56.

At the recommendation of my class, I took a few days off. I guess I was exhausted. After sleeping well and eating well, I feel much better. After that, I had time to look around again.

I had this thought while sitting in a chair by a window with warm sunlight streaming in. Is this correct?

From the beginning, the goal was to abandon a position where there was a risk of death and live quietly by working in the countryside of a foreign country. But what about now? The bakery that started small on the outskirts was extremely popular.

People were lining up before the door even opened, and as soon as it opened, bread was selling like hot cakes. At first, commoners living nearby came and hesitantly bought bread, but recently, some unique faces have appeared.

It wasn’t difficult to recognize his identity as he went out to buy bread wearing neat clothes reminiscent of a uniform. These are servants and maids who work for wealthy merchants or noble families. Occasionally, an employee with a higher-ranking position would stop by, and on such occasions, there would be a rather expensive carriage standing outside.

A gaze full of curiosity is a bonus. Ellie, a girl who first visited and became a regular, chatted with me from time to time, and she said something like this not long ago.

“Maybe you’ll win a prize!”

“What award do you mean?”

“Every quarter, the manager gives awards to the most popular stores. Have you seen the clothing store located on Central Street over there? There’s a small mark on the sign there. “That’s the prize.”

They said that if they receive an award, the number of customers will increase. This was because some people only went to stores that received awards in the first place.

“More from here?”

Richt looked around the bakery with an embarrassed expression. There were already too many people flocking to the small bakery to accommodate it.

“There will be more crowds, right? How about expanding the store? Or move to a bigger place. Even if you don’t have enough money, if you’re this popular, you’ll be able to get help from the top.”

I am already receiving a lot of help from the top. Richt vaguely answered with a moderate smile. Meanwhile, Ban, who had finished selling the bread, came over and hugged Richt from behind. Ellie had a curious face, but she didn’t ask about their relationship. She just looked at me with a happy expression every now and then.

“okay.”

Let’s say you win a prize. Then, as Ellie said, the number of customers will increase. It is said that she sometimes catches the eye of a nobleman.

“Then you might win an award for the best store from the royal family!”

“The royal family?”

I think that went too far. Perhaps because it is a country focused on commerce, there is a lot of interest in business. No matter how delicious the bread was, I thought that any noble family would have a baker who could make something like this. I felt like I needed to change my mind.

The imperial bread was not good, but it was the food Maia served to oppress Theodore. So she may have let down her guard a little.

First, we received an award given at the village level. Richt and Van laughed a little as they put it next to the sign.

“Should we make the bread a little less delicious?”

Since he was in hiding, it was difficult for him to become more known.

“Then won’t the guests cry?”

“no way.”

Richt waved his hand. Just to do it with bread. He decided to hold off on making the bread tasteless for now. I have pride, how can I serve bread that I can’t eat? Instead, he reduced the amount he sold and increased his rest time. But that had the opposite effect.

“It’s too much!”

Ellie put her hands on her hips and grunted.

“Why on earth are you selling so little? Do you know when I started lining up to get bread? “I’ve been standing there since dawn!”

“Since dawn?”

“yes! “We only have one maid in our house, so we don’t have anyone to stand in line for us.”

Ellie took out a handkerchief and pretended to dab her eyes, then filled the basket with bread. The person standing behind her frowned at that sight, but she didn’t care.

“Please make more next time! “It’s hard to eat such sweet and delicious bread.”

Then he calmly turned his back and left the store. I was so focused on other things recently that I didn’t even think about it. Yes, even in real stores, if a limited edition product was sold, more people would flock through word of mouth.

Richt touched his forehead. He tried baking more bread and extending business hours, but the number of customers did not decrease.

Rather, more problems arose.

“hello?”

The village secretary visited in person. He looked at Richt, who was shining despite the flour on his face, and turned to Ban. Then he said with an embarrassed expression.

“As a result of the vote, we have been shortlisted for the Royal Family’s ‘Great Store’ award.”

The secretary cleared his throat and said. When he first gave the award, he looked down arrogantly and spoke informally, but his attitude changed in an instant. After all the guests had left and the door was closed, the secretary bowed his head and said.

“I’m sorry for being so rude.”

It looked like Ain had put his hand through the top. He helped Richt through the top and kept in contact with Richt. Because of that, he couldn’t completely escape from Devine, but he couldn’t help it. Because there was no one who could effectively conceal Licht’s identity.

As a result of the move from Devine, he said there are now very few people coming forward to collect the bounty. It looks like Abel hasn’t given up yet, but how can we find him when Devine is covering him?

In any case, he will forget himself as time goes by, and then he can completely break up with Devine at that time. The vassals will select the successor appropriately.

“I tried my best to avoid being nominated, but it was too much for me to do on my own. sorry.”

The secretary apologized again. Richt accepted the apology and sent him away. Even as he left, he continued to bow down. But from the moment he walked out the door, he straightened his back. He is such a great person.

As the clerk went and cleaned up the store, another customer came.

[Aaaah!]

A plump bird big enough to fit in your arms broke the window and rolled in.

[Ugh!]

[Wow!]

Behind them were two more small birds making siren-like sounds.

“What about you?”

[found! I found it!]

[Finally!]

[Lichteuuu!]

The three wind spirits who had gone missing have returned.

“Stop crying.”

Richt tried to comfort her, but she couldn’t stop crying because she was so sad.

[It was so, so hard!]

[Because of the bad water spirit!]

[Because of bad people!]

“Bad water spirit?”

Is it Lauren? Lauren mainly manipulated wind spirits, but could also manipulate water spirits. However, no matter how many spirits he could handle, it would not be easy to keep a spirit of his level trapped for this long.

[there is. A long-haired, smiling spirit.]

[It was a bad spirit!]

[I kept asking him to promise, but he said no! We are not idiots!]

The wind spirits huffed and told Richt everything. After hearing what the spirit looked like and hearing about the human who was with it, I felt like I knew.

‘It’s Jin.’

It passed so briefly in the novel that I couldn’t recall it. Next to Jin, there was a spiritist who controlled water spirits. They said they were of a higher rank than Lauren’s spirit, but it seems like that spirit was holding them back.

“great job.”

[Yes, you worked hard!]

[You really worked hard!]

[that’s right!]

The spirits chattered and clung to Richt.

“But why did you get so big?”

Richt asked the plump spirit.

[It evolved. So I was able to run away.]

The spirit thrust its hairy chest forward.

“Good.”

[Good! I’m much stronger now! I can help you!]

[I also want to grow up quickly.]

[I want to be twice as big! So I will scold the bad humans and spirits!]

[me too! A bad person did that.]

“What did you say?”

It was a bit rambling, but not difficult to understand.

[This is a deal that will continue to harass Licht in the future!]

[A deal that will make you rely on them by tormenting them a lot!]

[Why do you rely on people who bully you?]

[They said that only then can you take advantage of your weaknesses.]

[Finally, a deal to release the restraints.]

Jin’s actions and words were not much different from what Richt had thought. He originally resented Richt, so it’s not strange that he did that. The problem is that the Licht of the past and the Licht of today are different people.

After what happened last time, Richt realized that he had been thinking too comfortably about Jin. He didn’t want to be bullied for something he didn’t do.

I also didn’t want to harm the class next to me. He had suffered enough so far, so he hoped he could now live in peace. In that case, the things Jin plans to do become a hindrance.

‘I need to warn you.’

Richt stroked the spirits that were still complaining about Jin. The class looked at him intently. Although Van could feel the presence of spirits, he could not see or speak to them.

‘Should I call this fortunate?’

If they found out that Jin was the reason it wasn’t easy to escape last time, they might have said they were going to kill him right away. For now, Richt decided to hide some things about Jin.