[What's life, anyway? Just living as it comes]
[What's life, anyway? Just living as it comes]
The afternoon drinking session ended, and it was already past 3 o'clock. It had been quite a while since lunch, but considering we'd had a few drinks, it was understandable.
After cleaning up the spot where we'd eaten, Choi Ak and Shion sat side by side in front of the TV.
"To think I have to go to work tomorrow... I feel like I'm going to catch the Monday blues."
"We have enough money, so you could just play every day. Besides, you were the one who said you wanted to work because it felt weird just playing around."
"I know. I was just saying. When I go out tomorrow, I should check if Baek-ri and Seo-ae-ssi have been running the business well."
Running the chicken shop is a hobby. Choi Ak couldn't just go around saying he was unemployed, so he started it at least to have a business card.
If some more time passes, he plans to hand the shop over to the two of them. One should treat others with goodwill, just as they have accepted it with goodwill.
"Ah, right. And......... I recovered the photos."
"Oh? Really?"
"It was difficult because it was my first time recovering circuits and data burned by an EMP, but I managed to recover them."
The whole incident was based on the photos that flew away during the two's honeymoon. The photos stored on the digital camera were wiped out by the electromagnetic pulse of a large Enemy Species that appeared in Japan.
However, Shion, who deals with the laws of physics, managed to recover the data with her own power. Thanks to that, she hadn't slept at all yesterday, spending the whole night wide awake.
"Thank goodness...... Let's print the photos later and hang them in frames or something."
"There are already tens of thousands of photos taken like this."
"Still, when we look at them 20 or 30 years from now, there won't be anything better than that. Memories and photos are all that remain."
This time, sitting here feeling each other's body heat, is the happiest moment.
This is the only thing Choi Ak wishes for; nothing else is needed. If he had to choose between all the connections he's built in this world and Shion alone, he would choose Shion, even if it were cruel.
He would gladly stain his hands with blood for this warmth.
What he wished for was never a big thing, but there were too many people who couldn't tolerate it.
One of the biggest enemies of office workers is Monday. I've lived the life of an office worker normally, so I know it well.
That feeling when you rest on the weekend and go to work the next day is truly shitty....... What's even shittier is not being able to rest on the weekend and going to work on Monday. Fuck, can't you even guarantee one day off?
These days, with the 52-hour work week, they pretend to leave work on time, but well? I wonder how many places actually work like that.
"Older Brother is here."
"........Welcome. Tuna Warrior-ssi."
"No, I have a perfectly fine name like Raccoon Man, so why do you call me by that name?"
"What kind of crazy bastard fights while swinging a whole tuna?"
"That crazy bastard is me, you little shit."
Entering the shop after a few days, Baek-ri, who had been watching the shop, was welcoming me reluctantly with dead eyes.
Honestly, the incident I caused as Raccoon Man was a bit big. If the events in Japan had been known, he might have looked at me with even more contempt.
"Did you watch the shop well while I was gone?"
"Fewer customers came than when you were here, but it ran okay. The reviews weren't too harsh either."
"As long as you get the ratio of the batter and ingredients right, you're halfway there. I taught you how to fry and stir-fry well, so if you can't do it, that's just a lack of cooking skill."
"I was a cook in the military for 2 years, do you think I can't do at least this much?"
"Yeah, you're a good lad."
It wasn't time to open yet, so Seo-ae-ssi hadn't arrived, and the shop was preparing ingredients and cleaning.
One surprising thing while I was away was Baek-ri's Force control ability.
"Oh, I guess your skills have improved?"
"It's a bit hard to do several at once, but if I focus, I can do about two."
Two mops were moving on their own, cleaning the shop floor.
I have enough control to do dishes, cleaning, and ingredient prep all at once, but Baek-ri is a Force User who only awakened recently. Even though I taught him a few tricks, the fact that he could do this much on his own meant his sense was quite good.
"If you're at that level, I think your Trait has been established?"
"Yes, it seems like it's an Interference Trait, similar to what you use. It became easier to control at some point, and I guess that was when it happened."
"A Trait is like a math formula. Whether it's the body or the mind, once you get used to it, it breaks through all at once."
It's like a child learning math formulas after just learning numbers. You can't make 3 from 1, but if you do 1+1+1, you can make 3. The role of a Trait is how much you can control and process the Gaia Force; it's nothing special.
"Once you get used to that, try creating your own Unique Trait later. It depends on your talent, so it should be easy to create."
"It was hard even knowing what Trait I wanted to create, so can I really create something like a Unique Trait?"
"Just ignore everything and operate the Force however you feel like. In the end, a Unique Trait is what suits you best. If you use it as your heart desires, you'll eventually be able to use it."
"If it were that easy, wouldn't everyone have a Unique Trait?"
"It's a matter of how you approach it. What crazy bastard would manifest a Unique Trait by using their ability thoughtlessly as they please? Most people usually think it's difficult, calling it self-reflection, and then discover it by accident."
"So it's a matter of accessibility, after all?"
"As you use the Force, there will be a direction you can use most comfortably. That is your Unique Trait."
"Hmm."
Baek-ri thought about my words for a moment, then clenched his fist and emitted Force. The Force, shimmering like heat haze, moved on its own and then subsided.
"I don't think this is it......"
"It's not an attack type, is it?"
"Oh? You can even tell that?"
"If you're at my level, you can roughly grasp it."
The ability I use is a power that originates from will. So, I can distinguish the will and thoughts emitted by others.
The basis of Baek-ri's will is not for fighting. I don't know in what direction it will manifest, but it's highly likely to manifest in a direction of protecting others rather than harming them.
"But Older Brother, how are you so strong? We're not many years apart in age, but you beat up large Enemy Species with a tuna and stuff."
"Once you pass your 30th life, if you don't get strong, it just happens like that."
"........What is this, Mabinogi? Reincarnation?"
"It's real."
If it's Baek-ri, I could let him know the fact that I'm a Reincarnator. I could tell my friends too, but they don't ask.
"Older Brother, stop bullshitting."
"It's real. If you count 1 level per year, my cumulative level is over 5000 now."
"Re.....ally?"
"Strong and deep power. It's something you can't get without time. Even if you get great power at once, claiming to be a munchkin, what's the point if it was obtained in an instant?"
I used my ability to put the entire shop inside my detection range.
And sterilization. I eradicate every nook and cranny of the shop so not a single germ remains. I can even do molecular-level interference, so why wouldn't I be able to do cell-level interference?
Even if it's not to this extent, you have to be clean to be qualified to sell food. Honestly, where else would you find a shop that maintains cleanliness to this level? Nowhere but here.
"I knew Older Brother had a strange personality, but being a Reincarnator is a bit unfamiliar......."
"It's no different, kid. Just think of me as someone who has lived a long time."
"Ajusshi, do you get it up?"
"Can't you tell by the fact that I've been on a honeymoon with my wife for thousands of years?"
"Ah, then is Older Brother's wife also......?"
"My wife isn't a Reincarnator, she just lives for a fucking long time."
The one who lived the longest among my wife's kind has lived since primordial times, and even the person who is the youngest after my wife is easily hundreds of millions of years old. Honestly, my wife is the youngest.
"Then Older Brother........ how strong are you?"
"Strength is relative. It's hard for me to answer if you ask like that."
"If you hit with your full power, how much can you destroy?"
"For starters, I can blow up the Earth."
Not a joke.
Honestly, my main strength is in other areas rather than direct destructive power, but if I focus, I can destroy a star.
"The scale is so big that it feels unrealistic."
"Well, just let it be. Why would I have any reason to destroy this Earth that hasn't even developed space travel? In the first place, I'm more on the side of killing than destroying the Earth."
"What did you say?"
"Hey, we seem to be short on beer, place an order."
"Don't change the subject, what did you just say?!"
"The seasoned chicken sauce also seems a bit low, let's make some after business today."
"No, what did you just say?!"
"Yeah, you little shit, I said what I'm good at is killing. Well, isn't it strange if I say I haven't killed a single person while living for about 5000 years?"
"Usually, people don't."
"That's because your 'usually' is a human who can't even live 100 years. There are worlds with shitty public order where I had to reincarnate and suffer, so how could I survive without killing? And I didn't just kill humans, I killed monsters too, you know?"
".......Have you killed a person in this life?"
"Yeah, once."
"When?"
"You know well, too."
At my words, Baek-ri suddenly remembered something and had a convinced expression.
The Yeongdeungpo department store fire incident. The man who was the cause and the culprit. The dead husband of Jin Seo-ae-ssi who works at our shop.
"He had a monster-like appearance at the end. But that was a person. He was a human. So, I killed a person once in this life."
".....Yes."
The standard for distinguishing humans is not appearance. A monster in human form, a human in monster form. What divides the difference between the two is, in the end, the content.
Even if the appearance was a monster, the content was human. The man who missed his family, wanted to meet them, and didn't want to die was a human by any measure.
Come to think of it, this happened too. I don't know what kind of bastards they are, but you shouldn't play with people.
There are three types of bastards I hate in this world. Bastards who play with human lives, bastards who play with food, and bastards who touch my people.
That incident was obvious too. They were probably doing experiments to grant Enemy Species abilities to humans, along with researching Enemy Species, while talking about world conquest or whatever.
Just because there is a grand cause doesn't mean the wrong process is justified. The biggest bad thing about humans is that they justify their wrongs because they are the majority, or because there is some rational reason.
An example of this is the witch hunts of the Middle Ages. How many people died under the pretext of correcting the chaotic public sentiment.
"I'm here. Oh, Baek-ri student and Boss-nim are here first. Did you have a good honeymoon?"
"Ah, well, it went okay. It got a bit twisted at the end, but we had fun."
Jin Seo-ae-ssi also arrived for work, and it was time to open the shop.
Let's do business, let's make a living. The bright sky of the Republic of Korea is smiling today~.
People have to work to spend money.
It had been a few months since our shop started business, but it was still doing very well.
First of all, the location is good, and since the building is my wife's, all that's needed is the cost of ingredients and labor. There was no way business wouldn't go well.
But there's something to think about; our menu is empty right now. For now, we have fried chicken and seasoned chicken. We are putting these two forward as the main items, but that's the case for any chicken shop.
I want to increase the menu a bit more. I have many recipes, but I need to think a little to consider what's worth selling at the shop.
After the day's business ended, I sent Seo-ae-ssi home first.
"Is it okay for me to go home first? I should help with the cleanup......"
"You have a child at home, too. It's not a late time even if we finish everything, so don't worry and go."
"Yes, Ajumma. I'll stay and help, so it will be finished quickly, so please go ahead."
".......Thank you."
Even if she has a family, it's hard for a housewife to take care of a child alone. Besides, the child must be waiting alone at home, so she should go back as soon as possible.
Anyway, once Seo-ae-ssi leaves, I can clean up with my ability. Telekinesis using Interference ability can finish cleaning the shop in an instant.
"Then, shall I try developing a menu? Can you be a taste tester?"
"If it's that, can I call one more person?"
"Who? Is there someone worth calling?"
"My younger sister."
"Ah, you said you had a younger sister."
What was her name again........ Ruri? I remembered hearing it when I went to their house before. It was a unique name like mine, so it stayed in my memory.
The surname would be Ha, so it would be Ha Ru-ri.
Ruri...... a quite affectionate name. I've reincarnated many times, but if you ask me to name the ones I remember, Ruri is one of them.
"She should be coming home from the academy around now. If I tell her to stop by and eat chicken, she'll like it."
"Then call her. She's a high school girl in her prime, so we should feed her a lot. Health management is also important when studying."
At my permission, Baek-ri called his younger sister.
"Uh, Ruri. Uh, it's me. Can you come to the shop where I work for a moment? The Boss-nim is trying to devise a new menu and wants you to taste test. You like chicken, right? Yeah, yeah, okay. Come quickly."
It's not easy to find siblings who get along like them; since ancient times, it wouldn't be strange if siblings were born to kill each other from the womb.
There might be families where calling the older brother "this bastard" and the younger sister "this bitch" is a daily routine.
"You seem to get along well with your sister?"
"I'm the type to accept almost everything, so we get along pretty well.... though we fight too."
"No, still, an older brother who deliberately takes care of chicken for his sister is in the top 1 percent of siblings who get along. I guarantee it."
"Really?"
"In a world before, the Crown Prince and Princess who had the right to the throne fought to the death directly. As someone who reincarnated as the youngest of that Emperor family caught in between, should I tell you how tragic it was?"
"Are you filming Game of Thrones?!"
"For your information, that country was ruined."
"They ruined the country over a family fight!"
Actually, I destroyed it.
These bastards tried to poison me when I said I would give up all rights to the throne and live by farming. It turned out the Crown Prince's side did that, so I grabbed that bastard by the collar and shook him, and the Princess older sister's side, who was scared seeing that, tried to assassinate me, so I just got pissed off and wiped them all out. The country was split apart like after Alexander the Great's death and was completely ruined.
It was a case where I was born with a silver spoon for the first time in a while, but I ruined it, so I remembered it. Those fucking bastards.
"Oppa, I'm here! Open the door!"
"Ah, looks like she's here."
While we were talking for a moment, Baek-ri's younger sister arrived. When I opened the locked shop door, a cute high school girl entered.
She has short hair grown to her shoulders and is quite pretty. To put it more expressively, she's a cute style.
She was wearing a school uniform, as if she came straight from school to the academy. Ah, that's the uniform of the school that was near the high school I attended before.
"Ah, Ruri. This is the Boss-nim of our shop."
"Hello, chicken sugar daddy....... no, Oppa. I'm Ruri!"
"Did you just call the Boss a sugar daddy?!"
"I was going to call you Ajusshi, but you looked young, so I called you Oppa. Why are you tackling me there?"
Baek-ri laughed awkwardly and apologized to me.
"........I'm sorry. She has that kind of personality."
"It's good that she has a bright personality."
I carefully looked at her soul. I wondered about it from the name, and thought of it again from the personality, but it was to confirm it until the end.
And I smiled slightly. Her soul resembled the person I remembered from before.
Resembling didn't mean it was a different person. Just as a child growing up to be an adult doesn't become a different person, it was just that much of a difference.
Ruri tilted her head and asked, looking at my face.
".......Hmm? Excuse me, Boss Oppa. Have you ever seen me somewhere before?"
"Well, maybe we met in a past life?"
"Gasp, isn't that a pick-up line? I'm a high school senior who is better than wild ginseng protected by the state, so if you try to pick me up, Boss Oppa will get handcuffed!"
".......Older Brother?"
"No, you little shit. Who do you take me for, a pedophile?"
"Sister-in-law........"
"No, that's that. It's not that I like young girls, it's just that the person I came to like happened to be a young girl...... Ah, fuck, this is even weirder."
"Sister-in-law? Oppa, what's wrong with Boss Oppa's wife?"
"She looks like a little kid who comes up to my waist."
"Pedo die!!"
Ruri looked at me with eyes of contempt. The contemptuous gaze of a high school girl...... in some industries, it would be considered a reward, but not for me. If it were my wife, I would consider it.
"Anyway, since you're here, eat some chicken and go. There's some newly made stuff, and there are a few chickens left over from the shop, so you can use those."
"Is there enough stored chicken!"
"Wait a second!"
I rummaged through the refrigerator for a moment and said.
"Heh heh, there's a ton."
".........Oppa, I'm suddenly starting to like the Boss Oppa."
"Not until I'm dead, no affairs!"
"Don't worry, I don't touch people who are taken either. And I'm a high school senior, where would I have time to date? Tell me that when I get into college."
I had a few menu items in mind. First of all, the soy sauce chicken.
It's the same as the soy sauce chicken that comes out of other chicken chains, but I changed the blend of the soy sauce to add a little spicy taste. It's a menu where the salty taste of soy sauce is added with a bit of spiciness, so if you keep eating it, it calls for alcohol, and if you drink, you look for chicken.
"Ah, this makes me crave beer?"
"Me too!"
"You're a minor!"
"What does it matter? It's not like we're selling it, we're just eating for a moment. Anyway, if you're a high school senior, one glass is fine."
"........Is it okay? For a minor to drink alcohol?"
"It's not like we're a bunch of kids who can't control themselves. We're drinking with an adult, so what's wrong with one glass? If someone says something, I'll just go to the police station and get investigated."
"I'm clapping my knees at Boss Oppa's flexibility!"
"Are you going to go?"
"No!"
"Why do you two get along so well?!"
Because your sister is the same type as me. A natural-born ad-libber, that is.
Even if the three of us ate two pieces each, eating one chicken was nothing. Especially with two healthy adult men and one high school girl with explosive appetite, one chicken wouldn't even be enough to satisfy them.
The next menu was Doenjang (soybean paste) chicken. This one wasn't fried, but baked. The shop had an oven just in case, so I applied the Doenjang sauce I made to the raw chicken without batter and baked it in the oven.
It's a similar category to soy sauce chicken, but this one wasn't fried, so it was much lighter, and thanks to the Doenjang sauce, it had a savory taste.
"Hmm..... this is also good. Soy sauce chicken is sold at chain stores, so it doesn't have much scarcity, but I think this will sell."
"Chicken is tasty."
"She seems to like it as long as it's chicken."
"I like it as long as it's meat?"
Meat is always right. Therefore, let's become carnivores, everyone!
I also thought the Doenjang chicken was okay. It's not fried, it's baked, and you just have to apply the sauce, so preparation is simple. There was no need to batter and fry it separately.
"Lastly, this. Coq au Vin style chicken."
"Coq au Vin?"
"Coco Palm?"
"Not that drink with coconut bits. A chicken stew based on wine is called Coq au Vin...... I made this similarly."
If it were authentic, you'd have to put in various things along with vegetables, but I made do with the vegetable broth I had made. Putting in wine is the same, but I did various things a bit differently. It's not baked or fried, but a dish boiled thoroughly in a pot.
The Coq au Vin style chicken, served in a bowl with a little broth, had a slight purple hue from being braised in wine. It wasn't unpleasant because it was purple, but it blended with the greasy feeling on the surface of the chicken, stimulating the appetite.
Compared to the authentic one, there are many improvements, so it can be called Coq au Vin style chicken, not Coq au Vin.
"Wow, this is delicious. You made it with wine, but there's no alcohol taste at all?"
"It's natural for alcohol to fly away when you boil it. There was something like putting Soju in cooking to get rid of the fishy smell, right? It's similar to that."
"It's good that the taste comes up from the meat. The broth is also delicious. I thought it would be sweet because wine was added, but it's unexpectedly light and good."
"Compared to the broth, the amount of wine added isn't that much."
"It goes down lightly, so it's perfect for a hangover cure..... Honestly, our shop is a place to come drink, not a place to come for a hangover cure."
"Couldn't we just tell them to drink it all and have a hangover cure before they leave?"
"Hmm....... That's also pretty good."
Or they could drink elsewhere and come here to cure their hangover. Whatever it is, this is Myeong-dong street. When evening comes, people who want to drink and people who have become drunkards after drinking roam around.
Once you make it, it's a dish that you just have to boil and serve, so it takes less effort. You can boil it in the evening and sell it the next day.
"I'm getting choice paralysis..... Hmm, there's the best way for this."
"What is it?"
"Just put it all on the menu."
"......I'm going to have a hard time for a while."
If the menu increases, the one who makes it has a hard time. When I come to work, I make it, but Baek-ri also has to be able to make it himself because he has to fill in when I'm not there.
However, since you only have to make the sauce, it will be easy to learn.
"Ah, I ate well. Oppa brings chicken sometimes, but this is my first time eating three types of chicken at once."
"If you keep doing that, you'll become a pig."
"Don't you know that 'curvy' is the trend these days? A woman with a moderate amount of flesh is more popular than a skinny woman."
"You're not curvy, you're meat quality. Aren't you going to get an A+ grade?"
Ruri grabbed Baek-ri's head without a word and tightened her arm to put him in a headlock. Baek-ri, who became a Force User and had physical abilities improved to a superhuman level, but the person who awakened as a Force User first was Ruri.
"Ah, wait a minute! It hurts! It hurts! Hey! Hey!"
"Hawawa, I'm just a military-veteran high school girl Ruri who doesn't know anything difficult."
"Army service creed!"
"Our resolution!"
"Our resolution!"
Baek-ri and Ruri said at the same time. Even if Baek-ri is like that, seeing Ruri do it too, she must have the skills to call herself a military-veteran high school girl.
"They say the combat power of one high school girl is about 2 special forces members. Ruri doesn't seem to be just that, she seems to be able to deal with a tank alone."
"How did you know!"
"Really?!"
"She has been a Force User longer than you, right? She has some experience."
Besides, if it's the Ruri I know, she would have talent, and even if she hadn't fought, her way of using the Force would be above Baek-ri's.
"If it's her, she probably has a Unique Trait too? Doesn't she practice Force at home? Seeing that her younger brother doesn't know."
".....Really?"
Baek-ri looked at Ruri with eyes asking if it was really true.
"I have one, but I don't know if this is a Unique Trait. I didn't have anyone to compare with either."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't ask."
"I also awakened as a Force User, so it would be nice if you said something!"
"Expecting something big from a high school senior busy with studying! Who was the one nagging me to study hard and go to a good university!"
"I'm the one earning that younger sister's tuition fee?!"
Go home and fight, siblings.
Anyway, the menu devising is roughly done, so I just need to adjust the sauce blend in detail later and write down the recipe. I can teach Baek-ri the detailed cooking tips later.
"Come and eat sometimes, Ruri. If you accumulate stress while studying, you have to relieve it by eating."
"Is it free?!"
"I'll deduct it from your Oppa's salary."
"Older Brother?!"
"Yes! I'm going to drain Oppa's salary!"
Even so, it's not like I'm paying Baek-ri a small salary, so she won't be able to drain it all.
Maybe about half.
"From today, I'm going for 10 chickens a day."
"You'll get fat, you pig!"
"I can forgive you for teasing me as a pig, but I cannot forgive you for calling me a pig!"
"What kind of bullshit is that!"
Haha, it's been a while since I saw such a mess, so a heartwarming laugh comes out. Lately, it was just me and Shion, so the two of us couldn't create a bustling atmosphere, so it was quiet, but I really like this feeling.
The kids get along well as siblings.
"Pig! Pig! You're a pig who weighs 60kg even though you're a high school girl!"
"Do you want to get hit by that pig's pig trotter strike?"
"Ack! Ack! Ack! Wait, I covered it with Force, why does it hurt so much?!"
"Don't you know true damage? Defense-ignoring damage!"
The kids get along really well.
Of course, siblings should be like this!