March, Week 1, Saturday.
The time was around 5 PM.
After negotiating the materials for Ludmila’s mana massage through various discussions with her, I immediately left Ludmila’s room and took a walk around the Old School Building.
And before I could even organize my thoughts during the walk…
“Woo-hoo!”
“Wh-what?!”
I suddenly spotted a female student wearing a gothic lolita dress while walking through the garden.
“Ev-an-gel-liiiine!!”
As soon as we met, I picked her up.
“Kyah! What are you doing?!”
Evangeline, whose armpits were suddenly exposed, used her fists and lightly knocked on my head. The punches were as soft as cotton, so I didn’t feel any pain.
“A flight of thanks!”
“If you’re thankful, repay me with money!”
Even if it had been painful, I would have gladly endured it.
Thanks to Evangeline’s words, Ludmila suggested using bandages—no, suggested wearing a bandage while receiving a mana massage.
Of course, this was about the injured area.
While giving a mana massage, my hands could touch the wound, and if the area got infected, it would hurt a lot.
In that sense, Evangeline’s advice, whether intended or not, gave me an excellent opportunity to strategize about Ludmila.
“So, how should I carry you? Piggyback ride? Or a princess carry? What do you want?”
“I’m a princess to begin with, so why should I follow your lead on whether it’s a piggyback or a carry?”
“Then what do you prefer? Just tell me anything. I’ll gladly accommodate.”
“First, let me down, and we’ll talk.”
Evangeline grabbed my head and started pulling it with force.
“Ah, you want to go for the Ratatouille style? Got it.”
“Suddenly talking nonsense… Kyaaa?!”
I lifted Evangeline high in the air.
To be precise, I raised her and then bent over at lightning speed, flipping her upside down.
“Ta-da!”
“You crazy b*stard!!”
In an instant, I had Evangeline perched on my shoulders, like giving a shoulder ride.
Her gothic lolita dress draped over my head like a veil, with the edge covering my forehead, but I firmly held her ankles to keep her from falling.
“What is this… oh, oh?”
At first, she was flustered and tried to fix her clothes, but then she became startled for another reason.
“How are you moving so fast…?”
She was surprised by my speed.
“Didn’t you know? When playing with kids, you move three times faster.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“To carry Miss Evangeline on my shoulders like this, don’t you think I should move even faster than usual?”
“Hah, seriously… what kind of ridiculous nonsense is that…!”
Evangeline sighed deeply and tugged at her dress.
This was the dress she wore when she first arrived at the South Terminal, not her Academy uniform, so she wasn’t causing any major trouble.
“If you tear my dress, you’re dead.”
Rather, she was visibly cautious, concerned about damaging her dress or clothes.
“Hmm.”
I focused on the sensation of the dress brushing over my hair.
While mana should respond before any direct physical contact, surprisingly, there was no mana reaction from the dress.
“Evangeline.”
I tilted my head backward—
“Are you insane?!”
—Or at least I tried, but my head was firmly pinned down by Evangeline’s thighs.
“Where do you think you’re looking?!”
“Ah, this is fine too. Evangeline, you have surprisingly sturdy thighs—”
“Die!”
Evangeline grabbed my temples and shook my head back and forth.
Though it didn’t quite touch the back of my head, my face was getting pressed between her thighs, rubbing back and forth.
“Haha. Lady Evangeline, by the way…”
“By the way what?! You p*rvert shaking people around like this—”
“Are you having some financial difficulties?”
“…!”
Evangeline’s movements halted.
“Seems like it, right?”
“W-what are you talking about? I’m the princess of the Di Ercy Empire. How could I possibly be struggling financially?”
“I didn’t say you were struggling; I just asked if it’s a bit tough. Looks like you’re having a bit of trouble?”
“C-Could you stop saying weird things? There’s no way the princess of an empire is struggling to afford living expenses at an academy.”
It seems like this woman isn’t particularly deep in thought.
‘In a way, that only highlights this aspect of her character more.’
Financial difficulties. Or perhaps poverty.
But considering she’s a princess of an empire, if you think about it differently, there might just be limitations on the budget she can use.
“Really? So, the Emperor of the Di Ercy Empire is that strict with his daughter’s education? Like, ‘You have to earn your own tuition, no help from me’ kind of thing?”
“Hmph! You know it well. You’ve got some understanding of our empire’s educational philosophy?”
It’s a bluff.
Words have nuances, but the emotion in Evangeline’s voice isn’t one of pride in her father’s lion-like approach to education.
‘You must earn your own tuition. We won’t support you.’
‘I’m sorry, my daughter, but it looks like you’ll have to earn your tuition.’
The difference between these two is clear.
And if I analyze both the situation in the Di Ercy Empire that I’ve heard about and Evangeline’s current state—
“Oh, your stocking is cut.”
“What?!”
She immediately reacts with sensitivity to the bait I threw.
“Where?! That shouldn’t be!”
“Just kidding.”
“…Hey!”
Evangeline reacts quite sharply.
It was just a comment about a run in her stocking, but she responds with an intensity beyond that.
‘I guess it’s something I shouldn’t mess with too lightly.’
It’s fine to carry her, give her a piggyback, or pretend she’s on an airplane, but hurting her pride is off-limits.
‘Do the developers have some kind of Cinderella complex?’
Even though there are plenty of wealthy characters in Bread Academy who don’t need to worry about financial difficulties, they’re throwing in a heroine who flaunts it while struggling with a budget. Interesting choice.
“Hmm.”
Perfect timing.
I hadn’t thought about it urgently, but considering Evangeline’s situation, this isn’t a bad idea.
“Evangeline, would you like to make some money?”
“…What?”
“You know… I mean—”
“You’re not suggesting that I sell the stockings I’m wearing, are you?”
“While there might be a market for that, no, that’s not the kind of business I’m talking about.”
I approached the fountain in the garden, bent forward, and gently set Evangeline down on the fountain’s edge before stepping back.
“I need a mascot.”
“A mas…what?”
“I’m thinking of turning one of the practice rooms in the Old School Building into a bakery.”
“…Bakery?”
Evangeline perked up her ears.
“Do you really know how to bake?”
“Of course, why? You doubt me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I thought when you said ‘you’re good with dough’, you meant you’re good at kneading something else.”
“I’m good at that too, but I’m serious about the baking.”
Evangeline narrowed her eyes, got off the fountain, and sat down on a nearby bench.
“So, what’s your plan? You want to make bread and sell it?”
“Exactly.”
“…”
“I’d rather you not look at me with that ‘a student trying this is doomed to fail’ expression. The bread I sell won’t just be ordinary bread.”
I sat next to Evangeline, put an arm around her, and whispered in her ear.
“Mana bread.”
“…?”
“Bread that restores mana when you eat it.”
“…Are you going to pour mana syrup over it or something?”
“It’s a little different. Think of it like a mana potion you can eat. What do you think?”
Evangeline’s ears perked up as she focused on my words.
“So, it’s called mana bread?”
“Yeah. There’s no rule that says mana has to be consumed in liquid form like a potion. And as you probably know from drinking mana potions, they don’t exactly taste great, right?”
“Well, yeah, that’s true.”
Evangeline nodded, lifting her chin slightly.
I could tell where her bluff was coming from.
“No matter how much you try to refine a mana potion, in the end, a mana potion is basically going to taste bad. That’s because absorbing mana in liquid form basically…can’t help but feel like a ‘medicine’. But mana bread is different.”
I pointed at her stomach.
“Instead of drinking it, you’re ‘eating’ it, so it could even have some dieting effects.”
“…What?”
“It’ll trick your body. Even though you’ve actually just absorbed mana, your body will think it’s had a meal. Of course, you’ll still need to eat minimal solid food for health, but…”
“…Hmm.”
Evangeline scratched her cheek, deep in thought.
“Do you think that’ll make money?”
“You’ll know once you taste it. We’ll see if it has any business potential.”
“Business potential, huh…”
Evangeline bit her finger, looking somewhat worried.
“Why?”
“…If it’s something that can make money, wouldn’t it be better to ask them rather than me?”
She drew a circle in the air with her fidgeting finger.
“Silverstar.”
“…”
“If you propose it to them, you’d probably get more funding… Not that I’m saying the empire is short on money! If the business is viable, there’s no reason the empire wouldn’t invest! But with classmates like those in the special class—”
“I don’t like Silverstar.”
“…What?”
“To be more precise, as a ‘hunter’, I’m not particularly fond of Silverstar.”
I subtly threw out a bit of bait.
“They’ve lived by twisting contracts in their favor and squeezing massive funds out of their clients, haven’t they?”
“…”
“They call themselves a trading company, but they’ve got enough money to proclaim themselves a kingdom—no, an empire, if they wanted to. The golden carriage bringing the items on our list tomorrow? That’s all Silverstar’s doing.”
“Yeah, well, no other place can supply that kind of volume like Silverstar can.”
“But there’s no mana bread. To be exact… there’s no mana bread like the kind I’m going to make.”
That’s because it exists only in our reality.
“So, Miss Evangeline, make a contract with me and become the mascot of my bakery.”
“…”
“What’s wrong? Are you waiting to hear the contract terms first?”
“Well, sort of, but why are you making this offer to me instead of Yunia or Ludmila?”
Evangeline’s voice had a sharp edge to it.
“Are you, by any chance—”
She didn’t finish, but I could guess.
She was implying I might be making this proposal because I knew she was short on money.
Some heroines might respond to that, but not Evangeline.
“What are you thinking?”
Smack!
“Ouch! That hurt!”
“I told you, I’m asking you to be the mascot. I’ll make the same offer to the others, but they’ll be employees wearing aprons.”
“…Huh?”
Evangeline rubbed her forehead, confused.
“They’re employees, and I’m the mascot? Why?”
“Well, obviously…”
I said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“You’re [Malangping].”
A mascot is a mascot.
“What about a pink pig doll mask?”
Thud!
I got hit really hard.
Enough to knock me out of my Golden Sun transformation for a moment.
(TLN: There may exist a Reverse Bunny version of the illustration in the previous chapter… Tho we can’t find it… I hate translating Korean with no context.)
