Dungeon Bakery Chapter 28

<Quest: Please Save the Black Rabbit and Black Elephant!>

The Black Rabbits and Black Elephants have begun fighting because they don’t have enough food. If this continues, both races will disappear. Why don’t you find them a new source of food?

Condition: Plant 100,000 Sugar Beets in the Dungeon of Beginnings

Reward: Dungeon Bakery Owner Lv. up!
**   Black Rabbit’s Gratitude**
**   Black Elephant’s Gratitude**

Upon Failure: Black Rabbit Extinction
**     Black Elephant Extinction**

Baek Seol slowly blinked as she examined the quest window.

It was a quest telling her to save the Black Rabbits and Black Elephants.

And the terrifying failure condition said that both races would go extinct if she failed.

But more than anything else, one particular word caught Baek Seol’s attention.

“100,000……?”

No.

One hundred thousand sugar beets?

One hundred thousand wasn’t exactly the name of the dog next door.

“……Senior?”

Seo Doha noticed that Baek Seol’s eyes had gone unfocused and tilted his head as he called out to her.

I can’t believe I’m spacing out while staring at a quest window right in front of Seo Doha.

He was someone she absolutely couldn’t afford to let her guard down around.

Baek Seol was startled internally, but outwardly she pretended nothing was wrong and scratched her cheek awkwardly.

“Ahahaha. I was just a little surprised. You really seem to know a lot about dungeon plants……. Anyone would think you were a Hunter. Haha.”

“…….”

At her words, Seo Doha opened his mouth slightly before slowly closing it again.

He seemed to be thinking about how to respond.

Baek Seol realized a little too late what she had just said.

What the—

I practically just announced to the whole neighborhood that Seo Doha is a Hunter.

Baek Seol hurriedly tried to cover her mistake.

“No, of course you’re not a Hunter. Absolutely not. I-I just meant that you’re that knowledgeable.”

“Thank you.”

Seo Doha nodded with a subtle smile.

Phew.

Did I get away with that?

Baek Seol calmed her pounding heart and quickly brought out another red bean bun.

“Anyway, I’m glad I was able to help you, sunbae. If there’s anything else you’re curious about, feel free to ask.”

“Uh……. No. There’s nothing else I’m curious about.”

Baek Seol decisively brought their question-and-answer session to an end.

What was she curious about regarding Seo Doha?

She had only asked about sugarcane because she had no choice.

I’m not curious about anything. I shouldn’t be.

Baek Seol didn’t want to know anything more about Seo Doha.

“Really……? Then can I ask you something I’m curious about?”

“Something you’re curious abou—huh? Me?”

“Yes. You, senior.”

When Seo Doha said he wanted to ask her something he was curious about, Baek Seol felt her shoulders stiffen with tension.

She was internally stumbling over her words when Seo Doha spoke with a faint smile.

“Do you not remember me? From before.”

“……What?”

Don’t remember him?

Surely he wasn’t talking about the time she’d found him collapsed in her room.

Baek Seol’s face went pale.

She hurriedly raised both hands and waved them.

“Wh-what? Remember……? I don’t remember. D-did we ever run into each other before?”

“Hmm…….”

Seo Doha licked his upper lip slightly, looking troubled.

Baek Seol smiled awkwardly and took a step back.

“Did I ever do something wrong to you? Like bump into you while walking……? If I did something like that, please forgive me after looking at this red bean bun.”

“It’s not that. It’s just…….”

Seo Doha slowly shook his head.

“No. I’m talking about the freshman welcome party.”

“Ah……. Haha. Of course I remember that. We were in the same group, weren’t we?”

“Yes. I said my favorite food was bread back then. I was asking if you didn’t remember that.”

“Ohhh.”

So that’s what he meant.

As Baek Seol breathed a sigh of relief, Seo Doha elegantly finished his second red bean bun and rose from his seat.

Then he left her with one final remark.

“It’s okay if I come again next time, right?”

Baek Seol gave him her friendliest smile and told him he could.

If I avoid him, he’ll only misunderstand again.

All she could do was wait for him to naturally drift away.

She quickly closed the bakery door.

She changed the sign from open to closed, then collapsed into a chair at the table.

Human customers are done for today.

Just Seo Doha coming here had completely drained her energy.

I can’t just sit around like this.

But Baek Seol couldn’t afford to stay exhausted.

She had to prepare to clear the quest.

 

***

 

Jingle.

The bakery door closed.

Standing outside was a tall man.

Seo Doha stared quietly at the shop he had just left when someone spoke to him.

—Are you sure that’s the girl?

How strange.

There wasn’t anyone around him.

And yet, someone was clearly speaking to him.

Seo Doha knew very well that only he could hear this voice.

“We agreed you wouldn’t talk to me while I was in the shop.”

He tossed out the words irritably, but the voice paid no attention and continued.

—She seems to have completely forgotten about you. Couldn’t she be someone else?

The mocking voice made Seo Doha frown.

He had briefly forgotten that this thing would never simply do as he said.

It had no physical form, so he couldn’t exactly shut its mouth.

But he did know how to make it quiet.

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll stop looking for that tree.”

—……

The voice finally fell silent.

Seo Doha got into his car and muttered,

“It’s her.”

Even though fifteen long years had passed, Seo Doha was certain.

Baek Seol was the girl he had been searching for.

“…….”

Seo Doha took off his glasses and tossed them onto the passenger seat.

The handsome eyes hidden behind the special glasses Oh Juk-heon had made for him were revealed.

Those eyes were deep as an abyss.

—If she’s the girl, then why doesn’t she remember you?

The voice returned the moment Seo Doha got into the car.

He slowly rubbed his chin with his thumb.

“I don’t know. Maybe she wanted to erase that time.”

Seo Doha thought it was entirely possible.

Back then, she had been dying.

Trapped inside a prison of emotions that no child could possibly have endured.

As he remembered the little girl with her faint smile, Seo Doha slowly closed and opened his eyes.

The image of that girl’s faded smile overlapped with the smile Baek Seol had given him moments ago.

She was very different now.

Much brighter.

Much more spirited.

She was looking ahead rather than behind her.

“She was pretty back then, too. She’s still pretty now.”

—……Damn it.

“Why?”

—I just want to get out of your body as soon as possible.

The voice was filled with irritation, and Seo Doha chuckled.

“You want to leave? That’s funny.”

“We both feel the same way. Why don’t you hurry up and leave my body too?”

—I want to, too. But for that to happen, someone has to actually put in the effort.

“You’re such a nuisance.”

Seo Doha shrugged and pressed down on the accelerator.

“Are you really sure that tree you keep talking about exists in this world?”

—I told you, it’s not just some tree. It’s Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil.

“Right. So you said it was a tree.”

Yggdrasil.

It was what the being that had somehow entered his body was searching for.

And it was also what Seo Doha had been desperately searching for.

—I know it still exists because fragments of Noatris’s world remain. Yggdrasil is the very heart of that world.

“And you’re planning to eat that Yggdrasil?”

—That’s the greatest revenge I can take.

Seo Doha narrowed his eyes.

“If that happens, all the dungeons in this world will disappear.”

—Are you disappointed? Wouldn’t that be good for humans?

“I don’t know. I suppose things would get boring.”

The voice gave a low chuckle at Seo Doha’s response.

—You need to find Yggdrasil quickly. Otherwise, neither you nor I will benefit from this.

“I know.”

Seo Doha lazily raised an eyebrow, and the voice grumbled.

—Someone who supposedly knows that sure has been wasting a lot of time. You even had unnecessary glasses made.

It was referring to the glasses Seo Doha was wearing.

After meeting Baek Seol again, Seo Doha had asked Oh Juk-heon to make them for him.

He had commissioned the special glasses to avoid the trouble that would come from other people recognizing him.

Apparently, the voice was dissatisfied with that.

“If I didn’t have these glasses, it would’ve taken even longer. There are far too many people chasing after this body.”

—Hmph. Then try harder. If you want to drive me out of your body, that is.

Ever since Seo Doha had encountered Baek Seol again, finding Yggdrasil had taken a back seat.

So perhaps the voice had every right to scold him like this.

Seo Doha merely shrugged.