“Dad!!”
“Yes, my daughter is here!”
Isilla got down from the carriage and immediately ran into Kailan’s embrace.
Kailan, who had anticipated his little girl’s actions, gladly hugged her back.
“But isn’t the Academy opening soon?”
“Right. But if I don’t come now, I can’t visit until summer break!”
Kailan and Isilla entered the mansion and caught up on overdue conversation.
Even if they exchanged news by letter, chatting while looking at each other’s faces was entirely different.
In the middle of their lively conversation, Isilla slowly changed the atmosphere and lowered her voice.
“Dad... aside from that, have you been to the Kalian Forest recently?”
“The Kalian Forest? I went last year, and our knight order has a reconnaissance patrol scheduled soon.”
“Ah... really? This is a real secret... There’s a Master in the Kalian Forest right now!”
“Yes, yes. A Master... hm?”
Kailan had been listening half-heartedly, assuming his little one was making a fuss again, but suddenly a word he couldn’t overlook came up.
“A Master? What kind of master?”
“There’s a restaurant run by a Cooking Master from the East. I was so surprised too.”
As if everything she had talked about so far had been just an appetizer, Isilla poured out stories about the Master, extremely excited.
She said she had unintentionally stayed in the Kalian Forest last night and discovered the Master’s restaurant by chance.
The food she ate there was a taste she had never experienced in her life.
Also, although it was a restaurant that didn’t provide lodging, they had considered her circumstances and even rented her a room.
Having heard the whole story, Kailan let out a small hum.
“Hmm. You must have been greatly indebted. And if he truly is a Master of cooking, all the more...”
“Right. So I have a favor to ask—can’t you promote it to people you know?”
“That won’t do.”
“Ehh? Why??”
Isilla, who had trusted her father implicitly, looked at Kailan like a cat betrayed by its trusted owner.
But Kailan couldn’t help it.
He could promote it to other members of the House or to the citizens of his fief as much as he wanted.
But that was influence Isilla could exert just as well.
Therefore, the reason his daughter was asking him specifically was that she wanted him to promote this restaurant to the heads of other Houses as well.
“Isilla. It’s not that I don’t trust you... but I cannot blindly recommend a place I haven’t visited myself. It could even develop into a political issue.”
“Hmph... okay. It can’t be helped...”
After losing her mother at a young age, Isilla had often acted spoiled toward Kailan.
But at the same time, she understood that her father, too, was suffering from the pain of loss, so when Kailan spoke firmly like this, she accepted it reluctantly despite her disappointment.
“Well, I had to go anyway... Isilla.”
“Huh?”
“During this forest patrol, Father will go with you. Once I meet this Master directly, I’ll be able to judge for myself.”
Seeing Isilla holding back because she didn’t want to trouble her father, Kailan’s heart softened.
In truth, Isilla’s unreasonable requests always proceeded like this.
Even if he refused firmly at first, he would eventually grant Isilla’s demands...
Kailan Silbaerin, the Iron-Blooded Duke of the North, was helplessly a fool for his daughter..!
“Wow! Really? Thank you, Dad!”
He hadn’t immediately accepted promoting it, having only said he would see and judge for himself, yet Isilla rejoiced as if she had already achieved her goal.
Wasn’t this, conversely, because she believed that once he tasted the Master’s food, he would naturally be convinced?
‘Just how delicious was it for her to act this way... I’m starting to get curious.’
After losing her mother at a young age, Isilla had been unable to swallow her food properly for some time.
Kailan had felt so sorry for his daughter that he gathered renowned chefs to make food for her, but each time she could barely manage a spoonful.
When young Isilla was gradually wasting away, he happened to find his late wife’s recipe and made soup with it; the memory of that young child shedding tears as she emptied the entire bowl remained etched in Duke Kailan’s mind to this day.
Thanks to her late mother’s recipe, Isilla regained her appetite.
But it was also true that her palate had become picky in the process, making it difficult to satisfy.
A chef who had captivated such an Isilla in one fell swoop...
If it was simply interest gained through cooking skill, it wouldn’t matter, but if that so-called Master harbored other feelings toward Isilla...
‘What kind of guy he is, I must check with my own eyes.’
Kailan recalled his beloved sword, decorated on the office wall with a cold gleam.
For the first time in a while, his hands itched.
***
“Pff-achoo!! Ugh... is it still a bit cold?”
It had already been three days since Lady Isilla, who had happened to stay at my house, left.
Of course, not a single guest had come in that time.
I had expected it to some extent, but the bitterness was still impossible to erase.
‘If it’s going to be like this, should I have pushed myself to set up inside the city?’
It was no use regretting.
It had already been two months since I was forcibly dropped into this other world.
For an outsider with nothing but cooking skill and a few... special perks, securing a place in the city was no easy task.
Since this restaurant, which I had presumably received along with my status window, had been built here arbitrarily, I was stuck as a squatter in the forest whether I liked it or not.
“Sigh... Let’s see how the jang are doing.”
When alone, the only thing that increases is talking to oneself.
I checked the jang I had made about a month ago.
Doenjang, gochujang, and soy sauce were fermenting amiably in the jars.
The thick, suffocating scent of meju stabbed my nose.
“Hmm... I’ll need another month after all.”
It was only because the aging period hadn’t been long, but the fermentation itself was proceeding smoothly.
The gochujang was slowly but surely releasing bubbles as it fermented, and while the doenjang and soy sauce hadn’t completely separated yet, they looked fine.
The reason making jang is tricky is because they are fermented foods.
And those fermented foods are tricky because there are many variables like temperature, humidity, ingredient ratios, and yeast.
‘But what if I have spirits?’
‘[Lesser Spirit Magic].’
I used spirit magic and peered into the crocks.
Then I could see lesser spirits swimming in the gochujang and meju inside the jars.
Bzzt bzzt—
Eee! Ing—!
They were making sounds difficult for humans to understand, but since I was using [Lesser Spirit Magic], I could feel their emotions.
The spirits were aging the jang with joy, fun, and passion.
Fire spirits controlled the temperature, and water spirits controlled the humidity.
And wind spirits regulated ventilation, facilitating the smooth aging of the jang.
Intermediate spirits and above have firm egos, making it difficult to ask them to do such tasks, but these were all lesser spirits.
Spirits may seem to obey the caster, but if the command isn’t fun, they absolutely won’t listen properly.
Then by what means were these spirits faithfully carrying out the command to manage stuffy, gloomy fermented foods all day long?
The answer was simple.
They had spent their whole lives receiving nothing but orders to attack things with maximum output, so they found great amusement in the aging work that required delicate power control instead.
‘Technology.’
Modern factory sterilization?
A professional aging chamber?
Don’t even try. Spirits are gods, and I am invincible.
Modern technology got cut off at the pseudo-yeast (spirits) of a medieval fantasy.
What makes jang delicious is the yeast inside the jang, but since spirits help that yeast activate, aren’t they ultimately pseudo-yeast too?
Anyway, since the jang fermentation seemed to be going smoothly, I closed the lids on the crocks and thought.
Last time, it was an opening celebration, and I had wanted to eat it myself, so I made baeksuk, but what should I do this time?
Truthfully, my shop didn’t even have a proper menu yet.
Because my role model was a cool Master who cooked whatever food was requested, I hadn’t set a menu, but I still thought I needed a fixed menu.
‘Even in the drama, they had a basic menu.’
The Master in my favorite food drama had one basic menu of well-grilled meat... no, that’s not right.
He had one ‘Pork Doenjang Soup Set Meal.’
Rolled omelets, Vienna sausages, even yam rice, and so on.
Ironically, the fixed item of a Master who made any requested food was an extremely humble dish.
However, considering the drama was set in Japan, the ‘Pork Doenjang Soup Set Meal’ was in the realm of soul food for Koreans, like ‘kimchi stew.’
Should I also sell just one fixed dish with that kind of soul food feeling—something that’s good anytime, comforting, and hearty?
Then what should I make the basic menu... Just as I began to ponder,
Clang! Clang! Bang!
I heard someone knocking on the restaurant door.
But it was loud and metallic, as if someone were banging on steel.
“Is Mr. Gang Jinu in?”
Huh, who is it?
It was business hours, and I had left the shop lights on, so a customer arriving wouldn’t be strange.
Yet feeling bewildered by a customer’s entry was an ironic state of affairs for a restaurant owner.
“Yes, coming out...!”
My full name wasn’t common in this other world, and there shouldn’t be many people who knew it...
I even wondered if someone was selling my name somewhere, and opened the door with a slightly fearful heart.
Then, before my eyes appeared knights clad in silver armor that looked ready to cry “Hail the Sun!” at any moment.
Uh... what is this about?
I had no connection whatsoever with a noble of the netherworld or anything like that.