The next day proceeded drastically different from the ones previous. At least for me and the Baker it did.

His wife had found out the next morning about the new sleeping arrangements in her household…..needless to say she was…..angered.

But she quieted down when the Baker raised his voice. Though…..she did continue to glower at both my mother and myself.

Bigoted bitch. A small smirk and snort from me served to increase her fury, ‘Grand Archive’ predicted she may even have a heart attack if I continued.

After all, she wasn’t exactly the most active and healthy person I’ve met in my 35 years.

After that small fiasco, I spent the morning simply chopping wood before the Baker came to tell me that he had enough time to learn how to bake brownies.

And so we baked!

And baked?

And baked…..

And why the fuck are we baking so much!

“Um, Excuse me Master. Why exactly are we constantly going over this?”

“I want to make sure I can get this right of course!”

Ah what a professional…..wait! Can’t I just write this down! It’s not exactly difficult to make this.

“Umm can’t we just write it down? That way even if you forget, you’ll still be able to make it.”

At this point he had a very thoughtful expression on his face, then he grimaced.

“Hide is more useful for other things and paper is expensive, so is ink. Why would I spend money on that when I can just memorize it this way?”

There’s something wrong with his expression….ah ‘Grand Archive’ sorted it out. He’s covering up the real reason!

“You can’t read…can you?”

Oops that came out a little flat! He doesn’t look happy!

“What was that! It’s not like you can!”

Oooh! This gives me the chance to sell another idea.

“If you give me a book and what few words you know I can. Also I can sell you one other thing if you do this.”

His expression lit up at the word ‘sell’, criminey! It hasn’t even been twenty four hours and he’s already been trained to reacting to that word!

“What exactly might you be selling?”

“The ability for your family to read.”

His expression gained complexity after hearing my offer. He paused in the middle of placing the fifth set of brownies into the oven and leaned against the counter.

I simply stood there with an expectant expression as I gazed up at him.

“Can you actually do that?”

He said this in a disbelieving but almost hopeful tone. The ability to read can reap enormous benefits in this type of world.

Sure, day to day life doesn’t really require the knowledge of it.

However……

In order to advance in a world such as this, the ability to read and write is of incalculable importance. At the very least it could see Claura married into a richer family……….

I took a step forward and tried to appear as confident as my little body was capable of.

“It will come at a price.”

“What is it? This price.”

“…..I’ll name it after I have taught you to read. If you are incapable of learning, that will mean I have failed. Therefore let’s just name the price at a later date.”

……………………………………………….

The rest of the day was spent in an awkward silence broken only by me continuing to teach the Baker how to bake brownies when he had the spare time.

Afterwards he disappeared for an hour before returning with what appeared to be a stack of papers tied together by string.

“This was the cheapest I could find….also it had a few words I recognized.”

Now you might wonder why a person incapable of reading would know a few words. It’s simple, even though he can’t read sometimes there are objects such as contracts that he must sign and understand what the contents of those contracts are. Naturally he’d have to pay someone who can read to tell him, and whilst they are doing so he may pick up a word or two.

Furthermore the names of things such as: Bakery, Blacksmith, and Tavern. These are commonly known since their names are listed under the picture that hangs above the doorways of such enterprises as advertisement.

Even I knew those words…..I just needed a bit more to figure this language out.

“Well then, let’s get started before it gets much later.”

We were now in the personal dining room of the house. The Baker’s wife was putting Claura to bed and my mother was in the front wiping down the floors.

I dragged a chair over by the one he had sat down on. He gave me a rude look.

“What? Think I have a sickness or something? How else are you going to point out the words you know?”

His eye twitched at that. It’s only natural, this ‘book’ probably cost him quite the pretty penny and here I was acting like a stuck up brat. I had better tone down the attitude, after all this is only the second day of our new relationship…..I can’t move to quickly.

“So anyways, let’s begin reading.”

He grimaced but then turned back to the ‘book’ and pointed at a word on the first page.

“This one is ‘money’.”

“This one is ‘contract’.”

………….

It took us an hour to go through all the pages, there was only thirty but I made him carefully comb each one for words he knew.

The words he knew were ones that, unsurprisingly, were related to contracts and business. That was the only type of words he’d ever had explained to him after all.

“Alright, now just give me the ‘book’ and I’ll figure it out.”

He hesitantly passed the book over to me. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s going along this far. It must be because I’ve been dominating our relationship since yesterday. He’s probably so confused about how I’m displaying such intelligence so suddenly.

….I had best not slip up….or I’m finished.

With my personal feeling of tension raised slightly I began re-reading the ‘book’. ‘Grand Archive’ then activated and began to rapidly analyze it and comparing it to all my knowledge of languages back on earth. After about five minutes it 

delivered to me the instantaneous knowledge of the Snagan language. Though only with about 75% accuracy……. that’s fine though, for simple daily use it’ll be more than enough.

The written language itself is quite beautiful and reminded me of the Arabic alphabet. It’s probably because of that similarity that I was able to get such a high accuracy. This is due to the fact that I had a friend who worked at the same institute as I and Cecily who was originally from the UAE. We had visited his family during one of our rare vacations at his invitation. It had been a fun time and he had explained some of the words to me.

At the time I naturally forgot, but ‘Grand Archive’ was, of course, the archive of all my knowledge whether I remembered it or not.

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“So?”

The Baker was losing patience. Jeez he’s so impatient, if it was anybody else it would take them weeks if not months to figure this kind of thing out.

“I have the capability of reading. The title of this story is ‘The Unfortunate Merchant’.”

Go figure, no wonder he knew some of the words in this ‘book’.

A hint of suspicion showed on his face.

Ah yeah, this guy isn’t a complete idiot. Naturally he won’t entirely trust what I say.

“Let’s prove that what I say is the truth by having me write down the instructions on how to make brownies. Then you can take it to someone who can read. You already know the directions but can’t read the words for it. I shouldn’t previously have known the words either. Therefore this will prove I can write.”

He mulled it over before nodding his head.

“This is becoming expensive….”

“But the end rewards are great. Without taking a risk you won’t gain anything.”

He gave me a weird look then.

“You….are you really that kitling? I don’t think anybody could act that well. Furthermore you speak as though you’re someone closer to my age!”

Well technically I’m older than you……

“I am the same kitling. I have just now decided to remove my façade. If you wonder where I have gained this knowledge from……well let’s chalk it up to revelations from the cooking god.”

I slipped out a smile and my ears twitched slightly. I nearly cracked up from my own sarcasm!

“Haaaa….fine, fine. After what I’ve seen in just these two days I wouldn’t be surprised if such a being actually existed…… I’ll get the ink and paper tomorrow. Once you write it down I’ll take it to be read.”

“Good. After that we can begin your and your family’s lessons.”

“You seem too confident…..you better pull through…..otherwise…..”

“Otherwise what? I already showed you brownies….there are other baked goods that could even be more profitable. Even if I were to be wrong about teaching you guys how to write, I should think it wouldn’t be wise for you to punish me for it.”

His expression darkened, but after a deep breath it returned to normal.

“I suppose your right…….well let’s see what happens.”

“Goodnight Master.”

“……..Goodnight Kitling.”

After that, without so much as a bow I returned to my and my mother’s room.

I once again slept contentedly; I have gained the knowledge of reading this country’s language. It will be a valuable commodity, regardless of what happens in the future.

………………………………

The next day preceded much the same as they usually had in the past, though there was one significant difference…..

“Delicious!”

“What are these!? I’ll have ten! No a dozen!”

“These ‘brownies’ are unbelievable!”

I listened from the backdoor to the customers inside clamoring over the brownies. I had suggested the day before when I was showing the Baker how to make them that offering small pieces as free samples would drum up business.

Obviously it worked, this world had never experienced the marketing ploys or food, for that matter, of an industrialized nation.

They had absolutely zero resistance to it.

I continued to chop wood for the mundane ovens that were now working overtime since the magic oven was being exclusively used to produce the brownies.

One thing had surprised me today though…..the pricing for the brownies.

I had completely neglected to discuss that point with the Baker the night before. Furthermore my grasp of the economics of this nation was very hazy given the fact the my sum total of interactions with money was watching coins leave Claura’s hand and entering a merchants hand the one time I had been with her to the market.

It’s something I’ll definitely have to get a grasp of at a later date……

………………………………….

That the night the Baker left the house…..my guess was so that he could confirm the truth about my claim that I could now read the Snagan language.

“Fufufufu.”

“Hiii!”

Whoops! I must’ve scared Claura with my evil laugh!

I reach my hand out to calm her down before she runs off into the external kitchen.

Meh, whatever, there’s almost no use in trying with her.

………………………………………

I was sweeping up the front of the shop, my mom had asked me since she was busy cleaning the brownie tins……………PAM doesn’t exist here so it’s a bit difficult to properly grease them.

*BAM*

The front door slammed open and a very flushed Baker walked in. His breathing was heavy a he walked towards me. He then made as if to reach out to me before stopping and pulling back his hand.

I turned to face him, my ears flicked to one side in confusion over his odd state.

“You……what exactly are you.”

“Two thirds human, one third beastman....why?.”

“What is a third……No wait! Nevermind.”

“Huh?”

“What I meant was, how can you possibly be the kitling that I once knew! Not even human children should be able to 

figure out a language in a few minutes! Much less a kitling!”

“So it seems you believe me now. Also, I am still myself…..I guess that head injury must’ve just knocked everything into place……as it were.”

I said this as I turned around and began to leave, I had already finished sweeping.

“Ah, by the way……let’s start the first lesson tomorrow night around this time. We’ll hold it for one hour every night following that.”

I walked away after saying this. I’m sure if I had had a tail it would’ve been bobbing in a very pompous fashion.

‘Grand Archive’ also picked up traces of fear pheromones wafting my way as I walked out of the room.

Hmmm, the air was flowing from the door towards me.

Good, things seem to be going my way.

______________________________________________________________________________________

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Sorry! I know it's late! I was too busy being a student this past weekend and doing fun...student...things.....  Anyways! I'm really sorry! I'll make sure next week's one is right on time. As always please comment and rate! 

Edit: Found out something new, RoyalRoadl has a limit on how long your title can be.....