The elves began eating, and I put my own share of pizza into my mouth.
Crunch, crunch—
A crisp yet chewy dough, rich cheese, and the tangy tomato sauce binding the two together.
Finished off with the clean, refreshing aroma of basil.
It felt a little embarrassing to say it myself, but it was a very exemplary Italian pizza.
The fantastic synergy created with nothing but flour, tomatoes, and cheese naturally made you think, “This is all that went into it, and it tastes this good?”
That was one of the great characteristics of Italian cuisine, overflowing with abundant seasonal ingredients thanks to the Mediterranean climate.
Even without using many ingredients, the ingredients themselves were delicious.
‘Huh? Isn’t that basically the elves?’
That was right.
When I first heard about the elves’ culinary culture, I wondered if this was some cursed society made up entirely of mutts, but...
After buying ingredients at the market and thinking it over, I came to understand that they had their own circumstances too.
Before cooking, if it was an ingredient I was using for the first time, or one whose flavor varied greatly, I always tasted it first.
Take salt, for example. You had to understand roughly how salty it was in order to season properly.
In today’s dish, it was the tomatoes.
Before making the pizza, I had taken a bite of a tomato.
It had a rich flavor close to Italian tomatoes, different from Korean tomato varieties.
To be honest, Korean tomatoes were somewhat lacking for use in cooking.
Tomatoes were already vegetables with a lot of moisture, but Korean tomatoes were much more watery and had a lighter flavor.
Italian tomatoes, on the other hand, were not watery, and every flavor and aroma was intense.
‘At this level, they’re good enough to eat raw.’
Considering how you could ruin them by cooking them clumsily, they tasted highly satisfying even eaten raw.
‘This too must all be the grace of the World Tree.’
The general direction of culinary development went like this.
Hard to eat raw -> cook it -> not great, but better than just eating it as is.
As that process repeated, culinary skill would gradually improve.
But the elves had the cheat key of a rigged host map—the World Tree.
Supreme-quality produce created by the World Tree’s magnificent vitality.
Ironically, those high-quality ingredients had ended up hindering the development of Noirudel cuisine.
From the elves’ perspective, they had tried frying, stir-frying, and boiling things in their own way,
but it tasted worse than just eating them as they were.
As a result, they became increasingly passive about cooking, which ultimately led to the present.
They had their own circumstances.
So what I thought of was pizza.
Furthermore, it was the simple cooking method unique to Mediterranean countries.
There were many similarities in various ways, so compared to other cooking methods, it should be easier for them to adapt.
And the person who would become the cornerstone of that plan was none other than Elioren.
I looked at Elioren while munching on pizza with one hand.
Before long, Elioren rose from his seat and approached me.
“Um, Jinwoo-nim?”
“Yes?”
“By any chance... is there more? Pizza.”
It came. It finally came!
He had been so indifferent the whole time that I had been worried inwardly, but in the end, the pizza seemed to suit his taste.
From the way he ate, he was practically wolfing it down. He didn’t even care about the gazes around him.
“Heeek... World Tree, Jinwoo-nim. Thank you. For bestowing such food upon us...”
“At least when it comes to this dish... I shall acknowledge you.”
“It’s so delicious! Kidnapp—no. Bringing you here really was the right call!”
‘That last thing she said was a bit strange...’
Iseria’s words bothered me, but the other elves had already fallen to the pizza as well.
They didn’t notice at all even when Elioren failed to maintain his dignity.
I faced Elioren, who was requesting a refill of pizza.
Perhaps because he had eaten so deliciously, a faint trace of red tomato sauce and bread crumbs from the dough clung to the corners of his mouth.
The corners of his lips were also curved in an arc, but for some reason... only his gaze felt a little cold.
‘I’ve definitely seen eyes like that... in a documentary.’
A documentary that explored remote regions of the world and observed animals.
Among them, it was a gaze often seen when filming predators.
The cold eyes of a predator looking at its prey.
It was a little scary when a handsome older man with streaks of platinum-blond hair looked at me like that.
It felt as if I had become prey.
Even though, of course, that gaze was clearly directed at the pizza.
“I made plenty extra. Please eat as much as you like.”
“Thank you. I never dreamed I would be so moved by food at this old age.”
A ceaseless shower of refined praise poured down.
As expected of an educated person, perhaps; it felt even better than praise from others.
“Thank you for the compliment. Here, have some more.”
“Thank you. This is truly...”
“If possible, it is a taste I would like to eat every day.”
After receiving his pizza refill, Elioren murmured something after his thanks.
His voice was especially quiet, so I couldn’t quite make out what he said.
I asked Elioren again.
“Yes? What did you say?”
“Ah, nothing. I shall enjoy it.”
‘Well, I guess it was nothing much.’
As if it wasn’t particularly important, Elioren glossed over it and returned to his seat.
Whatever it was, it must have been something nice.
I resumed demolishing the pizza I had briefly paused on.
Shiver—!
‘Wh-what was that?’
But in an instant, a cold chill rose all over my body, and my hand stopped.
What was that all of a sudden? Did someone turn on the air conditioner?
Of course, that couldn’t be the case, but for that brief moment, it felt as if the temperature had dropped.
Iseria, Seiran, and Veila were still grinning away and eating pizza as if nothing had happened.
And Elioren too.
‘It must have been my imagination.’
I had been feeling a bit hot from cooking, so it was nice to cool down.
In a cheerful mood, I finished off all of my share of pizza.
** *
Elioren was deeply moved.
How many decades had it been since he had become so absorbed in something that he completely forgot his surroundings?
And it was not scholarship, magic, or martial training... but a meal.
To think he would focus this much on a meal, something he had regarded as more ordinary than anything else.
Elioren looked at the emptily cleared plate and thought.
‘Kang Jinwoo, that man is the real thing.’
Even he, an elf over three hundred years old, had lost his composure and surrendered himself to instinct.
Then what of Iseria, who was over two hundred years younger than him?
She was a child who had always been crazy about new things and fun to begin with, and now she had met such an out-of-standard individual.
‘It was fortunate that it ended with nothing more than kidnapping.’
Iseria was not quiet by nature, but she was softhearted, and not the type to resort to violence first.
It was because his daughter had that sort of personality that things ended this way. If it had been some other elf unable to control the hot blood of youth...
He might not have entered Noirudel with his body intact like that.
Elves, who lived for long years, regarded harmony with nature and peace as great virtues.
But there were also elves of the exact opposite disposition, who lived their entire lives for amusement.
Elioren felt fortunate that Kang Jinwoo had visited Noirudel without any injuries.
At the same time, the feelings of Iseria, Veila, and Seiran, who had kidnapped him—
he found himself able to understand them.
Rattle, tap—
Elioren picked up his lightened plate and headed toward the kitchen.
More precisely, he approached Kang Jinwoo, who was eating pizza alone in the kitchen.
Step— step—
Though he had not put any force into his stride, the soles of Elioren’s shoes produced an oppressive sound.
In the past several decades, there had never been a time when it had been this difficult to control himself.
It seemed that such emotional agitation was leaking out through the tips of his feet.
“Um, Jinwoo-nim?”
“Yes?”
“By any chance... is there more? Pizza.”
A single sentence offered carefully, lest the prey flee.
It was the demeanor of a predator cautiously hunting an herbivore.
“I made plenty extra. Please eat as much as you like.”
“Thank you. I never dreamed I would be so moved by food at this old age.”
Kang Jinwoo responded to Elioren’s request and took out another pizza he had baked.
However, Elioren’s gaze went beyond the pizza in Kang Jinwoo’s hands and fixed upon Kang Jinwoo himself.
His cooking skill was truly genius and delicate, yet he could not notice a gaze like this?
Kang Jinwoo prepared the pizza, plainly delighted by Elioren’s praise.
Of course, that praise was neither false nor a mere pleasantry, but sincere admiration.
It was simply that even a splendid compliment had another side to it.
“Thank you for the compliment. Here, have some more.”
“Thank you. This is truly...”
Kang Jinwoo answered Elioren’s words and handed over the pizza.
Elioren offered his thanks with pure sincerity.
A piping-hot Margherita pizza, freshly warmed from the oven.
At that enchanting, fragrant sight, Elioren’s composure collapsed for an instant.
“If possible, it is a taste I would like to eat every day.”
His true feelings slipped out before he could take them back.
Elioren lowered his voice while hiding his fluster as best he could.
“Yes? What did you say?”
“Ah, nothing. I shall enjoy it.”
Fortunately, Kang Jinwoo had not heard properly.
In truth, even if he had heard, it would not have sounded particularly strange.
After all, it simply meant it was delicious enough to want to eat every day.
However, the elf before Kang Jinwoo’s eyes, Sildiel Elioren, possessed the power to forcibly make that a reality.
Kang Jinwoo did not know that fact... so he would have accepted it as ordinary high praise.
‘No. That must not happen.’
In any case, was he not the head of House Sildiel, equipped with both reason and intellect?
He could not bind him here by immoral means.
‘Then... I shall have to welcome him with the utmost hospitality.’
So that he would change his mind of his own accord and stay in Noirudel for a long time.
Elioren decided that he would have to prepare a sweet gift.
A gift so sweet that the moment one tasted it, one’s body would no longer be satisfied by anything else.
Crunch.
Yes, just like...
the hot Margherita pizza he had just bitten into.
***
On a bright spring day.
Arthur, who had returned from the capital after a week, entered the knights’ quarters and rested from his journey.
‘Ugh, I’m tired.’
During the last monster wave, thanks to Kang Jinwoo’s curry, he had broken through to the realm of Sword Expert.
Because of that, Arthur had had to visit the capital and redo his administrative registration.
Out of concern for possible fraudulent evaluation, the process had been extremely strict.
Physical ability assessment,
mana quantity and control ability assessment,
and finally, the most crucial part, the swordsmanship sparring evaluation.
People sometimes called Sword Experts “ordinary men who could not reach Master.”
But that was completely wrong.
Sword Expert was also a realm that required considerable effort,
and compared to the combat power of an ordinary knight, it displayed a difference as vast as heaven and earth.
A single well-trained Expert could change the course of a battle,
so the evaluation to judge that qualification also had to be conducted with solemn rigor.
Arthur’s sparring opponent for the evaluation was a direct guard knight of First Princess Kariel.
Aside from the sole Sword Master who had vanished from sight, Zeke Baltazar...
he was indisputably someone who stood among the ranks of the strong.
No matter how strict the evaluation was,
one would not normally appoint an opponent of this caliber for a sparring test.
However, the reason such a match came about was...
by sheer coincidence, the young lady of Silvaerin attending the academy, Isila, was Kariel’s friend,
by sheer coincidence, that Isila told Kariel the news of Arthur’s promotion evaluation,
and by sheer coincidence, the day of that evaluation was a holiday at the Imperial Academy.
Thus Kariel, who had been bored, made an impulsive visit to the evaluation grounds,
and Arthur had to put on a tearful desperate show against the princess’s loyal sword.
Wow! I’ll show you something impressive!
Fortunately, Arthur’s tear-inducing performance drew the princess’s interest,
and Arthur was able to safely complete his administrative registration and return.
‘I’m absolutely not going anywhere today. I’m going to rest.’
Having firmly resolved that, Arthur threw himself onto the soft bed.
And then, at that moment.
Knock, knock, knock—!
A knocking sound rang through Arthur’s room, along with a familiar voice.
“It’s me, Kailan. I’ll come in for a moment.”
“D-Duke?”
Flinch—!
Arthur, who had only just managed to lie down, hurriedly got back up.
At the same time, Duke Kailan entered the room.
Kailan spoke casually, as if dealing with a neighborhood friend.
“Arthur, you’ve worked hard. Since it’s been a while, let’s go eat Jinwoo’s cooking. It’s been a long time for me too.”
“Ah... yes, sir. I’ll get ready right away...”
The problem was that only Kailan could act casually.
But what could he do? If you were told to move, you moved.
Still, it was not an entirely bad suggestion.
Kang Jinwoo’s food was excellent even compared to meals in the imperial capital, and it had indeed been a long time since he had eaten it.
Kailan and Arthur rode their horses toward Kailan Forest.
Their destination was, of course, Kang Jinwoo’s restaurant.
“Thinking about eating janchi-guksu again after so long has me excited!”
“Ahaha...”
Arthur gave a suitable response to Kailan’s words.
Because he wanted to eat something other than janchi-guksu.
Thus they arrived before the restaurant door.
However, for some reason, there were no signs of people today.
If there were someone inside, they should have heard at least some sound,
yet there was not even the common noise of tableware clattering.
Still, they had arrived during business hours, so it should be fine, Arthur thought,
and opened the restaurant door.
“Jinwoo-nim, are you here?”
But what greeted Kailan and Arthur was the interior of a dark restaurant.
At the clearly abnormal state of the restaurant, Arthur’s nerves sharpened faintly.
“Jinwoo-nim... what is this?”
As they went farther into the restaurant, a messy table came into view.
Four chairs were pulled out in disorder, not properly arranged.
On top of the table sat plates that looked as if they had been left there for several days.
Slide—
When he lightly touched one with his finger, slick grease came away.
Kang Jinwoo, who valued hygiene and cleanliness,
was absolutely not the sort of person who would leave something like this unattended.
Arthur met Kailan’s eyes.
Kailan, too, had noticed the oddity of the current situation and nodded.
Until just now, they had been customers, but now they had become knights of Silvaerin.
If something had happened to the knights’ honorary mess officer, they naturally had to lend him aid.
Arthur and Kailan searched the restaurant hall and kitchen respectively.
And then, they found it.
“Duke, there are faint bloodstains here on the floor by the table...”
“There are footprints in the kitchen as well, estimated to belong to about three people. They lead to the backyard.”
Moreover, the kitchen door leading to the backyard was not even locked, but open.
All of these circumstances pointed to just one thing.
“Jinwoo-nim’s... person is in danger.”
Arthur murmured in shock.