Chapter 47:This Wasn’t in the Plan? (3)
Chapter 47:This Wasn’t in the Plan? (3)
(47/225)
The food truck, which had returned from its scooter form to its original shape, sped along a narrow path through the brush.
The food truck’s next destination was Orte Harbor, a place they had visited before.
There had been danger, but it had remained a place of good memories for Jinseo.
“Good.”
In the passenger seat, Craid drank a canned beverage while watching the scenery whip past outside the window.
All at once, the owl spirit, Owl, slipped into that view and tapped the glass with a peck-peck.
“Looks like it wants to drink again.”
“I’ll roll the window down.”
Craid casually held out the can he was drinking through the open window, like he was used to doing it.
After sticking out its beak and finishing the remaining drink inside the can, Owl shot upward, then perched on the roost installed right above the driver’s seat.
Originally, Jinseo had planned to put the roost inside the additional trailer, but to prevent a game of tag with Nero—who played on the cat tower—he installed it outside instead.
Jinseo worried Owl might get blown away by the wind, but after hearing the AI’s explanation, he put that worry aside.
The magic Owl had learned was wind-related, so even a headwind wouldn’t blow it away.
In the additional trailer, Hayward and Julien—who had accompanied them on the dungeon expedition—were riding along.
Normally, the two of them would have finished the expedition and left to look for other work.
But instead of taking an escort fee and the mana core’s price, they changed plans and decided to travel with Craid for a while.
To enjoy the bunsik Jinseo would serve.
“It’s about lunchtime.”
At Craid’s words, Jinseo pulled the food truck over.
The time displayed on his smartphone was 12:00:05.
Craid’s hunger was like a biological clock that always told him the exact time to eat.
“Ah… this is really comfortable. It doesn’t even jolt, so I almost slept like a rock on the way.”
“I’m worried because it’s too comfortable. From now on, I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to ride a regular carriage.”
As the food truck stopped, Hayward climbed down from the additional trailer and stretched.
Julien came down beside Nero, looking worried about what would happen after separating from Jinseo.
When Jinseo opened the side door of the food truck and began preparing to cook, the three men sat side by side at the counter seats, just like they always did.
“What are you serving for lunch?”
Three times a day, Hayward waited desperately for mealtime to arrive.
Every time, the new bunsik menu Jinseo served gave him a fresh kind of pleasure called good eating.
“Well. What should I serve this time?”
“How about that bunsik called chicken? I’m looking forward to it.”
“You’ll need to wait a bit longer. I want to let you taste perfect chicken.”
Jinseo had promised to make chicken using the Cockatrice King’s meat, but he still held off.
If I’m going to let them taste chicken, I should do it properly.
He had tried frying practice batches of fried chicken while everyone was napping.
It tasted better than any fried chicken Jinseo had ever eaten, so he was confident he could serve it right away.
But seasoned chicken still hadn’t reached a level he was satisfied with.
Making the key sauce was unexpectedly tricky.
If this were Korea, he could have eaten seasoned chicken from other places and used it as reference, or figured it out in multiple ways, but right now that was impossible.
On top of that, he had to buy or make chicken radish, which you could never leave out when eating chicken, but the situation didn’t allow it.
He could serve only fried chicken, but Jinseo’s convictions about chicken didn’t permit that.
Half seasoned, half fried, lots of chicken radish.
In short: half-half-mu-many.
Only when those three elements were perfectly in place could he truly claim he had tasted chicken.
“What would be good? I served omurice yesterday evening, and rabokki… I served that the day before yesterday, so…”
As Jinseo was thinking about what to make, his eyes landed on the sausage Hayward was holding.
“Sausage?”
“Craid didn’t know he’d be calling you, so I prepared it. I was going to give it to Nero, but she just sniffed it and turned away. Well, she must’ve been living on bunsik, so there’s no way something this ordinary would satisfy her.”
“Sausage…”
In Jinseo’s mind, a dish he still hadn’t shown on the Francia Continent surfaced.
In Korea it was obviously a massive hit, and even foreigners accepted it without burden.
It wasn’t bunsik, but it was food as broadly loved as bunsik.
“Should I boil up budae-jjigae (army base stew)?”
“Budae-jjigae? Was there a bunsik like that?”
Even Craid, who had conquered all of Jinseo’s Snack Bar, had never heard the name before.
“Strictly speaking, it isn’t bunsik, but some snack shops do serve it. That sausage you’re holding is one of the main ingredients.”
“You’re going to use this? I have some that isn’t cut yet—want me to give it to you?”
“I’ll use what I have. Just a moment.”
Jinseo stepped out of the cooking area and went into the additional trailer, then took out a plastic bag of broth from subspace storage.
Next came sausages, Spam, and baked beans—the core ingredients of budae-jjigae.
Lastly, kimchi.
“Ugh… that goes in?”
The moment Hayward saw the kimchi Jinseo brought out, he frowned.
Not only in places other than Korea, but on the Francia Continent too, kimchi was a food people either loved or hated with no middle ground.
Even Craid, who had been eating bunsik for a while, hesitated to eat it plain, so most of the kimchi they brought ended up used in kimchi fried rice.
Only Julien reacted like it was fine, but just the appearance of kimchi made the mood sink.
“It’ll be fine. If you’re really worried, I’ll serve another dish too, so you can eat that instead.”
Speaking confidently, Jinseo cut the ingredients into bite-sized pieces and put them into a large pot.
Then he took out a table and set it behind the counter seats.
“Do we really need a table?”
“It’s a dish that tastes best when people eat together. It’ll be uncomfortable trying to do it at the counter.”
Brushing off Hayward’s point lightly, Jinseo placed a portable gas stove in the middle of the table.
Then he set the pot on top and closed the lid.
“Ah, you can’t eat yet.”
When Hayward tried to open the lid and stick a spoon in, Jinseo stopped him and shut it again.
“Huh? Wasn’t it already done?”
“In Korea, there are quite a few foods where you don’t finish the process beforehand and instead cook it like this in front of the customer.”
“If it’s done, you could just serve it. Why go out of your way to do that?”
“There are various reasons, but it also means you should enjoy the process of the dish being completed. I’ll open the lid when it’s fully cooked, so don’t open it before then.”
After finishing his explanation, Jinseo turned on the stove and went back to the cooking area.
“Huh. This kind of dish is new to me.”
“I don’t really understand it either, but if it tastes better that way, it’s fine.”
“Looking at what’s inside, I don’t think it’ll taste that good. Will it be okay?”
Hayward and Julien glanced at the pot with doubtful expressions.
“Enjoy the process of the dish being completed…”
Meanwhile, Craid repeated Jinseo’s words in a solemn tone.
Like he had just encountered a truth he hadn’t realized before.
With faith and doubt crossing in the air, the three men sat quietly and waited, just as Jinseo told them to.
While anticipating how a dish that looked like nothing more than a mishmash of ingredients would transform.
“Now it should be properly cooked.”
When the broth inside began bubbling, Jinseo opened the lid.
Steam rose and the smell of budae-jjigae spread in all directions, making the three men at the table flinch.
“The smell… we’ll have to taste it to know.”
“But now that it’s boiling, it looks more appetizing than before.”
“Yeah.”
“But with kimchi in it, I have no idea if it’ll suit my taste. Kimchi fried rice was edible, but this… I don’t know.”
“Alright, you can eat now. I’ll serve you.”
Jinseo ladled budae-jjigae into the small plates placed in front of each of them.
While Hayward and Julien exchanged looks, Craid tilted the plate in his right hand slightly and took a sip of the broth.
“The broth…”
“S-so?”
“It’s excellent.”
At the satisfied reaction that came from Craid’s mouth, the other two started eating as well.
First, just like Craid, a sip of broth.
Then, a piece of topping.
Lastly, the ramen noodles.
After eating in that order, the two men lowered their heads quietly.
“Jinseo, this budae-jjigae…”
“Mr. Jinseo…”
“Don’t you like it?”
“Why are you only serving this now? You should’ve served this from the start! Like Craid said, the broth is incredible! The noodles in it are insane too!”
“You said it’s called Spam, right? I didn’t know meat could be this soft and tasty! The seasoning is perfect too!”
The two men spat out intense praise, then started eating budae-jjigae like they were competing.
Hayward focused on the broth and ramen noodles.
Julien picked out sausages and Spam.
Craid ate quickly and repeated the cycle of scooping more with the ladle.
“There’s rice too. Would you like to eat it with this?”
Rice could never be missing from budae-jjigae.
Jinseo brought out rice in stainless bowls.
The reaction was explosive, as expected.
If you had a shot of soju with this, it’d be perfect, but…
There was another companion for budae-jjigae—alcohol—but Jinseo didn’t take it out.
Korean beer and soju hadn’t gotten very good reactions from the people of the Francia Continent.
“Budae-jjigae goes well with alcohol. That’s a shame.”
“Alcohol?”
At the word, Hayward lifted one of the two flasks hanging at his waist.
“We’re not in a dungeon, so it should be fine to drink a little, right?”
He flicked the water out of a paper cup, opened the flask, then filled the cup with liquor and downed it without hesitation.
“Then you drink the broth… damn! This is excellent!”
A sip of liquor.
A spoonful of broth with a piece of Spam submerged inside.
One of the best pairings for drinkers had just been completed on the Francia Continent.
“I want you to make budae-jjigae often. When it comes to alcohol, I totally fold.”
“For someone saying that, it seems you didn’t touch alcohol even once in the dungeon.”
“That’s because just like that guy doesn’t bring a cook into dangerous places, I have a rule that I never drink while working. I went through hell once before, you see.”
Hayward laughed easily and slurped up the ramen noodles.
Meow
“Nero, want to try some too?”
When Jinseo put budae-jjigae into a small plate and offered it, Nero ate it down in a frantic rush like she was bewitched.
From the roost above, Owl flapped its wings and came down, insisting it wanted some too.
But the moment it saw the red broth of the budae-jjigae, it flinched and flew right back up.
Owl liked sweet things, but couldn’t even bring its beak near spicy food.
Ever since it had taken a bite of Jinseo’s tteokbokki and collapsed, then gotten back up, it had started avoiding red foods.
Meow!
Nero looked up at Owl and gave a victorious eye-smile.
In the meantime, the pot they had boiled budae-jjigae in showed its bottom.
Hayward and Julien rubbed their protruding bellies with happy faces.
“Jinseo.”
“Yes, Lord Craid.”
“When we return to Falstead Castle later, do you have any intention of adding it to the official menu?”
At Craid’s suggestion, Jinseo shook his head.
“Not yet. Strictly speaking, it isn’t bunsik either.”
“Even though it has ramen in it?”
“Actually, bunsik is hard to define precisely. Of course, I’m not saying I’ll only sell bunsik, but I plan to add menus slowly.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Instead, if you come when no one’s around…”
“Like that Castle Lord did before?”
“That much I obviously should do. And…”
{ Warning! Warning! A giant monster, Kraken, has been detected. If the monster approaches within a set range, the Mobile Cooking Facility will automatically switch to Defense Mode. }
“Kraken? A Kraken appeared?”
At Jinseo’s unconscious words, the three men sprang up in urgency.
They reflexively drew their weapons and clustered around Jinseo.
As silence settled, the AI’s warning message repeated in Jinseo’s ears.
“Wait, isn’t something off?”
“A Kraken should be a sea monster, but this is…”
“Right.”
After scanning the area, Craid’s party all looked at Jinseo at once.
They were on a roadside far from the coast.
It was a place where a Kraken absolutely could not appear.
“Just a moment.”
AI, turn off the warning message for now. Instead, display the Kraken’s location on the TV so we can see it.
{ Understood. }
“Everyone, look over here.”
When Jinseo turned on the large TV, a map appeared on the big screen.
Until now, it had only detected monsters within a certain distance and given their rough locations.
Now that the food truck’s grade had increased, it could show their exact positions through the large TV.
“Our location is the circle in the middle here. The Kraken is the red circle in the upper left. The green circle in the lower left is Orte Harbor.”
As Jinseo tapped the TV screen with his finger to explain, Craid nodded like he understood.
But the two men seeing the large TV operating for the first time only stared blankly at the screen.
“I see a yellow circle too—what’s that?”
“That’s another monster’s location. Compared to the Kraken, they’re much weaker monsters, and they’re far from here, so we’ll ignore them for now.”
“A Kraken on the sea is a tough one. If possible, I’d rather fight it on land, but…”
“Luckily it’s far from Orte Harbor, so if we ride the food truck and warn them now, we can minimize the damage.”
“Understood.”
“Then first… huh?”
Jinseo, who was about to head to the driver’s seat, stopped mid-step.
The red circle moving down toward Orte Harbor’s green circle kept blinking on and off.
AI, what’s going on?
{ It has been determined that a battle has begun between Kraken and multiple other lifeforms. }
Battle?