[What's life, just living as it goes]
[What's life, just living as it goes]
The car that drove up the mountain road was a standard passenger vehicle. It wasn't expensive, just a decent model, and the people reflected in the windows were two pairs of young men and women. They looked like college couples in their prime.
Two men got out of the car first and chatted with each other.
"See! I told you this was it! I told you it was for sure this time!"
"There wasn't a single sign, how did you know? Seung-jin, your choice was spot on this time."
I approached the young men and women who were about to unload their luggage and spoke to them.
"Hello? But, how did you find your way here?"
"Ah, are you the manager?"
"Manager?"
".......Isn't this a campsite?"
It seemed there was a bit of a misunderstanding. I called over Sion, who was playing in the water with the kids, and had her come up for a moment.
She looked pretty with her hair tied up, wearing a one-piece swimsuit with blue and red lines. It clung to her body, showing off her silhouette nicely.
"Is this an operating campsite by any chance?"
"As I said before, I bought the land that was intended to be a campsite. It's perfectly fine private property that hasn't even been registered as a business yet."
"Is that so? These folks seem to have come up here thinking it was a campsite....."
"There's a campsite about 15 minutes away following the road from here, I suspect you might have mistaken this place for that one."
Since it's a mountain road, it's natural for first-timers to get lost. Especially if it's an area that doesn't even show up well on navigation systems.
Even if they say the campsite is further down the road, it's not strange to mistake it if there's a decent-looking spot before that. It might even be expected.
"This isn't a campsite?"
"It's perfectly fine private property."
"Private property? Oh..... I'm sorry. We'll leave right away."
Sion slipped her hand into mine and said.
"If we knew this would happen, we should have at least installed a 'Private Property' sign at the entrance of the mountain."
"Well, it's easy to get confused."
Still, I think they're decent people. I might not know much else, but I can at least be confident in my ability to judge people.
"What the? Did Seung-jin bark up the wrong tree again?"
"Isn't this a campsite? Who are the people who came first?"
The women who were still in the car also got out and asked. I explained to them as well that this was private property and not a campsite. A look of disappointment settled on both of their faces.
"What the, Seung-jin, you were so confident but you were wrong again."
"Ah, I really thought it was the right place this time......"
"Shut up. Now I know why you were the 'boy who cried wolf' back in elementary school."
The three of them scolded the man called Seung-jin. But they weren't doing it seriously; it was just a joke.
As far as I could see, their character wasn't bad. And since I think it's better to hang out in a group, I proposed something that came to mind on the spot.
"Then, how about you camp here? There's no one else here anyway, and it's spacious, so there's plenty of room even if we use it."
"Oh? Is that okay?"
"What about the campsite we reserved?"
"Just cancel it and get a refund. It's free, and this place is bigger and better! If we go there, it'll be crowded, so this place is better for having fun too."
"Whoa, Seung-jin, you caught a cow while stumbling backwards?"
"Isn't that a rat, not a cow?"
"Anyway, thank you!"
The four of them expressed their gratitude and started laying out their luggage. The tent wasn't a pop-up, but an original tent that you had to build from the poles up.
They brought two, but they were struggling even to set up one.
"Hey! That goes in here!"
"Ah, I told you to make the supports first! That makes it easier!"
The two men took charge of setting up the tent. Since they had at least served in the military, they knew how to pitch a tent, so it was getting finished, albeit slowly.
Sion asked me quietly from the side.
"Is it okay to let them play here?"
"Ah, sorry. The title must be in your name, I decided too much on my own, didn't I?"
"I don't mind that. What's mine is yours, so what does it matter?"
"Then?"
"I'm asking if their character is okay."
"It's fine, they're good people."
"Then that's fine."
I have one ability that developed as I went through reincarnation. That is the ability to judge a person's character.
Having met and dealt with all kinds of human trash, I gained the ability to discern a person's character just by looking at their first impression.
Actually, this is also thanks to one of my abilities, 'Sense'. What was it...... someone I knew said that the specialty of 'Sense' is that it derives conclusions based on various data one has experienced.
Thanks to that, I also got a hint on how to utilize this 'Sense' ability.
Since people with the same ability are rare, it's hard to get advice, but among the few who had it, I couldn't get the information from the only person I knew because he was a blockhead, so I got it from that older brother.
......I want to express my gratitude to that person, but it would have been really nice if a spear of lightning hadn't been driven into his gut.
That hurts like hell. Forget dying, it just hurts like hell. It hurt so much that I, who never even dreamed of suicide, thought about it and then died from shock.
I remember that life because I was reincarnated as a woman and fought against a Transcendent stronger than me.
Anyway, if it's a normal human, I can grasp their character at the first meeting. That's why Sion also trusts my evaluation of people.
The four people, having finished setting up the tent and getting ready, came over to us to greet us and introduce themselves.
"My name is Jin Yun-su. I'm a student attending Daelim University."
"I'm Son Seung-jin! Please take care of us!"
"I'm Lee Ye-jin."
"I'm Jin I-seul. Thank you for letting us use the space!"
Hearing their story, the four of them are classmates and couples from the same university. They said they came together to play in the water this vacation but took the wrong turn.
If I hadn't given them permission, they would have gone to that campsite over there and played in a place packed with people.
"You're college students, what about the car?"
"Ah, we borrowed my dad's car."
"You'll have to use it carefully."
People can't live if they live too rigidly. There are people who are called pushovers in the world, but that only applies to people who give everything away without thinking about themselves.
Do I lose anything by letting them use land I can't even use all of for a while? Do I lose anything by letting them use the valley, which is public land anyway? In the end, if you are greedy for things beyond your capacity, that's foolish. If you're full, you should know how to share.
"These folks are here with my family and the employees of my shop. Don't worry about us, just make yourselves at home."
"Shop? Are you the owner?"
"I just run a small chicken shop. Most of it is thanks to my wife."
The four of them looked at Sion and seemed to have question marks floating over their heads, wondering about this and that. Honestly, when I, who has an impression that could be believed to be a gangster, and Sion, who has a doll-like beautiful appearance and looks like an elementary school student, say we are a married couple, most people react like that.
When playing, it's fun to have young people around...... Ah, now that I think about it, my physical age is in my 20s, so I'm young too. The age gap with them isn't much.
Because of my mental age...... I feel like I've aged because it's much more fun to sit and watch the kids play than to move my body and play.
"Boss Oppa! The water here is great! There are minnows swimming around!"
"Ruri, you bought a bikini for your swimsuit?"
"Ta-da! How is it! Isn't my figure to die for!"
"I don't think that's something a high school girl should say."
"Even to me, it's a slender figure with nice lines, so if you took a pictorial, you'd finish three bowls of rice just looking at it!"
Ruri was wearing a bikini with red as the main color, and although it wasn't a voluptuous body with curves in all the right places, it was a slender body with well-defined lines, so it was quite attractive.
Honestly, if you exclude her personality, Ruri was an attractive woman. Her face is pretty, her body is good, she's smart, everything is good, but her personality ruins it.
You know how in anime, sometimes there's a character like that. A character who doesn't look bad, but isn't attractive because of their personality and actions.
Ruri is exactly that kind of character. I wonder who will take that kid.
"But who are those people over there? Do you know them?"
"They stopped by by mistake while passing through. I just told them to camp here. They're around the same age as Baek-ri, so have fun."
"Oppa, you were getting ganged up on by the elementary school trio, got pissed off, used Force, and were making a wave pool."
"What kind of shenanigans is that?!"
"No! The moment you say 'What kind of shenanigans is that?!' instead of 'What kind of nonsense is that?!', you are an undeniable Jojo fan! Answer me, Domon! The School of the Undefeated of the East is!"
"The winds of the King....... No, that's not it! Stop joking around and get back to where you were playing!"
"It's the same again today!"
I threw Ruri into the valley. Ruri is a Force user anyway, so she won't get hurt easily. She wouldn't break a single bone even if she fell to the bare ground from a high-rise apartment, so there's no way she'd get hurt falling into the water just a few meters away.
But why is her line when falling from Team Rocket?
Baek-ri was playing for a while, then came out and was lifting and moving stones. Seeing him lift stones bigger than his own body and move them easily, it feels like that guy has also become fully proficient as a Force user.
"Baek-ri, what are you doing?"
"Ah, the footing is a bit off going up and down here. It's fine for us, but it's uncomfortable for the kids to use, so I'm fixing it up a bit."
He brought large stones from the valley and made a ramp on the spot. I'd like to make it more secure, but I'd have to pour planks or cement on top, but if there's no water, he made a ramp that's usable enough.
In the first place, when there is water on a ramp, it's when it rains, but who plays in a valley when it rains? If it rains even a little, the water rises, and if you get swept away, it's a catastrophe.
"Good job. Ah, we have watermelon, so share it with the kids!"
"Watermelon? If we eat it now, won't we not be able to eat dinner?"
"Watermelon is mostly water anyway, so it digests quickly, and if you share one, it's not much."
Even with the kids included, Baek-ri, Ruri, Sion, or I eat more than the average person. There are eight people, but the amount we eat will be comparable to 10 adult men.
But only one watermelon? It would be fortunate if it just ends up quenching thirst. I brought two, but I'm planning to save that for tomorrow.
In the meantime, the campus couples also changed into swimsuits and went into the valley.
"Oh! The water is clean!"
"It's cool, so it's good. Should we put the beer we brought in the water?"
"That would be good too."
Since there's no refrigerator, it's fine to put something in as a refrigerator. As long as water doesn't get inside.
I took a watermelon out of the icebox in the trunk and threw it to Ruri.
"Ruri, catch!"
"What is this! A new face!!!"
"Is it Watermelon-man, not Anpanman?"
"No, no. Oppa, I'm a woman, so I'm Watermelon-girl. If you have that kind of stereotype in this day and age, you'll get beaten up by the 'thump-thump' crowd."
"Wow! It's watermelon!"
As a rule, there are almost no people who dislike watermelon eaten while playing in the water in midsummer. Especially the kids, even more so.
Among fruits, there are many fruits that are sour because they are unripe or contain sourness from the start, but watermelon is sweet as long as it's decent. So they can't help but like it.
"Boss Oppa! This is a bit lukewarm?"
"Oh? It's hotter than I thought, so the ice I put in the icebox must have melted quickly. Cool it down yourself."
".......Aww. How did you know I could use this?"
Ruri grabbed the watermelon with both hands and wrapped it in Force. And the temperature around it dropped sharply.
It was a change where the cold was felt enough for even the people watching to notice. The campus couples were surprised by the strange sight, but soon realized that Ruri was a Force user and showed curiosity.
"Whoa, is she a Force user?"
"She looks young though...... Isn't she a high school student? But she's a Force user?"
"It's not like there's an age limit to becoming a Force user. I guess high school students can be too."
Baek-ri, who is also a Force user, was surprised and asked Ruri.
"Wait a minute, how did you do that?"
"Just simple manipulation of physical laws? I suppressed the molecular activity around the watermelon and took away the heat energy. I can only do this much, but someone who is really awesome could probably lower it to sub-zero and freeze water too."
"Molecules? Is that possible?"
"It's possible if you understand basic physical laws and recognize various concepts. Oppa wouldn't know because you're not a science major."
"......Yeah, you're great because you're a science major."
"Oppa seems to be a math-hater. Gryffindor!"
What Ruri did is the same as the technique I used to freeze the tuna after crushing the Enemy Species in Busan last time. It's a technique that stops molecular activity, takes away heat energy, and thus lowers the temperature to cool it down.
It's a technique that is easier than you think, but the conditions are tricky. Because it requires control to interfere with molecular activity, and concepts to understand molecules and heat energy. Easy, you say? Try doing it once in a state where you were born in the Middle Ages and didn't even receive compulsory education.
It would be fortunate if you didn't get caught by the church and get witch-hunted for putting forward the concept of molecules.
"Wait a minute! Unni will slice it for you now!"
Ruri lifted her hand like a knife and sliced the watermelon with a swoosh! The watermelon, cut in half, revealed its bright red flesh. Since it's a watermelon I picked out as well-ripened at the mart, even using my ability, it will be delicious.
She cut the halved watermelon in half again and cut that in half again. She just left the width of the watermelon as it was and cut it wide, so she cut it big enough to hold with both hands.
"I've wanted to eat watermelon in big chunks like this since I was little! But at home, Mom cuts it for me, so I ate it cut small, so I couldn't, but today I fulfilled my wish!"
"Ah! Me too! Me too, watermelon!"
"Here, you have to eat it well without dropping it, okay?"
Baek-ri handed out the watermelon to the kids. The big-cut watermelon looked burdensome to the kids with small hands, but perhaps the big cut whetted their appetite more, they started taking big bites.
After handing it out to everyone else, Baek-ri also handed out watermelon to the campus couples who were playing nearby.
"Please have some watermelon here."
"Ah! Thank you! We'll eat well!"
"Don't mention it, and since you're not much different in age from me, please speak comfortably."
"Ah.... Should we?"
If Baek-ri hadn't gotten a job at our shop, he would have gone to college already, so he must be around the same age as them. No, Baek-ri has completed his military service, so considering that, he might even be older.
They shared the watermelon and, having become much closer, they started playing in the water in earnest.
"Today's water play team battle! The Blue Team is me and my Oppa! The White Team is the rest of the kids and the college student Unni and Oppa!"
"Oh? Isn't the difference in numbers too severe?"
"This is the only way it's fair!"
Su-jeong, Seong-hye, and Aram, and the four campus couples.
And the ones facing them are just Ruri and Baek-ri, just two people. Even excluding the kids, it's a 4-on-2 disadvantage, but you shouldn't judge by numbers.
A Force user is a superhuman that even a dozen sturdy adult men can't beat if they rush in. Even if you put a rookie who awakened yesterday into the Olympics, they could break all records and KO a professional martial artist in one blow with their eyes closed.
"Hiyah!"
As Ruri reached out her hand as if pushing the water with a shout, the water surged violently as if a wave had risen.
The kids caught in it giggled and enjoyed the waves.
"Hahaha! This is so much fun! Ah, look at Su-jeong's body flipping over!"
"Wait?! Pfft?! Ugh!!"
"Unni! Once more! Once more!"
The kids were having the time of their lives. Since it's not the beach, there's nothing to enjoy other than the water current, but since there are two Force users, they created a pseudo-wave pool by raising waves with force.
It's not quite a water park wave pool, but waves of a similar degree were surging, so it was good for the kids to enjoy. But maybe I should have brought one bigger tube for the kids. Like a small boat.
The sun was bright and they were playing excitedly, so I didn't know how time was passing. I was watching the kids play and had my feet in the water, and it was so cool that I didn't care about the hot weather, and when I came to my senses, the sun had tilted far away.
Summer days are long. It's hard to tell the time even when the sun is up, and when the sun sets, it's a deeper night than you think.
The kids must have been playing in the water for quite a long time, so they must be hungry. I decided to go up and prepare dinner.
"Shall I help?"
"Just play more with the kids. I can do the preparation alone, so why bother."
"Isn't two hands better than one?"
"Do as you please."
I took out the meat and cut the whole pieces into appropriate sizes. I put charcoal in the barbecue grill. If you ask why I don't use convenient briquettes, briquettes have a strong smell. There are places that grill meat with briquette fire, but if you're going to use it, charcoal is better than briquettes. If you find a reasonably good one, it's actually better because of the charcoal scent.
Of course, if you use compressed charcoal, it's actually harmful to your health. Do you know what's in compressed charcoal besides waste wood?
Since no one was watching, I secretly lit the charcoal with Samadhi Fire. Since no one in our house is a smoker, we don't have a lighter to light the fire, so it's a measure of last resort.
I put the grill grate on the barbecue grill and preheat it. I'm waiting for the charcoal to catch fire evenly.
"I'll set the rice and the table."
"Ah, please do."
Sion took out side dishes like kimchi and ssam vegetables and placed them on the table. And she took out a gas burner, filled a pot with water, and started boiling it.
I didn't prepare rice separately because there was a risk of it spoiling. Honestly, instant rice is better than that, so I just need to heat it up.
The water boiled, and I put a few packs of instant rice in the pot to heat them. After a few minutes, I took out the sufficiently heated instant rice and placed it on the table.
"Shall we start grilling the meat?"
I bought a good barbecue grill, so it's large. I thought it was a good purchase because it's convenient to be able to grill meat for many people at once.
First, pork belly. As soon as I put it on, the sound of meat sizzling, chi-i-ik!, came up. After a little time passed, the smell of grilling meat also wafted up.
As expected, pork belly is the best for a trip!
"But where is the ssamjang?"
"Search well in the corner of the icebox. It should be somewhere around there."
"Ah, I found it."
As it was finishing up and a plate of meat was about to come out. Perhaps they smelled the meat, the kids came out of the water and came up to the campsite.
"Ah, meat smell! This smell is pork belly!!!"
"As expected of a meat ghost, how can you tell just by the smell?"
"Pork belly is always right!"
"Is the pork belly on your stomach right too?"
".........."
"Ah! Ah! Ah! Hey! It hurts! It hurts! I'll get bruised! Ack ack ack!"
I can't say there's no flab, but it's a decent figure, but Baek-ri nagged her about that. I want to take Ruri's side because I think a little bit of fat is proof of health rather than being skinny.
"Everyone sit down. Seo-ae-ssi, please sit too. Everything is ready, so you just have to eat."
"Ah, I should have helped you prepare......"
"It's okay. It's nothing much."
The kids sat at the table and tore open the instant rice in front of each other. And when I put the pork belly I cut appropriately into a bowl and served it, the meat disappeared in an instant. It was like a black hole.
It's dinner that the kids in their prime ate after playing in the water to their heart's content, but it seems I underestimated the kids' appetite.
"Hey! Ruri, it's a foul to take three pieces at once!"
"There's no such thing in front of pork belly! As a rule, the one who eats first is the winner! The weak cannot survive at the dining table!"
"Wow! Ruri Unni's hands look like they're multiple!"
"It looks stupid to see her doing that while eating, but it's stupid."
"Nom nom nom."
Even though I grilled about 5 servings, the kids had expressions that it didn't even tickle their appetite. It was time for me to take it out, so I took out my secret weapon from the icebox.
"You haven't eaten enough yet, right? Then how about this?"
".......?"
What I took out was high-quality meat....... and it's beef.
"10 servings of Hanwoo 1++ ribeye."
"Ajossi, you're the best!"
Meat is always right.