Chapter 80: Jinseo’s Counterattack (5)
Chapter 80: Jinseo’s Counterattack (5)
Jinseo, together with the two assistants, first handed out the paper boxes packed with half-and-half MuMani to the dwarves.
Then he piled the remaining portions high on one side of the table so anyone could take them as they pleased.
“Come on, humans who still haven’t tasted half-and-half MuMani! Eat as much as you want with beer!”
The dwarves poured beer into mugs and passed them around the table, and as if that still wasn’t enough for them, they generously shared with the people gathering around.
They even passed drinks to the cooks and workers from the bunsik carts.
“Is it okay to drink this?”
“They gave it to me so I took it, but… this…”
With mugs full of beer in their hands, they glanced at Marquis Horus, but he wasn’t even interested in the alcohol or Jinseo’s bunsik.
Instead, he was deeply displeased that the attention that should have been focused on the bunsik carts suddenly shifted to half-and-half MuMani and the dwarves’ beer.
Just seeing Oswald grinning broadly made his stomach churn.
Judging that things would become uncontrollable if attention stayed only on the food truck side, he approached the dwarves and started talking.
He began by asking whether they liked the bunsik from the bunsik carts, then launched into a long-winded explanation of his future plans.
The dwarves kept nodding at his words, but their attention was already fixed on beer and half-and-half MuMani, so it was useless.
“For exchange between dwarves and humans!”
Geshtain raised his beer mug high, then drank it in one shot the way Jinseo had taught him.
People who lifted their mouths from their mugs after drinking halfway assumed it was dwarven drinking culture when they saw him drain it without stopping, and they finished their mugs too.
“Phew! Now that we’ve quenched our thirst, it’s time to properly eat chicken! Everyone, tear into it!”
As if they had been waiting, the dwarves opened the chicken boxes and began eating.
They had no time to express impressions of the taste.
They had finally met real half-and-half MuMani again after so long, and there was no room in their minds for anything but putting it into their mouths and savoring it.
So naturally, not a single dwarf was looking at Marquis Horus.
“…So, for continued exchanges between humans and dwarves going forward, I…”
Even so, he was still struggling to keep talking, trying somehow to entice this race from another continent.
“Hey. We’re eating chicken, so could you keep it down?”
“Don’t you know the saying: even a dog won’t bother you while you’re eating chicken?”
In the end, the dwarves, reaching the limit of their patience, frowned and spoke sharply at Marquis Horus.
“Why don’t you try enjoying chimaek too? The talk can wait until after that.”
One of the dwarves held out an unopened chicken box to Marquis Horus.
“Here. Try it once. Then you’ll learn what’s more precious than what you’re saying right now!”
“Once you experience that crispiness, you can’t stop!”
Even with the strong urging around him, Marquis Horus didn’t open his mouth. He kept it tightly shut.
No matter how delicious Jinseo’s food might be, he had no intention of putting even a single bite into his mouth.
“Come on, take a bite.”
Smack!
Perhaps his patience finally snapped from the continued urging, Marquis Horus struck the chicken box aside with the back of his hand.
The box fell at his feet, and the chicken inside spilled onto the ground.
A hush fell.
“N-no, I was just…”
He tried desperately to find something to say in excuse, but under the sharp stares pouring down on him, nothing came to mind.
“Did you just throw chicken on the ground?”
“That precious half-and-half MuMani? The precious anju we waited months to eat…?”
The dwarves glared at Marquis Horus with axe-like eyes.
Jinseo also looked at him coldly.
No matter the reason, it was impossible to laugh and let it go when food he had made was treated like that.
In the end, Marquis Horus left without a single apology.
His aide Lergon hurried after him, trying to grab him, but Marquis Horus only vented loudly.
“Well, we can leave whatever happens over there to them…”
Geshtain, who still hadn’t opened his chicken box, turned his head toward the bunsik cart side.
“Are they not bringing out half-and-half MuMani over there?”
At the casually tossed question, spoken in a tone of expectation, the bunsik cart cooks hesitated.
They looked at Marco, but his bunsik was the result of many trials and errors and relentless time investment after tasting Jinseo’s bunsik.
To see something just now and imitate it exactly, even for him, was impossible.
“What a shame. I thought that with the skill to recreate Jinseo’s bunsik so well, you could make this too…”
Geshtain turned back with a somewhat disappointed face.
But when he opened the paper box, half-and-half MuMani appeared, golden, passionate red, and pure white in harmony, and he beamed as if he had never been disappointed.
Crunch, crunch.
The sound spilling through the mouth with every bite.
The chicken scent spreading through the air.
Half-and-half MuMani was fully showing off its power, the kind that made your mouth water just by watching.
“You all should have a taste too.”
Geshtain, who had already finished his own share, approached the bunsik cart members with both arms full of chicken boxes.
“C-can we really eat this?”
“Why? Is it not allowed? That human, Horus-something, is way over there, isn’t he?”
Marquis Horus was still in an intense argument with Lergon, with no room to look toward the bunsik cart side.
Even so, no one stepped forward to open a chicken box first.
“Jinseo made it, but consider it a gift from the dwarves and eat. It doesn’t matter what kind of humans you are. Eat first, then think afterward.”
Far from human conflicts, the dwarf Geshtain simply wanted to share delicious food with everyone.
And though Marco had come with Marquis Horus, Geshtain didn’t hate him that much. Marco had made bunsik with skill not inferior to Jinseo’s.
Since it’s food given by a dwarf rather than a human, they won’t be able to refuse easily.
In truth, Geshtain had come to deliver the chicken on Jinseo’s request.
While hiding Jinseo’s intent, to confirm as quickly as possible, right here if possible, whether what he had learned through Hayward was true.
“Then… let’s see…”
When one of the workers opened the paper box, two kinds of chicken, steaming hot, revealed themselves.
“T-two kinds of food?”
“The one with nothing on it is fried chicken, and the red one is seasoned chicken. The white thing in the corner is chicken pickled radish. Eat one at a time to cleanse your palate. Come on, eat before the chicken gets cold!”
At Geshtain’s urging, the bunsik cart members each picked up a piece of chicken.
Crunch.
“Ah…”
Marco, tasting fried chicken for the first time, staggered for a moment, then barely steadied himself.
Shock.
There was no other word to describe what he felt.
“A-are you alright?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Marco collected himself and took a big bite of the seasoned chicken.
After finishing the chicken pickled radish as well, Marco closed his eyes and sank into thought.
The texture is almost like chicken, but different meats were used for each… and the sauce brushed on the outside of what they call seasoned chicken is…
One by one, things began surfacing in his mind, what ingredients would be needed to create that texture, what cooking methods would produce that taste.
“It’s… delicious! That’s the only thing I can think of!”
“It’s on a completely different level from the bunsik we’ve eaten until now!”
“To think a taste like this existed…”
The workers and assistant cooks, experiencing half-and-half MuMani for the first time, couldn’t shake off the shock either.
But Jinseo’s counterattack wasn’t over yet.
‘AI, summon the outdoor oven.’
{Yes, understood.}
Fwaaat.
A magic circle suddenly formed beside the food truck’s driver seat, and light burst upward from it as a massive oven appeared.
The dwarves, who had been enjoying chimaek enthusiastically, flinched and crowded around the oven.
“W-what is that?”
“It’s a pizza oven for making pizza.”
“A pizza oven?”
An oven upgraded using gargoyle fragments obtained during a dungeon expedition with Craid’s group before.
Everyone’s attention focused on it.
Since it was impossible to go into the cooking area, they had to use it this way, summoning it outside the food truck only when needed.
‘AI, heat the oven.’
{Yes, understood.}
“Please step back for a moment.”
Whoosh.
When the oven heated instantly through magical power, a wave of hot air spread in all directions.
“Wait, pizza… do you mean that Italian bunsik we ate back in Korea?”
Julien, the only one here who knew the taste of pizza, reacted strongly, and Jinseo smiled and nodded.
“You remember.”
“It was bunsik I only tasted in Korea, so it stuck with me.”
“You didn’t know back then, but it also goes incredibly well with beer.”
“As well as half-and-half MuMani?”
“Personally, I think chicken wins, but I’m confident it’ll match just as well.”
Calling it Italian bunsik like this… I feel sorry to Italians. But there’s no choice if I want them to understand easily.
Jinseo set the ingredients Jason had given him on the table and began preparing to bake pizza.
Not long after, a well-baked pizza appeared, but since it was unfamiliar food to them, everyone only watched, unable to even figure out how to eat it.
“You hold it like this… and lift…”
Julien, the only one with pizza experience, pushed through the crowd and lifted a slice.
“Oooooh!”
At the sight of the cheese stretching long, the dwarves gathered around burst into admiration.
“See? Now, Geshtain. You try first.”
“Then I won’t refuse!”
Following Julien, Geshtain lifted a slice and began eating from the middle.
After devouring it all the way to the crust in an instant, Geshtain sucked in the cheese left at the tip.
Then he brought the beer mug in his left hand to his mouth and tilted it back.
Gulp, gulp.
After downing it in another one shot, Geshtain looked up at Jinseo with shining eyes.
“Jinseo! You’re truly incredible! How can you keep bringing out things that pair so well with beer? Come on, what are you all doing? Don’t just watch, eat!”
The dwarves lunged at the pizza and began eating as if they were inhaling it, fully enjoying its harmony with beer.
From the oven, well-baked pizzas kept coming out without pause, and new pizzas kept going in, over and over.
“You all need to take a bite too, right?”
Geshtain held a whole pizza in his hands, looked toward the bunsik cart side, then gestured for them to come to this table and eat.
After tasting half-and-half MuMani, it was an irresistible temptation, so they abandoned the bunsik cart and ran over.
“Wow! I like this more than chicken!”
“Half-and-half MuMani and pizza… I can’t choose which is better.”
Even the bunsik cart members couldn’t escape pizza’s charm and kept praising it.
“But why don’t you even touch alcohol, and only eat anju?”
Geshtain, approaching Marco with friendly ease, held out a beer mug filled almost to the brim.
“Anju shows its true flavor when it’s together with alcohol.”
“I-is that so?”
“All the foods Jinseo served as anju are like that. Don’t you want to feel the true taste of anju?”
Even with Geshtain’s repeated urging, Marco turned away from the beer with a bitter smile.
“It’s impossible.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I physiologically cannot accept alcohol at all.”
Even while continuing to bake pizza, Jinseo listened to their conversation and looked at Marco.
It was easy to see he was dejected by his situation.
Hayward said he’d collapse from even a single sip… so it really was true.
Jinseo had learned it through Hayward’s letter, but he wondered if it might be only speculation.
Hearing it from Marco’s own mouth turned it into certainty.
“Ghh… then it can’t be helped. Holding your liquor is practically basic courtesy for us dwarves, but this is the humans’ continent, so we can’t force it.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“That you can’t drink?”
“No. That isn’t it. If you can only feel the true flavor by eating with beer… then I won’t be able to properly recreate half-and-half MuMani’s taste. Pizza too.”
“Can’t you just eat only the anju and make it?”
“No! That goes against my iron rule!”
Another chef would still try to recreate the taste by eating only chicken and pizza even if they couldn’t drink.
But with Marco, it was different.
He would try to recreate the true taste felt through the tongue, and if his tongue couldn’t feel the true taste, he would judge that he had no qualification to recreate that dish.
His perfectionism, which had played a major role in copying bunsik perfectly, ended up holding him back in a situation like this.
And even if he forced himself to drink alcohol, then ate half-and-half MuMani and tried to make it the same, it would be impossible.
Before he could even cook, he would lose to the alcohol and collapse.
Hayward said the reason he retired from the culinary world for the last three years was because his sense of taste went numb.
Jinseo kept his eyes on Marco, recalling another truth Hayward had uncovered.
Interestingly, what revived Marco’s sense of taste was none other than Jinseo’s bunsik.
So Marco ignored other interests and poured all his strength into recreating bunsik.
Only, the one who had spared no support for him happened to be Marquis Horus, twisting his relationship with Jinseo.
“To think I can’t properly recreate anju this delicious… it’s so bitter.”
While only Marco alone couldn’t contain his sadness, the dwarves’ banquet proceeded warmly.
Without anyone knowing that Marquis Horus had vanished without receiving anyone’s attention.