Chapter 27: Murim (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 27: Murim (4)
Even I had to admit, the inventory was an overpowered ability.
Even with a lightweight enchantment, a tent was still a tent. It was naturally bulky, making it difficult to carry several in a single bag.
But with the inventory, I could store tons of the same item in a single slot.
In other words, I had several more of these one-person tents in my inventory.
It might seem like a lot, but when it came to spares, the more the merrier.
“Are you such a man that you can’t even give up a place to sleep for a lady?”
Unbelievable.
“A ‘man’ now? What happened to the person who was calling me a pervert just a while ago?”
“Ugh...!”
For the record, I’m not the type to hold grudges or be petty.
This argument wasn’t some childish revenge for what happened during the day. I just wanted to mess with Cheon Yeo-hwa, who seemed so strong-willed.
When else would I get a chance to tease her? She usually wouldn't even let me get a word in.
“If you really want to sleep in the tent, you can just sleep with me.”
“So you finally show your true colors, you lecher!”
“Trust me, okay? I’ll just hold your hand.”
“I have no older brother such as you! And you and I are certainly not on terms to be holding hands!”
“A shame.”
Look at that. Her reactions are better than I expected.
She was like a cute doll that squished satisfyingly when you poked it, which made teasing her fun.
“Then you can sleep outside.”
Of course, if you asked if I felt nothing about being treated like a pervert all day, I couldn't say I was completely unaffected. But teasing Cheon Yeo-hwa was just more fun.
She must not have expected me to be so unyielding, because I could practically hear the gears turning in her head.
“...What is it that you desire?”
Now trying to bring me to the negotiating table, Cheon Yeo-hwa wore a look of grim determination.
As she clutched the lapels of her robe tightly, it created a strange sort of charm, a cute contrast that didn't quite fit her identity as the princess of the Heavenly Demonic Cult.
“What I want? I already told you.”
“S-Sleeping together is out of the question!”
Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face turned beet red, looking like it might explode at any moment.
What on earth was this woman thinking?
“Sleeping together?”
“Did you not say it yourself just now! That you would just h-hold my hand and sleep...”
“What I was talking about was your reason for going to Xi'an. I asked you earlier, but you never told me.”
“...What?”
In that instant, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s sharp eyes went wide.
“The part about sleeping together was obviously a joke.”
As I said it playfully with an innocent expression, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face crumpled.
“Hmph...!”
Fuming over who knows what, she shot me a murderous glare, then spun around and stormed into the tent.
She looked like a cat claiming its spot.
In the blink of an eye, I’d lost the tent.
As I stared blankly at the scene, like a landlord who’d just had his house stolen by a tenant, the setting sun completely vanished behind the mountains.
Just as I was thinking about pulling out another tent, my stomach rumbled, demanding food.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten a single meal since entering the world of Murim. After walking all day, it was no wonder my stomach was staging a massive peasant revolt.
‘Is she not hungry?’
Even for a martial artist, someone at Cheon Yeo-hwa’s level probably couldn’t just skip meals.
Surely she wasn't on a diet.
“Aren’t you going to eat dinner?”
“...”
Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had made a nest for herself in the tent, didn’t answer.
It seemed she was seriously sulking.
‘Was I too harsh?’
Thinking it over, my words might have come across as a bit rude to the princess of the Heavenly Demonic Cult.
I suppose I’d approached it with too much of a modern sensibility.
But as for trying to appease her, it’s not like I knew the first thing about comforting a woman.
‘Maybe if I make her something delicious, she’ll cheer up a bit?’
Recalling the happy look on her face whenever she ate chocolate, it wasn’t an entirely baseless idea.
The question was, what should I make?
‘What ingredients do I have on me right now?’
For reference, time stops for ingredients inside the inventory. If I ordered black bean noodles and immediately put them in the inventory, time would freeze, and I could enjoy perfectly non-soggy noodles anytime.
But I wasn’t about to fill my inventory with delivery food. I’d eaten so much of it while living alone that I was sick of it, and the thought of having it for three meals a day here was a bit much.
Instead, I had swept a supermarket for expensive beef I’d normally never touch, along with various spices and butter.
Of course, having more types of ingredients meant I was running low on inventory space, but this was all for the sake of eating well. I didn't want to be meticulously picky about what I packed.
Right now, the food in my inventory and bag was about 60% high-calorie emergency rations and 40% expensive, hard-to-find ingredients like beef.
For the record, about 40% of the emergency rations were pre-packaged delivery meals. To be honest, there just weren't many tasty options when it came to pure emergency food.
Still, cooking every day was a hassle, so I was reluctant to increase the proportion of raw ingredients.
Even if I got tired of eating the same thing, at the end of the day, what’s familiar is often what’s best.
‘I’ve decided.’
The menu for the princess of the Heavenly Demonic Cult tonight would be steak, made with 1++ Hanwoo beef—specifically, the sirloin strip, which is the least divisive cut.
Of course, I had never eaten steak before. The closest I’d come was beef foreleg for stew.
Naturally, I’d never cooked a steak either.
But I wasn’t worried.
‘This isn’t some fancy restaurant. I just need to throw some salted beef on a pan with olive oil and cook it.’
I’d seen plenty of videos online.
After a quick wash of my hands, I placed a large griddle over the fire. While waiting for it to heat up, I took out the sirloin for tonight.
It was about two kilograms.
A typical single serving of steak is around 300 grams, so this should be more than enough. It seemed like a lot, but my appetite had grown since becoming a mage, and I figured Cheon Yeo-hwa, being a martial artist, would eat a lot too.
I sprinkled salt on both sides of the beef on the cutting board. I considered adding pepper, but I’d heard that with good quality meat, pepper can sometimes be a distraction, so I skipped it for now.
After the super-simple seasoning, I let the meat rest for a moment and then generously drizzled olive oil onto the hot griddle.
‘Should be about time to put it on.’
I carefully placed the beef on the griddle.
Sizzle—
The sound of meat frying in oil echoed through the quiet forest. The ear-tickling sound made my stomach growl once more.
And there was no way Cheon Yeo-hwa, a martial artist with heightened senses, could have missed this delightful sound.
It was a sensation where hearing seemed to torment the sense of taste. Cheon Yeo-hwa stubbornly plugged her ears and tried to endure it.
But just then, Kang Hyun-woo started melting butter on the griddle, and now her sense of smell began to torture her taste buds as well. The savory aroma tickled her nose, and Cheon Yeo-hwa could no longer bear it.
As if possessed, she slipped out of the tent and approached the fire. Kang Hyun-woo spotted her and smiled brightly.
“You’re out?”
“...Ah.”
Her face flushed as she finally seemed to grasp the situation.
“You must be hungry. Just wait a little longer, it’s almost done.”
Whether he didn’t see her reaction or was just pretending not to, Kang Hyun-woo turned his back again and focused on cooking.
Cheon Yeo-hwa felt a small sense of gratitude for that.
Before long, the rested meat was cut into appropriately sized pieces and placed on a plate.
The garnish was a salad I’d bought from a cafe. I’d brought it just in case, and it was a good thing I did.
I didn’t really need it, but it felt a bit off to just plop a piece of meat in front of a lady.
“Where on earth did you get meat like this...? Is this also magic?”
“Something like that.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa let out a small smile at Kang Hyun-woo’s shrug.
“I can’t guarantee the taste, but give it a try. Let me know if it’s not enough.”
“...Thank you. I will enjoy it.”
The aroma was savory, and visually, it was cooked to a perfect medium. I actually wanted to go for medium-rare, but I figured Cheon Yeo-hwa, being from an older time, might be freaked out by it, so I cooked it until there was as little red as possible.
Nom. I put a piece of meat in my mouth.
‘Whoa, what is this? It’s fucking delicious.’
It might sound like I’m praising myself, but I’m not exaggerating one bit—it was genuinely delicious. There was no gamey taste, and it wasn’t tough at all.
The rich juices and tender texture were a pleasure to chew.
“Mm! This is truly delicious! I never imagined you were a cook!”
“Not a cook. It’s all thanks to the ingredients.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa also seemed satisfied with the steak.
And so, we were able to finish a satisfying dinner with smiles on our faces.
Except for the part where we ran out of meat and had to cook another two kilograms.
After a quick cleanup, it was finally time to sleep. Considering we’d be walking all day again tomorrow, I should have been asleep ages ago.
I’m a mage, not a knight.
There was a limit to how much I could use magic to sustain my stamina, especially since I didn't know when a fight might break out.
“Good night.”
“...Then where do you plan to sleep?”
“Me? Well, I...”
I figured if Cheon Yeo-hwa found out I had a spare tent, she might get upset again. My plan was to get her into the tent first, then set up my own a short distance away.
“Anyway, don’t worry about me. Just go on in and get some sleep.”
With a full stomach and a body exhausted from walking all day, I felt like I could collapse at any moment.
“W-Wait...!”
Cheon Yeo-hwa suddenly grabbed my sleeve, forcing me to stop.
What’s with her?
“Th-That is...”
“Huh? What is it?”
It was strange to see Cheon Yeo-hwa hesitating, unable to speak her mind.
I hadn’t known her for long, but from what I’d seen, she was the type to say whatever she wanted, bluntly and clearly.
The problem was that what she wanted to say often included scathing remarks about others.
“If you have nothing to say, can I go? I’m getting sleepy...”
“Y-You too!”
Cutting me off, she moved her face close to mine. A blush, redder and more vivid than ever before, bloomed on her cheeks.
“Would you not... sleep in the tent with me as well?”
*
The forest was utterly silent in the dead of night.
Perhaps it was the season, but I couldn't even hear the common sound of crickets chirping.
Thanks to that, the sound of our breathing grew clearer and clearer inside the small tent as time passed.
“...”
“...”
I was so tired I thought I’d pass out the moment I lay down, but now that we were lying back-to-back in this cramped tent, I couldn’t fall asleep.
If anything, I felt more wide awake with each passing moment.
“...Are you asleep?”
It seemed Cheon Yeo-hwa was in the same boat.
“No.”
“But you said you were sleepy earlier.”
“I know, right?”
For some strange reason, sleep wouldn’t come.
Was it because I was nervous?
No matter how hard I tried to avoid it, our backs would occasionally touch. Every time they did, the warmth from her soft skin felt like it was driving me crazy.
‘Ah... Primordial Heavenly Venerable...’
I’d never read the Tao Te Ching, but with two of the most prominent Daoist sects nearby, I tried to see if I could benefit from the location, like how praying in a church feels different from praying at home.
Of course, it had no effect.
“...Thank you.”
“Huh?”
A slightly trembling voice came from behind me.
“If it weren’t for you, I would have slept on the dirt floor again tonight, starving.”
I wondered what she was going to say, but the topic was far heavier than I’d imagined.
“...Weren’t you the daughter of a rich family?”
“Do I look like it?”
“Your looks do, at least.”
“Heh, you’re so honest it’s rude.”
Her clothes were clearly made from high-quality fabric, but they were worn and frayed in places.
She must have been wearing them for quite some time.
“In your eyes, I must seem like a troublesome woman, all flash on the outside but full of secrets.”
“I never really thought that.”
My immediate reply, without a second of hesitation, made Cheon Yeo-hwa flinch slightly.
“Thank you for saying so, at least.”
Her voice was strangely cheerful.
“To be honest, I was suspicious of you.”
“Me?”
“To be precise, I thought you were an assassin sent by the 1st Young Master to kill me.”
“‘Thought’ is past tense, so you don’t think so anymore?”
“For an assassin, you’ve seen far too many of my openings. And also...”
What now?
The tent suddenly fell silent.
I thought she might have fallen asleep and turned over, but her breathing was still as uneven as before, so it didn't seem like it.
Why did you stop talking?
“...It is nothing.”
Ah, for fuck’s sake.
“Hey, you probably don’t know this, but do you know the two ways to really piss someone off?”
“Hm? What are they?”
“The first is to stop talking in the middle of a sentence.”
“And the second?”
I’m suddenly sleepy.
“Hello? What is the second way?”
A moment ago, the tension of lying in a small tent with Cheon Yeo-hwa kept me awake, but now that I was a little more relaxed, the fatigue I’d accumulated seemed to be hitting me all at once.
“Why did you stop talking?”
“Snore...”
“I asked you what the second way is!”
“Mmm...”
“Hey!”