I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 54

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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 54. The Witch and the Shipwreck (4)
A statement that left my mind reeling.
How many months had she been here?
Yet she appeared remarkably intact for someone in such circumstances, didn’t she?
Was this the power of an S-rank Hunter?
To endure four months in this environment and maintain such a condition?
“Why do you ask?”
“Because Hunters seem truly remarkable.”
“Though isn’t Yeon-gi even more impressive than me?”
“Yeon-gi?”
“Ah, we weren’t sure what to call her in our group, so we decided on Yeon-gi. Hehe. Anyway, for these four months I’ve been on the deck, but Yeon-gi came up from the sea, didn’t she?”
According to Gyu-ri, who had lived here for the past four months, the Witch’s Cottage had suddenly emerged from the sea.
And not long after, she saw me open the Door and come out to pick ripened vegetables from the Garden.
“Honestly, I was deliberating after seeing that before I came in. Hehe.”
“Ah… I see.”
“But what were you trying to ask?”
“Have you experienced any sense of lethargy or weakness?”
“Of course I have. I’m supposed to be in this place for a year.”
Her obvious answer left me speechless.
But I still had another question to ask.
“Have you noticed any red spots appearing on your body?”
“Huh? How did you know? They appeared occasionally, but they disappeared whenever I circulated my mana.”
“That answers my question. Please wait a moment.”
“Oh… I mean, the meal is fine though…”
Since she was obviously hungry, I didn’t listen to the rest and returned to the Kitchen.
As soon as I returned, Noir, who had been waiting for me, asked.
“Owner, why did you ask about that anyway?”
“There’s a disease that anyone living on a ship will inevitably contract. And the fact that she’s only been circulating mana means she’s just kept her body in a healthy state.”
To put it simply, mana serves as fuel for the body.
So it will keep functioning somehow, but it can’t prevent or resolve the damage to consumable resources.
However, the method to cure this disease was surprisingly simple.
“So what is this simple method, Owner?”
“This.”
“Isn’t this a Steel Berry!”
“Yes. It’s supposedly a cure-all. And this too.”
What I pulled out were the Steel Berries I’d received earlier and Moisture Sprouts.
Both fruits were characterized by their tartness and high moisture content.
Yes, the crucial element here was the tartness.
“It’s scurvy—a disease solved simply by loading the body with vitamin C.”
From my earlier examination, Gyu-ri was already suffering from lethargy.
Moreover, the appearance of red spots indicated that subcutaneous hemorrhaging had already occurred multiple times.
However, thanks to her skill in defending against and recovering from physical damage—Ash’s Shroud—the process hadn’t become visibly apparent.
But the lethargy was advancing steadily nonetheless.
“I tried some earlier, and both the Steel Berries and Moisture Sprouts were definitely sweet and tangy—really good.”
Steel Berries that tasted like a blend of strawberries and bananas.
And Moisture Sprouts that could generously replenish any water deficit.
This combination would make for an excellent feast aboard a ship.
“So I understand you’ll be using both ingredients. The question is what kind of bread you’re planning to make. Owner.”
“I’ve thought about that too.”
This was the sea.
And my companion was someone who hadn’t returned to familiar shores with her crew for four months.
In that case, it would be best to make bread that she could never eat aboard a ship like this.
Especially since she’d have to endure eight more months, so if it could be preserved, that would be ideal.
“In times like these, pound cake is the answer.”
Pound cake.
One of the foundational and classic breads in baking, it emphasizes the inherent flavors of ingredients and skill over elaborate techniques.
“The recipe is straightforward and simple from the start.”
The name “pound” itself comes from the fact that it’s made by adding one pound each of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter.
Because of this simple preparation method, it’s often favored for home baking, but…
“It’s equally difficult to make perfectly.”
Since few ingredients go into it, properly showcasing those ingredients becomes all the more important.
If you mishandle it even slightly, the ingredients essentially declare ‘then I’ll just spoil!’ and that’s what happens.
“And I’m planning to dry these Steel Berries and add them in.”
Preventing scurvy was crucial, so these berries had to be included.
This meant there were more things to be careful about.
“But Owner, no matter how much longer pound cake keeps compared to other breads, isn’t it still only about a month? Didn’t you say that woman needs to stay here for eight more months?”
“There’s a way to handle that too, so don’t worry. Let’s start making it first.”
Before mixing the dough, I first had to prepare the Steel Berries that would go inside.
Using a nutcracker, I could crack open the steel-like shell and extract the kernels within.
Pale flesh with a soft pink hue.
It was delicious eaten plain, but…
“If I did that, the bread would turn to mush.”
So I needed to dry them first.
Normally I would have taken time to dry them thoroughly, but this was the Witch’s Cottage.
“With an oven here, there’s no need to waste time.”
An oven isn’t used only for baking bread.
As I focused my sincerity while imagining the state I desired, the oven even dried fruit for me.
Truly, the power of a witch is magnificent.
“The condition is perfect.”
The Steel Berries had dried and shrunk in an instant, their color now deeper and more concentrated.
I popped one into my mouth, and the concentrated sweetness and tartness filled my palate completely.
If I used it as-is, the flavor would be far too intense to blend harmoniously.
“That’s why I prepared this.”
“Meow? Isn’t this rum? Where did you get this from, Owner?”
“Where else? I brought it from the bakery—it’s something I use fairly often when baking.”
It might sound strange to use alcohol in baking, but rum is actually far more useful than one might think.
First, dried fruit naturally produces a concentrated sugar flavor, but when you dilute it with rum, you can draw out deeper, more complex notes from the oak-barrel character it carries.
Is that all?
The lingering essence of sugarcane that remains during the baking process can actually complement the butter, which might otherwise taste cloying.
“And since we’re using a high-proof distilled spirit, it also prevents microorganisms from proliferating inside the cake.”
After soaking the dried steel berries in rum with gentle splashes, I’d remove them after about fifteen minutes and squeeze them firmly—they’d become wonderfully tender as a bonus.
“Next comes the batter.”
Normally I’d start by sifting flour through a sieve, but pound cake is different.
This is a bread that requires an excessive amount of butter compared to others.
Because of this, layers can form between the oil-rich butter and the moisture-rich eggs.
When that happens, after baking you end up with the worst possible texture—dry, tough, and greasy all at once.
But the solution is simple.
“You just need to bring both to around twenty degrees.”
I placed butter prepared at about twenty degrees into a bowl, melted it, then divided the sugar into two or three portions and stirred it in to create a butter cream.
Then I added the eggs I’d prepared and loosened beforehand, incorporating them quickly in small amounts while mixing.
This way, everything blends evenly without any opportunity for layers to form.
After that, I add the flour and the dried steel berries.
“But you can’t just add them carelessly here either.”
Sifting flour through a sieve before adding it is so obvious to bakers that I’ll skip explaining that.
But you can’t just scatter dried fruit about thoughtlessly either.
If you do, gravity will cause all the fruit to sink to the bottom during baking.
If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with just bread on top as intended, while the bottom becomes a dried-fruit paradise.
“In cases like this, you need to roll the dried fruit in flour like this.”
“I’ve heard of this before. The flour acts as an adhesive this way.”
“You know your stuff.”
The pound cake batter created this way.
Well, it’s actually awkward to even call it batter, given everything I’ve done so far.
There’s no fermentation process or anything like that.
All that’s left is to put it in the oven and bake.
“…or so one would normally think.”
“Meow?”
[The oven begins operation.]
“Can we eat the bread now, Owner?”
Noir came scurrying over immediately, already positioning herself to snatch even a single bite.
The Witch’s Oven lets me set the time as I wish, and the results follow my intentions just the same, after all.
But unfortunately, not yet.
“Meow? Why isn’t it coming out?”
“Ah. I didn’t shorten the baking time.”
“Meow? Why would you do that?”
“Do you know what’s most important in a pound cake?”
It’s the belly button.
You might wonder what kind of bread has a belly button, but I’m not lying.
By belly button, I mean the convex part that forms as the bread bakes.
“Usually people call it a crack.”
“But isn’t that a phenomenon that appears equally in all breads? When the outside is baked and the inside rises as it cooks, of course the outside cracks.”
“That’s true. But for pound cake, even that becomes a distinctive feature.”
Perhaps because it uses fewer ingredients and has such a neat rectangular shape.
Human aesthetics have inevitably extended to the pound cake’s crack—its belly button.
“So I was going to bake it for about ten minutes, then take it out again.”
“What on earth are you trying to do?”
“What do you mean?”
Ding!
The oven finishes with a cheerful chime.
Putting on gloves and pulling out the tray reveals an appetizingly baked pound cake.
But that’s only the surface.
The inside still isn’t fully baked.
“At that point, I oil the knife… and like this…”
I make a long, clean cut down the center, then start the oven again to bake it completely.
The pound cake that comes out is…
[Pound Cake]
▷ A perfect pound cake born through precise measurement and meticulous baking. The defensive characteristics of steel berries shine through beautifully. It contains sincere care for sailors.
▷ Effects
① Upon consumption, nullifies status abnormalities during one ship boarding
② Upon consumption, nullifies water-type attacks during one ship boarding
“It has two effects?”
This had never happened before.
Of course, bread infused with the Witch’s power had always exceeded expectations, but only with one effect.
This was the first time I’d created something with two such significant effects.
“You’ve grown a bit more. Owner. Or rather, I’d say you’ve become more accustomed.”
“Accustomed? To the Witch’s power?”
“Yes. Infusing the Witch’s power into bread is also part of the Witch’s capability.”
Hearing Noir’s words, I realized this result was possible because I’d become more skilled at wielding the Witch’s power.
Until now, I could only use the same amount of power for a single effect manifestation, but now I could consciously divide it to grant multiple effects.
“Then as I become more accustomed and stronger, the total amount of power increases, so my options become even greater?”
“Meow. Precisely, Owner. Additionally, depending on what ingredients you use, the direction of sincerity can also be determined. Human hearts are influenced by the subconscious, after all.”
In fact, that was the case this time as well.
I hadn’t intentionally imbued it with two effects.
What I wanted was Gyu-ri’s safe Gate clear.
My sincere desire for that manifested as status abnormality nullification, but the unconscious wish of “don’t get hurt” that arose while using the Steel Berry must have created the other effect.
“So that’s why the Warehouse had all sorts of strange materials.”
“Indeed. Just as the Previous Witches did, the Owner must also conduct research on materials.”
“That certainly seems important.”
Both in terms of effects and for diversifying the taste, wouldn’t I need to experiment with various things?
First, with Nuri and Chohong’s help, I should cultivate several crops in the Kitchen Garden.
Of course, for now I need to focus on what needs to be done immediately.
“Shall we slice it now?”

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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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