I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 56

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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 56. The Witch and the Shipwreck (6)
“So what you’re saying, Yeon-gi, is that you want me to promote this?”
“To be precise, it’s Moisture Sprout Aide.”
I’d love to sell pound cake as well, but that’s nearly impossible at the moment.
My Kitchen Garden couldn’t possibly meet the demand from all those Hunters.
Honestly, I could earn a fortune by slapping a premium price on it, but that carries the risk of my identity being exposed.
For now, the wisest choice is to deal with the abundance of Moisture Sprouts scattered throughout Nuri’s Botanical Garden.
“Since the effects are clear, I believe the compensation will be sufficient.”
“That’s true… I have received quite a lot….”
“And may I mention one more thing?”
“Of course! Anything!”
“Didn’t you say you created an organization earlier?”
“The H&R Guild? Yes, yes!”
“My business partner needs protection from your organization.”
Moisture Sprout Aide is currently an item with enough impact to completely overturn the entire Hunter industry.
I’ll continue releasing new products in the future, and I may face the same issues each time.
When something wonderful and unprecedented enters the market, what would people think?
Would they honestly believe that it’s right to pay fair price for goods?
Or….
“Would they think of monopolizing it if the source seemed easy to exploit?”
“But Yeon-gi, you’re definitely not someone easy to exploit, are you?”
“There are circumstances.”
From Gyu-ri’s perspective, I must appear as an incredibly formidable being.
But my true nature is that of a Bakery Owner.
Which means I lack the power to prevent conflicts.
Since I couldn’t state that outright, I spoke around it, but Gyu-ri’s reaction only grew more intense than before.
“Wait! Could it be that you’ve decided not to intervene in our world… or perhaps there are some restrictions placed upon you!”
“Something like that….”
“I knew it!”
It seems an unintended misunderstanding has arisen, but it doesn’t matter.
Surely this won’t cause any problems.
“Anyway… for various reasons, I need someone to help protect my business partner.”
“That person is human… or rather, an ordinary person, right?”
“… Yes.”
I’m not sure what she thinks of this situation.
It was at that moment I believed everything would be resolved this way.
“But I’m not sure if that will work out well….”
“What do you mean?”
I naturally had to ask back at Gyu-ri’s words that suddenly dampened the positive conversation.
“I have to endure eight more months here. On top of that, I must continue consuming mana… The constant fraud has been causing my mana consumption to be severe.”
It’s because of the Gate’s characteristics.
This Gate, named the “Wandering Shipwreck,” continuously emits mana, and its defining feature is that the concentration grows denser, or so Gyu-ri explained.
Because of this, despite being a space where one only needs to endure for one year, the difficulty of clearing it is considered quite challenging, according to what Gyu-ri said.
“You have to deplete all your mana, and since it takes such a long time to sustain, they said you need to undergo a psychological evaluation.”
“Why are you in such a Gate?”
“Isn’t Yeon-gi here too?”
“No….”
“Hehe. I know. You’re strong, unlike me. But someone has to close the Gate, right?”
Is she really a Hunter who was only E-rank until recently?
She speaks as though it’s natural for Hunters to close Gates.
“How much time passes outside for one year here?”
“One day. They said only one day passes outside.”
Exactly one year’s worth of time.
But think about it.
Is there really a reason to endure for a full year?
“Then it seems you could simply stay a bit longer.”
“Pardon?”
“This place exists within the Gate, but it’s not a space that belongs to the Gate.”
The Witch’s Cottage appears within the Gate because of mana’s existence, but that doesn’t mean it’s a space that belongs to the Gate.
Rather, if you think about it, the Witch’s Cottage shares the same timeframe as the real world.
In other words, there’s no need to fill the remaining eight months—the full year—within this Gate.
If Gyu-ri endures for only sixteen hours proportionally within the Witch’s Cottage, the Gate will clear itself.
“So stay a bit longer before you go.”
“Is… is that really okay?”
“It’s the only way to make the trade conditions equal.”
There’s no such thing.
I’m simply offering a favor.
But considering that the Moisture Sprout business will run better if Gyu-ri stays healthy, it’s naturally something I should do.
It doesn’t require much effort anyway.
Still, Gyu-ri herself responded with tears glistening in her eyes as if she’d been moved.
“Th… thank you so much….”
“It’s nothing special.”
“I… I’ll really do my best promoting you!”
“Thank you.”
“And anyone who touches the person you’re in business with—I’ll burn them so thoroughly there won’t even be bones left!”
“No… that’s going too far….”
She seems to be expressing gratitude excessively, but I’ll let it slide.
* * *
Having accepted my proposal, Gyu-ri stayed at the Witch’s Cottage for a while.
She ate the bread I made for her, and drank beverages and coffee as well.
Many things had happened outside during this time.
“This Gate is insane. Truly.”
“It doesn’t really concern the Owner, does it?”
“That doesn’t change the fact that it’s insane.”
As if watching fast-forwarded footage, I witnessed countless phenomena through the window’s shifting scenery.
Waves towering higher than most skyscrapers completely submerged the ship as a matter of course.
Endless Skeletons clawing at the cottage with their sharp bone fingers was equally commonplace.
“I understand that much, but isn’t this going too far?”
Amid torrential rain, a colossal tentacle extended from the sea.
Each one was grotesquely covered with countless suckers, revealing it to be the limb of an octopus.
The only issue was its size.
“That would be a Kraken, Owner.”
“I know.”
“How could you know? Most say they only dwell in the deepest abysses of vast oceans!”
Well, an octopus of that magnitude could hardly be anything but a Kraken.
The creature, undulating grotesquely, raised its tentacles onto the deck and destroyed all the tattered masts with mere movements.
It also crushed the Skeletons that had been writhing above, attempting to invade the Witch’s Cottage.
“Still, we can’t let it destroy things this far.”
“Kyuuu… Kyuu!”
“Don’t worry, Chohong. The Kitchen Garden belongs to the Witch’s Cottage too.”
I eased Chohong’s concerns after she came to visit me, having finished her garden work.
Even with the Kraken rampaging like this, our Kitchen Garden would remain intact.
“How much longer remains, Owner?”
“It’ll be over soon.”
In any case, the reason I was watching outside the window and keeping time was none other than to gauge the right moment for Gyu-ri to venture out.
“Is it alright to conquer it this way?”
“As long as we conquer it somehow, isn’t that what matters?”
“That’s true, but… it feels too easy…”
The person in question harbored doubts about whether this was right.
I understood her confusion.
From her perspective, having prepared to endure an entire year against wind and rain, disease and cold, hunger and enemy attacks and fierce waves, something felt decidedly wrong.
“Warm… delicious bread… and just resting for a day… it feels like that…”
Gyu-ri stood slightly apart from us, gazing at the window’s chaos—the hardships she was meant to face, now distant and removed.
But this too wouldn’t last much longer.
The sixteen hours were nearly complete.
“You’ll need to leave soon.”
“Yes. I know. Thank you for letting me rest!”
“Be careful. Though it’s only been seconds here, it will be hours there.”
“That’s nothing. Thanks to Yeon-gi, I haven’t consumed any mana at all.”
Indeed, considering the mana Gyu-ri possessed, she might not only incinerate the entire Kraken but evaporate the sea itself.
Of course, it’s not really my concern.
“You must keep your promise once you leave.”
“Of course. Absolutely. I’ll definitely keep it!”
She opens the gate with a bright smile.
Soon after, Gyu-ri’s figure crossed the boundary recognized as the Witch’s Cottage and vanished rapidly.
She transformed like living flames, then began incinerating everything around her with fire.
The Kraken, which had been acting as if it were the only thing in the world until moments ago, became a perfectly cooked takoyaki in an instant.
“That’s incredible….”
“The Owner could become like that too.”
“I just didn’t want to fight.”
A few seconds passed like that.
The scenery outside the window gradually blurred.
The Witch’s Cottage, having determined it had completed its task, appeared to be relocating to another Gate.
With Gyu-ri’s figure seeming to turn back toward me one last time, the scenery outside the window transformed.
“With this, I don’t need to worry about Moisture Sprout anymore.”
It was a moment when another connection relieved all the worries it carried.
* * *
To sum it up, Gyu-ri kept her promise.
After clearing the Gate and holding a press conference, she said this immediately.
[Witch Food’s Subunseo Cheong was incredibly helpful!]
The aftermath was tremendous.
Orders flooded in like a tidal wave.
And inquiries poured in as well.
The website Nuri had created had long since crashed, and at least every South Korean citizen became interested in what exactly Subunseo Cheong was.
What they discovered was….
“Probably nothing.”
“Meow? How could there be nothing? These days, you can find almost anything by searching on YouTube, right?”
Noir, settling beside me, lay down lazily and swished his tail.
And I was also enjoying a moment of rest beside him, lost in thought.
Today was the Bakery’s day off—Monday.
Anyway, what was Noir asking about?
“That’s obvious. You need purifying salt to properly cultivate Moisture Sprout.”
“But wasn’t it already known that it could be cultivated?”
“It’s also known that it wasn’t properly cultivated.”
So the self-proclaimed internet detective squad would inevitably face difficulties.
How could Moisture Sprout, which had clearly failed commercialization, be released as a hunter product with such tremendous effects?
All that interest translated into purchases.
“And the response was excellent.”
A product that Joo Gyu-ri, one of the few S-rank Hunters in South Korea, directly said was “incredibly helpful”—not mere promotion.
That alone was enough to inspire trust, but the subsequent reviews that followed set that trust ablaze.
– What on earth is this? It doesn’t make any sense?
– First of all, it doesn’t require water. We’ve completely solved the problem of always having expedition restrictions due to drinking water.
– Don’t buy it and you’re an idiot.
Thus, all manner of questions and curiosities quickly transformed into interest, and thanks to that, Witch Food began experiencing sales that were absolutely insane.
‘Good heavens! This is driving me absolutely mad! With inventory this massive, I have no idea how I’m supposed to manage all of it by myself!’
The fact that Nuri was laughing breathlessly while saying this told me everything I needed to know.
When I discreetly checked my bank account, I could confirm that we’d generated sales in the hundreds of millions within just a few days.
“That’s it.”
“What do you mean, Owner?”
“Noir. We have somewhere to go.”
“Meow? Suddenly? On this precious day off?”
Noir made it obvious that she didn’t want to go out, but there was no helping it.
Now that things had come this far, there was no reason to hesitate.
“Let’s go look at some commercial spaces.”
It was time for me to have a larger bakery.

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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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