-Hospitality
When I entered the address Cheon Danbi had given me into the navigation and drove there, it led us toward downtown Daejeon.
She said the mage who was a regular at the herb shop was a government-affiliated mage. That was why the restaurant run by his mother was also apparently near the Daejeon Government Complex.
When we found it, it wasn’t in the city center, nor was it right in front of the Government Complex. It was closer to Hanbat Arboretum.
“Hanbat Restaurant, was it? Is it this building?”
“Yeah! That’s right. Go into the parking lot for Hanbat Venture Building.”
The restaurant was on the top floor of the building. It was in a spot with a great view, overlooking a small river and the forest of the arboretum at a glance.
I’d thought it would be an ordinary Korean restaurant, but it seemed to be a fairly upscale restaurant.
When we got off the elevator, a slender elf greeted us.
“Welcome. We have been expecting you.”
It seemed the mage Cheon Danbi had contacted had spoken to the restaurant in advance.
We looked around at the restaurant, which was more elegant than expected, and stepped inside.
“Are the waiters elves?”
“Now that I look at it, this must be an elf restaurant, right? All the staff are elves, and the interior is elf-style too.”
Gil and Cheon Danbi whispered as we followed the elf’s guidance.
Since it was nearly closing time, we were the only customers in the restaurant.
The elf waiter led us to a window seat with a good view.
“The mage will arrive shortly. Please wait a moment.”
Once we sat down, the elf spoke politely and disappeared.
For a moment, I gazed at the scenery outside the window.
Even now, swarms of jellyfish were flying around in the sky over the city. In the distance, I could also see mages working.
They’ll take care of it.
I didn’t think there was any need for me to get involved any further. I didn’t have much mana left after dealing with the mother jellyfish, either.
“But if it’s an elf restaurant, what kind of food do they sell?”
“Who knows…? Come to think of it, they didn’t even give us a menu.”
Gil and Cheon Danbi were murmuring to each other.
Just then, the entrance suddenly grew noisy, and several people came inside.
A man who looked to be in his thirties entered, surrounded by middle-aged men who crowded around him. It didn’t exactly look like they were guarding the man in the center; rather, it was more like they were fawning over and attending to him.
‘What is this? Is he someone important?’
At that moment, Cheon Danbi raised her hand high and waved, calling out.
“Mage! We’re over here.”
Then the man in the center waved back and walked toward us.
So that man must be the restaurant owner’s son, the mage.
Cheon Danbi’s attitude toward him was quite casual, but the people around him treated him as if they were serving a king. The contrast was rather amusing.
“Oh my, Healer Cheon Danbi. To think you would grace this humble Daejeon with your presence—what an honor.”
Even the man’s manner of speaking was quite ridiculous. Perhaps because the people around him habitually put him on a pedestal like a king, he acted as if he really were one, putting on airs, while at the same time offering empty flattery like a politician.
“I came rushing all this way to see our regular mage.”
Cheon Danbi played along with him rather well too.
She was still speaking informally as usual, but the way she was humoring him made her seem like a completely different person from the Cheon Danbi I knew.
So this was what Cheon Danbi was like in business mode.
A faint laugh escaped me.
“I’ll introduce you first. This is our regular, Mage Jang Je-yeong. And this is Mage Oudin and his younger brother, Gil.”
After Cheon Danbi introduced us, Jang Je-yeong came up to me, held out his hand, and greeted me.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mage Oudin, and your brother as well. I have heard much of Mage Oudin’s reputation. You were the one who eliminated the tentacle monster, were you not? And today, you resolved the jellyfish incident in our Daejeon region. Thank you.”
Truly, his words and behavior were more like those of a politician than a mage.
Listening to him made my back itch for no reason.
The middle-aged men who had followed Jang Je-yeong and lined up in front of us even applauded when he finished speaking, chiming in one after another.
“Thank you for saving our Daejeon.”
“You’re incredible.”
“It’s an honor to meet you.”
“You’re a hero!”
I knew mages were a class that received special treatment in this society, but this was the first time I had seen such treatment displayed so visibly.
It seemed Jang Je-yeong normally used his status as a mage to receive praise from the local people.
So this was what a local community was like.
I was so dumbfounded that I didn’t know what to do.
To be honest, I wanted to laugh, but I held it in because I felt I shouldn’t ruin the serious atmosphere they had among themselves.
I quickly pulled my hand from Jang Je-yeong’s grasp, waved it in the air, and replied.
“Not at all. I only did what I had to do as a mage.”
“Indeed. We mages merely did what we ought to do as the leaders of society. Ah, and these gentlemen here are influential figures in the Daejeon region. They wished to meet you, so they followed me here.”
Jang Je-yeong, with a perfectly shameless expression, attributed my accomplishment to mages as a whole and subtly included himself in it.
Then he laughed heartily and spoke to the people gathered around us.
“That’s enough now, isn’t it? Please head back. These people have had a hard day and should eat soon.”
At that, the middle-aged men greeted us energetically and left.
“Oh, yes, of course. You should eat soon.”
“Please enjoy your meal. The food here is very delicious.”
“Mage, then we’ll see you next time.”
“Fighting!”
The “fighting” at the end was downright out of nowhere.
I smiled awkwardly and merely bowed my head slightly to them.
Once the middle-aged men left the restaurant, Jang Je-yeong took a seat across from me.
“Thank you for visiting my mother’s restaurant. But what should we do? My mother has already gone home for the day, so she won’t be able to greet you, Mage. She mostly leaves the restaurant operations to the manager…”
“It’s all right. We just came to have a meal. Since you’re here, that’s more than enough.”
Jang Je-yeong’s excessive courtesy was starting to make me uncomfortable. If I had my way, I wanted to ask him about the Magic Tower immediately, but the mood wasn’t right for that.
For now, let’s eat first and then ease into the conversation. I was hungry, too.
I looked toward the elf waiters standing some distance away and said,
“We should order our meal first, shouldn’t we?”
“I already spoke to them in advance. I told them to prepare today’s special. As you may have guessed, this restaurant specializes in elf cuisine. My mother has built a particularly close relationship with Daejeon’s elf community, which led her to open an elf restaurant.”
Jang Je-yeong raised a hand to signal the waiters and continued speaking.
“By the way, I don’t know whether you enjoy elf cuisine, Mage.”
“I’ve never tried it before.”
At my answer, Jang Je-yeong looked surprised.
“Ah, is that so? It’s quite popular among mages. Is that not the case in Seoul? Please try it. You won’t be disappointed. Though it is elf cuisine, the menu has been adapted for humans, so it won’t feel too unfamiliar. Elves have adapted quite a lot to Earth by now.”
While Jang Je-yeong kept talking, I thought about what elf cuisine might be like.
‘What do elves eat again? They must eat something, right? It’s not as if they live only on dew just because they’re elves.’
I assumed it would probably be vegetarian. Surely they wouldn’t just serve a mountain of salad?
Suddenly, lembas, the elf bread I’d seen in a fantasy movie, came to mind. It was a movie Father Bruno had shown me in my previous life.
Back then, he had called it a fantasy film, but thinking about it now, it had been a movie that widely introduced the existence of other races to the humans of Earth.
‘Lembas. It looked kind of like hardtack, and I think they said even one bite would fill you up…’
My expectations for elf food suddenly withered. Even if the menu had been adapted for humans, there wasn’t much to look forward to if it was salad and hardtack.
Then the elf employees began bringing out dish after dish.
Gil and I craned our necks, staring at the food the employees were carrying over. Neither of us had ever eaten elf cuisine before.
The dishes placed on the table one by one were far more splendid and varied than I had imagined.
A salad beautifully decorated with all kinds of flowers and greens—this did seem fitting for elf cuisine.
The various kinds of soups also felt elf-like. But there were many other dishes besides those.
The breads of all shapes and colors didn’t look rustic like hardtack at all; they looked rather delicious. There were also several stir-fried and fried dishes.
‘Wait. But that’s…? And that too…?’
The dish served in a stew bowl looked like meat stew no matter how I looked at it. Large chunks of meat were floating in the broth.
On top of that, the final dish was unmistakably a meat dish. It was barbecue with the shape of the meat fully intact.
“What is that dish? Do elves eat meat too, by any chance?”
When I asked, Jang Je-yeong laughed heartily. When I glanced at Cheon Danbi without thinking, she was smiling broadly as well.
As a druid, Cheon Danbi was someone who belonged to the category closest to elves among humans.
Thinking back on Cheon Danbi’s usual eating habits, it seemed I might have said something foolish.
Cheon Danbi ate anything well. She claimed she could get by on a single glass of juice for a meal, but in reality, she had no problem eating meat too.
“Did you think elves only ate vegetables?”
Jang Je-yeong looked at me as if he were looking at an innocent child.
Cheon Danbi kindly began explaining.
“Elves are a forest race in their dimension, you know. Forests don’t just have plants; they have animals too. Besides, elves are master hunters. What do you think they do after hunting?”
Feeling awkward, I glanced around and saw that Gil also looked surprised.
Even Gil, who knew everything there was to know about zombies like a professor, apparently didn’t know much about elves.
‘They hunt… and eat it. I see.’
I cleared my throat a couple of times for no reason, then asked again.
“So what kind of meat is this?”
“Venison. But since there aren’t many deer in Earth’s forests, it isn’t deer hunted from the wild. The elves raised them using a special method. The meat contains mana, so merely eating it replenishes mana. That’s why mages deliberately come to our restaurant to enjoy elf cuisine. I eat it often myself.”
Jang Je-yeong said this with a proud expression.
I quietly probed his mana. He was not the owner of mana so impressive that he had any reason to be so proud.
That said, I wasn’t so tactless as to point that out. Whether it was for the sake of bragging about himself or not, there was no doubt that he was treating us lavishly.
“Now, please, go ahead and eat.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for the meal.”
We quickly picked up our spoons and forks.