It’s been two days, time to visit Muirne and Nessa.
Thinking so I stuffed some ‘tribute’ for them into my bag, they’re just cheap snacks from a convenience store though. I had properly took off the plastic packing and moved them to paper bags. Let’s love mother nature. I doubt they have recycling center over there after all… wait, using paper bags is not exactly nice to nature either. Let’s go with the lesser evil, I choose you, paper bags!
I am planning to explore the village and its surrounding today so I am in my outdoor gears. I also have some weapons with me like a hammer and a jackknife. Just in case I also have a flashlight and folding umbrella.
Preparations complete. Time to set off!
I opened the door that once led to my backyard and was greeted by the interior of an old but big and sturdy wardrobe. Hmm, smells like dust and old wood… I should clean and maybe use paint on this thing if I have the time.
I knocked on the door three times but there’s no response. Is Muirne not around?
“Muirne, are you there?”
I was about to turn around and decided to come back later while feeling dejected until I heard her voice.
“W..t …l …n th..”
I’m concerned on the manner of her speech. While she was opening the lock I pondered whether to ask about that or not later. Of course to her mother. I’m not so insensitive as to ask something like that to the person in question herself.
When the door opened I could see her face and wowzer, those ears! I want to touch them.
“Yo, Muirne. You’re cute as usual!”
And *BLAM*. With reddened face, Muirne closed the wardrobe’s door right when I was stepping out of it. Sprawled on the floor and looking at the ceiling while confirming whether my nose still retains its shape or not with my hand I pondered. Is it just me or my face tends to receive some damage lately?
After recovering from the damage for a bit I raised myself and once again step out of the unlocked wardrobe.
”Muirne?”
Muirne’s not around. She ran away eh?
I chose to just go out of her room and down the stairs.
I don’t see Muirne or Nessa in the living room either.
“Hm? Smells like freshly baked bread.”
Following the smell I walked through a door to a room I’ve never been into before. Last time I was here it was only the guest room, living room, dining room plus kitchen, backyard and obviously Muirne’s room. There Nessa was carrying something like a big pizza shovel with unbaked dough lined up on it. Wait, is this place a bakery? Two stone ovens are attached to the wall on my left. Some wooden cabinets have bread stored in them while the display table has several trays filled with breads. The breads are kind of plain to me who’ve seen some bakery on the other side. There are also some people who must be customers as well.
“Ah, you’re here eh? Just help out for now. I thought Muirne returned to her room to bring something she forgot but she suddenly ran out of the house leaving me alone. Did you do something again?”
“What do you mean again? Well, I just called her cute as always.”
Nessa looked at me with a ‘what the hell are you even talking about?’ face.
“Whatever, could you just take out the breads from the ovens for me, use that peel on the table.”
Peel? Ah, that pizza shovel thing. I guess I should help out then.
Putting my bag down I rolled up my sleeves and proceed to do as I was told. Uwahh the oven’s hot. Next time I’m helping out here I should wear casual clothes rather than exploring gears. Wait, when will I do the exploring if I’m always helping out then?
“Well, well… Nessa, when did you remarry? You just snatched a youngster eh? How nice… Where are you from?”
“Uhwahh!?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
While I was taking out the breads one of the customer old lady got closer to me and pinched my butt. Is this the culture over here? Is it normal to pinch the butt of a young man you’ve met for the first time??? Should I feel offended or shouldn’t I???
“That’s too much for a joke okay. The boy’s just a helper, he’s a distant relative of my late husband. If you’re not going to buy anything then shoo, shoo!”
“Ahahaha, now, now… I’ll just get two loaves as usual then. By the way is the sweet bread not available yet?”
“As you know the last winter lasted longer than usual and the merchants are late by a month already so I barely have any sugar. There are some honey bread but not much, I’ll run out of honey soon. It will take at least two months until the neighboring village have surplus of honey for me to buy.”
“Hmm, then I’ll take just one honey bread to add. How much?”
“Just the honey bread is 170 artos and two loaves of rye bread are 200 artos.”
“Isn’t the honey bread too expensive?”
“You know the reason already. Supply is scarce and I won’t be able to buy any honey which I bet will be far more expensive than last year if I don’t raise the price.”
“*sigh… I hope this year won’t be as bad as the last two though. The tax have been temporary lowered but if things continue to be like this then…”
It seems things are really bad for the people here… I live near the equator so there’s no winter and my part time job filled life adorned with instant noodles sounds kind of better since it is stable at the very least.
When I just finished taking out all the breads Muirne appeared at the door and looked at me before she puffed her cheeks and walked inside.
“Oh, Muirne can you take care of the payment for me? I still have to make the last batch of dough for today.”
Muirne just nodded to Nessa and approached the old lady.
“Here you go, 370 artos.”
I saw three dull silver coins and seven bronze… copper coins handed over to Muirne who put it in a wooden box under the counter then she wrapped three breads that Nessa previously placed on the table with a crude paper. Before I know it I was next to her while watching her skillful quick movement. She’s used to this.
“H..,khi….”
Noticing me next to her the surprised Muirne almost dropped the breads but managed not to and she immediately moved away from me before giving the breads to the old lady. She moved away again when I got closer and moved to the other side when she got cornered. Crap, her panicked expression is just too amusing. The old lady who watched us instead of leaving smiled with a hand to her mouth.
“Ohohoho… I see, So he really is not Muirne’s new father but…ohohoho.”
“Still on with that joke? Seriously…”
Nessa responded from the back sounding like she’s fed up already. Humph, I have my opinion too you know.
“Yes… I’d rather Muirne than Nessa after all!”
A wooden tray hit me on the back of my head in mere milliseconds after I finished saying that hurting me physically while I saw Muirne desperately shook her head with force hurting me psychologically.
“Ahahaha, boy, I like you. Come to my place sometime for some chat and snacks. An old lady could use some company. The name’s Ariella, what’s yours?”
“I’m Renaldi. Well, as long as you won’t pinch my butt again then I might do when I have the time.”
“Ohoho. I’ll just pinch something else then.”
I felt the chill when the old lady winked at me, at certain delicate part of my body to be exact.
“Pinching, bad!”
“I’m kidding, ohohoho!”
Still ohoho-ing the old lady finally left. Nessa asked me to put new dough into the oven while Muirne responded to other customers. It seems I won’t have much time for exploration today. Well, just exploring the village will do I guess. By the way, I feel like I’m doing well for my first time as a baker… assistant baker maybe. I just put the dough prepared by Nessa into the oven and took them out when she told me to.
The sun almost set when things are finally over. From what I saw there was a stable influx of customer. Some but not all of them asked about me but Nessa always said that I’m a relative of her late husband. Not many people asked about why my ears are different and the locals got some variations of ears. I saw some fox ears and dog ears but no rabbit ears… yet. Cat ears are still the best to me though. I’m a Muirne person… cat person I meant.
If there’s something peculiar, it is that some customers’ eyes avoided Muirne. One even insisted to have Nessa on the counter instead. I won’t be able to forget Muirne’s expression at the time. I don’t think I can ask about it with the person in question being here so I added it to my pending list. Maybe I’ll ask Nessa when the mood is right.
“Despite the hard time it seems business is pretty good I’d say.”
“Well, we’re the only bakery in this village after all. I’m also confident in the taste of my breads.”
Speaking about bread, I brought some amongst the tribute for Nessa and Muirne. I approached my bag and checked the bread. Fortunately their condition still seemed to be good.
Nessa who just finished closing the shop approached me as I was rummaging through my bad.
“I’ve been smelling this bread like and sweet fragrance from your bag but didn’t have the time to ask. So, what’s in there?”
What's with that keen sense of smell? Even Muirne approached me, at a distance…
“I said I would bring some tribute when I got the chance so here it is.”
I took out a paper bag with three breads, raisin, chocolate, and a milk roll. I also took out another with potato chips in it but Nessa’s eyes are glued to the one with breads. She immediately opened it when I gave it to her.
“Hoo, breads from another world. W, what is this softness?”
Nessa tore a chunk of the chocolate filled bread and she opened her eyes wide when she took a bite.
“D... delicious! Muirne, you try this too! The blackish filling is really good, sweet and a little bitter but… but… just try it!”
Taken aback of the excited Nessa for a bit Muirne slowly reached for the bread offered to her and timidly took a bite. She also opened her eyes wide.
Her delighted expression at that time was priceless I inadvertently took out my mobile phone and took a picture. I only needed about 5 seconds to navigate to the camera and tapped capture before I realized what I was doing myself.
Fortunately both Nessa and Muirne were too immersed in the breads to notice me.
I have decided on a new wallpaper by the way.