Chapter 87: It's a Bunsik Party! (1) Philip III, the king of the Doren Kingdom, invited Jinseo in praise of his achievement in calming the dragon's rage.
In addition, he requested that Jinseo display, before many people, the true essence of the bunsik that had subdued the dragon's anger.
"Jinseo, what will you do?"
"A high-ranking person is inviting me, so of course I should go. It's also a chance to spread bunsik further, and if I refuse, I feel like it won't just be one or two people who end up in trouble."
When Jinseo gladly accepted the trip to the capital, a broad smile spread across Oswald's face—he'd been tense in case Jinseo refused.
In truth, Jinseo had been planning to go to the capital anyway, for other reasons as well.
If only to take the dwarf delegation, who had no intention of leaving Falstead Castle because they were busy enjoying soccer and chimaek every day.
"We're not leaving right away, are we? It's an important occasion, so I think I should pay attention to my outfit..."
"If it's clothes, I'll prepare them."
"No. I'll get them myself."
The formal wear of the Francia Continent was something Jinseo, who had lived in modern Korea, simply couldn't accept aesthetically.
I can't wear clothes that float and cling to the body like that.
He could, at the absolute maximum, let it slide when other people wore it.
But he could never tolerate wearing it himself.
"And I'll need Aston and Jason's help too."
"M-me too?"
Jason had always stayed behind to run the branch whenever Jinseo drove the food truck away from Falstead Castle.
Naturally, he assumed he'd be excluded from this trip to the capital as well—but this time was different.
Not only would he go to Colses Castle, the capital, in person, he would even get the chance to meet the king.
"Really? For real?"
As Jason asked again and again, Jinseo nodded.
"It doesn't feel real..."
Jason couldn't hide his excitement just from imagining himself making bunsik and presenting it before the king, rather than doing deliveries.
"Yes. Since we'll probably have to deal with many customers, your help is essential. It's a shame we can't set up the branch, but… we may have to serve bunsik directly to His Majesty, so I want to be fully prepared."
"You're going to the royal palace?"
The moment Charlotte abruptly cut into the conversation, Jinseo and everyone around him went rigid with tension.
Judging by the atmosphere, it was the perfect moment for her to say she would come too, so they had to stop it somehow.
There was a world of difference between customers being startled and running away, and citizens in a nation's capital panicking and fleeing in chaos.
"Yes, so I'll have to be away for a while. Please hold off on bunsik for the time being."
"It's pretty far from here to there... Hmm."
Charlotte paced back and forth in front of the food truck in thought, then remembered something and went to her own private clearing…
Paaaat.
She transformed into her dragon form and lowered the tip of her left wing until it touched the ground.
"Want a ride?"
"Thank you, but I'll pass."
"Don't refuse. You'll save on travel costs too, right?"
This won't do. Should I move via a teleport point? But there are too many people to fit them all into the food truck… Should I ask Painfolt?
Jinseo wracked his brain for a way to avoid Charlotte's help.
Not knowing what he was thinking at all, she nudged Jinseo's side with her elbow, tap tap.
"I'm not a dragon who helps people indiscriminately. When I'm being nice, take it."
"Riding a dragon would be a tremendous honor, but the ride quality… I don't think it'd be very good."
"Ah, I guess that could be true? Then I'll move you with teleportation magic. That's fine, right? I once drew a magic circle near Colses Castle."
"A magic circle?"
"I drew it about two thousand years ago, so it hasn't been that long. It should still be there."
Charlotte spoke casually about a span of time long enough for the Doren Kingdom to rise and fall multiple times.
Jinseo couldn't get used to a dragon's sense of time, no matter how hard he tried.
After many twists and turns, Jinseo and the dwarf delegation decided to use Charlotte's teleportation magic.
And the destination was set as Colses Castle, the capital of the Doren Kingdom.
After a week of preparations, around noon on the day before departure, Jinseo went to find Marco.
Marco was currently imprisoned in the jail inside Falstead Castle.
It was the result of the royal order to arrest and detain anyone connected to Marquis Horus, without exception.
After an investigation concluded that Marco had not been directly involved, he was pardoned—but he insisted on staying in his cell to pay for his sins.
Either way, he said, there needed to be someone to take responsibility for the act that enraged the dragon.
It was an uncharacteristic move for someone like him, who had never cared about anything other than cooking.
"I knew it from before, but..."
Facing Jinseo through the iron bars, Marco spoke in an even tone.
He was in jail, yet his expression looked far better than before.
"I only knew how to pour myself into cooking alone, and I lived without paying attention to anything else. I expected that someday it would bring about a great disaster, but that was all. Because I loved cooking that much."
Looking back on what had happened, Marco lightly clenched his right hand, then opened it again.
"It's already too late, and it's nothing but an excuse, but... If I had known that recreating bunsik in my own way was tied to Marquis Horus's scheme, I would've quit cooking immediately."
Jinseo nodded in agreement.
If nothing else, Marco was sincere about cooking, and Jinseo was certain he never would've tolerated Marquis Horus's vile methods.
"But you've been pardoned. Do you really need to go this far?"
"If I'm released like this without punishment, I won't change. Three years ago, when I let go of cooking for a while, something similar happened. Back then I chose to disappear alone, but the result is the same—this is me now, repeating the same mistake."
"Are you uncomfortable in any way?"
"No."
In fact, Marco's cell was a far more comfortable environment than the other prisoners'.
Even so, a prison was still a prison—in the sense that his freedom was taken.
"Even if there is discomfort, I should endure it. But I do have one wish."
Since he had no way of knowing what was happening outside, he thought this meeting with Jinseo might be his last.
It was fine for now, but things could change suddenly—he could face a heavy sentence, or be sent to some remote place.
With that fear, Marco gripped the bars.
"It doesn't have to be bunsik. I want to eat a dish made by Lee Jinseo-nim personally."
"Ah, that… hmm..."
Jinseo was about to say there was no need to worry like that, but he closed his mouth at Marco's desperate gaze.
"If possible, I want to experience Korean food you've never shown before. Is that too much to ask?"
At Marco's request, one dish came to Jinseo's mind.
A single bowl that could make your stomach feel full—something that might suit Marco best right now.
"Just a moment."
When Jinseo went up the stairs, Marco stared blankly in the direction he disappeared.
A moment later, Jinseo returned in front of Marco holding an aluminum tray with food on it.
"It's a dish you haven't shown before, just like you asked."
Jinseo's choice was gukbap.
And among them, the most mild option: seolleongtang.
"It's seolleongtang. It falls under a dish called gukbap. It's hot, so you need to be careful when you eat it."
To make it properly would take a long time, so he hurriedly made it with a seolleongtang meal kit he'd bought before.
Still, perhaps because the food truck's correction effect applied, the taste itself was excellent, without a single flaw.
"So this is seolleongtang..."
For Marco, who was encountering the very concept of gukbap for the first time, he couldn't even figure out how he was supposed to eat it.
In the end, Jinseo had to explain gukbap in detail first.
"...Lastly, use the salt in this small container to season it to your taste. Eat the kkakdugi as a side dish."
"Understood."
After listening to Jinseo's explanation, Marco took the spoon in his hand.
He scooped up the milky broth from the earthenware pot and put it into his mouth.
"Ah..."
Letting out a quiet exclamation, Marco then plunged the spoon deep into the pot and lifted it again.
When he slurped in the noodles that came up with the rice grains soaked in broth, his eyes widened.
Then he started eating the seolleongtang in a hurry.
So much that he forgot Jinseo had told him to be careful because it was hot.
But feeding him this makes me feel like I'm pulling rank...
More precisely, one of the foods that often appeared when interrogating a suspect was seolleongtang.
Jinseo briefly considered switching it out for something else, but he gave up when he saw Marco eating, sweating buckets.
He's really eating it well. Should I have boiled another bowl for myself?
Even the guard watching from the side found himself swallowing at the sight of Marco eating seolleongtang—it was that appetite-stimulating.
"You said this is kkakdugi? It's a type of side dish similar to kimchi. The crisp texture is truly appealing."
"You can eat kimchi too?"
"It was hard to eat at first because it's fermented food, but once I got used to it, it's hard to forget that distinctive taste. That's why I wanted to try making kimchi with my own hands at least once… it's a shame."
Marco scooped up a big spoonful of seolleongtang, placed a piece of kkakdugi on top, and put it into his mouth.
Crunch, crunch.
At the sound of him chewing the kkakdugi, Jinseo's stomach growled.
He knows how to eat seolleongtang properly. Still… no, I can't. I need a bowl of gukbap too.
Jinseo tried to wait until Marco finished, but he couldn't endure the hunger.
"S-so then… I'll be going first. If anything is uncomfortable, tell the guard anytime… and—"
Just as Jinseo hurried to leave the jail, he suddenly felt other people's eyes and stopped in place.
"Th-that… what on earth is the food that chef is eating?"
"We know we're not in a position to ask for anything, but can't you do something about that soup dish?"
"I don't care if my sentence gets longer—please, give me that dish!"
Prisoners from other cells began looking at Jinseo with pleading eyes.
"Guard, is it okay?"
Flustered, Jinseo looked for the guard, but the guard's eyes weren't much different from the prisoners'.
"I-I want a bowl too..."
"Ah… yes..."
Before he knew it, Jinseo had taken a group order for seolleongtang, and he left the jail in a daze.
Slurp.
Marco lifted the earthenware pot with both hands and began drinking the broth straight from it.
"Hoo..."
After finishing his meal without leaving a single grain of rice or even a drop of broth, Marco's eyes were unfocused.
"So this is seolleongtang… the first dish of Lee Jinseo-nim's that I ever tasted..."
Even though it was only one bowl, Marco's wish—wanting to eat a dish Jinseo personally made—had been fulfilled, and his face was gentler than ever.
But the prisoners in the other cells, hoping they might also get to eat seolleongtang, endured hunger that only grew worse.
And that evening.
With Oswald's permission—after he tasted the seolleongtang first—a special meal was provided to every prisoner and guard in the jail.
{—Preference analysis for the relevant occupational group has been completed.—}
{—Those who committed crimes and were imprisoned were not criminals from the start. For them, seolleongtang, which fills the stomach and warms it, is the optimal food that makes them recall a past when they held kind hearts, and repent.—}
{—Base prisoner preference for seolleongtang: 70—}
{—If preference exceeds 50, a special effect is triggered for the eater. The higher the preference, the stronger the effect.—}
{—Triggered effects: increased likelihood of cooperating honestly during interrogation for a certain period of time, slightly increased likelihood of obeying guards' orders, greatly increased likelihood of turning over a new leaf after release, etc.—}
{—Triggered effects become stronger when well-fermented kkakdugi is served together.—}
And for prisoners only, seolleongtang was registered as a preferred food.
< It's a Bunsik Party! (1) > End
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