Time to Make Some Green Onion Kimchi
Time to Make Some Green Onion Kimchi
Three days.
That's how long she'd gone without meat.
She'd cut back her usual meat intake and loaded up on wild greens instead.
A salad made of crisp, verdant vegetables.
Stir-fried namul.
Even her rice portion had been slashed to a quarter of its usual size—barely half a bowl.
For her, it was a radical dietary upheaval.
Her face twisted into a scowl every time that bitter, earthy taste hit her tongue.
It wasn't that the food tasted bad.
It was just that she happened to work at a Knight Restaurant.
The kind of place where countless greasy, aromatic dishes constantly wafted their own distinct fragrances right under her nose.
To a carnivorous elf starving for meat, the scents were practically obscene.
The golden-brown curves of the Donkatsu, clad in their thin coating of batter.
The beautifully voluptuous Bulgogi Baekban, radiating a deep, seductive crimson glow.
The fried rice, pressed lightly on the griddle, boasting a crispy yet glistening texture.
The Samgyeopsal, its seared exterior contrasting with the glistening white flesh barely hidden beneath.
Every time she passed a table, the aroma of the customers' food mesmerized her.
"Nnnngh..."
And the customers made it worse, shoveling down huge spoonfuls and exclaiming how good it was.
What crueler torture is there than a mukbang for someone who's starving?
They didn't mean any harm, but Andrea felt her very lifeblood draining away every day at the sight of their feasting.
'I have to endure.'
I. Absolutely. Have. To.
What is the pride of an elf?
Porcelain skin, a smooth complexion, and a slender physique. Isn't that the ideal?
Andrea had slightly thicker arms and legs than most elves, sure, but hers wasn't an off-putting bulk. It was more like...
a healthy, athletic glow.
But here's the thing.
If she put on weight here, if she started getting soft...
Could she still pass it off as a "healthy look"?
What about her toned abs—the one feature she was truly proud of? Could she stand it if they went all soft and squishy?
She absolutely couldn't.
Her pride as a warrior would never permit it.
"It's delicious. I... love vegetables."
She stuffed her mouth with greens like a cow, mechanically repeating to herself how delicious it was, trying to hypnotize herself into believing it.
But that only worked for so long.
"Hah... hah."
The moment she saw Lucas eating spicy stir-fried pork belly right in front of her, her superhuman self-control began to crack.
'That looks good.'
A single thought spawned a flood of daydreams.
'It looks really good.'
And those daydreams multiplied without limits.
In her imagination, Andrea was ravaging that spicy pork in every way possible.
She'd lick the fiery red sauce in her mind, the spicy flavor tingling her imaginary taste buds, and saliva would pool in her mouth. Once she'd licked all the sauce off the surface, the pure white flesh of the meat would reveal itself.
Shy and trembling, the meat would enter her mouth.
The slightly rich juices and the tender, bouncy texture of the meat would fill her entirely. In her mind, she'd take another piece—no, two—eating it this time with the vegetables slathered in chili seasoning.
In the theater of her imagination, the meat and vegetables used her tongue as a bed, mingling their bodies and dripping their delicious juices.
Ahh.
Delicious.
Insanely delicious.
The more she fantasized, the closer the meat seemed to draw near.
"Huh? Why is the meat getting closer?"
"Eat it. You look like you're about to collapse."
Lucas was looking at her with genuine concern in his eyes.
Do I look that desperate?
She caught a glimpse of her own state.
Her tongue was practically hanging out toward the approaching meat, her lips twitching as if to snatch it up right then and there.
"Eat first, then exercise. Problem solved."
"..."
A bead of drool dripped from the tip of her tongue.
"If you're really that worried about gaining weight, then just eat this and come help me with ingredient prep at dawn or something."
Those words brought immense relief.
It was okay.
It was still okay.
She bit down on the meat-loaded chopsticks without hesitation.
Like a fish striking a baited hook.
She held the chopsticks in her mouth, licking the meat and the metal together. She didn't want to miss a single speck of the sauce that clung to them.
That pungent, viscous liquid.
The moment it touched her tongue, an intense mixture of rich pork fat, chili peppers, and soy sauce sent her palate reeling.
She twisted her tongue every which way to savor as much of the seasoning as she could.
Only after she'd licked the chopsticks completely clean did she finally take the meat between her teeth and release them.
"Mmmnn..."
The juices and fat that burst out with every chew were several times more incredible than anything she'd imagined. They do say imagination can't beat reality.
She actually felt dizzy from the taste of meat fat after such a long absence.
"Hahhh..."
She shuddered, letting out a shaky, wet sigh.
"It's good..."
Unlike the long, tedious march of abstinence, the meat vanished from her mouth in a blink.
Lingering on the fading aftertaste of the vanished meat, she turned her spellbound gaze toward Lucas's chopsticks.
That red sauce smeared across the middle of them.
If she couldn't have more meat, she'd at least settle for that.
Andrea grabbed Lucas's hand and stuck out her tongue, dragging it along the length of the chopsticks.
The prickly, spicy flavor of the sauce electrified her taste buds.
"Hey, hey, stop it! Oi! Andrea!"
"...H-huh?"
"Just eat the damn meat! Why are you licking the chopsticks?"
"B-but I'll get fat!"
"It's fine. I told you already. Eat more, work out more."
"But if I help with ingredient prep in the morning, I'll be tired..."
"Yeah, but you'll also get to eat all the delicious meat you want."
"So if I work in the morning... I'm allowed to eat meat?"
"Duh."
Lucas's permission served as the final refuge she needed to absolve herself of guilt.
The boss approved, so it's fine. He's the expert here, right? He wouldn't lie to me... right?
It might have been a rather convenient interpretation.
She grabbed a fresh pair of chopsticks and scooped up one piece of meat—no, three pieces.
Along with the vegetables, she shoved the whole glorious mass into her mouth.
It was the backlash from holding out for so long.
'My mouth... is so full...'
Of meat, that is.
The limiters of an elf starved of meat had been blown clean off in an instant.
"Hnnngh! Mmmph! Hahhnggh!"
Good. So good. Meat is so good.
"My belly's tight."
Andrea, having devoured the meat in a frenzy, patted her now-swollen stomach with both hands.
"Don't you think you went a little overboard?"
Andrea just grinned at Lucas's question.
"It's fine. Like you said, I'll just work it off. Harder."
She'd help with the morning ingredient prep too. It wasn't like it was hard work.
In the end, the carnivorous elf's three-day meat fast had resulted in only one thing: her portions got bigger.
Tragically.
***
"Well?"
Princess Diana looked down at the knight groveling before her. It was Depo, a senior knight of the Princess's Knight Order.
He was the man she had dispatched to Lucas's hometown to find him. And if she recalled correctly, he had explicitly promised he would return with Lucas in tow.
"Sir Lucas reportedly never arrived at his hometown, the Lorant Territory," Depo said.
"Is that why you've returned to the Imperial Castle alone?"
"It... is. My sincerest apologies, Your Highness."
A sigh slipped out of her.
Were her own knights truly this incompetent?
That impertinent Lucas.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced: his time as a cook-knight.
- "It will be delicious. I guarantee it."
Lucas, casually presenting a menu she had never seen before.
- "If it's not tasty, I'll brand my own hand."
- "What does 'branding your hand' mean?"
- "It means I have absolute confidence it'll succeed."
She could still vividly remember the first time she'd eaten kimchi stew back then.
It had been quite good, as she recalled.
- "It is delicious."
Enough that she'd been willing to forgive his insolence in daring to talk back to her.
It was exactly the same back then. Daring to defy her authority.
She had clearly ordered him not to lie.
"Commander Luke. Andy."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"How did this happen? I was certain his discharge report stated he was going to the countryside to open a restaurant."
"It most certainly did. It was a fact I personally confirmed with him."
Andy, who had been listening to Luke's report, added:
"Furthermore, there is no record of him having sworn a new oath of knighthood."
"So he's not in his hometown, nor has he joined another order... Could he have joined a mercenary company? No, he'd have no reason to. A knight would never..."
The Princess fixed her unreadable gaze on Commander Luke.
"Commander Luke. What is the punishment for a discharged knight who falsely reports his whereabouts?"
"Depending on the severity of the falsehood, it ranges from a minimum fine of 500 gold, to exile, and up to execution, to fit the weight of the crime."
"Execution... yes. Deceiving an Imperial Princess should be repaid with death, don't you agree?"
"..."
The two knights carefully studied her expression.
"Hm... what punishment would best suit the adorable cook-knight who dared to deceive me?"
The corners of the Princess's lips curled upward as she tapped lightly on the armrest of her chair.
Fufufu.
A low laugh escaped her. She was in an exceedingly good mood.
He had clearly lied to her. Not only had he deceived her, but he had also tricked the knight order she so cherished.
She should be furious. And yet... the way this man lied somehow brought her genuine amusement.
Why was that?
'There's no malice in it.'
There were exactly two kinds of people who lied to her. Those who wanted to curry her favor. And those who lied to her to serve their own interests and, ultimately, to put the Princess in danger.
Nobles who didn't want her to become Emperor. And nobles who invested in her future as Emperor.
The Imperial Palace was always filled with people bowing and scraping, swearing undying loyalty, or else radiating murderous intent from those openly hostile factions determined to see her expelled.
His was the first lie in a very, very long time inside that palace that held no ill will whatsoever.
He'd been like that from the start.
From his very first days as a knight. All the way up until this moment, with him now nowhere to be found.
- "Your Highness, you're getting it all over your dress."
- "Your Highness, are you ready for your meal?"
- "Your Highness, it's troublesome if you only eat what you want."
He'd never had the slightest intention of harming her, nor of currying favor.
Even on the many occasions when she had praised his food, his response was always the same.
- "Then send us more supplies. The kids are starving after training."
And he hadn't simply moved on to serve under some other noble household. He had completely vanished.
The lie about returning to his hometown had obviously been meant to help him escape from her.
'Why?'
Had she done something wrong? It wasn't as if she'd treated him poorly.
'I did work him to the bone, though.'
He had single-handedly been responsible for cooking over 500 servings of food.
According to the chef currently serving in the Princess's Knight Order's kitchen, you'd need at least ten people to do that job. Even more, the chef had said, if you wanted to produce food of that quality.
And through all that, Lucas had handled that brutal workload entirely on his own.
He was a remarkably capable man.
'I suppose I took him for granted.'
He must have burned out. So he ran from her.
"How cute."
It was a delight she hadn't felt in ages.
The sheer audacity of it—that he actually believed he could run away from her—was truly, deeply adorable.
"Yes. That's a good idea."
"What is, Your Highness?"
"He dared to lie to me, so he must pay for that crime with his body, mustn't he?"
"..."
"Sentence him to a 10-year term as my personal escort knight. No, make it 15 years. I'd like a contract extension clause as well—one that makes it absolutely impossible for him to terminate it."
The smile wouldn't leave her face.
The image of the expression he would make when she finally caught him kept flashing before her eyes.
And the thought of the kimchi stew he would cook for her.
***
"What's all this?" Andrea asked.
"What does it look like? Green onions."
"No, it's not that I don't know what they are..."
Pinching her nose against the pungent bite of the green onions, Andrea asked in a whiny, nasal tone, "Whaddya gonna do wif 'em?"
"What do you think? I brought them to make green onion kimchi."
"Green onion kimchi?"
"Yeah. Green onion kimchi."
Time to make a fresh batch.