I am back – Chapter 6

To survive on the battlefield, especially within the territory of the Demon King, all of my senses had to be maximally activated.

It’s obvious that sight and hearing are important. These are the two senses that have developed most for the survival of living beings. I need to perceive danger with my eyes and gather additional information that my field of vision cannot capture with my ears. Not only information about approaching enemies but also how loud my footsteps are and whether the equipment on my body is making any noise.

Touch is no exception. I must be sensitive to which way the wind is blowing and whether I have any injuries. Occasionally, a keen sense of touch helps to detect traps that may be disguised as ordinary objects or hidden from view.

Taste gives me a rough sense of how dangerous what I’m currently eating is or how necessary it is for my body. Whether I’m craving something sweet or salty. In everyday life, it might not lead to significant danger, but on the battlefield where the food is limited, it’s a different story. Through what my mouth desires, I could roughly gauge my current condition.

And then there’s smell.

Smell is quite important for survival.

When magic permeates the air in extremely high levels, it gives off a foul odor. If I catch a whiff of something rotting nearby, it’s a warning sign. I must leave the area immediately, or if that’s impossible, the Saintess should prepare herself in a defensive stance within her protective barrier.

If I smell burning, it likely means that there are enemy troops nearby. If such a smell is detected near a village, it’s likely that the village has already been conquered by the Demon King’s army. Among all the senses, human olfaction is the fastest to detect changes. It can quickly tire and adapt, dulling in sensitivity, but it reacts first whenever a situation suddenly shifts.

However, being so sensitive also means it’s easy to be deceived.

Deceiving sight is difficult. The eyes directly perceive the refraction of light, so unless there is magic that can directly attack our brain’s processing of those results or if one doesn’t use perfect camouflage magic, it isn’t so easy. Sometimes, well-made camouflage suits can hide better than magic.

In our party, there is Arna, the Elf. Deceiving the eyes and ears of an elf is twice as difficult as deceiving those of a human. Thanks to her, who was in charge of scouting, we were seldom misjudging things visually.

When it comes to hearing, it’s more effective to conceal sounds than to deceive them. If there’s a noise in a place where there should be none, that’s suspicious in itself. Especially if the sounds of people chattering or someone calling for help are heard in the Demon King’s territory, there’s little doubt that it’s a trap.

But with smell…

Being the most sensitive and responsive to changes, it’s also easy to be misled.

Even in this world, where everything is different from where I used to live, there are some smells I remember.

Every morning, I walked to school with my older sister. On our way, there was a bakery. It wasn’t a famous one but rather a neighborhood bakery where three breads cost a thousand won.

At “three for a thousand won,” the breads were small, and looking back now, they weren’t particularly tasty either.

Yet every morning when I passed by, smelling the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread was incredibly tempting.

Occasionally, if we had a little money, my sister and I would buy three breads for a thousand won. We’d share them one by one, and my sister would keep the last one to break in half and share with me on our way back from school.

“Cream bread might spoil.”

Thanks to her insistence, the bread we always ate last was the Soboru Bread. The Soboru topping on the dry bread was always a bit scant. My sister always gave me the bread with the most Soboru…

Even though I didn’t grow up in a culture that had bread for breakfast, I was particularly drawn to the smell of bread from the other side of that world. I knew that I was in this world, and that the smell was different from the bakery I knew, yet I would often follow that scent to buy bread. Unfortunately, the Soboru Bread we used to share was nowhere to be found.

Even now, I was walking along, following a faint fragrance.

I had no information about the nearby shops. Most of the area used to be filled with residential buildings, and it would take a few bus stops to reach any bustling district.

There weren’t many stores that had been around for a long time. While some had existed for over ten years, they were closer to pubs than restaurants. Now, after five years, there must have been several changes with the restaurants.

Above all, this felt more like a neighboring area than the one I used to live in. I had been there a few times but remembered little. It felt like the roads and sidewalks were more organized than before.

The bakery we used to pass by must have vanished by now.

“Ah.”

The source of the smell wasn’t too far away.

It wasn’t a large bakery, but a sunflower painted on a white background caught my eye. It wasn’t such a big painting, but the bright yellow sunflower stood out against the white background.

And around that flower, the words “Haeba” and “ragi” were written at regular intervals.

The bakery’s name was “Sunflower.”

It looked cleaner than the three-for-a-thousand-won bakery from my childhood.

“……”

It smelled like freshly baked bread wafting from inside the bakery. It didn’t seem crowded inside. Perhaps it was due to the fact that it was a weekday. There weren’t any large workplaces nearby, so that made sense.

Still, through the sunny windows, I could see the staff busily moving around inside.

“Hmm…”

To be honest, I was a little scared to go in.

Outside the clean-looking shop, there were tables and chairs set up so people could eat something outside. They probably sell coffee inside.

However, I had never been to a café like this.

I had been to pubs, and I had been to Kimbap Cheonguk and fast-food places when I lived here. But I had never stepped into such a clean and stylish café. During my days without money, I didn’t understand that you had to pay several thousand won for a drink, and such cafés weren’t common in this world. While the salons of nobles might feel similar, I still felt an aversion to them.

So… it felt oddly burdensome. It was as if I shouldn’t enter… as if only those who could properly enjoy such an atmosphere should go in.

Of course, the shop owner didn’t set it up with that intention.

“……”

Nevertheless, I couldn’t easily ignore that smell of bread.

Well, I do have plenty of money now… Of course, I didn’t bring cash, but I could pay with my smartphone payment app.

“Phew.”

I exhaled and relaxed a bit.

Yeah, I’m just going in to buy some bread. What’s so hard about that?

Overcoming hesitation is courage.

Thinking about the words of past heroes, I walked toward the bakery door with determination.

And then I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Ting-a-ling, the small bell on the door rang to announce my arrival.

“Ah.”

A woman who had been busily moving around behind the counter let out a short sound and exclaimed, “Welcome!”

She smiled at me brightly.

“Ah.”

Upon seeing her, I let out a short sound and froze.

“……?”

With a surprised expression at my sudden entrance, she looked at me, tilting her head.

I thought my height had decreased a bit since becoming a woman, but it seemed I wasn’t particularly short compared to other women. She seemed just slightly shorter than me.

Her look hadn’t changed much. Even though five years had passed, she still appeared much like her old self.

Oh, wait. Her hair had been cut shorter.

She used to wear her long hair down to her back in a neat ponytail, but now it was cut to shoulder length. It was still tied back, but it looked more like she put it up for convenience, letting the loose strands fall down.

Was that a uniform for the bakery? She was wearing a flat-brimmed baker’s hat, a white blouse, and a dark blue apron resembling a baker’s attire.

It was a look I had never seen before.

“Ah.”

Only after our eyes met again did I realize I had been standing there blankly.

That wasn’t much movement; I had only shifted from the door where I was blocking the entrance.

“Um… that is…”

I had thought that upon our reunion, I would start the conversation smoothly from the beginning.

“Yeah?”

However, now that I stood in front of her, I had no idea how to approach her. What should I even say? To her, it felt like this was our first meeting.

How do two people meeting for the first time greet each other? How can we continue a conversation and become closer?

I couldn’t remember how we first talked when we met. Not a single memory came to mind. Even in my earliest memories, she was already smiling and extending her hand to me.

“Ah, um…”

In the end, not knowing how to start a conversation, I simply said, “I came to buy some bread….”

How foolish.

“Um….”

Seeing a customer at the bakery entrance who simply wanted to buy bread left her speechless for a moment, but then she brightened up and said, “Yes, feel free to look around as much as you like.”

She smiled just like the girl I remembered from my childhood.

It made me doubt why I couldn’t recognize her from outside the window.

Five years since leaving this world.

At the end of that short yet long time, I finally had the chance to meet her again.