“Do you want to marry?” I asked her in a serious tone.
“I mean, I have to eventually. Hiehie, Mother and father do want grandchildren, and I can’t say I don’t want a little lad or lass following me around and calling me ‘mother,’” she replied with a wide, hopeful smile. “But I’m not sure who to choose. It has to be someone I can trust with what happened with the bandits. I don’t want to keep it all to myself … It’s scary.”
I thought it through for a moment, before turning around to the young man who made my shoes. He was currently celebrating with his family like the happiest person ever, to the point he was kissing his young sister and brother for forgiveness, to the point the latter two wanted him to be angry again instead of the cringey brotherly love.
“… Maybe consider Ruld? You’re always blushing around him ever since he arrived.”
“W-what?!” Her face instantly turned red like a ripened tomato. “No, no, no, no, I couldn’t. H-he’s a childhood friend, a very dear friend, I just couldn’t—”
Speaking of the devil, before she could finish her sentence, the man himself appeared.
“Ahh, thank the goddess you are still here, m’lady Shrine Maiden. This here is a special cleaning wax made with tree sap and honey used for cleaning monster leather. You gave us enough meat to last us through the whole winter, so this is on the house. Thank you so very much for your patronage!” he said before dashing back into the house, where his family already began processing the meat into jerky.
Seeing how Lorena was blushing in the direction of Ruld, I gave her a small knock on her shoulder and wished her luck, before rejoining my party. We returned home and immediately started the dress-up session, with Saori testing out a few prototypes on me before we finally decided what fitted me and the boots.
As this was my only footwear, my outfit for Count Helvas’ dinner invitation had to suit it. Saori also took the chance to remind Tasianna and me that we shouldn’t be fighting in our new footwear, as they weren’t made with mana threads. If Saori or I were to transform mid-fight into our original forms, then the boots would rip apart and be ruined forever. Tasianna wouldn’t rip apart her shoes ‘cause she turned smaller, but they would fall off and might get destroyed in the crossfire.
They were there for us to look normal, in other words. The saurians themselves weren’t wearing any sorta shoes either, suggesting people from Caedhul weren’t shoe fanatics and that there weren’t any rules in this country which forced you to. Still, we wanted them.
After the dressing session, Saori went back to work and started adding more details to my dress until it was time to sleep. I heard Saori and Tasianna were staying in their normal outfits as they were technically my retainers according to their titles, and this was the impression they gave Count Helvas’s head butler Barathan.
The next morning, the day before my meeting, our yeast had finally finished cultivating. Seeing the bubbles forming above the water and taking in the sour, vinegary smell was nostalgic to experience. It had been a while, but nothing was better than homemade yeast water made with delicious fruits to entice you to bake.
“Wow, so this is how ‘yeast’ is made,” Tasianna commented with curiosity, saying yeast in Common tongue for us to understand. “The elves always brought the finished version to us, so I didn’t know how to make it. Especially this ‘sourdough.’ This was a wonderful experience.”
Apparently, the concept of yeast wasn’t unknown in this world. Yeast was used in elven bread, something Tasianna has tasted before. I wasn’t sure if this country knew about it but considering how close it was to the elven kingdom, it would be weird if they didn’t. I expected at least nobles, merchants, and alcohol makers to know about it.
Then again, anybody who left some fruits out for too long should know about them.
With the yeast finished, we took the three yeast starter bottles and went to the village’s bakers. Tasianna, unexpectedly, followed us as she was interested in learning how to bake bread.
“Ahh, Miss Saori! Welcome, welcome, are you here for more flour and rice? My husband hasn’t finished today’s batches yet so I can’t trade you any yet, haha!” a woman around Saori’s height cheerily answered the door, smiling like she was greeting a good friend until she noticed Tasianna and me. “And a fe-! Ah, m’lady Shrine Maiden! I apologize for not greeting you first, a-ahaha. I didn’t get the chance to thank you but bless your soul for all that you’ve done for us. You saved one of my childhood friends, you see, so may the Goddess always keep you safe. I will keep you in my prayers, m’lady.”
Saori shook her hand to calm the slightly nervous baker down, before introducing us.“No need to be so formal. Lady Hestia, this is Resha. Resha, my mistress.”
Resha looked like she was a few years younger than Harriet, Colwyn’s wife, as she only had a few wrinkles. Her belly was bloated, not ‘cause she was obese but due to pregnancy, I believe. I haven’t seen a single obese person in the village yet and I didn’t think Resha would be the single exception here.
She gave me a friendly prayer bow, before resuming speaking, now less tense, “I do apologize for sounding so tense. We villagers don’t get to speak with nobles much, not even with the clergymen who visit us. Most of the time, they only stay at the Lord’s mansion, and when they do come down here for the sermons and white grace, they always have this, pardon me my Goddess, fake smile on them. It’s a bit unnerving. So, please, could you forgive the villagers avoiding you?”
I nodded, causing the baker to put her hands on her hips with a wide smile.
“Thank you! We also had some problems in the past with beastmen adventurers from the south, so some of us might be a bit scared.”
“You aren’t?” I asked her, tilting my head to the side.
“Nah. You get to meet them a lot in Firwood, so I understand some are just a handful. My brother owns a tavern, you see, so I know having black sheeps and troublemakers isn’t just restricted to beastmen. Idiots in our village, too, m’lady,” she answered before beckoning us to enter, swinging her medium-length hair around. “Now, come in, please. If you are here, m’lady Hestia, then does that mean you'll make me a new oven?"
As we entered her house, Resha tried to strike up a conversation with Tasianna but as our fairy friend wasn’t a human lover, she simply thanked Resha for letting her inside and stayed quiet. Hey, it was better than the time she met the unconscious Lorena.
Inside, we quickly noticed how large the interior was. I probably should have noticed the size of the house before we came in, but I only realized it after we came inside. Compared to Lorena’s and mine, Resha’s house was large enough to fit two family bedrooms, a living room with plenty of tables, a separate space for the hearth and, possibly, ovens. It looked like a bakery was mixed in with the family part of the house.
In the cooking area, I asked Resha how many ovens she needed and how they were supposed to look. She told me she needed two ovens as the demand for bread was extremely high throughout the year, especially with unmarried men as they rarely learned how to bake properly. She didn’t give me any details for the appearance as it only needed to be large enough for her to put multiple batches of dough inside them.
Knowing it had to fit inside their house, I went outside and constructed two [Terra Wall]s. In the middle of them, I carved a large hole in the shape of a half-circle, and emptied its inside for the kindling and dough to fit in. It was a very simple construction I saw on TV, but it seemed none of the villagers could craft one now as houses were a priority for the builders. Well, none of them could make ovens this sturdy, so I guess waiting for me to do it was better in the long run.
Putting them inside my storage, I went back into Resha’s house and placed them inside like in that one life simulation game. That Sim game, I mean. With Resha expressing shock at how fast I made them, I ignored her and took out the three yeast bottles.
Two of them were filled with bubbly red water while one was doughy with holes like cheese. These three were all yeast starters, although different in their preparations.
“Huh? What are these? Is that juice? And why did you put dough inside a stone bottle? Some kinda food preparations where you came from, m’lady?” Resha asked with genuine confusion at what she was looking at.
“You don’t know yeast, Miss Resha?” I asked her, actually baffled. Wasn’t this, like, super easy to identify?
She frowned, scratching her head as she replied, “‘Yeast?’ Sorry, never heard of it. What is that?”
Not knowing if she had her own preparation for yeast, I explained to her the process of making yeasts and what they were. Essentially, yeasts were fungus responsible for the creation of those bubbles inside my three yeast farms. In baking, they were responsible for making bread fluffy and soft to eat, helping it rise and grow during the baking process.
There were two ways to make them, one way was with fruits and the other way with only flour. Both methods worked and the only difference between the two was the end appearance and the taste of the bread.
With the fruit method, you placed your fruit of choice inside a bottle and ‘fed’ it sugar and water before closing the lid and giving it a good shake. In our case, we chose fragassa, the Peolyncian strawberry, and used honey as refined sugar wasn’t available to us.
The process took around four to five days, and you had to periodically open the lid to allow oxygen to get in for the yeast to use. Always give it a good shake after you close the lid, again. Bubbles would start forming on each day, growing in size and number, until the top was filled to the brim with bubbles.
This, with the sour smell of fermented food, was the sign of ready yeast water. Simply remove the fruits and the foamy water was ready for baking.
The other method was a bit more complicated. Add two spoons of flour, sugar, and water inside the bottle and give it a good twirl with the spoons. Close it up with a lid and let it cultivate. Again, we used honey as our sugar while our flour was made from wheat and rice.
On each day of this five-day process, repeat the instructions above until a sticky, slimy dough with tons of air bubbles was created. Compared to the yeast water, this was called sourdough and gave a nice sour-ish taste if you made bread from it. It was immediately usable so you could start baking with it anytime.
In both cases, it was important to use natural water. Thankfully, Tasianna’s and Saori’s water was pure water without anything dangerous for the yeast, like chlorine. If this were Earth, I would say “don’t use tap water” as I heard chlorine was inside it. Instead, use filtered water or pure water.
In any case, both methods delivered great-tasting bread, so I would recommend home bakers to try making some just for the experience like my Mama and me. Unfortunately, it seemed Resha still couldn’t understand what yeast was so I concluded that this village at least had no idea of its existence. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t stop me from doing what I came here for—to make a cake!
According to our agreement, as I made her ovens, my party was given permission to use them whenever we needed to. Using a bottle of the yeast water, my party immediately began the cake making process. Resha tried to intervene, telling me that Harriet would be unhappy if I was to bake. Apparently, using magic to create an oven was fine for me to do, but baking? Heavens no!
M’lady Priestess, you’re a noble and as a noble you are not allowed to join the fun of cooking and baking. Bah, what a joke, I complained to myself.
Stating that I would handle Harriet’s complaints, Resha shrugged it off and began inspecting the baking process. It seemed her inner baker awakened once I began using the yeast water. Normally, you would use baking powder as a leavening agent to soften the mixture, but as we didn’t have any, we had to accommodate this in our recipe. My Mama taught me I could either use yeast or add more eggs into the mixture to help it rise, alleviating the need for baking powder. As I was planning to make a strawberry pound cake made with fragassa, this was just perfect.
The yeast would help the cake rise up. Without it, the pound cake would feel dry and hard. You wanted a fluffy, flaky feeling when you bite in, after all.
While instructing Saori and Tasianna, we added in the necessary ingredients. Wheat flour, chocochuckle eggs, horned gheeper butter and cream, wild honey, and a bit of fragassa juice. Give it all a good stir and pour it into a rock pan I made for the occasion. Of course, I remembered to butter and flour the pan, so nothing stuck onto it. Once that was done, put it all into the oven with the flames on.
Wait until it finishes rising and boom—a delicious, moist fragassa pound cake. Compared to a vanilla butter pound cake, the interior was sweet pink, showing off a cutesy appearance.
Yum!
“W-wow, it’s so soft. This is some incredible bread you made there, m’lady,” Resha announced after touching a sliced piece of pound cake, before biting a piece off. “Mhmm, incredible, wow, so sweet! Damn, this is even sweeter than fruit juice! A noble’s dessert…Hrk!”
While Resha was enjoying the taste, she suddenly tensed up, looking behind her as she noticed Tasianna exuding an aura of hostility, forcing herself to utter through clenched teeth, “Miss Resha … this is Lady Hestia’s. Her treat with her tea …”
She shot right up from her seat, bowing in forgiveness despite her large belly. “O-oh, I- I apologize. That was really, really rude of me. I’m sorry, m’lady Hestia, I think I acted a bit too, uh, friendly there. This is a noble’s food.”
“Ah, it’s ok, don't worry about it. In fact, I’m happy to hear that my cake is so popular with you. That’s good to know,” I replied to soothe her before looking over at Tasianna to reprimand her. “Sharing is caring … Don’t be like that, okay? Especially when we’re guests inside her home.”
Realizing she was the one who made the mistake, Tasianna imitated Resha and apologized profusely for her rudeness. Seeing her also apologize to Saori made it clear she knew Resha was also her friend. Our fairy really had a long way to go …
Shrugging it off, the four of us then began tasting and eating the cake. Tasianna offered to hand hers to Resha as an apology but I told her it was ok. I knew her trauma was controlling her actions, so I understood I had to have patience for her. She was learning, seeing as she was here instead of inside our house.
Ahhh, this is the best! Tea with cake. A tea party with cake. I feel so fancy.
Once we were done with this sample, I knew my recipe would work as a gift for a noble. Resha insisted she wanted to make the next one but after telling her this was for the lord of the land, she submissively gave up on the idea. Instead, I told her it was alright for her to make some good ol' fashion bread with the sourdough mix.
Elated, she boasted she would bake something amazing as payment for the delicious cake. Using the other oven for her pleasure, she began to bake something wonderful.
After the cake and Resha's bread were finished, we packed everything inside my space storage and said our goodbyes to her. We were planning to come over once in a while to do more baking, so we told her to welcome us the next time we came over.
As the sky began to darken, we called off our training session with the saurians and instead used this time to help me familiarize myself with noble customs. Colwyn and Harriet had to be capable enough to welcome the lord of this land in their house, so I finally took the chance to ask them some very important questions.
I used the excuse that etiquette could differ between countries, and they were genuinely excited to answer everything. For the most part, it was information I already knew. Nothing that would shock me really.
However, a few questions were impossible for them to answer, like dining etiquette and noble-to-noble interactions. All I could do in this case was to use the information my etiquette teacher pounded into me. Probably the first time I really appreciated that woman’s hellish courses …
There were things that differed but I could count them as differences in culture and worlds. Peolyncian, or Kingdom of Artorias, versions, if I may call them so.
Once that was done, we went back home. We ate some of Resha’s bread for dinner and then called it a day. Once morning came, it was finally time for my meeting with the first noble of this world.
Time to dazzle, dazzle!
AbyssRaven Not a perfect recipe, but the instructions should be understandable! I wrote this chapter during the height of Covid, lol.
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