Chapter 133: Since There Are So Many Festivals, Let's Combine Them (2) "That's really amazing. To be able to eat that much, that fast…"
Charles, sitting at the counter and eating gimbap, marveled at Craid's unrestrained eating.
The sight of him holding an uncut gimbap and chewing it down whole was bolder than any other participant.
And yet, the way he finished every time without leaving behind even a single grain of rice looked wondrous even to Jinseo.
"He looks like that, but he's actually eating more slowly than usual. Since it's a contest where you have to keep eating, he seems to be controlling his portions."
"Th-That much? Then isn't the winner basically already decided?"
"Who knows. There are always variables."
Jinseo studied one of the items on the spinning wheel that hadn't been selected yet.
"Anyway, let's keep watching."
Jinseo took out the pork he had marinated in gochujang seasoning to make the third event's selected menu, spicy pork rice bowl.
This time as well, Craid maintained first place while widening the gap overwhelmingly from the other contestants, and by the time even the fourth event was cleared, only three contestants remained, including Craid.
"The fifth event is… huh? Two contestants have forfeited! There's only one contestant left!"
Seeing two centaurs raise both hands, the host shouted loudly.
The menu chosen for the fourth event was ramen.
Unlike the previous events, where all the bunsik served had to be finished, the host announced to everyone that they could leave the broth.
But for Craid, ramen was bunsik where not even a drop of broth could be left behind.
After finishing the noodles and toppings of ten servings of ramen, he gathered all the remaining broth into a large basin.
Then he mixed in a generous amount of cold rice Jinseo handed him, and with extra pickled radish and fried kimchi he had brought as side dishes, he cleaned up the ramen without leaving a single drop of broth.
After seeing that, the other two contestants lost the will to fight him any longer.
That's like a scene from a manga with food fighters… but seeing it in real life feels even less real than a manga.
While the other contestants struggled just to finish the noodles, Craid calmly mixed rice into the ramen broth without a single change in expression—utterly unmatched.
"Searching for the strongest bunsik glutton! The very first champion is… Girvante's hero! The lone swordsman! Craid!"
At the host's shout calling his name, Craid set down his spoon and let out a short sigh.
"That's incredible!"
"Watching you eat never fails to amaze me."
"Thank you."
Craid stood up, thanked Charles and Angelica Crudian for their congratulations, then sat at the Food Truck's counter.
"Lord Craid, congratulations."
"Jinseo, if it's bunsik you made, this much is easy. But honestly, this win… I was lucky."
Craid tapped one of the wheel's menu slots with his finger.
"If it had landed on curry rice, the winner would've been one of those two centaurs who got eliminated at the end."
Curry rice—the menu item positioned just to the left of spicy pork rice bowl, which had been the third event.
Among the bunsik Jinseo had introduced, it was an especially divisive dish.
For him—someone who could finish at least ten servings of any food as long as it didn't taste bad—curry rice was still a dish in a realm he couldn't approach.
"Still, I'm hungry."
"I figured you would be, so I prepared this. There's no better menu than this for a beer party, right?"
When Jinseo set out Half-and-Half MuMani and pizza, a smile spread across Craid's face, which had been expressionless throughout the contest.
"Good work! Here, take this!"
At some point, Geshtain dropped into the seat beside Craid, set down a cold beer mug beaded with condensation, and filled it to the brim with dwarf-made beer.
Gulp, gulp.
After emptying the mug in an instant, Craid casually finished three servings of Half-and-Half MuMani and three pizzas in one sitting.
In the meantime, Charles and Angelica Crudian left to look around Dwarf Town.
Geshtain stepped away as well to guide them, and instead Lawrence, a restaurateur from the Girvante Kingdom, sat to his left.
"It's only the first day of the festival, yet dishes I've never seen before keep appearing."
"Most of the menu items are things I've already introduced."
"As someone in the food business, they're all menus I'd like to learn. I'm truly envious that you've been able to enjoy these dishes to your heart's content for so long, young master."
Lawrence took a huge bite out of the new menu item the Food Truck revealed for the first time today: an American-style hot dog.
"You said the yellow sauce inside is mustard sauce, right? It cuts the greasiness of the sausage, so it seems like an exquisite choice."
"That was my first time tasting it today too, and I really liked it."
"Looking over the Food Truck, it seems there's a great deal to learn in other areas as well. It would've been even better if we could've enjoyed the bunsik here together with Mr. Greg."
At the mention of his father's name, Craid froze for a moment.
Holding a slice of pizza, he fell into thought, then resumed eating with a complicated expression.
"…When did you say Father would arrive?"
"Probably before the festival ends."
"I see."
As Jinseo made hot dogs, he listened to their conversation.
From conversation alone, it was hard to tell whether Craid and his father were on good terms or not.
Separately from that, Jinseo did want to meet Craid's father at least once.
He wanted to know what kind of man could run as many as one hundred restaurants in the Girvante Kingdom, famous as the Nation of Cuisine.
If things go well, he could help spread bunsik more widely. It also seems like the ways to gain mileage and experience for the Mobile Cooking Facility could increase. But that man… he eats surprisingly well.
Because Craid, right beside him, had such an extreme appetite that it drew attention away, it didn't stand out as much, but Lawrence had already finished four American-style hot dogs.
The two of them focused on enjoying bunsik and the dishes without speaking, and by the time Lawrence ate eight American-style hot dogs, Craid had finished six servings of Half-and-Half MuMani and six pizzas.
"You still eat well, Uncle Lawrence."
"Compared to you, young master, it's nothing."
"I think I've filled my stomach to a reasonable extent. For a palate cleanser…"
While Craid stared at the menu board, debating whether to choose kimchi fried rice or omurice, Charles returned to the Food Truck with Angelica Crudian.
With slightly deflated expressions.
"Your Highness, did you enjoy looking around?"
"Well, there were so many people that I couldn't really look around properly."
Charles looked toward the crowded streets with regret.
Of course, as a prince, there was the option of forcing a path open with his escort knights, but Charles refused, saying he couldn't inconvenience the visitors.
"Then how about riding the Food Truck and moving with us? In a bit, we're going to leave here and do business while touring around Dwarf Town."
"Really?"
"Yes. You can stay inside the Additional Trailer."
The moment Jinseo gave permission, Charles ran to the back door of the Additional Trailer and dove straight onto the lower bunk of the bunk bed.
"So this is…"
"The inside of the Food Truck, the sacred relic of the Heirem Order…"
The three escort knights who entered the Additional Trailer behind Charles made the sign of the cross with solemn expressions.
To Jinseo, it was an extremely modern interior layout, but to those seeing it for the first time, it was received as sacred in a different sense.
While the beer party was in full swing in Dwarf Town, inside Falstead Castle—home to the autumn festival's main stage—various events were being held throughout.
"A winner has been decided! The inaugural champion of the First Rubik's Cube Tournament is… Julien!"
With the host's booming announcement, countless balloons rose up into the sky.
"Ah… I lost."
Mary, a mage from the Doren Mage Tower who missed victory by a hair's breadth, lowered her head with a sigh.
Two hours earlier, she had achieved a second consecutive championship in the Jenga tournament.
Riding that momentum, she aimed to dominate yet another game tournament—the Rubik's Cube tournament—and become a double champion.
However, her ambition was crushed by an unexpected participant: Julien.
"Mary, I'm sorry."
Julien, clutching the winner's prize in his left hand, patted Mary's back with his right.
Originally, Julien had planned to simply watch before the tournament began, but he decided to participate at the last moment because he wanted to obtain the winner's prize no matter what.
That prize was none other than one of the treasures Dragon Charlotte had personally taken out of her lair: a square box no bigger than the palm of a hand.
What was inside was kept strictly secret, and a spell had been placed on it so it would open on its own on the day the festival ended.
The reason the prize's identity was hidden so tightly was surprisingly simple.
"Jinseo says doing it like this makes it more interesting. In the world he lives in, what was it called again… a random box?"
Charlotte had spread to the Francia Continent the wicked culture Jinseo described—one that began in Korea's game industry.
Still, since it was an item taken from a dragon's lair, its minimum value was guaranteed.
With anticipation for what might be inside, Julien stepped down from the platform.
Bang! Ba-bang!
"Julien! Congratulations on winning the Rubik's Cube tournament! Win again next year and go for a two-peat!"
Dragon Charlotte, floating overhead, decorated the tournament venue with dazzling "fireworks magic" to celebrate Julien's victory.
Inspired by the fireworks he had shown her through a festival video on the large TV, she created the spell in a short time—reproducing not only the visual display, but even the explosion sounds through magic.
She even went further: whenever she cast fireworks magic, she used another spell to block out the light and plunge the entire Falstead Castle area into darkness.
In this way, she repeatedly went to event sites to congratulate the winner, then moved on to somewhere else again.
"Hm… the fireworks still need to be more splendid. It's not enough yet. Next year I'll come with a more complete spell, so don't be too disappointed!"
When Painfolt Artran, who had handled the magic show until last year's festival, skipped this year for research, Charlotte took over that role.
But wanting to participate even more actively, she cast fireworks magic everywhere, repeatedly switching between day and night across the Falstead Castle area.
"Huh… is it already time? You little creatures! I'm going to watch the soccer finals first! See you later!"
At her shout, the adults nodded in a daze, while children who didn't know a dragon's fear waved brightly, smiling.
"Wait… I see some wicked little creatures over there?"
With such a huge crowd, it was only natural for those looking to commit crimes to appear.
The moment her vertical pupils narrowed, screams suddenly erupted from within the crowd.
"Eek!"
"Aaah!"
Ten men in total floated up into the air, bound by sparkling ropes.
"You sunglass-wearing little creatures, go grab those guys. They're pickpockets."
At her order, the mercenaries monitoring the area hurriedly pushed through the crowd to move.
"That's not all of them. I can see all suspicious fellows with my eyes, so for now, behave yourselves quietly while eating bunsik. You understand what I mean, right?"
At her words, those who had been moving suspiciously flinched and froze.
"And for the record, anyone who does wicked things near the Food Truck—I'll personally send them to the holy land of the Heirem Order. I don't remember clearly right now, but the inquisitors I saw before I fell asleep were quite ill-tempered. Do you understand what that means?"
When she warned them again, even tourists who hadn't committed any crimes nodded.
"Oh, right! Congratulations on being imprisoned, you wicked little creatures! During the festival, they'll serve seolleongtang as a special meal, so enjoy it!"
Bang! Ba-bang!
Once again, Charlotte's fireworks magic shone brightly across the darkened sky.
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