Dungeon Bakery – Chapter 53

Author: isuzuuy

<Quest: The Birdman Ella’s Sorrow>

The Birdman Ella is deeply heartbroken and cannot hear anything anyone says to her. Why not try comforting her with a bread she might like?

Condition: Make Lemon Cream Bread and give it to Ella

Reward: Ella’s Survival
** Acquire 20,000 points **

Upon Failure: Ella’s Death

So the Birdman’s name was Ella.

Baek Seol stared at the quest window and read it over several times. Ella liked lemon cream bread, huh?

Lemon cream bread……

It wasn’t in her recipes.

Do I need to use Recipe Creation?

Just like when she had made Sugar Cookies last time, it seemed she would have to create the recipe herself. If it was simply cream bread, she thought she could make it with the ingredients she already had.

But where am I supposed to get lemons?

Naturally, she would have to find them in the dungeon.

Baek Seol furrowed her brow. Where in the dungeon could she find lemons?

Ella’s condition is bad. I need to make lemon cream bread as soon as possible.

She looked at Ella, who had practically collapsed beside the Yggdrasil. She was much more emaciated than she had been a week ago. If she were an ordinary human, she might already have died.

“Lucy. Where can I find lemons in the dungeon?”

“Lemons, you say, ppi……?”

Lucy must have seen the quest, too, so he would know why Baek Seol was looking for lemons.

His injured wing had almost completely healed, and he could fly again. He landed on Baek Seol’s shoulder.

“I don’t know that either, ppi. I used to know, but the terrain changed when the world was fragmented due to □□□□□’s arrangements, ppi.”

“Hmm……”

Uncharacteristically for Lucy, his voice sounded a little dejected. He seemed sad that he couldn’t be of any help to Baek Seol.

Just as the two of them were looking at each other with their shoulders drooping……

An unexpected savior came to their rescue.

“Whinny!”

“Pal……?”

For some reason, Pal hadn’t left since Baek Seol brought Ella into the dungeon.

Pal trotted over to Baek Seol and gently rubbed his cheek against her head.

Then he lightly caught the sleeve of her clothes in his teeth and tugged her toward him, as though telling her to follow.

“Pal. Do you know where the lemons are?”

“Whinny!”

Pal nodded as if to say yes.

Baek Seol’s face brightened.

Come to think of it, Pal probably had the largest range of movement here. If so, he would also be the one who knew the dungeon’s various regions best.

“Great. Then let’s go.”

“Whinny!”

Baek Seol tightened her shoelaces and pressed her lips together.

Even if we run into a dangerous monster…… P-Pal will protect me, right?

After seeing him subdue Ella in an instant, surely he could at least serve as her bodyguard.

Baek Seol glanced at her inventory.

And I have my weapon, too.

The mop was proudly displaying its imposing presence in one corner of her inventory.

Baek Seol silently cheered herself on and was about to set off when……

“No, wait a second.”

A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she stopped.

If Pal starts running, will I be able to keep up?

The answer was no.

Besides……

I don’t even know how far away the lemons are.

Considering how far Pal could roam, she had no idea how long the journey might take. They could be really far away.

“Why aren’t you going, ppi?”

At Lucy’s question, Baek Seol quietly opened her inventory and took out the items she had obtained earlier.

<System: Equipping the Eight-Colored Unicorn with a saddle.>

“Whinny?”

“Hmm. It suits you very well, Pal.”

A saddle had suddenly appeared on his back, and Pal seemed uncomfortable with it. But Baek Seol quickly soothed him before awkwardly climbing on.

Ack. It’s so high up!

Getting onto the saddle was hard enough, but finding her balance once she was up there was even harder.

Baek Seol gripped the reins tightly and swallowed nervously.

“P-Pal. Let’s go!”

“Neighhh!”

His discomfort lasted only a moment. Apparently delighted to have Baek Seol riding on his back, Pal began running, his tail swishing wildly.

“Waaaaah! Paaaal!”

“Neighhh!”

The wind relentlessly slapped her cheeks. Her hair, tied into two ponytails, kept whipping toward her mouth.

“Ugh—ptoo!”

Baek Seol bent her upper body as low as she could, desperately trying to minimize the wind’s impact.

Pal ran and ran for a long time.

Until she could no longer feel her backside……

At last, Pal stopped.

They had arrived somewhere she had never seen before.

***

“You seem to have been quite busy lately, Guild Master Jeong Dongwon.”

The man smiled pleasantly.

He had gentle features and a warm expression, but the man addressed as Jeong Dongwon didn’t seem to share that impression.

“I-I’m sorry, Director. We’ve been searching……”

Fear filled Jeong Dongwon’s eyes. Cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

Jeong Dongwon was the guild master of Phoenix, the guild that competed with Legend for the top ranks, including the number-one and number-two spots. He was a capable man who had raised Phoenix from a third-rate guild to one of the top guilds.

But he didn’t look like that now.

Not in front of the man standing before him.

The man called Director gazed out at the Han River through the glass window and spoke in a genial voice.

“Of course. I’m sure you’re doing your very best to find them. I certainly don’t think our esteemed Guild Master would be slacking off.”

“Y-yes, of course! This is such an important matter. How could I possibly slack off?”

The man sitting across from Jeong Dongwon was Ha Jaemin.

There wasn’t a single person in South Korea who didn’t know his name. He was the one currently running Dokjin Corporation in Chairman Ha Namsik’s absence.

He seemed to be competing with his fellow co-director, Ha Jihyo, for the position of next chairman, but all the real power was in his hands. No one doubted that Ha Jaemin would be the next chairman.

Jeong Dongwon hurriedly continued.

“I will find that monster, no matter what. Please give me just a little more time……”

With cold sweat streaming down the back of his neck as he bowed his head, he looked like a mouse standing before a cat.

Ha Jaemin’s eyes curved as he smiled and nodded.

“Of course. I can give you more time. After all, you’re our Guild Master. One week. Bring that Birdman princess to me within one week.”

“Y-yes. I will absolutely find that princess……”

Jeong Dongwon nodded, his face stiff.

As Ha Jaemin walked past him, he asked,

“Ah. Guild Master, would you like a cup of coffee? I recently got a new machine. The coffee tastes quite good.”

“Pardon? Oh, yes. I’d be grateful.”

Ha Jaemin made coffee with the machine and leaned against the table. His narrow, monolid eyes curved pleasantly.

The sound of coffee trickling into the cup filled the room, and its rich aroma began to spread through the director’s office.

“I was really surprised this time. I never thought that warrior would still be alive. Didn’t you say you’d taken care of him properly back then?”

“Ahahaha…… I suppose the reports from my subordinates were incorrect.”

Jeong Dongwon laughed awkwardly as he accepted the coffee Ha Jaemin held out to him.

Ha Jaemin’s smile deepened.

“That guy was so fast that the CCTV footage barely captured him. He really must be a Birdman warrior.”

“Birdman warriors are strong, indeed. They were the reason we couldn’t conquer the Birdmen’s dungeon in one go last time.”

Jeong Dongwon spoke seriously about the Birdmen’s strength, failing to notice Ha Jaemin’s increasingly pronounced smile.

Then he began to complain.

“And for monsters, they’re incredibly intelligent, too. It seems the others deliberately acted as bait to protect that princess. Every single one we dealt with this time committed suicide right before we could capture them.”

“……Hmm.”

The corners of Ha Jaemin’s mouth curled upward.

He approached Jeong Dongwon, holding his coffee. Then he raised the hand holding the cup above Jeong Dongwon’s head.

“That’s true. Ah, now that I think about it, if you want to catch those magnificent Birdmen, you won’t have time to sit around drinking coffee.”

“……Aagh!”

Hot coffee poured over Jeong Dongwon’s head.

Jeong Dongwon let out a scream of pain, but Ha Jaemin tipped the cup until every last drop had fallen, then flung it backward.

The cup struck the bulletproof window and shattered with a sharp crash.

“You’d better get moving, Guild Master.”

“Y-yes! I’ll leave right now!”

“Before that.”

“Pardon?”

Jeong Dongwon asked with his face twisted in pain. Ha Jaemin smiled pleasantly.

“You remember there’s someone else you need to find, besides the Birdmen, don’t you? I haven’t heard anything at all. I was starting to wonder if our Guild Master had forgotten.”

“I-I’ll make sure to find that craftsman, Oh Juk-heon, as well.”

“Good. Then you may go.”

Once Ha Jaemin gave him permission, Jeong Dongwon hurried out without even stopping to wipe the coffee off himself.

Click. The door closed.

Left alone, Ha Jaemin made another cup of coffee and muttered to himself.

“There’s no way that Birdman warrior could have broken into the research lab all by himself.”

There had to be someone on the inside helping him.

Ha Jaemin narrowed his eyes and looked through the window to the side.

Across the Han River-facing side of the building stood a twin tower, identical to the one he occupied.

On the same floor of the twin building facing his own was a director’s office exactly like this one.

“Ha Jihyo…… That bitch?”

She wasn’t related to him by a single drop of blood, but she was still his younger sister.