Chapter 96: Latte is horse...(4) It was not a combination he usually enjoyed, and ever since he started driving the food truck, he had not eaten it even once.
Dad really liked it, though.
The first time Jinseo saw his father drinking soju alone in the shop kitchen with sliced raw fish as a drinking snack after closing was when Jinseo was in middle school.
His father chewing sliced raw fish heavily dipped in cho-gochujang, then pouring soju into his mouth...
To Jinseo, still a child, his father looked somehow depressed, yet also unburdened.
He saw that appearance again when he was in high school, and whenever their eyes met, his father would put a piece of raw fish dipped in cho-gochujang into Jinseo's mouth.
"It's still too early for alcohol, so when you become an adult, let's have a drink together."
But after Jinseo entered college, the time he spent with his father grew even less...
In the end, the chance for him to share a drink with his father never came again.
"Dad..."
Jinseo twisted off the soju cap, set down two soju cups, and filled them.
He left one for his father, who had gone far away, and held the remaining cup in his right hand and raised it.
"..."
Jinseo frowned and shook the soju still left in his cup out in little drips.
Even though he had only swallowed half, he could not get used to the artificial bitterness unique to soju.
"Yeah. Soju really doesn't suit me."
It was a moment where he felt he was still far from fully understanding and accepting everything about his father.
"Mr. Jinseo, so you were here."
"Why are you here alone?"
At the familiar voices behind him, Jinseo turned around.
Fedora stood there in a T-shirt and athletic pants rather than clerical robes, and beside her was Charlotte in an outfit that still did not care about anyone's stares, both looking down at Jinseo.
"I just wanted to rest."
"Ah… you must be really tired because of me. Is it hard?"
When Charlotte apologized in a way that did not feel like her, Jinseo gave a small laugh and shook his head.
"You want to be alone, right? Should we just go?"
"No. Since you're here, it's fine to sit and look at the night sea."
"Yeah? Then I won't refuse—I'll sit!"
Charlotte plopped down on the mat and stretched both legs straight out.
Meanwhile, Fedora—still watching Jinseo's mood—let her gaze settle on the soju cups on the mat.
"Isn't that the Korean alcohol that shows up a lot in dramas?"
"Yes. It's soju."
"Soju…!"
A magical alcohol where, even if two people have piled up misunderstandings and come to fight and clash, if they each drink just one glass, they end up telling the truth.
Jinseo had always introduced countless Korean foods, including bunsik, but he had almost never brought out Korean alcohol.
So seeing him drink in front of her felt extraordinarily rare.
"Could you give me a glass too?"
"Me too! Me too!"
"I'll tell you in advance—you might not like it."
Jinseo rinsed the soju cup he was holding with bottled water, then handed it to Fedora.
Then he tilted the soju bottle and filled the cup.
"Why did you pour that and not drink it?"
Charlotte pointed at the soju cup that had been sitting on the mat the whole time and asked, then reached a hand toward it.
"I left it for a drink with my father."
"Your father?"
"He'll be watching from up there."
When Jinseo pointed to the sky, Charlotte finally understood, made an awkward face, and withdrew her hand.
"Mm..."
Fedora drank the soju in one go like she had seen in dramas, made a subtle expression, and handed the cup back to Jinseo.
Then Charlotte accepted a cup and took a drink, only to set it down with an even more complicated expression than Fedora's.
"This is Korean alcohol?"
"Yes."
"Not my taste."
"Honestly, it's not mine either. I figured you'd be disappointed, so I was drinking alone."
If he had brought distilled soju instead of the diluted kind commonly sold, the reaction might have been better.
But Jinseo had never been particularly interested in selling alcohol in the first place, so he did not want to go that far.
"Then that should taste good, right?"
Disappointed by the soju, Charlotte smacked her lips while pointing at the sliced raw fish that no one had touched yet.
"This is just raw fish flesh sliced and eaten without cooking. Are you sure you'll be okay with it? It's even more of an acquired taste than the soju you just drank."
"Y-You eat fish raw?"
"Then is it tastier? Tch, let's eat first and decide."
Charlotte picked up a slice of raw fish with her chopsticks, slathered it with cho-gochujang, and put it in her mouth.
"Hm. This sauce tastes similar to jjolmyeon."
"D-Does it taste good?"
Instead of answering Fedora's question, Charlotte shoved a slice of raw fish drenched in cho-gochujang right into Fedora's mouth.
"It does taste good. But..."
"You're thinking it'd be better to make other food with this sauce, right?"
"Yes! Exactly that."
Since it was their first time trying sliced raw fish, they could not really appreciate the fish itself—only the spicy, sour, sweet taste of cho-gochujang.
In any case, if it was tasty, that was enough, but it still left something to be desired.
"Please wait a moment."
Jinseo felt obligated to satisfy the people who had eaten something that did not suit their tastes.
He stood up and ran to the food truck, then came back carrying a large pot and a portable gas stove.
Jinseo's choice was a dish he could make from the leftover parts after cutting the raw fish.
Spicy fish stew—maeuntang.
"This will be good, right?"
"You'll like this far more than what you had earlier. Fedora, since you like spicy food, I think you'll like it even more."
When Jinseo lifted the lid of the pot that had begun boiling on the portable gas stove, red broth bubbled around the fish flesh, stirring everyone's appetite.
"Then let's see… oh!"
"Yes, this is the taste I wanted!"
After each taking a spoonful of broth, Charlotte and Fedora looked at Jinseo at the same time and nodded.
Happy that the Jinseo cooking they knew had returned.
"Khh, this clean, sharp spice is so charming. With just this broth, I could wipe out several bowls of rice!"
"It's different from tteokbokki's spiciness, but it's quite good. Ah, one more bowl, please."
Fortunately, maeuntang earned high praise from both of them, and with more fish added and boiled again, they could enjoy not just the broth but plenty of fish meat too.
Swoooosh… slap.
Eating maeuntang while listening to the waves and looking up at the stars glittering in the dark sky felt especially special to them.
When Jinseo fried rice in the last of the broth and served it, the two women did not stop eating even though they were already full.
"Buurp… that was good."
Charlotte, who scraped the pot clean without leaving even a drop of broth, cracked open a can of cola.
Gulp, gulp.
After draining the can in one go, she planted both hands on the sand and leaned her back slightly.
"This place is nice. Should I stay here for a while? If I catch a few more kraken as lodging fees, that'll be enough, right?"
"Huh? Ah… yes, that would be more than enough."
For a moment, Jinseo questioned her use of the word "catch," but then he recalled her true form and immediately accepted it.
"Don't be too disappointed. I'll keep stopping by the food truck to get cola. And I still have to eat bunsik."
"I expected you would."
"Did you? Hahaha! I'll think about it after we return to Falstead Castle."
Charlotte burst into hearty laughter and flopped down on the mat.
"That constellation shifted a bit. When I was young, it was here, but now it moved farther east. And that star to the south..."
As Jinseo listened to Charlotte's explanation, he looked up at the stars in the night sky.
After being fully absorbed in enjoying the sea, her "back in my day" routine—which she had not done for nearly half a day—had started again.
After enjoying surfing to her heart's content for a full week, Charlotte left Orte Harbor to the fishermen's enthusiastic send-off.
The dwarves who had enjoyed the summer sea with her had skin that had turned the same color as the fishermen's.
Envious of the fishermen's bronze skin, they refused Jinseo's sunscreen, and only after getting the healthy-looking skin they wanted did they set off on the road back to Falstead Castle.
"The regulars must be having a hard time."
"Right. Even I can't possibly endure going more than half a day without cola, so imagine how it is for insignificant creatures."
At Jinseo's words as he drove the food truck, Charlotte—now naturally occupying the passenger seat—pulled a can of cola from the storage compartment.
"Ah, over there… Jinseo, pull over the food truck."
"Yes."
When Jinseo stopped the food truck, the carriages following behind all stopped at once.
"What is it? Lady Charlotte, did you find another ruin site?"
"A mine? A new mine?"
"Big sister! Did a monster show up?"
The people who came out of the additional trailer and the carriages made a commotion as they approached Charlotte.
With anticipation for what kind of story she would tell this time.
"Shh, quiet."
Jinseo raised his right index finger to his lips.
By now, Jinseo was used to Charlotte rambling about old stories while looking at passing scenery.
But this was the first time she had stopped in place and stared intently at one spot like this.
"Yeah. This was the place. That's where I have a rather precious memory."
Charlotte looked east with a faint smile.
Unlike her usual casual tone, her voice carried something wistful.
"Even though it's gone now, there was a time when evil insignificant creatures that served darkness were in power. And back then, among humans, there was… what was it... ah, a hero. That was the title."
She closed her eyes, recalling a past that remained especially vivid among the countless memories in her head.
Unfortunately, she could not remember the names of the people in those memories.
Instead, their faces rose so clearly that it stirred her emotions, if only for a moment.
"That hero brat, after a bitter fight, defeated the evil insignificant creatures and brought peace to the Francia Continent. Well, that peace didn't last long, but anyway, that's what happened thanks to the hero brat's feats."
Charlotte, who had been recounting the story in a calm voice, turned back toward Jinseo.
"To you, it sounds like a boring story, right?"
"No. Everyone has memories they hold precious in their hearts."
"Yeah… I suppose so."
"But with your power, Lady Charlotte, wouldn't you have been able to resolve it directly without needing someone called a hero to step in?"
"Well, there were various circumstances, so I couldn't get directly involved in the continent's affairs. I helped a little, but… in the end, it was something that hero brat could do because he was amazing. But when it came to the important part, he just hesitated and wavered. It was so frustrating. No, they clearly liked each other, so why were they just reading the room and not saying anything..."
Charlotte thumped her chest with her hand, as if she was still frustrated even now.
"In the end, only after I pushed him for a long time did he propose to the female priest he'd been traveling with—near that lake you can see over there. Later, they even held the wedding ceremony right there. An old human male mage officiated. And I attended as a guest."
"Uh… could that story be the one in the fairy tale...?"
When Fedora, who had been listening quietly, spoke up, Charlotte's gaze turned to her.
"Yeah, that's right. It really happened, and I adapted it into a fairy tale. When you live long, a lot of stories you wrote end up remaining."
"So it really happened. I never imagined it."
"Well, that's how fairy tales are."
They had been passed down for a long time, and fairy-tale stories inevitably changed from the original.
But since she had been one of the figures in that fairy tale—and the one still alive to the end—she could not help but feel deeply moved.
"About two thousand years ago, or three thousand? I don't know. Anyway, it's a memory I can never forget. And I don't want to forget it either. But..."
While continuing in a calm tone, Charlotte's voice abruptly sharpened.
"Why are insignificant creatures gathering in a pack?"
As her vertical pupils narrowed, glittering mana particles began to float slowly over the ground.
"Kids. I'll be right back. Everyone, move aside!"
Paaaat.
Returning to her true form as a dragon, Charlotte spread both wings wide and flapped powerfully.
"Those damned insignificant creatures… they dare to make trouble at my place full of memories?"
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