Red tomatoes gleaming beautifully atop the stall.
Like a man possessed, I reached out and touched one.
Swish—
A sound only I could hear, something seeping into my body.
It meant the tomato had been registered as an item in the [Mana Market].
What should I make with this?
Tomatoes served as a base, a main, a garnish, a kick—the ultimate cheat key of the vegetable world, used for practically everything.
Boil them with broth and ingredients and you had tomato stew; simmer them gently and you had tomato sauce. Good to toss in with pasta, or sliced thin and dried under the sun for ‘sun-dried tomatoes.’
Their uses were endless, which gave me plenty to think about.
They’d be good in curry… or a simple pasta would work. If I was feeling really lazy, I could just sprinkle sugar on them and eat them raw.
While I was happily mulling it over, the elf shopkeeper spoke up.
“Human. You buying or not?”
“Ah, sorry. I’ll take them. How much?”
“We don’t take that sort of thing.”
The elf shopkeeper waved off the coins I held out.
Right. Elves bartered, didn’t they?
But I didn’t have anything to trade…
I had been knocked out and kidnapped, so I hadn’t packed a thing.
If only I’d known, I’d have kept emergency tofu in my pocket.
I searched my clothes for anything of value, but came up empty.
I didn’t technically need to buy them now that they were registered in the [Mana Market], but there was such a thing as business ethics. As a self-employed businessman myself, I couldn’t pretend otherwise. Live selfishly and it all came back to bite you.
“Hss… haa… I don’t know.”
“What do you suddenly not know?”
“Ha, damn, who is it really?”
“Does the shopkeeper look like someone you know?”
I set the tomato down and pressed my palm to my forehead.
Veila looked puzzled by my strange behavior.
“Which elf drugged and kidnapped me and is now just standing there without even thinking to buy me tomatoes?”
“Hieek…”
“Ha… I really don’t know.”
Veila’s expression was the spitting image of a nervous emoji.
Hearing my words, she fidgeted and spoke to the shopkeeper.
“I’ll take one basket of tomatoes, please. Put the price on the tab under Veila of House Siliel.”
“Hmm, that puts me at ease. I was just about to clean the bathrooms, too.”
“Hic, hic…”
The price of selling out Veila: one basket of tomatoes.
At this point, it felt like an irredeemable elf had pulled a fast one and gotten a dirt-cheap deal.
But once the tomatoes were in my hands, a question came to mind.
Come to think of it, it was April—how were there even tomatoes?
Depending on the region, it was already a bit late to plant seedlings.
I posed the question in my head to the shopkeeper exactly as it was.
“You ask something even a newborn elf would know… Ah, but you’re a human. Then again, you might not know.”
“Yes. Do elf farms have vinyl greenhouses with centuries of tradition?”
“Vinyl… I don’t know what that is, but we have the World Tree-nim.”
The information I heard shortly after was nothing short of a shock.
“By the World Tree-nim’s power, Nuardel is warm all year round. The very concept of in-season produce doesn’t exist. Plant crops in the field and pray, and they bear fruit and ripen within days.”
“Freaking elf cheat.”
So while humans were farming until their backs broke thinking “We have to survive…,” the elves were just going *click! haha!* and plucking the fruits?
This was totally an admin scam map. A straight-up elf cheat.
Unlike me, unable to contain my astonishment, the shopkeeper looked like he didn’t see what was so special.
Was this… the average commoner elf in Nuardel?
‘The elf average is really high, huh.’
Truthfully, I too had been ignoring seasons and regions using the [Mana Market]. But I never imagined there’d be such a fantastical method of accelerating growth with overflowing vitality.
Since the World Tree was such a powerful existence, it must affect Silvaerin too, located beneath the same Calian Mountains.
Today, my knowledge grew once more.
Emboldened, I continued my questioning.
“What do you usually make with tomatoes?”
“You just… eat them.”
“Ah, a normal stew?”
“No, just as is.”
“Ah, make them into sauce for pasta?”
“What are you talking about? I told you, you just eat them.”
No matter how many times I asked, the same answer.
No way. They just ate this incredible ingredient raw? Why?
It was an ingredient whose umami graph would skyrocket with just a bit of cooking.
*Why…*
No. I’d only asked one elf.
Maybe this shopkeeper simply had no sense for cooking—a dog’s palate.
Denying reality, I grabbed passing elves and asked them.
“Excuse me, how do you eat tomatoes?”
“Huh? Just eat them.”
“You don’t cook them?”
“Right. You can eat them without cooking.”
Elves with lush vitality and graceful features.
Even the benevolent World Tree that embraced all life upon the earth.
Together, they had created Nuardel, a veritable utopia.
I had thought it was a beautiful world without a single flaw.
Until just a moment ago.
“Pleasegetmeoutofthishellishplace.”
“J-Jin-u-nim? Get a hold of yourself!”
“Ifthisisadreampleasewakemeup.”
I had taken it. This country’s red pill.
Those absurdly beautiful elves, built like they could slap an idol across the face.
To my eyes, which had swallowed the red pill, they now looked like nothing but mutts.
No, you guys called yourselves elites and even had hardtack.
You bake bread, so why don’t you cook proper meals?
*You’ve opened your eyes…*
Having learned the truth of this world, I steeled my resolve.
In short, there was one reason these pointy-eared bastards didn’t cook.
Because food was edible even without it.
Wheat, being entirely in flour or grain form, was difficult to eat raw, so they made bread. Hard, tough vegetables like carrots or celery that took too long to eat raw, they boiled or heated.
That was what elves called “cooking.”
It wasn’t even that they were a race lacking appetite from the start. They blindfolded themselves and ate only this, so the threshold of their sense of taste had hit rock bottom.
Here, I was the one-eyed man in the village of the blind.
And Iseria, Seiran, and Veila, who had eaten my cooking for so long, would be no different.
*Gurgle—*…
The moment I thought that, a faint sound of hunger came from beside me.
Veila was gulping down water.
But can you cover the sky with the palm of your hand?
Now that I looked, dark circles completely filled the space under Veila’s eyes. Her ears and shoulders drooped, and her gait was unsteady… I could tell.
I spoke to Veila.
“Hey, Veila.”
“Yes…”
“You were hungry.”
“K-heup…”
At my quiet words, Veila lowered her head and wiped away tears.
“Ever since I returned to Nuardel, I haven’t been able to eat anything.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“Is there something wrong with me? If only I had never known the taste of Jin-u-nim’s cooking…”
“No. It’s not your fault.”
This crazy world is what’s wrong.
With steel resolve, I ransacked the market like a madman.
From tomatoes to basil, carrots, celery, onions, and more. I bought all the basic ingredients that would be used for enlightenment over the coming days.
“Put it on the tab under Veila of Sildiel. You can have her do anything.”
“Hmm, thanks. I was short on hands, so this is good.”
“V-Veilaaaah!!”
Of course, I put all the credit on Veila’s tab.
It was pitiful that she’d only eaten tasteless food, but debts of gratitude had to be clear. Rather, by doing this, she could hold her head higher.
Whether she knew my intentions or not, Veila’s ears drooped.
There was nothing more to buy, and quite a bit of time had passed since we’d left the mansion. The sunlight had grown longer; evening seemed to be approaching.
I returned to the mansion, and instead of going up to my room, I headed straight to the dining hall.
They really did have everything here.
Maybe because this wasn’t an ordinary elf household, but a renowned house.
Iseria still seemed to be getting scolded, and I hadn’t seen Seiran.
I sent even Veila away and stood before the kitchen counter with a light heart.
After declaring that I would prepare dinner, I was alone in the kitchen.
What should I make?
These were things they had always eaten thinking they were “edible enough,” yet properly cooked food was so delicious it made their ears perk straight up.
To give that kind of impact… what would be good?
After thinking for a while, I settled on the menu.
I had plenty of time to cook, and since it was dinner, something hearty you could pile on and eat would be perfect.
“Good pizza, great pizza.”
I’ll open your eyes for you, you elf bastards.
***
Swish—!
The crisp sound of cutting air rang clearly across the desolate training ground.
Swish—!
An elf with platinum blonde hair, striking looks, and pointed ears was refining beautiful swordsmanship.
Ignoring the beads of sweat rolling off him, while lost in a trance of swordsmanship.
Swish—
*Gurgle!*
“Kuh.”
The hunger he had barely suppressed was starting up again.
Seiran set down his practice wooden sword.
Just then, an elf colleague approached with good timing.
“Seiran, stop and let’s go eat lunch.”
“No… I’m fine.”
“You barely ate breakfast.”
“Khm…”
His colleague was right.
As proof, even as they spoke, Seiran’s stomach kept growling.
In the end, Seiran headed to the dining hall with his colleague.
He hadn’t been very hungry that morning, so he had thought he might be able to eat something tasty now.
But how naive that thought had been.
Seiran realized it at once.
“World Tree-nim, thank you for the daily bread.”
“Thank… you.”
His colleague ate after offering a simple prayer.
Unlike him, Seiran couldn’t lift a single spoonful.
*Is there really nothing to eat but this?*
What about tofu, bibimbap, doenjang stew, and pajeon?
Were all those delicious foods nothing but illusions?
No matter how many times he closed and opened his eyes, the food before Seiran did not change.
Hard, tough vegetables like carrots, celery, and spanip, difficult to eat raw.
A vegetable stew with those thrown in haphazardly, not even properly seasoned.
Wheat bread that looked far from chewy, and tomatoes with just the dirt washed off.
By elf standards, it was an impeccable meal.
But Seiran was an awakened elf.
An enlightened elf whose former gourmet views had been smashed to pieces.
*Grooooowl—!!*
Seiran’s stomach cried out like mad.
Yet his brain and tongue, which remembered flavor, rejected the food before him.
One who knows the truth can never return to ignorance.
Seiran hung his head at that cruel reality and finished his meal by consuming only the bare minimum of nutrients.
“Hey, are you okay? Did something bad happen to you in human society?”
“No, no. Rather…”
It was the exact opposite.
Seiran roughly brushed off his colleague’s concern and devoted himself to training.
At least while training, he could forget his hunger.
Swish…
Swish…
But Seiran’s sword path became as listless as his heart.
The wooden sword twisted and turned erratically.
*Should I go to Kang Jin-u right now and ask him to make something?*
Blinded by a moment of gluttony, he had kidnapped Kang Jin-u just last night.
Since then, Seiran had not yet met him.
There was shame from his dishonorable act, but there was also no particular reason to meet him.
Besides, Lady Elioren wished to be the first to face Kang Jin-u.
But Seiran could hardly endure it.
After knowing the joy of eating, the pain of hunger had grown dozens of times more intense.
Embracing all manner of anguish, Seiran continued his training.
The long, drawn-out orange glow of sunset stretched across the training ground.
“Seiran, stop.”
“Ah… Veila.”
Before they knew it, evening was approaching, and the two awakened elves met.
Dark circles darkened as if painted with charcoal, drooping shoulders, and unsteady, staggering gaits.
Their conditions matched as if stamped from the same mold.
But if there was a difference, it was the light in Veila’s eyes.
Seiran looked at her in puzzlement.
She seemed to have starved all day just like him, so what was she expecting, carrying such a spark in her eyes?
Soon, Veila spoke.
“Jin-u-nim… is coming. For dinner.”
“Wh… what?”
From Veila’s mouth came a single word like divine grace.
Veila, delivering that news.
Her expression was filled with bliss.