The sun was slowly setting on the sixth day of the Monster Wave.
But the beasts did not clock out just because evening had come and resume their attack the next morning.
With hordes of beasts crashing down on them day and night, the members of the knight order had formed day and night shifts to stand against the wave.
How long such a rotation could continue, now that the beasts’ strength had suddenly increased, was anyone’s guess.
Luke, an ordinary knight of the Silbaerin Knight Order on the day shift, swung his shield and sword in turn without a moment to rest.
“Kieeeek!!”
“Krrrk, krrr!”
Low-grade beasts such as goblins and kobolds shrieked as blood sprayed.
They were not yet too much to handle, but what would happen once beasts stronger than these began appearing one after another?
There was no hesitation in Luke’s sword strikes, but his head was filled with such negative thoughts.
Boooooo—!
Across the battlefield, filled only with the groans of beasts and humans straining against each other and the clamor of cold weapons, a booming horn call rang out.
All the knights, Luke included, recognized the signal and slowly withdrew their formation.
Then, at just the right timing, the night combat unit began facing the beasts.
Only after entering the safety of the walls did the knights relax and remove their gear.
Luke likewise took off his stifling armor, put it away, and checked his weapon.
“You worked hard, Luke.”
“Thank you, sir. You worked hard as well, platoon leader!”
Arthur, the leader of the 1st Platoon to which Luke belonged, gave his shoulder an encouraging pat.
“Let’s go get something to eat. Even if the menu’s awful, we need to eat if we’re going to have any strength…”
“Ah, come to think of it, didn’t the mess officer change? To that restaurant owner from back then.”
Luke suddenly recalled the commotion from yesterday.
The mess officer, whom he had considered, for all his flaws, a member of the same knight order, had been steadily embezzling for years.
And the one who had uncovered it was that oddball, the black-haired chef who ran a restaurant in the deserted Kallian Forest.
The food he had eaten at that restaurant during the last reconnaissance of Kallian Forest… It had been called janchi guksu, had it not?
With its clean, refreshing anchovy broth that warmed the body, it was a dish well suited to a man of northern Silbaerin.
The food had been extremely delicious, and for some reason, after eating it, he had been so full of strength that he could barely contain it.
Since he was a chef who made food like that, perhaps he could make even army chow taste good.
Luke held on to a sliver of expectation.
“That’s right. Jinu has agreed to take charge temporarily. But the ingredients aren’t changing, and it’s not the environment he usually cooks in either. It’s hard to expect too much.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
But it seemed Arthur’s thoughts were different.
Arthur had met Gang Jinu quite often while accompanying Duke Kailan, who had turned into a regular janchi guksu villain.
Thus, within the knight order, he knew Jinu’s cooking skills better than anyone except Duke Kailan.
However, the absolute amount of time and the physical environment were different.
Expecting an enormous change in just one day under these circumstances would be shameless.
They had endured the daylight hours of the sixth day without serious casualties, but to eat what looked like grain porridge someone had chewed and spat out after all that hardship?
It was far too cruel a treatment for relieving extreme physical stress.
Arthur, Luke, and the other knights of the day combat unit headed for the kitchen with gloomy steps.
Yet the closer they came to the kitchen, step by step, the lighter the exhausted knights’ bodies became.
From where had it begun?
Before Arthur and Luke had even realized it, the hot, spicy, intense scent of spices had spread through the air.
Before long, warmth and startled murmurs rose among the procession of knights heading toward the kitchen.
“What’s with this spice smell? Did some noble visit today?”
“I haven’t heard anything like that… And in the first place, this isn’t the smell of pepper! It’s different from the pepper I smelled last time.”
“Could it be… tonight’s menu?”
“No way.”
Gulp.
A single remark arose among the knights arguing over the source of the smell.
Food giving off such an enchanting aroma was tonight’s menu?
For the knights who had expected, as always, to fill their stomachs with dreadful grain porridge, a ray of hope shone.
That hope spread in an instant, making everyone’s mouths water.
Their minds, filled to the brim with the aroma, left no room for any other thoughts.
With their once-broken expectations standing upright again, Arthur and Luke stepped into the kitchen, thinking, just maybe.
And in that moment, they saw the fragrance.
How could a fragrance be seen?
If they told anyone else, they would be scolded for being drunk, but every knight who entered the kitchen shared that strange and distant experience.
In the air of the kitchen, whose structure was the same as always, golden musical staves were flowing.
They were like waves of ripened grain beneath a clear autumn sky.
Or perhaps like the fiercely deep orange evening glow over the southern sea.
Or perhaps like the endlessly stretching bright yellow desert of the east.
Every knight, starved by battle, forgot even his empty stomach and stared only into the air.
“Come now, don’t just stand there dazed. Hurry and take your food. You need to eat it while it’s hot.”
“Eh… Ah. Yes!”
What awakened the dazed knights was a remark that sounded indifferent, yet still showed consideration for the people who would eat.
Everyone in the knight order knew that the mess officer had been arrested immediately yesterday and that a temporary mess officer had been appointed this morning.
The black-haired chef at the center of that story. The honorary mess officer, wearing an apron and holding a ladle, spoke.
“Would you like more?”
“Yes… Yes! Please give me more!”
“Eat plenty.”
One by one, he served them a beautiful golden stew.
He even asked first if they wanted more, and if they did, he scooped it out without stint.
It had been only yesterday that they had received just a single regulated ladleful even of that tasteless grain porridge.
At the unbelievable reality, Arthur and Luke let out hollow laughs.
“Platoon leader… That. What is that food? I’ve never heard of or seen anything like it…”
“I… don’t really know either.”
Arthur truly could not tell what that food was.
In a medieval age where most people thought of pepper when spices were mentioned, there was no way he could know curry, a gathering of spices in a golden ratio.
But there was something Arthur did know. No, something he was reminded of.
And that was that Gang Jinu, that man, was a master of cooking.
The serving line moved steadily forward, and it became Luke and Arthur’s turn.
Recognizing them, Gang Jinu greeted them warmly.
“Oh, Arthur. And… UFC?”
“Pardon? My name is Luke.”
“Ah… Sorry. Mr. Luke. Here, this is curry. It’s good if you eat it with bread, like stew.”
“Thank you, Jinu. But even at a glance, this food looks terribly expensive…”
Arthur’s eyes, despite his modest words, gleamed with appetite.
Even Arthur, who seemed the very model of a cool-headed and fair knight, had collapsed before a spice bomb.
Gang Jinu was rather pleased by that fact.
Like any chef, he could not help but feel happy when he saw eyes desiring his cooking like that.
“Please eat plenty. Thank you for always protecting the city.”
“Ugh, I will eat it gratefully, Jinu.”
At Gang Jinu’s sincere words, Arthur suppressed the swelling in his chest, took the curry, and sat at the table.
Luke, who sat beside him, had the curry before him and was hesitating with his spoon.
He was waiting for Arthur to eat first.
For Luke, who was aching to eat the curry, and for Gang Jinu, who had prepared such a dish with such care, Arthur scooped up the stew and ate it the moment he sat down.
‘It’s spicy… salty. No, it seems sweet too… Is it sour? There’s bitterness as well.’
Five tastes unfolded like a rainbow in a feast.
Sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and bitter were all present, yet not one of them leapt out too sharply.
And along with the taste came tingling heat, warmth, savoriness, aromatic fragrance, and more.
Could his sense of smell truly perceive this many scents? So many varieties of aroma surged against his nasal membranes like waves that he began to doubt it.
‘Haaah, hff. Hap.’
Arthur forgot all dignity and continued spooning curry into his mouth.
When the curry passed down his throat, a salty aftertaste remained on his tongue, making him crave the next spoonful endlessly.
It was a realm of instinct that reason could not control.
Every kind of scent that existed in nature shattered even the reason of a northern knight tempered through harsh training and awakened his instincts.
But the true ambush hidden beneath that stimulating taste and aroma… was none other than umami.
That savory sensation remained on the taste buds of his tongue until the very end.
It was a monstrous heavyweight that seeped down to the roots of his taste cells and balanced every flavor.
How much umami lay dormant in a stew into which curry powder, chicken stock, and quality vegetables had all been thrown and simmered thoroughly for hours?
Not even Gang Jinu, who had made the curry, could know.
‘What is this… What is this taste? My hand won’t stop…!’
Arthur devoured the curry ravenously, tearing the flatbread served with it into bite-sized pieces and soaking it deeply in the curry.
The pure white bread melted into the curry stew, absorbing the thick broth all the way to its core.
Arthur skillfully scooped potato, carrot, thoroughly soaked bread, and curry broth into one spoonful and put it straight into his mouth.
Six tastes and an explosively countless number of aromas.
He had thought that alone was the pinnacle of flavor, but above the peak was another peak. There existed a heaven beyond heaven.
Though curry truly had all manner of nutrients dissolved into it, there was one nutrient it did not satisfy.
That was carbohydrates.
After expending a great deal of energy, carbohydrates were what the body wanted at the level of instinct.
Then what would happen if curry were scattered across a pure white canvas made of energy?
The combination of curry and carbohydrates—that was the heaven beyond heaven.
It was a beauty of flavor beyond delicacy itself.
The moment he consumed that combination,
Click—
Deep within his inner world, Arthur heard the sound of something coming undone.