Dungeon Bakery Chapter 48

“Yeah. Do whatever you want, Sis.”

“Really?”

Baek Seol’s eyes widened.

Wow. Was the effect of the Milk Cake really this powerful?

Until just moments ago, the wall Baekho had built around himself had been as solid as an impregnable fortress. Now, it had quietly crumbled away. Baek Seol held her pounding heart and watched his reaction carefully.

Baekho’s brows had drooped slightly. The corners of his eyes were a little moist, as though he had plunged headfirst into a sea of emotions while remembering the past.

“Yeah. I don’t know why, but……. After eating this Milk Cake, it’s hard for me to oppose you. Maybe it’s because it made me think of Mom…….”

“Uh, um.”

“How can my mind change so suddenly?”

Baekho muttered as if it were strange. His eyes were fixed on the plate where the Milk Cake had been. Baek Seol suddenly felt guilty.

What? Surely he hadn’t noticed the effect of the Milk Cake?

‘No way. That’s impossible.’

There was no way an ordinary person like Baekho could figure it out. Maybe someone like Seo Doha, a Hunter of his caliber, but certainly not Baekho.

“You didn’t put something in this Milk Cake, did you?”

“You little punk. Now you’re suspicious of your own sister? Do you want to get punished? Huh?”

“Ow. Owwww. Sis, wait. That hurts.”

Baekho groaned as he clutched his cheek, which Baek Seol had grabbed and stretched out. His cheeks were still soft and pliable, making them very satisfying to pull.

“You used to have both cheeks stuffed full of steamed buns. I wonder where all that went.”

“You pulled it all away and made it disappear.”

Baekho clicked his tongue and shot Baek Seol a sideways glare. Then he grumbled under his breath.

“The reason I have such a high pain tolerance now is all thanks to you, Sis.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“…….”

Baekho’s eyes narrowed.

Regardless of what he thought, Baek Seol was too busy grinning at the system window that had appeared before her.

<System: Congratulations! You have completed the ‘The Younger Brother’s Opposition ②’ quest. ‘Baekho’s Consent’ will be granted as a reward.>

Baekho stared blankly at the corners of Baek Seol’s mouth, which had risen high with delight, before speaking seriously in a slightly lowered voice.

“I always tell you this. I want you to be happy, Sis. Just do whatever you want, wherever you are……. As long as you can keep smiling like this.”

“…….”

Baek Seol felt the same way.

She met Baekho’s eyes. When had that tiny little kid grown up and gotten such mature eyes?

Baek Seol realized once again how much her younger brother had changed.

“I thought you only cared about money. So of course I thought you’d choose graduate school over a bakery. You can make good money once you graduate. But……. Looking at you now, I guess I misunderstood you all this time. Maybe you wanted to find happiness in the little things.”

The more Baekho spoke seriously, the more something pricked at a corner of Baek Seol’s heart. Still, she nodded enthusiastically as if everything he said was right.

“Anyway……. Yeah. Just give it a good try for now. If you decide it’s not for you, you can always go back.”

“Thank you, Hoya.”

As Baek Seol eagerly thanked him, Baekho’s expression stiffened slightly before he continued.

“But.”

“Hmm……?”

“Contact me more often to let me know you’re doing okay. This place is next to a dungeon, after all. Even if it’s inactive, I’m still worried.”

Well, that much was easy enough.

Baek Seol gave a small laugh.

“Okay, okay.”

“And don’t send me an allowance anymore.”

“Huh? No, but that…….”

“It doesn’t look like you have many customers, either.”

Baekho looked around the bakery.

“I can’t see any way money could possibly be coming in here. Just thinking about taking an allowance from my sister while she’s working in a place like this makes my conscience cry out in guilt.”

Baek Seol’s mouth itched to tell him about all the money she had made running the bakery, but she firmly held herself back. Most of that money had come from the monsters in the dungeon Baekho was telling her to stay away from.

‘He probably wouldn’t believe me even if I told him…….’

Baek Seol looked at her brother’s resolute face and let out a small sigh.

Well, there was nothing she could do.

“Okay. I’ll do that. But if studying gets hard, tell me anytime. I have more money than you think.”

Was that a look of contempt that had just flashed through her little brother’s eyes?

Surely she was imagining it.

Baek Seol relaxed the fist she had unconsciously clenched and smiled sweetly.

“I’ve taken up too much of your study time. Right? You said you only came out because you had a little free time. Hurry back inside.”

“You’re kicking me out because you’ve finished what you needed to do? I was planning to leave anyway. Hmph.”

Baekho sprang to his feet. Judging by his momentum, he seemed ready to leave the bakery immediately, yet for some reason, he hesitated.

Baek Seol tilted her head.

“What is it? Is there something else?”

“No. Now that I think about it, there’s something. I found this out completely by chance, somehow, but…….”

“Hmm?”

Baekho hesitated, then lowered his voice as if he were about to tell her a secret.

What was he about to say?

Baek Seol instinctively lowered her head a little and listened closely.

The sentence that came out of Baekho’s mouth contained some very unexpected information.

“I heard some monsters escaped from somewhere recently. So don’t go wandering around outside for a while, Sis. Be careful.”

“Monsters……?”

“Yeah. They say they’re very dangerous monsters, so just stay here.”

How did someone who spent all his time studying heard about something like this?

Baek Seol blinked.

She checked the newspapers and news broadcasts every day without fail, so she found this “escape of dangerous monsters” somewhat difficult to believe.

‘Nothing like that has appeared in the news.’

Perhaps Baekho noticed what she was thinking, because he hurriedly spoke again.

“It’s not well-known information yet. It’ll probably make the news soon. If those guys cause any trouble, that is.”

“……Really? But how did you find out about it?”

Baek Seol asked with a dubious expression.

Baekho rolled his eyes around before looking off into the distance.

“I told you. I just happened to find out somehow. Anyway, it’s extremely reliable information, so be careful. Got it?”

“Uh, um.”

Well……. If her little brother was warning her this earnestly, what choice did she have but to say she understood?

Baek Seol obediently nodded and stood up.

That was why Baekho headed toward the bakery door.

“And…… uh, did Father contact you separately?”

“…….”

Baek Seol, who had been following him, stopped dead.

Baekho glanced at her expression and scratched the back of his head.

“No, I was just wondering. I was just asking. So, relax your expression a little, Sis.”

“He hasn’t contacted me separately.”

“Really? Okay, got it.”

Baekho carefully watched her expression as he opened the bakery door. Then, as if rapping, he spoke rapidly.

“Anyway, the Milk Cake was delicious today. Make me another one next time. I’m going. And don’t go wandering around outside if you can help it!”

Warning her about the monsters until the very last moment, Baekho left the bakery.

Ding.

The door opened and closed.

Left alone, Baek Seol slowly relaxed her stiff expression.

Just like today, Baekho occasionally checked on the relationship between her and that person.

As if asking whether things had gotten a little better today, whether his sister might feel a little less uncomfortable around that person today.

That strange hope mixed into his questions made Baek Seol uncomfortable.

No matter how much she cherished and loved her younger brother.

She felt that hoping for her relationship with that person to recover was asking for too much.

Because Baek Seol would never forgive that person for the rest of her life.

“Okay. I cleared the quest, too……. Maybe I’ll take a nice, long nap today.”

Baek Seol turned the sign to ‘closed’ and headed upstairs. When she stretched, a series of cracks came from her stiff shoulders.

She had worked hard to clear the quest, so she was allowed to rest today.

“You finally cleared all the quests, ppi! All right, then, let’s start the day by energetically gathering ingredients……. Wait, where are you going, ppi?”

Baek Seol ignored Lucy’s chatter beside her and went straight to bed.

‘Hoya agreed in the end, too. Good job, Baek Seol.’

Wrapped in her soft blankets, she fell into a deep sleep.

 

***

 

Ding.

Baekho scratched the back of his head after leaving the bakery.

“Did I say something unnecessary…….”

Baek Seol had looked extremely happy when she realized he was no longer opposed to her running the bakery. So Baekho had suddenly thought it might be okay to bring up their father.

Apparently, that had been a mistake.

“……Hmm. I feel like I really messed something up.”

Baekho let out a long sigh and trudged along.

He should apologize later.

Baekho took out his smartphone and sent a message to the person who was probably worrying about Baek Seol far more than he was.

[Father. It looks like Sis’s leave of absence is going to last a little longer. It seems she’s found something she wants to do. I’m in favor of it for now.]

He had probably been unable to sleep properly ever since he found out that his sister had taken a leave of absence.

Given how he felt, he probably wanted to step in himself.

But he knew better than anyone that he couldn’t do that……

What a pitiful father and daughter.

Baekho muttered inwardly.

‘If he finds out Sis is running a bakery, I don’t think he’ll just sit still.’

He was a little worried.

He had always played the role of buffer between the two of them.

What if Father decided to step in himself?

Just as he was thinking that, a reply came from his father.

[Father: Come and report the details.]

Ugh.

Baekho grimaced.

He knew his father’s temperament well enough to understand that the word ‘details’ was not something to take lightly.

It seemed he would have to hide the fact that his sister was running a bakery as much as possible.

He would just have to come up with some kind of story.

Otherwise, there might be a conflict between the two of them.

‘This is already exhausting…….’

Being at the very bottom of the family hierarchy was incredibly difficult.

Baekho wore a miserable expression as he trudged toward his car.

 

***

 

“Ah, that was a good sleep.”

When Baek Seol opened her eyes, it was the next morning.

She had slept for such a long time that her back seemed to ache.

As Baek Seol rubbed her stiff lower back and got up, Lucy muttered with a sullen expression.

“You’re the laziest person alive, ppi.”

“Lazy? Where could you find someone more hardworking than me?”

Baek Seol shamelessly retorted, took some cleaning supplies out of her inventory, and went downstairs.

First, she would clean and wash up.

Then she would sort out the next quest.

“I should clean the yard in front of the shop, too. It’s been a while.”

There had been more people coming in and out of the bakery lately, so she figured she should pay a little more attention to the yard as well.

With that thought, Baek Seol took out a broom for outdoor use and headed outside.

Of course, calling it a yard was being generous. It was really just a small patch of empty land in the middle of nowhere.

“……Huh?”

It was purely by chance that she noticed the strange figure there.

She had been sweeping the yard for a while when she looked up.

Someone was standing in the empty area where the Dungeon of Beginnings was known to be located.

“A woman……?”

A woman was digging into the ground with her hair wildly disheveled.

Thinking she was some strange person, Baek Seol was about to keep her distance when she noticed drops of blood falling beside the woman.

Her mind changed immediately.

“Excuse me! Are you okay?”

Baek Seol hurriedly ran toward her, and then she noticed that something was strange about the woman in front of her.

The woman’s pupils were slit like a reptile’s, and long, pointed teeth protruded from between her lips.

“Uh…….”

“Kyaaah…….”

Baek Seol realized.

The woman standing before her wasn’t human.

And as she stared blankly at the woman lunging toward her, she realized one more thing.

She was in serious danger right now.