Tondemo Fanfiction – 026 – Employees [Part 2]

Mukouda’s Employees [Part 2]

Theresa

“Here’s today’s batch of bread~” Theresa practically sang as she traipsed through the door with a large basket in each hand, and one balanced on her head.

“Thank you~” Aiya and Celia chimed together as they rushed over to help Theresa collect the baskets of bread.

“Right, let’s sort them out,” said Aiya decisively.

“Yes, Mom,” said Celia.

“Goodness, this is such a lot! Are you sure you aren’t overworking yourself?” asked Aiya anxiously.

After all, the reason why they got sold into slavery in the first place was because she got sick working too hard, and the family lost all their money trying to get the medicine to cure her.

“Oh no, I hardly have to do anything. Mr. Bartel got the fire going for me this morning. I did tell him that he didn’t have to, but he insisted.”

“Fufu, and what did he bring for you to smoke this time?” Aiya giggled.

“Some kind of meat and cheese. I placed them over the ashes as promised~ Along with some soft-boiled eggs for our dinner tonight,” said Theresa cheerfully.

Both Celia and Aiya brightened.

Smoked eggs!

To Teresa, one of the more annoying things about baking was starting the fire. Now that she had the dough starter ready as well as Mukouda-san’s special yeast, making bread was a breeze. In fact, she hardly had to knead the dough at all, after he gave her a tip for no-knead bread.

She had been sceptical at first, especially since he did not look certain about it, but agreed to leave the dough to rise on its own after mixing the flour, water and yeast. The next morning, she was shocked to find the bread dough more than halfway ready to be baked. All she needed to do was shape them, allow for a second rise before baking them.

It saved her an incredible amount of work. Especially since they had been baking more bread than usual lately.

“These are for the church, right?” said Celia.

That’s right, they had been baking extra bread for the orphanages around Carelina. Due to the overwhelming amount of food that her dear Alban had been growing, the slaves had debated over what to do with the excess when Lotte innocently said, “Why don’t we share them with other people?”

It was a naive and silly suggestion, but one that… resonated oddly within all their hearts.

After receiving permission from their lord, ‘Of course, you can! You want to bake bread for the church? Here, have some more yeast. Oh, and here’s the money for more flour!’ Theresa started baking more bread than usual. Nothing much, just a couple of batches more. The oven’s capacity was enough for that amount of bread without having to add more fuel.

Later, she found that someone had strung mushrooms and meats on strings inside the cooling oven fire. Well, there is no point wasting the embers when they could use them to make tasty food, right?

After that, through a silent tacit understanding, either Bartel or one of the other Adventurers would wake up early to get the fire going in the oven, and Theresa would place the food that they wanted to have smoked or slow-baked into the oven after she was done with her daily baking.

The task of delivering the bread, fruits and vegetables would be left to the Adventurers. The rest of the slaves had their work to do at the mansion, and despite everyone’s best efforts, it was still a little risky to wander around outside without an escort.

Costi would sometimes accompany the carts, but more often than not, it was one of the twins who would make the deliveries.

To think that her family would one day have enough surplus food to share with the less fortunate. Such a day was unthinkable once. They barely made ends meet on their farm. Oh, they have enough for the occasional meat dishes and a little money for festivals, but regularly giving out food? Leaving the fire out to make small snacks instead of dousing the fire immediately to save on fuel?

What was once unthinkable was now the norm.

And she could… experiment with her baking. Mukouda-san said that he loved her bread, and had all kinds of unique uses for different kinds of bread. She could experiment with different kinds of kneading techniques, ratios and even tried her hands at making bread with oil and butter. How luxurious!

“Can we have ham sandwiches today?”

“Why not?” Theresa said.

Indeed.

Why not, when they have so much to eat and plenty to be thankful for?

Aiya

Aiya considers herself a decent cook.

That was until she had met with Mukouda-san and witnessed the techniques and extravagances he wielded in the pursuit of ‘deliciousness’.

Before coming into Mukouda-san’s household, Aiya had never considered boiling food in so much oil, nor had she ever cooked with such thin cuts of meat on this truly unique cooking contraption that Mukouda called a ‘pan’.

She had worked with pots, trivets and open fires before, but this ‘pan’ thing opened up all kinds of possibilities she had never considered. Flat cakes, or pancakes as Mukouda-san called them, were quick and easy with these pans. All she had to do was drop a piece of lard and a dollop of liquid dough, and a flip later, the cakes were formed.

Quick, easy and delicious.

Especially with cured ham and eggs.

The inn she had worked in before had served all kinds of boiled and roasted meats, but ‘stir-frying’ was something different. Although it was a little troublesome to make enough food for over 15 people at once, it was still much faster than making a single pot of things. Her darling Celia had been picking up her skills quite quickly too. Her daughter was a great help in the kitchen, efficiently cutting up ingredients and knowing when and where to help make her a valuable asset in the kitchen.

Speaking of cutting up food, the knives that Mukouda-san prepared for them, as well as the magic tools that allowed her to quickly cut root vegetables into sticks, were wonderful. It cut down kitchen work so much that she could spend more time helping out with the dispensing work!

That’s right, never let it be said that she, Aiya, was an ungrateful person.

She would be forever thankful to Mukouda-san for saving her family and giving Costi such a valuable working experience. Even now, Costi was out doing merchant business, learning how to properly read, write and make money. No matter what he wants to do in the future, his family will never drag him down.

That’s right, one of Aiya’s worst regrets was dragging her family into debtor’s hell. How sorry was she when she found out that the entire family had become slaves due to her own carelessness?

But now…

She could see the happiness on her husband’s face after a hard day’s work growing flowers and tending to a bountiful garden; Costi’s brilliant eyes as he talked about making friends with merchants’ children and her little Celia… Determined little Celia, who did her best to hold the family together while her mother was sick, could now channel that determination into learning skills that could serve her well in the future.

And if she failed… well, so what?

This was the best environment to work, learn, fail and try again.

Nothing was life and death anymore.

It was fine to fail.

And try again.

[Gumihou: Tried to convey the busy hopeful lives of the people working in Mukouda’s residence]

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