Side Effects
"Yeonmin, I think you'll adapt to our world in no time. As long as you can hold back a little on that urge to turn everyone into a pretty girl."
After a warm, lively lecture had come to an end, Miso Cheonsa said that to me, half in jest.
A little kid delivering a lecture like that might have looked cheeky, depending on how you saw it. But a pretty girl can get away with just about anything. And she only looked like that. The way she talked, she was clearly an adult—and she was the one teaching us. I was more than happy to take Miso Cheonsa's scolding.
"I don't confuse reality with wishful thinking, you know. That feeling that it would be nice if everyone in the world became a pretty girl? I only have it because it can't actually happen. It's not as if I go around granting wishes to just anyone, okay?"
And I was from this world to begin with. How hard could adapting possibly be? I just had to live. That was all.
It was only that, to the people here, I was still an unknown. So they were afraid, and they wanted me to act a little more like them. Eat together. Talk together. Once they realized I was no different from them, they would let their guard down.
Well—honestly, once Helena adapted, we were leaving. So I did wonder whether I really needed to blend in. Still, there was no reason to stir up unnecessary conflict. I could play along a little.
"Hehe. That's more than enough. Helena has a kind heart, but she doesn't seem to have much common sense about this world. Once she settles in, she'll be fine. This is a peaceful place, after all."
"Yes."
Miso Cheonsa, on the other hand, was asking a bit more adaptation of Helena. That made sense. There were plenty of new civilizations here, but the way of life in this world was familiar to me. To Helena, advanced civilization was foreign, and so was the way people here thought.
This was not a world where you had to stay on guard that a stranger passing on the street might shoot you. Well—sometimes there were people like that. But the frequency was far lower.
In that other world, if you ran into someone on a lonely road, there was an unspoken rule. First, you took both hands out of your pockets so the other person could see them. Then, with a slight smile to show you meant no harm, you offered a greeting. Good morning, sir.
Sadly, Helena had had no one to teach her that, so she had gotten mixed up in more than a few pointless fights. For Helena, whose distrust of people ran bone-deep, even ordinary folks were potential threats who might attack her at any moment. So she would naturally go on guard—and then the other person would tense up, thinking she meant them harm. And then she would actually run into someone with a guilty conscience, and it would turn into a contest of who could draw a pistol faster. That had happened more times than I could count.
Looking back, it had actually worked out for her. Everyone who ended up in a quick-draw contest with Helena had turned out to be a wanted criminal. They had bounties on their heads, so they assumed she was after them and drew first. Thanks to her natural reflexes and marksmanship, she had survived every one of those duels. Which was probably why she had never seemed to be short on money.
In this world, though, there was no need to walk around with your nerves that sharp. I only hoped Helena's razor edge would dull a little.
"All right. That's it for today's lesson. Does anyone have any questions?"
Nyangnyangbeam had apparently been sitting through this education for quite a while, so Miso Cheonsa did not even offer her a word of encouragement.
"What about the new-student welcome party today, nyang? They're friends who came over from another world, nyang. We gotta feed them something tasty, don't we, nyang?"
Instead of pushing back, Nyangnyangbeam simply enjoyed the moment, bright with excitement. She had already finished adapting, after all.
From what I had heard earlier, this education was a substitute for paying a fine or going to jail. Hearing that, I thought the Association was actually rather wise. It would have been pretty galling to pay a settlement to someone who sued you after you saved them. And putting Nyangnyangbeam in prison for turning a person into a pretty girl out of goodwill? Absolutely not. So giving her a vacation like this had probably been the best they could do. They even kept the press in line, telling the public that this course was terribly hard and grueling. That was why Nyangnyangbeam had only bristled a little at first and had not kept complaining about it.
Hmm. If someone could read my thoughts, they might think I was taking Nyangnyangbeam's side a little too much. But shouldn't you take the side of someone doing the right thing? A cat-eared pretty girl. How cute was that?
"Hmm, good point. What did you two have yesterday, and this morning?"
"A white noodle dish, and meat seasoned red."
"Centaur-milk carbonara and jeyuk-bokkeum, perhaps?"
"Jeyuk-bokkeum...? That name sounds right. The other one wasn't that long."
I had gone all warm and fuzzy watching pretty girls talk, and for a moment I had just stood there watching, the way I used to—until I realized Miso Cheonsa was asking Helena about the menu. Guessing the spicy pork stir-fry was impressive enough, but centaur-milk carbonara? What even was that. I snapped back to myself and joined in picking lunch.
"Ah—it was seolleongtang-myeon, or gomtang-myeon, something like that. Originally I was going to have the jeyuk-bokkeum, but this body couldn't handle the spice."
"Hehe. So Yeonmin can't eat spicy food?"
"No. It's my body that's weak to spice. The jeyuk-bokkeum was honestly so good. The body was the problem."
I was absolutely not a spice wimp! I liked kimchi stew, jeyuk-bokkeum, budae-jjigae, kimchi, tteokbokki, dakgalbi—all of it. It was only frustrating and sad that my body was rejecting it now.
"That's what we call not being able to handle spicy food, nyang. Well, whatever. I get it, nyang. Then we just go somewhere that does non-spicy food, right, nyang? I know a good place, nyang."
"Oh my. May we look forward to Nyangnyangbeam's special selection? I wonder what kind of dishes you can only eat in this world—ones that aren't spicy?"
"Don't get your hopes up, nyang. I might just feed you fried udon from a convenience store, nyang."
"That's so mean."
"Quiet and follow me, nyang. The staff have to eat with us too, nyang. Suhyeon-nyang! Let's go, nyang! Class is over, nyang!"
"Yes, unnie. What's for lunch today?"
"We're all eating together, nyang. It's a team dinner, nyang!"
The good news was that Nyangnyangbeam, a local, was going to recommend lunch. I had felt bad that my inability to eat spicy food was boxing in the menu. If someone else picked the food, I felt a little less guilty.
So the place she dragged us to was a Chinese restaurant.
It was a bit of a stretch to call it Korean food. But it was a place that sold dishes you could only eat in Korea, so it at least met the condition Miso Cheonsa had set.
"Chinese food for lunch...? Nyangnyangbeam, did you pick this place on purpose?"
"You eat Chinese food at lunch, not breakfast, nyang? I did pick it on purpose, though, nyang. You don't like jjajangmyeon, nyang? Then you wanna have jjamppong, nyang?"
"My clothes are white. The broth is going to splash everywhere."
"One purification spell and it's spotless anyway, so what's the worry, nyang."
"You inconsiderate cat."
And this place, like the maid café that had sold every kind of food last time, did not have you go to a counter. You ordered on a kiosk. Look at the screen, pick a dish, pay right there.
The moment Helena saw the near-black brown noodles that Nyangnyangbeam and Miso Cheonsa were choosing, she scrunched up her face and muttered.
"That food... is something wrong with it? It's pitch-black."
"Hm? There was black food in the other world too, wasn't there?"
"That's overcooked burnt meat, or food the demons got their hands on. Eat it and something is bound to go wrong."
"Ehh. I guess so."
Hearing it put that way, Helena had a point. Just as she said, black food in that other world had been dangerous.
"Hehe. Then perhaps Helena should try ordering something else? Fried rice, or jjamppong, maybe."
"...I don't know what those are, but red food would probably be better."
"It's a bit spicy. You gonna be okay, nyang?"
"I ate just fine what Min said was spicy yesterday."
"Ah—why are you dragging me into this? I like spicy food too. This body just can't handle it."
"Yes. Let's go with that."
The good news was that a Chinese restaurant had plenty of dishes besides jjajangmyeon. Helena picked jjamppong, so I picked fried rice. I did have a thought about putting all three of the Chinese-restaurant trinity—jjajang, jjamppong, and fried rice—on one table. But if Helena was going to feed me, rice would be easier than noodles. My own little consideration.
We each chose our menus, and Miso Cheonsa gestured at empty air and drew out a card. I was about to wonder if it was a card trick—then a card really did pop out of thin air, and my eyes went round.
"Uh, how did you do that? Is that something they invented in this world? Or can only you use it, Miso Cheonsa?"
"Hmm? Yeonmin, can't you do at least this much?"
"Eh—me?"
Anyone could see that was the kind of inventory you only ever saw in a game. There was no way I could use that. This was not a game. This was reality.
"Why're you teasing people, nyang. That's an inventory. If you set an action macro you can pull stuff out of subspace like that, nyang. A big space can run you up to a million won, but a handbag's worth of capacity is cheap, nyang."
"Wow..."
It really was an inventory. And ten thousand won? Considering one meal for us ran in the ten-thousand-won range, you could almost call it a bargain. Of course, actually taking something out of it would be a bit of a hassle, since I was tied up. But it still looked more convenient than having Helena carry a bunch of things around for me.
Then again, maybe that was why they said people could hear the same words and dream entirely different dreams. Helena listened to our conversation, then muttered with a serious look on her face.
"...Do you think there's a way for us to make money too?"
That was definitely a side effect of growing up far too soon.