Chapter 109: D-Town? K-Town? (3) "The kids were so lively in front of adults, but when it was just them, they looked deflated. I had no idea how to build their confidence, but this is really perfect."
After learning the joy of learning something from adults, the children threw themselves enthusiastically into taekwondo.
To the point that they were exhausted and sleeping soundly like this.
Conversely, the mercenaries, who had learned the fulfillment of teaching children something, also poured their hearts into teaching taekwondo.
The problem was who would teach taekwondo, and how, but Jinseo used the exact same method he used when teaching the mercenaries soccer.
Jinseo played various taekwondo-related videos on a large TV, and with his experience of learning taekwondo up to a colored belt as a child, he taught the mercenaries directly.
When he showed them videos of taekwondo forms and board breaking, the mercenaries reacted that it would be worth learning, and perhaps because they were used to physical work, they picked up taekwondo far faster than Jinseo expected.
However, the mercenaries' evaluation of taekwondo match videos was poor, so competing like soccer was put on hold.
Next, he played videos about how a taekwondo dojang was reborn into a K-childcare center, and Jinseo brought the necessary supplies in from Korea.
"Seeing how those kids, who were weak because they couldn't eat properly… have become so healthy, I feel so proud."
"We're grateful every day to everyone who helped. The children, and us as well."
The children's wish, living in a ruined orphanage with no director and no caretaker, was to eat their fill even for a single day.
After Charlotte appeared, the children ate until they were full, changed out of old clothes into new ones, and under the care of the nannies Oswald hurriedly dispatched, they could sleep comfortably in a warm room.
Thanks to the blessings of the clergy dispatched from Kaiserus Cathedral, including Fedora, the children—healthy in both body and mind—could run and play to their heart's content at the new orphanage the dwarves prepared.
That was because the dwarves installed a whole set of play equipment around the orphanage, the same kind they showed at the royal palace's outdoor banquet.
Even so, for children who couldn't contain their overflowing energy, the taekwondo Jinseo introduced was the perfect play.
"By the way, when are you bringing in the Taekwon carriage?"
"When I asked Mr. Geshtain, he said they'll start operating it next week."
"Just thinking that we'll be able to teach taekwondo to even more children makes me so excited."
While watching the taekwondo videos, the mercenaries and nannies paid attention not only to taekwondo, but also to something else.
The taekwondo dojang bus that brought the children in and took them home.
The mercenaries who wanted to spread taekwondo beyond the orphanage proposed introducing a "Taekwon carriage."
So it was already decided that they would remodel the two-and-a-half-ton carriage they used when competing with Marquis Horus's street-food carriage.
Jinseo asked the nannies if they needed anything else, and the mercenaries serving as taekwondo instructors even had Jinseo check whether the forms they learned were correct or not, right in front of him.
In the meantime, the children, who were sleeping soundly in children's doboks, began waking up one by one, rubbing their eyes.
"Uh… it's Uncle Jinseo!"
"Uncle Jinseo! The street food you sent last time was really good!"
"I'm keeping the monster toy safe!"
The children who recognized Jinseo sprang up and rushed over to swarm around him.
Jinseo bent down and patted each child's head.
"Aren't you hungry?"
For children, it was only natural to be hungry after running around hard, and even after waking up from a deep sleep.
Jinseo began choosing a menu in his head, thinking what street food he should make for them.
"What do you want?"
"Anything you make is good!"
"Anything! Sweet, spicy, and salty is good!"
Even though the hardest request—"anything is fine"—came out of the children's mouths, Jinseo didn't panic.
Because a menu had just occurred to him: something anyone would like, and something he still hadn't introduced.
"Kids, today I prepared a special treat. Wait a bit."
Jinseo went outside the orphanage and entered the food truck's kitchen.
Aston and Jason followed him in, but Jinseo shook his head and quietly pointed at the counter seats.
In an instant, the two men's expressions brightened.
Because it meant he was going to make street food they hadn't introduced yet, and he wanted them to taste-test it.
From the time he started competing with Marquis Horus's street-food carriage up until he was invited by Philip III to the royal palace, Jinseo kept introducing new street food and food items.
But after Dwarf Town's construction, there were no new menu additions, and they had been disappointed—so when new street food suddenly appeared, they couldn't hide their excitement.
"Everyone, I think Brother is going to put out a new street food!"
"What? Really?"
"Th-then we can't not eat it!"
Even the mercenaries and nannies began sitting down beside Jason and Aston with expectant looks.
The children, simply happy at the thought of eating delicious street food, gathered close around the tables.
"Today's street food is..."
Jinseo took out a special ramen he had never introduced before from a cardboard box.
Jjajang ramen's representative name, Jjajangxgeti, which had never been shown in this other world.
And Neoxri, which was often used when cooking seafood ramen.
A widely known ramen mix made by combining the two.
"Jjajangxguri."
"..."
Jason couldn't continue speaking and only stared at the jjajangxguri Jinseo brought out.
When tteokbokki was first introduced on the Francia Continent, there were quite a few people who hesitated to eat it because of its intense red color.
But the black color of jjajangxguri with jjajangxgeti went beyond the fear they felt when first encountering tteokbokki, so even children grew a little scared.
"Brother, up until now I've eaten all your street food deliciously, but..."
Jason, who was practically a worshipper of Jinseo, hesitated over whether to eat the mysterious black noodle dish.
"I don't think this food is it. Look—Nero and Owl aren't trying to eat it either."
Not only Aston and the other adults, but even the two spirits couldn't bring themselves to reach for the jjajangxguri Jinseo served.
"Try it once before it gets cold."
Jinseo folded his arms and smiled with confidence.
The first bite was hard, but Jinseo trusted the unique magic of jjajangxguri—once you tasted it, you couldn't stop until you finished it.
The one who made it looked at the jjajangxguri he served with ease, while those who had to eat it wavered over whether they should eat this bizarre noodle dish.
"Except for a very small number of cases, Brother's street food has always made me happy. I'll trust that this black noodle dish isn't one of those cases."
Jason squeezed his eyes shut, picked up steaming noodles with his chopsticks, and boldly put them into his mouth.
Slurp.
"…Huh?"
Slurp. Slurp.
A taste completely different from what he expected spread through his mouth, and captivated by it, Jason began sucking in noodles without thinking.
"B-Brother!"
"How is it?"
Jinseo looked at the sauce smeared around Jason's lips and grinned.
"You said it's jjajangxguri, right? I was foolish to hesitate over whether to eat this! This is a revolution in noodles!"
"A-Am… amazing."
At Jason's shout—returned once more to being Jinseo's worshipper—Aston followed and took a bite of jjajangxguri, then widened his eyes.
"Th-this taste… so there was a taste like this!"
"Sweet, salty, spicy… but it's good!"
The mercenaries and nannies began eating jjajangxguri too, and the children likewise started inhaling noodles ravenously.
Nero and Owl also ate jjajangxguri excitedly, then each bit onto opposite ends of a single connected noodle and tugged until it snapped.
As expected, it's jjajangxguri. There's no way this wouldn't work.
Jjajang ramen, which recreated jjajangmyeon's taste in its own way, and Neoxri, long loved for its hot and spicy flavor.
Their simple combination taught those eating, through their tongues, what true harmony was.
The spiciness of Neoxri neatly cut through the occasional greasy feel of eating only jjajangxgeti, creating a taste that stepped into a more evolved realm.
And as they enjoyed the subtle texture created by two different noodle types mixing together, they stopped caring about the color at all.
They said the kids usually avoid vegetables, but this time I can make them eat properly. Killing two birds with one stone.
On top of that, the black sauce winding around the finely chopped vegetables was tricking the picky children's tongues in a good way.
"Brother! One more bowl!"
"Mr. Jinseo! Me too, please."
Jason and Aston, who already finished three servings in no time, held out empty plates stained with sauce like blotches, and Jinseo served them freshly made jjajangxguri.
Everyone's mouths were blackened with sauce, but they didn't care at all—they only repeated eating jjajangxguri, again and again.
{Analysis of preferred food for the relevant age group has been completed.}
{Children always want to enjoy a variety of tastes, excluding bitterness. That's how children's tastes are. Dishes that deliver sweetness, spiciness, and saltiness to their tongues are so rare they are hard to find—except for the accidental product called jjajangxguri, born from mixing two ramen varieties.}
{Base preference level of children for jjajangxguri: 100.}
{If preference exceeds 50, a special effect is triggered for the consumer. The higher the preference, the greater the effect.}
{Triggered effects: Increase in happiness value, a drastic increase in activity level...}
It's been a while since a preferred food got registered. It'm my first time seeing a preferred food applied to a specific age group, not a job or a race… huh?
Jinseo was deeply bothered by one part of jjajangxguri's effects displayed in the Status window: "a drastic increase in activity level."
Kids being lively was natural, so it wouldn't normally be an issue—but they were so lively it was an issue, which was why he introduced taekwondo in the first place.
And now he was feeding them jjajangxguri.
The order was reversed, but "give an illness, then give the cure" described the situation perfectly.
Yeah. Trust taekwondo. I trust myself, I trust taekwondo.
Still, he couldn't tell children who tasted delicious jjajangxguri to stop eating it now.
Jinseo convinced himself that taekwondo would beat jjajangxguri, and decided to focus only on cooking.
"Jjara-jjara, jjajjajja~."
Clearing his head, Jinseo began boiling noodles in multiple pots at once, and a jingle slipped from his mouth.
"Today I'm a Jjajangxgeti cook..."
In Korea, it was a song that had once been played to death in TV commercials, but on the Francia Continent, it was an unfamiliar rhythm.
Those who had been frantically sucking in black noodles began, at some point, to listen to the song he was unconsciously singing.
"Uncle Jinseo is singing a weird song."
"Jjara-jjara… jja?"
"Delicious… Nongx? Jjajangxgeti? Not jjajangxguri?"
The children, puzzled, began singing along to his song anyway.
Without realizing that the jingle—whose lyrics stuck in your head and refused to leave—would, for a while, become a hit that swept not only the orphanage, but all of Dwarf Town.
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