I Became the Handyman That the Heroines Are Obsessed With

Episode 4 – Reincarnated into the World Inside the Game (4)

If they had woken up to the chirping of birds coming from outside the window, they might have started a very pleasant day.

“Guest! Wake up and have breakfast!”

Instead of the peace they had hoped for, they woke up to the sound of a woman shouting at the top of her lungs and banging on the door.

“I’ll be down soon……”

The shouting was so loud that people in other rooms responded with reactions like, “We’re up, don’t knock on the door!” or “We’re up, we’re up!”

It seemed that the other guests had also woken up because of the knocking on their door.

Taking their belongings with them, they went down to the first floor and found other people sitting at the dining tables having breakfast.

“You were the guest who came in late last night, right? Please take a seat. I’ll bring your breakfast. I’m sorry for knocking on your door earlier. But, in our village, if you miss breakfast time, there’s nowhere to go and buy something to eat, so I hope you understand.”

A middle-aged woman with a warm expression greeted them when they walked downstairs.

It seemed familiar somehow. They realized that it was her voice that had awakened them earlier by knocking on the door.

Anyway, considering that there would be no time to buy food somewhere else if they missed breakfast, the village seemed not to be very large.

It had looked like a sizable village from a distance, but up close, it wasn’t.

It was already dark when they arrived late at night, so they may not have been able to see the village’s landscape properly, but it made sense when they thought about it.

In any case, as they sat down at the empty table and waited, a female server who appeared to be working there came and placed something on the table.

Upon closer examination, it was a stew-like dish with various ingredients inside, along with a bread that looked hard and rough in texture.

“This is our inn’s specialty, the ‘Daily Stew,’ and the bread next to it is hard, so you should soak it in the stew before eating it. Enjoy your meal.”

After the server’s introduction, they looked at the food on the table.

‘Daily Stew’. The name reminded them of the ‘Eternal Stew’ or ‘Perpetual Stew’ they had seen on an internet community once.

Even the server had called it a ‘hard bread’.

It was indeed very hard, like a stale baguette, when they touched it.

Following her advice, they tried to soak the bread in the stew and eat it.

But the bread was so hard that it didn’t break easily.

It was so tough that they thought it could be used to hammer nails into wood.

‘Well, can’t help it. Let’s smash it with a hammer.’

Unable to break the bread with their own strength, they reluctantly unwrapped the bundle and took out a hammer.

Gripping the handle of the hammer, I swung it down towards the hard bread to break it apart.

—Thwack!

But the bread was so hard that it didn’t break apart with just one hit.

As I swung the hammer down at the bread, the nearby diners, who had been eating, glanced at me and then returned to their meals.

Judging by their reactions, it appeared that I wasn’t the only one using a hammer to break the bread apart.

I swung the hammer at the bread once more.

—Thwack!

This time, I put more force into the swing.

The surface of the bread caved in, and I heard a cracking sound.

Just a little more, and the bread would break into pieces, perfect for dipping into the stew.

I swung the hammer at the bread one last time, with all my strength.

—Thwack!

At the moment the hammer made contact with the bread, a faint halo of light began to surround the bread.

‘What? Did my ability just apply to the bread?’

I thought my ability only worked on fixing tools and weapons.

But the phenomenon occurring before my eyes seemed to suggest that it wasn’t limited to just that.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s happening?”

“Did that person just cast magic?”

“What? A magician?”

The people who had been eating were taken aback by the halo of light that had appeared after I swung the hammer three times.

Listening to the conversations around me, it seemed that they thought I was a magician.

Hey, I’m not a magician. I’m just an ability user with a repair ability!

I had no idea that my ability would be applied to the bread I was about to eat!

As I was contemplating this, the halo of light enveloping the bread before me disappeared.

Curious to see what had changed, I immediately put my hand on the bread……

‘Warm and…soft…?’

The once rock-hard bread that showed no change even after being hit with a hammer had become very warm and soft, like freshly baked bread.

Acting on a hunch, I grasped the bread in both hands and gave a gentle pull – the bread tore along the seams I had created on the surface.

It didn’t break – it tore. It was a phenomenon only seen in freshly baked bread.

“The bread…?”

“It tore…? Following the grain?”

“How… strange.”

“Am I seeing things?”

Others around me who were eating also couldn’t help but marvel at the bread in my hand tearing along the grain.

Excuse me, I was just as surprised as all of you right now.

I brought one of the two torn pieces of bread to my mouth.

The savory smell of well-baked bread filled my nostrils and my instincts screamed.

‘Bite it! Bite it! This is well-baked bread!’

‘Eat it! Eat it without regret and finish every morsel!’

My instinct was telling me to swallow up this bread.

Immediately, I took a bite of the bread and for the first time I found out how incredibly savory and mouthwatering bread can be.

The heat rose from the bite of bread, I then dunked the bread in the stew before moving it to my mouth.

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“Mmm…”

Biting into the bread that had been dunked in the stew, the savory taste of the bread itself and the unique umami of the stew combined to create a storm of flavor in my mouth.

I had never tasted such delicious bread even when I was living on Earth.

‘My ability, it’s really amazing! To think it could apply to food as well!’

Once again, I realised the greatness of my ability.

Thank you, Epitrina.

From now on, I’ll bow three times a day in the direction of where you are when I wake up.

As my endless gratitude to Epitrina ended, I struck the remaining loaf of bread with my hammer three times.

The bread then transformed from a hard, stale loaf into a toasty, warm one that smelled just like it was fresh out of the oven.

Having turned both pieces of bread into delicious morsels, I began to demonstrate what it truly means to devour.

Dunking the bread in the stew was a given, stacking chunks on the bread wasn’t enough, later, I ended up wrapping the stew in the bread.

“Urk.”

The time it took me to finish all the stew and bread wasn’t that long.

I stared down at the now empty bowl of stew.

It was so clean, there was no trace of stew left in it.

To put it a bit dramatically, it was so clean that it could be refilled without needing to be washed.

The probable reason that I was able to relish the food to this extent was my ability.

No, it wasn’t because the probability was high. It was unquestionably due to my ability.

The ‘repair ability’ that claims to fix everything seemed to conceal a secret I was unaware of.

Yesterday, I experimented with ‘weapons,’ ‘tools,’ and ‘miscellaneous items.’

They all had something in common: they were all ‘metal.’ Dagger, frying pan, cast-iron pot, silver coin, and an old ‘metal’ sword.

And today, the hard bread that activated my ability seemed far removed from ‘metal.’

But on second thought, weren’t the handles of the frying pan and the cast-iron pot both made of wood?

Moreover, the hilt of the sword was also made of wood, merely wrapped in leather.

‘What did the teacher say during chemistry class?’

I can’t quite recall what the chemistry teacher had taught then.

But try as I could remember, something similar popped up in my head.

‘Listen carefully. Metals represent inorganic substances, and carbohydrates represent organic substances. Be prepared, those who get this wrong, it’s going to be on the test.’

Thought it might have been something like that, ah! I remember! During high school chemistry, the chemistry teacher really did put this question on our test.

Naturally, I answered incorrectly and got a severe scolding after the paper.

During this, I was given a lecture about the difference between organic and inorganic matter.

‘How interesting. My ability applies not just to inorganic matter but also to organic matter.’

Truthfully, I don’t know much about inorganic and organic matters. I did not major in science in college, after all.

Then, multiple shadows fell behind me.

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

While I was thinking about organic and inorganic matters, three men approached me.

The three men had an uneasy look on their faces, as if they were looking for something but couldn’t find it.

“What’s… the matter?”

“Well, the thing is…”

They hesitated, stretching their words and handed me something.

What they handed over was the hard, crusty bread prepared for breakfast at the inn.

“Why this… Ah!”

I seemed to understand why they handed me the bread.

They must have come to ask if I could make their bread taste as good as mine, too, in a hopeful whim.

“So, you’re asking me to make your bread as enjoyable as mine, right?”

Three men nodded in response to my words.

I sighed inwardly with relief at the sight of them and took out a hammer, hoping that the bread the three people had been holding would taste better as I struck each loaf three times.

Suddenly, the bread held in the hands of the three men had turned into freshly baked bread, just like the one I had eaten, and the three men thanked me and each gave me a fairytale.

As the three men turned away, others also rose from their seats and held out a fairytale and their bread with desperate eyes, and I nodded and accepted a fairytale from each of them, making everyone’s bread tasty.

Thanks to this, everyone was able to have a satisfying breakfast.

I also felt good knowing that people could have a satisfying meal with my ability.

If this is properly utilized, I thought I could leave a positive impression on the heroines.