I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 12. Fortune’s Flower (5)
From what I heard, Maestro had also received great favor from the Black Smoke of the Pastry Shop.
Judging by how he spoke of being able to create an Elixir with her help.
“That too was thanks to the ‘Confirmed Fortune’ I obtained by eating bread.”
“It wasn’t a Skill then?”
“You obtained a Skill, Saint. I did not.”
“Don’t call me that… sigh… Anyway, you fulfilled what we were hoping for, didn’t you?”
“Precisely, Gyu-ri.”
The Black Smoke had granted both of them what they desperately desired in that moment.
To Gyu-ri, the strength to survive within the Gate.
And to Maestro, the fortune to save his Wife.
“Looking at it this way, it doesn’t seem to be a Mountain Spirit.”
“A Mountain Spirit?”
“Yes. I thought it was a Mountain Spirit living in the Siheung Gate… but perhaps it might be something far greater than that…”
“Something far greater?”
Maestro fell silent at Gyu-ri’s question, lost in thought.
Soon he lifted his head, and his eyes gleamed behind his mask.
“Do you know why Gates came to exist in this world, Gyu-ri?”
“I… have no idea…”
“Of course not. No scholar in the world knows either. However, it has been proven that this System contains will behind it. Though it’s classified, so few in the entire world know of it.”
“Will within the System?”
I had always thought the System merely conveyed information, yet it possessed will?
At Maestro’s unexpected words, Gyu-ri was utterly startled.
Regardless, he maintained his composure and continued his explanation.
“There are complex methods of proof, but to cut to the conclusion: the System acts for humanity’s survival. The reason Hunters awaken Skills is for that very purpose.”
“I see…”
“Therefore, there is no method to obtain Skills outside the System’s influence.”
“But that Black Smoke…”
“Correct. It created a Skill for you and granted me fortune as well.”
What in the world could that existence be?
My head grew increasingly dizzy.
I wish I had simply lived as an ignorant E-rank porter Hunter if I had known it would come to this!
‘No. Even so, that’s not right.’
It was then that Gyu-ri grasped reality and quickly steadied her mind.
“Meow.”
“Hm?”
At the sound of a cat’s cry from somewhere in the room, she lifted her head and surveyed her surroundings.
Then she saw it—a black-furred cat.
Adorable by nature, the creature appeared to be the most harmless being in the world as it licked its front paws while meowing.
“Meow.”
“Huh? Maestro, do you have a cat?”
But Maestro’s reaction was different.
He jumped to his feet and even stumbled backward.
“How… how is this possible!”
“Yes? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t own a cat. So this cat must have come from outside. But this place is supposed to be fortified with all of Miracle’s defensive techniques!”
“Meow. Mew.”
Regardless, the Black Cat padded gracefully toward Maestro and leaped onto the sofa.
Then it began to gag.
“Hack. Cough.”
Splat.
The creature coughed up a letter as if expelling a hairball.
As if urging me to read it, the cat pushed the letter forward with its paw, then scratched behind its ear and lay down with an annoyed expression.
“It wants me to read it, doesn’t it?”
“It seems so. I’ll read it.”
As Maestro unfolded the saliva-dampened letter and read it, his expression shifted moment by moment.
First serious, then furrowing his brow for quite some time.
“Haha! Hahaha!”
Then he broke into a joyful laugh.
“Why? What’s the matter?”
“Actually, the very reason I wanted to meet with Gyu-ri has just been resolved. I needed to make a contract with her to send the Elixir, but I had no way to do it.”
The letter Maestro showed contained these words:
[I need Starlight Moss Fairy wing powder. Could you obtain it? Just give it to Noir.]
“So you’re Noir?”
“Meow.”
“Hehe. How adorable.”
“MEOOOOWWWW… meow…”
For some reason, the cat cried out miserably.
‘Why does it sound like it’s crying because it’s not a cat?’
Gyu-ri couldn’t understand why the cry sounded as though the creature was insisting it wasn’t the kind of cat for this sort of task.
“Hmm… Starlight Moss Fairy wing powder, you say… I knew the requests would be challenging, but it seems I was right.”
Meanwhile, Miracle was contemplating how to obtain the materials listed on the note Noir had brought.
Harvesting it was difficult, refining it was difficult, and preservation was equally challenging.
‘Refining should be manageable with my skills, but harvesting and preservation will be tricky. Right. For preservation, I can use that S-rank temporal stasis glass bottle I made before.’
Miracle naturally began considering using a single bottle worth hundreds of millions of gold.
But who would dare complain?
He was the Guild Master of Miracle and the Maestro who had created the Elixir.
‘Then for the harvesting…’
Looking at the new S-rank Hunter beside him, the Flame Saint Joo Gyu-ri, who was grinning at Noir, he opened his mouth.
“Joo Gyu-ri?”
“Oh? Yes, yes!”
“Do you happen to have any plans to enter a Gate today?”
“No? Not particularly.”
“Then come with me to one place. Oh, and Noir, you come along too. Wing powder loses freshness quickly, you see.”
“Huh?”
“Meow?”
And so, bewildered and without understanding what was happening, Joo Gyu-ri—an S-rank Hunter with an E-rank heart—and Noir were dragged off to the Gate.
* * *
Noir returned late that night, after I had finished preparing for business the next day.
Exhausted and sighing deeply, the creature bounded into the house and spoke first with these words.
“Never again… never again shall you task me with such things, Owner.”
“Why? Did something happen?”
“Did something happen? Plenty happened!”
Whatever grievance was bottled up inside, the creature spat out words while hissing indignantly.
“How could they call this elegant and dignified form cute?! And they kept petting me too! How dare they treat me, a Familier who has served the Witch for generations, so casually! Their great-grandfather’s great-grandfather’s great-grandfather was younger than me!”
“I see. I see. That happened, did it?”
“And I never expected them to work so recklessly!”
“Recklessly?”
From what I gathered, when Noir tracked down Miracle’s scent, Gyu-ri had been there as well.
The two of them read the letter I had written and asked Noir to deliver, then immediately headed to the Gate.
“What? They went to the Gate?”
“They did! Well… of course, the abundant energy felt good, but… they kept petting me even inside!”
“Calm down for a moment.”
I patted the creature’s rear as it thrashed about excitedly in all directions, throwing cat punches, but it didn’t help much.
This one’s really angry, isn’t it?
“If you hadn’t ordered me in the first place, none of this would have happened! I could have just waited and the problem would have resolved itself!”
Noir was right.
In truth, I hadn’t needed to send Noir to Miracle.
Anyone who visits the Witch’s Cottage once becomes inevitably recorded in fate.
Therefore, it was only natural that I would eventually meet Miracle.
“But I needed it right away.”
I couldn’t waste time waiting for that meeting.
I wanted to recreate the special Pumpernickel recipe in my hands.
“That special baguette from before was incredibly delicious too.”
“T-that’s only natural! It’s a recipe perfected by the previous Witches!”
“So let’s let this one slide. When I make it, I’ll set aside some for you too. Right?”
Noir stuck out its tongue, savoring the memory of that bread’s taste.
There was no point in pretending to hesitate.
Its eyes had already softened, and drool was trickling from the corner of its mouth.
“J-just this once! From next time on, respect the Familier’s rights! Owner!”
“Got it. I’ll be careful.”
I’ll have to use this service more often.
Noir’s premium delivery system.
“Here, take this first, Owner. Meow… why meooow…”
The creature retched as if coughing up a hairball, then spewed out something substantial.
After a brief bout of hacking and catching his breath, Noir climbed onto the nearby chair looking exhausted and began toasting bread as he spoke.
“Then I’ll rest a bit while the bread finishes baking. I’m absolutely exhausted…”
“You did well.”
“Humans… I’ll repay you someday. Meow.”
The first thing I picked up from what Noir had brought was a letter sealed tightly in a ziplock bag.
As I unfolded the neatly creased letter, words came into view.
“The handwriting is neat too.”
[To the Mountain Spirit,]
Hello. This is Greedy One.
First, I must write that my wife has regained consciousness thanks to your generous grace.
I am truly grateful.
“That’s a relief.”
It seems the Elixir created using the Darkness-Eating Flower was effective.
Feeling my chest swell at the news that a person had been saved, I continued reading the letter.
“So this is the Elixir, then?”
A purple liquid contained in a small glass vial.
The way it sparkled in the light made it clear this was no ordinary object.
[Elixir]
▷ It will surely heal any wound or poison. Perhaps even death itself.
“I probably won’t need to use it, but there’s no harm in having it.”
I decided to place the Elixir with its meaningful description carefully on the shelf.
Even if I did use it, I doubted it would be for anything other than severe burns.
Hoping that no situation requiring it would arise, I picked up the item that had been my original purpose.
“And this must be the wing powder?”
Fine powder like sand contained in a small glass vial.
When I shook it gently, it floated with a soft glow, making it clear this was no ordinary material.
And that was written plainly in the letter as well.
“So that’s why it took so long.”
The Starlight Moss Fairy only inhabits the most ancient forests among all forest-type Gates.
Moreover, the wing powder that separates from its main body apparently has the property of quickly losing its power and disappearing.
That’s why they had to enter the Gate directly to harvest it.
“It must be quite rare.”
“That’s why I endured it, Owner.”
“Didn’t seem like you were enduring much…”
“Meooooow!”
Noir vented her frustration by swinging her cat punch, then continued speaking.
“To obtain wing powder, we need to find the old wing shells that fairies have shed.”
Fairies undergo a molting process as they grow.
And what remains as residue is precisely the wing shell.
By finely grinding this shell, which contains the forest’s mana, we obtain wing powder.
“Among them, the wing shells of the Starlight Moss Fairy are particularly difficult to obtain.”
“Why?”
“They only live in the Ancient Forest, and since they feed solely on starlight, their growth is extremely slow. They’re not easy to handle either, but that man—his skill was impressive.”
Noir let out a dignified yawn while praising Miracle’s abilities.
It was truly a fortunate connection.
If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have been able to obtain such materials even with the recipe.
“So, shall we bake it now?”
“Don’t forget to give me my share, Owner.”
“Understood.”
I kneaded the whole grains and nuts that were already prepared, along with rye flour and molasses, gradually adding water until the mixture became sticky.
Then I sprinkled an appropriate amount of wing powder over it.
“This must serve as the starter culture.”
The yeast, called a starter or fermentation culture, was listed as an ingredient despite not appearing in the recipe.
I didn’t fully understand the principle, but it seemed this ingredient was necessary for fermentation to be complete.
“But there’s no separate fermentation time listed?”
“It’s not a necessary step.”
“It’s not necessary?”
A bread that doesn’t require fermentation?
Of course, flat breads like Mexican tortillas are made by baking the dough directly on a pan without fermentation.
But pumpernickel isn’t that kind of bread.
It requires at least six hours for the first fermentation, and another two hours of fermentation time after shaping.
“Don’t underestimate the wisdom of the previous Witches, Owner. Look at the dough.”
“The dough? Wait, how is this…?”
The dough was moving, alive.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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