251. Kimchi Stew and Grilled Short Rib Patties
251. Kimchi Stew and Grilled Short Rib Patties
***
Knock, knock.
Seoyun, who had spent time talking with Sua through the night, went straight to Serin's room as soon as she woke up.
When there was no answer even after waiting about ten seconds, Seoyun parted her lips.
"Serin, it's me, Seoyun. Are you still asleep?"
It was already a little past nine in the morning, so she'd expected her to be up by now, but there was no response.
When there was still no answer, Seoyun carefully opened the door.
Click.
The first thing visible through the opened door was the disheveled state of the bedroom.
"...?"
But when she realized Serin wasn't in the bedroom, she turned her gaze inside, puzzled, and saw a machine running with a low whirring sound.
At that, Seoyun momentarily lost her words.
"Is she... logged into a game right now?"
She'd looked so unwell yesterday, yet here she was playing Another World.
No, from the look of the machine running, it wasn't a matter of "could it be"—she was clearly just playing.
"Ha..."
Seoyun let out a small sigh of disbelief, wondering what she should do.
'She must be feeling better, right...?'
She didn't know much about virtual reality connection devices, but she did know that if an unregistered person approached within a certain distance of the capsule, it would force a shutdown.
So, thinking she might disturb Serin, Seoyun ended up closing the door and coming out to the living room.
"You're up. So, is your sister doing okay?"
Sua, who had just finished showering, was drying her hair when she glanced at Seoyun coming out of Serin's room and asked casually.
"Yeah. It looks like she's logged into Another World?"
"Another World...? Then doesn't that mean she's feeling better?"
"I couldn't confirm that much. I just went into the room and she was in the capsule. Right, you play Another World too, so let me ask—doesn't the capsule have a function to check the health of the person connected? If she's logged in right now, that means she's doing okay, right?"
Click.
Sua stopped the hair dryer and slowly swept her hair back.
"If her body were still unwell, a warning would have popped up or it would have shut down. If she's connected, that means she's fine. You don't need to worry so much."
"That's a relief, but... Ugh, seriously, she really makes people worry..."
As Sua quietly watched Seoyun grumbling, a question suddenly came to mind.
'Another World, all of a sudden?'
It was strange to hear that Serin was playing Another World now.
After all, outside of when she was streaming, she almost never logged in at other times.
But that thought was brief, and Sua parted her lips.
"Still, it's morning, so she'll probably come out soon, won't she?"
"You think...? Then I should get breakfast ready in the meantime."
"Seoyun, let me help this time."
"Fine."
While the two of them passed the time chatting like that.
Serin, logged into Another World, was ironically in the middle of some belated "practice."
***
Her body felt light, as if it could fly.
Maybe it was because she was holding a sword whose weight she could barely feel.
Serin was currently equipped not with the Crescent-Moon Weight but with Durandal, and she was inside the "Frozen Knight's Dungeon."
She wanted to loosen up her body in preparation for the scrim, and at the same time raise her proficiency with the "sword" even a little.
—Crunch!! Crunch!! Crunch!!
—Scrape!! Scrape!! Scrape!!
In the dungeon's snowy field setting, skeleton monsters of all kinds wielding various weapons rushed at her all at once.
Serin, watching them, showed little reaction compared to before.
'My stats really have gone up.'
Even the peculiar movements of the skeletons with random variables applied didn't feel as threatening as before.
They were definitely slower than before, and the openings in their attacks were easy to spot.
With her stats boosted by the Fragment of the World Tree and the witch's candy Sua had given her, Serin began lightly evading the skeletons' attacks.
Twisting her waist, or taking a light step back or forward, she exquisitely avoided attacks coming from all directions with a lightness different from before.
Even while dodging attacks, the hand swinging the sword wreathed in a crimson aura showed firm, restrained movements.
Swish! Slash!
With just a light swing of the sword, the skeletons charging at her were cleanly split in half and collapsed.
Every time she thrust her sword out, monsters laid their bodies down one by one on the cold snowfield, almost without exception.
Slide.
Having cleaned up the assault, Serin muttered a single line at the end.
"It feels easier than I thought..."
She'd been swinging the sword for hours now, and a feeling of uncertainty crept in.
At first, she'd been quite satisfied with how much better the sword handled than expected, but the further she went, the more a small doubt arose: was this right?
Rather, the sword felt so easy to handle that it raised questions.
Because a hunting ground where she'd once fought bloody battles could now be hunted so effortlessly.
'Was a one-handed sword always this easy?'
Thinking back on the weapons she'd handled so far, it definitely felt easier.
The greatsword she'd briefly used required caution with every swing because of its immense weight, and the Crescent-Moon Weight always demanded precise focus because she had to strike the target exactly in time with the opponent's movements.
But by contrast, a one-handed sword had none of those issues—she could just cut, thrust, and meet attacks as she saw them, with no particular risk.
Even if an attack failed, recovering the sword didn't take long, and now she could swing it as naturally as moving her own limbs.
Serin suddenly laughed.
"...Roland's swordsmanship really was the standard."
The golden-haired knight, Roland, whose movements still came vividly to mind.
Now, swinging the sword for hours while recalling those movements, it moved smoothly without any obstruction, so much so that swinging the sword was even enjoyable.
Right now, she was embodying one by one the way he had held the sword, the way he had swung it.
Serin actually wondered if she had a talent for the sword.
And in fact, that thought of hers was, absurdly enough, only natural.
No, she "had no choice" but to handle it well.
The weapon she had used. Among various weapons, the Crescent-Moon Weight was an unusual weapon with such high difficulty that even pros wouldn't touch it.
The greatsword, a weapon she had some proficiency with, also had many restrictions due to its destructive power, making it problematic to use in actual combat.
In short, all the weapons she had handled so far were weapons that were "extremely difficult" to wield.
And Serin, who had only used such high-difficulty weapons, had been acknowledged just days ago by Daji, who possessed the traits of Grandmaster and Ten Thousand Streams Return to the Source.
Regardless of victory or defeat, her skill, which had made even Daji purely admire her, was already at a kind of elevated realm.
Fine control and instantaneous focus had reached a level second to none, so now, handling a one-handed sword.
It was only natural that she had no particular difficulty.
But.
Reproducing Roland's movements from her dream almost exactly within just a few hours, she clearly had something special.
After checking the time, Serin decided it was about time to log out and turned her steps toward the dungeon exit.
"If I face Roland as 'Roland,' they'll definitely be surprised."
Even as she exited the dungeon, she was already looking forward to the scrim.
What's more, the other players on Charlemagne had an especially high number of Knight Classes, so she figured the practice she'd just done would be even more meaningful.
Strictly speaking, this world's Roland was different from the real "Roland," but precisely because of that, wouldn't showing them "Roland" make for a meaningful scrim?
"I wonder if I'll be able to use the Song of Roland."
She also had various thoughts about The Song of Roland, one of Durandal's options.
As a pro player, he would surely be using Durandal as well. Perhaps Roland could even use the Song of Roland.
"Well, doesn't matter."
And if he did use the Song of Roland, there was no reason she couldn't show them the "real Roland's" Song of Roland either.
......
After leaving the dungeon like that, Serin ended her connection and soon stepped out of her room.
Then, she saw the two of them in the brightly lit kitchen.
They were both wearing identical white aprons, apparently preparing breakfast.
From that sight, she wondered if the two of them had gotten a little closer.
But. Then, the sharp voices of the two reached Serin's ears.
"Sua, you really... shouldn't cook."
"Don't you think you're being too harsh? It's my first time, so of course I might not be good... at it."
"Even if it's your first time, nobody cuts onions like this. I mean, what did you even do to these onions?"
"You just told me to cut them. I just cut them, and this is how they turned out. What do you want me to do about it?"
When Sua answered shamelessly, Seoyun looked at her as if exasperated.
"If we use onions shaped like this, the food's going to look weird when it's done."
"Seoyun, once it goes in your mouth, it's all the same anyway."
"Ugh, there's no winning an argument with you."
"You know sighing like that gives you wrinkles, right?"
Seoyun, who had been stirring the boiling stew, shot Sua a sharp, piercing glare.
"Hey, be honest. You're doing this on purpose right now, aren't you?"
"No~ I'm not?"
From their bickering, even Serin couldn't tell whether they'd gotten closer or not.
Anyway, she figured she should step in to cool down the heating atmosphere.
"So, what's for breakfast?"
When she casually spoke up, the two bickering people turned their heads in unison.
The moment they saw her, their faces brightened, and Serin found herself smiling for no reason as she took a seat at the kitchen table.
"Kimchi stew."
"Tteokgalbi."
...At the sight of the two of them even answering differently about the breakfast menu, Serin blinked blankly.