TSBSFVW 11

Chapter 11
Three Breads. For Small Business Owners, Having a Side Job Is Basic (1)

A few days later, Maurice returned.

In barely ten days, he had managed to eat through all those scones, and his cheeks had plumped up noticeably.

When you consume too many carbs, it’s easy to gain weight. Add butter and sugar on top, and there’s really no hope.

Scones were made of flour, butter, sugar, and milk.

“At this rate, I could start a carb addicts’ club.”

Or, more bluntly, a fat club.

Even looking a little rounder, Maurice was still handsome, and he exclaimed in surprise:

“You got caught? By the Badger Knight Commander?”

“Yes….”

“Did you know each other before?”

Ellie gave Maurice a withering look.

“Of course not. Other than when I went to see him, I never stepped a single foot outside the mansion.”

“You should’ve gone out sometimes. Seen the sky, gotten some fresh air….”

“The house was big enough to see the sky and feel the wind just fine.”

Besides, she had been too busy glued to the kitchen, and she had no desire to get tangled up with her father.

Not that the man had ever shown the slightest interest in Ellie’s actions, but still—if she happened to run into him and he said something nasty, she doubted she could endure it.

In fact, every time Ellie faced the duke, she felt violent urges like some angsty teenager with a bad case of “middle-school syndrome.”

Even after mentally preparing herself with mantras like “That thing in front of me isn’t a man, it’s just a fish head”, it was still hard to suppress.

What if the petty villain inside Ellie evolved and decided to shove the duke into a blazing furnace?

Once, she had muttered aloud, “God, what bullshit. Maybe I should just beat him up,” and ended up locked away for an entire week.

“Damn it, if I’d at least hit him before being locked up, it wouldn’t have felt so unfair.”

Ellie’s life was a constant battle with patience. Every day required self-discipline.

“Then how did he recognize you?”

“I don’t know! That’s the point, I don’t know! He said it was because my name was the same, but come on—my name isn’t even rare!”

It had been her father who gave her this common, unremarkable name.

Ellie’s mother had died shortly after giving birth, leaving behind only a crying infant. With too many eyes watching, her father couldn’t kill the baby outright, so he simply gave her the name of the maid standing closest at hand.

So claiming he recognized her by her name alone made no sense.

“He comes every day. Every single day, just to buy a baguette. It’s driving me insane. Thankfully he comes right before opening, buys bread, and leaves. But if anyone were to see him….”

Rumors among commoners were welcome. Rumors reaching her father’s ears—absolutely not.

“He clings to me by threatening me, then has the nerve to act chummy, eyes shining like some dog bringing back a ball….”

“Maybe he really is glad to see you.”

“He’s so obsessed with baguettes he’s lost his judgment. Is the capital’s security really okay with this?”

“Wouldn’t it be a problem if he really was crazy?”

“Every day I live in fear of being caught, my heart shrivels up. And if my heart shrinks, how’s it supposed to pump blood to my limbs? My life expectancy is dropping thanks to this annoyingly cheerful mutt….”

Ellie, did you sleep well?

Ellie, it looks like there’ll be some rain tonight, so take an umbrella if you go out.

Ellie….

“What the hell, does he think he’s some AI assistant? Greeting me every morning, giving me weather updates?”

Half the time, he genuinely looked pleased when Ellie openly showed her distaste.

“You still dislike me, I see.”

“Then stop coming.”

“That I can’t do. Please bear with me a little longer. I’m sorry.”

If he knew she hated him, he should’ve backed off. He should’ve at least lost some of that damned confidence…. Why on earth did he like her more because she disliked him?

There were countless things Ellie wanted to argue about, but the best way to deal with weirdos was not to talk to them at all.

Maurice squinted at her puffing angrily.

“Maybe the commander really has fallen for you. You are cute, after all.”

“Ugh, that’s disgusting….”

Maurice burst into laughter.

It wasn’t an act. Ellie really looked like someone who had just heard pure madness, pale-faced, rubbing her arms to chase off goosebumps. Her sheer sincerity in being repulsed was hilarious.

“Don’t just laugh! Can’t you do something? What if I get caught like this and dragged back by the duke?”

“…You call your father that?”

“I don’t feel like calling him ‘Your Excellency.’”

“…Anyway, didn’t you say he wasn’t looking for you?”

“That’s only because Irene’s still around. But if….”

If Irene eventually left home as planned, the duke might very well look for a “replacement,” regardless of his own intentions.

“So we can’t be too sure. For now, I need to keep quiet.”

“True enough.”

Maurice propped his chin on his hand, lips twisting thoughtfully.

“The commander’s a tricky one. He can’t be bribed. If intimidation would work, I’d at least try, but….”

Ellie gave Maurice a long, appraising look.

Blatantly rude, but fair—Maurice didn’t look the least bit suited to physical force. Honestly, he wouldn’t stand a chance against even a half-trained knight.

“…Your eyes are annoying, Ellie.”

“What? I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“…”

“Just an objective… assessment? Basically, you’d lose. Don’t you have any strong friends?”

She shrugged.

Maurice let out a helpless laugh under her openly dismissive gaze.

“My strongest friend is Edmund.”

“…”

“Edmund really hates the commander. He’s sworn he’ll kill him on sight. But killing someone just to stop them from coming to your bakery… maybe that’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

Was that even a question? Ellie quickly nodded.

No matter how much she disliked him, she didn’t want him dead.

“What about moving?”

“With what money? I already went into debt with you just to open this shop.”

“I know your sales. You’re barely breaking even. Paying off debt through business is impossible at this rate.”

“…”

She had nothing to say.

“You’ve proven your product has potential. Starting over in the imperial capital wouldn’t be bad. If that whole talk about opening shops across the continent was just lip service, fine. But otherwise, this won’t do.”

Maurice looked at her with a bright smile.

But behind that smile, his eyes were cold.

How she answered now would determine how Maurice judged her.

He wasn’t even hiding that he was testing her.

That made things difficult, but it also meant she could rely on him.

If she produced the results he expected, even superficial kindness and goodwill could be hers.

“But if I disappoint him, I won’t get any more help.”

Even with Maurice’s connections letting her buy flour at relatively cheap rates, it was still expensive.

She sold her bread at a decent price, but profits were slim.

Maurice had warned her from the start: once you set a price, it’s hard to raise it. Still, Ellie wanted to consider accessibility. She wasn’t targeting nobles—she wanted as many people as possible to eat her bread.

“…Someday I’ll move, but not yet.”

She answered carefully.

“My inheritance isn’t much. After I pay off debts, almost nothing will be left. To open another shop in the capital, I’d have to take your investment. But I don’t want more debt. I want to expand on my own.”

“Investment’s just one method.”

“Still. If I can’t even run this one shop properly, relying lazily on outside investment to move to a bigger city won’t make me succeed.”

Maurice chuckled.

Whether it was the “right” answer or not, he didn’t seem displeased.

Ellie quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

She couldn’t afford to lose Maurice Herzog just yet.

“What about expanding your menu? Really push those scones.”

The scone-obsessed madman’s eyes lit up.

“Butter’s easy enough to get, so you’ll profit well. And it’s cheap, too.”

Ellie, who had lived in a world where flour was cheaper than butter, still found that bizarre.

But this world wasn’t her old one.

Here, the landmass was the size of a whole American continent, and livestock farming was well-developed.

As long as you protected your herds, you had milk and meat.

Of course, with so many monsters around, protecting livestock wasn’t easy—but still easier than farming.

Farming required rare, blessed lands: vast open fields free of monsters, far from borders where knights, mercenaries, or armies might trample everything.

So good flour was harder to get than butter.

“But if you’ve got butter, why is the bread still this bad?”

If you knew the magic of bread and butter together, how could you not want to develop it further?

As a bread fanatic, Ellie couldn’t understand such laziness.

“Rather than that, I want to find a bulk buyer. If Malina helps, we can increase dough production….”

“That’s a good idea, Ellie.”

“Argh—ack!”

She bit her tongue.