Chapter 221: Epilogue - Aston's Work Journal (1) It had already been well over two years since Mr. Jinseo passed the food truck on to me.
I had felt it even when I worked alongside Mr. Jinseo, but day after day, I kept realizing that the food business was never easy.
If not for Jason, Stella, Nero, and Owl helping me, I would not have been able to keep the food truck business going.
Then again, that also meant that even with help from those around me, I was still far behind Mr. Jinseo.
I made bunsik with care so I would not tarnish the food truck's reputation, and I never neglected the cleaning, so there would be no problems with the hygiene that Mr. Jinseo always emphasized.
Even so, the anxiety over whether I could really do as much as Mr. Jinseo had done never went away.
When I was worrying like that about the future, Stella suggested that I try writing a work journal.
She said that if I left a record of the things that happened while doing business, it would help me look back on the past and improve going forward.
But once I actually tried to write a work journal, it ended up being like I had simply added one more task to my workload.
As I groaned and worried over how to write down every single thing that happened each day without missing anything, Jason suggested that instead of trying to force the work journal into a rigid format, I might as well write it freely, more like a diary.
In the end, my work journal became closer to a diary, just as Jason said, but that made it much easier to look back on what had happened, so it eased the burden a great deal.
And today, after finishing business, I opened my work journal again like this.
Of course, even now, as I write this work journal, I still cannot shake off my anxiety.
With the food truck Mr. Jinseo left to me, how well will I be able to do?
Swoooosh, crash.
Caw, caw.
The moment the food truck parked on the sandy beach where the sound of waves and gull cries drifted gently through the air, the waiting customers swarmed over like a hive of bees.
"Three servings of Kraken Tempura, please!"
"Two servings each of kraken rice bowls and grilled kraken, please!"
"One kraken assorted fried set, and two servings of tteokbokki too! And give us plenty of sauce so we can dip the fried food in it!"
The food truck's crew spent the time in a frenzy, frying, grilling, and boiling nonstop to keep up with the flood of orders.
Orte Harbor had now firmly established itself as a full-fledged tourist attraction.
A huge number of tourists had gathered at the harbor to enjoy the yearly festival. Then, as soon as word spread that the food truck had arrived at just the right time, the tourists hurried down to the shore.
"Hoo..."
Aston hung up the sign that read Break Time and wiped the sweat endlessly streaming down his forehead with a towel.
"As expected... there are just too many customers during the festival period."
"Husband, you really worked hard."
"You too, Sister-in-law!"
Jason and Stella, who had also made bunsik without stopping alongside him, dropped heavily into the counter seats, completely drained.
Nero and Owl, who had been carrying food around, still seemed full of energy as they floated in the air bickering with each other. Only after Jason scolded them did the two finally quiet down and sit side by side on his shoulders.
"Whew, we nearly ended up skipping lunch too. In that case, let's eat as well!"
Jason, who had brought over a plate piled high with Kraken Tempura, the most popular item of the day, started eating without hesitation.
Crunch, crunch.
"We made it ourselves, but it's really delicious."
Aston and Stella watched with pleased smiles as Jason wolfed down the fried food with a momentum rivaling Craid, the greatest glutton on the Francia Continent.
Maybe it was because he ate with such hearty enjoyment, but just watching him made the two of them feel full.
"Oh, right! Aston, you should eat too! You too, Sister-in-law! Here!"
After devouring half the plate of Kraken Tempura by himself, Jason belatedly offered some to them as well.
"Hm... it turned out well."
As Aston savored the kraken's uniquely chewy yet springy texture, he recalled the battle against the kraken at Orte Harbor years ago.
"It brings back old memories."
"Ah, you said you defeated the kraken here together with my elder brother, didn't you?"
"Yes."
For Aston, who had ridden the food truck alongside Jinseo not only across the Francia Continent but even to the continents of other races, Orte Harbor was a place filled with especially unforgettable memories.
"Back then, that kraken looked so terrifying..."
"And now they're being hauled in one after another like that."
Jason pointed with his fork toward the fishing boats floating on the sea.
The fishermen on the boats, towing enormous kraken corpses behind them, waved excitedly at the tourists watching them.
"Dear customers! Right now! Freshly caught! Kraken! Is going straight into your mouths!"
On the boats the fishermen rode were drawings of a kraken with a cute face, done in a chibi style.
Jinseo's idea had been that it would be nice if there were a mascot symbolizing the festival, and the kraken design made from that idea had spread not only across the boats but throughout the harbor itself.
The fishermen had even gone so far as to rename the festival the Kraken Festival, and now kraken had become an indispensable part of everyday life for them.
"Hey! Long time no see!"
"Village Chief, it's good to see that you're still as healthy as ever."
Aston greeted the muscular Village Chief with his bronze skin warmly.
"Oh, were you on break? Then I'll come back later."
"Not at all. We were just eating, so please join us."
"If it's the food truck's Kraken Tempura, there's no reason to refuse! Then let's see..."
Crunch.
"It's good. But..."
"It's still nowhere near as good as what Mr. Jinseo made, right?"
"T-that's not what I... cough, cough!"
Aston calmly said out loud the words the Village Chief had swallowed back.
The Village Chief promptly choked in flustered surprise, and Jason hurriedly thumped him on the back.
"Hoo, now I can breathe again. Anyway, what I was trying to say wasn't that..."
"I'm sure it wasn't. I just need to work harder."
"Hey! Who said it tasted bad? I said it was delicious! You're carrying too much tension in your shoulders. Jinseo is Jinseo, and you, Aston, are Aston."
"Thank you for your concern."
Aston gave the apologetic Village Chief a small smile and took a bite of the Kraken Tempura.
There had once been times when he felt crushed because his cooking skills were constantly compared to Jinseo's.
But as time passed, instead of feeling defeated, he found it easier on his heart to think that when Jinseo left, he had left him a goal to strive toward.
That goal was to one day reach Jinseo's level of cooking skill.
For the sake of that goal, Aston never stopped driving the food truck all across the continent.
At the same time, tracing the footsteps Jinseo had left behind and remembering him in the process became another joy Aston had discovered.
"Come on! Everyone, look at this!"
"This time it's five of them! A new record!"
When the fishing boats that arrived late at the docks brought in no fewer than five kraken, the Village Chief burst into booming laughter.
"Hey! Catch them in moderation! At this rate, the whole sea will run out of Mr. Kraken! Hahaha!"
The food truck had many functions, but a considerable number of them became unusable after Mr. Jinseo regressed.
Because of that, Mr. Jinseo had worried that running the food truck business might be harder now than before.
Still, one of the food truck's most important functions, its mobility, had no problems, so up to now there had not been much difficulty in running the business.
If I had to name one regret, it would be that contrary to what Mr. Jinseo, the previous owner, said, I still had not experienced the strange phenomenon called the Status Window.
If I could have seen the Status Window the way Mr. Jinseo described it, I thought it might have made things more interesting.
Still, I am very nervous about selling bunsik tomorrow.
It is because, after such a long time, I will be selling bunsik to very important people.
They are all familiar faces since they were regular customers of the food truck, but unlike before, when I cooked beside Mr. Jinseo, now I had to stand as the owner of the food truck myself, so the pressure felt immense.
Even back when Mr. Jinseo was there, my heart always pounded whenever we entered the royal palace, so tomorrow will surely be the same.
I find myself newly envious of the courage Mr. Jinseo had, how he could sell bunsik confidently no matter who the customer was.
Crack!
When the center fielder caught the ball soaring high into the air, a sigh rose from Prince Charles's team dugout, which was in the middle of its final-inning offense.
"There's still one out left! Everyone, keep it up!"
Allensia, the elf participating as a mercenary, clapped her hands and boosted her teammates' morale, and with everyone's expectations on him, Prince Charles stepped into the left batter's box as the last batter.
Today was the day of the championship game, the match that would decide the winner among the sixteen baseball teams participating in the tournament.
Kingdom Team One, the team Prince Charles belonged to, had become a Human-Elf Allied Team with elves joining as mercenaries.
Their opponents were the dwarf team, built out of the dwarves' ambition to dominate baseball now that they had already achieved four consecutive championships in the soccer league held at Falstead Castle.
To watch the fierce showdown between those two teams, spectators had packed into the baseball field built inside the royal palace garden, all while fully enjoying the food truck's bunsik on its long-awaited return to the palace.
"Yes, this is the taste!"
"It's been a long time since I've tasted proper bunsik again. As expected, the food truck's bunsik really is unmistakably different."
Two years had now passed since Jinseo left the Francia Continent, and bunsik had become a common kind of street food here, just as it was in Korea.
Yet the reactions of the customers eating the bunsik they ordered from the food truck were different from usual, and the reason was simple.
The ingredients used in the bunsik cooked at the food truck today were Korean ingredients that Jinseo had stored in the Interspatial Storage before he regressed.
It was the final gift Jinseo left behind, hoping that the customers who had loved his bunsik would be able to enjoy the taste of authentic bunsik just a little longer.
Thanks to that, the customers gathered at the baseball field today were able to watch the game while reliving the emotion they had felt when they first tasted bunsik.
Crack!
"It's deep! It's deep! It's deeeep... home run! His Highness Prince Charles hits a go-ahead three-run homer!"
The excited voice of the announcer broadcasting the championship echoed all the way to the stands.
"Father! Did you see that? I did it!"
"Yes! Well done!"
Now a proper adolescent, Prince Charles embraced Philip III, who had charged onto the field, and shared the joy of victory with him.
"Ah... I guess baseball really was too much for us."
"We tried to conquer baseball after soccer too, but we didn't practice defense enough. I'm confident I can hit the ball far, but when it comes to protecting the lead we already earned, this is what happens..."
Meanwhile, the dwarf team players could not hide their disappointment over losing after failing to hold on to a two-point lead.
All except one.
"Are you watching... Jinseo?"
Geshtain, who had joined as the dwarf team's manager, recalled the over-the-fence home run Jinseo had hit as a demonstration while explaining what baseball was, and his eyes reddened.
"There are players here now who surpass you. Not just one of them, but two..."
Allensia, the elf who went three for four with three RBIs and two stolen bases.
And Prince Charles, who smashed the go-ahead three-run homer that decided the final.
Even though they were players on the opposing team, Geshtain, after watching the brilliant performances of those two, trailed off while missing Jinseo, who had left behind not only bunsik but also the gift of sports.
"Hey, Geshtain. That sounds weird."
"Anyone hearing you would think Jinseo died! And wasn't Allensia better than Jinseo from the start anyway?"
The other team members immediately refuted him for making it sound as if Jinseo, who had merely regressed to the past, had become deceased.
"Tch, I was just trying to enjoy some old memories for the first time in ages, and you lot ruined the mood."
Geshtain pouted and grumbled.
"Anyway, we lost. Jinseo is Jinseo, but losing a match is still frustrating!"
"Damn it! Baseball was never our dwarves' specialty anyway!"
"The soccer league is already over, so... right! Jokgu! Let's settle this again with jokgu!"
The dwarves, overflowing with competitive spirit, could not bear to retreat after losing like this, so they insisted on having a match in a different sport.
"Maybe not baseball, but if it's jokgu, I can kick a ball with the best of them."
"How about holding a jokgu tournament too, just like baseball?"
The moment jokgu was mentioned, people in the stands who wanted to participate began appearing one after another.
They slapped the thighs they had trained through the sports Jinseo had introduced and showed their confidence.
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