Slurp—
“Wow, this really is delicious.”
“Right? It’s a wine our family has been making for generations. Of course it’s delicious.”
After watching the entire shocking, horrifying, childhood-destroying grape-brewing process,
we sampled the wine Ailenna had made at her winery.
“The wine is called ‘Elseriel.’ In Elvish, it means fruit of light—”
“Ah, stop. Please stop with any more proper nouns.”
“Hing.”
Her full name, Ailenna Liliendra. The grape variety, Esera.
And now even the name of the white wine made from those grapes, Elseriel.
Even in games, if they start throwing around proper nouns only they understand from the very beginning, players get tired of taking it all in and drop out.
I stopped Ailenna, whose blue eyes had been sparkling as she continued her explanation.
Slurp—
Another sip of wine followed.
‘Peach, apple. Hmm… is this pineapple?’
Hoo, hoo—
I closed my mouth and blew breaths up toward my nasal cavity.
Then the aroma of the wine touched the mucous membranes of my nose and gave off an even deeper presence.
The scent of well-ripened peach and pineapple dominated,
with a faint, refreshing apple fragrance supporting it underneath.
‘Sweet as hell. Damn, that’s killer.’
Befitting its sweet fruit aroma, the flavor was also top-tier.
It wasn’t that I ignored the sweetness of sugar, but there was a kind of emotion only fructose could provide.
At the high-sugar wine elegantly wrapping around my tongue, my expression naturally softened.
Crunch—
Since it was boring to keep drinking only wine, I also ate a slice of firm, well-ripened peach as a snack.
Tsk, this is a little lacking…
The white wine Ailenna had made had a sweetness close to a dessert wine.
When drinking dessert wine, it was best for the accompaniment to match that sweetness with a sweet dessert as well.
Or cheese was fine too. Most white wines paired well with cheese.
Since Ailenna was an elf, even if she looked young and beautiful, she had probably been making wine longer than I had been alive.
Then she must have tried eating it with cheese too, so why only fruit?
“Lady Ailenna. Do you have any other snacks?”
“Hm? Something else… want an apple?”
“Don’t you eat cheese?”
“Ah, I don’t really like cheese.”
Ailenna said firmly.
“Milk and butter are fine, but I can’t eat cheese because of the smell. I don’t know if it goes well with wine either…”
“Ah.”
What a sad thing.
Well, cheese was an area even humans were divided on.
For elves, who mainly ate vegetarian diets, it would only be worse, not better.
Slurp—
I downed the wine one sip after another as if addicted.
The wine really was delicious, but it felt a bit wrong for me alone to shamelessly eat good accompaniments.
More than anything, after hearing Ailenna’s story, she looked a little pitiful.
If it were a dry white wine, it could be paired reasonably well with meals or salads.
But the wine she made, “Elseriel,” was a dessert wine boasting supreme sweetness.
If served with a meal, it would instead destroy the balance of the main dish.
Pairing it with dessert would be best, but look at these elf brats.
Hadn’t they been eating those hard, dry elf hardtacks… Elskit, saying they were delicious?
In a world like this, fresh fruit was probably the next-best dessert.
Moreover, thanks to the World Tree effect, the sugar content was guaranteed, so it was delicious.
It simply failed to draw out 100% of the wine’s potential.
While I was lost in various thoughts, Ailenna spoke.
“Um, Jinwoo. I’ll give you a few bottles of Elseriel when you leave. Take them with you.”
“Huh? If you’re giving them to me, I’ll gratefully accept, but… why all of a sudden? Did Lord Elioren threaten you or something?”
“Hoho… I did not.”
“Ah, sorry.”
Elioren, who had been quietly drinking wine, spoke as if wronged.
No, earlier, as soon as he whispered to her, Ailenna flinched. I thought he had threatened her or something.
If not that, then what was it? What wind had blown for her to give me wine as a gift?
I asked with pure curiosity.
Then Ailenna bashfully avoided my eyes.
“It’s not because of Elioren… After giving you the tour, I thought that even though you’re human, you knew quite a lot in detail. The truth is, not all elves are good at making wine.”
Once Ailenna opened the floodgates, she poured out her reasons all at once.
The elves had the World Tree.
They made wine by relying on the boundless grace the World Tree bestowed upon them.
Because of that, even without putting effort into grape varieties, terroir, harvest timing, and the like, anyone could make wine that was passably decent.
And Ailenna hated that attitude toward wine.
“Elves live long lives. So long they’re on an entirely different level from you humans.”
“Yes. That’s true.”
“And during those long years, we have the World Tree to rely on securely. That’s the problem.”
“Huh? A problem?”
“Yes. We settle into reality too easily and stop developing.”
Ailenna let out a deep sigh and continued.
“The ingredients themselves are delicious, so we don’t cook. Our talent is innate, so there’s no great need to put effort into magic training. Wine is the same. Even if you make it roughly, it comes out drinkable. I hated that complacency.”
“Ah…”
I could understand how she felt.
Unlike other elves, Ailenna had great passion for winemaking and wanted to improve.
But her surrounding environment hindered her growth and broke her motivation.
“Honestly, I also made high-quality wine thanks to the abilities of the Liliendra family. But you, Jinwoo, looked different.”
“Huh? Me?”
“You’re a chef, yet you treat wine passionately too, and you knew the whole brewing process. And terroir… was it? I grew grapes without even paying attention to that concept. You don’t even look that old, yet having such broad knowledge itself must be proof of your passion.”
Huh…
Ailenna’s heavy and sincere innermost thoughts suddenly poured out.
An awkward silence flowed through the room where we were tasting the wine.
Her words contained a lot of praise for me as well, so it was difficult to answer rashly.
Elioren seemed to find this side of her rare too, and was looking at her with surprise.
I had thought she lived comfortably just because she was an elf, but I withdrew that thought.
To think Ailenna had such deep worries.
In order to respond to her sincere words, I carefully chose and chose words in my head.
However, Ailenna beat me to it.
“Ah, ahaha! I ended up saying some unnecessary things too. Sorry. Anyway… seeing you, Jinwoo, gave me a lot of stimulation too. The wine is my sincerity for that.”
“Then… I’ll gratefully accept it. Thank you.”
“Uh… it’s already this late. Shouldn’t you be heading back soon?”
“That’s right. By the time we arrive at the mansion, it will be evening. Lord Jinwoo, shall we get going?”
“Ah, yes.”
With Ailenna’s sincerity gathered in my arms, I left her house.
Even as I left, the few slices of peach sitting on the table kept bothering me.
They say even brushing sleeves is fate.
Judging from the conversation we had today, this was clearly a connection.
When I saw someone putting their heart and soul into their work, I somehow wanted to lend them strength.
I didn’t know about other people, but that was the kind of person I was.
And… I had received several bottles of such high-class wine too.
‘Ahh, I didn’t want to make this in a place like this.’
I counted the ingredients in my head.
Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and the like could all be bought at the [Mana Market] or the Noirudel market.
The problem was vanilla… I hadn’t seen it in Silvaerin or here.
‘Ah, herbs and lemon?’
If it wasn’t available, I could simply change course accordingly.
The soft, fluffy sweetness when custard cream and vanilla fragrance combined.
That was charming too, but if I instead added herbs and lemon to maximize the fragrance,
then topped it with peaches candied in sugar?
‘Oh, shit.’
The outline of the recipe came together.
Hoping it would comfort Ailenna, who didn’t even have a proper dessert and couldn’t enjoy her own wine 100%.
‘Sweet and tangy peach tart.’
It was time to show her the destructive power of Earth’s desserts.
***
I thought Silvaerin had finished cleaning up all the aftermath of the monster wave and recovered its daily life.
There were no rumors of bandits appearing or mid-grade and above demonic beasts showing up.
And yet the 1st Platoon of the Silvaerin Knights, displaying their imposing majesty,
was leaving the city in formation.
“What is it, another monster wave?”
“That can’t be. You haven’t heard the news?”
“News? What news?”
Was chaos descending once again?
A passing man muttered anxiously to himself.
Then came the answer from a merchant standing beside him.
News, was it? Something had definitely happened.
Having heard nothing at all, the man asked about that information.
“You know the supply officer, the supply officer!”
“Hm? Wasn’t that fellow executed after getting caught embezzling?”
“No, the honorary supply officer who was temporarily with the knights!”
“Ah, that black-haired chef?”
Once the conversation clicked into place, the merchant continued.
“Yes. They say thanks to him, there were no problems with the rations during the monster wave either. Apparently, his cooking is unbelievably good? They say even the lord favors him, so that says it all.”
“Huh, so it was to that extent. I didn’t really know. But what about that chef?”
“Well… they say he disappeared a few days ago.”
“Didn’t he perhaps go traveling to another region?”
The man asked back in puzzlement.
Whether for travel or to go buy something he needed, a week could pass in no time.
Couldn’t that chef have simply stepped out of his house for a while too?
“No. Lord Callius started a hardtack business with that chef, and they say he had no plans to leave anywhere. I heard the hardtack was quite popular in the capital…”
“Hm. It certainly wasn’t the time to leave for another place. And Lord Callius wouldn’t lie.”
“Exactly. And they say that chef’s house was in complete shambles. There was blood everywhere too, as if someone had been slammed into the floor.”
“Huh! So that’s what happened. That’s a complete kidnapping.”
At the merchant’s enthusiastic explanation, the man was fully convinced.
Rumors were bound to be exaggerated.
Kang Jinwoo’s restaurant had not been quite that much of a mess… and the bloodstains on the floor had been truly faint.
But objective truth was not all that important to people.
After listening to the merchant’s explanation, the man once again examined the faces of the knights passing before him.
Now that he looked, their majesty was one thing, but the soldiers’ faces were all…
They were furrowing their brows so hard it was frightening, their eyes glaring fiercely.
With the heavily armed 1st Platoon marching with such serious expressions,
someone who didn’t know might think a war had broken out.
“So they’re going to find that supply officer? The 1st Platoon of the knights, no less?”
“That’s what I’m saying! They even say the lord is going with them.”
“Good heavens, the lord?”
Hearing that, the man looked toward the head of the procession that had already passed far away.
Piiing—!
Though he could not see Kailan Silvaerin himself, he could see the tip of the spear he had raised high into the sky.
Even during monster waves, Kailan did not step onto the front line and only handled command.
Since he was the lord, it was natural that unless the situation was quite exceptional, there was no need for him to step forward.
However, there were occasionally people who said of that Kailan, “Isn’t it because he’s too weak to go out?”
If the people of Silvaerin heard someone around them utter such nonsense, they immediately began physical therapy.
Meaning they all gathered together and beat that person up.
That was how highly respected Kailan was in Silvaerin, and his combat power was even higher.
It was the social agreement of the people of Silvaerin that anyone who didn’t realize that deserved a beating.
Kailan merely refrained from stepping forward for the sake of his soldiers’ practical experience.
When the state of the battle grew difficult, he took up his spear and stepped onto the battlefield.
And every time that happened, a massacre unfolded.
When one saw the hordes of demonic beasts that, with Kailan as the standard, absolutely could not advance beyond him…
any doubts about his combat strength disappeared like snow melting.
Kailan’s overwhelming spirit when immersed in battle had not rusted even now, when white hairs had begun to appear.
That was why, despite being a benevolent and gentle lord who cared for commoners, he was the northern margrave.
“Whoever it is, they picked the wrong target.”
“Mm. Indeed.”
The man and the merchant stared blankly at the procession heading out of the city.
Thinking that, for the time being,
it would probably be best not to go anywhere near the Kallian Mountains.