Free Web NovelChapter 354: Redwood Style Bread
When Jake returned to the bakery that evening with the new oven and was greeted by the sight of a messy kitchen and 3 girls patting their bloated stomachs, he wasn’t sure whether to be angry or amused.
Christina wasn’t phased at all by Jake’s appearance, nor was she intimidated by the frown on his face. She didn’t feel like she had done anything wrong, and had even saved several pieces of bread for him to try, so she wasn’t worried about anything.
Jessie, being Jake’s younger sister, was also unafraid of her big brother. In fact, when he walked into the kitchen, she had jumped up in glee, clapping her hands as she began regaling him with tales of their earlier experiments, praising the new bread they had baked today as a revolution for the entire world.
For her part, Tess was mortified.
When Jake introduced himself and politely pointed out that she still had crumbs on her face, all while doing his best to not laugh, Tess felt like her world was ending.
All the shy young woman wanted was to find a hole and climb into it so she could disappear forever. Cheeks flushed red, eyes swimming, Tess had never been so embarrassed before.
It didn’t help that Jake was a confident, capable, and handsome young man; at least, that’s how he appeared in Tess’ eyes at that moment.
Fortunately for the young maid, no one else in the room seemed to notice her stray thoughts as they were all busy focusing on the new yeasted bread.
Having had a piece of the new bread literally stuffed into his mouth by his eager younger sister, Jake couldn’t even conjure up the will to complain as he chewed on the delicacy, savouring the tast
A lengthy discussion broke out after Jake’s soul returned to his body, one that mostly involved setting up a schedule for testing different methods, techniques, and recipes to perfect the new bread.
Some brief thought was also given to what they should call it, as they couldn’t just keep calling it ’new bread’, ’fluffy bread’, or ’delicious bread’.
That debate, however, was cut short when Jenny arrived, wondering what was taking her older brother and younger sister so long to return to the barracks for supper.
Needless to say, Jenny also got a mouthful of the new bread, resulting in a spiritual experience for the 17-year-old girl.
Extremely satisfied with the progress they had made today, Christina, Tess, Jake, Jenny, and Jessie tidied up the half-finished bakery, divided up what little remained of the bread samples they had baked, and locked up the shop for the night.
Lucas, Eris, and Christina had all separately offered to let the siblings stay with them at the manor, but they had ultimately refused as they wanted to remain closer to the rest of the common folks from Redwood Town.
The Balfour Manor in Misty City and the local garrison were close by, but still separated by a couple of kilometres, so the group of 5 split up at the shop, promising to meet again tomorrow to continue their quest for the ultimate bread.
The carriage Jenny had taken to reach the shop was still waiting outside, so she and her siblings simply hopped aboard and rode off.
As for the princess, while it might have seemed like she had been wandering around on her own without an escort all this time, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Even with an aura concealing cloak, one that hid her distinctive silver hair with its hood up, Christina was still easily recognizable if one looked close enough.
There was never a lack of people willing to risk their lives for profit, or glory, or vengeance, so despite possessing incredible strength for her age, there was no way Christina could simply walk around without guards.
Sure enough, not half-a-minute after Christina and Tess emerged from the shop did an unmarked carriage pull up and a non-descript middle-aged woman emerged from inside, nodding ever so slightly to the princess.
Together with the carriage’s driver, a nearby bard, and a pair of ’lovers’ loitering on the opposite street corner, these 5 made up the Twelfth Princess’ protection detail for today.
5 Spirit Initiates, the middle-aged woman being the leader of the team with a High-Rank cultivation. It was a formidable force capable of repelling basically any conceivable threat to Christina.
Only if a dozen Spirit Initiates or a Low-Rank Spirit Adept appeared would the princess be in any real danger with this kind of escort.
While some might have found it suffocating being watched at all times like this, Christina had already gotten used to it as this was the same treatment she got wherever she went.
If anything, this was far less ostentatious than what she normally had to suffer through.
Christina also knew that if she wanted to be free of these guards, all she had to do was become strong enough that they were no longer necessary. That would obviously take a while yet, but she was confident that one day she would be able to wander freely without having protectors lingering nearby.
Acknowledging the High-Rank Spirit Initiate, Christina simply boarded the carriage together with Tess and signaled for the driver to take them home.
Tina had a lot of thinking and planning to do, as well as some preparations to make if she wanted her first business venture to truly be a success.
It was all quite exciting and made the princess wonder if this was why Lucas and her Second Mother always seemed so passionate whenever they worked on similar projects.
.....
It was December, but the weather outside was unusually warm, and with the oven having been working for several hours now, the shop’s kitchen had gotten quite hot.
Sweating a bit, Tess moved to open some windows, thinking it would make things more comfortable, only to be gently stopped by Jake.
Jake had learned from experience that it was better to prep and bake bread in a slightly warmer environment with less outside airflow, knowledge he freely taught the slightly younger woman.
Blushing slightly, the 17-year-old former maid nodded, stepped back, and took in the scene before her.
It had been half-a-month since Tess was first brought to this quaint little shop by the princess, and over that time, she had gradually adapted to her new role.
Make no mistake, she was still nervous and flustered whenever Christina spoke to her, but that was normal for a commoner like her.
It was Jake, Jenny, Jessie, and their younger siblings who really amazed Tess; she didn’t understand how they could interact so casually with a real-life royal.
When she worked up the courage to ask Jenny, the calmest and most composed of the bunch, the young girl simply smiled and replied, "Tina treated us like friends from the start and never tried to use her title or position to act superior, so we responded in kind."
Tess honestly didn’t think that was how things were supposed to work, but deep down, she felt a bit envious of the bakery siblings, wondering if one day she too might be able to speak a few light-hearted words with her new master.
That was a dream for the distant future, however. Right now, what was important was perfecting the newly coined ’Redwood-Style Bread’.
It was hardly a creative title, simply making use of the name of their hometown, but Jake felt it was the most appropriate one they could come up with, and Christina made no objections, reasoning that it was only possible for her to make this bread thanks to Lucas’ knowledge.
In all honesty, though, after half-a-month baking it, they all just referred to it as ’bread’.
Regarding perfecting the recipe, there had actually been quite a bit of progress on that front.
After trying out a variety of fruit yeasts, Christina and the bakery siblings settled on using apples for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, apples were cheap and abundant as there were a number of orchards around Misty City that grew them. When prepared properly, the apple yeast also spoiled less often than any other juice the princess experimented with.
Lastly, the taste that apple yeast added to the bread was quite mild, giving it a hint of sweetness and freshness, but nothing more.
Perhaps there would be certain varieties of bread where a more pungent flavour would be appropriate, but for the moment, Tina, Jake, Jenny, and Jessie all felt that having something ’plain’ to start with would be best.
Tess obviously had no objections; quite the opposite, in fact, as Christina had not forgotten her new servant’s background.
When Tess introduced a literal princess to her Aunt Ingrid, the middle-aged apple farmer nearly fainted from shock, only to really faint later when Christina handed her a contract to buy half of her annual crop of apples at 15% above market price.
On advice from her Senior Brother Lucas and his new Head Manager Victoria, Christina even offered to ’invest’ in Ingrid’s farm so that she could expand it further, taking a 30% ownership stake in the orchard as compensation.
As soon as Tess’ aunt woke from her dizzy spell, she immediately signed the contract.
Even if it wasn’t a deal proposed by a royal, Ingrid had never received a more lucrative proposal in her life, so she saw absolutely no reason not to agree.
