Chapter 10: Serving Is for the Cat (1)
Chapter 10: Serving Is for the Cat (1)
“Please give me a tteok-twi-sun set.”
“You’re not taking out the tteokbokki?”
“Yes. I’m fine with it now.”
When a customer who used to order only fried items and soondae ordered differently, a smile spread across Jinseo’s face.
“May His blessing be with you… Please give me three servings of tteokbokki. With CoolXs.”
Now there were quite a few customers who ordered only tteokbokki.
Those customers were the clergy affiliated with the Falstead Diocese, right in front of him.
It was the result of them eating special tteokbokki for ascetic practice and then becoming captivated by the taste of tteokbokki itself.
“Here are three servings of tteokbokki. Enjoy.”
“You didn’t sprinkle that sauce, right?”
“Of course.”
Special tteokbokki, which had shown them the true essence of a spiciness they’d never felt before, was irresistibly appealing to the clergy.
Because they could easily complete, in a short time, the ascetic process they had to go through to raise their holy power.
Even so, unlike ice cream, there was no need to impose a strict quantity limit.
Because after eating spicy food, that night they had to suffer through another ordeal—groaning in the bathroom.
So Cardinal Fedora issued an order limiting the clergy in the diocese to eating special tteokbokki for ascetic practice to once a week.
Fortunately, she didn’t place any restrictions on using the food truck as a normal snack shop, so the clergy’s visits to the food truck never stopped.
Just in case, Jinseo asked Fedora directly.
Whether appetite was also pleasure, and whether pursuing pleasure might go against the teachings of their religion.
“Would He truly be pleased if we blocked all human pleasures?”
Only after hearing her definite answer did Jinseo feel at ease about giving the clergy pleasure.
In the name of spiciness.
“Oh, it’s here, it’s here.”
“If it’s not special, you don’t need CoolXs, right?”
“It tastes good even if you just drink it. Also, tteokbokki alone feels a bit lacking—should we order fried items with it next time?”
The clergy who had just received their tteokbokki began eating with colleagues who had been waiting.
“Mmm… chewy.”
“At first it was strange, but now this texture of the tteok is really charming.”
One of the biggest concerns in tteokbokki sales—the texture of the tteok—resolved naturally once many customers got used to it.
It happened because other customers grew curious after seeing the clergy eat tteokbokki so often and began ordering it too.
Jinseo’s idea of giving a small portion of tteokbokki as a service to customers who ordered only fried items or soondae also played a part.
“It feels like the cardinal’s holy power grows day by day.”
“It was already shocking that she became a cardinal at that age. Now she’ll surely rise even higher.”
“It’s great that our diocese won’t be pushed around by other dioceses anymore.”
Rumor had it that Jinseo’s food truck might become an officially recognized holy site of the order.
From Jinseo’s perspective, he could only be grateful to the Heirem Order in many ways.
He’d even received rewards in a direction he’d never expected.
“Even seeing it again, I can’t believe it. Hyung, why are you that strong?” Jason said, pointing at the three trees Jinseo had snapped by kicking them.
The reason one more tree had broken was because Jinseo had kicked another one to check whether the strength that disappeared after returning to Korea had returned.
The strength, whose cause even Jinseo didn’t understand, hadn’t disappeared.
It only manifested in this other world, the Francia Continent, and did not apply in his original world.
It wasn’t because of the blessing.
Because the other customers who’d received the blessing were the same as usual, aside from being healed.
“Whew, I may look like this, but I once aimed to become a knight. I don’t even know how many times I got blisters on my hands, had them burst, and repeated that.”
Complaining about his lot, Jason started pouring out his long story.
When his story—from childhood to settling down as a guard at Falstead Castle after leaving his hometown—finally reached the present, Jinseo silently gave him a cup of CoolXs as a free service.
“Thanks.”
Jason downed the CoolXs in one go, but his dark expression didn’t change.
What he needed right now wasn’t a sweet drink, but bitter alcohol.
Jinseo had noticed long ago, but he didn’t take any alcohol out of the fridge.
He’d decided that no matter what else he sold, he wouldn’t sell alcohol.
The moment I sell alcohol, I have to brace for problem customers…
“Maybe… in your country, only the strong can become chefs… something like that exists?”
“No.”
“Are there other chefs as strong as you?”
“There are.”
“T-that’s so.”
There were.
He was the protagonist of an action movie that took place on a ship, though.
“Have you ever learned any combat techniques?”
“I learned taekwondo. I learned it when I was young, and once more when I went to the military.”
“Taekwondo? What is that? And the military? Were you a soldier?”
This time, Jinseo’s stories from his army days began.
As Jinseo’s recollections went on, to Jason, taekwondo transformed into a martial art overflowing with mystery from a country called Korea, far away from the Francia Continent.
Even though Jinseo was only calmly talking about his past.
“Then in Korea, no one would dare mess with you.”
“That’s not true. When you run a business, you end up dealing with all sorts of nasty things.”
“Even though you learned taekwondo?”
“That’s because most Koreans learn taekwondo.”
“Ah, I see! Anyway, if people from your side ran a business here, it’d be really easy. Even the troublemakers would behave.”
Come to think of it, after I smashed those trees, the customers’ attitudes have felt strangely polite. They were originally pretty mild-mannered, but…
“Yikes, it’s almost time for my shift change. Hyung, sell a lot!”
Jason hurriedly finished the remaining bunsik and ran toward the castle.
“Come to think of it, it’s already time for my break.”
After getting out of the food truck, Jinseo hung up a sign that said “Break Time” on the driver’s door.
He quickly wiped down the empty table seats, then collected the empty plates.
When he was about to wipe the counter seats last, someone came walking over from afar with his hands clasped behind his back.
A bulging belly and a greasy face.
A customer he’d never seen before.
Even after seeing the sign Jinseo had hung up, he sat himself right down at the counter without a care.
“That tteok-twi-sun or whatever it is, one serving.”
“It’s break time right now, so you’ll have to wait.”
“How long?”
“About an hour.”
“I’m not someone with that much time. Bring it out quick.”
From his tone, attitude, and expression alone, Jinseo could tell.
This was the first real nuisance customer he’d met since coming to the Francia Continent.
He wanted to send him away outright, but he judged it would only get messier, so it was better to bring out the food quickly and get him to leave.
I’ll think of it as opening forty minutes early and just make it.
Jinseo started preparing ingredients and cooking quickly.
Even during that short time, the man yawned repeatedly, as if bored.
“Here you go.”
“The fork? You’re not telling me to eat with my hands, are you?”
“It’s in the container on the right.”
“You should take it out and hand it to me. Tsk, tsk.”
The man examined the steaming tteokbokki closely, then frowned.
“I don’t get why people eat something that looks obviously spicy.”
After grumbling, he started with the fried items and soondae instead of the tteokbokki.
Then he nodded, as if he understood something.
“It’s better than I expected. I can see why people gather for it.”
After tasting a few bites of the tteok-twi-sun, the man didn’t even eat half before pushing the plate aside.
“It was decent enough. But…” He turned his body and checked that it was only him and Jinseo. “How much are you making?”
“I’m making enough to have some profit, more or less.” Jinseo avoided specifics and gave a vague answer.
“How about trying business somewhere else, not in a backwater place like this?”
“I don’t know why you’re so stubborn. It’d be a lot more profitable than running around everywhere selling food.”
The pot-bellied man introduced himself as a merchant who ran shops in Peyden Castle.
He called Jinseo’s Snack Bar a rather unique cuisine and abruptly suggested moving the business.
Then he swept his eyes over the food truck’s equipment and asked where it could be obtained and what the unit cost was.
“I’ve already talked things through with the administrators of Peyden Castle. They’ll cover operating costs if you just sell food in the shop they provide. And I’m sure it’ll sell even if you charge several times what you charge here.”
But none of the merchant’s proposals appealed to Jinseo.
Only profit earned by selling edible things could be exchanged through the food truck.
So even if he received operating funds, he couldn’t exchange them, and they would disappear after a certain period of time, meaning the merchant’s offer gave Jinseo no benefit at all.
And even if he raised the selling price of bunsik, the exchange only applied as much as if it had been sold at the proper price, so there was no reason to do that either.
“If that’s the case, how about opening another shop in Peyden Castle? It’s better to open multiple shops than to sell in just one place.”
“That may be true, but managing just this one food truck is already a lot.”
Honestly, it’d be great if I could open branches, but the fact that exchange is impossible doesn’t change, so there’s no reason for me to step in.
On top of that, he didn’t like that he couldn’t constantly check the cooking process and the quality of the food.
He was the type who only felt satisfied if he made it with his own hands, or even if someone else did it, only if it was right in front of him.
He also absolutely couldn’t accept a condition that required him to operate only at a designated location.
Right now Jinseo did business at Falstead Castle, Doren Mage Tower, and Kaysus Cathedral, but that was because he wanted to, not because anyone forced him.
He didn’t want to give up the freedom he was enjoying on the Francia Continent—driving the food truck himself and selling wherever he wanted—in this way.
“How about selling the recipe?”
“Well. That doesn’t really benefit me much.”
“Then how about selling this food truck to me? I’ll pay you a fat price…”
“That’s difficult.”
More than anything, he didn’t like the merchant’s attitude.
Without presenting concrete contract terms, he was pushing a “let’s work together” posture from the start.
They hadn’t even shaken hands, but he was already treating Jinseo like a subordinate.
“Tch, you’re really playing hard to get. Just you wait. Don’t get cocky thinking business will stay good forever. I’ll figure out how to copy this weird cooking too, one way or another.”
With this world’s ingredients, that’ll be impossible.
Jinseo considered talking back to the threat, but decided it was pointless and responded with silence.
When Jinseo kept giving no reaction, the merchant was the one who got even angrier.
“Ptooey!” He spat on the ground and walked off into the distance.
Jinseo thought about sprinkling salt, but stopped and gave a bitter smile.
That much is nothing…
It had been a long time since he’d met a real nuisance.
But compared to when he ran Jinseo’s Snack Bar, this was nothing.
At least that man paid and left, so he barely counted as a customer.
Working with people can’t always be pleasant. The customers I’d had until now were just unusually nice.
Jinseo stretched and looked toward Falstead Castle.
“I should finish cleaning… No. I’ll just rest a bit.”
Everything felt annoying. Jinseo yanked off his sanitary gloves and stretched again, feeling stiff.
Wanting to be alone where no one was, he went into the bushes behind the truck.
As the clear mountain air—free of fine dust—filled his nose, a refreshing feeling came over him, and the tightness in his chest began to loosen.
“This kind of great place was right next to me, and I didn’t even know.”
Breathing in the scent of the brush, Jinseo went deeper inside.
Then something slowly flew toward the food truck, left behind without its owner.
Something that sparkled like a firefly drifted closer, and the moment it touched the food truck, a brilliant light burst out.
“Meow.”
When the light faded, a black-furred cat appeared and leaped up onto the counter seat.
The cat quietly stared at the tteok-twi-sun the merchant had left behind, then licked the tteokbokki sauce once with its tongue.
“Meow?”
Startled, it sprang up, then, unlike before, cautiously stuck its tongue out toward the plate and began eating quickly.
Everything cleanly—tteokbokki the customer had left, the cold fried batter, even the knotted end piece of the soondae.
After licking its front paw clean of tteokbokki sauce, the cat turned its gaze toward the other food left on other tables.
“Whew, now I finally feel better.”
As the owner of the food truck pushed through the bushes and walked back toward the truck, the cat swiftly jumped down from the counter and vanished.
“Shaking like this just because I met one nuisance customer… I’ve gotten a lot weaker.”
Jinseo picked up a plate with not a drop of tteokbokki sauce left on it.
Having completely forgotten that there was supposed to be leftovers.