The next morning.
Outside Martin's Bakery.
Today was the day he'd arranged to study magic with Fivik, but He Xi didn't head straight there.
As a man who prided himself on his emotional intelligence, he naturally couldn't show up empty-handed after learning what his teacher liked.
"Good day, sir. Two Rose Thousand Layer Cakes, and two pear tarts."
Well, aside from wanting to treat his halfling teacher, He Xi also had a little selfish motive.
He knew he'd probably be spending the whole day at the Magic Staff Shop again, and he didn't want to have to chew on the shop's dry bread for lunch.
My teacher seems to have devoted all her time to researching spells, He Xi thought.
After all, every time he visited, she was tinkering with something at that table piled high with papers and strange parts, fiddling with it as she took notes.
Martin, the bakery's owner, was a plump-looking man with fair skin and two little mustaches.
"The Rose Thousand Layer Cakes are sixty copper nails each, and the pear tarts are thirty. That comes to one hundred and eighty copper nails."
The price was a little higher than He Xi had expected, but as he looked at the desserts in the display window, which seemed to exist only in his memories, he still paid without hesitation.
Martin first brought out two square cream cakes decorated with flower petals. They looked like they must be Rose Thousand Layer Cakes.
"The pear tarts will take a few minutes," he said, busying himself as he looked He Xi over. "You look like a new face. Did a friend send you?"
When He Xi looked puzzled, he continued, "Those two are our specialties, so new customers don't usually come in and ask for them by name."
He