Chapter 160: Who Will Be the Next Pope? (7) Karl X, having regained his health, watched the Christmas-related video Jinseo played and leisurely polished off ten servings of special tteokbokki, adding an entire tray of boiled eggs.
But it still wasn't enough for him. He dipped ten servings of fried food into the leftover tteokbokki broth and scraped it all clean, leaving not a drop behind, while empty bowls piled high beside him.
In the meantime, every cleric in the Holy Land rushed over to see Karl X's restored health with their own eyes.
Seeing the pope fully recovered and openly showing off his appetite, the clerics rejoiced and made the sign of the cross, and Karl X shrugged as he walked through them and boldly entered the Grand Cathedral.
With both hands full of packed bunsik.
With the shadow of death that had hung over Karl X gone thanks to the blessings of Fedora and Veronica, the gloomy atmosphere that had lingered over the Holy Land disappeared, and the clerics regained their vitality.
However, the awkward relationship between Fedora and Veronica still hadn't been fully resolved.
It was much better than before, when they avoided even meeting at all, but even while sitting together at the counter seats, they only watched each other's reactions, at a loss over what to say.
Unable to stand watching them like that, Jinseo pushed the two of them into the Additional Trailer without caring about other people's eyes.
Jinseo occasionally brought bunsik into their space, making sure they could talk calmly.
"Since it's already so late, how about a pajama party? It's been three years since you two properly talked like this, so it might be fun to stay up tonight and just chatter."
When it got dark, Jinseo grabbed the two as they tried to head back to their lodgings, intending to really stick them together while he had the chance.
Since Jinseo hadn't prepared pajamas in advance, he handed them T-shirts and sweatpants and suggested they change.
And with Jinseo persuading them that a pajama party was better with about five people rather than just two, three female clerics ended up, without really realizing it, coming into the Additional Trailer.
They enjoyed the various snacks Jinseo prepared while their chatter blossomed.
The three female clerics who joined midway listened attentively from Fedora's perspective, while also empathizing with Veronica's feelings.
And when they got tired of talking, they passed the time watching movies on the wall-mounted TV installed inside the Additional Trailer.
While the five of them enjoyed the pajama party all night long, Jinseo spent a night in the lodgings for the first time since arriving at the Holy Land, rather than in the Additional Trailer.
It was an uncomfortable place to sleep in many ways, but hoping the relationship between the two would improve, Jinseo forced himself to fall asleep.
"Whew. So I've now eaten all the food truck's bunsik, by type."
Pope Karl X looked proudly at the empty bowls stacked in a corner of the counter seats.
With an appetite not inferior to Craid's, he conquered every menu item on the food truck in just three days after regaining his health.
"Brother Jinseo, you truly worked hard. I almost feel sorry, wondering if I made an excessive request."
"No. I happened to be thinking of checking the taste of the existing menu anyway, and thanks to Your Eminence, I was able to. How was it?"
"There were a few dishes where tastes may differ, but most suited my palate perfectly. In my heart, I want to keep enjoying all the bunsik I ate earlier even after you leave, but realistically, that's impossible, which is regrettable."
"Still, once the branch is installed, you'll at least be able to keep enjoying tteokbokki, so please bear with that for now."
Jinseo decided to install the food truck's third branch in the Holy Land, after Dwarf Town and Selphier Castle.
Unfortunately, at the food truck's current rank, he couldn't register additional helpers, so as with the other two branches, it was impossible to gain additional mileage and experience.
Instead, he decided to be satisfied with the fact that selling special tteokbokki would allow more blessings to be granted.
In that sense, tteokbokki had to be included on the menu at the new branch, and using fish cake—an ingredient used in tteokbokki—he would also serve fish cake as a single item and Fish Cake Soup as well.
Jinseo decided to offer just these three for now, and planned to gradually expand the menu later as the situation improved.
As for ingredient supply, he would first solve it by sending ingredients through teleportation magic from the Selphier Castle branch, not too far from the Holy Land, and as time passed, he decided to replace them with ingredients produced within the Holy Land itself.
"You can feel the joy of bunsik with tteokbokki alone, but still, it's a shame there are so few types. It would be nice to add one more bunsik that's mild, yet fills the belly."
On the Francia Continent, bunsik particularly beloved by clerics: tteokbokki.
If you had to name a drawback of tteokbokki, it would be that it leaves you feeling bloated without being truly full—especially when you eat tteokbokki made with wheat rice cakes.
"Something mild, yet filling. Yes, it would be good to have at least one such menu item."
"If I asked for something easy to make and also a bunsik you haven't shown before, would that be too greedy?"
"Just a moment. I'll serve the dish Your Eminence wants soon. Strictly speaking, it's not bunsik, but street food."
Jinseo opened the lower cabinet in the cooking area and took out a long, rectangular metal mold.
Before leaving Selphier Castle, he purchased it with accumulated mileage, but since he didn't plan to expand the menu for a while, he hadn't used it yet.
Using that tool, the ingredients for the new menu Jinseo intended to present were three main things.
Flour batter he had made in advance and stored in the subspace storage, finely chopped ham, and most importantly, eggs.
A street food that absolutely had to include eggs, since the ingredient was in the name: egg bread.
"It's egg bread. A street food with a whole egg inside."
"Oh? So bunsik is made like this? Very intriguing."
Karl X and the Holy Land's clerics stared intently at the process of five egg breads baking at once inside the mold.
Watching identical-looking food being made simultaneously was interesting in itself, and the aroma of egg bread browning nicely naturally stirred the appetite.
"It's done. Go ahead and try it."
Jinseo opened the egg bread mold, put the well-baked egg bread into small paper bags, and handed them to Karl X, also giving one to each of the other clerics watching beside him.
"Hm… yes. This is it. This is what I wanted."
Taking a big bite of egg bread, Karl X wore a satisfied smile at the corners of his mouth.
Inside the well-baked bread, the egg asserted its presence and gave him the mildness he wanted in full.
And the salty taste of the ham included with the egg added variation to a flavor that could have become monotonous, letting him keep eating without getting tired of it.
The egg bread's only flaw—its dryness—was easily solved by choosing and drinking one of the various beverages Jinseo offered.
"It seems you like it. Shall I bake more for you?"
"At this size, I can eat a bit more. Please give me ten more, lightly."
"Ah, yes."
Despite the number being anything but light, Jinseo didn't panic and poured flour batter into the egg bread mold.
It was because he had been trained by orders like this through Craid.
"In Brother Jinseo's country, are there other breads like this that are baked in molds? From what I see, if you changed the shape of the mold and also changed what goes inside, it seems you could make even more kinds of bread…"
"You saw that exactly. Besides egg bread, bungeoppang is much more widely known."
"Bungeoppang? Is it bread with bungeo fish inside?"
"No. Only the outside shape is bungeo, and the filling is the sweet red bean paste from sweet red bean steamed buns."
In truth, the representative street food baked in a metal mold was not egg bread, but bungeoppang.
But the sweet red bean paste inside bungeoppang was far from the mildness Karl X asked for.
And while the main ingredients—flour and eggs—could be handled by farms around the Holy Land, sweet red bean paste would have to be brought from Korea no matter what, so Jinseo had no intention of adding bungeoppang to the menu right away.
"If there's a chance later, I'll show you bungeoppang too. For now, please enjoy egg bread. This time, shall I add cheese?"
If you wanted a different flavor from standard egg bread, you could keep the flour batter and eggs the same and change the other ingredients to create variations.
You could lay ham in long strips instead of chopping it, replace it entirely with bacon, or add cheese.
"If there were more of these unusual machines, you could make much more egg bread much faster. I'd really like to have one myself…"
"Your Eminence intends to make it yourself?"
"I want to let brothers and sisters who come all the way here taste this egg bread directly. During the Holy Festival period coming soon, there is a tradition where the pope personally serves a dish he made, and this seems perfectly suited."
"I thought you would serve tteokbokki."
"The brothers and sisters here all like spicy food, so it's fine, but for others, it may be hard to eat. So an egg bread that won't burden them is far better. And it would be troublesome if tteokbokki broth splashed."
"Haha. Then I'll ask some dwarf acquaintances to make one."
"Oh! If I could make this egg bread street food with a mold made by dwarves, the fantastic demi-human race… just imagining it makes my heart race."
"Ah, it's done. Go ahead."
While talking with Karl X, Jinseo made ten more egg breads, and before he knew it, a long line had formed in front of the food truck to receive egg bread.
Veronica, who had lined up in advance expecting this situation, received two egg breads and returned to the table where Fedora was sitting.
"Unni, here."
"Mm, thanks."
Was it because of the pajama party's influence?
Veronica started calling Fedora "unni" again, like before Fedora left the Holy Land, and Fedora also treated Veronica comfortably again, like the old days.
"Wow, this is really good! How about you?"
"I like that it isn't spicy, so you can eat it without burden. But unni."
"Hm? What is it?"
"If it stays like this, you'll become pope. Are you okay with that?"
"It's a position beyond my station, but if it happens, I'll have to try my best."
"Honestly, I felt burdened by a seat that high, but if it's you, unni, you'll definitely do well, so I'm not worried. It's just…"
Veronica glanced at Jinseo, who was busily baking egg bread.
"As a cardinal, even if there are other choices, if you become pope, you can't start a family. Are you okay with that?"
At Veronica's point, Fedora dropped the egg bread she was eating onto the table.
After sitting silently with her eyes closed for a while, Fedora opened her eyes again and slowly picked up the egg bread she had dropped.
"My family is all the brothers and sisters of the Order. And Grandfather is there too."
"Unni, you know that's not what I mean. Why are you doing this?"
"My relationship with Jinseo-nim isn't that kind of relationship…"
"Isn't it? Really?"
While enjoying the pajama party, more than half of the topics Fedora brought up were about Jinseo.
Veronica was already about half sure of the relationship between the two. Watching the looks the man and woman exchanged from the side, it didn't look like a simple relationship between a man and a woman who just knew each other.
Veronica was sincerely happy that Fedora would become pope, the highest position within the Order, but she also felt sorry for her, since she would have to give up so much to become pope.
"I…"
Fedora took another bite of the egg bread she had already bitten.
The egg bread's taste, which impressed her on the first bite, didn't register even a little now.
"I don't know."
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