Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chapter 24 Coffeehouse Ramen (1)

The idea of using a Dragon Pearl discarded for ascension was, ultimately, only an option born from my own suspicions.

The best way to give Lia's body a soul without harming anyone.

Even after confirming through the National Intelligence Service the strange phenomena that had occurred within just a year of the waterspout, I had proceeded with the utmost caution.

But things in this world rarely go according to plan.

I had even considered the worst possible scenario, yet something beyond the worst had appeared before me.

"Elder, who is this person?"

"You brat, it's been so long since I last visited. Would it give you a sore tongue to greet me first? Who else would it be? It's the Dragon Pearl."

No matter how I looked at him, he was not a Dragon Pearl. In the first place, he wasn't even an object.

His face was badly battered and swollen, and his clothes were little more than rags, but he was unmistakably something resembling a human being(?).

My head was beginning to throb.

"Elder. What age do you think we're living in? How could you beat someone up and abduct them? No, a monster?"

"I'm telling you, that's not what happened! If I had dragged him here against his will, I would have bound him with iron chains!"

"Fox Grandpa!"

"Oh, there you are. After such a long absence, you're far better than that fellow who starts scolding me before even saying hello."

With Lia throwing herself straight into his arms, further questioning became difficult.

"It's cold outside, so please come in for now. It looks like you'll need a change of clothes too."

"Thank... you."

Without even giving a nod, the young man snatched the clothes I offered him and headed into the bathroom.

Open hostility.

I could tell what had happened between them without needing anyone to explain it.

After sending the young man to the bathroom, I quickly called the Elder over and sat him down.

"Didn't you clearly say you'd persuade him with words?"

"I did."

"Then what happened to him?"

"It was a situation words could not resolve. You saw him yourself, did you not? Even if he lacks manners, the way he speaks is simply outrageous. Tsk! He's so much younger than I am, yet he has no respect for his elders."

"You beat him to a pulp and still expect him to treat you with respect? Good grief, I should have sent Sani instead."

Truthfully, the Elder beating up the Imugi had been within my expectations.

He disliked taking troublesome detours, so I had suspected that if words failed, he might resort to force.

My mistake had been assuming that if the result was the ascension the Imugi desired so desperately, taking a few blows would be nothing worth worrying about.

But to think he would personally bring the very person he had beaten to a pulp all the way here!

This went far beyond even the worst scenario I had imagined.

"Where are you going in the middle of our conversation?"

"It's dinnertime. What's happened has happened, and we still need to eat."

"I want to help!"

"No. It's dangerous, so Lia should stay seated."

Besides, the dish I was about to make was not one that benefited from having more hands.

Because I had to follow the recipe precisely.

For the first time in a while, I opened the recipe notebook on the shelf.

『Ramen

1. One bucket of water, boil hard on high heat

2. Noodles + powder + egg (break the yolk) + a pinch of MSG, 5 minutes

3. Green onion + onion + carrot, 2 minutes』

This was the so-called coffeehouse ramen.

I had only learned that coffeehouses sold ramen after taking over this place.

I had wondered why a kitchen without even a coffee bean machine had three large commercial burners of the sort used in restaurants, and it turned out they were for making this ramen.

Even the cooking method was quite different from ordinary ramen.

Although the international standard was four minutes in boiling water, this recipe called for a lengthy seven minutes, nearly twice as long.

The pots used to cook the ramen were also so large that only four could barely fit on the burners at once.

It was obvious that following the recipe would turn the noodles into something like porridge.

But that was fine. Coffeehouse ramen was originally that kind of dish.

And not a single dish I had prepared according to this notebook's recipes had tasted bad so far.

There were four people eating, so the burners were more than sufficient.

-Click, click, click. Whoosh.

I lit the burners with a gas lighter and placed the pots on them one by one.

And so, another simple, comforting dish began taking shape in the old kitchen.

___________

While Jinseong was in the kitchen, Yongman came downstairs after changing clothes on the second floor.

"You're back. Now you look somewhat human. Come and sit here."

The nine-tailed fox called Yongman, who was standing awkwardly, over to sit beside him.

"He has gone to prepare dinner, so wait a little. I'll step outside for a smoke. What kind of country is this, where a man cannot even smoke properly in a teahouse? Good grief, tsk."

Only after the nine-tailed fox took his long tobacco pipe and went outside the coffeehouse could Yongman finally relax the tension that had kept his body rigid.

'Damn it. I knew I should've just run away. Why did I let myself get tempted?'

"Mister, what's that?"

"Whoa! How long have you been there?"

Yongman had turned on his phone and was logging into his game when Lia, who had somehow sat down beside him and was watching the screen, startled him with her question.

"Hero's... Path? Hero's Path! Right?"

"You know this game?"

"No. It's my first time seeing it."

"What? Then why were you so excited?"

"I just read it out loud. Hehe."

'What a silly kid.'

Yongman's eyes had briefly brightened at the possibility that the child might know Hero's Path, but he soon returned his attention to the phone screen.

However, the child who had discovered a new toy(?) was not someone he could ignore so easily.

"Wow! The wings are golden!"

"..."

(Shiiiiing.)

"The sword is glowing gold too!"

"You can only get this from an Ancient Dungeon raid."

"An Ancient Dungeon?"

"Yeah."

"Where's the Ancient Dungeon?"

"It's a dungeon you can only enter after reaching the maximum level and transcending."

Was it because someone had finally shown an interest in the game he played? Yongman, who had consistently ignored her, gradually began answering more and more often.

The terms were completely incomprehensible to Lia, who had never played the game, but he seemed so excited that his voice grew progressively louder and faster.

"Hero's Path is different from other mobile games. It has an incredible amount of freedom, and as for spending real money, all you really need to buy is this mount pet."

"Huh? Sani's here too!"

"Hm? This is just a basic pet. Its stats are terrible, and you can't even ride it."

"I want to see this one!"

"Good grief, wait a second. I have to go back to town to bring this one out."

"Is the town far away?"

"I can get there quickly with a Return Stone."

With a single touch, the dungeon swarming with enormous monsters changed into a peaceful village.

"Here, this is it."

Yongman enlarged the pet wandering around his character's feet and handed Lia the phone so she could see it clearly.

"It looks exactly like Sani!"

"Who's Sani?"

"My friend! Sani is my only friend."

Strictly speaking, the pet on the screen was not even a raccoon dog, the animal called Sani.

It was a Jindo dog with a slightly bushy tail.

But because the game was so old and Yongman's phone was an outdated model that could barely run it, Lia had mistaken it for a raccoon dog despite the difference in species.

"Can I show Mister?"

"Huh? Uh, sure."

"Mister! Sani's inside the phone!"

Having received permission almost by accident, Lia grabbed the phone and dashed into the kitchen.

Finally left alone, Yongman had a chance to look around the coffeehouse.

'He looks twenty-something at most, so why is his café so old? Did he inherit it?'

The newest item in the place seemed to be this year's calendar.

No matter where he looked, all he could see were furnishings polished smooth by years of use and radios or ornaments that looked as though they might fall apart if touched.

Then his indifferent gaze wandered around before stopping at the large doghouse outside the window.

The name Sani was written crookedly on the doghouse. It looked as though the child had written it.

But the doghouse was empty.

'So they used to have a dog.'

Only then did Yongman understand why Lia had been so delighted to see the Jindo dog pet.

After all, a dog's lifespan was nothing compared to a human's.

Since she had greeted the sight with happiness rather than sadness, the adults must have told the child, who knew nothing of death, that her dog had simply gone somewhere far away for a while.

-Rattle, rattle.

While Yongman was collecting himself from that pitiful thought, Jinseong appeared with Lia, pushing an old serving trolley.

"Where did the Elder go?"

"Pardon? Ah! H-He went out for a smoke..."

"Elder! Dinner's ready! Please come inside!"

At Jinseong's shout, the nine-tailed fox's figure vanished for an instant and reappeared inside the coffeehouse.

"Hey! You'll get dust in the food. How many times do I have to tell you that mystical arts are forbidden inside the coffeehouse? Last time, you didn't even clean up the fallen leaves and just swept them into a corner. Do you know how much trouble the Director and I had because of that?"

"I've committed a mortal sin, you brat. Honestly, you never miss a chance to nag."

Amid their bickering, a bowl of appetizing ramen was placed before each person at the table.

"I prepared this in a hurry, so there isn't much. I hope it suits your taste."

"Not at all. Thank you for the meal."

'And here I thought he was making something special.'

It was ramen.

Just ordinary ramen in a stainless-steel bowl, with generous portions of cold leftover rice and kimchi served together on a tray.

Worse still, perhaps because he had misjudged the cooking time, the noodles were visibly bloated from being overcooked.

To Yongman, who considered himself a ramen expert because of his unstable employment, the sight was almost laughable.

'Still, I should at least taste it out of courtesy.'

-Slurp.

'...Huh? What is this taste?'

"Heh heh, it seems to suit your taste. Strangely enough, everything that fellow cooks somehow turns out rather good."

"That's right! Sani has to eat too!"

"Hm? How is Sani supposed to eat?"

"Like this!"

Lia propped up Yongman's phone, with the pet still enlarged on its screen, and served some of her ramen onto a plate.

"Now Sani can eat too."

"I-Is that so?"

For quite some time, silence settled over the peculiar table, where a properly prepared meal and something resembling a memorial offering had been laid out together. Only the occasional sound of slurping could be heard.

'I should've given him the mild version.'

Jinseong quickly noticed that Yongman's eyes were becoming unusually moist as he kept glancing at Lia, but simply assumed that he was not good at eating spicy food.

____________

"Every time I visit the Blue House, I feel like I've aged another ten years. Good grief, I'm parched."

"You worked hard, Director."

"Yes, yes. You too, Deputy Director Choi."

Having returned to his office and collapsed onto the sofa, National Intelligence Service Director Oh Taesu loosened the tie that had been constricting his neck.

"What do you think? It seemed to go over well, didn't it?"

"Yes. He was a little surprised, but he didn't say anything in particular, did he?"

"Exactly. Anyway, that's one less thing to worry about."

After all, what he himself knew was not substantially different from what had been written in the documents he had submitted for approval. If he had been questioned about every little detail, it would have been a genuine disaster.

Fortunately, nothing of the sort had happened.

"Now that you've resolved such a major matter, perhaps you should head out to the golf course this weekend."

"Of course. I barely managed to buy that membership while keeping an eye on my wife's mood. Can't just let it go to waste, can I? Haha."

At Deputy Director Choi's flattering suggestion, Oh Taesu picked up the golf club leaning beside the sofa and stood before the putting mat.

"As I get older, I just can't get this right. They tell me to relax every muscle in my body, but that's easier said than done."

Just as he assumed his stance and prepared to swing,

-Bzzzz.

Deputy Director Choi's phone rang.

"Answer it here. Why stand on ceremony over something like that?"

"Thank you."

Oh Taesu stopped Deputy Director Choi, who had been making a fuss about stepping outside with his ringing phone.

"Hello? Oh, Director Baek. What's the matter? W-What did you say?"

"What is it?"

Oh Taesu impatiently demanded to know what was being said from Deputy Director Choi, whose mouth was opening and closing like a fish.

"D-Director, apparently another monster has just arrived at that coffeehouse. This time, it's an Imugi!"

At the shocking news, all the strength drained from National Intelligence Service Director Oh Taesu's body, and the golf club slipped from his hands, striking the ball.

-Tap. Roll, roll.

And at that moment, the ball that had stubbornly refused to go in finally rolled into the hole for the first time in ages.