Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 3

Freida's Baptism

I woke up to quite a stir outside my room. A maid other than Jutte was sitting in the chair by the door, waiting for me to wake up. She was fairly young, probably not even twenty years old, and seemed friendly. I climbed off the bed and pulled aside the surprisingly heavy curtains to get out. She smiled as she saw me push through.

"Good morning," the maid greeted me. "How are you feeling today?"

"I'm not sick, but I don't feel great either. So I'll be quiet today until my family comes to get me."

She let out a quiet laugh. "Dinner last night was quite something. Everyone was talking about the dessert you and Mistress Freida made. The entire family wishes to meet you now, Myne. They are all quite determined to get you working here at our store."

Ahahaha, um. That's pretty bad. Did I narrowly escape a terrible fate thanks to sleeping early? Should I maybe not take a single step out of this room? Even this maid just added that my future would be safer if I joined their store... She's one of them. I can't trust anybody. Nowhere's safe!

"Um, it sounds like there's a lot going outside the door..." I looked at the door to change the subject and the maid's smile broadened.

"With breakfast over, the young lady is being prepared for her baptism. I will guide you to the kitchen once she is finished changing."

To be honest I was pretty hungry since I hadn't had any dinner last night, but my stomach hurt just thinking about eating with Freida's presumably overbearing family around. I'd lost my appetite for just about anything.

"Um, could my food be brought to this room? I don't need much since I'm not feeling well, and eating around so many new people would make me really nervous. I'd probably have trouble eating anything like that."

"Ahaha, that's fine. I'll be right back with it." After changing me into a pair of Freida's old clothes, the maid left the room. I crouched to the floor and cradled my head the second I was alone.

...This is bad. Who could have seen this coming? I knew that the guildmaster and Freida had their eyes on me, sure. But what's this about their whole family being after me now? All because of some pound cake? They have a whole lot of sugar, so that must mean that they make tons of sweets. Or maybe — and I don't even want to consider this possible — but maybe sugar is a new product that just entered the market and sweets in general haven't been developed in the culinary world yet? That can't be what's happening here, no way.

I heard the maid returning with food as I agonized on my knees. I immediately stood up and put on a poker face as she entered the room.

"Please enjoy your meal."

They must have remembered what kind of food I liked, as breakfast was once again white bread with honey and jam on the side, plus sweet fruit juice. There wasn't as much soup as last time, since I didn't like it that much, but there was plenty of bacon and eggs. My weak points had been sniffed out in no time.

Once I finished breakfast, I decided it would be safest for me to stay holed up in my room until my family came, using my ill health as a shield. The guildmaster and Freida alone were threatening enough; I couldn't deal with their whole family all at once on my own. If I could, I would have summoned Benno and Lutz to my side for help.

I was eating breakfast slowly, thinking up a plan for the rest of the day, when Jutte suddenly rushed into my room.

"Good morning, Myne. How are you feeling?" said Jutte, her tone sounding far too on-edge for someone merely asking a simple question. She seemed like the kind of person to only say what she found necessary, so I answered her question up front, having nearly dropped my bread in surprise.