Chapter 92: It's a Bunsik Party! (6) Beep!
"It crossed the line!"
"Argh! If it only went a little further in!"
The offside detector the dwarves made maintained fair calls in jokgu as well, without changing a thing.
Beep!
"Wow, that went into the corner?"
"With this… the score is 15 to 10, so we won!"
The moment the dwarf team player's kick—launched with a high vertical jump from where he stood—hit inside the line and went out, the match was decided.
The winner of the jokgu match, split into humans and dwarves, was the dwarf team.
As if it were only natural, they shrugged and savored their victory.
"I haven't been able to run properly for a while, so it's been stifling. Now it feels like my body's finally loosening up."
"This is when you slam a beer and it's perfect... ngh, I have to hold back today."
The dwarves looked toward the food truck, only smacking their lips.
"Huff, huff… this is rough. My body really isn't what it used to be."
"It's been a long time since I've sweated like this."
Even though they lost, the human-side players fell completely for the charm of jokgu as a sport.
They wanted to play another round, but their stamina was depleted, and they couldn't even get up after collapsing onto the ground.
The dwarves extended their short hands to those human-side players and pulled them up.
"Soccer is even more fun than jokgu. Next time we get the chance, let's play on a proper field."
"Is that so? I've heard soccer has been trending lately, but I've never really had the chance to try it."
"The rules are as simple as jokgu, so you'll learn quickly. Instead of a net like jokgu..."
Their ears perked up at the dwarves' subtle push for soccer.
"I brought something to drink! Everyone, chug it down!"
Jason opened the cooler he brought and handed out sports drinks to those who had just finished a round of jokgu.
But when they saw the blue liquid in the plastic bottles, they frowned slightly.
They needed water to quench their thirst, not a potion.
"This… Jinseo told you to drink it? It's not a potion, right?"
"Yes! He said it's absolutely not a potion! And he said it's the best for quenching thirst!"
When Jason confidently raised his right thumb, they still couldn't shake their suspicion, but they opened the caps anyway.
When it came to food and drinks, Jinseo had never been wrong even once.
Gulp, gulp.
Everyone's eyebrows twitched at the subtle, unfamiliar taste at first, but no one stopped drinking.
"It's real. The thirst disappears instantly!"
"It's not a taste I'm used to, but the more I drink, the more it starts to feel okay."
Without taking their mouths off the bottles, they drained the small bottles in one go.
"It'd be great to hand this out to the knight order."
"We work near furnaces as a matter of routine, so we needed a drink that relieves thirst this fast. Before we return home, we should buy a lot from Jinseo!"
"But isn't it a little disappointing? We won, so fine—but are the humans really going to just lose and end it like this? No, right?"
The gazes of humans and dwarves eating ice cream from the cooler crossed.
With their thirst quenched and their energy recovering, one round of jokgu felt like it left them wanting.
"Hey, human noble gentlemen. One more round?"
"Fine. But how about we make a bet? The losing side buys the bunsik."
"With a bet on the line, we absolutely can't lose! Good!"
They grabbed the ball and went back into the jokgu court.
They couldn't ride the children's rides, but the fathers were faithfully spending their own time together with the dwarves.
That meant there was a risk the mothers who came with the children might be left out.
"Hm… it smells nice."
"This thing called a tea bag is really convenient. Just putting it in a cup and pouring hot water... I never imagined I'd be enjoying tea like this, not just cup ramen and mix coffee."
But instead of feeling slighted, they were gathered around a round table, leisurely savoring various teas.
Green tea, black tea, adlay tea, citron tea, Solomon's seal tea...
Jinseo didn't usually drink tea, and he didn't know what kinds of tea were popular on the Francia Continent.
So he brought all sorts and asked the palace maids to taste them.
He did prepare a few rather expensive premium teas, but most of them were cheap teas in tea bag or stick form.
Jinseo worried whether teas commonly found in Korea would really appeal to noble ladies.
He asked the maids who had just finished tasting what they thought would be good, and the answer he got was...
"Everything… you can put out everything!"
"Do you have any other tea? We're ready to taste as much as you have!"
"If there's anything left over, can we buy some too?"
It was nothing but praise, and the noble ladies' evaluations today—after tasting the teas he brought—were the same.
After they enjoyed the warmth and fragrance rising from their teacups, Jinseo prepared one more gift.
"I'm curious whether you like the drinks I prepared."
Jinseo set a plate of assorted cookies down on the table.
"If you have these cookies with your tea, it'll taste even better."
Most of what he brought were factory-made snacks, but to them, they looked like beautiful confections.
The moment they took trembling hands, bit into the cookies, and cracked them, a crispy texture and a feast of flavor spread through their mouths.
"This sweetness… it matches tea so well!"
"The dalgona the children ate felt too sweet for my taste, but these cookies are just right! Can we buy them separately later?"
"I prepared a large quantity, since I expected that. Come buy them after the banquet ends."
At Jinseo's answer, they squealed with joy.
Their hearts filled with anticipation that future tea parties would be far more enjoyable than before.
The banquet Jinseo led continued until late afternoon, met with widespread praise.
Originally, the plan was to end it around sunset.
But Jinseo thought that in a place like this—with grass spread wide and dense trees all around—spending the night wouldn't be bad.
So he suggested they try camping.
Most attendees welcomed it with both hands raised, and preparations for staying overnight progressed step by step.
Separate from putting up temporary barracks, Jinseo set up the tents he brought here and there.
Then he built a large bonfire in front of the food truck and started grilling meat near the bonfire instead of inside the food truck's kitchen.
The meat Jinseo chose was samgyeopsal, the safest option even for foreigners.
When Kraide's group visited Korea, their reaction had been quite good, so Jinseo could bring it out with confidence.
And unlike back then, dwarf-made beer was on hand now.
Thanks to that, the samgyeopsal delighted everyone even more.
"Mr. Jinseo! We're out of samgyeopsal!"
"Hyungnim! Is there no more pa-muchim?"
"Just a moment!"
As soon as the samgyeopsal was grilled to perfection, it vanished into guests' mouths at speed.
Jinseo kept pulling out more samgyeopsal from the additional trailer and grilling it in repetition, while Jason and Aston went around refilling guests' empty beer cups.
"We're running out of lettuce and pickled radish!"
"Yes, I brought more."
In particular, the way of wrapping meat in greens became a huge hit with the guests.
At first, they were naturally unfamiliar with it and doubted it could really taste good.
Jinseo demonstrated by putting a wrap he made himself into Jason's mouth...
After seeing that, guests tried wraps one by one, and now, the fierce competition on the grill to get even one more bite never stopped.
By the time guests began feeling full after continuously eating samgyeopsal wraps, Jinseo brought out ramen as the finale.
Slurp, slurp.
After finishing their meal with soup ramen, guests each held an ice cream and looked up at the dark sky.
The sun had fully set, and countless stars twinkled over the garden under deep darkness.
Stars that had become hard to see in Korea because of fine dust and air pollution.
Jinseo never imagined he would see them in the middle of a country's capital—right in the royal palace.
So he couldn't take his eyes off the sky.
"You both worked hard."
"Oh, it wasn't hard at all. Hyungnim did the most work."
"It was a truly satisfying day."
The three men ate ice cream suited to their own tastes and stared at the sky.
Their bodies were tired, but it was a more rewarding day than any other.
"Go in and rest now. I'll sleep a little later."
After sending the two to the tents, Jinseo sat at the food truck's counter seat and savored the lingering feeling under the night sky.
With children playing so energetically, it had been a long time since they fell asleep inside the barracks and tents.
The adults also began dozing off one by one, unable to fight sleep.
Normally, mosquitoes would have made it hard to sleep, but thanks to Nero's ability, mosquitoes wouldn't dare come near the tents.
Still, he couldn't give up the distinctive charm of the insect sounds, so he asked for the ability to apply only up to the exact area where the tents were set up.
By the time everyone except the guarding soldiers and Jinseo had fallen into deep sleep, Philip III quietly returned to the food truck.
"I called you to commend your contribution, but..."
He held out the star-shaped dalgona and received the dinosaur doll from Jinseo.
"The one receiving the reward is burdened instead. It has been a long time since I've seen my son enjoy himself so much. It was all thanks to you, Jinseo."
"You flatter me."
After having a day more enjoyable than any other, Charles was sleeping soundly inside the additional trailer.
In a small, timid voice that was barely audible, Charles expressed a wish to go inside the holy relic, and Jinseo, carried by the moment, readily offered up his sleeping spot and told him to stay the night.
"I'm curious how I can keep getting along well with my son."
"I don't really know either. I don't have children yet, and I'm not married."
The reason Jinseo could make Charles happy was largely because he was a third party.
Since he would be leaving the palace soon anyway, he didn't have to agonize over the complicated father-son relationship—he only had to give them something to enjoy.
And since he couldn't hold events like this every time, it was never a fundamental solution.
"Instead, there is a gift I would like to give Your Majesty."
Jinseo picked up the baseball glove and baseball that he had set aside in a corner of the counter seat.
"When you have the time, how about you play catch with Prince Charles?"
"Catch?"
"It'll be easier to understand by watching this video than by explaining it."
Jinseo took out his smartphone and showed Philip III the pitching video he had shown Charles.
"So you throw and catch this ball with someone holding a glove."
Philip III repeatedly mimicked the throwing motion while referencing the pitching video.
"I also had a time when I was awkward with my father."
Jinseo continued, looking down at the worn part of the glove Philip III had put on his right hand.
"But as I got older, I gradually came to understand my father. Before I reached the age where I could truly understand him, though, my father left my side first."
"Huh… I already heard it and knew, but I have nothing else to say except that it's regrettable."
"Maybe because of that, I envied Prince Charles. Even if it takes time, he still has plenty of time left to understand Your Majesty and be together with you."
As Jinseo lowered his head, memories from the past surfaced in his mind.
Young Jinseo's father catching a ball Jinseo threw carelessly, with practiced ease.
And his mother smiling as she watched the two of them.
Jinseo held a faint smile on his lips and slowly raised his head.
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