Chapter 153: The Road to the Sacred Land (3) Jinseo stayed in the royal palace of Selphier Castle for three days.
During that time, Lanster II tasted every kind of bunsik, to the point of saying they were the happiest days of his life, and the officials who enjoyed bunsik with him in the audience chamber also spent three happy days.
But if there is a meeting, there is also a parting.
Lanster II, who had hoped Jinseo would stay in Selphier Castle as long as possible and bring him happiness, swallowed his regret and saw Jinseo off as he departed for the Holy Land with Fedora Artran.
To avoid a repeat of the food truck being surrounded by citizens like when they first arrived, Charlotte moved the food truck carrying Jinseo and Fedora Artran with teleportation magic.
"There wasn't a country like that before I fell asleep. A place that takes eating that seriously… it was really fun."
Charlotte crunched on PoXto Chips while staring at Selphier Castle beyond the horizon.
"You know that king over there? He quietly asked me if there was any way to make you stay here even one more day."
"Did he?"
"But that kid has a schedule, so he has to leave. As if."
She slightly lifted the left corner of her mouth as she pointed at Fedora Artran in the driver's seat.
"And besides, if you stay like that, one day becomes two, and then three, so I told him no, firmly. I even scolded him a bit—what's the problem when he can just eat bunsik at the branch now anyway?"
Charlotte raised the PoXto Chips bag over her head and shook the remaining crumbs into her mouth.
"The snacks brought from Korea are all good, but the quantity is really lacking."
She tore open a new bag of PoXto Chips and showed the inside.
"Look. Just looking at it, it's obviously more air."
"That's why Korean snacks are sometimes called nitrogen snacks."
"I don't know what nitrogen is, but I can treat it as meaning you never get full no matter how much you eat, right? Ugh. The taste is good, though."
As she complained, Charlotte shoved her hand into the PoXto Chips bag.
"Then the food truck branch at Selphier Castle is going to be handled by that cook named Marco?"
"Yes. That's what it came to. It seemed His Majesty had already heard about him—he had him firmly picked out."
In fact, Marco could have left prison at any time, but he was refusing, by his own will, to come out into the outside world.
And then Jinseo unintentionally dragged him out into the world by force.
He ended up coming all the way to the distant Girvante Kingdom, but as someone who had devoted everything to cooking, he was very satisfied as he watched Girvante Kingdom people become happy while eating the bunsik he made.
Having regained the joy of cooking, Marco readily accepted Jinseo's request that he take charge of the food truck's branch, and the five wandering cooks who had followed Jinseo to help him were chosen as the branch staff.
"If he was such a crazy little creature for cooking, I figured this country would suit him, so I brought him along, but he really just made food like his life depended on it?"
"He looked like he was enjoying it a lot."
Unlike Jinseo, who had interacted with many figures in the Girvante Kingdom including Lanster II, Marco focused solely on making bunsik.
He had chosen to go to prison to change himself because he was too absorbed in cooking, but in the end, his nature itself did not change.
In that case, Jinseo had long thought it was far better to send him somewhere he could truly focus on cooking, and in that sense, the Girvante Kingdom was the optimal place for Marco.
"I'm saying this because that creature Marco isn't here, but if he liked cooking that much, why didn't he come here earlier?"
"By Charlotte's standards it's close, but by human standards it's too far. And from a place with no foundation at all, setting off on a long journey just because he wanted to cook would have been frightening, even for Marco."
"That's true, but looking at the atmosphere there, it feels like he could've come with nothing but confidence in his cooking skills and been fine, right?"
While talking with Jinseo, Charlotte finished her second bag of PoXto Chips and tore open the third.
"But will one branch solve it? Even to me, a dragon, those little creatures were so serious about food it was scary."
"For now, we're going to limit the daily sales quantity. No matter how I look at it, that's the only way for the moment."
"So in the end, you're saying money's the issue. Even if I sell my treasures to solve it, let's see… I can only solve it for about a hundred years. We have to think about what comes after, so we'll need a fundamental solution."
Gulp, gulp.
Casually mentioning a hundred years, Charlotte washed away the greasiness of the PoXto Chips with canned cola.
The experience needed for the food truck's level-up gets ridiculous after Level 70, so it was a headache, but if the branch business goes well, the time it takes to raise the level will shorten a lot. The issue is ingredient supply, as expected…
If he could source ingredients on the Francia Continent itself, without needing to procure the ingredients used for bunsik from Korea, it would clearly be beneficial in many ways.
So Jinseo once planned to install the vinyl greenhouse upgrade and try sourcing ingredients himself, but as he kept moving around in a hectic rush, it had fizzled out before he knew it.
If I install a farm with mileage on the territory I received from the Doren Kingdom, it'll solve it to some extent, but it'll still be nowhere near enough. After I finish this schedule and return to Falstead Castle, I should ask Headmaster Painfolt about magic related to plant cultivation.
On top of that, it would be even better if ingredients could be sent to the branch without Jinseo's direct involvement. He had secured Lanster II's cooperation on that part.
"Once the teleportation magic circle currently being produced is completed, we'll be able to raise the branch's sales quantity."
Julien, who had come to the Girvante Kingdom with Jinseo, remained at Selphier Castle to create a teleportation magic circle that could travel between Dwarf Town and Selphier Castle.
The dwarf mages Charlotte had brought also stayed, putting their heads together with him to research a more efficient teleportation magic formula.
"That mage stayed, Craid stayed, other dwarves stayed too, each with their own excuses… I thought they'd all go back quickly, but it's unexpected."
"So, in the end, it looks like only the cardinal and I are going to the Holy Land."
Craid had eaten all the bunsik and dishes Jinseo made, so he stayed at Selphier Castle to serve as the inspector who checked whether Marco properly reproduced the taste.
Once that was done, the schedule was already set for him to accompany Greg's escort until Greg finished the rest of his restaurant tour.
"By the way, when did dwarves become a race that devoted everything to soccer? I didn't expect them to spread soccer even here."
For the Girvante Kingdom people, whose purpose in life was eating more delicious food in greater quantity, health was one of the essential virtues.
And to them, the dwarves spread a new invention called soccer.
As they moved intensely through soccer to train their bodies, and rejoiced that their stomachs emptied so they could eat more, the people of Selphier Castle soon became completely absorbed in soccer.
Then the dwarves rolled up their sleeves, saying that since they were already at Selphier Castle, they would build a soccer field, and even stepped forward saying they would design buildings to sell even more bunsik later, not just the branch.
As a result, on the road to the Holy Land, only four traveled together—Jinseo, Fedora Artran, and also Nero and Owl.
"Ugh, I talked too long. Anyway, you two go on safely. I'm going to the orphanage!"
Flash.
In dazzling light, Charlotte waved goodbye with her left hand.
In her right hand, she held a fourth bag of PoXto Chips.
When Lanster II heard that Fedora Artran was going with Jinseo to the Heirem Order's Holy Land located in the west of the Girvante Kingdom, he naturally tried to attach an escort force.
However, Fedora Artran politely refused, saying there was no need.
Jinseo's skill and fame as a cook tended to stand out, but even by this world's standards, he was an excellent warrior, so ordinary monsters could not match him even alone.
And Fedora Artran, too, was a former mage and a possessor of noble holy power worthy of becoming a cardinal, so if it came to it, she could deal with monsters herself.
On top of that, since they were accompanied by two companions highly proficient in magic, unless it was a truly serious crisis, it would be difficult to threaten the two riding the food truck.
In the end, Jinseo and Fedora Artran set out for the Holy Land without a single escort soldier.
They traveled by food truck, and when it was time to eat, they spent joyful meals as usual by eating bunsik, and when night deepened, they sat with a campfire between them and exchanged many stories about each other.
On the day the quiet journey of two people and two companions entered its third day, the food truck crossed the western border of the Girvante Kingdom.
"It seems the weather outside has gotten quite cold."
Sitting in the passenger seat, Fedora Artran drank banana milk while looking at the bare branches swaying in the biting wind.
"Are you cold? Should I turn on the heater?"
"No. Thanks to Nero, it's warm, so this is just right."
Fedora Artran smiled as she petted Nero, who was sitting loaf-style on the blanket over her knees.
"Now that winter has begun, it feels like this year is almost over. Since we've been traveling here and there, it feels like time passed in an instant."
"Right. Come to think of it, it's almost been a full two years since I came to the Francia Continent. And… ah, it must be over there."
Jinseo spotted the people gathered in front of the church they had promised to meet at, and slowly reduced speed.
Fedora Artran, who had been sightseeing through the passenger window, belatedly looked forward and hurriedly finished the banana milk she was drinking.
"Oh— I should've changed clothes…."
Fedora Artran, who had been in comfortable clothes instead of her vestments, panicked for a moment, then hurriedly put on the white padded coat that reached down to her ankles, which she had left in the back seat, and got out of the food truck.
The church knights in silver armor dropped to one knee the moment they saw Fedora Artran, then traced the sign of the cross with their right hands.
"I am truly pleased to meet the brothers and sisters of the Holy Land. May Her blessing be with you…."
As Fedora Artran placed her hand on each knight's shoulder and recited a blessing prayer, their bowed heads kept releasing white breath into the air.
"Have you all eaten?"
"No."
At her question, the church knights answered while still keeping their heads bowed.
"Then would you eat bunsik with me?"
"Bunsik… are you referring to the holy cuisine we have only heard rumors of?"
At the word bunsik, the church knights began lifting their heads one by one.
"Yes. And among it, I would first like to recommend tteokbokki."
Fedora Artran gave a small smile as she pointed at Jinseo in the kitchen, diligently preparing tteokbokki, and the church knights' gazes all turned toward the food truck.
"H-huh…."
"S-so this is the cuisine born from a sacred relic."
"My tongue and mouth are in pain, and yet… I am happy. This is my first time experiencing something like this."
The church knights, who had maintained solemn expressions until the tteokbokki came out, became prisoners of tteokbokki—just like the clergy of Kaysus Cathedral had.
"I expected it to some extent, but just as you said, Your Eminence. As expected, Order people like tteokbokki."
As he watched the church knights quickly empty their plates, Jinseo prepared additional tteokbokki, along with fried food and sundae that paired well with tteokbokki broth.
"Pain is a hardship we must overcome in our Order. If we can endure that hardship together with delicious bunsik, there can be no greater joy for us than that."
Sitting alone at the counter seat, Fedora Artran looked at the church knights' faces, flushed red at the table across from her, as she slurped up the noodles of rabokki.
"That is why I wish to widely introduce tteokbokki at the Holy Land we are visiting this time. Jinseo, do you have enough tteokbokki ingredients stored in Interspatial Storage?"
"Yes. I brought a very ample supply."
"Specifically, about how much?"
"Enough special sauce for about 5,000 servings."
"Excellent!"
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