"Why is my employee crying, Joey?" Clodia taps a huge wooden spoon on her equally massive hand.

"Well, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that," I smile nervously.

"Chef," Raissa speaks up for me, "he's hel—"

"OH! You meant that?" I look at Clodia, shouting to make it so that Raissa doesn't out herself. "Totally my fault. Tell you what," I say, lightly squeezing the shorter Elf's arm. "I promise that this won't happen again. I'll try my best."

"Raissa, if this Human does anything to you," Clodia looks at her meaningfully.

"No, Chef," Raissa trembles, “it's all good.”

After a few moments of tensions, Clodia shakes her head, leaving the matter rest, and moves her attention to the cake mix Raissa has just finished working on. "Is this for your cake?"

"Yes, Chef."

Clodia jams a finger in it and puts it in her mouth. Her eyebrows shoot up and she bends closer to the mix, giving it a good sniff.

"Lemon?" She asks, surprised.

I literally jump behind Raissa so that she can't look at me and, again, out herself.

"Raissa said it helped because the cake kind of tasted like sugar and only sugar," I say, putting both my hands on her shoulders.

"Y-yeah," she finally catches on what I'm trying to do and steels herself. "The tanginess will give the cake a lighter taste in the mouth, adding to the softeness of the dough."

Clodia nods, impressed.

"Lemons," she clicks her tongue, staring straight at me now.

I don't think she fell for that. Well, who knows. I should have probably asked if they had ever put a lemon's peel in a cake.

"Like we do for cookies," Clodia nods right after, shrugging. "Good initiative, Raissa. I'll look forward to eating that. Joey, I look forward to see more of your work. Do not slack off and hand your workload to Raissa or I'll fire your ass."

Having said her piece, Clodia walks away.

As soon as the big boss is out of earshot, Raissa unexpectedly gives me a quick hug.

"Thank you," she says, "I struggle a lot with the cakes. They are so hard for me."

"It's just a matter of practice," I smile to Raissa. "And consistency. In a bakery, you kind of want an even experience. But tell you what, why don't we get down to business with the bread and we can chat about whatever you want?"

She nods and leads me to some bigger tables where we start making the dough for bread loaves by the ton.

"Happy Bakery delivers a lot of bread across the city every day. We have a contract with the Watch and they eat a lot," now that the ice has been broken, Raissa is actually quite talkative. "I'm still green and sometimes it's hard to ask Clodia for help. She'll help you, always, but..."

"But she can be really scary. I mean, hot-scary, but still super scary."

"Hot?" Raissa looks surprised.

"Yeah. No?"

"Oh well, yes, but you..." Raissa looks at me, cringing.

"What? I'm not hot?"

She chuckles at that. "You don't know, do you?"

"Oh damn, she bats for the other team?""

"What?"

"I mean, she likes girls?"

Raissa nods, slightly embarrassed by that notion.

So, first of all, good that Elven society is liberal enough that we can see hot muscular Elf women kiss each other. Second, how open are they to experimenting? Mmm. I'll need to investigate that.

As I see Raissa working the dough, I notice that her hands are super fast.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You are very good with this dough," I say, impressed.

"[Nimble Hands]," she smiles, looking at her own fingers.

"Is that a... skill?" I venture. I mean, man, listen, I have played my share of games. I'm just still wrapping my head around it. A world with videogame-like skills and classes doesn't land in your lap everyday.

"Yes?" She seems confused by the question.

"Yeah, I haven't gotten a class, yet. Long story short, I... was in a place where classes and skills... weren't really a thing. Yeah, let's put it like that."

"Oh," I can hear the surprise in her voice but then she shrugs it off. "This is the very first skill I have ever gotten. I come from a village outside Amorium. My mother was the [Baker] for the village and had me help her every day. One day, when I was twelve, I finally got my first class and skill."

First class? Huh, so you can get more than one, I suppose. A [Baker] class, huh. That sounds cool. Maybe a [Magical Baker] would suit me even better.

"Do you mind me asking how you get a class?"

"Sure... you just do something well and you get a notification in your head when you go to sleep and close your eyes. Right before actually falling asleep. You can refuse the classes and levels."

Huh.

That's cool.

"So," I say as I move to another ball of dough, "you didn't grow up in Amorium?"

She shakes her head.

"I grew up in Gramen, a small village."

Huh.

I wonder what's the difference in growing up in a village and in a big city when it comes to medieval-like times.

"Well, happy that you came to Amorium, then. At least, I got one friend now on the workplace," I give Raissa my personal custom wink with tongue-click and she smiles in return.

"I hope I will be able to get a promotion here, and a pay raise. My boyfriend and I are looking to buy a house."

Damn, Raissa. You went straight for the B-bomb. Girl, you didn't need to do that. I wasn't really flirting that much with you. But ok. Sure. Don't worry.

"How much is a house?" I say with a straight face.

"My dream would be living in the Merchant's Dwelling. It's so close to the Watch and work... but a house there can easily cost multiple thousand golds. I have finally paid off my debts from the first time I got into the city, but... I can't save thousands of gold out of nowhere. Neither can my boyfriend, I fear."

Mh.

I have no idea how much that is.

"How much does a loaf of bread cost?"

She looks at me like I'm stupid for a second before catching herself.

"Three coppers. Sometimes four or five if there are spices in it. That's for a two and a half pound loaf."

I forget most of the numbers that Raissa is talking about in a matter of seconds. That's how my brain is wired. Someone else might be trying to think in terms of purchase power, cost of living, and whatnot. I prefer focusing on the things I know how to do best. Namely, baking.

I feel for the girl. I mean, the fact that the cost of housing is a problem even in a magical society goes a long way in telling you how screwed even this world is. On the other hand, they do have magic. So, that's cool.

...

Clodia

Clodia waited for the purple-colored haired woman in front of her to sit down after fidgeting so much and spying the new hire.

"Flaminia, can you sit down, for the World's Tree rotting roots?"

"He knows what he's doing, Clodia. The way he worked the noodle's dough," she says mid-yawn, "is incredible. Let him rest. I want him on tonight's shift with me. I want to sniff him up."

Clodia looks at the ceiling, muttering a string of swear words.

"Have you heard what I asked you before, even?"

"Oh, what? Security? Again? He's a man, Clodia. What if he flirts with women a little. You do too, for what matters."

"WHAT?! THAT IS PREPOSTEROUS!"

"Oh, so you weren't staring at those big, juicy day shifters before, huh? Come on," Flaminia broke into a massive yawn. "Gee, thank you for waking me up anyway. Could have used a few more years of sleep."

Clodia was trembling with anger and completely red on her face, but Flaminia wasn't just her friend. She was her best employee and the highest leveled [Baker] in the entire city.

"So," Flaminia said while sniffing with her nose, "he doesn't have a place, he appeared out of nowhere in front of Amorium, and he has a spellbook. It seems to me that he fits the general weirdness of our bakery. Why did you call me again?"

"I already wanted to put him on a double-shift. Day and night, to see if he breaks."

Flaminia yawned relentlessly in Clodia's face without covering her mouth.

"You should have been born a Dragon, Clodia," Flaminia says, looking for some water in Clodia's pink office. Yes, pink. Clodia loved girly designs. It was as true as it was a cliché for such a strong woman.

"You should have been born with your mouth stitched together," Clodia shot back. "I need you to keep an eye on him—that's why I brought you here early."

"He's cute," Flaminia yawned again, "but not my type. Tall for a Human, certainly."

"That's not what I meant!"

"Oh, chill, Clodia. This bakery has more protective enchantments than the rotting watch. He melted sugar in front of you, taught Raissa multiple things... what are you complaining about?"

"You know men! They are always acting!"

"Oh, come on," Flaminia yawned so loudly this time she almost fell from the chair. "You have more ulterior motives than he has. Tell you what, if you don't like him, why don't you bring him to the Three Roses. He seems to know more than one original recipe. Or are you afraid that they would bleed you dry once they got someone who can actually optimize for large volumes?"

Clodia briefly considered throwing the accounting book to Flaminia's face.

"Tell him he can rest, Clodia. He looks tired. I don't want to carry him through the shift while he's barely awake. Give him one of the rooms for the employees. Also, are you fetching him an apartment from the old monster?"

"Don't call her that," Clodia frowned, looking around.

"You afraid she's going to hex you or something?" Flaminia bursted laughing. "You are! Aren't you?!"

"She's a [Mage]. A Nine Towers graduate, nonetheless. I always get this feeling that she knows whenever I badmouth her."

"A [Mage], and also the most evil landlord in the entirety of Amorium. But sure, go ahead and keep doing business with her."

"She has good apartments and keeps her tenants safe," Clodia said. "We have several employees in her buildings. What's your problem with her?"

Flaminia just got up this time, yawning so hard she had to grab the chair not to fall. "I'm going back to sleep, Clodia. Tell Agostina I said hi. But have the Human rest—I don't work with dead weights."

As Flaminia crossed the door, Clodia tapped her knuckles on the table, thinking about her next move.