Episode 134: The Scent of Cinnamon
Annemarie, the bakery’s daughter.
At this point, any intelligent person should realize.
That is, “There aren’t enough resources in this society for a dedicated confectionery shop to exist, right?”
Yes, that is indeed the case.
Around here, especially in Missgancia, sugar is a luxury item.
If you try to obtain it, it’s basically an imported product, sourced from the south.
So, what is this long-haired, gentle, buxom beauty with black hair in front of me?
Is it a hallucination conjured by my little Andrews?!
No, it is not.
Let me explain…
Her family runs a bakery!
The “bakery daughter” means that (she herself) is a daughter (who runs a confectionery shop as a side business)!
…In reality, you can buy sugar, but it’s quite a luxury item. To give you an idea in modern Japanese terms, it’s like Wagyu beef steak from a high-end supermarket, or a slab of premium tuna – that’s the level of price we’re talking about, so it’s quite difficult to buy.
Therefore, if you make sweets with such sugar, you’d have to sell them at a ridiculously high price.
…Would you buy it? Even though daily life is tough, would you buy sweets that cost hundreds of thousands of yen?
That’s the situation.
So, this girl is selling simple baked goods using honey and dried fruits at a stall.
You might think, “Why doesn’t she just stay at her family’s bakery?”
But it doesn’t work that way. Her older brother is the designated successor to the family bakery. There’s no place for her there.
That’s why she comes to my place.
“You’ve worked hard, you’re a good girl.”
“Haaah~♡♡♡”
Annemarie is all mushy, having been infused with my dark, butler-like ikemen voice.
Right now, her family’s bakery hasn’t completed the succession to the next generation, so it’s unstable, and she can’t leave home. But she constantly declares that if she’s told to leave, she’ll come to my place.
Huh? Female independence…?
I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
There’s no such thing as independence for women in this world. They don’t even have human rights, right? Well, men don’t have human rights either, so I guess it’s safe…
The reason she hasn’t left home yet is that she doesn’t have the power to decide.
Women and children are the “property” of their families, and their parents decide who to give them to. That’s the norm in this world.
Right now, her parents are saying, “The shop is busy, so we won’t let her marry yet,” and “When the shop settles down, we’ll give our daughter, who’s past her prime marriage age, to a man of a different race to gain favor from him.”
That’s what her parents are saying…
Toxic parents? No, this is average. In worse cases, they sell their children to people for next to nothing. And in even worse cases, they abandon them. That’s how it is, that’s how it is.
“By the way, Annemarie? Have you made any friends?”
“Eh… I don’t need any…”
Despite all that, Annemarie was a loner.
Why?
She thinks the problem is her hair color… but the problem is that she has a good face and body.
“It’s awful, everyone! Just because my hair is black, they bully me, saying, ‘She has the blood of an Imperial in her!'”
That’s right… black hair.
Black hair is common among Imperials. Over here, brown and blonde hair are the norm.
So, she’s been bullied for the past few years, being called an “enemy country person!”
But… I can tell.
This girl is cute.
She’s cute, and more than anything, she’s well-developed.
At the commoner level, she’d definitely be popular.
That’s why she’s being bullied.
The men are bullying and sexually harassing her with the same kind of teasing they do to girls they like.
The women are jealous of her because she has a good face.
She’s a really pitiful girl…
“Everyone… I hate everyone! Everyone bullies me! I haven’t done anything…!”
Oh, she’s starting to whine.
I’ll pat her head.
“I wake up early every morning to knead bread, bake sweets with the leftover flour, and sell them at the stall. My mother complains to me, my brother tells me to get out, and Jean from next door slaps my butt! Everyone is awful…!”
“There, there, Annemarie, it’s not your fault.”
Yeah… she’s pitiful…
But what’s funny is that this is just her perspective, and in reality, she’s living above-average.
She’s being sexually harassed and talked behind her back, but she hasn’t been raped or killed, right? That’s a really happy thing… apparently.
Moreover, the small change she earns from selling sweets at the stall is hers. Her parents don’t take it away.
It’s a pretty decent family.
Besides, they run a bakery, right? Bakeries are quite powerful because they sell staple foods…
Probably, Shio, Hanako, and Galanta have had more miserable lives, judging by the level of crap they’ve had to deal with.
But… I don’t say that.
The secret to being popular is to not say unnecessary things and to say the things that should be said!♡
“Annemarie, you’re working hard every day. The people around you are the ones who are bad. …But, try to get along with your parents as much as possible, okay?”
“Okay…”
I pampered Annemarie for a while like that…
“Now, Annemarie? Let’s bake a cake together. You’ve been practicing, right? Show me.”
The time has come to have her bake a cake…