Dungeon Bakery Chapter 47

“Here?”

Oh Juk-heon was sitting on the wooden veranda, drinking tea. To someone who didn’t know him, he might have looked like an ordinary old man enjoying a leisurely afternoon.

But the person sitting before Seo Doha was the greatest craftsman in South Korea.

The man who had created the only pair of glasses in the world.

As Seo Doha sat down across from him, a teacup was naturally placed in front of him.

After taking a sip, he spoke.

“Did your trip to Seoul go well?”

Oh Juk-heon had gone to Insadong in Seoul yesterday to see his daughter.

Seo Doha hadn’t particularly wanted to know, but Oh Juk-heon had volunteered the information himself.

And Seo Doha could easily guess why.

It meant that if something happened to him and their appointment had to be canceled, there might be a problem.

Fortunately, it seemed nothing like that had happened.

Oh Juk-heon nodded.

“It went well. It seems they haven’t reached out to her yet.”

“But it seems you failed to bring her back.”

“That’s right. She’s my daughter, but she’s stubborn as a mule. She refuses to listen to anything I say. I’m worried something might happen to her eventually.”

At Oh Juk-heon’s words, Seo Doha gave a slight nod.

Something could certainly happen.

If they discovered the relationship between the two of them.

As if reading his thoughts, Oh Juk-heon muttered,

“Ahem. Something about this makes me uneasy. If they find out she’s my daughter, don’t you think they’ll immediately use her as bait?”

“They probably will.”

“But she refuses to back down…….”

Oh Juk-heon glanced at Seo Doha.

“So, I was wondering. Would you perhaps be willing to take on a commission to protect my daughter……?”

“I don’t think that will be possible.”

“Ugh.”

At his cold refusal, Oh Juk-heon clicked his tongue.

Seo Doha looked at him indifferently.

There was no reason for someone who cared about no one except Baek Seol to go out of his way to help Oh Juk-heon.

And from now on, he wouldn’t even have the time to do so.

Seo Doha continued,

“I’m starting a part-time job today, you see. I won’t have time for that.”

“A part-time job……?”

Oh Juk-heon’s eyes widened.

“You’re working part-time?”

Oh Juk-heon let out a hearty laugh, clearly amused.

Then he muttered something under his breath.

“Just as I thought. I knew this would happen.”

“……?”

“It’s nothing. Ahem. So, where is this part-time job?”

Seo Doha pointed beside Oh Juk-heon with his index finger.

There was a paper bag containing the red bean buns he had bought from Baek Seol’s bakery.

“I work here.”

“Oh-ho……. You said you were a graduate-school senior and junior. I suppose you two must be quite close?”

At Oh Juk-heon’s words, the corners of Seo Doha’s lips rose ever so slightly.

Oh Juk-heon did not miss that subtle change in expression.

He was terribly curious about the relationship between Seo Doha and Baek Seol, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask more under Seo Doha’s watchful gaze.

Sure enough, the moment Baek Seol became the subject of conversation, Seo Doha subtly changed the subject.

“Are they still looking for you, Old Man?”

At Seo Doha’s question, Oh Juk-heon nodded.

“They are. Though…… they’ve become a little less active.”

“Less active?”

“Yes. Something urgent came up for Ha Jaemin.”

Ha Jaemin.

The name that slipped from Oh Juk-heon’s lips was one no Hunter could fail to recognize.

He was a director of Dokjin Corporation, a first-rate company that controlled the potion business around the world.

Oh Juk-heon slowly stroked his beard.

His lips thinned as if he disliked what he was about to say, then opened.

“It seems a few of ‘them’ escaped from the research lab.”

“‘Them’……?”

“That’s right. Apparently, there’s quite an uproar over it right now. Though the machine I made is still operating.”

Oh Juk-heon narrowed his eyes as he continued.

“And the Elixir is probably still being produced.”

The Elixir.

It was what Baek Seol had discovered in Gogohan’s notebook the other day.

Oh Juk-heon let out a long sigh before downing the tea in his cup.

Seo Doha remained silent.

Oh Juk-heon refilled his teacup and casually said,

“You should be careful, too. They aren’t only looking for me, after all.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

Holding his teacup, Oh Juk-heon looked up at the sky.

Unlike his heart, which was slowly dying and turning dark, the sky remained clear and blue.

 

***

 

Baek Seol was desperately suppressing the laughter that kept bubbling up as she met Baekho’s eyes.

She was doing her best to keep the corners of her mouth down, but not enough to hide it from him.

“What’s wrong with your face, Sis? You look like a monster.”

“…….”

Apparently, the side effect had made her face look strange.

Baek Seol pressed down on the corners of her mouth with her palms and composed her expression.

She must have been too excited at the thought of clearing the quest.

I’ve just been through so much trouble. So much trouble…….

How much effort had she put into clearing Baekho’s quest?

She had gone through all that trouble to tame the Eight-Colored Unicorn, hired Seo Doha as a part-time worker despite originally wanting to keep her distance from him, used Seo Doha’s strength to process ingredients……

And finally, she had made the Milk Cake.

All the effort she had put in came rushing through Baek Seol’s mind.

It’s all going to be over now.

Baek Seol let out a long breath and looked at Baekho with a confident expression.

Baekho looked tired again today.

“Okay. What is it today? Do you want to shut down the bakery?”

“No. Not at all. Quite the opposite.”

Baek Seol smiled and pulled out the cake box she had been hiding behind her.

She placed it on the table.

“Here. This.”

“What’s this? A cake? My birthday isn’t for a while. No, more importantly……”

Baekho frowned.

“You know I don’t eat cake.”

Right.

She knew.

Her younger brother hated sweet things so much that he didn’t even eat cake on his birthday.

But this cake was different.

“This one is a little different. You know what you told me about back then.”

“What I told you……? What was it……? Ah.”

Baekho tilted his head, then continued as though he had remembered.

“That milk cake? Did you actually find one?”

“Find one? I made it.”

“……You?”

Baekho’s eyes narrowed.

There was unmistakable suspicion in them.

This brat.

Baek Seol’s brow twitched.

But this wasn’t the time to get angry.

Baek Seol opened the cake box and took out the Milk Cake she had made.

<New! Zero-Sugar Milk Cake>
A cake that is not sweet, but mild and wholesome.
Race Compatibility: ???
Effect: For a brief moment, your heart becomes as vast as the Pacific Ocean, making you want to allow anything and everything.>

It was an incredible cake that made your heart so broad you wanted to allow just about anything.

Baekho’s eyes wavered slightly when he saw the plain cake without any elaborate decoration.

“It looks exactly the same. Just like the cake in my memory.”

“Really? Well…… there’s nothing on top, so I guess they’d look similar.”

It was so simple that anyone looking at it might have thought it was merely an undecorated cake with cream spread over it.

Baek Seol cut the cake into a manageable piece, placed it on a plate, and handed it to Baekho.

“Here. Try it. I want to see if it tastes the same, too.”

“……Hmm. I can more or less tell what you’re up to, Sis.”

Baekho muttered as he stared at the slice of cake she had offered him.

Baek Seol flinched but pretended not to notice.

“Even if I eat this, nothing will change. I’m still against you running a bakery here.”

“Okay, I know. Just eat it first.”

With a face as hard as iron armor, Baekho bravely lifted his fork.

His eyes were filled with determination not to be swayed, no matter what.

Then he stabbed the fork into the Milk Cake, picked up an appropriate amount, and pushed it into his mouth.

Munch. Chew, chew.

“…….”

“……How is it?”

Baekho’s expression became strange.

And then came a scene Baek Seol couldn’t believe even though she was watching it with her own eyes.

He began moving his fork rapidly, practically inhaling the Milk Cake.

At the same time, a satisfaction bar appeared above his head and began filling at an incredible speed.

“What is this? It’s really good.”

Baekho polished off the entire plate of cake in an instant and then started eating the cake itself.

Perhaps because she had deliberately made the smallest size so it wouldn’t be too much for him, more than half of the cake had already disappeared.

I didn’t expect him to react this strongly.

His relentless fork finally stopped only after the cake had vanished before his eyes.

“Haa…….”

Baekho set down his fork with a clack and smacked his lips regretfully.

The satisfaction bar was already completely full.

“You already finished it.”

“Was it good?”

“Yeah. Really good.”

Seeing her younger brother, who hated sweet things, eat the dessert she had made for him so enthusiastically made Baek Seol genuinely happy.

It felt like all her hard work had finally been rewarded.

Then Baekho said something unexpected.

“It’s really good, unlike Mom’s.”

“Huh?”

Mom’s?

Baek Seol blinked.

“You said Mom always brought a Milk Cake on my birthday. I knew back then. That she was the one who made it.”

“…….”

“Where would you even buy a cake like that? A cake with no sugar in it that wasn’t even pretty.”

Baekho wore a bitter smile.

“But I said I wanted to blow out the candles like the other kids. So Mom secretly made a cake herself. We put birthday candles on that ugly, plain cake and sang together.”

The longer Baekho spoke, the stranger Baek Seol felt.

She had definitely been there too.

So why couldn’t she remember it?

“That cake tasted so bad. I mean, I don’t like sweet things, but still. There was no way something like that could taste good. But I liked it anyway. It was a special cake Mom had made just for me.”

Baekho continued,

“Maybe the reason you want to run a bakery is because of that memory. I think you used to say sometimes that you wanted to make things like this while thinking about Mom.”

Ah.

The bakery.

Baekho’s words suddenly snapped Baek Seol out of her daze.

This wasn’t the time to stand around like this.

She had to get his permission before the effect of the Milk Cake wore off.

Baek Seol quickly spoke.

“That’s right. Exactly. Did you know Mom also liked making cookies? I even got the recipe from Aunt Eunju back then and made them exactly the same way.”

“Really? So that’s what happened…….”

“Yeah. So, Hoya.”

Baek Seol steeled herself and spoke.

“I’m going to keep the bakery. Like I said, it’s not that I’m never going back to graduate school. Just for one year. Until then, don’t say anything and just watch me.”

It was also the one-year period she had discussed with Lucy.

And besides, she had already paid off all her debt.

“No matter what I do during that time.”

“Whatever you do……?”

“Yeah. So I agree. Promise you won’t interfere with me running the bakery.”

Baek Seol phrased it that way to prepare for any situation that might arise.

At her words, Baekho was silent for a moment.

Then, slowly, he opened his lips.