I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 63
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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 63. New Changes (1)
The contract was concluded with remarkable swiftness.
The only issue—if it could be called that—was how Grandmother Man-ok had given me the building at such a bargain price it was practically free.
“Grandmother, no matter what, this is too much….”
“Hush and accept it. Here you are, a bachelor running a business, and you can’t seize an opportunity like this?”
Her forceful rebuke left me with no choice but to accept.
And so, overnight, I became a building owner.
Though more than half of it belonged to the bank….
“This is my building….”
“Feeling sentimental?”
“Of course I am.”
But that wasn’t where things ended.
I’d been searching for buildings in the first place to expand the shop.
Because of this, the store had to enter a temporary closure until the interior renovation was completed.
“And that’s not all.”
The building I’d purchased from Grandmother Man-ok was a five-story structure.
It had been completed in the early 2000s, so it had some age, but its sturdiness was a definite advantage.
On the first floor, aside from my shop and one café, everything else was vacant.
The second floor had one sizable hospital operating there.
From the third to fifth floors, residential spaces were arranged.
“Fortunately, there were no issues with expanding the first floor.”
“It’s a good thing when communication goes smoothly.”
The Owner who ran the café heard that I’d become the building owner and said he’d vacate the café.
I had no objections.
He apparently had been planning to close the shop soon anyway, since business had been difficult.
Thanks to that, I was able to proceed with renovations to make the entire first floor our store.
“The Hospital Director on the second floor seemed a bit reserved, but he seemed like a good person.”
“Even I could see that. He’s simply a rather shy individual, wouldn’t you say?”
The Hospital Director, who appeared to be in his mid-to-late thirties, nodded at the news that I’d become the building owner and offered simple words of congratulation.
Beyond that, there wasn’t much to say.
“I’ve entrusted all the construction work, and I’ve announced the temporary closure until the interior renovation is complete….”
“Haven’t you done everything that needed to be done?”
“That’s right. Though some people were disappointed….”
Chae-eun was a prime example.
She, who had been buying a hundred Pumpernickel pastries each month, let out a loud “No way!” the moment she heard about the shop’s closure for renovation.
Eventually, she understood the circumstances and trudged away, her hands laden with boxes overflowing with Pumpernickel pastries.
“I promised to regularly provide Salt Bread to Haeryang.”
“That woman seemed to desperately need Salt Bread.”
“So I made sure to give it to her.”
She had finally emerged from depression and anxiety disorder, drawing closer to the life she’d always pursued.
I couldn’t shatter that happiness just because the shop was expanding.
“So what do we do now….”
“Meow? Don’t we just bake bread?”
“How am I supposed to bake bread? The shop’s in this state.”
“Mrrrow?”
Noir’s eyes widened in surprise at this unexpected turn of events.
What could I do?
When the shop expansion construction was underway, how could I possibly keep just the kitchen untouched?
“Then what do we do!”
“What else? We bake at the Witch’s Cottage.”
“Meow?”
In other words, I’d just turned the tables on Noir, who was always genuinely teasing me every single day.
“Meoow! You startled me! Owner! Hisssss!”
“Ow, ow, ow. I get it! I get it, so stop scratching with your claws!”
“Meoow! This is unforgivable!”
I peeled Noir away as she swung her cat punches wildly, organizing what needed to be done next.
Research on bread and beverages.
That was naturally something I had to do.
But there were just a few things to handle first.
“Let me take care of the Witch Food work, and then we’ll move forward with the pending upgrades too.”
“Sounds good! Owner!”
“Then let’s head home… huh?”
And with perfect timing….
Ding!
[Quest Complete!]
[You have obtained the ‘Special Pound Cake Recipe’.]
[Reward: You have obtained 32,000 BP.]
A new bread recipe had unlocked.
* * *
“Is this really true?”
“Yes, since you’ve experienced it directly, you’ll be able to understand!”
“I didn’t say I didn’t know….”
Miracle let out a bitter smile in response to Gyu-ri’s words, which came with her usual bright smile.
It wasn’t a bitter smile born from displeasure with this situation.
It was simply because even he, the world’s greatest potion craftsman, had tasted an ultimate level of excellence he could never create.
‘Her new bread….’
After clearing the Shipwreck Gate, I’d been doing various outside activities before finally encountering Gyu-ri.
What she pulled out was bread.
Bread she’d laid down in exactly the same quantity as the remaining members of the H&G Guild.
And she had said.
“I met them!”
“Met whom?”
“Yeon-gi!”
“What? How is that….”
Gyu-ri had encountered “Yeon-gi”—the very existence that was both the founding purpose of the H&G Guild and what they’d been searching for.
Because of their characteristic ability to traverse gates freely, we had no idea how to find them, so we’d been buying up all the bread instead.
And what followed was even harder to believe.
“I told them about our guild! And then they gave me this bread!”
“You told them all of that?”
“Ehehe….”
Of course, there had been a condition, she said.
Gyu-ri would actively promote the Subunseo Cheong from Witch Food on a large scale.
We’d been keeping a close eye on Witch Food ever since it suddenly appeared and began utilizing Moisture Sprout, but even Miracle hadn’t known it was Yeon-gi’s creation.
“Anyway, with this, we were able to clear it right away! Everyone, please try some!”
“Then….”
The taste of the pound cake we ate that way was nothing short of rapturous.
The tartness of the berries mingling with the myriad flavors dancing across the palate was enough to sweep away the fatigue that had accumulated throughout the day.
But what Miracle focused on was something else entirely.
“An effect that persists continuously after a single consumption…. This shouldn’t even be possible….”
“Is it that significant?”
“Of course! It far surpasses the limitations inherent in existing potions! I wouldn’t even be overstating it to say the paradigm itself has been overturned!”
Until now, potions had been as limited as they were effective.
Elixirs are universal, but they’re one-time use.
Frankly, if you drank an elixir while only having a minor wound, only that would be healed.
“But this isn’t like that. The baguette that Ha-neul mentioned before, along with the salt bread, were the same way….”
And that wasn’t all.
The baguette that granted Gyu-ri a skill allowed her to use that skill for life, and the salt bread provided complete recovery effects that lasted all day.
And now, a pound cake whose effects persist from the moment you board a ship until you disembark.
“That’s nothing short of revolutionary.”
“I’m interested in something else, though. Did you say Witch Food?”
“Huh? Oh! That’s right! Fog directly told me! It’s a business they’re running in our world!”
“If that’s the case, then for now it’s only Subunseo Cheong, but….”
Wouldn’t this mean that bread and beverages with these kinds of effects will continue to appear one after another?
Ha-neul’s observation was enough to freeze all the H&G Guild members in place.
Groundbreaking bread and beverages created by some method incomprehensible to modern humans.
If those were to be released into the hunter world, gate conquests would accelerate as if they’d sprouted wings.
In a normal case, we’d slap an outrageously high price on it and rake in obscene profits, but….
“The Subunseo Cheong sold at Witch Food is priced at only one million won per 500 milliliters.”
“Are they even making a profit?”
“It’s unknown. We conducted a component analysis, but nothing came out properly.”
“What do you…”
The fact that Maestro, standing at the pinnacle of this field, couldn’t analyze it held great significance.
It meant that Yeon-gi possessed skills superior even to Maestro’s.
“Even what we managed to uncover was merely that purification salt had been used.”
“Pardon? Purification salt?”
The salt mined from the Gangneung Gate commanded astronomical prices in itself, but purification salt was of a different caliber entirely.
It was a precious material that literally purified virtually all impurities.
Moreover, it was the only quantity I had inadvertently obtained upon entering the confectionery.
“You’re… making that judgment based solely on that?”
“Considering only that, it’s practically a gift.”
Of course, they wouldn’t have known.
That Seung-hyun’s Witch’s Cottage warehouse had purification salt piled up like mountains.
So they could only think this way.
“My concern that she might become a dangerous existence seems to have been misplaced.”
“That’s right! Sister Sky! Yeon-gi is a good person, I’m telling you!”
“Otherwise, there would be no reason to go this far for humanity.”
“Just asking on the off chance…”
Seung-hyun, who had been contentedly eating pound cake until now, carefully opened his mouth.
“Could she possibly be an S-rank Hunter who gained tremendous power?”
“The three standing before you right now are S-rank Hunters.”
“It’s a different tier. No matter how S-rank a Hunter is, they don’t possess this level of power.”
“Then… Yeon-gi is the strongest, isn’t she?”
Everyone nodded at Seung-hyun’s words.
In that moment, Yeon-gi, shrouded in mystery—in other words, Seung-hyun—was recognized as the supreme existence against whom even S-rank Hunters could not calculate their chances of victory.
“Oh! That’s right! You said a person would operate the Witch Food instead! That’s why you asked for protection!”
“I’ve already confirmed it. It’s a man named Kim Nu-ri.”
“We’ll send someone from the Blue Dragon guild.”
“We’ll send someone from DragonHill too!”
Following the decision made in Miracle Guild’s guild master’s office, one person each was dispatched from the Blue Dragon Guild and DragonHill Guild.
People who could be absolutely trusted.
* * *
Those who had traveled all the way down to Gongju for the trustworthy guild master (Yu Ha-neul) and the strong yet seemingly fragile guild master (Joo Gyu-ri) found themselves facing each other.
“This must be it.”
Lee Han-ryul, Team 1 Captain of the Blue Dragon Guild, an A-rank Hunter.
“Seems like it.”
Gwak Pil-seong, the Vice Guild Master of DragonHill Guild, who had undergone grueling training to reach B-rank in order to support Gyu-ri, now an S-rank Hunter.
The two arrived at a botanical garden and knocked on the door.
Knock knock!
“Is anyone here?”
“Oh! I’ll be right out! Just a moment!”
Not long after the earthy Chungcheong dialect echoed through the air.
A man appeared with the creaking sound of the door opening, offering a greeting.
“What brings you here….”
Or rather, that’s what I was about to say.
Two men, each towering well over 190 centimeters, their frames composed entirely of muscle.
Not until I saw those two menacing men—with trapezius muscles so massive it was unclear if they even had necks, and forearms thick as tree trunks—did I realize the situation.
“Are you Kim Nu-ri?”
“I don’t know anyone like that! I don’t know ’em!”
It took quite some time for the two Hunters, who tore open the steel door with nothing but raw strength while chasing after Nuri as she fled and shut it behind her, to explain the full circumstances of the matter.
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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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