I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 99

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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 99. A Cowardly Attack (3)
Have you ever felt as though the entire world was rushing toward you?
If not, consider yourself blessed by fortune.
I simply pray that others never experience what I’m enduring now.
“This is absolutely maddening.”
Just as Ye-seul had said, the situation deteriorated by the day.
It was as if someone had deliberately targeted our bakery, unleashing every conceivable form of slander and malice.
“We’ve had to shut down the Byeolsuta comment section—it’s completely overrun.”
“Thank you, Haeryang.”
“Though I doubt simply blocking them will resolve the problem.”
The swelling tide of malicious commenters had inevitably seized control of Byeolsuta’s comments and replies.
A handful of loyal fans remained, fighting a lonely battle, but their voices fell on deaf ears.
It was, quite simply, the triumph of mindless noise.
– The bread here tastes awful
└ Who says that? It’s absolutely delicious!
└ Anyone who’s actually eaten here would never say that
└ I’ve eaten it and you’re all talking nonsense
└ I said it tastes bad because it does, so stop
└ (link to community post claiming hygiene issues)
└ Anyone who eats here after seeing this is just an idiot
└ That’s a lie, I’m telling you
└ Prove it? lol
They wielded their own manufactured malice as evidence, constructing endless arguments that no one could possibly counter.
Indeed, various online communities had erupted into flames.
With relentless and malicious posts about our bakery flooding in, those who had never experienced it themselves began to genuinely harbor ill feelings toward Treffle de Bognoir.
“What should we do? Our store ratings are dropping as we speak.”
And this directly impacted our sales.
New customers from across the nation who had never visited our shop—the bread enthusiasts we’d been counting on—simply vanished.
Of course, our regular customers continued to curse on our behalf with every visit, or left words of encouragement and support.
“But this seemed to be the real problem.”
What I found after searching the internet was a power blogger’s blog.
Posted under the username “Uni,” who introduced herself as a bread enthusiast, claiming to share her direct experience.
– Hello! Today I’m back with another delicious record in “Uni’s Bakery Diary.”
It began with a cheerful greeting and emojis, but the content was woven entirely from blatant lies.
– Today I visited “Treffle de Bognoir,” which has been making waves on Byeolsuta lately as a must-visit restaurant. Since I had such high expectations going in, my disappointment is all the greater. I felt I should provide accurate information to my neighbors, so I’m posting this carefully.
“Accurate information, my foot.”
What followed was identical to the rumors scattered across various communities.
She gave passing marks to the visible aspects of the interior design, but fixated relentlessly on hygiene—something difficult to verify directly.
She claimed to have seen insects crawling beside the cooking counter, or that the old building was dusty.
She suggested we didn’t clean properly, or that despite claiming to use premium butter, we actually seemed to use cheap margarine.
And so it ended like this.
-Overall Review (Rating: ★☆☆☆☆)
Pros: Beautiful interior that photographs well
Cons: Questionable hygiene standards, discrepancies in ingredient origin labeling, causes indigestion
This may be my personal experience, but I’d recommend neighbors planning a visit think it over once more. Taste matters, but this is food going into our bodies!
#OODistrictBakery #HotspotReview #HonestReview #HygieneWarning #IngredientDeception #BakeryNotRecommended
“I’m going insane.”
I could dismiss the posts circulating through the community as just coming from strange people.
But a power blogger?
That was a different story entirely.
What’s more, the trolls who had been attacking me with nothing but forced arguments and illogical claims immediately began spreading links the moment this post gained traction, as if they’d been waiting for it.
“Was there someone who came here claiming to be a blogger and took photos?”
“No. There wasn’t.”
Surprisingly, the power blogger had never actually visited even once.
I’d been running the bakery with some tension as it gained popularity, but no one had even mentioned the blogger’s name.
Until now, I’d simply thought they must have come by secretly and left.
“But they took photos and left, so…”
“That’s certainly true.”
The photos clearly showed not the previous location, but the current shop after its recent reopening.
Which meant they had definitely visited at some point.
“I’m sorry. Things got so busy that I focused all my attention solely on the menu…”
“No, it’s actually impressive that you made no mistakes even in such a hectic situation.”
Haeryang lamented that if I’d properly used my skill of ultra-fine analysis, I could have caught the culprit, but that was already in the past.
What concerned me more was something else entirely.
“If things continue like this, I’m worried about our regular customers who’ve supported and promoted our shop all this time.”
I meant it sincerely.
Such slander eventually fades and disappears at some point.
But the personal relationships of our regular customers were a different matter.
And there were exactly two people whose positions had become awkward because of this…
“So I’m truly sorry to those two.”
“No way! We’re more worried about you, Owner!”
“That’s right! I’ll handle my YouTube myself!”
Chae-eun, a member of Favor who performs as Hani, and YouTuber Ye-seul were sitting together at a table after closing.
Chae-eun had recently introduced this place as a regular bakery on “Delicious Meal,” and Ye-seul had been uploading mukbang videos of eating our bread on her channel for a while now.
Though they were worrying about me like this, it seemed the damage had been considerable.
“I can’t just beat all these bastards to death!”
“P-please calm down…”
“How am I supposed to calm down? People I’ve never seen before on my channel keep trying to stir up trouble!”
Watching Ye-seul exhale sharply through her nose, her eyes blazing with anger like flickering flames, made it clear this wasn’t something to brush off as a mere incident.
This was a situation we couldn’t simply dismiss as a passing event.
“I can’t just hope this passes by.”
“When I think about the order events unfolded, it happened too quickly. Unless someone deliberately orchestrated it.”
“I share that opinion.”
Haeryang answered, her eyes flowing with mana as she used her fine analysis skill.
If her skill’s analysis reached the same conclusion, then it must be correct.
But why?
Who would deliberately spread such rumors about my shop, and for what reason?
What benefit would they gain?
“Owner, have you ever made an enemy of someone?”
“An enemy?”
“Oh! I’m not just suspecting randomly! Sometimes in life, you might unintentionally harm someone without realizing it… no, that’s not what I meant…. I’m sorry…..”
“No, there’s nothing to apologize for. Chae-eun.”
Chae-eun’s words made sense.
This was clearly something orchestrated to target me.
If that’s the case, then thinking this way would be the natural course of action.
But what could I have possibly done to make an enemy of someone?
“Meow. Meow meow.”
“Huh? Oh. Just a moment? Let me go get Noir some water.”
“Yes! Please go ahead!”
Noir tugged at my pant leg, urging me to continue talking, so I made a quick excuse and headed to the kitchen.
The moment I closed the curtain, the creature leaped onto the counter and looked at me with disapproving eyes, opening its mouth.
“Why does the owner always use this body as an excuse whenever those two want to talk?”
“Suddenly?”
“Before it was this body’s food, now it’s this body’s water. Next you’ll probably discuss this body’s bathroom issues.”
Oh, how did it figure that out?
I was actually planning to do exactly that since my excuses had grown stale.
“…From now on, use the owner’s bathroom issues as your excuse.”
“I’ll handle that myself. But what’s this about?”
“I cannot know what enemies the owner has made among humans. But you should also consider this from the perspective of witches.”
“From the perspective of witches?”
“Yes. Think about everything that has happened so far. Owner.”
It was a valid point.
The fragments of the fallen witch had always targeted me.
Though they used unpredictable and bizarre methods, ultimately what they all wanted was to claim the witch’s power I possessed as their own.
“So you’re saying this time it’s also the work of a fallen witch’s fragment?”
“I’m saying you should consider that possibility.”
“But why would they go about it this way?”
“The power of fallen witches feeds on many different things.”
Noir explained that witches like me change fate through making bread and potions, and that there are also acts of spinning thread beyond that, but since I had no talent for knitting, I decided to skip that part.
Going further, there’s apparently also the act of producing thread, but since I have no talent for knitting, I’ll skip over that.
But fallen beings who were no longer proper Witches couldn’t generate power simply by baking bread.
“That’s why they grasp at various things. For instance, violence for comfort, or cold and such.”
“So basically anything goes, it seems.”
“Indeed, Owner. Which is why they lack the power to properly handle destiny, making their efficiency poor.”
Noir’s explanation that human emotions could even be used as fuel, meaning the current situation might be a means to stockpile power.
If that were the case, I could understand it.
If so, then this creature was trying to grow stronger by feeding on human hatred and discord, wasn’t it?
“But then why fixate on me?”
“That is… unknown. Owner, you don’t seem to be that famous….”
“…I think so too, but you don’t exactly say that to someone’s face, do you?”
“Human conversation is truly inefficient. Meow.”
As always, Noir drove a meow-meow fact punch deep into my solar plexus.
Still, being cautious wouldn’t hurt.
When Noir leaped down from the counter and we returned to where everyone was, it was Haeryang who offered me a different perspective.
“Owner. Could it be that grandfather we met when looking for the shop location before?”
“A grandfather? Oh!”
I remembered.
Before I had restored the relationship between the Grandmother who was the building owner and her son, I had been tempted by another grandfather and a real estate agent.
He was a human with black karma piled thick upon him, and he was infamous in the neighborhood for the wrong reasons.
“Then there’s a possibility, isn’t there?”
“Wow. He’d go that far?”
“But wouldn’t that mean he had to open a bakery nearby?”
“Did you see the shopping complex under construction over there? Roro?”
“Yes. But what about it? Gasp! Surely not!”
“That’s right. I heard they’re opening a bakery there. I looked into it out of suspicion, and it turned out to be that grandfather’s building.”
“This crazy bastard!”
It was circumstantial evidence, but far too precise.
Even by my own reasoning, the circumstances made it certain he was the culprit.
So he paid money to hire people to pull off this stunt.
But the problem was it was only circumstantial evidence.
If I went straight to him and said ‘Was it you?’, and he just denied it saying ‘Who are you?’, there was nothing I could do.
“So in the end, we have to flip the table ourselves.”
“Ugh… but how do we flip the table now that it’s come to this?”
“That’s easy.”
“Pardon?”
Chae-eun and Ye-seul tilted their heads at my words.
Wait, could they really not have anticipated this?
“You two are here, aren’t you?”
“Us?”
They really didn’t know.
“And there are quite a few people who know about it separately.”
I had intended to stay quiet, but they dared to provoke me like this.
In that case, I suppose I need to make a move.
I picked up the phone that had been serving as a video player for Noir’s dopamine mining and checked the call history.
Names were densely packed across its screen.
-Ye-seul: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Chae-eun: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Sky: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Delicious Meal PD: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Nuri: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Ho-jeong: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Mi-hyeon: 010-XXXX-XXXX
-Young-gu Chef (do not answer): 010-XXXX-XXXX
I have plenty of friends too.

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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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