“The generosity that overlooked your mistake. Shouldn’t you be grateful that your head is still attached?”
“…”
My jaw dropped. But that bastard calmly smiled beneath his robe and threw out one more remark.
“How greedy. Don’t you know the Knight Commander already left after paying quite an expensive price?”
With those words, he fluttered the hem of his robe and left abruptly. All that remained was one empty ttukbaegi. I stared blankly down at that empty bowl, then soon trembled with my hands shaking.
A ttukbaegi completely emptied without a single drop of broth left. And yet, no money.
“…That, that Cheval bastard…!”
That son of a bitch! He ate everything!
Not long after Lionel left, I huffed and pasted a notice on the door.
<No Dine and Dash>
On top of that, I drew graffiti to vent my anger. I roughly sketched a punk with a hood pressed down and blonde hair sticking out beneath it, then added the phrase “No eating everything and running away.”
And from today, I established one more rule. The seasoning paste would definitely be served separately in a small dish.
I didn’t forget the announcement either.
“The seasoning paste is served separately, so please add it yourself and don’t add too much. It’s spicy.”
Well, the customers’ reactions were mostly the same anyway.
“Come on, how spicy could it be?”
“I’m confident with spicy food.”
Acting tough like that, they’d dump the whole small dish in and eventually…
“Kugh, kuuugh!”
“Hk, the sweat—! A towel!”
Sweating profusely while shoveling down gukbap.
I crossed my arms watching that scene from the kitchen.
“That’s why I told you. It’s spicy.”
But inside, I let out a wicked smile. Sweating buckets while unable to stop eating. Doesn’t that mean they’re addicted to the charm of spicy taste?
As expected, the gukbap gained great popularity and sold well. The sight of adventurers who’d returned from subjugation relieving their accumulated stress with the spicy taste and soothing their insides with the white gukbap broth was like a ritual for those who’d survived a battlefield.
And finally.
Daily sales exceeded 10 Silver.
“This is it. This is the one.”
Inside my head, a golden sign was already sparkling.
<Boundary Gukbap Chain Store>
Opening branches throughout the Empire, collecting franchise fees, reigning as the emperor of the gukbap franchise—myself. I could see a future where signs like “Chevalier Gukbap House” and “Royally Certified Gukbap House” hung throughout the Empire.
Soon, the day might come when I’d pour Silver and Gold into a bathtub and swim in it. At that moment, it would feel like holding all the wealth and glory of the world in my hands.
…However.
“Ugh, my whole body…”
The problem was my body.
Kitchen work, serving, cleaning, customer service—doing it all alone made my wrists swell up and my legs wobble. It became routine to bind my wrists with cloth before sleeping every night.
Moreover, while the inn had been run focusing only on the restaurant, recently the number of adventurers near the Boundary had exploded, and customers requesting lodging had noticeably increased. But in my current state, I absolutely couldn’t handle it.
“Should I hire someone after all?”
But who? If I carelessly brought in a suspicious person and they discovered my MSG secret storage, it would be a disaster. Or should I just give up on the lodging business for now and only run it as a restaurant for a year to multiply my money, then expand the inn?
No, actually, if war breaks out, expansion would be meaningless. In that case, it would be better to run away to a safe place and quietly buy a mansion and operate a gukbap restaurant.
My head was complicated, but I soon made a decision.
Let’s take a break from business for now.
I hung a ‘Closed’ sign on the signboard and plopped down in a chair. Massaging my swollen wrists, I stretched out my stiff legs.
“Haah… I’m dying.”
That’s when it happened.
Ding-a-ling—
As the bell rang inside the quiet inn, I reflexively got up.
“Welcome! But today we’re not open for busi—”
But my words froze.
As if absorbing all light, pitch-black hair—far too familiar to me—slowly bowed its head and crossed the threshold. Beneath it, calmly rippling violet eyes and a handsome face were visible.
The revealed face was beautiful yet sharp, seemingly gentle yet cold. On the surface he looked like a young scholar, but within those violet eyes lurked the coldness and ennui of one who had lived for decades. He seemed like someone who wouldn’t look awkward at all suddenly pulling out a blade from fingertips that had been researching ancient texts.
A face where all those contradictory textures completed into one.
Jeffrey Marches Latour.
The most suspicious and most dangerous Grand Mage from the original work was crossing the threshold.
[Rarely seen, pitch-black hair that seemed to have dissolved dark ink, deeply settled. The violet eyes shining beneath it captivated one’s gaze as if bewitched. Not only that. Though his outward appearance was that of a young man, within his eyes were cast the emptiness and ennui that only one who had endured long years could exude.
The reason he joined Amelia’s party was only one.
Because he was ill.
A disease fatal to mages where mana leaked out. For an ordinary mage, it would be a disease where their lifespan had already been exhausted, but Jeffrey delayed that speed with mana more vast than anyone else’s. However, he had merely delayed the speed—in the end, he was slowly dying.
And there was only one who could save him: the Saint Amelia. Whenever he writhed in pain, only Amelia’s holy power became his sole paradise and salvation.
When he collapsed vomiting blood with a pale face, the holy power flowing from her fingertips filled his empty places. Like a downpour pouring onto parched, withered land, Jeffrey’s ennui-filled eyes flashed at that satisfying fullness. No one knew what those violet eyes were thinking, but one thing was certain: he was craving.
He wanted to capture the Saint and be intoxicated for life. Then it seemed that this vain abyss that could never be filled by anything would finally be satisfied. But was that truly all he harbored? Did he simply want to use the Saint as a tool to gain power, and with that power seize something?
Whatever it was, lurking in his gaze was a desire sordidly suppressed that he couldn’t reveal outwardly. That gaze, mixing together the pain from his disease and all despair, was fatal temptation itself.
Whenever she met that gaze, Amelia repeated the same thought every time.
‘He’s dangerous and eerie. But… there’s no danger as captivating as this.’
His charm was something even the Saint couldn’t deny.]
Jeffrey always moved while hiding some scheme. Even hands extending salvation were done upon calculation, and even in moments of saving someone, he was a man who pondered how to use others’ power.
Someone who hid blade-like sincerity behind a kindly crafted smile, and who even used his own body burning away precariously as a weapon.
And in my memory too, he was the most suspicious among the Saint’s companions, and the most difficult person to handle.
Knowing that, I stared at him frozen in place.
As Jeffrey tilted his head, his ebony-like hair fluttered slightly. Even at that small movement, my gaze was unconsciously stolen.
Soon, he wore a benevolent smile and gently opened his mouth.
“Aren’t you open for business?”
“…Today is a day off.”
“Oh my, I’ve disturbed you.”
His words, tinged with difficulty, were gentle. However, within those dry, deep eyes, ennui flickered.
Then, without taking a single step, observing his attitude of somehow completely dominating this place while standing there, I realized.
This bastard came on purpose after seeing the ‘day off’ notice. He doesn’t like it when it’s noisy, so he deliberately chose this day.
How should I put it? On the surface he acts politely and kindly, but in reality, he’s like a troublesome customer with a gentlemanly face who barges in selfishly without caring about the other person’s circumstances.
Thinking that way, Jeffrey no longer seemed like a dangerous person but just a tiresome customer to deal with.
So I deliberately smiled brightly and said,
“Yes, please come back next time!”
“…”
Jeffrey’s brow furrowed very subtly. I scoffed inwardly at that sight. Did you think that if you came barging in and spoke kindly, I’d be honored and serve you gukbap or something? That type who knows that pushing through gets everything done. Somehow, it makes me want to give it even less.
As I shrugged my shoulders and pointed at the entrance with a firm attitude, Jeffrey let out a long sigh and calmly continued speaking.
“Actually, I stopped by to taste the rumored cuisine. However, the shop always looked busy, so it wasn’t easy to step inside readily.”
“So you came on a day off?”
“I won’t deny that it’s rude.”
Though he spoke lightly, there was a strangely sharp power in that voice.
“I’ll pay generously. Could you serve me one bowl of gukbap?”
When he says he’ll even pay money, and if it’s just one person…
I pondered for a moment, then soon nodded as if resigned.
“Sit in front.”
Anyway, it’s a world where status is king. Let’s serve him quickly and kick him out.
At my permission, Jeffrey smiled with his eyes and carefully sat down. However, even that carefulness seemed like a gesture of an ancient sage casually suppressing the other person.
Well, even if his outward appearance is that of a young man, inside he’s already ancient.
Soon, when I brought out hot gukbap, Jeffrey lightly inhaled as if savoring the aroma. Consecutively picking up his utensils, one bite, two bites.
“Certainly, as His Highness the Crown Prince said, it’s food I’m encountering for the first time.”
At those words, I flinched, my eyes widening unconsciously. Jeffrey smiled faintly and subtly raised his gaze.
