I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 95

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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 95. What to Gain and Lose (5)
The pain was instantaneous.
Pshhh!
“Grraaaaaaah!”
A wound that appeared in an instant with no warning whatsoever.
The wolf knew what this sensation was.
It was the kind of wound that could only be inflicted by a blade forged by human hands.
But that couldn’t be right.
There was no trace of any human presence anywhere in this place.
“Grrrrr….”
I closed my right eye as blood streamed down and surveyed my surroundings with my narrowed vision.
Not a single strand of human hair in sight.
Then what about the scent?
No, no.
All that filled this place was the metallic reek of my own blood.
Even straining my ears, there was no crisp sound of footsteps—only the wailing of the blizzard echoing through the space.
“But… surely… you exist….”
A fractured voice escaped between fangs sharp enough to tear prey to shreds.
It was none other than the wolf’s own.
“Where are you… where are you hiding…. How dare you conceal yourself in Anna Eriksdotter’s space. Your courage is admirable….”
As I rolled my remaining eye and glared intensely at my surroundings, a black substance clinging to my head seeped into the wound.
It swelled and tore repeatedly, eventually forming a new black eye.
With my vision fully restored, I ground my teeth.
“Must you take everything away before that narrow mind of yours finds peace.”
Anna Eriksdotter.
The previous Witch—the last witch officially executed in Sweden and the true owner of the Witch’s Cottage—chewed over the past and swallowed her resentment.
“Did I truly desire so much.”
She had been brought to trial because of that bastard Nils Jonsson.
He had asked for her help first, but the moment he realized she was a Witch, he publicly denounced her magical abilities and insulted her—a worthless creature.
And beyond that, he was a beast less than human who coveted her flesh.
That is why she cursed him.
Even after the curse cost him his sight and hearing, he continued to insist until the end that Anna had cursed him.
“That was all.”
It was from that moment that fate began to bind her completely.
Despite the age of witch hunts having already ended, the villagers began to firmly believe she was a Witch.
It was an entirely abnormal situation.
Mason next door was a carpenter who had extended his life with the help of a potion I had made.
Nailey in the house before that would have lost her son and daughter in the previous fire if I had not twisted her fate.
Though all of them owed me their lives and had their threads of fate bound to mine, fate betrayed me lightly.
No—it was made to betray me.
Because she never received recognition for what she truly desired in the end.
“I… never… acknowledged it….”
Throughout the trial, Anna maintained her innocence to the very end.
Yet the Judge swore he had heard it clearly.
Anna herself had confessed to being a Witch, had made a pact with Satan of her own volition to blind Nils’s eyes, and had used supernatural power in the process.
Some suggested that the elderly Anna, broken by torture, psychological pressure, or social ostracism, had confessed in despair—but it was all a lie.
It was a manipulation orchestrated by the very destiny that seemed to exist solely for Anna’s sake.
On June 15th, 1704, Anna Eriksdotter’s life ended by beheading.
The status, power, and Witch’s Cottage of the Witch passed on to seek the next generation’s Witch.
“I cannot accept it….”
Thus Anna’s wrath and resentment-laden power remained intact.
Though torn asunder, it corrupted and fragments persisted.
To prove her purity until the very end.
To exact vengeance upon the destiny that had silenced her rightful wish, she concealed herself.
She did not join hands with other abandoned fools like them.
They were beings truly deserving of abandonment.
If she cultivated her power in such solitude, someday she would achieve her revenge….
“So… anything that dares come here and interfere with the grand scheme… I shall sweep it all away….”
As the colossal wolf’s declaration rang out, the atmosphere resonated.
Anna’s ability was to steal the senses of others.
She manifested as reality an alternate possibility where destiny had twisted, leaving one without sensation.
The mana existing in this world, bearing malice, would rush toward the human hiding somewhere here.
“Accept the inescapable destiny….”
Yet the world remained silent.
This should not be happening.
Humans perceive the world through their senses.
Deprived of all sensation, these creatures would only shriek and flail their limbs like puppets with severed strings.
Not to remain so composed, taking no action whatsoever, holding one’s breath.
No—she hadn’t even held her breath.
Whoosh!
“Grrrraaaaaah!”
A deep wound carved itself once more into the wolf’s flank.
It was unmistakably a dagger with a blade length of roughly fifteen centimeters.
Yet it bore no scent of metal.
“If you insist on coming forth like this… then so be it….”
The fact that she needed to expend some of the power she had painstakingly accumulated thus far was irritating, but unavoidable.
Continuing combat in this manner would only result in greater loss from her perspective.
She had no choice but to release the accumulated power.
“Auuuuuuuuu!”
Explosively erupting mana, viscously corrupted and rotting.
It was then that the skin of the wolf howling at the center began to shrivel, and its muscles started to melt away.
* * *
‘What on earth is that supposed to be!’
Soo-min gritted her teeth as she flicked the blood of the Mutant Werewolf Monster from her blade.
In truth, the Creature she had been facing until just moments ago didn’t fall within the bounds of normal appearance either.
A massive body large enough to swallow an ordinary adult man in a single bite.
A head twisted as if its neck had been severed once, bones fully exposed, fused with a black substance.
Yet even so, compared to the transformation happening at this very moment, it could be called utterly normal.
‘Is that even possible?’
The silhouette of the wolf standing on four legs within the relentless blizzard grew progressively larger.
Its size, which had been that of a single house, soon became like a portion of a mountain, large enough to obscure the horizon of the snowy plain merely by standing.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
When the wolf stepped down with its twisted paw, the accumulated snow froze solid.
More precisely, the congealed snow and ice around it were sucked into her body, swelling her mass.
‘This is… this is far too large….’
A colossal avalanche stood on four legs upon the earth.
Yet even that paled in comparison to the transformation of its head.
The black tar-like substance that had covered its head was no longer mere matter.
It had combined with the putrid mana it possessed and crystallized into something hard and sharp.
“Graaaaaaaa!”
Where the tar-like substance had flowed away, jet-black and razor-sharp ice spikes erupted upward, forming a massive mane.
Reflecting no light whatsoever, the head appeared as if a hole had been torn through the very atmosphere.
The tar that had flowed down the spine and legs clung grotesquely to the body composed of white snow.
‘The head… the head….’
The face bearing the form of a wolf was no longer that of an animal.
As if an old woman’s head had been torn off and grafted on.
Each time it opened its mouth, the wrinkled skin split and cracked, and its jaw joint twisted grotesquely, gaping open like a serpent’s.
What could be seen within were hundreds of teeth sprouting in chaotic rows.
Instead of saliva, ultra-low-temperature vapor flowed forth, instantly freezing the atmosphere.
“A human… how dare a mere human….”
The creature’s howl, which rang true, sounded like thousands of old women screaming simultaneously.
Unfairsave mesave meI don’t want to dieI didn’t ask for thisHow much longer must this lastWhat did I do wrongIt’s your faultI’m innocentI’ve done nothing wrong
A grotesque dissonance of denial burrowed into Soo-min’s ears.
At the same time, text materialized before her.
[Fallen Witch of Arrogance, Fragment of Anna Eriksdotter (S-) (Boss)]
‘Anna Eriksdotter? Fragment? Witch? What does this mean? Ugh!’
There was no time for a Mage’s characteristic curiosity to probe the words.
Ever since it released its howl, all the mana in the surroundings was being converted into bitter cold.
‘The knot is coming undone!’
Soo-min’s invisibility does not obscure her essence itself.
A skill type that distorts the medium—the substance conveying information about essence itself.
Because of this, when the creature converted mana into cold, my skill couldn’t help but be affected.
The twisted knots froze solid and shattered apart in an instant, unraveling.
Upon seeing Soo-min reveal herself, Anna laughed, baring hundreds of teeth.
“A pathetic human rat. So you were hiding there! Now die!”
The surrounding weather began to grow even more brutal.
Not just the mana in the atmosphere, but even the vital essence of life itself was being drained away, converted entirely into cold.
It was truly a power capable of ravaging an entire nation—a threat level that could be called S-rank.
Had a large-scale military force descended upon this place, they would have all become frozen statues from that single attack.
But…
“Why… why can a mere human remain unscathed?”
‘Indeed… how can I remain unscathed?’
As if blocking an oncoming wind.
There was only one reason.
‘Could it be… that bread’s effect can nullify even an attack of this magnitude?’
The Cardamom Roll.
That was the only explanation I could conceive.
It possessed the effect of nullifying all cold-related debuffs.
Even so, I never imagined it could nullify an attack of this scale.
And on top of that, the ability to perceive the essence of magic itself.
‘If this continues…’
I had a chance of winning.
Though I had already been at the peak of A-rank, this recent enlightenment had placed me at the threshold leading toward S-rank.
Considering the bread’s effect, this was a fight where I had sufficient odds of victory.
“So you merely resorted to tricks! You dare stand before me with such a fragile body—pay the price for your insolence!”
Anna unleashed cold so intense it had frozen everything and now converged toward zero energy itself.
But all of her attacks came to nothing.
‘The knots of mana remaining in the space simply vanished. However, in that attack itself…’
Having already experienced fragments of a world made of mana thanks to the Cardamom Roll, I could see it.
Though already twisted and corrupted, knots existed even in that mutant monster’s attack born from distorting the world’s natural order.
If that was the case, my task was simple.
I reached out and manipulated a small amount of mana to scatter the knots.
With just that, all of Anna’s fierce assault dispersed uselessly.
“What?!”
“Attack, meaningless. My turn now.”
I reversed my grip on the short sword I held and charged toward the creature.
As a Mage possessing the invisibility skill, my combat style was none other than assassination.
It was a method only possible because my opponent remained unaware of my presence.
But the world is vast, and monsters possess diverse abilities.
That was why Chi-ho, the guild master of the Reaper’s Guild who could be called my mentor, had once told me this.
‘Don’t rely solely on your skills.’
‘Query. Reasoning required.’
‘Look, I’ve already shattered your skills just now. You think monsters won’t do the same? If you’re going to engage in close combat like an assassin while being a Mage, then pay attention to that too.’
‘Query. What about the Guild Master’s case?’
‘Me? I’m so damn strong I don’t need to worry about it.’
It was an irritating statement, but every word rang true, so she had continued her training steadily.
Building strength and endurance to avoid relying solely on her skills.
And now, that foundation revealed itself against an S-rank monster.
Slash! Slash-crack!
With each sword strike, fresh blood sprayed from various points across the massive Anna’s body.
Clang-clang-clang!
Even when the blade caught on hardened bone, manipulating the mana knots to amplify cutting power was all it took.
Shrieeeek!
As a result of unleashing a relentless barrage that exceeded its regeneration in a short span of time, the nerves and tendons of all four legs planted on the ground were severed simultaneously.
“Grrrraaaagh!”
Thud!!
When the creature’s massive body collapsed onto the frozen ground.
Soo-min finally retrieved something else she had brought along.
“That… that is!”
Anna’s eyes widened at the sight of the object, unable to hide her astonishment.
Its identity was none other than….
“Open. Your mouth.”
A Fondue au Chocolat with rich, flowing chocolate.

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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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