Chapter 39: Artificial Demons And Natural Demons (2)
Morning came.
I spent the night drinking and conversing with Brewer and greeted the new morning.
If anyone was spying on this place, the natural occurrence after a man and woman spent the night together-
Didn’t happen.
“Are you awake? Want some chicken?”
“Chicken in the morning?”
“Originally, it’s a rule to eat cold marinated chicken in the morning.”
“No thanks. Make some ramen.”
“Goblin, you’re quite humble. Just ramen on a Sunday morning.”
“Then serve me some hot rice soup.”
“I’m good at that.”
Brewer took out two instant rice soup packs from the refrigerator
“Oh, you’ve seen it. The secret of my rice soup. You’re not the type to only eat broth boiled from bone marrow, right?”
“I’m not picky. Is there anything I can help with?”
“No, just sit. I’ll prepare the meal.”
“Please do.”
I sat at the kitchen table and scanned through the events of the night on the Taegeuk Watch.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
It was an everyday occurrence for Villains to wreak havoc worldwide. The stories were filled with how many people were saved by the mobilized heroes and how humans must strive today for the powered and the powerless to live in harmony.
The troubling part was that despite a lab being flooded overnight, there was no mention of it.
Of course, that was to be expected.
If it were something everyone would know to the extent of being reported in the media, then they wouldn’t have built an underground chamber dozens of meters beneath Sejong Island- come to think of it, it was almost 100 meters deep.
“Ah, I found it.”
“What?”
“The news of flooding in Eden district.”
The news didn’t cover it, but the social media platforms where people posted their everyday lives were filled with stories of seawater briefly backing up in the Eden district’s sewage system overnight.
“It was resolved in the early morning, so everyone is not bothered.”
“So, what happens? Nobody knows forever?”
“Well. One could put on a diving suit and go down to the building to see the situation inside directly, or you could mobilize a superhuman to drain the seawater somewhere else and explore the underground.”
The methods were countless.
Human imagination was infinite, and humans would always find a solution in the face of difficulties.
“Later, investigate the people who frequent that place. Ah, of course. If you think you’ll get caught, don’t investigate.”
“That’s obvious. As long as I don’t fall into the hands of a traitor within the organization, I can avoid getting caught by anyone.”
Clang.
A clay pot was placed in front of me.
“During the Japanese colonial era, many brewers secretly sheltered independence activists or helped them eat without getting caught. I’m one of those brewers now. That’s what I’m saying.”
“A foreigner saying that.”
“That’s harsh. If I live in Korea, speak Korean, and have Korean citizenship, am I not Korean?”
“Since you don’t look Korean, it’s a bit odd.”
Every time I saw a foreigner feeling proud to be Korean, I always felt like this world was really another world - like in a light novel.
A foreigner, after drinking, served hot rice soup in a clay pot, even if it was instant?
“Ah, I made the kkakdugi. Want to try it?”
“…….”
“Why?”
“You can even make kkakdugi?”
“Of course.”
With an expression as if asking why I was questioning something so obvious, Brewer served the kkakdugi in separate dishes.
“Why two?”
“I put it in two separate dishes to make it easier to pour the soup.”
As soon as Brewer sat down, she poured the kkakdugi soup into her rice soup.
“…….”
“Why?”
“No. It’s just.”
Just in case, I asked.
“Do you have perilla powder?”
“If you add perilla powder, it takes longer for the alcohol to wear off.”
“……..”
“Was that not funny…? That’s weird. Everyone usually laughs.”
“Don’t you know? If you eat it with perilla powder, it really takes longer for the alcohol to wear off.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. So, do you have perilla powder?”
“Yes, I do.”
Clang.
She reached forward with a clay dish from the table as if it were natural.
“Here.”
“…….”
A world where a red-haired foreigner not only cooked rice soup in a clay pot and made her own kkakdugi but also had a dish of perilla powder on the table?
‘I don’t know.’
What’s good was good.
I poured perilla powder into my rice soup and completed the breakfast with the rice soup prepared by Brewer.
The work ended faster than I thought.
The task I thought would take a full day was completed overnight, so I was truly enjoying my weekend.
‘I might feel a bit sorry for Yumir?’
If I knew the work would finish this early, I would have arranged to eat together with her over the weekend.
Of course, if I had made an appointment in advance, there might have been a chance that I couldn’t focus on my original task, but now that everything went smoothly, I regretted it a little.
There were still restaurants I hadn’t been to yet.
Places where I could taste various cuisines from around the world.
‘Even if it’s Sejong Island, there are Japanese restaurants, Chinese restaurants, and even Indian specialty stores.’
As the Republic of Korea became the leading country in the world, many Korean restaurants spread all over the world.
The problem was that these Korean restaurants were scattered not only worldwide but also all over Korea.
[Oh, a Korean pasta house! It looks great! But we came to eat gukbap.]
[Is this Kimcheon Gukbap, where you can taste Korean food anywhere in Korea? It’s amazing. I can eat various Korean menus at a price cheaper than 10 dollars.]
[Who comes to Korea to eat pizza and pasta. With that money, go to a worker’s restaurant, eat bulbaek with lettuce wraps, and finish with a hot mixed coffee.]
Foreign tourists started visiting and traveling all over the country in numbers beyond counting.
In reality, they were people looking for a place to sneak into Korea, stay illegally, or somehow marry a Korean and immigrate to live in Korea.
[Whatever the purpose, self-employed people don’t discriminate against customers!]
[Ah, everyone. Let’s not rip off foreigners. Instead of ripping them off for temporary business, create good memories so they visit again in 10 to 20 years. We are dignified Koreans of the world’s best country, right?]
[What?! In addition to dipping octopus in ultra-hot pepper paste, you chew sweet and sour pollack? Boy, even though you have a foreign nose, your tongue is already Korean!]
Regardless of their purpose in coming to Korea, most of the bosses in Korea’s numerous food and beverage industries welcomed foreigners with broad smiles.
Most of them did, anyway.
[I went all the way to France to study cooking abroad…]
[You prefer pork belly with soju over steak? No, I know! I know that, but I want to sell steak!]
[Is it true that there are more Rice Burger restaurants than Burger Queen stores.]
Western and Japanese cuisine, except for Korean, were devastated.
They sought various ways to survive, but after the story spread that a restaurant selling ssambap attracted many foreigners, making a daily turnover of 50 million won for three consecutive months, everyone started opening Korean restaurants.
Thanks to that, I had to go through a slightly sad experience for the past six months.
“There are more rice cake shops than bakeries.”
Rice cake shops were replacing where London Baguette should be, and traditional Korean confectionery stores were appearing where Tous les Jours should be.
Over the past six months, while living as a villain, I had to eat Korean set meals, not Chinese or Japanese cuisine, whenever I had to entertain people.
The highlight was the trip I took with the executives of Gyeolsa and the boss, six of us in total.
[Let’s try silkie chicken soup!]
[Eh? Chairman, are you serious?]
[Korean silkie chicken soup! Who’s in favor? Raise your hand!]
[It seems Manager Do doesn’t like chicken.]
[What? Are you dissing me now?]
[Manager. Don’t you like silkie chicken soup? What should we do? Chairman?]
[Ah, no, I’ll eat it.]
…I never imagined that I would end up eating silkie chicken soup while going to a workshop in a valley with five women.
‘I don’t mind eating Korean food once or twice, but I want to try something else if I eat it every day.’
You couldn’t always eat kimchi, vegetables, and meat.
Searching for the few remaining non-Korean restaurants in the peninsula was really difficult.
But here, on Sejong Island, it was different.
‘Is this the street of globalization?’
In one area of the restaurant district on Sejong Island, which was formed for foreigners visiting Sejong Island, the flags representing each country fluttered at each restaurant.
It felt as if I was looking at the flags of all nations.
Seeing the flags from all over the world, I naturally started to wonder which restaurant to enter and what to eat.
It was like the feeling of having several masterpiece novels and wondering what to start reading.
As all the restaurant owners were at least first-class, star chef level in their countries, the quality of the food was fully guaranteed.
‘If I’ve been eating kimchi and bibimbap for a week, I should be able to eat out for a day on the weekend.’
Literally, eating outside.
As I pondered where to go, someone was approaching me from afar.
“……?”
“What are you doing here, teacher?”
“…Student Iseon?”
I met a pink-haired girl in casual clothes, Yoon Iseon.
“Did you come to eat lunch by any chance? …Alone?”
Ah.
“Hmm. Then… Would you like to eat with me?”
Yoon Iseon stretched her hand to me with a playful face.
“Buy me a meal, oppa.”
“……A teacher can’t refuse a student’s request.”
Never.
It was not because I was called ‘oppa’!
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