Chapter 84
Good Things Come from a Full Pantry
Idnia returned to her private dorm room.
Marie had already cleaned up and was waiting for her.
“Idnia-nim, I’ve been waiting. I changed your bedding.”
Marie had taken the old sheets and placed them in the laundry basket, then neatly made the bed with fresh ones.
Even though Idnia had tried to save money, she eventually gave in and bought extra bed sheets through Heukrang. She now rotated between the old and new sheets, washing them in turns.
Clothes could be cleaned quickly with extraction magic, but beddings could attract bedbugs or mites, so extraction magic alone wasn’t enough.
Marie had taken care of that change for her.
“You didn’t have to go that far.”
“No, I owe you so much, Idnia-nim. I have to do at least this much… And you’re busy anyway.”
If it had been Isolde who said that, Idnia would’ve taken it as a jab about sneaking out of the dorm every night.
But Marie’s words were genuine.
“Alright then. Shall we review your self-study? How’s the magic theory book going?”
Idnia had given Marie some light assignments for self-study—just reading ahead in the textbook to prepare for class.
Though Idnia wasn’t an expert in magic, she was used to studying and was ahead of Marie. This allowed her to explain things Marie didn’t understand.
Marie would read, try solving problems, and mark what she didn’t get. Then she’d ask Idnia, who would share her own interpretations and ideas.
“Thank you so much, Idnia-nim. I’m learning so much about magic thanks to you. I keep receiving so much from you—what should I do?”
“Don’t say that, Marie. You’re previewing, but for me, this is review. It helps me too.”
While teaching Marie, Idnia also learned a lot herself.
Especially the parts where Marie got stuck—Idnia hadn’t struggled with those before.
So it helped her understand where others might trip up.
‘You could call it user experience? Troubleshooting? That kind of thing.’
“So, did you finish today’s assignment? Any other homework from class?”
“Yes, I did everything.”
“Then, could you help me with something?”
“Of course! What do you need help with?”
“First, let’s move the bed…”
“Pardon?”
“Marie, you can use Holy Barriers, right? Please cast one. So the smell doesn’t escape.”
“S-smell? Wait—huh?!”
Marie was shocked when Idnia lifted the bed and revealed a large blob of dough hidden underneath.
“What is this?”
“It’s crushed ship biscuits mixed with yeast, re-kneaded into dough. I’m going to bake it. Please use the barrier to block the smell.”
“Huh?”
Marie was stunned.
Idnia was asking her to use sacred holy magic… to keep the smell of bread from leaking in a dorm room?
But of course, she had no choice but to help.
“Alright!”
Idnia summoned her fire spirit, Fire Pistol.
It was smaller than the one she summoned when Magram was around, but it was enough.
When she brought the flame spirit close to the pot holding the dough, it began heating and baking.
“Mmm, it smells so good… Unbelievable. Those awful ship biscuits turned into this?”
“I carefully picked the yeast and let it ferment properly.”
“Picked the yeast? How did you do that?”
“I selected it by its properties. First, I hydrolyzed the biscuits to make a solution of starch and glucose, then I collected microbes from the air.
After that, I separated them using centrifugation.
Once separated, I fed them the culture and checked their fermentation output—using extraction magic to test what they produced: fructose, alcohol, etc.
That told me which strain produced what.
Then, I focused on cultivating the strain that best suited my needs—so I could use it to raise the dough.”
It wasn’t a sterile environment, and without a microscope, there was a high chance of contamination. But Idnia used her incredible physical strength to handle the centrifuge manually and sort it out through sheer effort.
That’s how she discovered and cultivated a yeast strain that produced high fructose, and another that produced more alcohol.
With strength and alchemy magic, even lack of equipment could be overcome.
“But usually, you bake outside. Why are you doing it in the dorm this time?”
“Because of the patrol patterns.”
“What?”
“Mr. Gibbles is so old-fashioned that he’s followed the same patrol schedule for decades.”
Of course, that knowledge came from Awakened Girl Concerto.
Thanks to knowing Gibbles’ routine, Idnia could freely sneak out at night.
But there was another reason she brought Marie into this bread-making project.
‘This quest gives a big boost to reputation. Marie, your reputation needs a lift too.’
The next morning, they had back-to-back classes: basic magic with Baroness Bulem and magic theory with Professor Denev.
It was important to eat a good breakfast, but the same awful ship biscuits and milk tea were served.
Rumors spread that the school was keeping the bakery oven “broken” on purpose to drive students to the campus store.
“Students of Eurus Dorm, attention please.”
Idnia appeared, pulling a cart with telekinesis.
“Trade your ship biscuits for this.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s made by crushing and powdering ship biscuits, then kneading them again with yeast, water, and some sugar.
Don’t worry—I removed all the bugs.”
“….”
“Hail Idnia-nim!”
“Hail!”
No one knows who started it, but the Eurus students began cheering.
They were so fired up it felt like they’d follow Idnia into battle if she asked.
‘Even though Eurus students are pretty well-off, they’re still overjoyed at getting real bread instead of this garbage…’
Idnia and Marie took out the freshly baked bread and handed it out.
“There’s a limited amount, so we can only give to Eurus students, but if you have friends in other dorms, feel free to share.
In fact, I recommend it.”
She encouraged them to share with other dorms—not for charity, but to make the students of Eurus seem like generous ones, while the core credit still went to Idnia and Marie.
Of course, she had to give Marie proper credit.
“Marie helped me make it. Without her, it wouldn’t have been possible.”
“O-oh, really?”
“As expected of a Saint candidate.”
“So merciful.”
Students smiled happily while receiving bread from Marie.
Marie was stunned that nobles and gentry were treating her like a saint just for giving them scraps of re-baked bread.
In farming villages, this was just cheap peasant food.
Even though Idnia had improved the taste by adding fructose, upper-class students were acting like this was a luxury.
“N-no, most of the work was done by Idnia-nim. I just helped with simple chores. I don’t deserve this praise.”
“Haha, how modest. But really, that part of the work couldn’t have been done without you, Marie.”
Idnia praised Marie even more, happy to see other students admiring her like she was a heroine.
‘I’m happy Marie’s reputation went up, but… we used up all the fructose I saved from those hard biscuits.
And now that we showed how to make the bread, other dorms might copy us—even if they don’t separate the yeast like I did… Hm?’
Idnia sensed something strange.
During Professor Sadia’s class, her team partner from Boreas dorm, Bolson, suddenly staggered and collapsed in the cafeteria.
“What’s going on there, student?”
Professor Denev walked over and immediately covered her nose.
“…You smell like alcohol.”
“Ugh…”
The faces of the Boreas students turned pale.
It turned out that using hard bread wasn’t an idea unique to Idnia.
Boreas students had also taken the inedible bread.
But instead of carefully fermenting yeast, they just let it rot—turning it all into alcohol.
Because they didn’t filter the impure liquor, it had high toxin levels and caused severe hangovers.
‘Would a northerner complain about a little booze?!’
They drank it unfiltered, and Bolson, with his weak body, collapsed from the hangover.
– Detoxification Spell.
Professor Denev used her wand to detoxify him.
“…Ugh, Professor?”
“Looks like you’ve been brewing alcohol. I had a hunch when I saw you collecting the old bread and biscuits.
Well, this is quite the contrast.”
Denev shook her head at the stark difference between Idnia and Marie’s baking vs. Boreas students’ moonshine-making.
“Mr. Gibbles.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Please inspect the Boreas dormitory.”
“Yes, of course. Go, my armor soldiers!”
As soon as the order was given, floating magical armors flew off like ghosts toward Boreas dorm.
“….”
The Boreas students sighed.
Some of them glared at Bolson like they wanted to kill him.
At Dynaise Academy, if you didn’t get caught, you could do almost anything.
But if you did get caught…
You had to pay the price.
“Hehehe. We’ve found an illegal brewing setup. Boreas students never change—same tricks, same results.”
Apparently, this happened every year.
“We’ve confiscated the moonshine and all the leftover bread that could be used as ingredients.”
Gibbles handled it so efficiently that the search took less than ten minutes.
“Understood. Bolson, minus 2 points. And 2 points for Dorm Leader Karl as well.”
Surprisingly, Professor Denev only gave out minor penalties.
