"Leliana, perhaps you would like to continue this conversation in the kitchen?" Melina offered, approaching the red-haired girls slowly.

  "Stay out of this!" She snapped, and Melina backed away, raising her hands defensively. She had fought plenty of scary monsters in the past, but somehow at that moment, Leliana was more frightening than all of them. Can't mess with a girl in love, as they say.

  "So, are you going to answer why you are suddenly being so cozy with this… I don't even know what she is. A mermaid?" Leliana questioned, looking up and down Aeriganta, who was trying her best to appear small and invisible. Granted, she was completely failing.

  "A siren," Elowen corrected.

  "Close enough," Leliana puffed. "Do you elves just go chase after the first pretty creature you see?"

  "W-What?! No! I'm most certainly not chasing after her," Elowen objected, pointing at Aeriganta as if she were some disgusting slug.

  "Grandfather, what should I do?" Melina whispered, wondering how to avert this scandal from spreading through the whole town.

  "Just keep serving customers," he whispered back.

  Melina saw that the customers were entranced by the ongoing conversation, watching everything unfold with bated breath. The lady next in line didn't take her eyes off Leliana and Elowen, but she whispered to Melina. "Two rye bread and five cream puffs for me, please."

  Melina nodded, mechanically reaching for the requested goods while glancing at Leliana and Elowen.

  "Oh, really? For the past few days, she's been sticking to you like glue!" Leliana objected. "You haven't even come to help me with my plants once this week."

  "Look, it's been a hectic time! I'll come as soon as I'm able to."

  "And when will that be?"

  The lady paid for the pastries and moved out of the way; however, instead of leaving the bakery, she began snacking on a cream puff while watching the scene.

  Elowen stammered. "I don't know. The Church expedition is in town, I have to guard Melina, and Aeriganta can't be left on her own…"

  Melina flinched at the mention of her name. She didn't want to be a part of this particular argument.

  "Melina and Aeriganta. You're just running to please those two all the time, aren't you? Forget Leliana. Who cares about her? That's it, you don't have to come and help me anymore. I'll manage on my own," Leliana said with a puff, and turned to leave.

  "No, no! Please don't be like that," Elowen pleaded, reaching out and grabbing her hand. "I'll come this evening, okay? After my patrol?"

  "No, thank you! I'll be going to sleep early today," the redhead retorted, pulled her hand free, and stormed off.

  Elowen groaned and rubbed at his temples, slumping back down in the chair.

  "Don't you sit there!" One of the women in the bakery said. "Go after her!"

  "What? But she's mad at me," Elowen protested.

  "And she'll be even madder if you don't follow her now!" Another lady added sternly.

  Elowen looked conflicted for a moment, then looked at Melina as if asking for permission.

  "Go on, then!" She urged him.

  Elowen nodded and stormed out of the bakery, running after Leliana. That was something Melina hadn't expected to witness. The cool and collected Elowen looked so frazzled and was actually trying to appease what was basically a temper tantrum on Leliana's part. He must really care about her.

  One of the women in the bakery sighed dreamily. "That was something straight out of a romance novel!"

  The other ladies nodded in agreement, looking very content.

  "Humans are so, so scary…" Aeriganta whispered, trying to hide herself behind her glass of water.

  "That certainly was something…" Melina agreed.

  "You should have seen how bad arguments between Leliana's mother and father sometimes got," Gilbert said. "This is nothing."

  The older customers nodded their heads. Melina paled. How come all of them knew about it? Just how dramatic was Leliana's mother? She remembered seeing the woman a few times, but she seemed rather muted. Her red hair was always pulled into a bun, and she wore rather plain-looking clothes, unlike her daughter, who always tried to stand out.

  Not knowing what to say, Melina just urged the next customer at the counter. She still had a service to finish. Although she did wonder whether Elowen would be able to calm down the fiery Leliana.

  While Melina couldn't really make her macarons yet, she and Roxie did begin experimenting with the luminfruit, as well as dreamplums and moonfern shoots. They prepared them in various ways—within dough, as a jam, fresh, juicing them, and cooking them on top of tarts with a bit of caramel.

  Moonfern shoots turned out to be the easiest to work with. The outer rind was inedible, although if simmered in hot water, it exuded a pleasant aroma. Perhaps it could be used in perfume or scented candles. However, the inner part tasted like an aromatic sort of carrot mixed with a bit of garlic. It was a difficult flavor to describe, but Melina believed it would taste wonderful in the meat buns.

  Dreamplums and Luminfruit, on the other hand, were tricky. Melina had to constantly check the result with to make sure it was safe for them to try. Jam or any sort of intense cooking concentrated the properties of both fruits, making them too dangerous to eat.

  Despite Mango's and Sienna's desperate desire to try the result, they were burned and disposed of. She couldn't risk her familiars having hallucinations and getting addicted.

  The two fruits worked the best when mixed into either dough or cream. That minimized the adverse effect while retaining the good ones, which Melina could further enhance with . That wasn't to say that it was completely safe. If eaten in large enough quantities, these creams could be dangerous too. So Melina would have to be careful to never sell too much of it to a single customer.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  By the end of the evening, Melina had tested so many variations of these ingredients that her skill ranked up to Rank C.

  [You've unlocked a new skill.]

  [Dish Assessment – Rank F. Allows you to examine prepared dishes to see their rank, ingredients used, as well as the effect applied. The higher the rank of the skill, the more information you'll be able to see about the dish.]

  Melina was surprised to suddenly unlock a skill, but she suspected it was because of how frequently she had used . Frankly, she was relieved to finally get proper assessment skills; otherwise, she had no clue what effects were applied to her pastries.

  With this, she'll be easily able to see them and make sure that none of her customers suffer from dreamplum hallucinations or the euphoric cravings of the luminfruit. Ranking it up also shouldn't be a problem with how many pastries they made each day. She suspected it would reach Rank B by the end of the week.

  With her experiments complete, Melina headed back home, accompanied by Elowen, who had returned to the bakery about two hours later. The expression he wore was so scary that she didn't dare to ask what had happened with Leliana. He didn't say anything either, remaining quiet while watching Melina.

  But he looked like he had calmed down, so Melina, while holding Mango close as her trustworthy anger-repelling shield, dared to ask. "So what happened with Leliana?"

  If looks could kill, then Melina would be one foot into the grave at this point. He didn't look happy to be asked this question at all. After a moment of thought, he sighed.

  "Human females are very difficult," he said. Then amended himself. "Females are difficult."

  "You could have just ignored her if the situation bothered you so much," Melina said, although she was well aware that he wouldn't ignore such a situation.

  "You said it yourself that I'm the one with . I have to bridge the gap between the human and the elf race. This situation had to be resolved," Elowen said.

  Melina believed that there was far more to it than just him having . But she didn't say that aloud. Instead, she asked. "How did you resolve it?"

  "That is between me and Leliana," he replied coldly.

  This only got Melina more curious, but she didn't press the issue. She would ask Leliana later. The girl probably wouldn't mind sharing what happened. But perhaps a few days later, once she had cooled down a bit.

  With that, Elowen safely delivered Melina home. They did see a few priests along the way, but once they saw Elowen, they made a beeline to the other side of the road or changed their walking direction altogether. Sunglow must be a frustrating place for them with all the elves around. Good.

  As soon as Melina got inside, she washed up and headed straight to bed. She slept on the living room couch next to Mango and Sienna. At least while hearing their calm breaths as they slept, she had something peaceful to focus on. Otherwise, her mind got filled with images of Heiliger's face and the dread of what might happen tomorrow.

  Morning came and went in what felt like the blink of an eye. Some more priests came into the bakery, offering their charity packs of sugar and salt. Unfortunately, for them Remi was the one tasked with guarding Melina that day. She didn't do anything to them. At least when compared to other priests who visited Sunglow, these guys got away scot-free.

  But Remi suddenly forgot all the concepts of personal space when they arrived. She got up close and personal with them, throwing her hands around their shoulders, leaning really close while asking about the contents of their packets. Needless to say, it didn't take long for the priest to rush out of the bakery while mumbling some excuse nobody believed.

  It was a small victory but a victory nonetheless, and everyone in the bakery cheered when the priests were gone.

  "Who are they trying to fool with their silly packets?" Missus Veilcroft, the plant vendor, said. "That we'd suddenly forget everything they had done in the past if they bribed us with a bit of sugar and salt."

  "You did grab the packet, though," Gilbert pointed out, still filling in for Adrien, who was meanwhile focusing on the garden.

  "I won't say no to free stuff," she shrugged, then pulled out the book within the packet. "Do you need kindling, Gilbert?"

  "It's alright. We have a wyrm," he said, pointing at Sienna, who was hanging from the ceiling.

  Mango, however, jumped up and snatched the book and began to viciously tear at it, sending paper bits flying everywhere.

  "I'm sorry, Missis Veilcroft. She's been chewing everything lately. I suspect her teeth are itching as more of them are coming out," Melina said, wondering how she would clean up the mess.

  "No worries, Melina. Poor little dear must be feeling quite uncomfortable. My children were like rabid dogs, too, when they were teething. You can keep that," the woman said kindly.

  After that, the other customers who had taken packets from the Church gifted their books to Mango as well, who tore at them with great vigor, not sparing a single one. Thankfully, nobody really minded the mess the fox had created, instead finding it endearing. What Melina didn't find endearing was cleaning up all the mess afterwards. There were paper bits everywhere.

  After a long cleanup, Melina headed to meet up with Heiliger. She really didn't want to. Her hands were getting clammy, her heart beating fast, and there was an unpleasant feeling in her stomach, almost as if she was developing a stomach bug of sorts. She knew that this interaction wouldn't go well.

  But on the other hand, this was also an opportunity. Melina could try to get some information out of her. The woman was slick and a master of manipulating conversation. Frankly, Alistair was better suited for conversational warfare. But Melina would certainly do her best, remembering the recent lessons he had given her.

  When Erina's inn finally came into view, a heavy knot formed in Melina's throat. She felt like she could hardly breathe as priests seemed to come in and out of the inn like out of a beehive. Going inside, she saw a group of them talking with a very disgruntled-looking Erina, with Barrett standing behind her, glaring daggers.

  "As I have said a hundred times before, we don't give out a discount to Church members," Erina growled.

  "But every other place—"

  "I don't care about other places. If they can afford to run a charity, good for them. But I cannot. So you will either pay the full price for your room right now, or Barrett here will find you a different place to sleep."

  It wasn't often that Melina saw the usually kind-looking Barrett look angry. But he pulled off the look well. Even Melina took a step back from how scary the man looked. However, when his eyes met with Melina's, all the anger disappeared from both his and Erina's faces.

  "Melina, welcome! It is so nice to see you!" Erina chirped happily.

  "It's nice to see you too, Barrett and Erina," she returned the greeting.

  Erina came out from behind the counter and whispered to Melina. "I know who you are meeting today. Good luck! If you need any help, then a few of the guards are disguised as customers in the cafeteria. Just raise your hand and they'll be at your back and call."

  Melina nodded. It appeared that Sunglowers were ready to fight for the town. She really hoped it wouldn't come to that. But the backup wouldn't hurt.

  "Thank you, Erina," she said.

  "Anytime," the innkeeper replied, and then pulled out a little piece of jerk, broke it in half, and handed one to each of Melina's familiars. The moment Erina turned away from Melina, her eyes filled with anger again. "So will you pay up or not?"

  The priests had no choice but to reach for their money pouches. Another small victory for Sunglow.

  However, when Melina entered the cafeteria and saw Heiliger sitting at one of the tables, looking relaxed and comfortable, dressed not in her bishop attire but rather in an elegant white and pink dress, she couldn't help but feel she had lost. She hadn't put on anything nice, instead remaining in her regular blue dress that she wore every day.

  "Melina, you made it! Please, sit down," Heiliger said graciously, pointing at the free seat across from her. Despite the supposed politeness, the words came across as an order.

  Melina just barely restrained a frown. She activated and sat down, holding Mango in her lap while Sienna sat on her shoulder. "I hope you don't mind Mango and Sienna. They are with me wherever I go."

  "No, of course not. Why would I mind these adorable little critters?" The woman replied, enunciating the word critters. It was clear she didn't like her familiars being with her at all. Good. Another small victory for Sunglow.