I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 58

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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 58. Unwanted Yet Desperate (2)
“You’re talking about the shop, right?”
“How can you not understand what I’m saying? I mean this. This!”
The Elder straightened her hunched back and pointed toward the ceiling this time.
The meaning was crystal clear.
She was asking if I wanted to buy the building itself.
But why?
Why would she suddenly want to sell a building she’d been managing so well?
Even though I’d expressed desire to expand the shop, I didn’t have the audacity to accept such an offer outright, so I was about to ask for the full story when—
“If you’re interested, contact me! This old woman is busy and needs to go.”
“Oh, wait….”
“No need!”
The Elder opened the door and left without returning.
All that remained was me staring after her in bewilderment, Noir, and….
“Wow… Owner, are you becoming a building owner now?”
Haeryang asked, her eyes wide with surprise, turning toward me.
* * *
“Something like that happened?”
– If something like that happened, you should’ve bought it right away! Maestro! Did you at least find out how much it costs?
“It was so sudden I didn’t even ask.”
– Good grief. Why did I even start this business with someone so simple-minded?
Nuri sighed heavily as she responded to what had happened during the day.
With Gyu-ri’s help, Witch Food’s business didn’t just find a way forward—it soared.
Actually, “soared” doesn’t even do it justice.
The growth was like teleporting thousands of meters into the sky.
But perhaps because of the bitter experience with the Moisture Sprout before,
Nuri said she’d operate the business step by step rather than getting greedy.
While simultaneously declaring she’d grab every benefit she could manage.
– And now hearing something like this, I feel like I’m burning up inside.
“Is it really that bad?”
– That bad, you say?
I held back the sigh that was about to escape, hearing the frustration in Nuri’s voice through the receiver.
I wanted to accept it right away too.
Considering the Elder’s character from what I’d seen so far, she wasn’t the type to deceive anyone for profit.
If I could acquire this building I’m in now, I could not only expand the shop by opening up the vacant space on the first floor, but also create a dedicated office for Witch Food on the upper floors.
Yet there was a reason I couldn’t step forward so readily.
“Something felt off about it.”
– …Does that have something to do with that witch’s power?
“If I had to say, yes.”
Because something dark and murky was clinging to the Elder’s back as she told me to buy the building.
Of course, the effect of the night butter cream bread had made it fade away.
“It was the same kind of aura that the unscrupulous owner who tried to suck the marrow from my bones possessed.”
– Well, if that’s the case, there’s a nagging feeling stuck in a corner of my heart.
Since Nuri had seen my form as Yeon-gi at the Princess Research Complex before, she immediately understood.
If it had been someone else, it would have been difficult to bare my heart like this.
– But you said he wasn’t that kind of person originally, didn’t you?
“That’s exactly why I’m worried and uneasy. Because he’s not that kind of person.”
But the thing clinging to Grandmother’s back was definitely what Noir called karma.
If she wasn’t that kind of person, there could only be one reason it was there.
“Someone gave it to her.”
– If you say someone… who on earth are you talking about?
“I don’t know that either.”
– Good grief. How frustrating.
I felt the same way.
With the Witch’s power, I could see and understand what was happening, but I couldn’t determine the exact sequence of events.
Nuri, knowing this as well, only expressed her frustration and didn’t press me further.
In the midst of the call growing longer and silence stretching on.
– Did I mention that before?
“I won’t know unless you tell me what you’re talking about.”
– I’m talking about my father.
Why was she suddenly bringing up her father?
“No. You never have.”
– Oh my. I thought I’d told you everything when I was practically brought back from the dead… ahem, I guess I didn’t. Anyway, my father, you see… he was actually a Hunter.
“What?”
– Since the Maestro is reacting like this, I really didn’t tell you.
Nuri, suddenly speaking of family matters, went on to elaborate about her father.
Nuri’s Father, who had awakened and gained skills at an age over fifty.
Her father, who had originally been a soldier, threw himself into closing gates as soon as he gained his skills.
– Yes. He was truly a remarkable person. Coming back alive from such dangerous gates.
“He must have been.”
– And then one day, he just went.
Perhaps because of the somber story, the sound of a lighter clicking and the sound of breathing in were heard.
Soon came the sound of exhaling smoke and Nuri’s voice.
– There’s an older brother among my blood relatives, and this rotten bastard swept away all of father’s money and ran off.
Was it because he lost all the money he’d saved his whole life, and on top of that, was shocked by the betrayal from his trusted eldest son?
Nuri’s Father, who had been ailing, one day rose from his sickbed alone and spoke, she said.
– He said he would go to the gate. That was the last time.
“….”
– I’m telling you this in case you worry unnecessarily, but I’m doing just fine. It’s been a long time ago, so what can I do. I just thought you seemed to be worrying about this and that, so I brought it up. Usually when elders are troubled like that, nine times out of ten it’s because of their children.
Now I understood why Nuri had brought up family matters that were difficult to share with others.
I didn’t need to say it like that.
“Thank you.”
-What’re ya thankin’ me fer? I jus’ hope things work out fer the Maestro too. It’d be real nice if a proper office showed up. Hehehehe! That’s all fer now!
The phone disconnected with a click.
The moment I set down the receiver, Noir, who’d been waiting for just this moment, bounded onto the desk and swished his tail as he spoke.
“A sharp deduction. Karma can be created by oneself, but it can also transfer to others. In such cases, those closest become the targets. A spouse, for instance….”
“From what I hear, Grandmother lost her husband quite some time ago.”
“Then the possibility grows even stronger. Meow. If it’s a child’s karma, the parents bear it all the more.”
“What? Why?”
“Even if it’s a sin committed by a child, the parents are the ones who brought that sinful being into existence, aren’t they?”
Noir licked his paw casually as if it were nothing, answering with ease.
But hearing such words, even as someone not directly involved, struck me as deeply unfair and absurd.
Why would the karma of a child’s sins fall upon the parents?
Simply because they gave birth to them?
“That’s not how it works.”
“Meow. Don’t be angry with me, Master. It’s simply that most parents wish to bear the burden of their children’s sins.”
Apparently, among some parents unworthy of the title, there were those who didn’t do such things.
“So the words of the plant-keeper human hold merit, Master.”
“Plant-keeper human? Kim Nu-ri has a name, you know.”
“Meow. Plant-keeper human.”
“You’re the eating-keeper cat.”
“Haaaack! This body is a proud Familier who has served witches for generations, and speaking of that history….”
I heard Noir yowling and whining, but lost in thought, I didn’t really listen.
If everything I’d been thinking so far was true….
No—I desperately hoped it wasn’t true.
But as if betraying my wishes, a cheerful notification sound chimed before my eyes, and a translucent guide window appeared….
Ding!~
[For the Wounded Soul]
▷ Bread is necessary to all, from the lowly to the high. And now, a wounded soul, endlessly sinking, desperately awaits your touch. Though they themselves don’t know it.
▷ Deliver ??? to ??? 0/1
▷ Reward: 1,500 BP
“If it’s come to this, it’s certain….”
“Master. The Witch’s House….”
“I know. You said it moves in ways that benefit me.”
It must be scheming to expand my shop through this incident.
But I decided to think differently.
“Noir. Setting the Quest aside—the Witch’s dealings require a price, don’t they?”
“Meow! Finally the Master comes to his senses! Of course! A price! A price is always right!”
“Then Noir. You’re going to have to help me out.”
“Meow?”
“And you too, Chohong.”
“Meow?”
This task became more advantageous the more people participated, so I’d informed Chohong as well.
Of course, it would be problematic if someone who knew my true identity got involved, so only these two—or rather, these two animals—had volunteered to help.
“This one can do anything if it means my owner becomes a proper witch!”
“That sounds like you’re saying I’m abnormal right now…”
“A slip of the tongue! Please overlook it, Owner! Recognize this one’s loyalty!”
“I understand… then…”
When I explained my plan to Noir, who was appealing to me with such devotion, the creature bounded up and said this.
“Come to your senses! Owner! You really are abnormal!”
“Meow? Meow!”
“Drop it! Chohong! Guiding my owner right now is the duty of this one, your butler! Meooow!”
“Right. Chohong, take good care of things while you’re out.”
Noir, who had been lunging at me, was stopped by Chohong and ultimately went along with my plan.
* * *
Sin Man-ok was a tenacious woman.
She had been a woman.
At least, that’s what she believed about herself.
But the world didn’t see it that way.
The mid-1960s were when economic development was just beginning.
Rice was still scarce, so those were days when one had to make do with barley and sweet potatoes for meals.
Even that could only be obtained by running a sewing machine all night in a dusty warehouse, or by painstakingly implanting human hair strand by strand to make wigs.
That was the world.
Before a woman could be tenacious, she had to stop being a woman.
She had to stop being human.
To come up to Seoul on a whim and work as a maid, to be kicked at on the market floor, to face the wind of a strange city with a bare body—one couldn’t be human.
With her son wailing pitifully in the bundle of cloth strapped to her back, the woman who had lost her husband became a mother.
“That damned brat…”
She worked relentlessly, mending torn socks to wear.
She sent him to school in decent clothes.
Once he started chattering away, he wanted so many things.
When work didn’t bring in enough money, she cut and sold her hair, and she didn’t shy away from selling blood either.
“That wretched brat…”
She didn’t complain about her fingers being so bent they wouldn’t straighten, or about her hunched back keeping her from looking up at the sky.
She didn’t bother mentioning how she would squat in a corner of her tiny room, washing her face in cold water that leaked through, steeling her resolve even when there was nowhere to cry.
Money earned from selling vegetables.
Money earned from selling fish.
Money earned from selling her hair.
Money earned from selling her health.
Money earned from selling her spirit.
Most of them were snatched away by that thing called university.
Still, it was better than having a useless mother, and I was so pleased when he landed a respectable job.
“You foolish creature.”
I raised him so splendidly, but that woman had good eyes and lured him away without a second thought.
My son, who had such a magnificent grandchild just like me, drifted away without a single word of contact.
Nothing remained around me.
A battered body and a single pair of worn rubber shoes.
Perhaps that’s why I exchanged a lifetime of effort stamped in ink on a bankbook for one small building.
To pass that on to him when I died, I would need to see him one last time.
I would be able to see my grandchild’s face, however much he might have grown.
“How could you ruin things so badly when I had so little to give? You stupid, worthless fool….”
My son’s contact reached me eighty-six years into my life.
But it wasn’t his voice I heard.
All that remained were three characters of my son’s name stamped on an auction notice that arrived from the court.
Startled and wondering what had happened, I went around asking here and there before I finally understood.
“Mother. This is a debt your son incurred.”
“What debt could my son possibly have?”
“Your son established a shell company and used your building as collateral. The mortgage lien that’s currently attached….”
That day, one person crumbled.

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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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