Melina lay in her bed at the Fireside Inn and watched the clock on
If Master Gilbert is indeed a System user then it would only be a matter of time before he discovers that I am one too. Can I take that risk? Would he expose me to the Church? I don't know.
Melina ruffled her hair and got up from the bed, looking out the window and watching the dark Sunglow streets. With the arrival of darkness, the life in the town died down and patrol groups of guards took over the scene. Their torch lights weaved through the streets like diligent ants, lingering along the far side of town where the stone wall stood.
Why would a System user be here—as far away from the Church as one can get? Most likely Master Gilbert has been here for years. Could it be that he's in hiding? But he is clearly someone famous so the Church must know about him. Would they allow him to just live here peacefully, making pastries? No, that's impossible. If his pastries give positive status conditions, then they without a doubt would keep him close. However, he is here.
Melina fell back into the bed and closed her eyes. The more she thought about it, the less sense it seemed to make. She needed to find out more about the man before she committed to becoming his apprentice. Because if he were to send her to Church for their mandatory training then… She didn't even want to think about what would follow and instead opted to close her eyes and sleep.
***
The next morning, Melina hurried over to the bakery. The sun barely rose when she reached the bakery, but there were already lights coming from the second floor. However, when she tried to open the front door, it turned out to be locked.
Have I come too early? Maybe he hasn't opened the front door yet.
The store was dark, so she decided to take a look in the garden behind her. It was likely that she'd need to clean up that too. As she walked around the bakery, she saw that Master Gilbert was already tinkering with the harnesses of a cart.
"Good morning?" she said quizzically, looking over the old man.
"Oh, you're here already? Good timing," Gilbert looked and nodded at Melina. "Today I'm going out to get the ingredients. It'd be perfect if while I was gone, you'd clean out the storage."
Damn, so much for finding out more about him. Can't ask him anything if he's gone. Although… wait… If he is gone then maybe I can search around his house a little bit and find some clues that way. This is perfect.
"Of course," she nodded with a smile. Gilbert raised his eyebrows, then slowly made his way inside the house, taking the back door. The old thing was barely holding on and she felt that if she grabbed the wrong part of the door, it would just crumble away. Ever so gingerly, she closed it after herself and followed the baker.
Surprisingly, the storage room was much larger than she had anticipated. It was stacked full of crates and boxes, some empty, some still filled with old ingredients, while the bottom shelves held some pots and gardening supplies. Overall, it could be described as a mess.
"I haven't properly cleaned this place in years. Unfortunately, my years have caught up to me," the man admitted, and Melina nodded.
"Do not worry, I'll take care of it," she said resolutely.
Even if I don't become his apprentice, I shall clean up this place before I leave. Maybe set things up so they're easier for him. There must be a local carpenter who could help with that. Because this place needs to be fixed up.
"Good. I'll leave it up to you then and go on my supply run," Gilbert said and then wobbled outside. Watching his feeble gait, Melina got worried and followed after him.
"You aren't going to pull that cart yourself, are you?" she asked cautiously.
"Of course not! How would I ever pull a cart filled with produce with these old hands?" he glared at her.
"Then how?"
"Knight will help me, of course," he replied with a smile. It was somewhat odd seeing this seemingly grumpy man smile.
To think that there was a knight in this little town. Maybe it's a retired friend of his who is just in better shape than him.
Melina followed him outside, looking around and searching for this person.
"When will this knight come? Have you agreed to a meeting time?" she asked.
"He'll come whenever I'll call him," Gilbert replied, putting two of his fingers in his mouth and whistling loudly. After a moment, a loud whinny replied to the whistle. Melina just noticed that there was a stable on the far side of the garden. Initially, she had mistaken it for a shed since it wasn't in the best condition.
Oh, it's a horse. That makes sense. Amazing how he has trained it to respond to his whistle.
However, as a large, black beast galloped out of the stables, Melina nearly fell down from shock. The black stallion was absolutely massive, easily towering over Melina while its black, almost ethereal mane flowed through the wind-like mist. This was not a regular horse.
"Nightmare…" Melina whispered, looking in horror as the creature hurried over to the old man. He smiled and reached out to pat his forehead affectionately.
"How'd you sleep, old friend?" Gilbert asked to which the nightmare nimbled at his fingers gently. "Good, good."
Then the beast noticed Melina, its red eyes locking onto her like a cat's when they found their prey. She stared right back at it, glaring at the nightmare without flinching. Obviously, she did not actually stand a chance against it, but her mage instincts forced her to stand her ground.
"Oh, you might be the first one to actually not run away from Knight," Gilbert noted, nodding his head at Melina. "He might look ferocious, but he's a trusted friend. Not sure what I would do without him."
Melina relaxed as she saw how the nightmare obediently positioned himself in front of the cart, letting Gilbert tie up the necessary harnesses.
But the only way for a monster to obey a human like this is if they are his familiar. How would a baker ever have a nightmare as a familiar? They are quite ferocious and do not like to be tamed. Being a System user alone is not enough to ensure one's loyalty. Who exactly is this old man?
She watched as he clambered onto the cart, assessing his every movement as if she could find the answer there. But all she saw was a frail old man—even the System can not save humans from aging. Whatever he was in the past was clearly in the past now. Much like Melina's magic. She shook her head at her own foolishness.
Look at me—trying to dig up an old man's past out of paranoia. You're better than that, Melina. You just have to figure out whether he's involved with the Church and whether he's sympathetic to them.
"Good luck on your supply run," Melina said. Gilbert inclined his head in response.
"Let's go, Knight," he commanded the nightmare who began to walk as if nothing was weighing it down at all. She imagined that even if it was pulling five such carts filled to brims with produce, it would still not feel bothered. It was a truly unnerving sight for Melina, the [Archmage] within her screaming in panic.
Calm down. It is familiar, it's been here for years and clearly has no intention of harming Master Gilbert. Just get inside and get to cleaning.
She grabbed the door handle, however the door didn't budge right away so she pulled again and with admittedly a bit more force than necessary. The door handle came clean out. For a moment she just blinked at the broken handle in her hand and then looked at the hole in the door where it used to be.
"Shit!" Melina groaned and tried to place the handle back. Unfortunately, it had no intention of returning to its original position and just fell to the floor. She picked it up and then grabbed onto the hole, trying to pull the door open. Thankfully, it didn't resist her too much and she got inside without any issues.
"Great, now anyone can just break into this place whenever they want… Although… with a door like this, they could have done so before. I hope that nightmare also serves as a guard dog," Melina muttered as she headed toward the storage room. She set the broken handle on one of the shelves and then went to get the necessary cleaning supplies from the kitchen.
On her way there, she discovered stairs that lead to the second floor. She stopped and stared up for a moment, wondering whether it was a good time to search for some information. In the end, her conscience won over and she decided to do it after she was done with the storage room. But Melina had not anticipated the enormity of the task in front of her.
She started by taking all the boxes out of the storage, keeping the ones that had usable ingredients in the hallway, and taking empty and broken ones outside. Most of them were broken, really, some just turned into sawdust as soon as she touched them.
With boxes out of the way, she turned to the pots on the lower shelves, dragging those as well as any gardening tools outside. Finally, she sorted through the packets of seeds. Some were covered with weird gunk, while some looked like they were half-eaten, however, oddly enough the majority of seeds looked alright and ready for planting. Whether something would grow out of them was a different question.
With everything cleared out of the shelves, it was time to clean. First, she fished down all the cobwebs from corners and the ceiling, then she destroyed the dust bunnies who swarmed the shelves with their infinite colonies. Last was the floor which was scrubbed with clean mop and water twice to make sure that everything was pristine, with no insects getting any ideas of taking up their old residences in the corners.
With the storage room cleaned, she turned to cleaning all the unbroken boxes and pots, sorting the ingredients, and seeds and slowly setting everything that was still usable back into the storage. All the broken things were put into two piles—burnable and non-burnable, and gardening tools that weren't rusted were cleaned and put in a separate box.
"Now, what do I do with these?" Melina said to herself, looking at the two piles of trash. But before she could come up with any solution, she heard the clatter of hooves and saw Master Gilbert and his nightmare horse coming back home with a cart full of vegetables, fruits, and other cooking ingredients.
"Welcome back," she greeted him while the nightmare gave her the stink-eye. She stared right back at it, wondering whether the beast could sense her hostility towards it.
"What happened to the door?" Master Gilbert grumbled, pointing at the hole in it.
"The handle broke when I pulled on it," Melina admitted sheepishly and pulled the broken handle out of the pile of trash. He looked it over and sighed.
"Yet another broken thing. It was honestly a miracle that it held on that long. How did the cleanup go?" he asked, making his way inside.
"I believe it went well enough," she said and sighed in relief that the man wasn't angry about the handle.
I didn't get a chance to snoop around. Oh well, I'll likely have to clean the second floor anyway—I'll get my chance then.
When Master Gilbert inspected the cleaned storage room, he looked high and low, checking every corner. However, in the end, he nodded in satisfaction, "Very good. I didn't expect you to sort everything so nicely."
"I figured it'd be best to sort everything right away instead of putting it off. A lot of boxes and pots were too broken and tools rusted to the point of crumbling. I put them in two piles outside," she explained.
"That's good. I have been meaning to get rid of all those old things for a while now. But today let's focus on getting the ingredients inside."
"I'll carry them inside," Melina hurriedly said, worried that the proud man would carry them himself. He must have done so before, but the thought of the old man carrying anything heavy made her shudder. Is there nobody in this town who could come and help him?
"You've already done a lot today. I'll carry them myself," Gilbert said, but Melina shook her head.
"You must be far more tired than I am, driving from shop to shop. Just go and rest while I take care of it. It's not a problem for me." Melina hurried outside before he could object. She would have jumped straight to the task but stopped when she met face-to-face with the nightmare who sputtered at her angrily.
"I am just going to carry things inside," she said to the beast, acutely aware that nightmares were far more intelligent than normal horses. If this one truly was Gilbert's familiar, then it likely understood human language quite well. Nonetheless, the nightmare scratched at the dirt in front of him with his hoof, daring Melina to get closer.
"It's alright, Knight. You can let this one pass," Master Gilbert said and gently patted the nightmare's neck. It stared distrustfully at Melina, but relented in the end and stepped aside.
Seriously, how did he even tame it? I swear it just wants to trample me into the ground.
She didn't wait for the monster to stop staring and instead grabbed a bag of flour and began hauling it inside. It was heavy—really heavy. Ruefully she looked at the remaining bags and crates filled to the brim.
How was he even able to carry all of that himself? I'm not even sure if I can do it.
But if she gave up, then Gilbert no doubt would start carrying everything himself, so she mustered her strength and one bag at a time, carried everything to the now clean storage room. When the baker wasn't looking, Melina would take short breaks, resting her feeble arms, but as soon as he came to check on her, she'd do her best to appear unbothered by the heavy weights.
I really need to invest in my
Halfway through the job, she already felt like her arms would fall off and each time she took a new crate it felt heavier than the last. The nightmare watched her the whole time, and she was convinced that the beast knew of her struggles and enjoyed them immensely. Melina glared at it each time she passed by, but it just looked more and more jolly.
"Are you sure you can do this?" Master Gilbert asked as he noticed her struggling with a heavy crate filled with apples.
"It is not a problem at all! I am stronger than I look," she replied with a forced smile.
I am not, but there's no way I am letting an old, frail man deal with this.
"Is that so?" He looked skeptical, but left her alone and headed to the kitchen instead. Melina carried on with the task, but after each bag or crate was carried inside, her strength sapped further. There were still so many remaining.
"I'll handle the rest," Master Gilbert suddenly said while Melina was trying to catch her breath outside. She instantly jumped up to her feet, trying to hide her exhaustion.
"I can do this! I only took a short breather," she objected.
"You've been taking a short breather after every crate you carry. There's no need for you to carry them all, girl. I'm not as frail as you think I am," he said and then effortlessly took one of the heavy flour sacks and flung it over his shoulder. While his hands trembled and his gait was a bit wobbly, the bag didn't seem to weigh him down at all.
Oh, I am such a fool. He may be old but I have no doubt that his level is pretty high. His
She shamefully watched as Master Gilbert finished the job and then returned to the kitchen. At least she had managed to haul most of the bags, but her body felt the consequences. It was all sore and her hands had blisters on them.
Those will hurt… It's alright, Melina. You've lived through much worse than a few blisters. This is nothing.
As soon as they entered the kitchen a pleasant smell wafted through the air. A pot sat on a small brick stove in the corner, pleasant bubbling coming from it. Melina's stomach grumbled.
"Sit down, it'll be ready soon," the man said.
"You're feeding me?" she asked in surprise.
"Who do you take me for, girl? You cleaned my storage room and carried more than half of everything inside. Obviously, I am going to feed you," he grumbled angrily. Melina sat down by the small table and waited in comfortable silence. It was a pleasant feeling—waiting for food after some hard work. In fact, she had not felt this relaxed in years.
I'd like to stay here. Master Gilbert seems like a kind man, if a bit rough around the edges. But the fact that he's a System user makes me worry. Should I become his apprentice anyway and try to hide the fact that I am one? It would surely come to light sooner or later. But perhaps I could take that risk and try to build a friendly relationship with him. Maybe if we're on good enough terms then he wouldn't report me to the Church.
And if worst comes to worst, I suppose I could always run…