Chapter 155: The Next Pope Seat? (2) "Still, bunsik is far more diverse in variety than I expected."
"Due to circumstances, we only filmed some of the bunsik. And foods that are only sold in certain seasons, we couldn't film in time. Like the steamed buns you ate earlier."
"There's more besides what was shown on that TV?"
"Yes. If there's a chance later, I'll show the dishes that weren't in the video. I'll ask again. Which bunsik should I bring out?"
The moment Jinseo finished speaking, they began loudly shouting the menu items each of them wanted to eat.
Since the weather was cold, there were many requests for bunsik that could warmly heat the body, and Jinseo carefully selected three among them.
"This is tteok dumpling soup. The dumplings inside can be hot when you bite into them, so be careful. You should eat slowly."
"His Majesty said that too, didn't he? Yes, I'll be careful!"
The knight who had just said he wanted all the menu items from the video accepted the tteok dumpling soup with a broad grin.
In the cold, the hot broth felt even more special, and the harmony of sliced rice cakes and dumplings inside it filled the eaters' stomachs solidly.
As a result, even with Jinseo's warning, some people hastily chewed into the dumplings and suffered as they burned themselves, but after quickly cooling their mouths with cold beverages, they started eating again.
Of course, having gotten scolded once by the heat, they ate more slowly and carefully than before.
"Udon is out. The broth is hot, so be careful like with the tteok dumpling soup."
When he was young, the food Jinseo ate most often when he went to church was noodles.
But Jinseo preferred udon over plain noodles because it felt more filling.
So during last year's feast-day period, Jinseo presented udon at Kaysus Cathedral, and likewise, he served udon here at the Holy Land.
"Hoo, heh… it's nice and warm."
"The taste of slurping up these thick noodles is truly unbelievable. Everything's great, but if I had to pick one regret, it would be that if it were a dark night like in the video, it would've felt even more special…"
Those who ordered udon looked up at the sunlit sky with regret.
In the advertisement video, there was also a scene of Lanster II eating udon while gazing at the moonlit night.
Filming the bunsik advertisement video starring Lanster II alone consumed almost an entire day.
That meant they had to do night filming as well, and under the dark night sky, Lanster II held the bowl of udon with both hands, looked up at the moon, and then began eating the udon.
The sight of steam constantly rising from the bowl, and of him pushing his face into that steam and slurping the udon into his mouth, stirred an impulse to jump into the TV screen and eat udon right away.
And as if the advertisement were not exaggerated, everyone who chose udon kept devouring the noodles while exclaiming in admiration at the taste.
"Ugh, spicy. But it's tasty too, so I can't stop eating."
"More CoolXse, please! It's delicious, but it's hard to endure if we only eat tteokbokki!"
The third menu Jinseo brought out last was tteokbokki, recommended by the church knights who had escorted the food truck and guided it to the Holy Land.
Even though it was ordinary tteokbokki—not the special tteokbokki that Fedora Artran and the clergy of Kaysus Cathedral ate—they still struggled through it while enduring the spiciness.
"It's spicy, right? Should I bring out something else?"
"No! It isn't just spicy—it's delicious, so it's worth enduring!"
"Shouldn't we overcome this level of pain if we want to grant blessings as well? Like Cardinal Fedora."
One of the reasons they endured the spiciness was Fedora Artran, who appeared in the tteokbokki introduction video.
While Lanster II was the main character in nearly all of the bunsik advertisement videos, in the video introducing tteokbokki, Fedora Artran was the central figure.
In the video, she ate tteokbokki inside the church together with the clergy of Selphier Castle, and she showed herself granting blessings, leaving all who watched in admiration.
The advertisement's ending crowned it: after calming the heat in her mouth with CoolXse, she wiped the sweat from her forehead with her fingertips.
"Phew, thank you for the meal. We'll be on our way now!"
After eating their fill of the bunsik they liked among the three options, the church knights and soldiers returned to their lodgings inside the Holy Land.
"Huh? What is that?"
"It looks like they're selling food… is it okay to do that at the Holy Land entrance?"
Meanwhile, those coming out beyond the Holy Land entrance for duty discovered the food truck that hadn't been there before and cautiously approached.
Then the people who had been eating first waved them over and explained what had happened.
"Ah… so that's what it was. So this is the food truck—the one rumored to have been designated as a sacred relic of the Heirem Order."
"Brother, eat first. Then you will understand why it was designated a sacred relic."
The cycle repeated: those who had eaten bunsik recommended it to the newcomers, and those newcomers called in more people, until the front of the truck became crowded with church knights and soldiers.
While they ate bunsik, Jinseo played a new video on the large TV.
If it were somewhere else, he would have played a drama or movie, but the place the food truck was parked was none other than the entrance of the Holy Land.
So Jinseo played a video that would have no problems at all.
"Huh? There's no bunsik. What is this?"
"Wait… the people in that video are really short. Are they even human?"
"They look like that other race from another continent… dwarves, maybe?"
Instead of a bunsik advertisement, it was a video Jinseo had recorded with his smartphone of various scenes from this world since he arrived, and the eyes of those eating bunsik turned to the TV screen.
The homeland of the dwarves deep underground, the Ashred Continent.
The Crudian Continent, where vast plains stretched endlessly like Africa.
For them, who stayed in a solemn space, the scenery of the outside world on the large TV looked incredibly fascinating and interesting.
"It seems you just take the ball and put it into that rectangular frame over there."
"Looks fun. Just running after the ball like that could be training, too."
The soldiers who watched the soccer finals footage from this year's autumn festival reacted with interest and could not take their eyes off the screen.
Just watching the players running hard across the field made them imagine building a soccer field outside the Holy Land and running around.
"Mr. Jinseo, how long do you plan to stay in the Holy Land?"
"Who knows."
When a soldier asked Jinseo, who was going around collecting empty plates, Jinseo began folding down the fingers of his right hand one by one as he calculated the days.
"Once Fedora finishes her business, we plan to return right away, so it won't be long. At most, about a week."
"Is that so…."
At Jinseo's answer, the knights and soldiers who had learned the joy of bunsik for the first time today lowered their heads in disappointment.
"If we want to eat the bunsik we ate today a week from now, it'll be impossible unless we go directly to Falstead Castle."
"Probably. If it were up to me, I'd like to set up a branch here in the Holy Land too, like in the Girvante Kingdom, but I don't know if it'll work."
"Wait, you said there's a dwarf town next to Falstead Castle… there aren't any brothers and sisters dispatched to that parish yet, right?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. Probably. I'm not an insider so I don't know the details, but as far as I know, there aren't any priests dispatched to that area."
"Then…!"
At Jinseo's answer, the knights' eyes lit up all at once.
Because they found hope in the despair of never meeting bunsik again.
"Next year I'm supposed to be dispatched to another parish—Dwarf Town sounds good."
"Brother, didn't you say you would extend your service in the Holy Land by one more year?"
"Ahem, I don't recall saying that. We should yield the holy duty of remaining in the Holy Land to the brothers who come later. How could I keep it all to myself?"
For them, who had already fully enjoyed the honor of serving in the Holy Land, Dwarf Town lodged itself deep in their hearts as yet another holy place where they could savor the happiness called bunsik.
The soldiers, too, dreamed of days where they could eat bunsik every day like the knights, and while they watched the videos of other continents with full attention, Fedora returned to the food truck with other cardinals.
When five cardinals, including her, appeared at the Holy Land entrance, those who had been eating were startled and stood up all at once.
"Jinseo, we received permission for you to enter. I can only apologize for being late."
"It's fine. Many people were still eating, so it would've been fine even if you were later. But the people behind you are…"
The four men and women who looked to be in their forties to as old as their sixties wore vestments of the same style as Fedora, so Jinseo recognized at once that they were cardinals.
"Well, you see, our other brothers and sisters wanted to see the sacred relic food truck with their own eyes, and they also wanted to taste bunsik…"
The cardinals Fedora had brought all wore solemn expressions.
But when they looked at the bunsik the others were eating, they could not hide the way they smacked their lips, and a smile naturally rose at the corners of Jinseo's mouth.
"Everyone, you're cold, right? Come this way."
When Jinseo gestured to the counter seats and invited them to sit, the five of them, centered around Fedora, sat down in a line.
Fedora ladled Fish Cake Soup and shared it with the other cardinals sitting beside her, and while she did, Jinseo scooped tteokbokki and piled it onto plates.
"Hoh, this spiciness… it is very intense."
"The texture of this ingredient called tteok is unfamiliar, but it chews without strain, so it is satisfying."
"Happiness that can be savored within pain—Sister Fedora's expression fits perfectly."
On the way to the food truck, they had repeatedly heard Fedora's "bunsik praise," so their anticipation could only grow, and they wanted to taste it themselves and judge what it was like.
For them, tteokbokki left as intense a first impression as its color.
"This is udon and tteok dumpling soup. It's hot, so please eat slowly."
"Tteokbokki was a spicy dish, so I was hoping this would be less spicy… it isn't spicy at all?"
In contrast to the spicy tteokbokki, the cardinals' faces brightened as they encountered the two mild-flavored dishes.
"This dish called tteok dumpling soup uses the same ingredient as tteokbokki, and yet it presents a taste in a completely different realm. Truly fascinating."
"Eating this noodle dish with clear broth gives a comforting feeling. Warmth seeps deep into my chest…"
For the cardinals who had walked through the biting wind, what they needed more than anything was warmth.
In that sense, the steaming udon and tteok dumpling soup were the optimal foods.
"I now see clearly why Sister Fedora designated the food truck as a sacred relic. The taste is the taste, but it is not easy to find food that calms the heart—yet I never imagined I would encounter it like this."
"Hoo… heh… if it's food like this, I could eat it every day without burden."
Even as they wiped their running noses with a roll of toilet paper, they kept slurping up the udon noodles, enjoying the tightly packed dumpling filling, and spooning up the hot broth without stopping.
And even so, they did not forget to eat tteokbokki from time to time to enjoy the spicy stimulation.
"By the way, I haven't asked yet. How is His Holiness?"
At Fedora's question, the other cardinals, who had been enjoying bunsik so enthusiastically, darkened in expression.
"I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to make it past this year."
"Ah…."
"He is seventy this year, so it cannot be helped. His Holiness is humbly accepting that he will go to His side, but… it is regrettable."
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