Chapter 131: Let's Start by Grilling the Back First (2) Since visiting the food truck a few months ago, Prince Charles's life began to change.
Charles, who previously spent most of his time alone, started eating bunsik with others and, as a result, met and befriended far more people than before.
Even simply playing catch greatly improved his relationship with his father, King Philip III.
Above all, as he grew interested in the world outside the royal palace, he began to yearn for a broader world.
That yearning made Prince Charles wait for a chance to encounter the food truck outside the palace again. Then he heard that an autumn festival would be held at Falstead Castle.
Charles immediately asked to attend, and King Philip III readily permitted it.
Under those circumstances, Oswald Hamilton received notice fifteen days earlier that Prince Charles would be coming to Falstead Castle to attend the autumn festival.
Angelica Crudian volunteered to accompany Charles during the festival, and it was decided that Lee Jinseo would also stay with him until the festival began in earnest.
Jinseo guided Charles and the escort knights to the jjimjilbang building that had been completed a month earlier.
The building consisted of a bathhouse, a jjimjilbang, and convenience facilities, and crowds had flocked to it from the very first day it opened.
Due to circumstances, it normally operated only on weekends, but for Charles, it was specially opened despite being a weekday.
"So I just go in here and soak my body, right?"
"The temperature is just right for me, but I'm not sure how it will be for Your Highness. Try soaking just your feet first."
After washing his hair with shampoo and his body with body wash, Charles followed Jinseo into the large square bath at the center of the bathhouse.
"Your Highness, how is the water temperature?"
"It's a bit hot, but it's fine."
Charles flinched when he dipped his toes into the bath, but he endured the heat and slowly immersed himself.
Then the ten knights guarding him cautiously entered the bath as well.
Unlike in Korea, they felt strong psychological resistance to entering completely naked, so they wore men's square swim trunks.
"There's no need to be that cautious."
Jinseo barely held back a laugh as he watched several knights take turns dipping their heads under the hot water to inspect the inside.
"You're guests here as well, so please relax and enjoy the bath. The mercenaries are monitoring continuously, so nothing will happen."
Mercenaries wearing black triangular briefs—permitted only for bathhouse staff—patrolled various areas of the bathhouse.
"That should be enough. All right, please come out."
Jinseo stepped out first, brought a bath stool, and gestured for Charles to sit.
Smack! Smack!
Jinseo snapped his Italy towel against his palm to shake off the water.
"Your Highness, I'll start by scrubbing your back."
If one simply soaked in hot water and enjoyed the drowsy comfort, that was merely bathing.
Only when the step of scrubbing away dead skin with an Italy towel was added could it be called a true Korean-style bath.
"Please tell me if it hurts. Don't force yourself to endure it."
"It's all right. It feels just right."
"Yes, understood."
When I first came to the bathhouse with Jason, the look on his face after I finished scrubbing his back was something else. He said he thought scrubbing was supposed to hurt… Surely not this time?
To avoid repeating past mistakes, Jinseo carefully began scrubbing Charles's back.
Even though he did not scrub hard, thick rolls of dead skin came off like noodles, and the knights' eyes widened.
"You all saw that, right? That's how you scrub a back."
"Huh? We have to do it too?"
"You went through the trouble of soaking in hot water—if you don't scrub, it'll feel unpleasant. Go on, try it."
The escort knights, seated in a circle around Prince Charles, put on the Italy towels Jinseo handed them and began scrubbing the backs of the comrades in front of them.
"Ah! That hurts! Gently!"
"I think you can go harder on me… Ah, yeah, there! Right there!"
"Wow, so this is how much grime comes off."
Amazed at the thick grime coming off their bodies, the knights diligently scrubbed one another's backs.
"Next are the arms."
Jinseo lifted Charles's right arm and scrubbed the inside, and the knights followed suit on the same areas.
"Wow, I've never felt this refreshed before. Is it because of scrubbing with that mysterious tool called an Italy towel?"
"Yes. In Korea, some people scrub every week. But doing it too often isn't good for your skin, so moderation is best."
"Look! My skin feels so smooth after applying what Jinseo gave me."
Charles, experiencing Korean-style scrubbing for the first time, kept marveling as he touched his noticeably changed skin.
The knights who scrubbed as well wore refreshed expressions as they rubbed their smooth forearms.
Although they instant-traveled about half the distance with teleportation magic, they rarely washed properly during the two-week journey to Falstead Castle, so the Korean-style bath left both their bodies and minds refreshed.
"So this is the jjimjilbang I've only heard about."
The moment Charles, now changed into jjimjilbang clothes, opened the glass door, the people chatting cozily on the floor turned their gaze toward him.
"Charles! Over here!"
Angelica Crudian, sitting with other women, spotted him and waved.
"Your Highness! This way! We saved you a spot."
Oswald Hamilton, who had visited the bathhouse earlier and was lying on the jjimjilbang floor, sprang up and hurried to Charles.
"You must be thirsty after bathing. I'll bring drinks and snacks."
He ran to the snack bar and returned with a large tray full of food and drinks, setting it down in front of Charles.
"Please choose. Sikhye, iced coffee, and misutgaru."
"I've seen adults drink coffee, but the other two are new to me. Which is good?"
"Personally, I recommend sikhye."
"I liked misutgaru more. Though sikhye is good too."
"You all don't know how to enjoy drinks! It has to be ice-cold iced coffee that makes your teeth ache."
Oswald, Angelica, and Geshtain each recommended according to their tastes.
After washing in the bathhouse and sweating in the jjimjilbang, one naturally craved cold drinks.
Faced with three choices—sikhye with floating ice, iced coffee, and slightly honey-sweetened misutgaru—Charles pondered seriously before choosing sikhye.
However, having heard that many foreigners disliked the rice grains in sikhye, Jinseo added a rice-free version to the menu.
When canned sikhye was sold on the Francia Continent before, complaints about the rice grains poured in.
"I'd love to recommend the original sikhye, but it's still too early a food for the Francia Continent. Truly a shame."
Oswald shook his half-finished can of sikhye to make the sunken rice grains float up.
"It's sweet yet so clean-tasting. I've never had anything like it."
"Charles, try this. It's on a completely different level from regular boiled eggs!"
"You're right, Sister. And these rice cakes from tteokbokki taste unique too…"
Charles happily ate baked eggs, grilled garaetteok, steamed corn, potatoes, and more with Angelica.
Compared to the bunsik and dishes Jinseo showed so far, these were very simple foods, yet not a single person complained about the taste.
Foods that survived over thirty years of Korean jjimjilbang history were well received here as well.
As expected, everyone likes it more without the rice grains. But for me, this is still the best.
Watching the human prince and the centaur princess enjoy jjimjilbang food, Jinseo drank banana-flavored milk and sank into memories.
After finishing baths with his father, his father bought him banana milk.
Back then, young Jinseo loved banana milk most but still glanced longingly at the other milk options he couldn't choose.
Now he could drink as many kinds as he wanted, yet nothing surpassed the banana milk his father bought him in childhood.
"Phew… nice and warm."
Craid came out of the hwangto room, greeted Charles, and plopped down beside Hayward.
Hayward handed him a fully peeled baked egg, and Craid devoured ten baked eggs in an instant.
"Craid, do you like the hwangto room?"
At Jinseo's question, Craid smiled in satisfaction and rubbed his left shoulder.
"It reminds me of when I went to Jinseo's house before. The entire floor was so warm that once you lay down, it was hard to get up."
"Jinseo's house? You've been to Korea?"
"Could you tell us more?"
When the princess and prince leaned in with interest at the mention of "Jinseo's house," Craid pointed to Hayward, who was busy peeling more eggs.
"He can explain it better than I can."
"Korea was truly… full of thrilling pleasures."
As he peeled a roasted sweet potato, Hayward began recounting stories from Jinseo's home.
Apartment complexes far taller than dwarf-town buildings, Korean homes where you must never wear shoes inside, and delivery systems that brought all kinds of dishes with a single phone call.
As Hayward vividly described experiences impossible on the Francia Continent, even the knights listened intently while sipping their drinks through straws.
"The bossam and makguksu I had back then were incredible."
"Bossam? Makguksu? Are those bunsik too?"
"Wrap it with raw garlic and lettuce—it's amazing. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water."
Humans, dwarves, and centaurs.
For all three races, Korea was still an unknown land.
If anything, the more they listened to Hayward, the more their curiosity about Korea grew.
"I see… I see…"
Listening to Hayward, Charles began to nod off from fatigue.
Lying on the sleep mattress Jinseo brought, Charles blinked a few times before falling fast asleep.
"You knights should get some sleep too. You must be tired from traveling such a long way with His Highness."
"N-no. We can't do that for His Highness's safety."
"Then at least go warm your backs in the hwangto room. If you don't rest at times like this, when will you? You can relax here."
Jinseo pointed to the mercenaries stationed throughout the jjimjilbang, just like in the bathhouse.
Wearing jjimjilbang clothes and black sunglasses, they stood guard strictly to block any unwanted guests.
"More importantly, leaving a jjimjilbang without warming your back breaks the rules. Look, even Craid is asleep."
Craid, who had been eating and drinking nonstop, was now sprawled out snoring, enjoying the floor's warmth on his back.
"I-is that so?"
"If it's a rule, we should follow it."
"Let's finish our sikhye and go in."
The escort knights drained their drinks at once and entered the hwangto room.
And the moment they lay down, they understood why Jinseo recommended it so strongly.
"Ah… this is comfortable."
"Ugh, it's so warm I'm already getting sleepy…"
"In a place like this… you can't help but fall asleep…"
Unable to overcome the drowsiness brought by comfort, the escort knights began falling asleep one by one.
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