Tanimaki Enters a Bread-Baking Contest (Part 5)

Coco, now in Tanimaki’s body, exclaimed in delight, “We really switched bodies!”

“Meow! Debiru, you switched us without my permission?!”

At the sight of the furious Tanimaki, Debiru and Mayutan exchanged glances and burst out laughing.

And then came the day of the bread contest—

Tanimaki had learned the basics of breadmaking from Chocomaru, but with so little time to practice, almost none of it had sunk in.

Even so, driven by the selfish hope that he might somehow win the prize money, he decided to enter.

Nearly a hundred contestants began kneading their dough all at once. The time limit was four hours.

The atmosphere in the venue was taut with tension—so intense that an amateur might have felt repelled just by stepping too close.

“Squish, squish. Squish, squish.”

Tanimaki kneaded the dough just as Chocomaru had taught him. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had forgotten something.

“The dough isn’t rising much, meow.”

He noticed something was wrong during the fermentation stage, but paid it no mind and moved on to baking.

“Meow! What the heck is this?!”

The bread Tanimaki had baked was flat and completely unrisen. It didn’t even smell appetizing.

“It tastes floury, meow. And the outside isn’t crispy either.”

After taking a bite, Tanimaki stared at it in horror.

He had forgotten to add the yeast.

“I... I...”

Tanimaki crouched down in despair. In his own way, he had truly believed things were going well.

“Don’t worry about it, Tanimaki. Everyone’s first attempt is like this.”

Debiru gently offered him some Silver Vine Liquor and rubbed his shoulder.