“Wow! It goes so well with this red pickled vegetable. What’s it called?”
“Ah, that is a food called kimchi...”
As the meal went on, the stiff atmosphere from the beginning gradually eased.
In particular, the elf who had gone wild after eating gochujang earlier—Veila—was a delight to watch as she happily accepted and ate whatever she was given.
This time, she showed interest in the kimchi on the table, so although I was a little worried, I offered it to her.
From the look of it, she seemed weak against spicy food...
“Mm, it’s spicy, but the doenjang stew balances it out nicely! It’s delicious!”
“Me too, me too! I want some!”
Nom nom nom—
The elves stuffed both cheeks full of doenjang stew and kimchi, chewing away.
What more could you ask for in surrealism?
A sculpted-looking elf tearing kimchi into doenjang stew and going, “Damn! This is tasty!”—that was surreal.
While Iseria and Veila enjoyed their meal, Seiran wore a subtle expression.
As someone maxed out in reading guests’ moods, I could tell he didn’t seem to dislike it...
Seiran had long since emptied his rice bowl and was just fiddling with his poor spoon.
“Would you like more rice?”
“Ah, no? I’m fine.”
Though he said he was fine, Seiran kept scraping his empty bowl with his spoon.
Iseria, whose nerves were being scraped by the grrk, grrk sound, spoke up.
“Hey! If you want more, then eat more, Seiran.”
“If the young lady says so, I suppose I have no choice. Human, give me one more bowl.”
‘This bastard was aiming for that.’
The moment Iseria told him to eat more, Seiran seized the opportunity without missing a beat.
Was he too embarrassed to ask for another bowl himself?
No wonder he’d been watching Iseria’s mood the whole time.
Well, as the person who made it, it was a joy if they ate it deliciously.
I scooped him a bowl of steaming hot rice.
The moment Seiran received the rice, the corners of his mouth rose ever so slightly, only to be dragged back down in an instant.
How dishonest. His hand was already ladling up a scoop of doenjang stew.
“Mm, really. If it weren’t for the young lady, I would never eat something like... mm, this. Chew.”
“Ugh, finish eating before you talk.”
Seiran defended himself while shoveling down doenjang stew like the ramen brothers from Black Rubber Shoes.
It’s fine to eat, but don’t talk while you’re eating. It’s dirty.
In any case, the meal came to an end.
Perhaps because everyone had eaten at least two bowls each, the pot showed its bottom.
I had cooked quite a lot of doenjang stew since four people would be eating, but they finished it all.
It was late, our stomachs were full, and the heater made it warm.
Hit by the triple combo of food coma, even after the meal ended, none of us could get up from our seats.
We simply surrendered our bodies to the swelling fullness and warmth.
“I’m full. I’m sleepy, young lady.”
“Same... I want to just lie down and sleep like this.”
“By the way, what are you all going to do now?”
When everyone was thoroughly languid and their minds had loosened, I asked about their next step.
They had come to pick Iseria up, after all.
Somehow, I ended up feeding them, but before that, they had been arguing about whether she would return to Noirudel or not.
At my words, Seiran and Veila lifted their half-closed eyes as if they had forgotten.
But before they could open their mouths, Iseria beat them to it.
“I’ll say this first. I’m not going back. You’ve eaten it too, so you should know, right?”
“Uuugh... It really is delicious. And I like that meat isn’t the main ingredient, so it’s elf-friendly.”
“Ahem... The food did not taste bad, but the family head is very worried.”
Both of them seemed to acknowledge the food, but Iseria’s father was waiting in Noirudel.
At the sudden mention of her father, Iseria’s momentum softened a little.
She may have left home in search of dopamine, but blood ties weren’t something one could abandon so easily.
I naturally got up alone and cleared the dishes we had finished with.
It was Iseria’s personal situation, and it seemed like something only elves could understand among themselves.
There was no need for me to stubbornly sit there.
“Give me a little time to think. To begin with, it’s rude of you to barge in like this. You even subdued Jinwoo however you pleased.”
“To think you would suddenly bring up such sound reasoning...”
After groaning in thought for a long while, Iseria used their rudeness as grounds to postpone her decision.
Faced with reasoning that was hard to refute, Seiran and Veila were left speechless.
They could have thrown a tantrum, saying, “Must noble elves show consideration for a human?” but they must have already seen it too.
My cooking skills, and the level of intimacy between Iseria and me.
In other words, they couldn’t treat me however they liked as if I were just some ordinary imperial citizen number one.
“Whew... Understood. Then four days. If there is anything you must settle, finish it all within those four days.”
“Got it. But you should know this too. Even if I return to Noirudel, I’m only going to stay for a short while before leaving again. Don’t even think about stopping me.”
“We cannot guarantee that, but... for now, understood.”
And so, the runaway negotiation was dramatically concluded.
Perhaps because this troublesome matter had suddenly landed on her, worry filled Iseria’s face.
She had originally come with only simple belongings, so there probably wasn’t much to organize.
Even so, it would take the trouble of coming and going, and thinking about returning home after running away to face your parents felt a bit awkward.
That’s how you become a true adult, Iseria.
“Four days, huh. There was one room left on the second floor. We’ll use that.”
“Huh?”
Wait, wait.
Aren’t you supposed to coolly leave now, then come back solemnly four days later, saying, “Are you prepared, young lady?”
Why are you talking like you’re going to stay here?
“We’ll be in your care for four days, human.”
Ah, the baggage just increased again.
***
At first, I tried to chase these guys out, just as I had chased Iseria out when she trespassed into my house.
However, these elves who had come in the name of being guards... their combat strength was no joke.
Iseria was strong enough to wipe the floor with most adventurers, so perhaps it was only natural since they were her guards.
I am a frail human incapable of posing any physical threat to Seiran and Veila.
‘Jinwoo, please, just this once. Okay?’
‘If you put it like that, Iseria, then I suppose I have no choice.’
And at the same time, I am also a human overflowing with compassion.
If acquaintances of the elf living with me had nowhere to sleep, shouldn’t broad-minded me show them some consideration?
Yes, that’s right. This is honorable.
Just as dying from a stray arrow in war is a dog’s death, but dying after charging at a renowned enemy general is called honorable.
After that semi-forced “honorable lending of my house,” three days passed.
I didn’t just sit around wasting those three days.
I stopped by the village to see whether the hardtack production was going well, fixed any issues in the process...
The approximately 2,000 servings of hardtack made that way were somewhat lacking compared to the hardtack into which I had poured ingredients without restraint during the Wave.
Even so, Callius, the employees, and the villagers who tasted it were all full of praise.
Only the flavor had dropped a little; its unique crisp texture and nuttiness remained intact.
Compared to the existing brick-like hardtack, it was a product with more than enough competitiveness.
Callius loaded all of the finished hardtack onto carriages and headed for the capital.
Because the trade trip had been delayed due to the Monster Wave, he loudly declared he would make up for the losses with hardtack...
In any case, we were now comrades in the same boat.
I prayed that Callius would sell even the hardtack crumbs down to the last speck before returning.
Then would the hardtack factory stop in the meantime?
As if. After all the effort put into optimizing it, there was no way I’d stop resource production.
“Thank you. To tell the truth, even with the recipe, we were short on personnel to make it. It may be better for us to buy it from you like this from now on.”
“I’m the one who should be grateful. I’ll give you a good price.”
After receiving the hardtack recipe, Duke Kailan arranged a meeting with me not long after.
The subject was a regular military supply contract for hardtack.
When they actually tried to make hardtack according to my recipe, the process turned out to be too complicated for the cooking corps personnel alone to handle.
But they couldn’t exactly divert other personnel into hardtack production, so they decided to leave it to the expert—me.
“At eight copper coins per serving of hardtack, with a total of 600 servings, that comes to 48 silver coins. Since I still don’t know whether the trade trip will succeed, it’s difficult to go any cheaper... I apologize.”
“Not at all. Let us do business.”
Duke Kailan made the deal as coolly as Silvaerin’s crisp weather.
In my heart, I wanted to sell it for five copper coins per serving, but there was no guarantee that the trade trip would be 100% successful...
If I wanted to avoid withholding the wages of the hardworking employees, it was right to save up money with some leeway for now.
It wouldn’t be too late to revise the contract after the hardtack succeeded.
And so, after spending every day scurrying about, what greeted me when I came home was...
“Jinwoo, look at this! It’s a new spirit!”
Kkyuuing—. Kkiiing—
Iseria playing with a spirit that looked like a fluffy cloud with two black sesame seeds dotted on it like eyes,
“Haaat! Hah!”
Veila training in swordsmanship in the backyard, sweat pouring down like rain,
And Seiran, sitting idly in a chair unfolded in front of her, reading a book.
“Ah, Jinwoo, you’re back... Haah. Waaater, please give me some water!”
At least Veila acknowledged me and spoke.
I handed Veila some water.
Even during that, Seiran merely glanced over with his eyes once, then went back to reading his book.
That guy is the most annoying.
While he’s here, if I cook, he eats the most, yet he refuses to lower his guard, so it’s frustrating.
He’s leaving tomorrow anyway, so I’ll endure it...
I asked Iseria, who was playing with the cloud-like spirit.
“Iseria. You’re leaving tomorrow. Are you all ready?”
“Yeah. I didn’t have much luggage anyway...”
“Good. If you’re ready, that’s enough. Should I make you something to eat over there while I’m not around?”
Flinch—!
I asked whether I should pack her a lunch in case she became fussy about food after returning to Noirudel.
For some reason, Iseria startled and lifted her shoulders sharply.
“N-no. There’s no need for that.”
“Really? If you’re fine, then all right.”
Thinking it was nothing much, I soon stopped paying attention to it.
Over the past few days, Arthur, Duke Kailan, and everyone else had been busy, so there had been no guests visiting the restaurant.
From what I heard, aside from clearing the battlefield, they were also busy rooting out corruption within the army while keeping the former supply officer incident in mind.
On top of that, Arthur had risen to the rank of Sword Expert, so he was apparently out of his mind dealing with administrative registration too.
Strangely realistic, this other world.
Patter—. Tap.
“It suddenly started raining.”
“It did.”
In the middle of that, raindrops suddenly began to fall.
Looking at the sky, it didn’t seem like it would pour harshly.
But it didn’t look like a passing shower either; it seemed likely to continue until tonight.
Thinking the timing was perfect, I entered the kitchen and prepared dinner.
On a rainy day, it had to be jeon.
When I made pan-fried tofu the day before yesterday, the three elves loved it so much they nearly died, so I had been meaning to make some type of buchimgae at least once.
Jeon is a much simpler dish than people think, so it didn’t require lengthy preparation.
However, there was one thing to be careful of: “do not be greedy.”
If you add too many ingredients because you want to put in this and that, and then increase the amount of pancake flour accordingly, from that point on, it is no longer jeon but a pancake.
Jeon, by nature, needs a bewitching light-brown, crispy exterior,
And just enough flour to hold the ingredients together.
As long as those two conditions are satisfied, you can pluck any wild greens in spring and pan-fry them into jeon, and they’ll all taste good.
I prepared green onion jeon and zucchini jeon.
Both the ingredients and the cooking process were simple, and they seemed perfect for elves who liked vegetables.
If the zucchini was too thick, it wouldn’t cook; if it was too thin, there would be no texture, so it had to be just right.
I sliced it to roughly 5 millimeters in thickness.
Some zucchini jeon are made by julienning it completely and frying it as one large piece, but today, I decided to fry the zucchini in its original round shape.
I sprinkled a little salt over the sliced zucchini and left it alone for a while.
It would season it as well, but more than that, it was to draw out the moisture inside the zucchini through osmosis.
Once moist droplets had risen to the surface of the zucchini, I absorbed the water with a towel, then lightly coated it with flour.
The egg wash could be dipped right before frying, so the zucchini jeon setup was done.
There was nothing particularly special to do for the green onion jeon.
I roughly cut the scallions to about one and a half finger joints—around three to four centimeters—and put them in a mixing bowl.
Then I added buchim flour and water at a 1:1 ratio and mixed it. Done.
The point to be careful of was not to make too much batter.
A batter just thick enough to keep the scallions from falling apart and to glue them together was enough.
Because of that, the batter’s viscosity shouldn’t be too thick; when dropped from above, a loose, pattering flow was just right.
After finishing all the prep, I poured a generous amount of oil into a hot pan and dropped in a single drop of batter.
Chiiiiik—!
The batter crisped up with a delightful sound.
It was the signal that the temperature had risen properly.
I scooped a ladle of green onion jeon batter and spread it flat on the pan.
Chwaaaaaak—!
The sound of the high-temperature oil meeting the moisture in the batter and evaporating.
It was nothing more than a simple chemical reaction,
Yet that phenomenon possessed the power to draw out a living creature’s appetite from deep within.
At the sound of jeon frying crisply as it spread through the kitchen,
The elves’ ears perked up and twitched.