She Was Condemned as a Villain, But After Baking Bread She Changed Her Job To Become A Saint!?

Chapter 1: The Ex-Villainess Bakes Bread

Avaricia Lastia Ashenford was the daughter of the Duke of Ashenford, the sword of the Elysium Kingdom, and the villainess of the popular Otome game “Elysium Alice”.

Her name comes from the Latin word for “Avarice”. But despite her beautiful appearance, she was the true embodiment of her name—a selfish, arrogant person who was willing to do anything to achieve her desires, no matter how wicked or cruel.

Well, I should say that Avaricia was a terrible woman. Two years ago, after she completed the “Condemnation Event” where her engagement with the crown prince was annulled, she was completely disowned by her family. Thus, her life as she knew it was thoroughly ruined.

As you may have guessed, I, the person inhabiting Avaricia’s body, was an overworked otaku in her late 20s who used to work for a black company**. I was a huge fan of “Elysium Alice” by the way.

But I still have no idea how I ended up here.

When I came to, I was Avaricia.

I’m not sure if I died, or if  I’m lingering between the borders of life and death, if my soul went on an adventure while I slept,  if my dead self was reincarnated into Avaricia, or if I’m just possessing her.

All I know for sure is that this is not a dream and that I’m probably not going to wake up from it soon.

“Well then—”

When I opened the wooden window in the kitchen, the eastern sky had already begun to brighten.

“Let’s get started!”

I quickly put on an apron, rolled up my sleeves, then opened the cabinet.

The world of “Elysium Alice” is based on mid-19th century Europe.

However, since it’s a fantasy world where monsters exist and magic has developed instead of science and since the game has made a lot of adjustments to avoid anything that would disrupt the gameplay, there are a lot of things that shouldn’t be there from that era, or conversely, things that shouldn’t be there at all. It’s all just one big mess.

For example, even though this is a time period when incandescent bulbs were invented, there is light magic here instead, so I can turn on the lights in the room with the push of a button, and they are just as bright as modern lights.

The kitchen is the same way. It looks like the kitchen stove that was used in that era—a cooking range**—but it uses fire magic instead of coal, so it functions almost like a gas stove and oven.

The cooking utensils hanging from the wall are made of iron or enamel, and there are antique dishes made of old-fashioned pottery lined up in an antique dish rack made of amber-coloured wood, but next to that there is a sink, tap, and  refrigerator that uses ice magic. It looks a little retro, but I’m sure it’s much easier to use than a Showa kitchen**.Though I’ve never actually used a Showa kitchen before.

But however, there are no signs of the railroads, steam cars, or early gasoline cars that should have been around in that era. I guess they would make the otherworldliness less appealing.

“Oh, it’s risen! It’s risen!”

In a bowl that I took out of the cabinet, there was white, glossy dough that had finished its first fermentation and risen. I had made it the night before.

“Let’s see~?”

When I poked it with my floured finger, the hole remained firmly in the shape of my finger. Yep, looks good!

I tapped the surface of the dough with my fist to release the gas, then took it out of the bowl and kneaded it lightly. Quickly, I gathered it together and divided it equally with a scraper.

Next, I flattened each of them and rolled them up tightly from both ends. After closing the seams, I covered them with a tightly wrung cloth for the second fermentation.

While waiting for the next fermentation, I took out more dough from the cabinet and  skillfully shaped each of them.

Today I’m going to bake baguettes, boules, and fluffy butter rolls!

Baking bread was a hobby of mine in my previous life – or should I say, in my other life? – not Avaricia’s, but my own.

Well, since I was a hardcore corporate slave in a black company, I could only bake bread about once every two months. I would bake bread from morning to night, cut it all up, freeze it, and then eat it reheated or made into different dishes every morning, noon, and night until my next vacation.

It not only saved time, but it was also cheaper to buy butter and flour in bulk at a commercial food store. And most importantly, I loved bread.

I was also quite particular about the yeast, and would often make my very own from raisins and bananas.

I was able to make some decent bread, but of course bread baked by a professional would taste much better, right? Actually, I always wanted to buy bread from a popular bakery instead of making it myself, but I couldn’t afford bread that cost three or four hundred yen a loaf as an underpaid corporate slave. Sadly.

When I first became Avaricia, my major problem was that the food here didn’t taste good.

In the old days of Europe, there was a time when dishes with complex cooking processes were considered high-class cuisines, and in this Elysium Kingdom, dishes with simple steps were considered vulgar. As a result, the food at Duke Ashenford’s household was… how should I put it? For example, even with a roast chicken dish, they would unnecessarily boil it, stuff it and then simmer it in a carefully prepared bouillon before roasting it in an oven.

You can probably tell what happens without me having to say it, right?  Yes. The meat juices drain out, leaving it dry and tough, and even the texture becomes strangely chewy. That can’t possibly be delicious, can it? Not at all.

Moreover, the seasoning is just not suitable for Japanese people. So unfortunately, everything I eat tastes horrible. The bread in particular is truly terrible. It’s supposed to be rye bread, but instead it tastes like bread that has been dried out for a week after baking. There’s zero fluffiness and  not a hint of tenderness. I had to eat this rock-hard bread thinly sliced and for someone who was used to eating 21st century Japanese bread, that was bread that I wouldn’t even feed to prisoners. I got so tired of chewing that my jaw was sore the next day and I couldn’t even open my mouth because of jaw pain.

Fortunately, Avaricia is the only daughter of the Duke of Ashenford , so she couldn’t be richer.

I don’t care how much it costs. I want to make soft, fluffy wheat bread and I know just how to bake it…

**Japanese black companies are companies that do not follow labour laws.

**A cooking range combines a cooktop, often called a stovetop, and an oven into a single appliance that covers all your culinary bases

**A showa kitchen refers to a kitchen typical in Japan during the Showa period (1926-1989). These kitchens were often small and functional, with limited counter space and built-in appliances like gas stoves and sinks becoming more common towards the later part of the era.