They Say the Bread of a Small-Fry Villainess Will Save the World

Chapter 2

—–CROW—– 

One bread. I opened a bakery. Let’s become Baek Jong-won¹ (1)

There was a pig in the kitchen of the McClure mansion.

Of course, it wasn’t referring to an actual animal pig.

However, people thought that an animal would be better. At least you could eat a pig, but the pig in the mansion’s kitchen was useless for anything.

The pig princess, Ellie McClure.

She was the legitimate daughter of Duke McClure, but no one called her ‘Miss’.

When she was very young, back when people thought her maternal family would care about Ellie McClure, they still called her ‘Miss’ and treated her with respect.

It seemed like she was quite stubborn and violent back then. She ate whatever she could get her hands on, and often yelled and cried loudly.

But now she was as quiet as a dead mouse.

Now, no one called the pig princess ‘Miss’.

Even the servants working in the kitchen looked down on her. They couldn’t help it.

Because the owner of the mansion despised that pig princess.

“No one should associate with that thing. Keep her out of my sight. Tsk, an unpleasant sweat smell is emanating from her.”

If they were caught even accidentally exchanging a single word with her, they would immediately lose their jobs and be kicked out. As if the pig princess knew this, she didn’t even try to make eye contact with anyone.

“She only knows how to eat without any manners, so her only job is to get fatter and fatter. Look at that flabby body… She’s the polar opposite of the fairy-like Irene.”

She wasn’t exactly pig-like.

Her messy brown hair and plump cheeks, she was a bit more fleshy than a normal figure, but she wasn’t to the point where she could be disparaged as a pig. If she was well-dressed, she could be seen as a somewhat chubby and cute young lady.

However, as long as Duke McClure called her a pig, Ellie McClure would forever be the pig princess.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just kick her out? Why are they leaving her there?”

“How can we just throw something like that out of the mansion? If any unnecessary rumors spread, it would damage the family’s dignity, so they are hiding her away. Still, it’s shameful that the only legitimate daughter of the family is in that state…”

“They could just confine her to a monastery. She doesn’t seem to be able to speak well anyway. I’ve never heard a pig talk.”

“They would have to pay a donation. I wonder if they are planning to give the pig the maternal family’s property and then leave her there?”

“You mean, it’s just a way to say that they’re leaving her there, but they’re actually locking her up?”

“Then Miss Irene can take care of it instead.”

The pig princess, who stayed in the kitchen, eating the leftover food, and was always doing something in front of the hearth, was no different from a ghost in the mansion.

The people who took care of the pig princess were just the head maid who washed her clothes or found things for her, and the head butler who brought her necessities.

Even then, there was no conversation.

Then one day, the pig princess disappeared.

It was something that happened at dawn, without anyone noticing.

*

Ellie turned 19.

On the day she regained her memories and lost her front tooth, Ellie had made a decision.

I will spread the taste of Tous Les Jours² and Paris Baguette³ far and wide in this land!

Was it for this mission that I was a slave to a franchise, working part-time like a dog…!

Of course, that was nonsense, and she just decided that she would make a living by selling bread.

Ellie clenched both fists in front of her finally opened store. Even with her eyes closed, tears welled up.

How much hardship had she endured to open this one bakery?

The journey to open the bakery was a journey in itself, but the hardship of making even one proper loaf of bread was beyond words.

There was no proper bread in this world.

The bread that Ellie had eaten in her past life was the pinnacle of modern technology, a product of a long history and effort.

In this world, bread was not a staple food. People preferred meat over bread. Because it was easier to obtain.

Above all, the bread in this world was a lump of something very different from the bread that Ellie knew.

Because wheat wasn’t grown much, they mixed grains, and because bakers baked enough for several days at once, the bread was basically hard.

It was no wonder they ate it soaked in soup.

Ellie’s family was a ducal family.

Anyway, she wasn’t short on money.

Even though she ate white bread made from high-quality wheat, unlike the black bread made from mixed grains, she was still in that state. If this was the case in a wealthy family, it was impossible to know what everyone else was eating.

In her reborn life, even before regaining her memories, Ellie was a bread lover, just like in her past life. The bread she traded for her front tooth when she was 8 years old was a bread she had hidden to eat secretly. Of course, it was so old that it was as hard as a rock.

‘It was a baby tooth, thankfully.’

If it had been a permanent tooth, she would have lived without a front tooth until now. There were no implants in this world.

In this world without implants and proper bread, there were hardly any people who liked bread.

Basically, the majority of people were meat supremacists, and they had little expectations for grains.

There were many monsters in this world, so there weren’t many plains that humans occupied.

The granaries were concentrated in some areas where there were fewer monsters, so the production of grains itself was small. On the other hand, forests and mountains were lush, so fruits and animal meat were easily obtained. Some monster meat was also edible.

But even if it was a world where meat was easier to get, shouldn’t they have at least tried to not make bread this bad?

Ellie believed that people were naturally made to love carbohydrates and sugars.

If the people of this world just knew the excellence of carbohydrates, they would all become slaves.

The simple rye bread called farmer’s bread, the savory whole wheat bread, the baguette with a crispy crust and soft inside, the fluffy and fragrant milk bread would all be the best…

Even meal breads could be so delicious…

‘Well, before the taste, the quality was terrible though.’

Ellie went through countless trials and errors to reproduce the bread of her past life in this world.

Fortunately, since she came from a wealthy family, there was a hearth in the kitchen, and she could use good wheat as much as she wanted.

Ellie first obtained clean glass bottles and sterilized them in boiling water.

She proceeded very carefully and thoroughly because she couldn’t let any stray bacteria get in.

Then she put water and sour fruits into the bottle and sealed it tightly.

It was to make levain, the basics of basic fermented bread.

By obtaining yeast from fruits to make liquid starter, and then mixing this liquid starter with wheat to ferment it, levain, called a natural leaven, was created.

And if you ferment bread by mixing that levain, you get soft, puffy bread.

‘Easy to say.’

It was only easy to say.

It took several months to make a proper levain, and almost a year to make bread with it.

No one wanted to get involved with the eccentric behavior of the young, bad-tempered, and toothless pig princess, so no one helped her.

It was convenient, if convenient is the right word, since no one cared.

People just left Ellie alone, whether she was laughing while holding a glass bottle of dough, crying, yelling in front of the hearth, or going somewhere and not coming back.

After all, she was a child that the Duke abandoned.

‘The many days of failure and frustration…’

Unlike her past life where the environment was well-equipped and she could obtain detailed information, this world had too many things missing.

She wished every night that she could just watch YouTube, but that damned god never once answered Ellie.

‘Who asked to be able to use magic, or to become a super powerful character? I just asked to watch YouTube, why are you so petty….’

The only smooth process was the sterilization of the empty bottles.

‘I seriously considered giving up everything, stealing valuables and hiding in the countryside.’

If it wasn’t for the desire (appetite) to eat delicious bread, she would have given up a long time ago.

‘Escaping isn’t an easy thing either, you know.’

It was harder for a young girl to safely escape than to try making bread.

It took several more years to properly use the hearth.

Unlike the ovens of her past life, the heat of the hearth was not constant, so she had to go through hundreds of trials and errors to bake bread properly.

Ellie didn’t give up.

Ellie was young, she had plenty of time, and there was a lot to do while waiting for fermentation.

As soon as she turned 19 and was recognized as an adult, she started saving money for independence, the procedures to open a bakery, securing a guardian, and so on.

Among them was also a diet, for now.

That was a complete failure.

Isn’t dieting something you always start tomorrow?

She had escaped morbid obesity, but she still had some plumpness left.

Even now, her father frowned whenever he saw Ellie.

His gaze was filled with clear disgust and contempt.

Actually, it wasn’t just her father she could blame. Everyone in the mansion looked at Ellie that way.

Pig princess, eccentric, mute, some even whispered that she was crazy.

That she was ugly and couldn’t even talk, and only knew how to eat, so her body was all fat.

It was as if the Duke was waiting for Ellie to have some kind of fit so he could throw her into a monastery. Then he could put the illegitimate heroine on the family tree without any choice.

Sometimes, during the moments when they had to see each other.

‘That pig-like wench, that thing doesn’t even die.’

‘Her mother, at least she had a short lifespan.’

‘It was just that one thing, but it seems she didn’t pass it down to her daughter.’

‘I don’t even want to see her. Disgusting.’

He would often say things like that to himself, as if he wanted her to hear.

But Ellie didn’t lose heart. It was natural for her to gain weight. She couldn’t just not eat the many delicious things she had created. If she ate all of it, there was no way she could eat lightly.

‘Anyway, I escaped safely, and I’ll never see those people again, so let’s not worry about it!’

The important thing was that Ellie had safely opened a bakery!

Her own shop.

—–CROW—–