I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 53

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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 53. The Witch and the Shipwreck (3)
“So I still don’t understand, Owner. Why is being hungry something shameful and disgraceful?”
“We’ve talked about this plenty of times.”
“Hunger is a natural thing. It’s proof and evidence that one is alive. I cannot fathom why you react that way. Meow.”
Noir speaks while watching Gyu-ri sitting outside, calmly licking her front paws.
Ah, all the previous Witches.
Does this child truly understand what human emotions are?
“That’s exactly why we need to try harder.”
“Meow? Why did the conversation suddenly shift like that?”
“We’re the Bakery Owner, aren’t we? But we left the person in front of us hungry.”
In truth, it makes no sense.
I didn’t starve her.
But I couldn’t just leave Noir alone, meowing in protest about not being convinced while baking bread.
I had to convince her no matter what.
“So really, we’re the ones who should be ashamed. Because we failed to fulfill the Bakery Owner’s duty!”
“But Owner. Isn’t the Bakery Owner you, not this one?”
“You’re my Familier. Let’s consider us as one.”
“How arbitrary.”
In any case, despite my words, Noir seemed to accept it since she also enjoyed the act of making bread.
Though it did appear she was more focused on eating the bread I made rather than making it.
“So what kind of bread are you thinking of making, Owner?”
“I need to think about it from now on.”
“Meow? You didn’t even think about it and yet you’ve been building suspense like this? Honestly, it seems quite pathetic…”
“There’s just too much I can do.”
Ever since the Kitchen Garden was newly born, ingredients became abundant.
Nuri’s advice always became flesh and blood to me, and Chohong’s energy helped the plants always remain sturdy.
“And on top of that, the Witch’s Cottage’s abilities are incredible. Right?”
I spoke while opening the side door in the Kitchen and stepping out to where the Kitchen Garden was.
Just as I’d seen before, fruits hung plump and ripe, and grains bore thick, full kernels.
Who could imagine such miraculous land where crops from every season could be cultivated fresh?
“The fact that this is on a shipwreck.”
Splash~ Splaaash~
Whoooooosh~
The fact that it’s on a shipwreck with a typhoon raging madly and rain pouring down.
“The scenery is truly remarkable.”
The creaking shipwreck, groaning mournfully, had nothing intact at first glance.
The wood was completely stripped of paint and waterlogged from drifting on the sea for who knows how long, and the masts were all broken with tattered cloth hanging from them.
Moreover, no matter how much I looked around, all I could see was the sea with fierce wind and storms raging—nothing else.
It was truly a shipwreck in the middle of the vast ocean.
But…
“I don’t feel any shaking at all.”
“Isn’t that what the Owner desires? The Witch’s Cottage manifests whatever the Witch wishes, to the fullest extent possible. Meow.”
Though the ship was clearly swaying on the sea, I felt no vibration or tremor whatsoever.
Instead, the world around me appeared to be spinning wildly in a vortex.
If not for this cottage’s consideration… I would already be feeding the fish, wouldn’t I?
“Such things are possible? That’s incredible…”
“Meow. The Witch’s power is boundless, Owner.”
“But how did Gyu-ri even manage to enter a place like this…?”
The environment itself is absurd.
Moreover, looking over there, whether it’s a concept based on a shipwreck or not, skeletons dressed in tattered pirate garb are moving about, their bones clattering.
It’s clearly a dangerous Gate at first glance.
“By human standards, she’s become an S-rank Hunter. If that’s the case, she should handle this with ease. So rather than worrying about such things, focus on what bread to make, Owner.”
“I’m already thinking about it.”
“Then I’ll help you think faster. Meow!”
Ding
[The answer is already determined, so you…]
▷ There are occasionally people who don’t know what desires they hold. Or rather, quite a few. A skilled Witch must recognize through honed experience and perspective the yearnings that these people themselves don’t know they possess.
▷ Objective: Deliver ??? and ??? to Joo Gyu-ri, ???, ???, ??? 0/1
“Does this mean there are four people who need to receive something this time?”
“Didn’t that happen before? When that strong ice woman came.”
“That’s true, but it wasn’t specified like this back then.”
“That’s because back then, the Witch’s Cottage judged that none of them were strongly connected by fate to the Owner.”
It seems I’m only recognized as a target when my act of baking bread changes someone’s fate, or creates a strong connection between us as a result.
Now that I think about it, back then only the number counter in the back had increased.
“So the BP given as compensation is also because their fates are destined to be strongly connected?”
“Correct. As I’ve mentioned before, the amount of BP represents how much you can overturn existing fate… Meow-owwww! What kind of BP is this?!”
Noir didn’t even finish speaking before letting out a shriek and leaping up with fur standing on end.
It was inevitable.
I was thinking the exact same thing at this very moment.
[Reward: 32,000 BP]
The amount of BP offered as a reward was on an entirely different scale from anything before.
“This can’t be… this can’t be right!”
Noir’s body began trembling violently, then she spun around to face me and spat out words like a bullet.
“Tell me straight! Owner!”
“Tell you what straight?”
“Could it be… I don’t want to believe it, but surely you’re not planning a massacre, are you?”
“What? What massacre?”
“A massacre! A massacre!”
My common sense has run away, and now it’s tap-dancing, only to appear twenty years later in a biography of eccentrics as a street tap-dancing master.
What massacre could I possibly be thinking about?
But Noir’s eyes as he asked were sincere, and there was even a hint of fear in his expression….
“What on earth are you doing?”
“Th-This much BP! This is the level the Previous Witch had when she was plotting a massacre! So tell me quickly!”
Now he leaped right onto my head and started throwing cat punches while demanding answers.
Unable to deal with his urgent desperation, I barely managed to pry him off and spoke.
“No! There’s nothing like that! Nothing!”
“Really?”
“I’m telling you, do I look like someone who would be thinking such things?”
“Hmm… certainly….”
After I explained it that way, the creature seemed to accept it.
After scrutinizing my face carefully for a long while and letting out a heavy sigh, he said this.
“An Owner who never dated and only baked bread her whole life, and still only thinks about baking bread now—there’s no way she’d think like that.”
“That’s true, but it hurts and annoys me.”
“I apologize for speaking the truth, Owner.”
“Your apology is going in the wrong direction.”
The misunderstanding with Noir turned out to be just a simple incident, but ultimately I couldn’t find the reason why the BP was so high.
I asked because the major shift in fate felt unsettling, but Noir only answered like this.
“The Witch’s Cottage seeks to alter fate in the direction the Owner desires. Then wouldn’t it be that what the Owner wants will be achieved through this incident?”
I let go of my worries there.
I’m not the type of person who enjoys seeing someone die or get hurt.
Then what remains now is one thing.
“I just need to think about what bread and beverages to make.”
“You have no concerns about who to give them to?”
“The Greedy One, Yu Ha-neul, Park Jun-hyeong.”
Ding!
[Objective: Deliver ???, ??? to Joo Gyu-ri, The Greedy One, Yu Ha-neul, Park Jun-hyeong 0/1]
“How did you know?”
“I’ve already heard about it.”
Earlier, Gyu-ri had told me something.
That the people who had received bread from me formed a group together.
And there are only four Hunters who have received bread from me.
The number of question marks matches exactly, so there’s nothing else to think about.
“And now I actually understand why the BP was set at that level.”
“Why is that?”
“They’re all remarkable people.”
Right now, Gyu-ri is being evaluated as a newly emerged S-rank in South Korea and is receiving the spotlight from all media as a rising star.
The Greedy One is the one who created the Elixir.
“Yu Ha-neul, the Guild Master of South Korea’s number one guild, goes without saying, and from what I saw on the news, Seung-hyun recently joined the Blue Dragon Guild.”
“So they’re all people considered remarkable in human society, is that it?”
“That’s about right.”
The more famous a person is, the greater the ripples their actions create.
With four such individuals involved, fate shifts whether one wishes it or not.
“Then I suppose now I should focus on what bread and beverages to create.”
“Do you have an idea?”
“I’m starting to get a sense of something.”
A relentless tempest raging overhead.
And upon it, a lone ship drifting adrift.
Along with the steel berries that Chohong had carefully selected earlier, claiming they were perfectly ripe.
“That’s it. That would be perfect.”
Following the intense inspiration that flashed through my mind, I hurried my steps toward the house.
More precisely, toward Gyu-ri, who sat in a chair muttering something to herself while cooling down alone.
“Gyu-ri?”
“No matter what, she shouldn’t have screamed like that in that situation… What if I’ve been branded with a strange image? Then my future plans would….”
“Gyu-ri!”
“Everything is… Kyaaah! Y-yes, yes!”
I had no idea what she’d been muttering about.
But what I wanted to ask was something else entirely, so I didn’t pay it much mind.
“Do you know exactly where this Gate is?”
“Ah! This is the ‘Wandering Wreck’ Gate that appeared in Incheon’s Sorae Port! Uniquely, the clear condition is to endure.”
“Endure?”
“Yes! The flow of time differs between inside and outside, so if you survive for one year inside, it automatically clears!”
Gates with such unusual clear conditions did exist from time to time.
In this case, it seemed the condition was to endure for a certain period inside.
Of course, it’s not as simple as just enduring.
It’s essentially the same as being thrown into the middle of a desert and told to survive.
“What problems does it have?”
“If I had to say, monsters spawn endlessly even after you defeat them? The shortage of food and water is also a major issue.”
“How have you managed to survive until now?”
“I’ve been using mana. Despite appearances, my mana reserves rank among the top hunters. That’s why I entered this Gate alone.”
Indeed, a mere tempest couldn’t slow down an S-rank hunter.
And the rain, wind, and cold posed no problem with her skills.
The endlessly spawning monsters would burn away the moment they approached Gyu-ri, so what could be the issue?
On top of that, she’d even reduced the necessity for food and water to extremes by utilizing her naturally abundant mana reserves.
“Still, one year is quite harsh.”
“It is, isn’t it? But now I only need to do it two more times as long as I’ve already endured!”
“Two more times?”
“Yes! I’ve completed four months out of the twelve, so I have eight months left!”

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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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