They Know Korean Flavor?
“Ah… Class is over. Everyone worked hard…”
“Kyaaaaah—!!”
“We’re saved…”
“I thought I was dead…”
Two hours of class flew by in the blink of an eye. The moment the bell rang, the students who had been wielding their staffs in front of me collapsed in a heap.
If there had been any students who could cast magic without chanting, the class would have gone on forever. But thanks to the main characters—Shaty, Pina, and Fran—the lesson ended on time.
And naturally, those three received praises from the rest of the class for finishing on schedule.
I, too, was starting to feel the time had come. I floated up from my seat, channeling mana, and addressed the students heading toward the cafeteria.
“Since everyone worked hard… eat deliciously. And since I’m going to the cafeteria for the first time, it would be great if you could choose my sister’s place as much as possible…”
“Your sister?”
“Yeah. My sister works at a cafeteria too…”
At the student’s question, I nodded. Since the place I was heading to was a cafeteria, I gave it a small promotion before leaving.
No matter what extra characters showed up, I had to make sure the main characters who would be important in the future visited my cafeteria.
So I pulled out the three pre-prepared ‘meal coupons’ I had prepared and, under the already-prepared excuse, tossed them to Shaty, Pina, and Fran.
“You three succeeded in what I asked for this class, so here… Shaty, you take the regular product… later. And you—”
The three caught the meal coupons and stared at me with confused expressions.
Especially Shaty, who looked startled by the words ‘I’ll give you the regular product.’ But I didn’t have time to care. I didn’t even turn around and simply flew toward the sky.
Toward the cafeteria far in the distance.
* * *
The cafeteria at Lua Academy operated in a unique way.
Normally, in a school cafeteria from my past life, teacher aunts would all be busy prepping ingredients and cooking together. But this cafeteria at Lua Academy felt more like the dining hall of a large supermarket.
You pay first, put your meal coupons in, and order whatever you want. Then the cooking department prepares it and serves you.
But despite the academy game setting, the food here was mostly Western—steaks and spaghetti. Even though the cooks were undoubtedly ‘chef-class’ professionals, the effects attached to the tiny portions were barely enough to restore stamina and mental power.
How was it possible for these students to grow stronger and fight against the demon race in the future?
The real purpose of the chef job class was small but permanent buffs to the food. Although combat skills were lower than other classes, as support roles, the buffs on the completed dishes were the most important factor for chefs.
That was also why I had requested a chef spot separate from teaching. With small but permanent buffs on the food, five years of eating it would surely turn them into monsters.
As expected, I had already flown quickly to the cafeteria and quietly landed behind it.
“Students haven’t arrived yet… Time to change bodies… Avatar.”
A window of avatars floated up from my murmur. I pulled my hands out of the robe and touched the character wearing pure white chef attire on the avatar window.
[Chef – Do you want to select Yeonha?]
“Select.”
Instantly, my body changed. My height didn’t differ much from when I was in Meiel’s state, but the puffy robe disappeared, and a pure white chef outfit wrapped around my body, just like I had seen earlier.
My hair was the same reddish tone as Aria’s, but while Aria had rose-red, Yeonha had blazing red that burned like a blazing sun. Her eyes were oddly gray, barely distinguishable from the whites.
But after transforming into Yeonha’s body, where those eyes shone with beauty, I let out the long-suppressed sigh in one breath and murmured,
“Haa… Finally changed. Yeonha’s body is definitely the best compared to those damn bothersome ones.”
Yeonha’s body was truly the best. If asked why, it was because Yeonha’s speech style matched my unfiltered inner thoughts the most.
Yeonha’s filter had the feel of a ‘dirty chef.’ Objectively, it was dirtier than my past self, but still more refreshing than other characters, so I was satisfied.
“I need to get inside quickly. I have to cook.”
But there was no time to enjoy that satisfaction. I hooked the kitchen knife at my waist and quickly ran toward the cafeteria’s entrance.
As I had said earlier, students had just started heading to the cafeteria after class, so I still had about ten minutes.
So I opened the cafeteria door and boldly stepped inside.
“Hmm… It’s incredibly big. By the way, is this where I’ll be cooking?”
The first thing I saw after entering was the counter where students paid and ordered food. In the back, there were tables and seats for about a thousand, arranged in a vast space, and further back, five booths were set up.
The first through fourth already had noisy voices of cooks inside, so my booth was probably the farthest one—the fifth.
“Good. Let’s check the ingredients right away.”
Prepping ingredients took ten seconds. I muttered to myself and headed to my booth, glancing at the interiors of the other booths along the way.
Inside a booth, at least fifty people could fit… Well, I didn’t mind since I was alone, but…
It seemed like there would be a lot of students, hundreds of them.
“Hey, you new guy.”
While judging the situation, I tried to enter my booth when I suddenly heard a voice behind me. I stopped and turned my head.
Several students from each booth were leaning out and staring at me.
…Were they trying to catch me?
When I tilted my head at the unexplained action, their words gave me an idea of the situation.
“Word is you’re a fresh drop-in. Don’t underestimate the cafeteria at Lua Academy. Everyone who tried to sneak in like you got cut.”
“Wait, what about being alone? Want me to support you? Well, obviously, it won’t be free.”
“Senior, you’ll probably get cut soon even if you don’t say it. How do you even work alone?”
The loudmouth-sized guy weighed in, and the others pointed and giggled.
It was childish enough to make me laugh, so I almost ignored them and went inside. But I figured it might mess up my cooking, so I pulled out a chopstick from the booth and held it up.
The chopstick had a blunt end and couldn’t even be used as a blade, but it was perfect for poking them.
I tossed it several times, then hurled it straight at the loudmouth’s ear.
Clang!
“─?! Kyaaaaaak!!”
“Senior?!”
“That crazy guy!”
No matter how low Yeonha’s combat skills were compared to other classes, she was a level 100 max-level character.
Her strength was enough to pierce a person’s skin with a chopstick—easy as pie.
The loudmouth’s head was torn, ears dangling, and he fell screaming. The surrounding chefs twitched, ready to pounce at any moment while glaring at me.
But before that, I frowned in anger and said to the ones glaring at me.
“I’m just here to cook happily. But if you ruin my mood like that again, I’ll tear your little mouths out. Understand?”
“Where the hell did this—”
“If you’re lying, come cook with me. Want your mouth cut with a kitchen knife?”
Their trembling yet tongue-clicking words showed they understood I was serious, so they retreated into their booths. I, too, muttered curses and entered my own booth.
What bad luck. I hadn’t expected this childish prank from the start. No, the bad luck was already there because those types of people were chefs at the same cafeteria.
I soothed my burning heart, muttering that luck was really bad, and looked around my booth.
“Oh, it’s pretty big? Plus, the ingredients are plentiful.”
It was a booth I operated alone, but the size matched the others, so the interior was a large 50-person cooking kitchen. When I opened the storage room, the ingredients were neatly packed.
Looking at them, freshness and quality seemed top-notch. The ones who spoke earlier had at least kept the line, so they hadn’t touched my booth.
“They were surprisingly decent. I thought they might touch even my ingredients.”
Of course, if they had, I would have found them, turned them into mincemeat, and stolen the ingredients.
But luckily, that kind of hassle didn’t seem likely, so I rolled up my sleeves and laid out the ingredients from the storage room in front of me.
Everything I cooked in my booth was already written on the menu board in front of the cafeteria. With ingredients, skills, and body all ready, the only thing left was to start cooking.
“Finishing prepping ingredients for 500 portions in under three minutes!
If you want to taste the drug-like effects of our Korean food, that’s nothing!”