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The Doting Husband's Order
Episode 9. The Doting Husband's Order
[The Unseen King of the Underworld asks if you can make a lunchbox for his wife.]
Shortly after receiving that message from a Constellation.
A man was sitting in the hall of my restaurant, 'Yeonseong's,' after business hours had ended. A white man in his mid-forties, wearing a neat suit, who looked like he would have perfectly fit the description of a cold, handsome man in his youth. He sat in the chair, staring intently at me.
Gulp.
What kind of gaze was that terrifying?
Just receiving that gaze made me swallow dryly. It was chilling to the bone, but I could feel a hint of curiosity mixed into his eyes. I moistened my parched mouth with saliva and asked quietly.
"Um, so you're saying you're a Constellation, right?"
"That is correct. I am the Constellation 'The Unseen King of the Underworld.'"
The person right in front of me was clearly human no matter how I looked at him, so of course I had to debate whether I could believe this man calling himself a Constellation.
As if sensing my thoughts, the middle-aged man frowned in displeasure.
"How dare you not believe the words of a Constellation."
"Haha, believe it or not, I've met Constellations a few times before. They used to take me to their domains?"
The man spoke as if being doubted was unpleasant, but having experienced two Constellations, Cain and Thrud, I could speak quite confidently.
Then the man furrowed his brow.
"Such undignified acts are what lowly beings do. The only humans who can enter my domain are dead souls."
Watching him speak in a voice that seemed to dismiss them as trivial, I couldn't help but be puzzled.
Lowly?
They were Cain from the Bible and Thrud, daughter of Thor, weren't they?
Then the man slowly rose from his seat, looking at me.
Amazingly, at the same time, black energy began erupting around the man like a halo.
"I am Hades, the great King of the Underworld who receives and rules over the dead from below."
[The Unseen King of the Underworld manifests through an incarnation and gazes at you.]
The man with a cold yet arrogant expression, no, the Constellation Hades, spoke to me.
"What do you think? Can you not believe me even now? If that is the case, I shall take you to my 'home,' and then you will believe."
'Hades's home' literally meant the underworld.
So that was a threat to kill me, right?
I stood up from my seat as confidently as Hades and faced him.
"Constellation Hades...."
Hades's incarnation stared at me as if puzzled by my actions.
I looked at him and immediately bowed my head in apology.
"I apologize for not recognizing you!"
Right. If it was Hades, it made sense for him to call Cain or Thrud lowly.
He was one of the three great gods of Greek and Roman mythology. On the same level as Zeus and Poseidon.
And on top of that, he was the god of the underworld.
No, talking back to the Lord of the Underworld was basically shouting "Please kill me!"
Pride be damned—I had to survive!
Constellation Hades looked at me and spoke with an indifferent expression.
"Enough. Raise your head. It is only natural for earthly humans not to know of incarnations."
"Incarnation?"
According to his explanation, incarnation was a privilege available only to Constellations of sufficiently lofty rank, the ability to temporarily borrow their contractor's body and descend to the earthly realm.
"However, the reason I have personally set foot here, despite being an incarnation, is because I saw praise of your cooking."
"Praise?"
"Indeed."
Hades skillfully took out his status window and began manipulating it. It was similar to the status windows that Awakened saw, but the language written there was Divine Speech, so I couldn't read it. Therefore, Hades read the contents directly to me.
"Hello, Constellations!! It's Thor's Daughter~!
The weather's getting warm these days and cooking is such a hassle, right?
I really, really hate cooking too, so sometimes I just want to order food.
But amazing fact! There's food made by humans?
Food made by humans. Doesn't that make you want to try it?
That's all for my post on food made by humans!
Please add me as a neighbor, fellow Constellations!"
"......."
"I added her as a neighbor through this post and received a message, obtaining information about you."
A power blog-style post being read aloud by Hades, the god of the underworld, with a stoic expression.
And the picture faintly visible behind the status window was somehow a familiar thumbs-up image?
I never thought I'd see such a post on the Constellations' community.
I felt somewhat dizzy.
Though Hades, who had read the entire thing aloud, maintained his dignity as if nothing had happened.
"I have wasted much time. I cannot remain as an incarnation for long. Let us get to the main point."
Constellation Hades withdrew the energy radiating like a halo and sat down.
"As I said, I wish for you to cook for my wife."
"If you mean your wife, then it must be Lady Persephone......?"
"You know well."
"Well, it's a famous story here too."
I couldn't bring myself to say that she was famous for 'you falling in love with Persephone, your sister's daughter, at first sight and kidnapping her to make your niece your bride.'
Because it felt like he would really take me to the underworld if I said that.
"Then you must also know that my wife must spend half a year in the underworld."
"Yes."
I also couldn't say that he had made it so by secretly feeding Persephone pomegranate seeds before she returned, as she was about to go back.
Life is important, after all.
"The underworld is a place where sunlight does not reach well. Therefore, grains and vegetables do not grow easily. As my wife has the goddess of harvest for a mother, she inevitably longs for earthly food."
Having said that much, Hades made his request to me with a serious expression that seemed to genuinely care for his wife.
"I would like you to cook with the vibrant plants of the earth. So that while eating that food, my Kore will not long for the surface world."
'Kore' was the word for maiden, Persephone's childhood name.
Seeing Hades still call his wife by the name from when he had fallen in love with her at first sight, he was the very definition of a doting husband.
To think the fearsome god of the underworld was a pure-hearted man who wanted her to look only at him and not think of her hometown when she was with him.
Though his expression was still cold and arrogant, I felt my fear melt away at the devoted love hidden within Hades.
"Does that mean you want me to make a dish using only plants?"
"Yes. Meat can be sufficiently obtained in the underworld."
"Hmm, so you're not particularly vegan......"
I thought about various things.
Surely it was best to match the taste of her homeland as much as possible?
Just as Thrud and the Valkyries had taken a liking to flæskesteg, the Danish dish from the land of Vikings.
After agonizing over it, one thing came to my mind.
Greek salad, Horiatiki Salata.
Large-cut vegetables with feta cheese made from sheep's milk, and a dressing of olive oil and wine vinegar.
A dish that fully conveyed the health of the Mediterranean.
Seeing my brightened face as I thought of the dish, Hades's eyes also sparkled.
"Can you do it?"
"A delicious dish is completed by the customer's smile. As the owner and chef of Yeonseong's, passed down through three generations, I refuse to give up on making a dish the customer desires."
I gave Hades a thumbs up and answered.
"I'll give it a try."
"......I shall look forward to it."
And for the first time, I was able to see it.
The god of the underworld faintly, ever so faintly, raising the corners of his mouth in a smile.
* * *
The restaurant's biweekly regular day off.
I used the holiday to find a place where I could fulfill Hades's order.
"This is my first time here."
I looked up at a dark entrance like a cave between old buildings.
The sign hanging there read 'Gwangjang Hunter Market.'
Before the Gate incident, it was apparently a tourist spot famous for delicious dishes like yukhoe, nakji-tangtang, and mayak gimbap.
After a dungeon opened in Jongno, the mana concentration increased, causing ordinary people to leave and a Hunter Market used only by Hunters and Awakened to be established.
It had been 18 years since then, and I, who had never been to Gwangjang Market before that, could only regret it.
Because my grandfather and mother had greatly missed the taste of Gwangjang Market.
"Is this your first time? If you're a Hunter, show your Hunter registration, and if you're an Awakened, turn on the Awakened app and show your QR code."
As I, a first-time visitor, looked around curiously at the entrance, a market administrator approached me and asked for identification.
I turned on the Awakened app and held out my smartphone to the administrator.
"You're an Awakened. What's your purpose here? Shopping? A request?"
"Shopping."
"Let me warn you beforehand: if you cause trouble, Hunters will be dispatched. The Constellations' divine punishment is a bonus."
Security seemed tight because it was not only a place used by Awakened with spectacular individual abilities, but also the largest Hunter Market in Seoul.
And with the Constellations' divine punishment on top of that.
Hunter Markets were also sacred places protected by Constellations in charge of commerce.
Thanks to that, it was no exaggeration to say there were no troublemakers here.
"Here's your entry pass."
"Thank you, have a good day."
I received the entry pass from the administrator and entered the market.
The reason I, who hadn't come before awakening because it was dangerous, and hadn't come after awakening because there was no need, was here now:
"A chef came to get cooking ingredients, what else?"
Dungeon herbs and monster carcasses with excessive mana that humans couldn't eat could not be called cooking ingredients even as a joke.
But to me, who had come to cook for Constellations, they were now excellent ingredients.
I had come to get hints for grain and vegetable cooking ingredients for Persephone.
"Then shall I start at the herb shop?"
I looked at the map I had received as a bonus from the administrator and headed toward the herb shop located deep within the market.
Along the way, flashy Hunter weapons, armor items, and fancy potion bottles displayed at alchemy shops caught my eye, but to me, who didn't enter dungeons, they were nothing more than sights.
I briefly window-shopped and went straight to the herb shop.
"Welcome."
A small voice, one I would have missed if I weren't paying attention, greeted me.
Though I couldn't see the herb shop owner at all behind the counter, which was piled with medicinal herbs like a mountain.
"Look around and bring your choices to the counter."
An indifferent, no, a voice that sounded as if customers were a nuisance.
It was unfriendly, but regardless of the owner's attitude, I just needed to find ingredients.
But what should I look at first?
"There are too many kinds."
Just looking at the various things displayed in the shop, there appeared to be well over 100 types.
It had been 20 years since Gates and dungeons became part of our daily lives.
It was natural that many dungeon-produced materials had been discovered during that time, but I hadn't expected so many even in a small herb shop like this.
This wouldn't do. This wasn't something I could figure out by scanning through.
"Excuse me, owner. May I ask you something?"
"If it's not there, we don't have it."
A curt answer thrown out without even sticking her head out.
My brow furrowed reflexively at that insincere response.
The basics of business, that is, the service industry, are kindness and a welcoming response.
As a fellow business owner, I didn't like this.
"It's not about having it or not. I want to hear some explanations about the herbs."
"......Sigh, just a moment."
When I deliberately raised my voice as if pressing the matter, the herb shop owner finally answered in a voice that said she was really, really annoyed, and came out from behind the counter.
But,
"What do you want to know?"
"Huh? It was a girl?"
The herb shop owner was a woman of small stature.
With short black hair and glasses that took up more than half her face, she had a strangely cute style, but was she helping with her parents' business?
Seeing my bewildered expression, the girl let out a short sigh and opened her mouth.
"I'm older than I look. I am the owner here. And I know herbs well."
Perhaps having suffered through many such misunderstandings until now, her answers burst out like a machine gun, as if memorized.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I was rude."
I hurriedly bowed my head and apologized.
If she had suffered much because of her appearance, my words were clearly rude.
There are all kinds of troublemakers when doing business.
She seemed to have suffered much due to misunderstandings, and as a fellow business owner, I couldn't contribute to such suffering.
At my quick apology, the girl—no, the herb shop owner—looked at me with surprised eyes.
"No, it's fine."
Fortunately, she didn't seem too offended.
The herb shop owner who accepted my apology looked at me and asked.
"By the way, what are you curious about?"
"I'm looking for herbs to use as cooking ingredients."
"Have you decided to drop dead?"
Wow, she fires straight shots without a moment's hesitation.
She really wasn't offended, right?
"I don't plan on dying, but I need cooking ingredients."
"Sounds like you've decided to, though."
I gave a bitter smile at the herb shop owner, who was making an expression as if looking at a zebra that had escaped from the zoo.
"I'm a chef."