Chapter 18

Three days had passed since I started working at the bakery.

Every morning, I would travel through the underground waterway and visit the Fluffy Bouloire in order to help with the bread.

I avoided the surface.

It was a hassle to go around the training grounds, and it took too long.

However, there were detection barriers underground.

Not only that, but it seemed like someone had tightened security after my audience with the queen.

“It would have been so much easier if they hadn’t.”

It could be backbreaking work to get through the barriers without deactivating them.

But I would feel like I lost if I went back to the surface.

That day, when I first visited the Fluffy Bouloie.

I had met Mira, the oldest daughter.

Every day, she would deliver bread to people who ordered them for lunch.

That’s why she had been pushing a cart.

I met the second daughter, Kuchino, the next day.

Unlike Mira, she seemed pretty quiet.

She enjoyed being surrounded in the smell of freshly baked bread and was likely to sit and tend to the store the entire day if allowed.

Indeed, there was something very special about the smell of freshly baked bread.

There were two other people that worked there, and they were always very busy.

Both Cale and Miranda were very friendly, and I was able to settle in immediately.

I helped with preparing the bread that they would sell as soon as the store opened.

We started before the sun rose and finished just barely before opening time.

As this was the place that my parents had studied, they did things much the same as back home.

It was Gikoku-style bread.

This meant I was able to be very useful on the first day.

“You’re very skilled, Young Leon. You learned everything in a day.”

Mister Rob had been preparing the dough up until now, but now he was able to focus on shaping the bread, which made him quite happy.

Mister Cale was baking the bread in the back.

He had been managing the fire in the morning.

He was using multiple ovens but adeptly baked the bread without burning any of them.

As for me, I wasn’t very skilled with that part yet.

Especially since the oven was a little different here, so it was hard to adjust the heat.

Of course, it was my goal to be able to do it eventually.

“Things are a lot easier with you here, Leon. But should you really be spending so much time here? Aren’t you supposed to become a Dragon Master?”

I was asked this question during my third day.

I had offered to do more than preparing the dough and said that I wanted to learn as much as possible.

“Well, I’ll only be able to work during the early morning once school starts.”

Yes, for a second, I had forgotten why I had even come to the Royal Capital.

I wanted to live out the rest of my days baking bread, but that was an impossible dream.

Mira did not have the best impression of me at first, but later on, she offered the snooty critique of, ‘You’re not totally useless after all.’

I had simply called her ‘Mira’ once, and she glared at me. Was it because I was younger?

Of course, I wasn’t going to start calling her ‘miss’ or anything. That would be like admitting defeat.

Still, helping out at the bakery was fun.

On the following day, I was unexpectedly called by Mira.

“You can come with me today. I will teach you where to make deliveries.”

She said as if talking to a child.

Missus Faine tended to the store during the day, and Miss Miranda would often help in the afternoon.

From what I saw, she cleaned, went shopping, dealt with customers and also made deliveries. She really was a jack of all trades.

Apparently, she was also 24 years old and looking for a boyfriend.

So I was to introduce her to any young men that I was acquainted with.

I worked at the bakery until evening again and then returned to the dormitory.

“…Hmm?”

Someone was in the room.

“Ah, so you must be my roommate. I’m Ark Royster. I came from the town of Hyuler.”

The boy in the room who greeted me was quite tall.

He was probably older than me. 17 or 18.

He had light red hair and pale skin.

His features seemed very northern.

“I’m Leon, from the town of Sol. If you’re my roommate, does that mean you’re a new first-year too?”

I hadn’t heard anything from the caretaker about the second-years returning.

If Ark came in just a few days after me, he was probably a new student.

“Yeah. I’m a first-year, just like you. Check out this Dragon Mark? Beautiful, eh? It’s proof that I was chosen.”

He lifted his shirt and showed me the mark on his ribs.

What a relief. For a second I thought he was going to strip for no reason.

“That Dragon Mark. The pattern is different from mine.”

“Of course, it is. A dragon put that mark there, after all. No two Dragon Marks are alike. Well, unless a dragon from the past reappears. That would be a different story.”

I see. I had not known about that.

So, the Dragon Mark was a mark to tell dragons apart.

“Your one looks very curled. Mine is three small circles within a large one.”

I said as I showed him my left hand.

“I see. Yours is a very rare type.”

“It is?”

“Mine is streamlined and made of curves. It’s normal for the parts that overlap to be pointed.”

Hmm. I see what he meant.

“So, what about mine?”

“It’s a complex type. I’m not quite sure. It looks like a mixture of circles and intersecting lines. Actually, yours looks a lot like the magic circles from Makoku.”

“A magic circle. Yeah, you’re right.”

“By the way, the size of the Dragon Mark varies from person to person, but it has nothing to do with what type of dragon you will acquire.”

“I heard that no one knows what kind they will get in advance.”

“That’s true. And isn’t that exciting?”

“I don’t know. I never really thought about it.”

“That’s no good. You should think about it. Also, you clearly need to brush up on this basic stuff. Or else, it’s an insult to the dragon.”

Hmm. I’m sure he was right.

Up until now, I was merely resolved about becoming a Dragon Master in the future. But I hadn’t spent much time thinking about what kind of Dragon Master I wanted to be.

And so I hadn’t put much effort into learning about the Dragon Mark.

“Alright, then. I can give you a simple lecture on such matters.”

Ark said magnanimously.

It seemed to me that he just wanted someone to listen to him talk?