Bright sunlight poured down onto the ground beneath a clear blue sky.
"The weather's really nice, but..." Getting out of the food truck, Jinseo opened the water container he was holding and tilted it. "Hoo… I can finally breathe."
Only after splashing water on his face several times did his mind clear, yet everything he saw, heard, and felt was far removed from reality.
"Where on earth is this?" Jinseo raised the edge of his hand to his brow and looked around. "The navigation doesn't work; my phone has no signal… honestly."
Clicking his tongue, he recalled what had happened a few hours earlier.
The sudden darkness while driving on the highway.
And the intense light that engulfed the food truck.
Caught in an unexpected situation, Jinseo had barely managed to stop the food truck before losing consciousness.
When he woke up and opened his eyes again, what greeted him was a place he had never seen in his life.
Standing inside the food truck on a vast plain, Jinseo rubbed his eyes again and again.
Thinking this time his eyes really must be wrong, he looked around carefully, but nothing changed.
With no other choice, he drove the food truck again, only to be shocked once more as he passed along a road cutting through a forest.
Monsters straight out of movies or novels suddenly leapt out from beyond the bushes and began chasing the food truck.
Fortunately, their speed was too slow to keep up with the food truck at full throttle.
Even so, Jinseo was so startled that he didn't dare look back, driving straight ahead without thinking.
That was how he arrived near a castle surrounded by a moat.
"So this is what a real castle looks like. I've seen them in photos, but in person it's huge."
Getting out of the food truck, Jinseo looked up at the towering walls in awe.
He still had no idea where he was.
One thing was certain—this definitely wasn't Korea.
A massive European-style castle like that would never exist there.
He wanted to somehow get inside the castle and grab anyone he saw to ask where this place was.
But there wasn't a single person passing by, and he didn't even know whether the language would be the same, so he could only stand there cautiously.
After circling the food truck repeatedly while deep in thought, Jinseo suddenly lowered his head and rubbed his stomach.
"Haa… even in a situation like this, I'm hungry."
Hearing his stomach growl, Jinseo laughed awkwardly and opened the side door of the food truck.
He had no idea how to get back to Korea, but he decided to fill his stomach first and think later.
Jinseo put on a sanitary cap and a clear face mask, washed his hands, and slipped on cooking gloves.
After tying on his apron, he began cooking with practiced ease.
Rice cakes soaking up red sauce.
Squid, sweet potatoes, and seaweed rolls frying in oil.
Steam rising thickly from properly cooked soondae.
Jinseo portioned out tteokbokki, fried snacks, and soondae (Korean blood sausage) onto a plastic-wrapped plate.
Of all the snacks he had made to the point of boredom and eaten until he was sick of them, Jinseo started with the tteokbokki.
"Huh?" Tilting his head, he alternated bites of fried snacks and soondae.
"The tteokbokki, the soondae, the fried snacks..."
The ingredients and the cooking method were no different from before.
"So why does it taste better?"
Even so, the flavor was clearly improved.
Amid the spiciness, the texture of the wheat rice cakes stood out, the batter on the squid tempura was much crispier, and the soondae was far chewier than usual.
The liver—the only soondae organ Jinseo could eat—retained its characteristic dryness while pairing perfectly with salt.
"I really don't get it."
As he tilted his head, a smile bloomed on Jinseo's face.
Either way, there was nothing bad about food tasting good.
While enjoying his solitary meal, Jinseo looked toward the castle gate and stopped eating.
Two guards, about to enter the castle for their shift change, suddenly turned toward the food truck.
Jinseo set down the plate of tteokbokki and hurriedly closed the side door.
"Hey! You there, carriage!" The two guards pointed at the food truck and slowly approached.
Their Western features—nothing like Koreans—made Jinseo tense.
There are only two possibilities. Either I've come to another world like in movies and novels, or I've gone insane.
Just in case, Jinseo tightened his grip on the fork smeared with tteokbokki sauce in his right hand.
Of course, that wouldn't let him win against the spears they carried.
"Is that… really a carriage?"
"It has wheels, sure, but I've never seen wheels like those."
The two guards looked down at the food truck's tires with puzzled expressions.
The very appearance of the food truck was a mystery to them.
"I don't recognize your face. First time here?"
"Yes."
"Did your horse run off? Is that why you're just standing here?"
"No, that's not it… but."
Mid-conversation, Jinseo's eyes widened.
Wait, we can understand each other?
He had been about to scrape together his nearly atrophied English skills, but instead he let out a long, drained sigh.
At least communication wasn't a problem, which was a relief.
"Where is this place? I was definitely driving somewhere around Gyeongsang Province..."
"Gyeongsang? Never heard of it. Jason, do you know?"
"I don't." The guard called Jason narrowed his eyes and swept Jinseo from head to toe. "Strange clothes. Where are you from?"
"Well, about that..."
When Jinseo asked whether they knew Korea or even Seoul, both shook their heads.
"I don't know the place you're talking about, but this is Falstead Castle."
Since it was a name he'd never heard before, Jinseo's frustration didn't ease.
Still, he took comfort in the fact that they could talk without issue.
"That aside, I've never seen a carriage like this. What are you carrying?"
"I sell food."
At the word "food," both guards swallowed reflexively.
"Oh? No wonder there was such an appetizing smell."
"Foltan, since we're already here, should we grab a meal?"
"Sure. I'm sick of old man Horen's cooking anyway. Can you serve it now?"
"I was in the middle of making it, so it's available right away. Ah—but..." Jinseo hesitated just as he was about to open the side door.
The conversation was working out, but whether their tastes would was another matter.
"It's a rather unusual food. Would you like to try it?"
"As long as it tastes good, I don't care."
"As long as it's not made of something weird..."
When Jason and Foltan nodded at the same time, Jinseo took a deep breath and swung the side door open.
"Huh? What's that?"
"It's all red... is there really food like this?"
They couldn't take their eyes off the steaming plate.
"So this is tteokbokki, and the one in the middle is… fried snacks?"
"Yes. And the one on the left is soondae. You can think of it as similar to sausage."
At Jinseo's words about giving a discount if they ordered a set, Jason and Foltan ordered all three.
The two guards were overwhelmed by the smell rising from the so-called tteok-twi-sun set.(tteokbokki-tempura-soondae set)
Even while swallowing hard, they hesitated to bring their forks to the unfamiliar foods.
"Damn it, whatever! Let's just eat first!"
Jason was the first to muster the courage, spearing a sweet potato tempura and putting it into his mouth.
"Hmm?"
"Well? How is it?"
"Hm… hoh..."
"So is it good or not?"
Instead of answering, Jason brought his fork to the tteokbokki.
"Ah! Spicy!"
"Hey, Jason! Stop eating and answer first!"
"It's spicy, but it's pretty good. No, not just pretty good—it's really tasty."
Jason began eating the tteokbokki one bite after another, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
"It's hot, hot..."
Complaining about the heat, he still monopolized the tteokbokki, chugging the cold water Jinseo brought over.
"But what's this long, chewy thing?"
"It's rice cake. More precisely, it's called garaetteok."
"I've never felt a texture like this in my life, but I don't dislike it."
"Ah, whatever!"
Growing impatient, Foltan picked up some soondae with his fork.
Unlike Jason, he popped it straight into his mouth.
"Well?"
At Jinseo's question, Foltan tilted his head from side to side as he chewed.
"It definitely looks like sausage, but what's inside is completely different from what I expected."
Despite the strange expression, he didn't stop eating—keeping pace with Jason, who was nearly finishing the tteokbokki by himself.
"You can eat soondae as is, but it tastes better if you dip it in this."
When Jinseo pointed to the small dish of salt mixed with chili powder, Foltan promptly dipped the soondae and ate it.
"That really is better."
"And it's also good dipped in the tteokbokki sauce."
They followed Jinseo's advice faithfully and soon ordered another set.
As he watched them eat, Jinseo carefully observed their reactions.
"Now that I think about it, the fried snacks aren't all the same kind, are they?"
"Dipping them in the tteokbokki sauce gives them a different flavor, too."
The food both of them liked most was the fried snacks.
Jason ate about two-thirds of the tteokbokki by himself, while Foltan seemed to prefer the soondae.
I was worried since it's food they've never seen before, but this is a relief. I didn't expect them to like it this much.
Jinseo let out a relieved sigh, rubbing his chest.
That wasn't to say he lacked confidence in his cooking.
Some regulars had even come back to Jinseo Snack Bar after moving elsewhere, which was a source of pride for him.
Seeing the skills he'd built up work even in this unknown world made his shoulders straighten unconsciously.
Watching the two keep their forks moving, a warm smile stayed on Jinseo's lips.
Then he suddenly remembered something and stroked his chin.
"Um… I have something to ask."
"What is it?"
"Is it okay to sell food here?"
"Huh? Why?"
"I mean things like taxes, or needing a separate permit."
At Jinseo's serious expression, Jason chewed his tteokbokki thoughtfully.
"If you sell inside the castle, obviously you need that, but I'm not sure about selling outside."
Jinseo considered asking whether he could be punished for illegal entry, but kept it to himself.
The situation itself was irrational—there was no point worrying rationally about it.
Still, it's better to prevent trouble before it starts.
"Could you let me know in detail later?"
"Man, you're really diligent. I'll look into it."
"Thank you."
"If a place selling food this good disappeared, it'd be a shame. No need to thank me that much."
In response, Jinseo added two extra pieces of fried snacks.
He'd noticed their preferences for tteokbokki and soondae differed, so he deliberately added only fried snacks.
"Burp... I'm full."
"So how much do I owe you?"
After Jason and Foltan returned to the castle, Jinseo stood alone beside the food truck.
Other guards glanced over several times, just like the two of them, but none approached.
In the end, the only snacks Jinseo sold that day were two tteok-twi-sun sets.
"I wonder if I charged them properly."
After asking about the usual price of their meals, he'd charged roughly the same.
Jinseo brought the coins in his palm close to his face.
By modern standards, they were quite crudely made.
"Even if I can get back to Korea, how am I supposed to exchange these? What a headache."
With a bitter smile, Jinseo tossed all the coins into the cash box inside the food truck.
Flash—
At that moment, a blinding light burst from above the cash box.
Author's Note:
The soy-sauce dish mixed with chili powder has been corrected to a dish of salt mixed with chili powder.
While writing the manuscript, I was eating squid tempura and reflexively wrote soy sauce.
I apologize for the confusion caused to readers.