Chapter 93: Latte is horse...(1) While the dwarf delegation stayed at Colses Castle, countless people visited.
Including the nobles of the Doren Kingdom, there were many cases where even ambassadors from other countries waited in front of the royal palace, eagerly anticipating a meeting with the dwarves.
They were not coming to the royal palace solely to make contact with another race.
After tasting the mysterious cuisine called bunsik, said to have calmed a dragon's wrath, they marveled and proposed collaborations to Jinseo.
However, Jinseo wanted to do business freely without being bound to anyone, like his relationship with Oswald, so he politely declined every offer that came his way.
And except for when the royal palace specifically requested bunsik, he sold bunsik in the central plaza, just as he had when he first visited Colses Castle.
Each time, the palace maids volunteered to help him.
He had to deal with quite a lot of customers, but the bunsik and various refreshments Jinseo served during breaks and after closing were more than enough to satisfy them.
It even got to the point where they asked whether they could work at the food truck after quitting their maid jobs.
With their joining greatly reducing worries about manpower, Jinseo told Aston he did not need to help with the food truck work anymore.
"What? Is there some problem...?"
"Go on some dates."
Jinseo said that while pointing at Stella, who always came by the food truck to eat bunsik.
Only then did Aston understand Jinseo's intent, and together with Stella, he went around various parts of Colses Castle until the delegation's schedule ended.
Whenever the two of them occasionally came to eat at the food truck, Jinseo served couple dishes just for them.
Then other men and women who came as couples placed the same order, and for a while, a pink atmosphere drifted around the food truck as it became a must-visit date course.
After that, the dwarf delegation stayed an additional week beyond the originally planned half month, and only then left Colses Castle.
And amid everyone's regret, Jinseo also left Colses Castle.
Many people gathered in front of the castle gate to see off the delegation and Jinseo, and among them was Philip III, who came with Prince Charles.
"Lee Jinseo, I was truly glad to meet you."
From successfully establishing exchange with the dwarves and calming the dragon's wrath that had nearly brought a massive crisis upon the kingdom, Philip III was deeply grateful to Jinseo.
But what satisfied him most was that, thanks to Jinseo, his relationship with his son had improved to some extent.
"And how are things with Prince Charles...?"
"Rather than explain it with words, I'll show you. Charles!"
Philip III suddenly turned around and flicked a ball he pulled from his waist pouch.
Prince Charles jumped high in place and snatched the ball.
After quickly slipping the children's baseball glove he always wore at his waist onto his right hand.
"Your Highness!"
"A-Are you all right?"
Startled guards rushed to Charles and hurriedly checked if he was injured anywhere.
Charles gestured that he was fine and threw the ball back, and Philip III caught it barehanded and nodded.
"Even now, there are still many times when it feels awkward if it's just the two of us."
Philip III stroked the stitching on the baseball in his right hand with his fingertips.
"But at least when we play catch, it isn't like that. Thank you."
"I'm glad."
"Jinseo, you may visit the royal palace whenever you wish. Remember this—whether it's early morning, or in the night when everyone is asleep, it's possible at any time."
After promising Jinseo an enormous privilege, Philip III went back inside the castle gate.
"The bunsik was really delicious!"
"Thanks to you, we're getting married next month! We'll stop by Falstead Castle for our honeymoon, so please look forward to delicious bunsik then too!"
"Please come again next time!"
Many people waved toward the food truck as it grew distant from the castle.
Vrrrm.
"Phew, now I can finally catch my breath."
Inside the food truck, moving at a much slower speed to match the pace of the other carriages, Oswald was able to regain some composure.
After being sent down to Falstead Castle, meeting Philip III for the first time left him with mixed feelings.
"You've been through a lot."
"Through a lot, what? Whenever something like this happens, the one who worked the hardest is you, Jinseo."
Riding in the passenger seat for the first time in a while, Oswald fully enjoyed the comfortable ride while sipping SolXnun.
"So, about that… I'm sorry, but the schedule might end up getting longer."
After finishing SolXnun, Oswald picked up a can of DakXpepper and gave Jinseo an apologetic look.
"The dwarf delegation said they want to see other regions of the Doren Kingdom. It's already been over a month since they came to the Francia Continent... and aside from Falstead Castle and Colses Castle, they haven't really been anywhere else."
"That's because they kept playing soccer the whole time."
"I know that well too, but if you put it that way, doesn't a big part of it also fall on you, since you were the one who showed soccer to the dwarves?"
"Hahaha..."
Jinseo scratched the back of his head with his left hand, looking embarrassed.
"In that case, how about stopping by Orte Harbor? They said there's no sea on the Ashred Continent, so I think it'll be a special experience for the dwarves."
"That's good. I also want to eat ramen made with seafood freshly pulled from the water for the first time in a while. I'll be seeing the village chief again after a long time."
"And if we keep heading straight south from here, it's easy to get there too."
"And on top of that, we can enjoy chimaek without worrying about the eyes of important peo—"
"Oh! So you were here!"
In an instant, a majestic voice echoed in everyone's ears, accompanied by vibrations that shook the ground.
The direction the voice came from was none other than the sky.
No way...
After stopping the food truck, Jinseo lowered the window glass on the door and leaned his head out.
Oswald sensed an existence far higher than the "important people" he had just mentioned and let his shoulders droop heavily.
"Good to see you! You insignificant creatures!"
Charlotte hovered high in the sky in the form of a colossal dragon.
As she descended with a flap of her wings, dust rose thickly across the area.
Pa-aat.
Just before landing, Charlotte returned to her human form and snapped her fingers, and the dust rode the wind and vanished far away.
"Hey! Did you all finish the work properly?"
Charlotte casually waved at the people rushing toward her.
Seeing her appear so suddenly without warning, Jinseo and the delegation were dumbfounded.
"Lady Charlotte."
"Hm? What?"
"The bunsik sales I asked you for..."
"I sold it all."
"What? Already?"
Jinseo had calculated the average sales volume at Falstead Castle and entrusted her with about four months' worth.
Even if it did not all sell, it was in subspace storage, so there was no worry of it going bad.
So he had given her a large amount, intending to keep her tied to Falstead Castle as long as possible...
But for her to sell it all in just one month...
It was a level even Jason—who handled customers best among the food truck members—would find difficult to reach.
"Well, you see. It's not like I've ever done business before, right?"
"That's true."
"Honestly, I tried it without expecting much, but it was pretty fun! So I used teleportation magic and went around everywhere for twenty-four hours a day, selling it."
"What?"
Even a human mage with Painpault-level skill could not teleport long distances multiple times a day.
But since a dragon's mana reserves were practically infinite by human standards, her words were not far-fetched at all.
"So I went around selling it all over the Doren Kingdom, and it ran out way faster than planned. When I said I didn't have more, the customers were so disappointed, so I came to get more. Here, do you have more?"
Charlotte held out both hands toward Jinseo.
"It's fine. You really worked hard."
Making several more months' worth of tteok-twig-sun would take time.
And with everything at Colses Castle finished now, there was no particular reason to send her back again.
It was not as if he had sent her for the true purpose of selling, either.
Even if it was not her intention, it was essentially the same as contributing to expanding his sales channels.
Jinseo was not shameless enough to send her away after that.
"Oh, right! And I made a mistake..."
"A mistake?"
At the word "mistake," silence fell instantly, and the faces of Jinseo and the others turned pale.
Because if a dragon called something a mistake, only a horrific situation came to mind—like completely razing a village, or turning a dense forest into ash with a single breath attack.
"I sold every last bit of the cola I was going to drink too! Hahaha! That's actually the biggest reason I came to get more."
"Phew, I'm glad nothing happened. You worked hard."
"Worked hard, what... There were quite a few interesting things. It was fun—it's been a long time since I talked with this many humans. There were also humans who picked fights with me, but..."
At the word "picked fights," silence fell once again.
"Hey, don't be so scared. I let them live. I didn't drive them mad with dragon speech either, and I sent them back nicely. You said that, right? That you have to treat customers politely."
"Y-Yes, I did."
"So I sent them back politely. They'll be trapped in darkness and terrified for a while, but I don't have to worry about even that, do I?"
Jinseo was intensely curious what had happened to the people who dared to pick a fight with a dragon, but he did not ask.
Even imagining it made his spine go cold.
"Then I don't have to sell bunsik anymore, right?"
"Yes."
"And it's fine if I travel with you all?"
Seeing Charlotte subtly express her opinion, a certain phrase came to Jinseo's mind.
If you can't avoid it, enjoy it.
He never imagined he would recall a phrase he had seen at army boot camp in another world—of all places, in front of a dragon—and a bitter smile settled on Jinseo's lips.
"Yes. Since you've come out into the outside world after a long time, it seems better for you to travel with us."
"Hm, I woke up after about three hundred… or four hundred years, so I did sleep quite a long time. The world must have changed that much too, so to adapt, I did need to go around a bit. So..."
Trailing off, Charlotte walked toward the food truck.
Then, in a courteous posture, she stared fixedly at Oswald sitting quietly in the passenger seat.
"Get out."
"Yes!"
Oswald opened the door and got out of the food truck without the slightest hesitation.
"I've wanted to ride this magic carriage called a food truck too. So understand, okay?"
"Ahh… this is the taste."
Sitting in the passenger seat of the food truck, Charlotte drank down cola while admiring the scenery outside.
"Oh! There! You see that plain over there? That's where the Born Kingdom fought its last bloody battle."
"The Born Kingdom, you mean?"
"Ah, you're not from this continent, so you wouldn't know. It was a country that existed before the Doren Kingdom was established. The last king probably… squandered the national treasury because he was obsessed with jewels. That's why it fell in the end. The jewel box he couldn't give up until he died should be in my lair. When you come later, I'll show you."
She rattled off the history tied to the area, even though no one asked.
Like a Korean pitcher who played in Major League Baseball—someone Jinseo had been a fan of since he was young.
Still, thinking there might be something useful in it, Jinseo turned on the recording function and set his smartphone on the steering wheel.
"Ah~ back in my day..."
Except when she drank cola, Charlotte talked continuously, without rest, about things that happened in the past.
The minimum unit was hundreds of years ago, and just listening made it feel like the history of the Francia Continent was being forced into his brain.
So this is what it feels like to listen until your ears bleed...
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