One week after the “Kang Jinwoo Hearing” on my abilities and food.
I was still grilling toast at my street stall, which was crowded with students, sending out a savory aroma.
“Your ham-and-cheese toast is ready~”
“Damn it, what the hell is this flavor…!”
The stall’s popularity had yet to cool, but compared to the first day, the number of customers had clearly decreased.
Back then, there had been the grand-opening effect, and the help of that female student I’d asked to promote the toast had been huge.
But while the number of customers visiting our stall had decreased, the number of people on the street had grown far larger.
Because a week ago, Ermia had announced the resumption of ingredient distribution.
Thanks to that, they said the academy’s commercial district had regained its former liveliness.
As for me, I’d never seen what it used to look like, so I couldn’t really tell, but hey, good is good.
Still, even if ingredient distribution had resumed, it should have been difficult for a business district sunk all the way underground to recover overnight.
‘Great Jinwoo, was it you again?’
Somehow, I had pulled off that difficult feat.
Good restaurants gather people, and people make a street.
The academy’s commercial district had been thoroughly killed off when ingredients were cut off, so even students and outsiders had stopped coming by.
But right before its final breath was about to run out, I set up a stall and put it on life support.
And the street that had ridden on the popularity of toast and begun recovering its energy had, now that a week had passed, regained its former status.
“Crepes! Delicious crepes for fifteen coppers!”
“Students, feeling peckish during break? Today’s dried fruit is incredibly sweet.”
“Boun-cy wal-nuts, finally all cracked! Only five coppers!”
That last uncle’s sales pitch was a little strange. Was that really okay at an academy?
Well, whatever the case, the entire commercial district had normalized.
Actually, I heard it had gone beyond normal and that conditions had become even better than before.
Apparently, Ermia had taken an extremely hardline negotiation strategy against the noble merchant companies and secured favorable contract terms.
Thanks to that, the other merchants could sell food at relatively low prices, just like me.
I wasn’t sure what wind had blown to make Ermia resume ingredient distribution.
But excluding that, every other factor was, in conclusion, a positive influence brought about by my toast.
Of course, I didn’t go around bragging about it or claim any premium rights or anything.
My toast was delicious, sure, but honestly, it was no different from robbing an empty house.
Well… even so, when I did business and watched the customers, I could see the flow.
Customers came onto the street to eat my toast, and since they were there, they bought drinks, nuts, and all sorts of other things.
There was no way the merchants in the same district didn’t know that, and they were people who knew how to be grateful for it.
“Oh, Jinwoo! How’s the lunch business going?”
“Hello, uncle. I’m making enough to keep myself fed today too.”
“Haha! What a joke, my friend. Your shop is the busiest one here. Anyway, take this.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Boun-cy wal-nuts, finally all cracked. I put pine nuts and chestnuts in there too, so snack on them when you’re bored.”
“Goodness, thank you!”
I’d wondered why he called them bouncy walnuts, but now that I’d received them in person, I understood.
They were overflowing with the unique nuttiness and richness of nuts, so the surface of the walnuts, which ought to be dry, was glossy and plump as if coated in oil.
They were very high-quality nuts.
If something comes in, something ought to go out.
I quickly made the uncle a street toast.
“Uncle, have one of these too.”
“Well now, I didn’t give it to you hoping for this, but I’ll gladly accept! Mmm… as delicious as ever. Makes my eyes go wide.”
“The nuts are savory and tasty too. Oh, uncle, I think you’ve got customers at your stall.”
“Oh, you’re right. I’ll sell off the rest of my stock too!”
The moment the uncle saw customers loitering around his stall, he ran off.
He was a passionate person in many ways, and all the merchants on this street had that kind of feeling.
I’d been prepared for some territorial behavior, but since everyone had such good character, I couldn’t help but be truly grateful.
“Lady Eilenna. Try a walnut. It’s good.”
“Mm, thanks, Jinwoo!”
Nibble, nibble—
Eilenna carefully accepted the walnut I handed her with both hands.
Then she nibbled away at it bit by bit, like a squirrel eating an acorn.
It reminded me of that celebrity who got criticized for pretending to be cute because she held a strawberry in both hands while eating it.
But later, it turned out that the strawberry had actually been huge, so I remembered thinking it made sense to eat it with both hands.
Leaving all that aside, what’s wrong with eating with both hands sometimes? Isn’t that right?
Watching Eilenna nibble on the walnut clasped tightly in both hands with a focused look in her eyes was just cute.
“Mm. It’s savory and rich, so it’s delicious! But is there something on my face?”
“Ah, sorry. It’s not that. You were eating like a squirrel, so I thought it was cute.”
“Wha, whwhwhwhat? What do you mean…”
Even at a light jab, Eilenna’s face turned as red as a carrot as she grew embarrassed.
I could almost hear the sound effect of hot steam hissing out—pssssh.
Her reactions were so tasty that sometimes I just couldn’t resist.
While I was directly witnessing Eilenna’s public embarrassment,
I sensed a commotion coming from the direction of the academy’s main gate.
What was it? Were there still people left protesting?
I raised my head and craned around, looking toward the main gate.
Soon, several large baggage wagons and swordsmen on horseback appeared.
And behind them came carriages carrying students with completely drained, dazed expressions.
There weren’t just one or two carriages carrying students.
Almost seven? Eight carriages were heading toward the academy buildings, so that had to be roughly a hundred students.
Most of them were probably children of nobles, but the students looked grimy and shabby.
What was going on? Had the students come back from some deployment?
Otherwise, there was no way they could give off that vibe of being loaded into a two-and-a-half-ton truck after training and returning to base…
That was exactly the atmosphere the students were giving off right now.
Unable to hold back my mounting curiosity, I asked the bouncy-walnut uncle next door.
“Uncle, what’s with those students? What did they all do to look so dead?”
“Mm. It’s an annual event. This must be your first time seeing it. They’ve come back from combat practice.”
“Combat practice?”
“That’s right. For combat students, experience is more important than anything, so they went to train at the combat practice grounds managed by the academy.”
“Wow, ranger training.”
Since it was an educational institution with an overwhelmingly high proportion of nobles, I’d thought they were flowers in a greenhouse, but who knew there was a big event like this?
After hearing the uncle’s explanation, their appearances really did feel like they’d just come back from guerrilla individual combat training.
“They must work them hard even though they’re students. They all look awful.”
“I suppose so. For most of the students, it’s their first time facing demonic beasts.”
“Demonic beasts? They actually make them fight those things?”
“Mm? Of course. Otherwise, what would make it practice?”
That was true, but… I still couldn’t get used to the idea of young students fighting demonic beasts.
I guess otherworldly early education really was different.
Perhaps out of consideration for the exhausted, collapsed students, the carriages passed by noticeably slowly.
Thanks to that, I was able to check the faces of the students soaked in hardship.
I wasn’t trying to sneak a look, but what could I do when they were passing right in front of me?
Most of the students had their eyes closed and were dozing lightly, or nodding off.
But among that heap of students, there was one person who stood out.
Blue eyes alone remained open in a carriage where all the friends around her had fallen fast asleep.
She was smeared with dust, but her white-silver hair, which drew the eye, did not lose its light easily.
A female student whose original beauty and the ravaged exhaustion of combat practice had combined to create a charm difficult to describe.
‘Uh… I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere?’
I felt a sense of déjà vu at that face, familiar as if I’d seen it in passing.
Come to think of it, she was a bit grimy right now, but wasn’t her hair color similar to our duke’s?
Around the time the sensation of being just shy of the answer tickled my brain,
she must have felt my gaze, because our eyes met.
The moment our gazes crossed, her eyes grew round.
The corners of her mouth, which had been pressed shut and lowered as if in frustration, opened wide.
We recognized each other at the same time.
“The cooking master from Kalian Forest?!!”
“Duke’s daughter Isila?!!”
““Why are you here?””
The sole heir of House Silvaerin,
and the woman who had graced my very first, monumental day of business.
It was Isila Silvaerin, the silver-haired girl I was reuniting with after a very long time.
***
The familiar scenery of the capital, which she had wandered around for four years, entered her eyes.
That meant there wasn’t much farther to the academy.
“Phewww…”
Unlike the lively street in the still-bright afternoon, silence hung over Isila’s carriage.
The friends who had undergone combat practice with her had gone off to dreamland, soaked in fatigue.
Isila quietly let out a sigh so as not to disturb them.
She, too, was dizzy from excessive mana usage, and since she hadn’t been able to wash properly, her body felt unpleasant beyond words.
On top of that, after marching for days while carrying heavy luggage, every muscle in her body was screaming.
Because of that, her body was in a state where it craved even the tiniest bit of rest.
However, Isila couldn’t bring herself to sleep because of her frustrated feelings.
‘I trained so hard… but in the end, I still couldn’t beat Kariel.’
Kariel, the only imperial princess of the empire.
Isila was the daughter of the northern grand duke, and Kariel was a child of the imperial family—no further explanation needed.
So the two of them had known of each other even before enrolling in the academy.
They were the sort of acquaintances who did not converse much at social gatherings and only maintained a formal distance.
But that sense of distance collapsed in an instant once they entered the academy.
Similar enough status, the same age, the same department, the same combat track.
No matter if they were high nobles and imperial blood, once you peeled back a layer, they were ultimately young ladies of a tender age.
When two such people had so many points in common, there was no way they could not become close.
At times, they were best friends who chatted while eating cookies late into the night.
At times, they were worthy opponents and rivals who stimulated each other’s abilities.
In any case, it was certain that they had become irreplaceably close friends.
However… recently, Isila had been feeling anxious about that relationship.
Her mana growth, which had stopped again after she returned from visiting her hometown in spring.
Unlike Kariel, who grew stronger with each passing day, she felt as if she had, at some point, begun doing nothing but walking in place.
Thus, Isila had sharpened her blade for this combat practice.
The academy’s combat practice grounds, located a generous two days away by carriage.
That enormous forest, created through the headmistress’s overwhelming power, was filled with all kinds of demonic beasts.
It was an environment that clearly reflected Ermia’s belief in prioritizing experience.
Because the greatest effort was put into preventing safety accidents, there was no need to worry about demonic beasts far beyond the students’ level appearing.
Nor did they have to worry about unexpected falls, poisoning, and the like.
It was a place suited to revealing one’s abilities without reservation.
Isila drew out her strength until the very, very end and raised her demonic beast subjugation score, but…
In the end, she lost to Kariel.
“Hiiing…”
Kariel’s skills were rising without knowing the sky’s height, so when would I ever catch up?
No, perhaps the gap had already widened so far that it could no longer be narrowed, and she might not treat me as a rival anymore.
As Isila wallowed in gloomy and stifling feelings, the carriage had, before she knew it, entered the academy grounds.
Before they left for combat practice, there had been a great commotion about cutting off ingredient distribution, but judging by the lively street now, it seemed to have been handled well.
Isila, who had been staring blankly at the floor of the carriage, suddenly felt someone’s gaze on her.
Maybe it was a junior she knew, or perhaps one of the faculty members.
Had they been looking because they wanted to greet her after her long absence?
Isila raised her head and looked toward the source of the gaze.
There, a completely unexpected person was looking at her.
Forgetting even the fact that she had been drowning in negative emotions, Isila’s voice popped out in delight.
“The cooking master from Kalian Forest?!!”
“Duke’s daughter Isila?!!”
““Why are you here?””
The other party was the same.
She was happy to see him, of course,
but the moment she saw the cooking master of Kalian Forest, Kang Jinwoo, she felt her body begin to tingle.
Fwoosh—!
The memory of that ecstatic and despairing baeksuk, which she had buried in a corner of her mind.
The tender meat, the clean and mild refreshing broth, and even the chicken porridge that was an explosion of umami had been ecstasy.
The fact that she could no longer eat such food, and that the threshold of her sense of taste had only risen, had been despair.
Those fragments of taste, like shackles, that had tormented Isila every time she ate chicken dishes at the academy.
Isila’s body, which had continued to long for that flavor, displayed a conditioned response like a dog trained for a long time.
Sluuurp, gulp—
Saliva like spring water pooled on her crimson tongue.
Her thighs, stiff with fatigue, began to tremble little by little, and her pale skin flushed red.
And crystal-clear tears, unable to overcome the emotions swelling within her, welled up in her eyes.
“Hic…”
“Hm? Why, why are you crying?”
“Hic, food… Please give me food…!”
“Huh.”
Combat practice had been far too exhausting, and in the end, she had failed to defeat Kariel.
Meanwhile, the academy’s food had not given her anywhere near the pleasure of Kang Jinwoo’s cooking.
A haven of the heart discovered while wandering through gloomy, sticky emotions.
Without realizing it, Isila let out a suffering plea.