I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 92

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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 92. What to Gain and Lose (2)
True to its name, Hwadugu’s seed pouch resembled flames undulating across its surface.
Not the bright, blazing fire of an active inferno, but a deep, dark crimson as if something had already been consumed by flames.
Even wearing heat-resistant gloves, I endured the radiating warmth as I peeled away the outer shell, revealing the seed within—even more striking than the exterior.
“This is…”
Would a pebble heated to such temperatures take on this appearance?
The black, round seed glowed through the crimson cracks running across its surface, as if freshly pulled from molten lava.
It crackled and hissed as if it might burst at the slightest touch.
The sight—something impossible to find in reality—was nothing short of miraculous.
It resembled…
“A Red Dragon’s droppings, Owner.”
“What are you even—no, never mind.”
I decided to ignore Noir’s sudden mood-killing remark.
Honestly, I was curious whether the legendary creature called a Red Dragon actually existed, but that was entirely irrelevant to the present moment.
“Regardless, we’ve found a truly rare material, Owner.”
“Right? It was in the Warehouse.”
The Warehouse, brimming with materials meticulously collected by the Witches of old, seemed to contain everything imaginable.
Hwadugu, which grows only in freshly erupted lava, was one such treasure.
“You’re saying this was in the Warehouse all along?”
“Yes. It was hidden so deep I had trouble finding it, but Chohong helped me.”
“Kyuuuu!”
The creature danced in circles around my head, clearly delighted by the praise, chirping happily.
Meanwhile, Noir murmured as memories from long ago surfaced.
“Why was that there again…? Ah. I believe it was obtained by the Witch from many generations back. That winter was unusually harsh, and she conducted research because so many humans were freezing to death. Meow.”
“When was that?”
“During the Byzantine Empire… probably around 1,000 years ago, Owner.”
Noir spoke of 1,000 years as casually as mentioning yesterday.
Was this the time sense of a Familier who had served successive Witches across the ages?
I was familiar with the extreme cold that struck the Byzantine Empire.
It was likely the period when the Danube River froze entirely, leading to invasions by northern barbarians.
Records indicated that thousands died from freezing and starvation due to the unprecedented cold, as crops failed to grow.
“And it’s been here all this time?”
“Meow. The Witches after that era overcame the extreme cold through different means. After all, the cold of that period wasn’t a natural phenomenon… anyway, that’s how it was.”
In any case, the efforts of my predecessor from 1,000 years ago had reached this present day.
“So it was for research purposes. No wonder there was a note describing the refinement process right beside it.”
There had been a note next to the Hwadugu in the Warehouse, apparently left by that ancient Witch from generations past.
Of course, it wasn’t in Korean, so I couldn’t understand it.
And it didn’t appear to be in English either.
Ultimately, I had no choice but to seek Noir’s assistance.
“The interpretation is straightforward. It appears ice is needed.”
“Ice? That’s just something I can pull out of the freezer right now….”
“That’s not the kind I mean. I don’t need ice as a result of cold—I need ice that will become the cause of cold itself, Owner.”
Ice forms when water freezes from the cold, so what was she talking about?
No, I decided to abandon such common sense thinking once I became a Witch.
So to put it roughly in terms I could understand….
“You’re saying I need incredibly cold ice, right?”
“Let me explain just once, Owner….”
“Please do, Noir….”
I had no idea why she made that expression when she’d never explained anything before.
In any case, according to Noir’s explanation, the ice needed for the refinement process was special ice.
Not merely ice formed from frozen water, but a special ice that contained the cold itself and never melted—rather, it absorbed the heat around it.
“Where would something like that exist? Physicists would collapse clutching the back of their necks hearing this.”
“Where would it be? Isn’t that exact kind of ice scattered all over outside right now?”
“That?”
Through the window in the Kitchen, I could see the snowy wasteland.
The blizzard that had been raging since I first arrived here still hadn’t lost its ferocity.
If anything, it was blowing even more fiercely, as if daring me to endure it further.
In other words, outside was a realm of snow and ice.
“There’s something out there, but there’s only snow… surely not?”
“Exactly. Owner. All things naturally tend toward moderation. Yet how do you think this place maintains such an abnormal environment?”
If all that snow out there was the special ice Noir mentioned, it would be possible.
The refinement process and the materials needed for it could be obtained easily.
Then all that remained was to bring it back.
I grabbed the small shovel and bucket I’d used in the Salt Desert before and headed outside.
“Phew. So I have to go out there?”
Up to the Kitchen Garden that Chohong maintained so well, it seemed to be recognized as part of the Witch’s Cottage, so the snow and cold couldn’t intrude.
But beyond that was truly a hellish situation.
“Didn’t you already go out there earlier?”
“Honestly, I nearly froze to death then too.”
When I brought back the collapsed Soo-min, the cold was just as brutal.
I endured it because I couldn’t leave an unconscious person exposed to this cold.
Even taking a single breath felt like my windpipe and lungs were freezing solid.
“This won’t do. Chohong, can you put up a protective barrier?”
“Chirp chirp? Chirp!”
“I’m counting on you.”
After thinking for a moment, Chohong flapped her wings rapidly and released a green aura.
Receiving the energy, several overgrown crops wrapped around my body.
With plenty of air pockets blown inside to maintain warmth and covered with sturdy stem tissue, my body had become encased in what looked like wooden armor.
“This should be fine.”
I carefully extended my hand, and while still cold, it was far more bearable than before.
Still, I carefully leaned out just a bit and scooped up the snow piled on the ground with my shovel, filling a bucket to the brim before returning.
“Phew. If I did that twice, I’d have gotten frostbite.”
“But Owner, if that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been fine to just bury the Hwadugu seeds outside and come back to retrieve them later? There doesn’t seem to be any reason to scoop all this up. Meow.”
“… I brought it because I thought it might be useful later.”
It was true.
If this was ice that wouldn’t melt, it seemed like it would have plenty of uses in various baking applications.
It absolutely wasn’t the case that my body suffered because I hadn’t thought of that beforehand.
“If you say so, I’ll believe you, Owner.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“That’s why I said I’d believe you, didn’t I? Meooow!”
“If you keep that up, I won’t give you any of the bread I made.”
“This is tyranny! Such violent oppression is impossible in an age of democracy! Owner!”
Leaving Noir whimpering indignantly behind me, I began the refinement process.
The method was simple.
I just needed to bury the Hwadugu seeds I’d taken from the seed pouch into the bucket full of snow and wait.
It didn’t take very long at all.
Less than ten seconds after placing them in, a hissing sound erupted and steam rose up.
When I took them out by hand, all the heat had already dissipated.
“Now that it’s cooled, the color is green. Could it be close to green cardamom?”
Cardamom is distinguished into several varieties, and among them, the one called the queen of spices is green cardamom.
It’s characterized by harvesting unripe seeds and drying them at low temperatures to produce a vivid green color.
Fully ripened seeds are harvested and roasted over direct flame to produce a black hue, which is called black cardamom.
“Honestly, I thought Hwadugu might be black cardamom, but if it’s green cardamom, that’s actually better.”
“Is there a big difference?”
“The complex flavor profile of cardamom I explained earlier is stronger in green cardamom. Black cardamom has the advantage of being roasted over direct flame, which adds a smoky note, but the cardamom’s own aroma is largely lost in the process.”
And properly speaking, cardamom rolls should be made with green cardamom.
The refined Hwadugu was ground moderately to create coarse particles.
“Meow? Aren’t you grinding all of it?”
“It’s better to grind only what you need to use, as you go.”
The compounds that create cardamom’s aroma are highly volatile.
So if I were to make it all in advance for convenience, the whole point of using cardamom would disappear.
“This much is all I need for what I’m making this time.”
“Are you making bread now!”
“That’s the plan. Gora, want to make it together?”
“Gora gora!”
Gora, recognizing it was her time to shine, hopped up onto the counter and placed her hands on her hips in a proud stance.
Without me even mentioning it, she’d already prepared a large bowl with lukewarm milk and yeast to activate them.
“Good job. Could you bring some flour too?”
“Gora!”
With Gora as my skilled assistant, the bread-making process went smoothly.
First, I added flour, sugar, salt, and the ground Hwadugu powder that I’d prepared earlier into the large bowl that Gora had readied, then kneaded it together with the melted butter.
Once the dough became smooth, I would normally need to let it undergo its first fermentation in a warm place until it doubled in volume, but that wouldn’t be necessary.
“Chohong.”
“Kyuuung!”
Chohong’s ability to activate life force could be put to use here as well.
Specifically, it was to strengthen the life force of the yeast inside the bread, causing rapid fermentation to occur.
Thanks to this, I was able to complete in a single second what would normally take an hour of fermentation, then move on to the next step.
“Now I need to make the filling.”
What was the essence of a roll?
Of course, delicious bread dough was the foundation.
If the dough itself tasted good, it was nearly impossible to end up with a bad bread.
But rolls were different.
No matter how delicious the bread dough was, if the filling had no taste, it would be useless.
“Precisely because the method is simple, I need to pay careful attention.”
I mixed the sugar and ground Hwadugu powder into softened butter, blending it until it resembled cream.
Precise measurement and maintaining a sharp sense of taste were essential.
Since Hwadugu’s aroma was so strong and captivating, even the slightest mishandling would throw off the balance of flavors.
I took a small taste and could tell it had turned out satisfactorily.
“This tastes good. Want to try some?”
“Meow! Nom nom… Ooh! Meooow!”
“What kind of reaction is that?”
“It’s a strange flavor but delicious! Owner!”
If Noir, who had lived for ages and tasted all sorts of delicious breads, reacted like that, then it was a success.
“So now I just need to spread this and bake it?”
“No. I already explained this. We’re going to tie knots.”
The research paper I’d read through with my limited foreign language skills, piecing it together bit by bit.
Even after studying abroad, I’d only become fluent in French while my English skills barely improved at all.
In any case, I was planning to apply the method described in that paper with some modifications.
“First, let me add the filling and shape it.”
I rolled out the fermented dough into a wide rectangular shape.
Then I spread the Hwadugu filling I’d made earlier evenly across it.
“Now I fold this and then…”
I folded the dough into thirds, then cut it at approximately 2-centimeter intervals.
I grabbed the cut strands with both hands and twisted them in opposite directions while stretching them out.
“If I roll it up like this while mimicking knots…”
I wrapped it around my fingers and tried to replicate the knot shape I’d confirmed in the paper.
At first, it went well.
But that was only at first.
“Sigh. This is difficult.”
It had to be difficult.
The knot I was struggling to replicate was merely called a knot in name—in reality, it took the form of a circular magic circle drawn in perfect roundness.
Even when I twisted the dough to mimic that shape, capturing the intricate details proved difficult.
To be honest, I’d considered abandoning my ambitions and simply creating something simpler, but…
“I should still try.”
I still had time.
If I gave my best effort and failed, there would be no shame in surrendering then.
While I was engaged in several rounds of this struggle, I remained unaware.
“Gora, gora!”
Of what Gora was doing beside me.
I only discovered that the creature had cast a skill after retrieving another bowl and creating the Gingerbread Cookie dough when I checked my status window.
[5,000 BP consumed.]
“Huh? Suddenly? Why? No, Gora!”
“Gora, gora!”
Thus, Gora had created a total of ten Mandrabread Men that were identical to itself.
“Gora, rara!”
The creature cried out, sending its subordinates charging forward with Cardamom Roll—no, Hwadugu Roll dough.
Pounding its chest repeatedly as if to say it alone could be trusted from this moment forward.

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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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