Chapter 18

Chapter 18. The Healthy Juice Craze and Salmon Poke

Was it thanks to the healthy juice?

Compared to a week ago when Rin first arrived, its complexion had brightened.

The twig-like horns on its head and the vines and leaves covering its body overflowed with vitality.

Seeing this, Ria became envious.

"Seon-u, I also want to drink healthy juice instead of breakfast every morning. Would one cup each be okay for me too?"

Of course it was okay.

I could just make some for Ria when I made Rin's.

I could make a large amount and take it out from Acresia to drink.

"Of course. But you still need to eat breakfast. I will make you juice and simple sandwiches to eat with it. Ria, you have a lot of activity so you burn a lot of calories, so you need to eat well. You train all day long except when I am teaching you."

She was already strong enough, but Ria herself did not seem satisfied.

She wanted to become as strong as her father, who had been called a Hero.

Also, she said it was to protect Rin and me from potential attacks by powerful Monsters.

Soon Ria touched her belly and sides and said.

"Is that so......? I have been eating well lately so I think I have gained a little weight. Still, I hope my skin and hair get better. I did not take care of them when I was a knight, but now I am an ordinary person."

"Your skin and hair are good even now, though? And there is only you and me here, so you do not really need to take care of......"

Why was Ria looking at me with dissatisfaction?

Did I misspeak?

I quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway, if that is the case, I will adjust it to a healthy diet. In that sense, let us have poke for lunch today."

"Poke? What is that?"

"It is a dish where you gather various ingredients in one bowl and mix them together to eat. It is a very healthy dish with lots of vegetables."

While I was at it, I should make poke for Rin too.

I could not keep feeding it only healthy juice.

It would be like poke baby food.

Still, Rin was tending trees, drinking, resting.

Tending trees, drinking, resting in a repeated and diligent pattern of life.

'It is happier watching the trees grow than I am. I am looking forward to it because of the fruit, but Rin purely likes watching trees grow.'

How was that appearance a Monster?

It was a pure forest spirit itself.

It was strange that it was classified as a Monster just because it had a Magic Stone in its heart.

By that logic, were not Hunters who had Mana crystals form in their hearts from Second Awakening also practically Monsters?

It seemed more correct to regard them as the Dryad species or forest spirits rather than Monsters.

The Applecherry tree that Rin had grown over the week had grown to adult male size, so I could expect fruit soon.

'Will the fruit be more delicious because a Dryad grew it?'

I had a premonition that at the very least it would not be less delicious.

That was because, compared to wood from the same tree type made into Smoking Chips, the trunk was sturdier and the leaves greener.

Therefore, I was expecting high-quality fruit to grow.

"Then shall I start making poke?"

I immediately began cooking.

First, I washed rice and set it to cook. Then I took out salmon fillets from Acresia and cleaned them thoroughly once more.

I cut them smaller and more squarely than for sashimi, but thicker.

Soon I julienned onions and mixed them with the salmon, along with soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic, and allulose, a zero-tier sugar substitute, then let it marinate for a while.

Next, I cut tofu into cube shapes and lightly fried them in avocado oil.

I prepared and cut lettuce, cucumber, carrots, bell peppers, avocado, and tomatoes.

'There was a time when I lived eating only poke for a while too.'

There was a period when I was working a lot and having a hard time, so I ate mostly high-calorie, salty, and greasy foods.

As I ate that way, I gained weight and my health deteriorated.

In fact, my health checkup results at that time were not good either.

From then on, I started eating healthy poke, and for close to a year I lost weight by eating only poke for three meals a day, and I had the experience of recovering my health.

'After that time, I always used only extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil as cooking oil.'

A realization I learned when my health deteriorated.

Just choosing your oils well protects your health.

'It is expensive, but if it is for health.'

Also, it goes without saying, but for health it is very important to consume a lot of vegetables.

At the same time, you also need to moderately consume meat to supplement nutrients so that your health does not have problems when dieting.

Poke is a balanced healthy diet that satisfies all of those things.

Soon I fried the julienned onions crispy in avocado oil to make flakes.

After that, I made a dressing sauce with the same seasoning as what I marinated the salmon in.

I laid down rice, placed the salmon on top of the rice, and arranged the fried tofu and cut vegetables around it.

"Wow, it is so pretty."

Ria admired the poke.

One of poke's advantages is that it looks good when plated.

There was once a time when poke photos became a craze on social media.

Soon I drizzled the sauce over the poke.

I sprinkled ground sesame seeds to finish it.

'Next, Rin's.'

Since it was for a young child to eat, I needed to cut it very finely.

I minced avocado, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, carrots, and bell peppers very finely.

And instead of rice, I pressed boiled potatoes through a sieve and cut the bottom with a knife to make very small ball shapes.

Instead of rice.

'Let us not add sauce. It might not like it.'

I plated it like poke in a very small sauce dish.

"Rin, come here. Let us eat."

After spending a week together, now it knew that when called "Rin," it was being called.

Rin, who had been growing the Applecherry tree, ran toward me.

I placed the approaching Rin on my palm and set it down on the table.

Soon Rin looked around the table with curiosity.

Seeing that, Ria smiled.

"Rin seems to be looking for healthy juice?"

"It seems so. Unfortunately, this time it is not healthy juice."

I pushed the small plate in front of Rin.

Seeing it, Rin looked back and forth between me and the plate.

"Try eating it."

When I said this while mimicking eating, soon Rin nodded and began picking up and eating the fresh vegetables.

It was just raw vegetables and boiled potatoes resembling poke without sauce, so I had worried about what to do if it did not eat it, but my worry was unfounded.

"Fortunately it is eating well."

"Fresh vegetables like that are delicious even eating them plain."

"That is true. Ria, you try it too."

"Alright. Should I mix it together to eat?"

"That varies by each person's preference, but you can mix it together to eat, or you can just scoop up each ingredient separately and eat it like a rice bowl."

"Then I will first savor the taste of each ingredient one by one."

That way, Ria began tasting the poke.

First she scooped up salmon and rice, along with the marinated onion slices, and ate them.

"Mm, I was worried because it is raw uncooked fish flesh, but it is okay? Is it because it is seasoned? It is delicious."

"Where I live, cuisine for eating fish raw as sashimi is well developed. Next time I will prepare an assorted raw fish platter for you."

"Eating raw things is a little scary...... But if you make it for me, Seon-u, I will eat it deliciously."

Soon Ria tried scooping and eating various ingredients one at a time.

After eating them once each like that, she mixed the ingredients together and ate them.

"It is mild so no matter how much I eat, I do not get tired of it and it keeps being delicious."

Poke has that tendency.

After this day, Ria became addicted to the mild taste of poke.

'They say there is no cure for poke addiction.'

First of all, if you eat healthily, you are less tired.

Your skin begins to improve.

After experiencing that, you avoid stimulating foods and only seek poke—the poke addiction symptom.

'I know well from experiencing it myself.'

Going further, Ria learned to make various types of poke dishes directly from me and began making and eating them herself.

I had intended to teach her cooking starting from making fermented pastes, but I ended up teaching other foods first.

Then one day.

Ria said to me.

"I want to try planting the vegetables that go in poke directly."

"You want to grow them yourself?"

"Yes, would that not work?"

"No, there is no reason it would not work, but I cannot quite imagine Ria holding a hoe instead of a sword. Then should I buy you seeds for poke ingredients?"

I did not know if ordinary crops, not crops that come from Rifts, would grow in this land.

Still, it was worth trying.

"Really? That would be so nice. I will work hard to grow them and make you fresh poke."

"I will look forward to it."

She started learning cooking from me.

And now she said she would even grow crops directly.

Many changes were happening to the former knight who had known only swords.

"Queen of farming, you will help, right?"

Ria asked Rin, who was up on the table, while holding out her palm.

Meaning to high five.

Rin probably did not even understand what was being said, but just smiled brightly with pure happiness and touched Ria's palm with its small hand.

'It looks good, is this the feeling of being healed?'

Watching the two of them, my heart felt at ease.

After meeting Ria, it felt like the wounds that had eaten away at my heart knowingly and unknowingly at Pungjeong and had not been erased were being washed away.

***

Magic Stones are similar to gold.

There is an exchange, and prices fluctuate daily.

When Rifts first occurred, prices were not that expensive.

This was because Magic Stone utilization was very low.

However, currently, not only Hunters' weapons and equipment.

Electronics companies were paying attention to them as new energy and conducting research to replace electricity.

'The outlook is that in the future, electronic devices without power cords will become the mainstream.'

Even cars.

Following electric and hydrogen cars, Magic Stone cars might appear.

The world was rapidly changing once again.

Setting that aside, I was driving to the exchange.

'I need to exchange everything and pay the balance for the house.'

The completion date for the modular house was right around the corner.

I arrived at the designated bank that exchanges Magic Stones, pulled a waiting number, and immediately proceeded with the exchange.

"Hunter, please place your Hunter license on the counter along with the Magic Stones you wish to exchange on the basket."

Following the counter employee's words, I first placed my Hunter license up.

Then I placed the sack of Magic Stones on the large basket.

It looked like it would overflow if I put them in the basket.

"Hunter? You need to only place the Magic Stones."

"Everything inside is Magic Stones."

"Pardon? Ah, let me check your Hunter license first. You are an E-rank Hunter. You must not have exchanged for a long time."

"Haha......"

I just passed it over with a laugh.

Indeed, it would take quite a while for a porter to collect this amount of Magic Stones.

Then the employee checked the contents of the sack and was surprised.

"There are also several High-Grade Magic Stones? There are quite a lot of Mid-Grade and Low-Grade ones too. You must have a good fixed party."

"That is right."

Kim Myeong-hun, Han Joel, Jeong Ye-rim.

All three were good people even if their ranks were low.

I preferred being comfortable even if it meant struggling a bit more than having a strong party.

In that sense, it was really a good party.

The counter employee had quite a hard time counting because there were so many Magic Stones.

Finally it ended.

"Lowest-Grade 230, Low-Grade 19, Mid-Grade 3, High-Grade 11, is that correct?"

This included 1 Mid-Grade and 2 High-Grade that Ria had given me.

"Yes, that is correct."

"At current market prices, the total is 279,520,000 won. If that is correct, please sign the confirmation form here. Should I deposit the money into your account?"

"Yes, please deposit it."

That way, money in the mid-to-late 300 million range was deposited into my bank account balance.

As I left the bank, the sunlight felt particularly warm.

"This is nice."

This is life.

Now that I had exchanged the money, I should buy clothes for Ria.

After first meeting her, once.

After Ria left and came back, once more.

Having bought clothes for her twice, I learned her clothing and shoe sizes.

'When I bought them the second time, I measured her and bought not only activewear but also pajamas.'

I was proxy-purchasing everything needed for daily life.

At this point, was she not just like family?

'......That thought just now crossed the line.'

She is a friend, not family.

Closer than friends, more distant than family.

'I do not know.'

Anyway, I do not know how long this relationship will be maintained.

Ria could suddenly leave.

I could get a romantic partner and visits to the Rift could become infrequent.

'No, the latter is not possible.'

I have never deeply liked someone with romantic feelings.

Even when I dated Yu Seon-yeong because she said she liked me and followed me around, I just thought of her as a workplace colleague who was a bit closer, and I never gave my heart deeply.

That might be why she felt disillusioned with me and betrayed me.

Anyway, after being badly burned by Yu Seon-yeong, I did not want to meet anyone.

For now, I just wanted to cherish the time with Ria and Rin.