I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 72

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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 72. The Girl Holds a Needle (2)
“Have you contacted that gardener? Owner?”
“The gardener… you mean Nuri? Yeah, I just called her. But do me a favor—just one thing. You keep changing how you address me.”
“That is the nature of this one’s heart, Owner. Meow.”
Noir bounded onto the desk beside me and settled into a loaf position.
Chohong fluttered down and perched on his head.
Munching on a piece of castella cake the whole time.
“Gora gora?”
“Kyuu! Kyuu kyuu!”
“Gora? Gora.”
Gora, my junior, had tried to strike up a conversation, but Chohong’s face flushed crimson and she turned away huffily.
Gora simply shrugged with a bewildered expression.
They really should be getting along better.
“Anyway, Gora. Can you show me?”
“Gora!”
After finishing the task, Gora returned to palm-sized form, her icing-drawn eyes squinting as her body trembled.
Then she stuck herself firmly to my hand.
[Would you like to share the vision of summoned creature ‘Gora’?]
“Of course.”
The moment I consented, my vision split.
Like watching two monitors at once—one side showed the Witch’s Cottage through my own eyes, while the other revealed a dimly lit room.
Each time the vision shifted, I heard the rustling sound of pastry being kneaded, suggesting the connection was working well.
“Wow… that’s incredible…”
“A summoned creature with remarkable abilities, Owner.”
“Kyuu kyuu…”
“Gora!”
Everyone reacted in their own way.
But soon I focused on what Gora was transmitting.
Something was moving in that room.
Scratch scratch
The sound of a pencil writing on paper.
I’d thought it was a dark room, but I realized that wasn’t quite right.
A faint glow of light.
It had only seemed dark because Dayeon, sitting in the chair, was blocking it.
“What time is it?”
“Meow? Probably around 2 AM, Owner.”
“She’s really working hard…”
If a high school student was still awake moving a pencil around, it had to be studying.
Jinjeonyang, stationed there, seemed to understand this too, settling in carefully and simply observing.
“Nothing particularly unusual, is there? Owner?”
“Sigh… I suppose so…”
“Honestly, I wish we’d stopped here. An adult man peeping at a high school girl at two in the morning… it’s not going to end well socially.”
“The way you phrase it makes it sound so trashy… wait. Hold on.”
Ignoring Noir, who had instantly transformed the person trying to help into something despicable, I focused harder on what I could see.
Something felt off about her using a pencil.
Whether left-handed or right-handed, one only uses a single hand to wield a pencil.
Yet both of Dayeon’s shoulders were moving up and down.
“Is she crying? Gora, can you show me the front?”
“Gora? Gora gora. Gora!”
Jinjeonyang crept forward at Gora’s command.
With movements so light it was hard to believe she was made of cookies, she bounded up the furniture and positioned herself behind the bookshelf, clearing my line of sight.
And what I saw was…
“Noir, would you still say that now?”
“…”
“Kyuu… kyuu kyuu…”
Noir fell silent while Chohong rubbed her eyes, wiping away tears of pity.
What Jinjeonyang’s eyes revealed was Dayeon, desperately trying to hold together her torn school uniform.
Snip.
The way she cut the thread with scissors after using it all up showed this was no amateur’s work.
Looking closer, there wasn’t a single intact spot on her uniform.
And beside her lay a gym uniform that appeared to already be mended.
It too was stained in various places as if something had been spilled all over it.
“…”
We all fell silent.
Not merely because of the shocking sight.
Her eyes.
There was nothing reflected in Dayeon’s eyes.
No despair, no sadness, no anger—no emotion whatsoever.
Just emptiness.
It was resignation, pure and simple.
From the moment she set down her uniform until she finished mending the gym clothes, nothing inhabited Dayeon’s gaze.
“Shouldn’t we do something?”
Even Noir, who rarely reacted to human affairs, spoke these words.
Sensitive Chohong, who had been reluctant about Gora moments before, was now nestled against her and crying profusely.
Gora trembled, shrinking down as she debated whether to pick up the hammer she could no longer grip.
“Right. We need to do something fast…”
– That was really strange today.
Through Jinjeonyang’s perfectly baked ears came Dayeon’s voice.
– I can’t believe I found them there. Yes, that teacher I mentioned before. It was them.
Dayeon was speaking to someone about me.
* * *
I tapped on my completely shattered phone, and the time came into view.
Just past 2 AM.
Since today ended early, it seemed I hadn’t been tormented as much as usual.
Or perhaps I was simply growing accustomed to it day by day.
Maybe it had just become another routine part of my day.
Tap.
I set down the fully mended gym clothes and stared blankly at the empty desk before me.
Could I place something I actually wanted to do on this surface?
It seemed I once had something I wanted to do.
Back in elementary school, I’m sure I did, but now I can’t remember.
I’ve felt the weight of things I didn’t want to do far more often than I’ve counted the things I wanted to accomplish.
Still….
“Today was really strange.”
I was certain it would be exactly like yesterday.
And in many ways, it was.
Right after arriving at school, I had to erase the traces of torment scattered throughout, and the moment people arrived, I had to endure their indifference and cruelty.
During class, during breaks, during lunch—it never stopped.
Endless messages flooding the group chat.
The only place I could escape to was the bathroom at the far end of the classroom.
That’s where I discovered it, sitting there passing the time.
“I never thought I’d find him there. That’s right. The teacher I mentioned before. It was him.”
It was back in fourth grade.
They said I had to choose one after-school class, but since I forgot to sign up, I ended up in a baking class.
The teacher I saw there.
“Now that I think about it, he probably wasn’t even a real teacher.”
He was probably just someone the school hired.
But among all the teachers I’d experienced so far, none of them had ever encouraged me.
The baking class teacher was different.
He waited, and he always encouraged me.
Perhaps because he wasn’t good at lying, whenever the dough went wrong, his face would show complete bewilderment.
“But he always said, ‘Let’s try again and do it well.'”
In Teacher Seung-hyun’s class, there was no such thing as failure.
There were only challenges to create satisfying results, and nothing but that process itself.
I really loved that about it.
With no failure, there was no mistake.
With no mistake, there was no criticism.
With no criticism, there was no malice disguised as judgment.
The malice of being an orphan without parents—it didn’t exist in that class.
“I really loved Teacher Seung-hyun. Just like I said before. I really did.”
But why was that?
Why did she speak alone in a quiet room?
As if conversing with someone.
“Right? You said so before.”
– That’s right. I remember.
A voice coming from somewhere.
She was truly having a conversation.
Lately, she could only survive thanks to this one voice.
A voice that had suddenly begun appearing since early this year.
That voice had brought Dayeon much comfort.
It kept her company and affirmed her memories.
– Don’t you think it was good that you reached out?
“Yes. You’re right. It was good that I contacted him.”
Actually, at first she hadn’t intended to reach out.
Not until the voice suggested it.
It was thanks to that courage that had somehow welled up inside her that she sent the message first.
“I was able to meet him. We met.”
– That’s right. You worked hard. You were brave. You did well, dear.
“He was just as I remembered.”
When Seung-hyun appeared after so long, he was exactly as Dayeon remembered him.
Baking bread for an old connection from five years ago, and having so much he wanted to say but holding back out of consideration for her.
“The bread was delicious too…”
The cream bread tasted wonderful, and the castella was equally delicious.
She felt she could eat nothing but that for the rest of her life.
For some reason, when she ate it, her heavy shoulders felt lighter.
“That must be because you bake so well. You were always like that before. Teacher Seung-hyun’s bread was really, really delicious.”
– ….
“And it was strange on the way home too.”
On the way home, her legs gave out and she fell.
But she didn’t get hurt.
There was no blood, and it didn’t hurt.
As if her body had become incredibly strong.
“Today was truly a lucky day.”
– … Dayeon?
“And there was something else…”
– Yeom Da-yeon.
The authoritative voice that spread through her ears made Dayeon’s body tremble.
It was always a warm and welcoming voice until now.
But soon, as if that were Dayeon’s misunderstanding, the voice spoke again softly.
– Dayeon. That’s not what’s important right now, is it?
“Huh?”
– What matters now, child, is that you’re suffering.
My joy plummeted into an abyss in an instant.
She was right.
Painfully, undeniably right.
Even so, nothing in her life would change.
Tomorrow, I’d wake up and have to erase the traces all over again.
– You’ll be beaten again, bullied again, swayed by adults saying it was just a joke. Isn’t that so?
“….”
– Child. Running away won’t solve anything. Haven’t I always told you? About the way to resolve this.
“But….”
The Voice had always whispered to me about a way to resolve this situation.
That method was utterly captivating, and absolutely certain.
But I couldn’t choose that path.
That’s how I was taught.
No matter what….
“I can’t kill people….”
– Child. But at this rate, you’re going to die.
“That’s….”
– You know best what’s already piling up. Don’t you?
My hands trembled violently.
That too was the truth.
I’d reached my limit in enduring this.
I’d held on and held on, until I carved away at myself, even abandoned myself, yet it wasn’t enough.
Those children would always find something to take from me.
But what else could they possibly take from me when nothing remained?
– Why nothing? You gained something today.
“Gained something?”
– Your precious memories, connections, moments. You gained them again today.
Chills ran down my spine.
No, this is mine.
Why must I lose this too?
– Yes, that’s it.
“It’s mine…. But how….”
– That’s why I told you earlier.
The Voice was smiling brightly at me in this very moment.
– Kill them all. I’ll give you the strength.
For some reason, Da-yeon felt it then.
* * *
“Really, I need to resolve this quickly.”
“You’re right, Owner. That thing is….”
“Yeah. That’s not normal.”
I spoke while watching Dayeon herself smile coldly beyond my field of vision, muttering to herself.
“There’s definitely something there.”
From Dayeon’s eyes, black karma oozed and dripped downward.

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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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