I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 132

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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 132. Bearing a Dark Lantern (5)
“I wonder if it all worked out?”
Even after handing over the bread, my unease refused to settle.
To be honest, it wasn’t really unease at all.
It was simply curiosity.
“If things go as I’ve calculated, there shouldn’t be any major problems.”
“Shouldn’t you explain what you were thinking before saying such things? Owner?”
“It’s bread that shares consciousness, after all.”
The bond bread I created possessed the effect of binding consciousness itself.
So even in a situation where sensation didn’t exist, if someone could merely ‘perceive’ it, that perception would be more than sufficient to replace the lost ‘sensation’.
“The two Hunters claim they’ve completely lost their senses, but if we think about it that way, something doesn’t add up.”
“What do you mean? Meow?”
“If that were true, Whitey and the Sandworm shouldn’t have been able to follow them.”
The Sandworm with its massive body.
And Whitey, the name I’d given to the Previous Witch who trailed after Soo-min.
If they had also lost their senses, they shouldn’t have been able to follow Soo-min and Seung-hyun at all.
Yet they had stayed with them faithfully.
“And the fact that those two haven’t separated must have some reason behind it.”
“Are you saying it’s thanks to the Previous Witch, Erixdoter, and this lowly creature? Owner?”
“That’s what I believe.”
Without external assistance, those two couldn’t possibly have stayed together, so it was reasonable to assume they’d received help.
If I thought of it that way, my plan couldn’t fail.
Once everyone shared the bread, I wouldn’t know how, but I’d be able to share Whitey’s consciousness.
“Then isn’t it already solved?”
“Sigh… I’m just worried whether I explained it properly.”
“True… it’s questionable whether they’d even think to feed bread to an animal.”
Noir was right.
Ingredients delicious to humans weren’t always safe for animals.
For instance, chicken is delicious food, but for a puppy, eating it carelessly could mean sharp bone fragments piercing its esophagus.
Similarly, chocolate would act as poison to that creature.
“But there was no other choice. I couldn’t exactly show them the bread clearly and tell them to eat it, could I?”
“That’s true. That’s why I put it in a pouch. That’s also why I told them to open it once they got outside.”
The bond bread was ultimately bread meant to ascend to the Holy Feast at Rohan’s request.
And not just ascending—it was an essential means to prevent the schemes of those trying to cause a Gate Break in the world.
I couldn’t possibly reveal information about such important bread anywhere.
Because of that, even during the test, I couldn’t share even a hint of information about the bread with Soo-min and Seung-hyun.
“I believe the Owner has done everything possible. What more could be done from here?”
“That’s true. But… there’s more than one thing bothering me.”
“Meow?”
“The Witch’s Cottage hasn’t disappeared.”
Typically, the Witch’s Cottage would deliver bread appropriately, receive payment, and then move on to another Gate as if its work were done.
But not this time.
Not only had I not offered Seung-hyun any compensation, but even though the Quest had been completed and BP had entered my account, the Witch’s Cottage remained utterly motionless.
“The outside is still dark…”
It was difficult to believe that the two of us had actually cleared the Gate.
Normally, when a Gate is cleared, all the arbitrary rules that creature had imposed would vanish entirely.
In that case, this place should either have regained the appearance of an ordinary cave, free from sensory deprivation, or simply ceased to exist.
But since neither was happening, I couldn’t help but worry.
“Should I go take a look?”
“I’m afraid that proposal is rejected, Owner. You are a fragile and delicate being who could perish from merely a single scratch of my claws.”
“Still, I feel like I could probably beat you…”
“Aaaaah! Have you forgotten that I am a Familier who has served great Witches! Owner!”
No… but honestly, being killed by scratches from those adorable little claws seemed a bit much.
Still, Noir’s words weren’t wrong.
Outside was the heart of the Gate.
The only reason I could breathe and live so soundly was because the Witch’s Cottage was protecting me.
If I were to step outside, I could die even to a monster with a C-rank danger level—that was my current state.
“It’s likely just your anxiety, Owner. So put your mind at ease and wouldn’t it be better to make more Mugwort Bread?”
“Hmm… that’s also a fair point.”
Contrary to my expectation that it would need about a day to mature, the Rosemary oil had immediately demonstrated its efficacy.
Then it would be right to diligently make more oil and bake bread to create at least five hundred servings of Holy Feast.
“Right. I should work. Maybe my anxiety came from not working.”
“A wise thought.”
“Gora, will you help?”
“Gora!”
Gora laid out the Mugwort Bread ingredients as if it had been waiting for this moment.
The division of labor was simple.
Gora and the Ginger Man Legion would diligently bake Mugwort Bread, while I would make Rosemary oil beside them.
As I produced Mugwort Bread like a factory, the worry and anxiety that had been building in my heart gradually began to subside.
Ding!
[Bearing a Dark Lantern]
▷ To escape a dark space, one needs a lantern. But what if even that lantern has been extinguished? Only a Witch would know the answer.
▷ Warning: This is an extremely dangerous Quest. Caution is advised.
▷ Reward: 200,000BP
“…”
A Quest window suddenly appeared before my eyes.
Seeing it, I found myself unable to speak.
My worry and anxiety had become reality.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a Quest window turn red.”
“Meow? Is the Witch’s Cottage trying to tell us something more?”
“Yeah… that also looks incredibly dangerous.”
Under normal circumstances, I would have displayed a blue status window with the tone of ‘the choice is yours.’
But what stood before my eyes now was red, expressing danger with every fiber of its being.
Moreover, a warning message was written there as well.
“And the reward is 200,000 BP at that.”
“Something serious must have happened. Owner. This is like….”
“Right. It can’t be explained unless a fragment of the Witch has appeared.”
BP is something akin to the energy born from altering destiny itself.
The Witch’s Cottage had always assigned such high BP exclusively to tasks involving the collection or elimination of Witch fragments, judging them as quite significant alterations to fate.
“First, I should contact the Hunter’s Association….”
“It won’t help. Owner. Didn’t the Witch’s Cottage say so?”
Noir stopped me just as I pulled out my phone to call Ria.
At those words, I reread the Quest window’s text and understood.
‘Only the Witch knows the answer to this.’
“Wasn’t that just a clichéd phrase?”
“The Witch’s Cottage’s judgments are quite accurate. Or rather, from a human’s perspective, it’s best to always assume they’re accurate. Owner.”
“Then outside intervention won’t be of much help….”
“It could actually make the situation worse.”
Think.
I had given bread—a lantern—to escape the darkness.
But that lantern had gone out.
Did that mean the bread’s effect had been nullified?
No, that couldn’t be.
Hadn’t Noir said the Witch’s Cottage’s judgment was always correct?
That meant providing the bread at that moment was the right call.
“Something has appeared that surpasses the bread’s effect. There’s no other explanation….”
“Meow! You don’t believe it? No matter how corrupted and powerful the Previous Witches have become, they’re still merely predecessors! They couldn’t possibly defeat the current Witch!”
“But there’s no other way to explain it.”
Keep thinking.
What is there that only I, as a Witch, can do?
What can I accomplish against a Previous Witch so powerful she suppresses even the bread’s effects?
“Not much. The answer’s already been decided, essentially.”
“Meow? Where are you going? Owner!”
“Where else?”
I answered while gathering the bread I had prepared in advance, anticipating such a situation might arise.
“I need to resolve this. Gora? Chohong? Are you ready?”
“Kyuuuu!”
“Gora gora!”
“Meow. I don’t understand what you’ve done, but I’ll follow….”
* * *
“I had a hunch, and it turned out to be right.”
“I wasn’t sure. Sorry for telling you late, Owner. Meow.”
“No, it’s fine. At least you made it in time.”
As I’d anticipated, Soo-min and Seung-hyun were in grave danger.
A grotesquely enormous eyeball had woven its blood vessels like threads, wrapping around them in a cocoon-like prison.
“Oooop! Oop oop!”
“Like a spider.”
The creature had woven its blood vessels like silk, ensnaring everyone within a chrysalis of gore.
The rolling eyeball fixed its gaze upon me in an instant.
“Yes, you’ve seen me. The current Witch. Have you been enjoying yourself all this time?”
A sound like fingernails scraping against bone.
A horrifying voice echoed through my mind—as if it were mimicking human speech by combining sounds no one should ever hear.
The same situation as before.
The same sensation I’d felt when the Witch’s fragment had possessed Dayeon’s body crawled up from my fingertips.
“But it seems you haven’t been training diligently. You’re pathetically weak.”
“You say the same thing.”
It was true, though.
If I fought that creature, I was certain I wouldn’t last even a second before death claimed me.
I wasn’t sure if calling that confidence was the right word for it.
“You are a being who lives within lies, accepting them as your own fate. Now surrender to your incompetence. That would be the kindest end for you.”
“Speak plainly if you want an answer.”
The Witch’s Cottage and everything connected to the Witch had this tendency to speak in circles.
At least speak moderately—how was I supposed to understand anything said like this?
But one thing was certain.
“You don’t seem to like the Witch.”
“How could I? No one could cherish such hollow and false longing.”
“Still speaking in riddles.”
I had no intention of listening anyway.
This creature was a clear threat to me.
Whether or not it harbored hostility toward the Hunters, why should I heed the words of something that had turned its blade toward me?
What mattered now was assessing the situation.
“Noir. So you’ve come too. Doesn’t serving grow tiresome?”
“Meow. You should stop now. Your loss of power stems from your own karma, not from us.”
“It was you who failed to keep your promise. Do you still insist on such claims?”
The blood vessels burst, and the creature spoke while oozing rotten blood.
Yes, it was Noir—the one who had brought all the Previous Witches.
I knew enough about that creature.
As expected, Noir seemed to know the creature’s true nature and responded accordingly.
“You receive the price for using your power wrongly, for exploiting others instead. Had you healed people with herbs as you did at first, you wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
“Still saying the same thing, Noir.”
“I abandoned that name long ago. What would you know, you wretched woman who raised a bastard to manipulate and dragged the kingdom to ruin? Your fate was sealed the moment you stole the holy sword and handed it to the government, the moment you seduced and corrupted the king’s knights.”
“You speak of ancient history. Then there is nothing more for us to discuss. Now I shall reclaim the power that was once mine.”
Like water cascading from opened floodgates, thousands of blood vessels erupted from the creature’s eyeballs.
Even before that overwhelming killing intent that sought to bind and tear my limbs asunder, I did not take a single step backward.
Was it fear that held me still?
No.
“Gora! Chohong!”
Kwaaaaaang!
I had something to believe in.
“Ever heard of it?”
Gora emerged as the smoke cleared.
Enlarged to towering proportions and wielding an adamantium hammer, the creature was wrapped layer upon layer in something impossibly hard.
This was precisely the measure I had prepared.
“It’s a bread called Hardtack.”
The very same terrifying bread that had shattered the teeth of countless sailors.

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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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