Chapter 108: D-Town? K-Town? (2) The best part of the army really was the food. I hoped everyone ate well this time too.
Recalling his military days, when his mood rose and fell over a single menu item, Jinseo headed toward the exit.
Just as he was about to go outside, he stopped in front of the barracks closest to the exit, leaned his head in, and took a quick look inside.
Mercenaries waiting for their next duty shift were resting on their bunks.
Last time I looked, most of them were out on external assignments, but now there were more people on standby. Was it because living here was comfortable?
Not every member of the Raven Mercenary Corps worked in Dwarf Town.
More than half were dispatched to other regions, and among those remaining in Raven Lair, they rotated shifts to handle Dwarf Town's security and maintain public order.
In truth, most of the dwarves who had crossed over to the Francia Continent were stronger than the mercenaries, and even by the physical grades Jinseo checked through the System, the ones who needed protection were, rather, the mercenaries.
Even so, because they had to make it known, for diplomatic reasons, that the dwarves were being protected, security was necessary.
And that role belonged to the Raven Mercenary Corps.
But in the peaceful Dwarf Town, with no incidents since opening, the mercenaries had no chance to shine in security work—and their true value showed in a different field.
Soccer.
"Is a 3-5-2 formation still the best?"
"No, I think we should play more aggressively. The striker on Citizen Team 1 we're facing this time, when he receives the ball…"
"How about using Kane, that guy who's coming back today, as a substitute? He'll be worn out from working, but if we put him in during the second half, it should be fine."
Gathered in front of a whiteboard, the mercenaries had drawn soccer formations with a marker and were deeply absorbed in serious discussion.
In what people called physicality, the mercenaries lagged behind the dwarves in soccer.
On top of that, compared to the dwarves, the mercenary team were obviously beginners, so they kept getting crushed in matches not only against the dwarf team, but against other teams as well.
Since nobody liked losing, the mercenaries even complained to Jinseo about how they could get better at soccer.
In the end, Jinseo's choice was to play various match videos and documentaries about soccer tactics on a large TV, and the mercenary team's starting players focused and absorbed everything.
Perhaps because they were people who learned all kinds of strategy and tactics with their bodies through monster subjugation and regional conflicts, they picked up the many tactics used in soccer quickly.
The mercenary team, which threw itself into soccer with sincerity, entered the second half of the season while chewing on the miserable first-half record of one win and four losses—and was now on a three-game winning streak.
They went further and even created their own internal league to develop a second squad, falling deeply, truly, into soccer.
So deeply that it was obvious they weren't paying attention to their surroundings.
They all seemed to be doing fine, but the barracks weren't very tidy. It'd be nice if they organized the slippers under the bunks too… But it wasn't my place.
Looking at the empty cup ramen containers stacked in layers under the lockers, Jinseo briefly wondered if he should step in and clean it up himself, then stopped.
Because he absolutely did not want to become the kind of superior who said the line he heard to death during his service—telling them to rest when it's time to rest, but to keep minimum discipline.
The mercenaries staying in Dwarf Town wanted to eat Jinseo's street food and food items three meals a day until they were full.
But for Jinseo, whose main job was still a food-truck street-food shop, it was impossible to fully take charge of every meal for the mercenary corps.
So the street food Jinseo made himself was provided once a week in the form of a special meal.
The mercenary corps' cafeteria had been designed from the start so the food truck could drive inside, and Jinseo drove the food truck in through the cafeteria's back entrance, parked, and began making street food right there.
Instead of taking individual orders, he provided it buffet-style so a large number of people could finish eating within the set time, letting them take as much of the fixed menu as they wanted.
"It's all done! Come eat!"
The moment Jason lifted the lid of a metal bowl piled high with street food, the mercenaries who had been waiting with fire in their eyes stood up all at once.
Each of them started by loading their favorite menu items onto their metal trays, while Jinseo worked hard making more to replenish whatever ran out.
"Whew, as expected, the street food Mr. Jinseo makes himself just looks different from the start. I want to eat it every day."
"Everything's great, but eating chicken without beer is basically torture."
"Let's go drink tonight. For now, endure it."
While everyone focused on eating, mercenaries returning from dispatch missions entered the cafeteria one by one.
"Alright, this is our Raven Mercenary Corps cafeteria. We're not behind other mercenary corps in anything, but when it comes to meals, I can proudly say we're the best on the Francia Continent."
Kane, who had been with the Raven Mercenary Corps for a long time, sat at an empty table with three new mercenaries.
"And you guys are lucky. Lunch today is a special meal. Let's see… oh! It's boneless fried chicken."
Spotting chicken—his favorite—among the special-meal items written on the wall, Kane grinned broadly.
"Before that, I should introduce the benefactor of our mercenary corps and the cook who prepared today's special meal. Hey! Jinseo! Over here!"
Jinseo, who had been asking the mercenaries eating what had changed compared to before and what they wanted in particular, heard Kane calling him and walked to his table.
"Sir Kane, did you finish your mission safely?"
"It ended without any issues. Ah, let me introduce them. They were in another mercenary corps, but their contract ended, so I brought them along."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lee Jinseo."
When Jinseo greeted them first, the three new mercenaries looked at Jinseo—quite tall by Francia Continent standards—and returned awkward greetings.
"They're all sixteen, the same age. A good age where you can expect great performance."
Huh? I thought they were in their twenties, but they were only high school age?
Jinseo rubbed his eyes and carefully examined each new mercenary's face again.
"Are you really sixteen?"
"Yeah. By our standards, their faces fit their age perfectly."
"Is it common here to become a mercenary at that age?"
"At sixteen, you're fully grown. What's the problem?"
"I see..."
In a country at war, they would be child soldiers, but in Korea, it was the age where you'd be eating street food and going in and out of PC cafés. Seeing them with swords at their hips was something Jinseo couldn't get used to, no matter how he tried.
That was sad. It was still too early to live in such a harsh world.
Once again, Jinseo felt that this place was not Korea, but another world.
"Hey, Kane. The emblem on these kids' clothes—isn't that the Beltis Mercenary Corps? They pay pretty well. How did you bring them over?"
"With this."
Kane pulled a Choxpie wrapper from his pocket, held it in his hand, and fluttered it.
"I gave them one each and their eyes got this big… Watching them eat like they were possessed was a real spectacle."
"Heh heh heh. We were all like that at first too."
"Yeah. You can never forget it."
For the mercenaries eating at the nearby table, their first meeting with Choxpie had been as tender as first love and as thrilling as a victory in their first battle.
"I watched how they worked and saw potential, so I tempted them—told them if they came to our mercenary corps, they could eat this every day. They immediately said they'd come."
"Good choice! Soon you won't want to leave this place!"
"Let's go drink together later."
Kane and his comrades burst into hearty laughter as they welcomed the newcomers, but the newcomers themselves kept glancing around, only watching the mood.
"It's all food we've never seen before."
"The food here… is it as good as Choxpie?"
"This 'street food'… is it really as amazing as Sir Kane says?"
The three newcomers cautiously asked while sneaking looks at the street food on the nearby table.
"First..."
Instead of explaining, Kane answered by handing each of them a metal tray.
"Follow me. You'll understand once you eat."
Following Kane up to the food truck, the three newcomers stared blankly at the street food piled high in square metal containers.
"Stop just staring and take as much as you want."
Kane first filled half his tray with boneless fried chicken.
Then, humming leisurely, he filled the rest of his tray with other street food and returned to the table they had been sitting at.
From the stomach of a newcomer who kept hesitating because everything was unfamiliar, a loud gurgle slipped out.
"Let's just eat first."
"Yeah. I'll try this red one first."
"I'll start with the boneless… thing Sir Kane piled up earlier."
The newcomers couldn't even imagine what it would taste like, but they filled their trays with various street foods to at least fill their stomachs, then returned to the table.
With Kane across from them, too busy eating chicken to notice anything else, the three new mercenaries took their first bite.
Then their eyes widened and they froze in place.
"Uh..."
"Gasp..."
"..."
Meals for mercenary corps were usually lacking.
It was an unavoidable reality, since efficiency mattered more than taste, and everything had to be made as cheaply as possible.
The meals at the Beltis Mercenary Corps, where the three newcomers were until now, also could not escape that common sense.
But the street food they tasted in the Raven Mercenary Corps was on a different level.
"So it wasn't a lie!"
"Wow, it was really the right choice to come here!"
"This boneless… food, I really like it!"
"When it comes to taste, I never lie."
At the stream of praise, Kane looked proud as if he were the one who had made the street food.
The three newcomers quickly emptied their trays, but they couldn't be satisfied with that.
They looked like they were in their mid-twenties, but this was the teenage period where you finished a meal in one go, turned around, and immediately got hungry again.
For them, what they had just eaten only made the hunger sharper.
"Can we… eat more?"
At the three pairs of eyes looking up at him, Jinseo let out a small laugh and extended his left hand toward the food truck.
"Yes, of course. As long as it's within the set mealtime, you can eat as much as you want."
The instant Jinseo gave permission, the three newcomers rushed out with their trays.
With the exact faces of high school students delighted by street food—faces Jinseo had often seen back when he ran Jinseo Bunsik.
After finishing the once-a-week special meal for the mercenary corps, Jinseo's next destination was the orphanage.
Before leaving Dwarf Town, per Charlotte's order, the dwarves built a new orphanage inside Dwarf Town and relocated the children.
"They're sleeping so soundly."
A faint smile formed on Jinseo's lips as he looked into the orphanage through the window.
"Just like you said, Mr. Jinseo, the effect is incredible."
"This childcare method called a taekwondo dojang is really the best."
Two mercenaries in taekwondo uniforms standing beside Jinseo looked down with satisfied expressions at the children enjoying nap time under their blankets.
In the past, they were weak children because they couldn't eat properly, but now they could grow without lacking anything in food, clothing, or shelter.
So they boasted enormous activity levels like ordinary children, running wild everywhere.
Nannies and mercenaries often ended up exhausted from chasing them around one by one, and unable to stand watching them so worn out, Jinseo taught them a Korean childcare method.
The operating style of a taekwondo dojang, also called a K-orphanage.
Some mercenaries, knowing through Jinseo that taekwondo was Korea's traditional martial art, were skeptical, asking whether there was any need to teach fighting skills to small children already.
In response, Jinseo simply left them with, "You'll understand if you try it."
After following that, the nannies and mercenaries were very satisfied with the results.
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