I Reincarnated into the World of Otome Game with a Cheat Ability - Chapter 3

 Talk About an Impossible Game

Kent arrived at school, walked into the classroom, sat down at his desk, and began to think.

(Yesterday's part-time job only paid 100G... Considering the cost of ordering items from the home improvement center, I'm nowhere near living a comfortable life. I need to find a way to make some money somewhere...)

While I was brainstorming ways to make cash, it became time for class to start. I glanced around and noticed that Josette had arrived. Our eyes happened to lock for a split second, and she immediately averted her gaze, turning her head away.

Yesterday, so many things had changed so rapidly that I didn't have the mental capacity to pay attention to the lectures. Today, however, my mind was a bit more at ease, allowing me to actually listen to what was being taught.

(Wait, this is math... right??? Why is the content at a primary school level???)

The current lesson was on two-digit addition. The teacher was writing problems on the board and randomly picking students to answer them.

"Now then, this one is a difficult question. What is 69 plus 94? ...Kent, let's see you answer it."

The teacher called on me.

"It's 163," I replied instantly.

"My word! That is correct!"

"""Oohh!"""

A collective murmur of awe rippled through the classroom. Wait, seriously? That's a calculation you should be able to answer instantly no matter how you look at it, right? Something was deeply wrong... Kent felt a profound sense of cognitive dissonance.

---

The next period was Language Arts.

(There are barely any Kanji used in the texts for this class. And even where they are used, they have Furigana pronunciation guides written over them.)

This, too, was strictly elementary-school-level material.

Perhaps out of consideration for the commoner students who worked in the mornings, the school's start time was set quite late. Because of this, lunchtime arrived after only two periods of class.

(Ugh... I don't have any lunch...)

Fundamentally, this school did have a cafeteria, but it cost money. Kent, with his grand total of 0G, couldn't afford it. I had already eaten the bread I received yesterday during the night. I figured I would have to save a portion of whatever bread I received today for tomorrow.

Since watching other people eat was too painful, I headed to a secluded spot behind the school building. As I approached, I heard the sound of voices arguing. Curious, I went to peek, only to find Josette hurling verbal abuse at someone. Her target was a plain-looking, slender girl with brown hair and average features. There was no mistaking it—it was Rachel, the protagonist of this otome game.

(Ah, I remember this. It's that early-game scene where the Villainess catches the protagonist talking to the Prince, calls her behind the school building, and tells her, "Someone like you talking to the Prince is completely out of your league.")

"Someone like you talking to the Prince is a massive sense of entitlement! Know your place!"

"Huh? But the Prince just picked up a handkerchief I dropped, and we only spoke for a brief moment?" Rachel countered.

"Are you talking back to me? If I catch you near him again, you will regret it."

With that, Josette turned to leave the area... but she was walking directly toward the spot where Kent was hiding.

(If I run away right now, it's going to look incredibly unnatural... What do I do...)

Before I could come up with a plan, she was standing right in front of me.

"Ah... hello there."

"You... did you just see that?"

"Uh... yeah, pretty much."

Josette looked around frantically, confirming that no one else was in sight.

"Could you please refrain from telling anyone else about this?"

"Why?"

"If you do, rumors of my bad behavior will spread, and my plans will be completely ruined..."

"What plans?"

"Enough! We are done discussing this. Consider this your hush money!"

Cutting the conversation short, Josette grabbed Kent's face with both hands and firmly pressed her lips against his.

"Wait, what?! Huh?!"

"There, I've paid your hush money in full. See to it that you keep your promise!"

With that, Josette bolted away at full speed.

(How on earth did it end up like this?)

Completely bewildered, Kent stood frozen in place. While I was processing what happened, lunch break ended, and afternoon classes began.

Ultimately, I spent the entire afternoon brooding over the incident, and absolutely none of the lectures registered in my brain. Class finally ended, and it was after school. Josette had already vanished from the classroom. Shaking off my confusion, I decided to pour my energy into my part-time job. Once my shift ended, I was handed 200G and some bread before heading home. Apparently, the pay rate was calculated as 100G for the morning and 100G for the evening. Since I had only worked the evening shift yesterday, I had only received 100G.

(They could've just grandfathered me in for the morning shift too, but oh well.)

After eating my bread, I wrapped myself in my aluminum thermal sheet and went to sleep. The next morning—since it was a school holiday—I was scheduled to work at the bakery the entire day.

"Good morning. I'll be in your care today as well."

"Good morning. Glad to have you."

"Good morning, Onii-chan! Let's do our best!"

Once the hectic morning rush of customers finally died down and Marie was preparing a fresh batch of dough for restocking, Kent decided to ask about something that had been bothering him.

"Marie-san, do you not use yeast when you make your bread dough?"

"Yeast... what is that?" Marie looked entirely blank.

"Could I have a small piece of that dough?"

"Sure, go ahead."

She pinched off a small portion of the dough she was kneading and handed it to Kent.

"Please wait just a moment."

With that, Kent walked into the back room and pulled out his ordering terminal.

"Let's see here... Ah, found it. Instant dry yeast. A small packet is 40G."

For now, I purchased a single packet (presumably enough for one batch) and returned to the kitchen.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. We just add this... knead, knead, knead. Alright, that should do it. Could you bake this along with the rest?"

"What did you put in there?" Marie asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Well, that's a surprise for later," Kent replied with a smug grin, playing hard to get.

When the bread finished baking, both Marie and Catherine stared at the loaf in absolute shock.

"Whoa, it got way bigger!"

"My goodness... did it... expand?"

While all the other loaves finished baking in roughly the same flat shape they had when they went into the oven, the dough Kent had prepared had puffed up beautifully into a large, airy loaf.

"Go ahead, give it a taste."

Kent broke off pieces of the fluffy bread and offered them to Marie and Catherine for a taste test.

"What is this?! It's so soft and delicious!"

"She's right! I've never eaten bread this soft in my entire life!"

Delighted by their textbook reactions, Kent took a bite of the finished product himself.

"Yeah, this actually turned out pretty great."

"How did you make this?" Marie pressed, her baker's pride demanding to know the secret.

"To put it simply, when you bake bread dough, you add an ingredient to make it rise like this. There are a few different types of ingredients that can do it, but I used the easiest one where you just mix it right in."

"To think such a thing was possible..."

We decided to place the remaining pieces of the yeasted bread on the counter as free samples for the shop. When customers came in and tried a bite of the free sample, their expressions instantly transformed in a hilarious display of shock, and they immediately began asking how much it cost to buy. Marie politely told them it was just a prototype for now, but the customers' interest was incredibly high.

Marie immediately turned to Kent and asked where he had sourced the instant dry yeast. Kent gave her the wholesale price, and Marie began crunching the numbers for the cost of production. Deciding that it was a viable business move, she handed Kent some money and asked him to secure enough ingredients for the day's production.

Kent went back to his house for a moment to operate the terminal. Using the money he had been entrusted with, he purchased a commercial-sized bag of instant dry yeast and returned to the shop. Marie immediately put it to use, and by the afternoon, shelves of freshly baked, fluffy, yeasted bread were lined up in the storefront.

Rumors of the morning prototype had already spread, and a much larger crowd of customers than usual swarmed the shop in the afternoon. Despite the price being slightly higher than the brick-like bread they used to sell, the new loaves sold like absolute wildfire.

And just like that, Marie's bakery took its very first step toward becoming one of the most famous and highly contested bakeries in the entire Royal Capital.

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