Dungeon Bakery – Chapter 36

Author: isuzuuy

***

Ding.

The bakery door opened, and a familiar pair of @-shaped glasses soon came into view. Baek Seol, who had been dusting off the counter, greeted him with a friendly smile.

“Welcome, Senior.”

Seo Doha stepped into the bakery with long strides and returned her greeting.

“Hello, Senior.”

This was his second visit since he had come by and eaten red bean buns last time. Baek Seol guided Seo Doha to a table with her most harmless expression and sneaked a glance at him.

She couldn’t see his eyes clearly because of the @-shaped glasses, but judging by his facial muscles and lips, his expression seemed no different from usual.

‘He didn’t happen to connect me to the sugar beet article, did he?’

There was a reason Baek Seol was watching Seo Doha’s reactions so carefully. The ripple effect of the 100,000 sugar beets had been much greater than she had expected. Another had become noisy, and even a weekly magazine had covered the bizarre rumors in a special feature.

‘It has calmed down a little now, though…….’

Still, she couldn’t be sure. This had happened immediately after Seo Doha had told her about Dungeon Sugar Beets, so there was more than enough reason for him to find it suspicious.

“How have you been? Uh…… Oh, how about some white bread today?”

Good. Not awkward at all. That sounded completely natural.

Baek Seol placed the white bread she had prepared for Seo Doha on a tray. Seo Doha, who had folded his long legs neatly beneath the table, tilted his head.

“Oh. Are you out of red bean buns?”

“Red bean buns?”

Baek Seol smiled awkwardly.

She had removed all the red bean buns from the display shelf before he arrived.

Since the effect of red bean buns caused people to recall memories from the past, she was a little reluctant to serve them to Seo Doha right now. What if he ate one and remembered the sugar beets?

Baek Seol smiled brightly and scratched her cheek with her index finger.

“Unfortunately, we’re all out. We only have white bread left. Our bakery’s white bread is pretty good too, so please give it a try.”

“Ah, I see. It seems your bakery has quite a few customers. It’s still lunchtime, but you’ve already sold out of red bean buns.”

“……There’s an elderly gentleman who lives in the neighborhood who really likes red bean buns. Haha. The other elderly people around here come by pretty often too.”

Baek Seol added that with an awkward laugh.

You know how elderly people are active from the crack of dawn, right? Hahaha!

Fortunately, Seo Doha seemed to accept her explanation. Baek Seol quickly carried the white bread to the table. She also brewed him a cup of coffee from the coffee machine.

I should make it iced so he can eat and leave quickly!

“Come to think of it, I found something strange.”

Baek Seol flinched at Seo Doha’s low voice. Amid the rich aroma of coffee spreading throughout the bakery, she slightly hunched her shoulders and asked,

“Something strange?”

He wasn’t talking about the 100,000-sugar-beet zombie theory from the weekly magazine, was he? Or the Green Necromancer?

“Yeah. Now that I think about it, it’s not really strange…… It’s just an ordinary notebook.”

A notebook?

Baek Seol looked at Seo Doha with wide eyes. He was carefully placing a black notebook on the table.

The notebook on the table was one that had recently become familiar to Baek Seol.

“It was lying in front of the bakery door. It seems someone dropped it…….”

“Uh…… Really?”

“I thought there might at least be a name written on it, but there’s nothing on the outside.”

Seo Doha spoke as though he was at a loss, but Baek Seol already knew who the owner of this notebook was.

‘It’s the notebook Gogohan was carrying.’

It was the notebook Gogohan occasionally took out after practically stamping his attendance at the bakery every day.

‘Did he drop it when he got taught a lesson by the We Are All Neighbors skill?’

She had seen him take it out of his back pocket several times. He must have dropped it when he was thrown out of the bakery. And since that had been the last time he visited the bakery……

Baek Seol picked up the notebook as naturally as possible, but as quickly as she could.

“Did you check the inside?”

“No. Not yet…….”

“Then I’ll check it. There might be some information about the person who left it behind. If they’re one of our customers, I might be able to figure out who the owner is.”

Thank goodness. He hadn’t looked yet.

The tension in her shoulders eased slightly.

‘There might be something about me written in here.’

Baek Seol flipped the notebook open and quickly leafed through the pages from back to front, pretending to check its contents. Anything related to her would have been written recently, so it would probably be toward the back.

The very last pages revealed the extent of his obsession with Sugar Cookies.

One entire page was filled with nothing but the words Sugar Cookie in frantic handwriting.

Baek Seol opened the pages toward the front with a slightly appalled expression.

‘Hmm…… As expected. It’s here.’

Before the entries about Sugar Cookies, there were records of him following her around. From taking her picture at the Exchange to following her all the way to this neighborhood. Even the fact that he had obtained false information from her and gone to another neighborhood was written down.

“Do you think you know who the owner is?”

Seo Doha asked as he tore the white bread into manageable pieces with both hands. Baek Seol hummed thoughtfully and flipped through several more pages in a blur.

“Yes. I think it belongs to a customer who used to come here occasionally.”

“That’s a relief, then.”

“Yes. Haha…….”

Baek Seol turned the pages aimlessly until she suddenly stopped.

A page had been marked with a Post-it note, as though it were important. The paper also looked slightly worn, suggesting it had been opened frequently.

What was written on the page was……

“……Elixir?”

Elixir?

What was that?

Baek Seol glanced beside the word. The words Philosopher’s Stone had been circled and connected to Elixir with a line. Beneath them were the words Dokjin Corporation and Ha Jaemin.

Some of the characters were difficult to make out, as though they had been scribbled down in a hurry.

Dokjin Corporation was such a famous company that even Baek Seol knew of it. And Ha Jaemin…… Wasn’t he a director there? Or something like that. She vaguely remembered seeing him in the news.

But what was a Philosopher’s Stone?

As Baek Seol tilted her head in confusion, her cheek suddenly felt strangely prickly.

“What did you just say?”

“Huh……?”

When she raised her head, Seo Doha’s @-shaped glasses were pointed directly at her.

Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, she knew.

He was staring straight at her with an intense gaze.

She couldn’t tell what that gaze meant, but there was one thing she could tell.

Seo Doha had reacted unusually strongly to the word Elixir that she had unconsciously read aloud.

“Uh…… No. It was just written here in the notebook.”

“If you don’t mind, may I take a look at that notebook?”

His question was polite, but there was unmistakable weight behind it. Baek Seol fell silent for a moment.

He wanted to see the notebook?

After thinking for a moment, Baek Seol spoke.

“Why?”

“That…….”

Perhaps he hadn’t expected Baek Seol to ask for a reason. Seo Doha hesitated. His lips moved a couple of times as though he were choosing his words carefully before he answered.

“I’ve heard about it before. An Elixir, said to be the best potion among Hunters. Apparently, drinking it can make you unbelievably powerful in an instant.”

There was really such an incredible potion?

Baek Seol blinked, and Seo Doha continued with a firm expression.

“But I heard the side effects are just as severe.”

There was a hint of concern in Seo Doha’s voice, as though he was worried she might be tempted by the Elixir.

But even if that supposedly incredible Elixir appeared right in front of her, Baek Seol wouldn’t have been particularly interested.

She had no desire to become stronger.

Baek Seol scratched her cheek with her index finger before quickly tucking the notebook against her chest.

“Hmm. I just thought about it, and I don’t think I should show you the notebook after all. It would be rude to the owner. I did happen to read a little of it, but I think it would be better if I just returned it to its owner.”

She was sorry to Seo Doha, but she couldn’t hand over a notebook containing information about herself.

“I see. Yes, I didn’t think that through.”

Unlike his unusually intense reaction earlier, Seo Doha accepted her answer surprisingly quickly.

Watching him quietly eat his white bread, Baek Seol felt somewhat dissatisfied.

What was this bland feeling?

Baek Seol absently ran a hand through her hair.

“I enjoyed the meal. The white bread is very good too.”

After finishing the white bread, Seo Doha’s cheeks seemed slightly glossier than before, as though the moisture had been replenished in his skin.

It looked a little funny, but Baek Seol couldn’t giggle in front of him.

“I’m glad you liked it.”

“You don’t have to treat me like last time. How much is the white bread?”

There was determination in Seo Doha’s voice. This time, he was clearly determined to pay.

Of course, she could lower the price and sell it to him without arousing his suspicion, but Baek Seol was currently committed to playing the role of a kind graduate-school Senior.

She had no intention of taking his money.

Instead……

“Oh, you don’t have to pay. Rather, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes?”

“Senior, are you strong?”

“……?”

As Seo Doha’s head slowly tilted to the side, Baek Seol smiled brightly.

There was something she had wanted to try ever since he said he would visit the bakery.

And exactly ten minutes later, Baek Seol was able to confirm that his Strength stat was over 500.

“Wow…….”

Along with a system window like this.

<System: Successfully processed ‘Eight-Colored Unicorn’s Milk’ into ‘Butter Made from Eight-Colored Unicorn’s Milk.’>

His Strength stat really was over 500……

‘When I bought Eight-Colored Unicorn’s Milk from the underground shop, I wondered if this would actually work.’

Baek Seol blinked blankly as she stared at Seo Doha.

“Does this really work?”

Seo Doha asked in a somewhat bemused voice as he took his hand off the stick of the Processing Workbench.

Just moments ago, he had operated the Processing Workbench at Baek Seol’s request.

Thanks to the option added by MakeAnythingForYou, the Processing Workbench could be operated by someone other than Baek Seol, and no system window would have appeared for Seo Doha.

In other words, there was no way he could infer that she was an Awakened one.

In fact, Baek Seol had planned this the moment Seo Doha told her yesterday that he would visit the bakery.

She had thought that if he was the number-one Hunter in the rankings, perhaps his Strength stat would be ridiculously high as well.

The corners of Baek Seol’s lips curled upward.

‘If I have Seo Doha operate the Processing Workbench every time he comes to the bakery from now on……’

Eight-Colored Unicorn’s Milk didn’t appear in the underground shop very often, but if she stocked up a little whenever it did appear, she could at least reduce the number of times she had to buy butter.

That palm-sized lump of butter was probably the single biggest threat to the bakery’s finances.

It had already been expensive, and as her level increased, its price had soared higher and higher without a care.

‘So far, I’ve somehow managed to save up money through quests…….’

But she had spent a large amount of money recently, and quests didn’t appear all the time.

It was really time to tighten her belt.

Just as delighted Baek Seol was about to ask Seo Doha to pay for his bread by operating the Processing Workbench in the future, a system window suddenly appeared, making her eyes widen.

<System: Congratulations! You have unlocked the ‘Borrowing Someone Else’s Hands’ achievement! A reward will be granted.>

The reward was revealed immediately afterward.

<System: The Part-Time Worker tab has been unlocked. From now on, you can hire part-time workers.>

Oh. She could hire part-time workers?

Baek Seol’s face lit up at the thought of putting Seo Doha to work and at the unlocking of a new tab.

But then the next system window appeared, and her expression quickly froze.

<System: With the Part-Time Worker tab unlocked, the options of the Processing Workbench will be modified.>

-Modification: Anyone can operate → Only the owner and part-time workers can operate>

“…….”

Wait.

The option MakeAnythingForYou had created had been forcibly modified?

Baek Seol hurriedly opened the Processing tab settings and tried to change the option again, but—