Dungeon Bakery Chapter 46

Ding.

As Seo Doha stepped out of the bakery and got into his car, the voice began to laugh.

—Hehehe.

“…….”

—Hehehe.

Seo Doha frowned.

“Why are you laughing?”

—I just can’t imagine you working under someone.

At the voice, which was practically dripping with amusement, Seo Doha folded his arms. He slowly tilted his head to the side.

“Why can’t you imagine it? I wouldn’t mind being treated like a slave if it were Baek Seol.”

—…….

The voice fell silent.

It had clearly said that to make fun of him, but somehow, it seemed the voice was the one that had taken the hit.

Seo Doha lightly stroked his chin with his index finger, then nodded as though he had realized something.

“No. Come to think of it, that sounds good, too. Then I could be bound to my master as a slave for the rest of my life. We’d always be together.”

—…….

“I thought upgrading from senior and junior to boss and part-timer was already pretty good. But apparently, there was something even better.”

Seo Doha made a motion as if he were about to open the car door.

“Come to think of it, I should just ask her to become my master right now……”

—Enough, enough. I give up.

At the voice’s hurried attempt to stop him, Seo Doha froze.

The voice quickly continued.

—Wasn’t she saying you were going to that old man’s place today? You said he dared to summon you.

“…….”

—Hey. Hello?

A faint tremor ran through Seo Doha’s shoulders as he gripped the car door handle.

He took off his @-shaped glasses and wiped the tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.

Apparently, Seo Doha had been holding back his laughter.

Pfft.

The laugh he had been unable to let out finally burst free.

“Ah, this is fun. I think teasing you is the most fun thing in this world.”

—……Were you making fun of me just now?

“You were trying to make fun of me, too.”

Seo Doha could feel the voice getting indignant.

He shrugged, started the car, and drove off.

“It’ll get a little boring once you leave after we find Yggdrasil. I’ll lose the fun of teasing you.”

—Hmph. What an insincere thing to say. Especially when you hate me more than anyone else in the world.

Just as casually as the voice spoke the word hate, Seo Doha answered as though it were only natural.

“That’s right. I didn’t mean it. I’m sick and tired of you.”

—Then hurry up and find Yggdrasil. That way, I can leave your body.

The voice sounded amused, as if it enjoyed Seo Doha’s hatred toward it.

Seriously. This guy is strange.

Seo Doha stepped on the accelerator and increased his speed.

Vroom—

“I want to find it, too. The problem is that I can’t see it.”

—That’s because you aren’t trying hard enough.

Seo Doha had no particular response to that.

It was true that ever since he had met Baek Seol again, he hadn’t been putting much effort into finding Yggdrasil.

—If you can’t find Yggdrasil, at least find the Philosopher’s Stone.

“I’ve already found two of them, though.”

—That means there are still two left.

“But the ones inside them had no idea where Yggdrasil was. Is there any point in finding them?”

At Seo Doha’s words, the voice let out a low groan before speaking in a tone of lament.

—Your malice has faded.

The voice paused.

—Do you like that woman so much? Enough that you don’t mind spending even more time with me?

“Yes.”

Seo Doha answered without hesitation.

The voice fell silent once again.

He heard it sigh.

—You’ve changed so much since you grew up…… No, you’ve changed too much since you met that woman. When you were young, you at least had some cuteness to you.

When I was young.

Seo Doha smoothly turned the steering wheel and suddenly remembered the past.

His younger self.

A huge mansion.

A white table.

A white woman looked down at him as though she despised him.

—Back then, you didn’t even know that all your misfortune was because of me, and you relied entirely on me, didn’t you? Those were good times.

“…….”

—You were so stupid and innocent. It was adorable.

At the voice’s mocking words, Seo Doha showed little reaction.

He had always known how malicious the voice was.

If anything, its honesty was easier to deal with. Unlike humans, it never hid what was inside.

Seo Doha casually said,

“Yeah. I was.”

His past self had been stupid, even by his own standards.

 

***

 

Seo Doha grew up feeding on his parents’ hatred.

“……Why hasn’t he died?”

In the courtyard of a large mansion stood a white table.

His mother always sat there, looking down at Seo Doha with disgust in her eyes.

“I-I’m sorry. I definitely took care of it…… I don’t know how this boy ended up here……”

The servant standing behind his mother, visibly flustered and sweating profusely, spoke.

She answered with a sigh.

“……Never mind. My husband will be home soon, so wash him and put him away.”

“Yes, yes!”

As a child, he was grabbed by the servant’s rough hands and dragged into the mansion.

To his young eyes, the mansion was enormous and cold.

After being washed by expressionless women, he was taken to a small basement.

There, as if he were accustomed to it, he would curl up, clasping his knees with both hands, and mutter,

“Mom hates me again today…….”

Then the voice would answer.

—She must be shocked that the child she cast away came back on his own.

“What does ‘cast away’ mean?”

—How annoying. Don’t ask.

The voice had always been with him.

From before he could even remember.

“Mom doesn’t like me playing with you, but I still like you. You’re the only one who answers when I talk.”

—……Hmph. Noisy little brat. You’re really annoying.

“I want to see my little brother, too. They say he’s one year old now. I’m curious. When will I be able to play with him?”

But around the time he began talking more, his mother started to hate him.

More precisely, it was after she discovered that he was talking to the voice.

His parents were devoutly religious and could not accept something so strange about their child.

“Ahhh! Again! Again!”

“Eek…….”

“You demon! I can’t believe something like you came out of my womb. How horrifying!”

“M-Mom. I’m sorry. I won’t talk to myself again.”

If it had only been the voice, perhaps things would have been different.

But it didn’t stop there.

One day, he began using strange powers.

“Dear. Let’s just watch him a little longer. If we pray a little more, Doha will return to normal.”

“……Do you know what that boy did yesterday? He lifted his little brother! With just one finger! And that’s not all. The plate he broke yesterday returned to normal. It’s horrifying!”

“…….”

Only then did they realize.

He had been born Awakened.

In the very year of the Great Cataclysm.

But his parents’ religion did not acknowledge the Great Cataclysm.

They believed the chaos that had engulfed the world was the work of demons.

The same applied to Awakened ones.

That was why his parents denied his Awakening.

His mother went even further and came to believe that he was possessed by a demon.

“I know it. I can feel it! God sent that boy to test us. To see how deep our faith truly is!”

“Dear…….”

“He wants to see whether we can punish a demon disguised as our child in the name of God. I’m certain of it.”

From then on, whenever his father was away, his mother would secretly take him somewhere far away and try to abandon him.

But every time, he returned home without a single scratch.

Even when she abandoned him alone in a distant place where there was no one around.

Even when she left him on a ship in the middle of the sea.

Even when she dumped him at an orphanage.

He would appear again by evening.

Back then, he thought—

If I become a better child, Mom will love me.

“……I don’t think this will do. It seems God wants me to act with my own hands.”

“Dear……? Where did you get that knife…… Dear!”

But when he saw his mother charging at him with a kitchen knife, he finally understood.

No matter how hard he tried to become a good child, his mother would always see him as a demon.

No matter what he did, he would never be loved by his parents.

He finally understood that.

“Eek!”

“Dear—!”

That day, because he had stopped his mother, he was taken somewhere.

He was ten years old.

“This is where you’ll be staying from now on. If you receive proper treatment here, you can get better.”

“…….”

“When you’re better, I’ll come get you. Be a good boy. Your mother and I will wait for you.”

The promise that they would wait was a lie.

They abandoned him there and left Korea.

“Hey. Demons are supposed to die, right?”

—…….

Unfortunately, even there, he failed to become a “good boy.”

On the second anniversary of the day he entered that place, he finally accepted that he was a demon.

Demons were supposed to disappear, just as his parents had said.

The boy decided to kill the demon.

And on the very day he made up his mind to carry it out—

That girl appeared.

“Are you a demon, too?”

“…….”

There was something broken about that girl.

He instinctively knew.

This girl was rotten inside, just like him.

“If you’re not going to eat that, can you give it to me?”

“…….”

The girl stared blankly into the distance while holding a bag of snacks.

She looked younger than him.

“Then I’ll come again tomorrow. To see you.”

“…….”

The moment he met that girl, he decided to postpone his death for a while.

The reason was simple.

She looked like she was hurting far more than he was.

It didn’t take long for that girl to become the reason he lived.

Perhaps he had fallen in love with her at first sight.

“……Did you just smile?”

“…….”

The moment a tiny smile appeared on the girl’s previously expressionless face, he felt as though he had been saved.

An existence that could save a demon.

The girl had to be an angel, just like the ones he had only ever heard about.

“Where are you? Where are you?”

But one day, the girl disappeared without a trace.

His angel was gone.

Without her, he had no reason to exist.

He was nothing but a demon.

Then he found a goal in life.

To find his angel again.

But it was more difficult than he had imagined.

As if someone had deliberately hidden her away, she never appeared.

Then, by chance, he met her again.

And once again, she saved his life.

“Gasp. A-Are you okay? 1…… 119, I need to call 119……”

The moment he met her again, Seo Doha made a decision.

He would never let her go again.

Even if making that choice meant giving up everything he had.

—We’ve arrived.

The voice pulled Seo Doha’s wandering mind back from the past into reality.

Seo Doha got out of the car and opened the gate.

It was Oh Juk-heon’s house.