A bakery.
It was the kind of shop everyone knew, one that baked and sold bread.
That bakery was my family home, and I worked there as a salesclerk. Oh, my name was Fairina, though those close to me called me Funa.
Until recently, I’d been troubled by two main problems.
The first was the future of the shop. The price of wheat, our primary ingredient, and the price of firewood for the ovens had both shot up at the same time, causing our savings to dwindle at an alarming rate. Anyone would have been worried. In some countries, bakeries were strictly regulated by a licensing system, but in the Demon Kingdom, anyone could open a shop. That meant we had plenty of rivals.
Our clientele consisted almost entirely of regulars, which meant our income never saw any sudden spikes. My father and mother worked themselves to the bone, but no matter how I looked at it, the future seemed grim.
Who were our regulars, you ask? Well, there were the neighborhood housewives and the local inns that served meals. Then, about once every three days, the Borokko crew—the local carpenters—would buy a large batch in the morning. Beyond that, there was the self-defense force station. They didn't buy exclusively from us, but rotated through the neighborhood bakeries. It only happened about once every ten days, but the revenue was nothing to scoff at.
My second worry involved a romantic entanglement. I wasn't trying to boast, but there was a man pursuing me. I wasn't usually one for romance, so I didn't exactly hate the attention, but the man himself was the issue.
He was handsome enough, but he was Gilspark, a man famous for being rather intimidating. He was never violent, but he always seemed to be in a state of constant irritation. He never acted that way around me, of course, but after agonizing over it for a while, I turned him down. It felt like a bit of a waste, but back then, I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea of marriage. I was still such a child.
I gave him a firm rejection, but Gilspark refused to give up and visited the shop frequently. He never actually bought any bread, though. He claimed his goal was me, not the bread. He was quite clumsy in that regard, though I suppose it meant I didn't have to feel any unnecessary sense of obligation.
As I mentioned, those were my problems "until recently," because both had since been resolved.
Regarding the shop, an impossibly massive establishment called Big Roof Shashato opened nearby. We eventually began supplying them with bread. We weren't the only bakery they sourced from, but even so, our daily sales doubled. No, they probably more than doubled. I was incredibly grateful. Please forgive me for initially thinking it was just a pointlessly massive eyesore. Their curry was absolutely delicious.
As for the second worry—the romance—well, how should I put it? Just don't go saying I was worn down or that I was an easy mark. Gilspark wasn't a bad person, and he told me he wouldn't have eyes for anyone but me... cough. Marriage was still a long way off, but things were going... smoothly, I suppose.
Now, for the main topic. Currently, I had three new worries.
First: Big Roof Shashato, which provided a huge portion of our revenue, actually baked its own bread on-site. However, that bread wasn't for sale; it was strictly for their employees. I suspected they didn't sell it out of consideration for the surrounding shops. After all, they bought their employees' uniforms from various local tailors rather than a single source. I truly appreciated their commitment to not monopolizing profits and cooperating with the community.
The problem lay elsewhere. The bread they baked for their staff was overwhelmingly better than ours. I had the chance to taste it by pure luck... actually, I'll just be honest. Gilspark ate some of the staff bread and bragged about it to me. I was the daughter of a baker. Knowing that, how could he possibly think it was okay to praise bread from somewhere else?
Naturally, I snapped and clocked Gilspark right in the jaw.
Immediately after, I stormed into Big Roof Shashato and demanded they let me try the employee bread. It was frustrating, but it was delicious. It was beyond comparison—fundamentally different in every way.
While Gilspark was bowing his head in apology, he explained that it was a type of bread that had recently become popular among the nobility. And they were serving that to their employees. They could have sold it to customers, but they chose not to for the sake of the local shops. The staff at Big Roof Shashato told me that baking enough for customers would be too much work and would drive the price up, but...
It was humiliating. I was ready to explode. Technically, I did explode, but Gilspark grabbed me and hauled me away before I could cause a scene, so I'm counting it as a win. I felt like taking back every loaf we’d ever supplied and throwing the payment back in their faces. But the shop belonged to my father, not me. I couldn't just do as I pleased. Besides, even if I took our bread back, they’d just buy from someone else. You can't live on pride alone.
In that case, there was only one solution: to make our shop's bread so delicious it wouldn't lose to theirs. I was currently researching how to do just that. Since I figured this wasn't just my problem, I was collaborating with other local bakeries. As for our progress... well, to put it mildly, it wasn't going well. We’d managed to create bread that was significantly better than what we had before, but it still didn't come close to Big Roof Shashato’s staff bread. I felt my own inadequacy keenly. That was my first worry.
As for the remaining two, the second was the discovery that Gilspark was actually the son of the Magistrate. I punched him for keeping that a secret, too.
The class difference was massive. The Magistrate of Shashato City was a noble, while I was a mere commoner. This wasn't a fairy tale; marriage between our classes wasn't something that happened easily. It even reached the point where we talked about breaking up, but Gilspark resisted with tears in his eyes, so I finally steeled my resolve. He insisted there was a loophole for nobles and commoners to marry, so I decided to trust him. Now, the two of us were trying to find the right moment to go and greet his parents. My own parents... well, they seemed to have decided to just watch and see how it played out.
Finally, the third worry: a friend of Gilspark’s had caused some trouble at Big Roof Shashato and had been sent to the Church. It wasn't a prison sentence; he was just performing community service. Gilspark was participating in the service alongside him, apparently feeling responsible because he thought a fight they'd had earlier was the root of the trouble.
Now, that part wasn't really a worry. The problem was that Big Roof Shashato was one of the locations for their community service. It was during this time that Gilspark ate the bread that started my first worry, but the service was still ongoing. That meant Gilspark could watch them bake that staff bread.
I wondered if I should ask the man I loved to do some scouting for me. But his goal was to help his friend reflect on his actions. I couldn't very well ask him to steal recipes while he was at it.
While I was agonizing over this, Gilspark spoke up.
"The Acting Shop Manager, Marcos-san... he offered to teach me how to bake that bread. You know, the one from the staff meals that was so good? What do you think I should do?"
It was a agonizing choice. That was my third worry. My pride... no, pride should be thrown into the gutter when necessary. To bake delicious bread, I had to be honest with myself.
Ugh...
A few days later, I met the Shop Manager of Big Roof Shashato. He was a slightly odd man whom everyone called "Village Head" despite his position. He wasn't usually at the shop, but it seemed he had come to town to procure seafood.
In terms of looks, Gilspark definitely had him beat. Hehe. But his business acumen was on an entirely different level. After speaking with him for a short while, I realized something important.
Baking delicious bread was a given; the real key was baking the specific bread Big Roof Shashato needed. And what was that bread? Naturally, it was bread that paired perfectly with curry. I had completely overlooked that perspective. He truly was fit to be the manager of such a massive store.
It has been a few months since I met the Village Head. The taste of our bread still hasn't quite reached the level of their staff meals, but I believe I’ve created something that won't lose when it comes to pairing with curry.
But I can't get complacent. This much won't be enough to surprise that Shop Manager.
Hehe. I’m going to bake even more delicious bread, just you wait and see.