Chapter 35: Ketchup Is Fundamental (3) The heat of the autumn festival, held over three days inside Falstead Castle, was intense from the very first day.
The streets were packed with residents and tourists who had come from far away, and thanks to the festival's symbol—"red fallen leaves"—set up all over the place, you could really feel the atmosphere of autumn.
"There are so many."
Stalls were crammed tightly along both sides of the road leading to the central plaza, and the smell of food drifting everywhere made people stop in their tracks.
Holding what looked like the most ordinary option—something like skewers—Jinseo walked into an open space behind the stalls.
A bard's instrument performance, a wandering painter doing on-the-spot portraits, animals doing tricks with their trainer, and more.
They were all busy showing off their talents in front of crowds.
Among them, Jinseo's gaze lingered on a clown in flashy clothes.
"Waaah!"
Exclamations burst out here and there at the clown juggling more than ten balls.
Next, the clown juggled flaming daggers, and everyone watching flinched.
Thankfully, when the act ended safely, applause poured from the gathered audience.
Clapping along, Jinseo dropped a coin into the hat the clown had left out and started walking again.
"This is lively."
The fun he felt the first time he entered Colses Castle—like stepping into a movie—came back, and Jinseo's steps grew lighter on their own.
The atmosphere was so different from modern festivals that just watching was refreshing.
If he had to pick one disappointment, it was the taste of the local food he was eating right now.
He couldn't shake the feeling that it lacked something compared to bunsik, but Jinseo didn't complain and finished it anyway.
Still, it has its own flavor. It's enjoyable enough.
"Damn it, I woke up late! I already signed up to participate, and this is what happens."
"Still, we came all the way here. Why not at least watch? You're curious who'll win the first tournament, aren't you?"
"The winner could've been me… Haah."
Hearing the passing youths, Jinseo rubbed his chin and tilted his head.
"First tournament? Don't tell me…"
A few days ago, some mages came to the food truck asking if he could help because they planned to run a new competition.
I did provide a sponsor prize, but did they really go and hold the tournament?
"Ah…"
A woman stared blankly at the wooden blocks that had collapsed across the table.
"I-I won! I won! Woohoo!"
Meanwhile, the other woman across from her shouted in joy, unable to contain her excitement.
The young man between them grabbed the winner's right hand and lifted it high.
"The winner of the First Jenga Tournament is Mary, a mage from the Doren Magic Tower! Three to two—an incredibly close match!"
The young man's voice, amplified by magic, spread toward the audience below the stage.
Arms crossed, Jinseo watched with satisfaction as a regular customer cheered.
So she really did win.
Mary, one of the early regulars, fell in love with Jenga the moment she saw it—just like when she first encountered ice cream.
Enjoying the deep psychological mind games hidden inside simple rules, she couldn't be satisfied with only playing whenever she came to buy bunsik.
He'd even heard from her colleagues that after asking Jinseo's permission, she practiced and practiced using a Jenga imitation made through the woodworking guild.
"The winner will receive ten tteok-twig-sun set coupons provided by the food truck, and one authentic Jenga set. The runner-up will receive five tteok-twig-sun set coupons."
"Thank you!"
"And there's one more prize for both finalists…"
The young man running the event took something out, then trailed off.
Since it was an object he'd never seen before, he couldn't find words to explain it.
Ah. I gave it to them without explaining anything.
A cube-shaped toy Jinseo provided, assuming of course they'd know how to play.
All eyes in the audience fixed on the unidentified object the host held up.
"Huh? Jinseo! You were there?"
Mary waved excitedly after recognizing Jinseo.
"Oh! The owner of the food truck is here! If it's alright, could you come up and explain it?"
Invited on the spot, Jinseo stepped onto the stage and picked up one of the two cubes.
"Ah, this is a toy called a Rubik's Cube. I used to play with it sometimes when I was a kid."
"Rubik's Cube?"
"Yes. Where I'm from, it's a pretty common toy. How you play is…"
Holding it in both hands, Jinseo scrambled the cube left and right.
"Huh? Huh?"
"Y-you can mix it up like that?"
After mixing it for quite a while, Jinseo held it up in front of Mary's face so she could see clearly.
"After you scramble it like this, you mix it again so each face ends up as one color."
It took a bit because it had been a long time, but Jinseo recalled the old feel and began matching the colors steadily.
"Like this."
"Huh…"
A gasp of admiration slipped from Mary as she watched the jumbled blocks become aligned by color.
"Would you like me to explain the principle?"
"No! Things like this are fun to figure out yourself! Please don't take that joy away!"
"Haha, alright. If it's too hard, ask me later. And congratulations on your win."
Jinseo handed one cube each to Mary and the runner-up.
People farther away approached the stage to see what was happening, and people nearby grew curious what this new game Jinseo introduced could be.
But the two of them ignored all the attention and only stared intensely at the Rubik's Cubes in their hands.
"So this is a Rubik's Cube…"
"Unlike Jenga, it's a game where there are no variables caused by others, and victory is decided purely by your own skill…"
The result of the finals from just moments ago no longer mattered to them.
Especially Mary—having found something even more interesting than Jenga—her eyes burned with passion.
Jinseo could tell.
He didn't know who would win the second Jenga tournament, but the winner of the first Cube tournament would be one of these two.
Whoosh.
A massive dragon's mouth, formed from flames, spewed fire that tore through the darkness.
"Waaah!"
Cheers erupted from the people gathered around the fountain at the center of the plaza.
"Huh? This time it's… it's flying?"
"Just shaping a dragon with magic is incredible, but to see more than that…"
Gasps kept coming at every motion of the enormous dragon—large enough to clear the castle walls in a single bound.
"As expected of the Grand Mage Painfolt!"
People couldn't stop marveling at the majestic dragon that only appeared in legends.
Standing among them and looking up at it, Jinseo was the same.
"He really is incredible…"
Jinseo had seen the mages' magic up close before, back when they were dispatched during the fight against the kraken.
Magic manifested in real reality, not CGI, was amazing in itself.
But the magic Painfolt showed now was on a different level.
When the spell that stunned everyone finally ended, thunderous applause burst out around him.
But Painfolt didn't respond to the applause. Instead, he extended his right arm to the side.
"Huh? That can't be…"
It was too far to see clearly, but Jinseo had seen that motion many times.
It was the movement Painfolt always made whenever he took things in and out of his subspace storage.
"Huh? It's not over?"
"Is he going to show another spell?"
The applause died away, and a hush spread through the crowd watching Painfolt.
His movements as he formed hand seals for the next spell were more solemn than ever.
If you ignored the nuX-bar he had in his mouth.
Whoooosh.
"L-look at that! It's different from before!"
"This time it's made of ice! Painfolt's magic really is something else!"
Instead of blazing flames that could char everything black, a dragon wrapped in freezing cold that could turn anything to ice soared high into the sky.
"But isn't this the first time he's conjured dragons back-to-back?"
"That just means his skill has grown even more!"
"At that age, and he can still cast magic like that…"
"And his granddaughter is a cardinal too. They're truly amazing people."
Everyone else couldn't take their eyes off the dragon's even flashier movements than before.
But Jinseo wasn't watching the dragon—he was watching Painfolt, who kept eating nuX-bars and collecting the sticks in the same repeated motion.
If he eats that many, he's going to suffer a nasty headache. Ah—our eyes met.
Painfolt recognized him and winked.
While fluttering the nuX-bar wrapper in his right hand.
After Painfolt's magic show ended, Jinseo tried to go greet him in person.
But the crowd, still intoxicated with excitement from the magic, wouldn't part, so he had to leave it for later.
"There's seriously so much to see. If I want to see it all, I'll need to set aside a whole day and really walk around."
Jinseo pulled out his smartphone and checked the time.
"About an hour passed. Should I look around a little more?"
He put the smartphone away again and started walking through the crowd.
He was a little worried about the food truck, but with Aston and Jason there, they should be able to handle incoming orders just fine.
Since this was leisure he'd gotten after a long time, Jinseo decided to properly enjoy it.
"Huh? Big bro, isn't that you?"
"Foltan? You were here."
Foltan, one of Jinseo's first regulars on the Francia Continent, recognized him first and approached.
Not with his usual buddy Jason, but while holding a little boy's hand.
"Is he your son?"
"Yes. He's five now."
Foltan, the same age as Jason.
He placed a hand on his son's head, trying to get him to greet Jinseo.
But maybe because Jinseo was unfamiliar, the boy hid behind his father and lightly clutched his pants.
"Ah… this kid is shy around strangers."
"Haha, it's fine. But you married early. Or I guess that's normal here?"
"So where you live, people marry later?"
"There are tons of people who still aren't married even at my age."
As soon as Jinseo said "marriage," he remembered a girlfriend he once dated.
But it hadn't ended well, so he smiled bitterly and pushed it out of his mind.
"Foltan, looks like you're off today?"
"Well, last year during the festival, I couldn't be with him, so he was pretty disappointed. So this year I matched the dates and took leave. I'm going to play with him at least today. Tomorrow my wife will take him out instead."
"I see."
Jinseo felt envious of Foltan, who was out enjoying the festival with his son.
No—more precisely, he envied Foltan's son.
I'm starting to miss my dad.
Jinseo's gaze lingered on the hands the father and son were holding.
When Jinseo was little, the sight he saw most often was his father's back, busy making bunsik.
"Um… are you okay?"
Since Jinseo silently lowered his gaze, Foltan couldn't find what to say and just stood there.
"Dad."
After looking around, Foltan's son spotted something and tugged on his father's collar.
"Dad, I want that."
He pointed at children walking by with balloons.
"What's that?"
"A balloon."
Jinseo bent down and went down on one knee.
To match the boy's eye level.
"If you want a balloon, the food truck hands them out. Want one?"
"Really?"
At Jinseo's offer, the boy widened his eyes and blinked rapidly.
"Good timing—we were planning to stop by anyway. He's actually never been to the food truck yet."
With the food truck always crowded with customers, it was surprisingly rare for children to come alone.
It would be hard to allow a kid to go outside the castle by themselves.
"Still, he's had takeout plenty of times. Peter, this man is the owner of that food truck."
"Really?"
Peter looked up at Jinseo with sparkling eyes.
"Tteokbokki! Tteokbokki is yummy! It's spicy but yummy!"
Ah, so that's why you sometimes asked me to make the tteokbokki less spicy for takeout.
If you weren't Korean—and especially if you were a child—the spiciness of tteokbokki would be hard to handle.
Thinking of the fathers who used to take bunsik home after work back when he ran Jinseo's Snack Bar, Jinseo smiled.
"Haha, thanks. You said your name is Peter, right? Want me to give you a piggyback ride on my shoulders?"
Jinseo carefully lifted Peter onto his shoulders, then slowly stood up.
"Waa…"
A street seen from higher up, with a wide-open view.
Peter, who had been shy of Jinseo, now waved his little hand from Jinseo's shoulders as if nothing had happened.
"When we get to the food truck, I'll give you something else too besides a balloon. There's a bunsik called a hot dog—today we added it as a new menu."
"Really? Waa!"
"So that's the new menu the kid was talking about? Ohh, finally…"
Foltan and Peter, filled with anticipation for hot dogs and balloons.
Side by side, excited, they walked the street together with Jinseo.
Enjoying the festival as three was far more fun than when Jinseo walked alone.
And as they strolled and took in the festival, before they knew it they arrived at the place where the food truck was.
"Whew, there are really a lot of people. Compared to the early days of the food truck, it's not even close."
"I guess it's good I came back early. Peter, then stay here with Dad for a moment, okay?"
"Okay!"
Jinseo patted Peter's head, then squeezed through the crowd to go inside.
Huh, but what is this? Something feels off.
There were still plenty of customers gathered, but there was a subtle, strange atmosphere.
Most of the customers sitting at the tables weren't placing orders anymore—they were only staring toward the counter.
It felt as if some invisible wall surrounded the food truck.
"B-big bro!"
"Jinseo!"
"What's going on?"
Jason and Aston called out to him in urgent voices.
"He's here! He's here!"
"He?"
"Ghirvante's hero! The solitary swordsman! Lord Crade!"
A huge man sat alone in the center of the counter seats, so massive you could recognize him at a glance.
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