"The [Prince] begged the [Maid] not to believe his stepmother, for he would never betray her," Lucinda mused while reading the booklet out loud. "But the [Maid] was resolute, thinking that their love would never materialize because of their differences. And so, she asked him to leave for good."

Lucinda shrugged, sighing to herself while she waited for her Mana to recharge. Sadly, once it was gone, you could only eat, rest, and wait for it to come back.

If she had known anything about Earth, she would have found a superlative affinity with powerlifters occupying a rack for two hours only to use it every ten minutes—and what would you have done without a social feed to scroll endlessly?

"I need to buy a new one," Lucinda grumbled as she stared at the booklet. Her eyes went over the weary pages that she had gone through dozens of times. Booklets like this one were relatively cheap, but her salary went toward a fund she would use at the Nine Towers Academy.

She was aging, and she still wasn't ready to show [Archmage] Titus she could be a truly perfect recruit that he should sponsor.

She needed to step up her game, but she couldn't just regenerate Mana out of sheer willpower.

"I might as well re-read this," Lucinda told herself. "Who knows, maybe this time the story will change."

…

"Sure," I tell Flaminia.

She just asked me to go out to talk. She's probably worried about me or something like that.

We walk out of Happy Bakery and go for a stroll through the market. It's much quieter than usual, thankfully.

"Joey, I want to apologize once again for what I—"

"What? Again? Flam, you apologized plenty of times. Why would you do it again?"

"Joey," the pink-haired Elf looked pained, "I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I mean, me neither?" I snorted. "I told you to have some faith in me, though. I have a plan."

"Joey," Flaminia looks at me, biting her lower lip.

"Yes?" I ask awkwardly.

Flaminia is acting a bit off if you ask me.

"My family used to live in Amorium. I had a younger sister too."

Oh, shoot. Were they [Soldiers] who died in war?

Everyone in Amorium had some tragic story to tell, sadly.

"My parents were trying to make their fortune baking in the city. They tried teaching me all they knew—both were around level 10. But my thirteen-year-old sister, two years younger than me, had more levels than me. I loathed baking. I would sneak out on every possible occasion."

Huh?

It doesn't sound like a tragic story so far.

"They were angry—my parents. They thought I was absolutely rotten to the core," Flaminia narrates. "But I didn't care. I was the prettiest girl my age in Amorium. I had every boy trying to climb up a tree for me."

"You are still very beautiful," I tell my co-worker.

Flaminia blushes at that and nods, "Thanks."

That's not the reaction I was expecting.

"Are you ok, Flam? Don’t get me wrong; I want to listen to your story. But you… Is everything good?"

"That you ask, Joey, shows that you truly are a special Human. I've been dealing with rotten idiots all my life. All these men with a molded brain that, at first, have the enchantment on all the time, and then they run out of Mana like the useless things they are."

My spidey-senses are tingling, and it's not a good thing.

"Flam, whatever happened, I'm happy to lend you an ear," I say cautiously. "Plus, I really have to go talk to the girl I'm dating, you know?"

Flaminia nods distractedly.

"My parents, one day, they just… left. I barely had any money on me. They just… disappeared."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Christ.

I just stay silent, waiting for her to keep talking. There's not much you can say in response to that.

"I thought I would just skip work that morning because I was fed up with making all that bread and not being paid half a copper. I thought, what are they going to do?"

We keep walking through the mostly empty market, taking a clockwise turn that will eventually land us in front of Happy Bakery again.

I want to ask how she survived on her own like that if she didn't have many levels—which, apparently, after having heard so many stories from Raissa, is a big problem.

"I convinced this family to take me in. They had a daughter my age who worked as a [Maid] at their inn. I told them I would immediately find myself a job. I started working in their kitchen. Never in my life had I more regretted not listening to all the things my parents had tried teaching me about baking."

Flaminia grits her teeth.

"But I hated them. I hated them so much that it gave me the drive I had never had in my entire life to that point. It took me less than a month to get to level 10. I would stay up all night, cooking and trying to bake sweets. I begged that family to buy the ingredients for me, promising I would make it worth their time. People loved the sugary treats I made for that inn, and soon, I was getting commissions. I would go to [Merchants] and buy recipes if they had any with all the money I had. I was single-handedly focused on becoming the best rotten [Baker] in the city."

"Well, you did," I cough.

"I did until you came," she actually laughs at that. "I wanted to become the best [Baker] because I thought that my family would come back at some point and beg me to help them, to teach them. I would fantasize about that every night; I would go to sleep with my grudges, dreaming of the day they would come back crawling."

Then, Flaminia grabs my sleeve as we walk and looks intently at me.

"And you know what? They never came back."

I feel my heart drop.

"Flam," I clear my voice, trying to stay calm, "you are a wonderful [Baker] and a wonderful person. Your family missed out on you. Not everyone gets dealt the best hand in life. You did all you could with what you got from such a family."

Flaminia suddenly stops as we are about to finish our lap around the market.

"You are so thoughtful—you care so much. You always know what to say, Joey. You could have destroyed my career in Amorium. Even with all my levels, you could have ruined my life here. Even if I'm not as good as you, any other person would have felt threatened; they would have thought that I would backstab them at the first opportunity after learning all I could from them. But even now, you only have wonderful words for me."

"Flam," I say, putting a hand on her arm and having her slowly release my sleeve. "I don't know if anyone told you, but it's not your fault. We don't choose our families. I'm beyond certain that you will find someone one day and have your own family. We all have to step beyond our parents at some point, either because they died or because they were rotten," I used the Elven idiom to make her more comfortable with my words.

"Joey," Flaminia looks right into my eyes, moving her hand over mine, and, for the first time, I notice that her eyes are a beautiful light green—I mean, I knew, but I never noticed the flecks of gold in them, similar to the ones I have in my eyes. "I have dropped that idiot, the [Sergeant]. I am done messing with idiots with a molded brain."

"Flam," I repeat myself, almost stammering, slightly intimidated by the tremendously beautiful woman, "You will surely find someone much better than that."

"When I treated you like—" Flaminia cuts herself off. "I've always wanted to be the best, Joey. I couldn't accept that someone with no levels was giving me orders and joking about the fact that they were the best in Amorium. After my parents left me, baking was everything to me."

"I had forgiven you long before I knew about this," I tell her after swallowing. "If anything, this makes me better understand what you went through and why you did that. Don't worry. It's all good."

Flaminia just stares at me, and I hear several alarms ringing in my head.

I can't get involved with this; I find myself suddenly thinking, I have to train, I have to save Claudia.

"Flaminia," I clear my voice, getting her hand off mine and taking a step back. "I forgive you for everything. But now, I should really go."

But what comes next from her mouth stuns me.

"Do you hate me, Joey? Do you find me repulsive?"

"What? Absolutely not, Flam. I really—"

Before I can say another word, Flaminia suddenly steps forward and kisses me.

My brain just freezes for a moment.

What the f—

I immediately pushed her back, but not after her soft lips were anchored on mine, turning me redder than a pepper.

"Flaminia, what the—"

"Joey, I—"

But I don't even hear her words because we had stopped not too far from the Three Roses, and barely twenty feet from us, I see Irene.

"Christ," I say, seeing her suddenly turn her back to me. "Irene! Oh, really? Christ! Irene!"

"Irene?" Flaminia looks at me as I start running to the woman.

"Irene! Fuck my life. Wait!"

I quickly reach Irene, but she barely glances at me.

"I have no business with you, Joey. I didn't know that you and Flaminia—"

"No, what? No, no, no. It's not that. There's nothing between me and her! There's no ‘me and Flaminia.’"

"Joey," Irene sighs and shakes her head. "I was already having doubts."

"What? Jesus, can we talk about this sitting down or something? I really didn't mean to—"

"Wait, Irene?"

I turn to see Flaminia approaching with wide eyes.

"Yes, Flaminia. Congratulations on moving on to someone else close to me."

"Wait, you are the Elf Joey is seeing?" Flaminia looks shocked.

"I know, I know. She's the competition—look, Flaminia, can you leave us alone for a moment?" I turn to Irene. "Irene, it's a misunderstanding. I have never kissed Flaminia before. She kissed me. You know what, Flam, can you tell her?"

But Flaminia doesn't even look like she's listening to me. She just keeps staring at Irene.

Great. What now?

"Does your brother know?" Flaminia asks cautiously.

"My brother doesn't need to know about anything. This is nothing. Joey, I need to go—"

"Wait, wait! I swear to God; I didn't do anything! I wanted to come visit you! Jesus, take out a truth-stone, and it will show I'm not lying!"

But when Irene crosses my gaze, I only see icy coldness.

"Goodbye, Joey."