Come to think of it, the build had also been quite similar to Denis’s.

‘Could the owner of that knife be……’

*

Denis had shut himself away in the bakery kitchen, doing nothing but baking bread and refusing to come out to the shop floor.

“Ha…… what came over me……”

Denis let out a long, mournful sigh.

One day his wife had shoved a pastry called an ‘egg tart’ from Shiloh’s Bakery right in front of his face.

“What’s this?”

“They call it an egg tart, and the taste is extraordinary. I got up before dawn and stood in line just to buy this.”

“An egg tart? You stood in line for something like that?”

Denis frowned with displeasure.

He had never heard of such a thing.

The pastry had a round, scone-like shell filled with something soft and yellow, like cheese.

“Eat it and do some research on what makes it different from your bread.”

His pride made him want to refuse, but the savory smell of the egg tart kept teasing his nose.

On top of that, his wretched stomach was churning madly as if begging him for the egg tart.

In the end, Denis picked up the egg tart with a sour expression and took a bite.

Crunch.

Multiple layers of tart shell shattered crisply in his mouth.

With crumbs on his lips, he began eating the egg tart in earnest, crunch after crunch.

A savory flavor spread through his mouth.

Denis opened wide and bit into the slightly charred yellow center.

“Mm……”

The yellow part melted softly on his tongue like pudding.

The vanilla fragrance that lingered on his tongue melted his heart.

The egg tart was gone in an instant.

‘What did she put in this?’

It was a taste that made his eyes snap open with craving.

Denis spent several days lurking around Shiloh’s shop, watching for a chance to peek into the kitchen.

Then one early morning, he discovered the kitchen window was open.

Denis went back and forth, walking toward home and then returning to her shop again, unable to decide whether to go inside.

But the obsession with finding out the secret of the taste was simply impossible to suppress.

In the end, he did what he should never have done.

In the early hours when everyone was asleep, Denis put on a mask, tucked a weapon in his pocket, and climbed through Shiloh’s shop window.

He searched the kitchen here and there with a lamp, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

Frustrated, Denis cut a few roll cakes with the knife he had brought and ate them.

The small piece of roll cake he put in his mouth was extraordinary.

The moist texture mingled with the tartness and sweetness of orange, and the soft cream woven through it was harmonious.

“This is art……”

Unable to hold back, he put other breads in his mouth too.

From tomato basil tarts to various madeleines and cakes.

The more he ate, the more he wanted, and the more curious he became about the other breads.

Having forgotten his original purpose of finding out the secret of the taste, he settled in the shop and savored Shiloh’s bread one by one.

Then he heard a sound and Denis’s heart lurched.

He had intended to search quietly and leave, but he happened to have a knife in his hand and was completely mistaken for a robber.

The moment Shiloh screamed like a madwoman, Denis sensed things had gone wrong.

He had tried to sort it out somehow, but then a man came crashing through the window and beat him half to death.

Denis stared blankly at the glow of the oven where the rye bread was baking, pressed his hand to his chest, and drew in a ragged breath.

‘Ha…… that was nearly the end of me.’

Even thinking about it again made his heart drop.

But since that day, the anxiety had not let up.

He startled violently at the smallest sound and was constantly on edge.

He trembled with fear not knowing when the guard might come to arrest him.

Denis wiped the cold sweat beading on his forehead with a handkerchief.

‘If I’m caught, it’s all over.’

He could not afford to lose the baker’s license he had earned through so much hardship.

Not for his son’s sake.

“Dear God……”

Crouched in the corner of the kitchen, he closed his eyes and pressed his trembling hands together.

Outside the window, three or four guards investigating Shiloh’s case walked past his shop with heavy footsteps.

*

Shiloh closed the shop and lay down on the attic bed, where the lamplight glimmered softly.

“It is pretty.”

She took off the earring she had been wearing all day and turned it over in her hands.

Owen had also given her a bracelet-shaped communication device, but the earring kept pulling at her attention more.

The communication device earring Kyle had given her was shaped like a dandelion seed head, delicate and pure in design, as if a single breath would send it flying, though it was sturdily made.

The color was white, so it seemed like it would go well with almost any outfit.

“Press it for about three seconds to turn it on and off, he said?”

Kyle had told her that running a shop alone as a woman could lead to dangerous situations, so she should contact him through the device at any time.

“He’s so much warmer than I read in the novel. Quietly thoughtful too……”

Shiloh pulled the blanket up and murmured.

He had remembered the night market and come to carry her bags, and now a self-defense communication device on top of that……

‘Does he have feelings for me?’

Shiloh drew in a sharp breath.

The memory came back of that night when Kyle had been the first to press his lips gently to hers.

The way he had held her with such care, as if handling glass, made her cheeks flush.

“He shouldn’t be interested in me……”

Shiloh smiled to herself without meaning to and lay on her side.

But then the words he had said after that night came back to her.

‘Do you want to pretend it never happened?’

‘Yes……’

‘That makes two of us.’

Shiloh pursed her lips.

“Hmph……”

It was a relief that he seemed to have no particular feelings about it, but then what was this vague sense of disappointment?

“He’s probably just anxious that things might go wrong between us and he’d lose access to my bread.”

Shiloh shook her head and smiled bitterly.

Her body was exhausted but sleep wouldn’t come, her mind too full of stray thoughts.

“Maybe I’ll read that mythology book until I get sleepy.”

She rustled out of the blanket and sat up.

She took the mythology book that had been in the box with the pabua powder and turned through the pages.

“The love story of Bernar, the first emperor of the Amondi Empire, and Elinore, the mage beloved by the Sun God……”

Shiloh’s eyes slowly read down the first page where the myth was summarized.

The myth in the book went roughly like this.

Two people who loved each other with a burning passion.

But one day, Bernar, burned from head to toe, could not bear to show Elinore his wretched state, and though he loved her, he avoided her to the end.

Even so, Elinore waited with unwavering devotion for him to open his heart to her again, and one day she disappeared.

Consumed by guilt, Bernar left no heir behind and vanished without a trace, declaring he would find her.

“How much of this is true? The woman had it hard, and the man is pitiable too……”

Shiloh closed the book, turned off the lamp, and lay back down on the bed, murmuring without energy.

The lingering feeling of the myth had not yet faded when her eyelids slowly drifted shut.

*

Knock knock. Knock knock.

Even though a sign saying the shop was sold out and closed had been hung on the door, someone knocked.

Shiloh had just pulled freshly baked bread loaves from the oven and was setting them on the cooling rack when she hurried to the door.

Creak.

Her expression hardened the moment she opened it.

Guards with longswords at their hips were standing outside.

“What is this about?”

“We have secured a prime suspect in the robbery.”

“Ah……”

“Please come with us.”

Shiloh quickly locked the shop door with her key and followed the guards to the waiting carriage.

The carriage arrived at a fortified building under the guard’s jurisdiction, a place for prisoners and suspects.

Her heart hammered at the thought of facing again the man who had threatened her with a knife.

Following the guards around a corner and into the building, Shiloh stopped in front of the bars of a holding cell.

“This is the individual.”

She took a slow step forward.

Shiloh had been studying the cell with barely a blink when surprise spread across her face.

“……”

She stood unable to speak for a long moment, then looked at the face beyond the bars and said.

“Why are you here?”

“……”

Denis, crouched haggardly in the corner, glanced at Shiloh and looked away.