Dungeon Bakery Chapter 52

She’s finally come back……

Baek Seol looked at the Birdman, who was crying sorrowfully. No sound came from her, but the sight of tears falling one after another somehow made her seem even more pitiful.

“So the world where the Birdmen originally lived…… is this Dungeon of Beginnings?”

“Hmm……”

Lucy took a moment to choose his words before answering.

“Well, it’s hard to say that’s entirely true, ppi. But I suppose you could say it is, ppi.”

Baek Seol sat down on the grass and waited for the Birdman to stop crying. She had no way of knowing what it felt like to finally return to the place where she had once lived.

Instead, she checked the post on Another that she hadn’t been able to finish reading earlier.

“There was a post related to magic stones……”

Title:DidEveryoneSeetheNews?ThoseMonstersDidn’tHaveMagicStones,Right?Comments:2Title: Did Everyone See the News? Those Monsters Didn’t Have Magic Stones, Right? Comments: 2

Since her major was related to magic stones and energy, it was only natural that she would be interested in a post about them. Baek Seol quickly opened it.

Title:DidEveryoneSeetheNews?ThoseMonstersDidn’tHaveMagicStones,Right?Author:MamiSonTitle: Did Everyone See the News? Those Monsters Didn’t Have Magic Stones, Right? Author: Mami Son

Content: I’m not the only one who saw that, right? When those Phoenix guys caught that humanoid monster earlier, no magic stone dropped. Are there monsters without magic stones? Or was it so ridiculously tiny that no one could see it?

Comments:

-StrongestHunter: No bait, please.

-PureAndInnocentChild: Maybe it just wasn’t caught on camera.

“Magic stones…… were missing?”

Baek Seol blinked.

Magic stones were the stones that appeared when monsters were killed. Their quality and color varied depending on the monster’s rank.

Magic stones themselves contained an unknown form of energy, and her academic advisor, Professor Kim, was researching that very energy.

If the energy contained in magic stones could be used by humans as an alternative energy source, it would be an astonishing discovery.

And if that future became a reality, it was obvious that whoever achieved it would be rolling in money. That was the future Baek Seol was pursuing by working as Professor Kim’s student.

But a monster without a magic stone?

“Does that even make sense?”

Baek Seol let out a hollow laugh.

It was obviously bait, just as the comments suggested.

Every monster discovered after the Great Cataclysm had a magic stone. Even plant-type monsters that did nothing but breathe would spit out a low-grade magic stone before disappearing.

And wasn’t the Birdman supposed to be a higher-ranked monster? Of course she would have dropped a magic stone when she disappeared.

Perhaps Lucy had heard Baek Seol muttering, because he spoke in an indifferent voice.

“A monster without a magic stone, you say, ppi? Aren’t they right here, ppi?”

“……Huh?”

Lucy’s eyes shifted from Pal to Gu-chil, then to Birdman. Baek Seol followed his gaze all the way and her eyes widened.

“What? None of them have magic stones?”

“That’s right, ppi. But why are you suddenly looking for magic stones, ppi? They’re practically shackles that □□ placed on □□□□□, ppi.”

Lucy clicked his beak, sounding deeply displeased. He seemed to want to flap his wings in frustration, but the splint prevented him from doing so freely.

“Then are magic stones bad?”

“Hmph. They’re extremely ominous and unpleasant, ppi.”

Lucy turned his head away as though he didn’t even want to talk about them.

Through Lucy, Baek Seol realized two things.

First, magic stones had been created by some unknown being…… one that Lucy particularly disliked.

And second……

All of these guys are monsters without magic stones?

The monsters native to the Dungeon of Beginnings might not have magic stones inside their bodies……

It was an astonishing and bewildering revelation. Especially for Baek Seol, who had spent all this time researching magic stones under Professor Kim.

It was about as shocking as finding out that someone she had always assumed was a woman was actually a man.

Why don’t the monsters in the Dungeon of Beginnings have magic stones?

If what Lucy said was really true……

Questions began bubbling up one after another.

Most scholars who studied magic stones argued that they were equivalent to a monster’s life. In other words, they believed that monsters could live and breathe because they had magic stones inside their bodies.

But the creatures right in front of her were breathing just fine.

Then that theory is completely invalid.

Baek Seol scratched the back of her head.

If this were proven, it might cost several world-renowned scholars their livelihoods. Well, it wasn’t as though she needed to worry about their futures.

“But, Lucy.”

She wanted to ask more about magic stones, but when she saw the Birdman still crying, all her questions slipped away.

“Is it okay to leave that Birdman like this? She’s been crying for such a long time.”

The Birdman continued shedding tears as though she intended to drain every last drop of moisture from her body. Baek Seol was beginning to worry that something terrible might happen if she kept this up.

“She’s been crying ever since you shoved her in here, so it has been quite a while, ppi.”

Then a considerable amount of time really had passed.

Realizing she couldn’t leave things as they were, Baek Seol stood up.

Then she cautiously spoke.

“Um……”

Thump!

Just as she expected.

While Baek Seol was carefully approaching the Birdman, the woman’s body swayed, and she collapsed onto the grass.

“Ah! Are you okay?”

Baek Seol hurried over to her.

Fortunately, the Birdman was breathing evenly. It seemed she had cried herself to sleep from sheer exhaustion.

“For now…… I think it’s best to leave her like this.”

Baek Seol covered her with the blanket she had taken off earlier and carefully laid her down on the grass.

The Birdman’s face was a mess from all her tears.

Just what did this place mean to her?

Baek Seol stared at the woman who had poured out a waterfall of emotions right in front of her, then stood up.

“Lucy, could you stay here and let me know when the Birdman wakes up? I’ll go prepare some bread.”

Seo Doha had processed the ingredients for her, so she had plenty of materials to make bread. Since she didn’t know what kind of bread the Birdman liked, she planned to make everything she could.

And then……

Three days later, Baek Seol was practically threatening the Birdman into eating.

 

***

 

“Are you so desperate to die?”

“……”

Baek Seol twisted her face into a fierce scowl and stomped her foot against the ground.

She was wearing a pretty pink apron and holding a pile of bread in both hands. It never occurred to her that no matter how hard she stomped, she looked anything but threatening.

No, she wasn’t in a state of mind to think about that.

In a chilling voice, Baek Seol said,

“If you don’t eat this, you’re going to die! Do you want to die just like this? Huh?”

“……”

The Birdman sat leaning against the trunk of the Yggdrasil, refusing to respond.

Her gaze was fixed on empty space, and her expression didn’t change, as though she couldn’t hear a word Baek Seol was saying.

She was just like a doll.

Baek Seol rummaged through the bread, took out a red bean bun, and held it out to her.

“I’m telling you to eat just one bite. You haven’t eaten anything since you came here.”

Just as Baek Seol said, the Birdman hadn’t put a single thing in her mouth since they met.

Not even a sip of water.

Judging by how she had sobbed while looking at the Yggdrasil, she didn’t seem to have lost her mind.

“Why are you doing this?”

“……”

Baek Seol asked as though she didn’t know, but deep down, she could sense the reason.

She couldn’t help but feel it when she looked into those vacant eyes that held nothing at all.

The Birdman had let go of her desire to live.

“You asked me to help you, remember? So I’m trying to help you…… But what am I supposed to do if you give up like this before I even get the chance?”

“……”

Baek Seol felt as though anger were boiling up inside her.

Why was she so angry? She didn’t know herself.

But what was she supposed to do about it when she was angry?

Baek Seol clenched her teeth.

“You spoke our language, didn’t you? Then you should be able to understand at least some of what I’m saying. Take my hand and let me help you. So eat, okay?”

“……”

She placed the red bean bun in Birdman’s hand, but it promptly fell to the ground.

The woman hadn’t put any strength into her fingers.

Baek Seol felt something inside her head snap.

“Do you really want to die?”

“……”

Baek Seol’s voice dropped to an unbearably low pitch.

She dumped the bread she had been holding beside the Birdman and crouched down.

“There’s someone I know. He told me that when he was little, he wanted to die, too. But a little girl gave him a gift every day, and that’s what kept him alive.”

“……”

It was the story of Seo Doha’s childhood, which she had heard from him.

She wasn’t sure whether it was all right to tell Birdman his story like this, but Baek Seol pressed her lips together once and continued.

“I can’t do what that girl did, but I want to help you. So please, try to live. I said I’d help you, but you’re dying right in front of me before I can even do anything…… Think about the person who has to stand here and watch you do this.”

“……”

At that moment, the Birdman turned her head toward Baek Seol.

For the first time, those empty eyes held Baek Seol in their gaze.

Her lips moved as though she were trying to say something, but Baek Seol couldn’t hear her.

By then, she had learned through Lucy that humans couldn’t hear the Birdman’s language.

“I don’t know what you’re saying. Say it in our language.”

“……”

But the Birdman drew her lips together in a faint smile, then turned her gaze away again.

Baek Seol couldn’t take it anymore and sprang to her feet.

At this rate, she would have to try forcing something else into the woman’s mouth.

Four days after that.

It was the seventh day since Baek Seol had first met Birdman.

The Birdman was still refusing to eat…… and Baek Seol was at her wits’ end.

At this rate, I’m going to die first.

Looking down at the Birdman, who could barely even keep her eyes open anymore, Baek Seol crouched down and clasped both of her hands.

It was the first time she had touched her like this.

“Please…… live. I’m begging you.”

Damn it. Why was she pleading with this monster like this?

After a week of worrying herself sick, Baek Seol was desperate. At this rate, the Birdman really was going to die.

Just as Baek Seol rubbed her eyes roughly with her sleeve, feeling them grow hot, a system window suddenly appeared before her.

<System: A quest has been generated!>