I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 138

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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 138. The Sound of Truth Weeping (4)
“I am truly grateful! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine encountering such bizarre and calamitous circumstances, and I confess I was utterly bewildered as to how to conduct myself. Haha! Even my embarrassed laughter comes naturally!”
After lowering the man who’d been caught in the tree, the gratitude he expressed was extraordinarily lengthy.
Moreover, I couldn’t fathom what sort of life he’d lived to speak in such archaic language.
“I am Yong-jin of the House of Jang, holding the highest rank among the hunters’ order. To encounter such a precious connection while fulfilling my duties is truly a joy beyond measure. Judging by the armor adorning your form, you appear to be a scholar well-versed in martial arts. If I may be so bold, might I inquire as to your name?”
“Pardon?”
“He’s asking for your name, Owner.”
“Ah! To travel with such a peculiar spirit—you must surely be a remarkable talent of considerable skill!”
If I had to summarize this situation in four words, it would be this:
Overwhelming chaos.
Not only was each sentence interminably long, but there were far too many incomprehensible ornamental phrases.
But what could I do?
The thread of fate was connected to this man.
I had no choice but to deploy every customer-service technique I’d honed through years of running my business.
So… should I speak like this?
“I am Seung-hyun of the House of Han. Might I inquire as to the circumstances that led to your esteemed self becoming ensnared in those lofty branches?”
“Ah, what a distinctly unique manner of speech you employ. Feel free to speak more casually. Haha!”
Yong-jin unfurled the folding fan he’d been holding with a flourish and burst into laughter.
I nearly struck him.
While I desperately inscribed patience upon my heart, Yong-jin furrowed his brow and replied.
“Bearing solemn orders from the hunters’ order, I cast myself into the Forbidden Realm, where grotesque and ominous energies permeate. Shadows move with terrible life, devouring people in their grasp—such calamitous phenomena occur here. I hastily fled and sought refuge, but alas, even the shadows cast by the branches harbored malevolent spirits. I nearly perished in that very instant.”
Roughly translated, it meant this:
He was apparently a relatively high-ranking hunter dispatched here to seal the Gate.
Upon realizing the shadows here harm people, he’d attempted to climb into the tree where no shadows fell, but ultimately found himself cornered.
“You said you held the highest rank, did you not?”
“Indeed. Though I have ascended to S-rank status and earned recognition of my abilities, I confess with great shame that my martial techniques seem to lose their efficacy in this place, failing to fulfill their purpose.”
“So you’re saying you’re essentially an ordinary person right now.”
“I am deeply ashamed…”
Yong-jin hung his head and cleared his throat awkwardly.
So this Gate possessed yet another characteristic I hadn’t known about.
The ability to render a hunter’s powers useless.
What a selfish and destructive rule this was.
A place where creatures lurked in the shadows, murdering people, while stripping away one’s very abilities.
“Yet upon observation, you seem capable of wielding remarkable techniques even in this treacherous and perilous land. Is this truly so?”
“Ah, well, I have the right kind of ability for it.”
“Truly remarkable!”
Yong-jin snapped his fan shut with a sharp sound and swirled his robe dramatically.
He seemed to be expressing his genuine surprise in his own way.
But I had no intention of explaining in detail.
Though he was a hunter, I couldn’t claim that the power of the Witch—passed down through ancient tradition—left me unaffected.
Thinking about having to explain why a Witch would be male in the first place made my head spin.
“Then might I propose something to you, my friend?”
“A proposal?”
“Indeed. How long have you been in this place?”
“About nine days now.”
“I myself have been here for a fortnight as of today. Since I have accumulated somewhat more knowledge than you in that time, would you not consider joining hands with me?”
It was a welcome sound to hear.
Even if I didn’t know exactly who this person was now, at least they weren’t someone the Witch’s Cottage had called a stranger to fate.
Having a reason to stay together could only be a good thing.
And the prophecy had spoken.
That I would be guided toward a place where I must be with those bound by fate.
Then all the more reason we must remain together.
“I agree.”
“Splendid! Then you need only follow me from this moment onward to that place!”
“That place… where exactly…?”
“Do you not see it there? I wonder if you too have been observing that place where an unusual aura gathers, yet pretend not to notice?”
Yong-jin pointed with his folded fan.
At its end stood a castle, the very one where the dragon had been flying moments before.
Even at a glance, it was distant.
“That castle?”
“Indeed. Upon entering this Forbidden Realm, were you not informed beforehand? To advance toward the castle and retrieve a hidden tome concealed within—was that not the grand objective we must accomplish together?”
Unlike Yong-jin, I was not one who had directly stepped foot into the Gate.
That was why the Gate’s clear objective had not been conveyed to me.
Of course, ordinary Gates do not have such clear objectives set.
Those with stages defined in this manner, allowing one to face a boss at the end, are Structured Gates.
Among those, only one type possessed such a unique objective.
“Is this… a Narrative Gate?”
“It is.”
“This is troublesome…”
The moment confirmation came, I could only clutch my head.
A Narrative Gate.
A subcategory within Structured Gates, it was a Gate with tremendous variance.
The reason was simple.
The clear objectives presented by the Gate varied wildly.
I had heard some demanded human sacrifice as a condition.
And furthermore…
“Will it take a long time?”
“It may well take an eternity. The peculiar flow of this narrative has no fixed rules by its very nature.”
“This is maddening…”
Because it flowed according to the narrative itself, there was no way to know when this Gate would finally end.
With only half a day remaining, any delay felt like a catastrophic setback.
“What’s troubling you, Owner? You could slip out through the Witch’s Cottage and return, couldn’t you?”
“Didn’t you see earlier? That man is practically a civilian right now.”
How formidable a Hunter he was didn’t matter.
Without access to his abilities, he was nothing but an ordinary person.
Which meant that while I was gone, he could stumble into any number of dangers and meet his end.
“If you’re truly concerned, you could spend the time within the Witch’s Cottage.”
“That won’t work—there’s a time constraint. Narrative Gates always have a fixed time limit for completion.”
“Ah! A most astute observation indeed! This Forbidden Realm does possess a strictly defined deadline for its resolution. Judging by the flow of this place, we appear to have merely a day or so remaining.”
“You hear that?”
I hadn’t realized only a day was left.
So to summarize the situation: I had to resolve everything within the half-day I had remaining before my return, no matter what.
Only then could I escape this place with Yong-jin, as the prophecy foretold.
“Time is running short, then. What shall we do?”
“Precisely so.”
“Just reaching that place seems like it would take forever. Is there any way, Owner?”
“I’m drawing a blank myself…”
The castle in the distance appeared hazy, impossibly far away.
If a dragon the size of a house looked like a sparrow from here, how vast was this distance truly?
And we had to traverse it on foot.
Just the two of us—an eccentric Hunter stripped of his abilities, and myself, possessing nothing but the hard tack wrapped around my body.
Yong-jin seemed to understand the gravity of our predicament. He exhaled deeply, tilted his gaze skyward, and spoke.
“What a lamentable situation! Had my cultivation remained intact, I would have employed the Stride of Earth to traverse a thousand leagues in a single bound. But alas, my hands and feet are bound, and I can only waste away the hours in this most deplorable state!”
“The Stride of Earth?”
“Meow? What’s the Stride of Earth, Owner?”
Until now, I’d assumed he was simply an eccentric Hunter obsessed with historical dramas and martial arts novels, given how he spoke of his abilities as “Taoist arts.”
That would have explained why he referred to his skills in such terms.
But the Stride of Earth?
“Can you truly use the Stride of Earth?”
“Shouldn’t a Taoist master be capable of such techniques? Not merely the Stride of Earth, but the Celestial Eye as well—I command both with ease.”
“I see…”
“Meow! I asked what that even is, Owner!”
Noir wouldn’t understand.
The Stride of Earth.
An ancient Taoist art used by immortals—a technique that compresses distance, allowing one to traverse vast leagues as though they were mere steps.
The Celestial Eye grants vision across a thousand leagues.
And he possessed all of these as skills.
Which meant…
“You’re an S-rank Hunter?”
“Haven’t I told you already? I am a premier Hunter, indeed!”
Yong-jin adjusted his hat with a proud shrug of his shoulders.
But that pride soon crumbled into a dejected voice.
“Yet now I am but an ordinary man…. The inner force that flowed so clearly in the outside world refuses to move at all within the Forbidden Realm, as though completely blocked….”
“Inner force… you mean mana, correct?”
“That is what they call it in the secular world.”
So the reason I can’t use skills right now is because the mana inside his body isn’t moving?
A sudden idea struck me.
That ‘thing’ in the Warehouse.
If I could use that simultaneously with what Chohong is cultivating in the Kitchen Garden, I could definitely solve this problem.
“Tell me clearly. If you can just use mana, there’s no problem at all, right?”
“Indeed! I can say with certainty! If I could only harness my inner force, it would be no difficult feat to rain flowers across this entire Forbidden Realm!”
“I won’t ask what flower rain is. Owner… so there’s a way?”
“Yes. There definitely is.”
Of course, I’d need to make it to be sure, but I couldn’t think of any other method.
“There are two ingredients whose very names suit this person perfectly.”
“Meow? Such things existed?”
“You’ve served all the past Witches, yet you don’t even know that? How can that be?”
“Meow! Do you know how many materials are in the Witch’s House! And ever since Khan arrived, unknown materials have been pouring in endlessly—I can’t even remember them properly!”
Khan likely referred to Mongolia.
The Yuan Dynasty, or rather, the formation of the Mongol Empire, marked when East-West trade flourished.
From the 16th century onward, missionaries became active alongside the Age of Exploration, initiating genuine cultural and academic exchange.
By the 17th century, mutual translation of Eastern and Western classics occurred, and by the 19th century during the Enlightenment period, Western modern culture flowed into the East.
I suspect seeds from somewhere in that era had arrived.
“Yong-jin.”
“What is it?”
“Do you know what a croissant is?”
“I’ve heard of it, but….”
“Let’s have you try one this time.”
Speaking in the style of martial arts novels, I intended to bake a croissant brimming with the essence of spiritual creatures.

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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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