"Hello, Miss Jea?"
"You remembered my name?"
"It's only been half a day... no, barely a day, hasn't it?"
"I suppose so? I've been so out of it today, you see. And this works out perfectly."
"Yes?"
What exactly worked out? She took something from her bosom and handed it to me. Looking at it, it seemed to be a bundle of paper that counted as "money," and Miss Jea said to me,
"It's part of the payment for selling the Ox Demon's bones."
It seemed Tyrone was called an "Ox Demon" here. So I handed the money back to Miss Jea and said,
"I told you I'd give it all to you, didn't I?"
"There was too much. It ended up exceeding the amount we're allowed to hunt in a day, so it was a burden. That's why I went to look for you at the lodging, but you weren't there, so I came into town."
"I see..."
Just then, Miss Jea looked at the bills in my hand and said,
"So you did have something to sell?"
"Ah, this?"
Miss Jea nodded, so I roughly explained the situation to her. Then she said, as if I were hopeless,
"You could have gone to the staff office there and made the transaction. I suppose no one explained it to you, did they?"
"Explained... what?"
"The currency units."
Then she stepped a little closer to me and spoke in a low whisper.
"You came from another world, so you wouldn't know the differences between this place and that one, would you?"
A fresh apple scent rushed into my nose. Miss Jea was certainly beautiful, a woman with a bright smile, and she seemed to have a good personality too. In that instant, all sorts of fantasies began to unfold in my head.
But I hurriedly came back to my senses almost in a panic and said,
"I-I was in the middle of trying to find out."
"Pfft. Ah, I'm sorry. The way you said you were 'trying' was just funny. Anyway, with that money, you'd only trouble the tavern mistress over there. Wait a moment."
Then she took a wallet from her bosom and pulled out a bill marked "1,000 jeon" to show me.
"This is enough to buy food from that place."
Then Miss Jea took the lead, bought two skewers, and came back. Handing one to me, she said,
"You can think of ten 1,000-jeon bills as one 1-won bill."
A calculator whirled through my mind, and when I thought about the value of the 100-won bill in my hand, I had no choice but to smile awkwardly.
I had nearly tried to pay for a single skewer with a million-won check. There was no nuisance worse than that.
I thanked Miss Jea for helping me avoid a situation where I might have become the focus of public scorn as utter trash. Then, seeing the bills she had been trying to hand me, I confirmed that it was a bundle of thousand-won notes and asked,
"Are Ox Demon bones expensive?"
"Ah, gates where Ox Demons appear almost never open."
"So?"
"Ah, you wouldn't know the circumstances. Well, because rumors spread that Ox Demon bones are a good medicinal ingredient, their price has been skyrocketing."
"A good medicinal ingredient? What are they supposed to be good for?"
Miss Jea, who couldn't answer my question right away, blushed and spoke awkwardly.
"Well, a man's... that place... haah."
Miss Jea turned her head slightly and let out a breath. Along with thinking she was cute, I also found myself regretting that Tyrone's bones, which were apparently good for virility, had gone to waste. Should I go back there and wipe out the remaining Tyrones?
While I was seriously considering it, Miss Jea said to me,
"Let's move first. We're standing right in the middle of the road..."
"Yes, ma'am! I have no idea where anything is, so I can't lead. Please guide me."
At my polite words, Miss Jea laughed with another "pfft." Since there must be a Western world here, and English-speaking countries must certainly exist as well, I watched Miss Jea understand some of the words naturally and followed her as she guided the way.
How long had we walked like that?
We were able to enter a fairly impressive manor-like building, and Miss Jea said to me,
"This is a Cheongru, quite famous even here in Hanyang."
If it was a Cheongru, wasn't that a courtesan house mainly frequented by scholar-officials or nobles?
Thinking that, I looked at Miss Jea, and noticing my expression, she said,
"You don't have to worry. It's not a gibang with gisaeng who sell their bodies."
Right. Since Miss Jea was also a woman, she had understood that I might think it would be delicate for her to come and go from a courtesan house. I felt a little sorry about that.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."
"It's only natural if you don't know the culture. Let's go."
After saying that, Miss Jea took the lead, and a Cheongru employee immediately recognized her and greeted her with, "It's been a while."
But then the employee looked at me with a puzzled expression and grew flustered.
"I'm not alone today, so could you prepare something a bit grand?"
After saying they understood, the employee guided us toward a detached building inside. The Cheongru seemed to operate separate private houses, and when we arrived at the place we had been guided to, I could already see employees busily preparing and carrying in food.
Just as I thought they were insanely well-prepared, Miss Jea's words reached my ears.
"Go on in. If you need anything else, tell them now."
"Ah, well, not yet. But alcohol is served, right?"
"Alcohol? Ah, you said you were locked up for a long time, didn't you?"
"Yes, I think it was a little over three months."
Miss Jea said she understood and asked the employee to bring alcohol. Somehow, I got the feeling that Miss Jea had truly come here to eat, not to drink.
But I looked at Miss Jea with a bit of curiosity, since she normally frequented such an expensive-looking gisaeng house, and she said to me,
"The food here is the best in the area. I'm rather picky when it comes to eating."
Once again, my gaze sent out an apology.
"I'm sorry."
Thinking it was truly amazing how well Miss Jea read my thoughts, I was able to step inside. As expected of a high-class gisaeng house, not a single thing inside—the paintings on the walls, the decorations, even the lighting—felt lacking.
Moreover, seeing the table made from the roots of old solid wood, with a fine spread laid out atop it, made my mouth water on its own.
So, to put "ladies first!" into practice, I laid a cushion at the seat where Miss Jea would sit, and she smiled.
Did the Korean Empire not really do this sort of thing? Miss Jea, her face a little flushed, sat down with a pleased expression and looked at me.
I also sat across from Miss Jea and asked,
"Is the food here really that good?"
"Yes. Enough to be counted among the best in Hanyang?"
"Then, allow me to have a taste."
Then, just as I carefully picked up my chopsticks, alcohol and cups were brought in, and a gentle melody began to drift in from outside the Cheongru.
"There really are a lot of things I can't quite get used to."
Hearing my words, Miss Jea nodded.
"You said that place called the Republic of Korea doesn't have this kind of culture?"
"Yes, it's very different from here. The similarities would be eating, sleeping, um, anyway, ordinary things in life like that?"
My last words trailed off a bit, but Miss Jea seemed to understand roughly and began asking me all sorts of questions, her face full of curiosity.
Miss Jea didn't seem to understand the truth that flapping your gums too much in front of food ruins its taste, but whatever the case, I wasn't exactly in a position to be picky about one thing or another.
Because I thought focusing on food while sitting before a beauty was also a "sin."
So as I kindly answered all of Miss Jea's questions, time passed quickly. And when all the food was starting to grow cold, Miss Jea said,
"We talked too much, didn't we?"
"Ha, ha, I suppose we did?"
"I'm sorry. You're such a good talker that I ended up just listening endlessly."
Miss Jea was saying it as if I had been the only one talking, even though she was the one who had asked all the questions. Still, she was the person buying me food, so I figured I could put up with at least that much and moved my chopsticks.
The first thing I picked up was a golden-brown piece of "dongtae jeon." While I had been in that place, the food I had thought of most was carbohydrates, followed by fish. As expected, the moment I brought it to my mouth, the fishy savor I felt, and the seasoning that was just right, made my eyes naturally go slack, and my face turned into that of someone eating the most perfect food in the world.
As I relaxed and absentmindedly savored the taste, Miss Jea laughed again and said,
"Is it that good?"
"Perfect. Perfection itself."
"I'm glad it suits your taste. Let's eat."
And so the meal began. I became a human vacuum cleaner, devouring food in a frenzy, clearing the dishes as if sweeping everything away, conversation and all, when Miss Jea offered me a drink.
"You'll choke. Have a drink before you eat more."
"Thang you very mush!"
After expressing my thanks while restraining myself as much as possible so food wouldn't fly out, I tossed the alcohol into my mouth. The instant I did, the flavor I felt—the fragrance and taste, as if it had been brewed from flowers—spread throughout my mouth.
It was a drink with a mysterious aroma, like acacia yet also like the floral scent of a kingianum orchid. Looking at it, slightly surprised, I chewed and swallowed my food fiercely before asking Miss Jea,
"What kind of alcohol is this?"
"It's called Ohyangju. As far as I know, it's made by carefully drying various flower petals to preserve their fragrance, then brewing alcohol with them."
I "kept" the name of the alcohol, "Ohyangju," in my head, then picked up the bottle and offered it to Miss Jea as well.
"They say good alcohol isn't meant to be drunk alone. So join me, won't you?"
Miss Jea looked down at the cup awkwardly. Then, with a face as if she had made some kind of decision, she lifted the cup. I poured alcohol into Miss Jea's cup, hurriedly filled my own cup as well, and raised it.
"Cheers?"
Miss Jea tilted her head at my words. So I ended up teaching her a wrong drinking ritual from Earth, and as one cup after another went back and forth, I began to see Miss Jea's eyes gradually grow unfocused.
It seemed she was extremely weak to alcohol—a total lightweight. In the case of most new humans, the general opinion was that their alcohol tolerance became five to ten times stronger than their usual capability, but Miss Jea seemed to be a "born lightweight."
Feeling sorry for her, I reached a situation where I could no longer offer her more alcohol. Looking at Miss Jea, I asked,
"Um, are you all right?"
"Hehe... I... can't really... doo drink."
I was flustered by Miss Jea suddenly becoming adorable. But it wasn't an unpleasant sight. Thinking she was cute and lovable, I considered giving her more alcohol, then stopped. But seeing my action, Miss Jea held out her cup.
"Are you sure you'll be all right?"
At those words, Miss Jea nodded furiously, and I had to deliberate for quite a while. In the end, since she started pestering me, I began giving her one cup, then another, until at some point, Miss Jea slammed her head down onto the table and passed out.
And as I watched something slowly trickle from Miss Jea's mouth onto the table, I had no choice but to let out a sigh.
"Haaah... I knew it. They say you shouldn't drink with a lightweight..."