49 – Cooking
“Thank you so much, Nari.”
Sila, who walks next to me, keeps lowering her head as she walks.
When I lowered her head like that while walking, she lost her balance and stumbled.
“Oh my. Be careful.”
She catches her quickly.
Perhaps because she doesn’t eat properly, her body feels more bony than the softness of a girl her age.
“Okay, thank you.”
She glances at her and blushes her cheeks.
Put it upright and start walking again.
The destination is the village chief’s house.
Sheila finished her tearful reunion with her father, who came to his senses while I spooned her soup.
After that, when I said I wanted to rest a bit, she recommended the village chief’s house.
“There is a guest room in the village chief’s house.”
Sila’s house was a single room and had only one bed.
It seems like he usually shares the same bed with his father.
I couldn’t let my father, who had just come to his senses, get out of the way, so I recommended another home.
After a while, even after leaving her house and walking down the street, Silas continued to bow her head to me, thanking me for saving her father.
I hesitated a little about whether I should tell her the truth, but I could not in good conscience hide it from her.
“Your father’s illness is not completely cured. The healing potion only restores physical strength.”
“Hey, healing potion!”
Shyla suddenly stood tall in her place and shouted.
“Hmm?”
When I stopped at her strange behavior and expressed her doubts, Silas suddenly fell flat on her face.
“Well, that’s really expensive. I don’t know how to pay it back…”
Of course, the healing potion was expensive.
It is more expensive than a magic potion.
This is because the base material is holy water blessed by a priest.
Of course, it is diluted and used, but priest labor is very expensive due to its scarcity.
‘Now that I think about it, my sense of money has become a bit strange.’
If I had been myself at the time, living in a studio with a meager salary in Korea, I would not have been able to use hundreds of thousands of won worth of consumables so easily.
The financial sense of the nobles I lived with was beyond the imagination of the common people.
But even if that wasn’t the case, I wasn’t the kind of person who could easily turn a blind eye when someone was about to die right in front of my eyes.
There is no particular emotional disturbance, whether from afar, overseas refugees are starving to death, or when news is heard in the media that an unknown person has been involved in a car accident.
‘Oh, you pity me.’
I just say things out of habit without much sentiment.
But it is difficult to ignore a stranger dying right in front of you.
Humans are such beings. In a way, it could be said to be selfish.
That’s why I deliberately joked in a humorous way.
“Then why don’t you marry him later?”
After I said it, I regretted it because I felt it was low-level s*xual harassment.
But Silas suddenly got up and had a determined expression on his face.
“Ah, I understand! Although I am lacking a lot, I will become a daughter-in-law worthy of the Riddle family!”
‘Huh? Daryl what?’
She had little magical power in her, so she had forgotten about it, but this world was a world where men and women were reversed.
If you ask someone to come to a poetry collection, they will usually think that.
I looked at her with a twinkle in her eye and decided to just let her go.
‘I won’t be here for long anyway, and I’ll soon forget it if it disappears after a while.’
Anyway, I am a traveler who passes by like the wind. She will remain as just a blurry memory in the corner of her memory.
After walking a little further, we came to the center of the village where a few houses were gathered together.
“This is crazy…”
The appearance of the village was absolutely miserable.
The sound of wailing could be heard from inside the house, and people who appeared to be corpses were strewn about outside the house.
Something tried to come up, but I held it back.
“Ah, ah….”
– Shake it off.
Beside her, Silas sank to her knees, helpless, on the floor.
I guess she didn’t know that even the center of the village had become a mystery.
Sila, who had been looking at the father in confusion for a while, turned her head to me.
“Get out of town, Lord Riddle.”
She has a stern expression and speaks to me in a serious voice, in a semi-commanding tone.
I was so taken aback by her sudden dignity that I couldn’t even reply to her.
“There’s no need for you to get sick. Hurry up and leave.”
Her suddenly changed tone of voice and mood seemed like that of an aristocrat.
‘There’s something wrong with this kid…’
But she couldn’t follow her words.
It’s not like there’s anything wrong with me staying, but I felt like if I left now, I’d have regrets later.
‘If you get caught, there’s an elixir.’
Still, I have a fortress.
At least my life can be saved.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh?!”
Sheila opens her eyes and looks up at me.
“Where is the village chief’s house?”
———————————-
“Lord! They say someone you’ve never seen before has appeared in the village!”
As the old man made a fuss and reported, even Baek Luau, who had been calm until now, was surprised and his eyes, buried in his skin, widened.
“What? What did the guards who were watching do?”
“This is what the guards reported! They say it seems to have come down from the forest!”
Count Luau raised an eyebrow as if asking what nonsense he was saying.
“You crossed that monster forest? Does that make sense?”
A small forest on the path leading from the northern wilderness to Margin Baekryeong.
However, it is known that quite a variety of monsters live in that forest.
In fact, sometimes children who enter the forest without realizing it go missing, or some residents are killed by monsters that come out of the forest.
Recently, it seems like a guy called Red Bear is causing trouble.
The appeal of Riku Village was so severe that three guards were reluctantly sent, but they also failed to return.
How many people on this continent can cross such a place by themselves?
“Are you an adventurer?”
For someone with that level of military power, the only ones that come to mind are nobles or Mohe.
But there is no way a noble would visit such a village alone, and I can only assume that the adventurer came for some reason.
There is a chance that he was lucky and did not encounter a monster, but the Margrave’s intuition is telling him not to let down his guard.
“Who the hell is this?… First, tell them to keep a close watch.”
After the old man left, Count Luau sank deep into his chair and bit his lip nervously.
“Are you sent by the Empire to make sure things are going well? Or…”
If it is a secret audit sent from the principality, it is very dangerous.
If you do something wrong, you could be accused of treason and executed.
The target of Margrave’s murder is,
Siluano van Podera, 1st princess of the empire.
An unfortunate princess who was defeated in the imperial political struggle and exiled to Riek Village, on the outskirts of the principality.
The current Crown Princess became the second princess, and her faction secretly requested this matter.
A world of cruel power that goes beyond sending people into exile and tries to completely eradicate any potential conflict.
If you are discovered, you will be eliminated by cutting off your tail.
“You can’t do that… You can’t do that…”
The lip flesh that was chewed between yellow teeth bursts and blood flows out.
The Margrave seemed to have made up his mind and opened the drawer vigorously.
Then, he picked up one of the several bottles of potion inside, opened the cap, and drank it vigorously.
“Sseu-eup… Is there anything I can do if the lord himself goes and arrests illegal immigrants?”
I drank one of the infection immunity potions I received from the Empire and touched my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Even if you’re the auditor of the principality, if you want to refuse the lord’s order, you’ll have to reveal your identity. This is just a trick. hehehehe.”
From Noble mtl dot com
The Margrave left the office with a pounding gait, carrying his heavy body.
————————————————–
-Blubber~
The noise of a large iron pot being placed on the floor.
“Is this okay?”
An older woman whose wrinkles are just beginning to appear on her face puts down her pot handle and asks me.
She is the chief of Riku Village. It is said that her mother, the former chief, fell ill from an infectious disease, so she unexpectedly inherited the position of chief.
I answered satisfactorily.
“Yes, it’s good.”
The pot was so large that it almost reminded me of the soup pot in the cafeteria.
Enough to make soup for 100 people.
It is said that it was originally an item used only at village feasts. Because of this, some dust had accumulated.
“I’d like to use the kitchen.”
“Yes, yes….”
The village chief bowed down to me without saying anything.
It was worth it because I also saved her mother, the former village chief, using a healing potion.
I moved to the kitchen and rolled up my sleeves.
“Let’s take a shower first.”
I adjusted the water creation magic to an appropriate amount and first washed off the dust in the pot.
After that, I filled the pot with enough water to make about 80 servings of soup.
Put it in the furnace and light a fire.
“There is enough firewood.”
What I’m trying to make right now is beef gomtang, but I don’t have time to leisurely simmer it for hours.
“You should only serve a moderate amount of soup.”
To take out the main ingredients,
“Baekdol.”
Calling Baekdori, he takes out a generous amount of buffalo meat.
The blood is chunks of meat that have been processed in advance.
Roughly dice it into bite-sized pieces and throw it into the pot.
Taste the seasoning and add an appropriate amount of salt.
The most important ingredient.
“I’d be sad if this fell out.”
Leek is said to be in a sack in every house in this village.
Green onion in Korean.
It’s a bit big, though.
At first, I thought about slicing it thinly, but there was a lot of food and I didn’t have time.
Chop it into chunks that fit into one bite.
-Bubble Bubble…
Time passes, and the soup is boiling smoothly.
“After all, gomtang is good for rejuvenation.”
As I was removing the rising bubbles, I felt eyes on my back.
When I turned around, I saw that the villagers were gathered at the entrance to the kitchen, watching me cook.
Everyone was licking their throats.