The Heavenly Demon's Bakery - Chapter 4

(4/656)

‘This franchise shop won’t just fail. It’ll grow even bigger, expand, and keep running these aggressive discount events.’
Their old shop was tucked away in a deep alley, and the person running it didn’t even have basic standards. But the newly opened Sweet Baguette was completely different. It was in a great spot right by the road, and the owner was someone who had been properly taught how to bake.
‘I even heard that jerk trained directly under my father.’
In a way, it was the second factor that led to the family’s ruin. Even though his twin sister, who worked at the hospital, diligently sent home her salary, it was ultimately impossible to cover both the failing business and Jin-hyeok’s hospital bills. To cover the medical costs, they had to sell the house and quickly plummeted into poverty. Even though he lay there like a vegetable… every word of their conversation had been drilled into his mind. And he had fallen into despair.
‘That’s how I ended up in the Murim (martial arts world).’
“What… am I supposed to do about this?”
Jin-hyeok peered through the narrow window of his room. Using his abundant internal energy, he activated his Heart Sight (or Divine Eye). He pierced through houses, then buildings, to fix his gaze upon the discount display shelf set up by the franchise bakery far in the distance.
“Cheese… cake… £21,000 for one whole cake, this week only.”
A whole cheesecake sold at Jin-hyeok’s bakery was £24,000. This was an astoundingly cheap price, drastically undercutting theirs. Jin-hyeok watched the owner of Sweet Baguette talking to a part-time worker.
‘Tell them to sell the day-old bread for £2,000.’
‘Shouldn’t we clearly state that it’s a day old?’
‘It’s written here, very small. Don’t mention it separately.’
Jin-hyeok’s lips parted just slightly. It was something close to a smile, but it wasn’t. It was an expression that, if the Madman of Wide Sight had seen it, he would have instantly grovelled, begged for forgiveness, and pleaded for his life.
‘If I just took him away for a men’s-only chat for a while.’
He thought about it for a moment. Muscle Separation and Bone Displacement, Five Limbs Dismemberment. There were endless ways to have a peaceful conversation.
If the bakery owner disappeared in the middle of the night and never showed up again, the shop would soon close its doors.
The shadow deepened, and an ominous killing intent flared up. A black aura surged. If his father hadn’t called out loudly from outside, he might have immediately opened the window and bolted out with Void-Stepping to commit the act. Murder.
“Darling! Why don’t you just kill it?”
His father’s voice, coincidentally, was aligned with what Jin-hyeok had been thinking, but the subject was different.
“You shouldn’t just kill a bug recklessly. Who knows what connection we might have with it? And this one is a ladybird with seven black spots. Let’s just let it out.”
“Fine. Do as you please.”
His mother and father’s chat was as affectionate as ever. This was typical of his mother, who would pick up an earthworm on the street and place it back on the soil. Jin-hyeok calmed his killing intent and settled his heart once more.
‘The law of this place is different from the one I knew… I’m not in the Central Plains anymore.’
Even so, he couldn’t just ignore it. Jin-hyeok hadn’t forgotten exactly what kind of person that fellow was.
“…Should I just hit back with the exact same cheesecake?”
The only reason he had been copying his father’s techniques using the Heavenly Eye Demonic Art until now was out of consideration for his father’s feelings. He wanted to please his father by becoming his master apprentice and imitating the bread exactly as his father made it.
“Making better bread than Father isn’t difficult.”
Although his father hadn’t realised it yet, the bread Jin-hyeok made was subtly more perfect than his father’s. The air bubbles in the dough were uniform, and every loaf was the exact same size. Furthermore, as his internal energy grew, he gained greater freedom in what he could do.
“The bread would taste better if I baked it with Samadhi True Fire instead of an oven.”
Would it be warm bread that stayed warm even when taken home? Or would it be a fiery bread so hot it could be used as a Hidden Weapon? He would only know once he made it.
‘That could be fun in its own way.’
Jin-hyeok propped his chin on his desk and closed his eyes. This was the switch to turn off the Heavenly Eye Demonic Art.
Bang, bang, bang! The door was flung open immediately after three quick knocks. Only one person knocked like that. Jin-hyeok slowly withdrew his demonic energy. It was an aura that no ordinary person should be exposed to.
“Sis, long time no see.”
It was his twin sister, Jin-hee, who sometimes came home while living in a hospital dormitory in the provinces.
“Are you mental? Why are you suddenly calling me ‘Sis’? I mean, you should call me ‘Sis’, but still.”
“Ah.”
That’s right, he had never called her ‘Sis’ before. That was decades ago. In the jianghu, he had continuously called her ‘Sis’ in his heart. Remembering how they used to bicker over just that trivial title, he had resolved to use it the next time he saw her.
“Because you want to be called ‘Sis’.”
“You’ve finally matured a bit, haven’t you?”
“It’s the adult me making a concession.”
“Ha!”
Jin-hee snorted.
“I heard you’re doing all the work these days? Dad’s face is completely different now. He’s totally brightened up, absolutely beaming, I tell you.”
“It’s nothing major, honestly.”
Jin-hee’s expression became strange. She tilted her head and said,
“This guy… this isn’t like him at all.”
“Did you come here to pick a fight?”
“No, no, no. I just wondered what you were doing, hiding in your room instead of rushing out when your big sister arrived.”
This was Jin-hee, rough around the edges but with a warm heart.
‘Fifty million won in hospital bills… Sis collected that from her wedding fund. I heard she completely emptied her savings, which she was using for a rented flat deposit, moved into a dormitory, and gave it to me.’
Although that event hadn’t happened yet, he would repay the favour.
“Why did you come?” Jin-hyeok asked.
“To watch TV together. It’ll help your career, too.”
“What sort of…”
What he needed now was time alone. He still needed more time to reach the Great Completion of the Dark Heaven Heart Method (Am-cheon Sim-beop) at the 10th level.
‘Can’t I even watch TV on my own?’
Jin-hyeok restrained himself from saying it out loud and got up. The Dark Heaven Heart Method was a mind technique belonging to the moving school, not the orthodox school, so it didn’t strictly require the lotus position; it could be practised while lying down, sitting, or even walking. He had deliberately adopted the lotus position, considering his vastly lower realm compared to the past, but there was no need for it.
‘I can do the Minor Celestial Circuit (Sojucheon) while watching TV.’
Jin-hyeok said earnestly,
“If that is your wish, I can grant that much.”
“Oh, you’re being so serious!”
Jin-hee went out first and sat down in front of the television. His father and mother were sitting on the narrow sofa. Jin-hyeok unconsciously sat down in the lotus position next to Jin-hee, who was sitting on the floor.
“Your posture is incredibly straight. Did you learn that in the army?”
“Well, something like that.”
Jin-hyeok waved his hand, too lazy to explain.
<Right, shall we all take a look at a neighbourhood bakery in our local area?>
A middle-aged reporter said with a smile. It was a programme exploring local bakeries.
“It’s just starting now!”
‘So, that’s why she wanted to watch it.’
She hadn’t brought him out just to watch TV; she’d wanted him to see this specific programme.
Today’s subject, filmed by the producer, was a neighbourhood bakery operating at the southern tip of the region.
They showed the process of tearing off and placing the dough one by one onto a tray, followed immediately by a tasting scene. White steam wafted up from the bread as it was torn open along its grain.
“This bread is made with freshly milled brown rice! It’s good for people with diabetes to eat too,”
Customers piled bread mountain-high onto their trays and bought it. His father said enviously,
“It’s a healthy bread that’s popular these days. That’s all nonsense, though. Bread loses too much flavour to be healthy. It’s one of two things: delicious but not healthy, or healthy but not delicious.”
Despite his criticism, he kept rolling his eyes, clearly envious of the endless stream of customers.
“When are you happiest?”
The reporter held the microphone up and asked, and the bakery owner smiled. At the same time, his hands didn’t stop as he continued to bag the bread in plastic.
“When a customer who has been here once remembers the bread and comes back to buy it again… even if they don’t say it was delicious, the fact that they came back makes me so happy.”
Next to his wife on the TV screen, the husband, who ran the bakery with her, nodded and added,
“For me, it’s when my son says he wants to follow me into the bakery business. I felt like I owned the whole world then. I thought, ‘My child understands and appreciates the dream I want to pursue. He looked at his father and mother and thought this life was good,’ you know.”
His father watched the screen and nodded. He deliberately ignored Jin-hyeok and spoke while looking at the TV, but the corners of his eyes were damp. Even without using the Heavenly Eye Demonic Art, Jin-hyeok could tell that his father’s eyes were slightly moist. His father’s voice was choked up.
“I like that, too. Wouldn’t it be great to run the bakery with your son, passing it down through generations? There are so many third-generation shops in Japan, but in our country…”
“Yes, Father.”
‘I can make dreams like that come true for you anytime.’
Jin-hyeok naturally placed his hands on his father’s shoulders.
“I’ll give you a shoulder massage.”
His father squinted and smiled.
“You’re tired too, though.”
His father, who had known for a month how refreshing Jin-hyeok’s massage was, did not strongly refuse. It seemed he secretly hoped for it. Accepting this as permission, Jin-hyeok lightly began to Trace Acupuncture Points and Invigorate Meridians (Chu-gong-gwa-hyeol).
“Ohhh, that feels good.”
His mother, whose gaze had been fixed on the TV, turned her eyes away and sighed. Jin-hee snuggled up close to her mother, giving her a massage and acting cute.
“It’s a nice day with the whole family together, so why the long face, Mum? Are you upset that Jin-hyeok is only massaging Dad? You’ve got me!”
As Jin-hee massaged her mother’s shoulders, his mother sighed again.
“Darling. In our current state, it’s even hard for us to keep going. I’m just worried we’re getting in the way of our son’s future. We should only pass it on if the shop’s doing well. Let’s not get greedy and block a child with a bright future.”
Jin-hyeok interjected into his mother’s words.
“That won’t happen.”
He shook his head and took his mother’s hand.
“I’ll make sure it works out somehow.”
“We can do the telecom discounts and the ‘get one free bread when you spend over ten thousand won’ thing too. But…”
“We can’t keep it up for long,” Jin-hyeok smiled at his mother.
“We just need to make better bread. Then everyone will be drawn to our shop.”
Before long, the local bakery programme, ‘Neighbourhood Bakery, World-Class Flavour,’ finished.
As Jin-hyeok tried to get up, Jin-hee grabbed his sleeve.
“Watch this too.”
Rainbows and clouds, and grapes and deer. Macarons, cakes, and cookies quickly flashed across the screen.
<Immediately following this, the re-broadcast of ‘Adriano Jonbu’s Dessert Survival Show Season 1’ will begin!>
“What’s this now?”
“He’s a world-class pâtissier. You should watch and learn from things like this.”
“…!”
While watching TV together, Jin-hee asked,
“Why aren’t you taking off your mask when you’re watching TV inside the house?”
“I’ve got a cold.”
“Should I go fetch a drip and set one up for you?”
“I don’t like injections.”
“What a child.”
Jin-hyeok shook his head. Since he couldn’t explain that his Protective Internal Energy (Ho-shin Gang-gi) would deflect the needle, he simply kept silent.