Right Now?
“Right now?”
“Yeah. Right now.”
The chefs had been unable to cook properly after having their fresh ingredients stolen. When they first heard Tae-hyun’s plan, they hesitated.
But the more they talked it over, the more Tae-hyun’s method began to sound reasonable.
Human nature was human nature—if someone hit you once, you wanted to hit back just as hard.
In an instant, the opinion that they should get revenge spread among the chefs.
Tap, tap, tap—
The Restaurant Guild members walked along carrying the finished dishes.
A five-course meal in total, a masterpiece hammered out through the combined effort of the Restaurant Guild members and their guild master.
Each course changed the flavor as the next one arrived, layering one after another—the very essence of delicate, meticulous cooking.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Crash—!
“?!”
“Oops. My hand slipped!”
One chef charged forward and tackled the Restaurant Guild member carrying the plate.
Smash!
Of course, the dish he’d been carrying hit the floor and shattered.
“W-what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Doing what? My hand slipped.”
“You bastard! At least put some effort into the excuse! Your hand slipped? Not your foot?”
“Guess you didn’t know. When a hand slips, this is what happens! Like this! And this!”
The chef grabbed salt and started flinging it all over the Restaurant Guild member.
It was the beginning of a very ugly fight.
“Y-you…! You think you’re getting away with this?! You’re disqualified!”
As the guild member jumped up and down in fury, the chef shouted back without the slightest concern.
“Doesn’t matter! I was ready to get disqualified anyway!”
“Stop!”
The one who shouted was Chao, the guild master of the Restaurant Guild.
The guild members had been about to lunge at the chefs, but at their guild master’s voice, they hesitated for a moment.
Chao let out a sneering laugh.
“Ha, how foolish. It isn’t as if that’s the only food we have. We made plenty, so we can just bring out more from over there—”
Sprinkle, sprinkle—
“Huh?”
Chao turned his head. He had heard something strange from behind him.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Oops! My hand slipped again!”
The chefs were happily showering salt over the Restaurant Guild’s other dishes.
Only then did Chao realize what was going on.
This wasn’t one chef losing his temper and charging in.
The chefs here had made up their minds and were attacking them as a group.
“Y-you cowardly bastards!”
“Cowardly? Says the idiots who pulled that stunt at the market first!”
“You think you can mess with someone’s cooking and walk away alive?!”
“What’re you gonna do about it, huh? Come on, then!”
Before long, the chefs were grabbing each other by the collars and brawling outright.
They splashed ingredients in each other’s faces, swung frying pans around…
It might not have been as flashy or stylish as a fight between warriors and mages, but in sheer desperation, it lost to no one.
And through all of that utter chaos, the steward watched with cold, dead eyes.
The steward turned to Tae-hyun and asked,
“Shall I have all of them thrown out?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea.”
The dishes prepared by the chefs invited into the royal palace produced a truly unexpected result.
More than two-thirds were eliminated.
They didn’t even get to present their food—soldiers simply grabbed them and threw them out.
Fame decreases by 10.
Because of what happened in the royal palace, disgraceful rumors will follow you for a while.
Once the fight was over and their heads had cooled, the chefs walked out through the palace gates wearing embarrassed expressions.
Thinking about it calmly, they had to admit that kind of brawl really was shameful.
Of course, that didn’t mean they reconciled.
“We’ll see about this.”
“You’d better watch your backs.”
The Restaurant Guild members and the other chefs snarled at each other as they parted ways.
“Ahem. There may have been some… disturbances, but…”
“Shall we try the food?”
The nobles gathered there coughed awkwardly and tried to restore the atmosphere.
Whether they did or not, Tae-hyun yawned.
What he was most curious about right now, honestly, was what the blacksmiths had made.
Something good has to come out of this. There’s definitely going to be something good.
It felt like waiting for a birthday present or a Christmas present.
Of course, the food being served in front of him was good too. Eating it gave various stat bonuses and buffs.
Still, in the long run, the items the blacksmiths were making were far more exciting.
Once you got your hands on an item, you could keep using it.
And from what he’d seen earlier, one of the large blacksmith guilds had been working themselves to death trying to produce a masterpiece.
Getting something like that for free?
How could he not look forward to it?
“Huh?”
As Tae-hyun looked around, he tilted his head when he realized the King wasn’t present.
“Where is His Majesty?”
“He was feeling a bit tired and is resting inside. He’ll be out shortly.”
“Really?”
It didn’t make much difference whether the King was there or not, to be honest.
There were plenty of NPCs present who could taste the food and judge it.
A slightly plump nobleman with a mustache tapped his fork against the table and declared,
“Bring out the dishes at once! Let us see whether they can satisfy my tongue!”
The chefs who recognized him started whispering in alarm.
“That’s Gourmet Valdrez, isn’t it?”
“He was here?”
Gourmet Valdrez.
Among chefs, he was a famous NPC.
If you were a chef with a certain level of skill and your Fame had reached a certain threshold, there were times when you received an invitation from Valdrez.
The first players who got one had been thrilled—an invitation from a noble!
But not long after, it became a quest that nobody accepted.
“You call this food? It would be better used as pig feed. No—not even that. I’d feel sorry for the pig!”
“You said you were a chef, yes? It’s not too late. Why not quit cooking? The ghost of this meat is weeping, you see. It’s crying, ‘How could you make me taste this awful?’”
Valdrez was a noble NPC known for being insanely picky and for his venomous criticism.
There were countless chefs whose spirits had been crushed after getting on his bad side.
No wonder they were shocked to find him sitting here.
One chef approached hesitantly with a plate.
The people seated there each took a bite.
Tae-hyun did the same, naturally.
You have eaten a dish made by an excellent chef. Your Cooking skill increases.
Thanks to your Intermediate Cooking skill, you can identify the recipe of the dish you ate. You have obtained the recipe.
Stamina permanently increases by 2.
HP temporarily increases by 3%.
It’s good, though?
That was what Tae-hyun thought as he scooped up a piece of potato and ate it.
Everyone had whined so much about not having ingredients that he’d expected lousy dishes, but a chef who’d made it this far was still a skilled chef at heart.
They hadn’t been able to secure new ingredients and had cooked only with what they had, but the potatoes were soft and rich with savory flavor.
Valdrez, however, remained merciless.
“The ingredients themselves already show a lack of sincerity. You expect me to eat this? Take it away!”
The chef wilted instantly.
Watching that, Tae-hyun thought to himself, Come on, it tastes fine. Just eat it and move on.
The next dish was a spiced cured meat dish.
Just like before, it was well made enough to grant bonuses when eaten and raise his Cooking skill a little—but Valdrez dismissed it just as coldly.
“This is a shameful dish. To the meat, to the spices, and to the one who made it! Take it away!”
Fussy enough to rank among the worst in the entire kingdom.
One by one, the chefs were eliminated, and then it was Ju Hyeon-yeong’s turn.
Tae-hyun waited with anticipation.
What kind of dish had Ju Hyeon-yeong made?
Tae-hyun had a fair amount of confidence in his own Cooking skill, but a class that specialized in cooking was obviously bound to have the advantage.
Besides…
Come to think of it, if Ju Hyeon-yeong does well, I get a bonus too, don’t I?
The master-disciple bond he’d made without much thought was paying off like this.
Ju Hyeon-yeong came walking forward with her dish.
Valdrez frowned before he even tasted it.
“What is this presentation? If you’re going to cook, at least do it prope—”
KABOOOOOM!
At that exact moment, an explosion erupted in the distance behind them.
The blast made Valdrez slam face-first into the plate.
“Mmph?!”
“What was that?!”
“What’s going on?!”
Flames shot upward, and screams rang through the hall.
Tae-hyun realized the commotion was coming from where the blacksmiths were gathered.
Did the blacksmiths screw something up?
But he learned at once that his guess was wrong.
The stewards came running in, shouting.
“We’re under attack! Everyone, move to a safe location!”
“An attack?!”
Attack.
It was about the least fitting word imaginable for the royal palace.
Who would dare attack the palace?
At the stewards’ cry, the nobles seated around the room rose in alarm and hurried to move.
They were trying to reach the secure areas within the palace.
Tae-hyun also got to his feet.
With a plate still in his hand.
“Adventurer, you need to move!”
At the steward’s shout, Tae-hyun nodded and promptly started shoveling the remaining dishes into his mouth one by one.
Clean, efficient handwork without a trace of wasted motion.
You have eaten a dish made by an excellent chef. Your Cooking skill increases.
You have obtained the recipe.
Strength permanently increases…
Agility temporarily increases…
“All other adventurers, please move as well! Follow me!”
The stewards moved frantically, trying to restore order to the situation.
The nobles moved with the nobles, the chefs with the chefs.
And Tae-hyun ignored all of it and tried to finish off the remaining dishes.
“Wait. Where’s the dish Ju Hyeon-yeong made?”
He looked around.
That had been the one he’d been looking forward to the most.
“...!”
The dish that had been set on the table had been blown away by the explosion.
Tae-hyun’s eyes met Valdrez’s. The noble had the dish smeared all over his face.
Even in the middle of this chaos, Valdrez was licking the food off his face.
“Th-this is… delicious!”
“...!”
That absurdly picky noble was reacting like that?
Tae-hyun wanted to know even more.
“The rest of it…”
BOOOOM!
Another explosion went off, and this time even the table flipped over.
All the food on top of it went flying too.
Then the intruder appeared.
A vicious-looking warrior clad in armor.
“Kuhahaha! Nobles, and the king’s lapdo— Ghk?!”
“No, you die, bastard.”
Tae-hyun didn’t even let him finish speaking before charging and unloading a storm of attacks.
A furious barrage chained together with rapid-fire skills.
The intruder might have been strong, but no one could survive giving Tae-hyun the initiative and then standing there while taking consecutive hits.
Once he’d dropped the intruder, Tae-hyun’s anger eased a little.
It was a shame about the food, but…
Can’t be helped. I can just ask her to make it again later…
“Tae-hyun! Tae-hyun!”
In the middle of all the panic and noise as people ran around trying to escape, someone called out to him.
It was Ed-an.
“Why aren’t you inside where it’s safe? What’re you doing out here?”
“This is our chance!”
“What?”
“This is the chance! If we don’t loot the palace while it’s in chaos, when will we ever get another chance?!”
Tae-hyun grabbed Ed-an by the collar first.
“Don’t tell me you caused this mess?”
The killing intent in his eyes made it look as if he might kill him on the spot.
Ed-an shook his head as fast as he possibly could.
“Absolutely not! Do I look capable of something like that?!”
“Fair point. If you were capable of that, you wouldn’t be hanging around with Pelmas.”
“......”
It was true, but somehow still hurt.
Ed-an lowered his voice and whispered quickly,
“I don’t know who did it, but this is our chance. If we miss it, we might not get another one!”
“Hmm…”
Tae-hyun sank into thought.
What should he do?