Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Angry Ria

I answered Ria's question about what was going on.

"It's nothing. These two are rivals, so they're just sizing each other up."

Both men were representative S-Rank Hunters of Korea.

The Sword Saint was a symbolic figure among hunters.

Blade Saint Kim Gang-hyeon was the leader of the nation's top-ranked guild.

Thus, with so much weight on both their shoulders, they were unlikely to actually clash.

And yet the Blade Saint still did not retract his presence.

The Sword Saint, who had been in a standoff, spoke.

"Rein in your needless competitive spirit."

"Why are you suddenly withdrawing your presence? Is it because of that silver-haired woman?"

He pointed at Ria without warning.

Ria's brow furrowed.

The Sword Saint continued.

"Don't be rude."

"I heard you lost to a silver-haired woman named Emeria. So the rumor was true."

A deliberately provocative tone.

However, the Sword Saint acknowledged it without a hint of concern.

"It's true."

"You should relinquish the title of Sword Saint, then."

"I couldn't care less about titles."

The Sword Saint's nonchalant attitude made the Blade Saint's brow crease.

He then turned his head toward Ria.

"I'd like to experience her strength for myself."

"......"

Ria remained silent.

"Would you be willing to spar with me?"

Some people simply had to measure themselves to be satisfied.

When Ria stayed silent, I stepped forward.

"You must be weary from the long journey. Why not set down your things and rest first?"

At that, the Blade Saint glared at me.

"And who are you?"

Dropping straight to informal speech upon our first meeting.

Kim Gang-hyeon was in his mid-forties, considerably older than me.

"I'm a hunter named An Seon-u."

"Ah, so you're the rumored chef-hunter with the subspace. This isn't your place to step in, so back off."

Was he saying I was not on his level?

He was even more authoritarian than I had expected.

Being dismissed like that did not sit well with me.

Seeing me brushed aside, Ria spoke coldly to the Blade Saint.

"You're being rude to my husband."

"Husband......? So the rumor that you two married is also true."

Ria ignored his remark and said,

"Apologize to my husband."

Kim Gang-hyeon scowled for a moment, then broke into a smirk.

"If you defeat me in a spar, I'll apologize."

Ria took the bait he dangled without hesitation.

"I accept that proposal."

The Sword Saint and I exchanged glances and smiled bitterly.

He's drinking the poisoned chalice after all.

I whispered quietly to Ria.

"Ria, go easy on him."

"Okay."

Her words said okay, but her expression was cold.

The look Ria wore when she was angry.

His rudeness toward me must have upset her.

'She is going to go hard......'

Should I try to stop this even now?

The two of them headed to a clearing far from the Bedrock Zone and faced each other.

Ria held a double-edged sword, and the Blade Saint held a large single-edged blade.

The S-Rank trio came up beside me and spoke.

"Captain looks angry. Is that guy going to be all right?"

In response to Eriksson's remark, the Sword Saint answered.

"Surely she wouldn't kill him."

"......He disrespected Seon-u. He might die?"

Santos also expressed concern with a worried look.

They were actually worrying about the Blade Saint, not Ria.

And rightly so.

We watched the spar from a safe distance to avoid getting caught up in it.

The spar began.

"......"

I had never seen Ria generate Aura that intensely before.

The two clashed once.

BOOM!

Sword met blade.

The earth trembled.

The Blade Saint's weapon was twice the size of Ria's sword.

Not just the weapon—his build was overwhelmingly larger too.

Yet it was the Blade Saint who was pushed back in raw power.

Ria then pressed forward relentlessly without pause.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Thunderous impacts erupted one after another.

The Blade Saint was pushed back again and again.

The Emperor Guild members who had been cheering for him looked visibly panicked.

But something was strange—despite Ria's aggressive assault, the Blade Saint was holding on surprisingly well.

She was not delivering the finishing blow, as if toying with him.

She relentlessly targeted only the Blade Saint's weapon with focused strikes.

'Why......?'

The Sword Saint was tilting his head in puzzlement as well.

Before long, the reason became clear.

CLANG!

The Blade Saint's blade snapped and its severed edge embedded itself in the ground.

'She was aiming to break his blade all along.'

Ria's sword, by contrast, was perfectly intact.

Ria leveled her sword at the Blade Saint's throat.

He dropped the broken remains of his weapon to the ground.

It was a flawless victory for Ria and a humiliating defeat for the Blade Saint.

"Impossible......"

"Master lost......"

"Do you know how expensive that blade was......"

The Emperor Guild members seemed unable to accept reality.

Some even reached for their weapon hilts, displaying open hostility toward Ria.

At that, the S-Rank trio stepped in front of them.

"Don't let your competitive spirits get the better of you."

"You're not thinking of taking us on, are you? Hands off your weapons."

"......"

With the S-Rank trio intervening, they trembled for a moment before releasing their grips on their weapons.

Then they hung their heads low.

Like a defeated army in retreat.

Before long, Ria exchanged a few words with the Blade Saint, then walked toward us alongside him.

'The Blade Saint looks absolutely shattered.'

His expression was that of a man whose soul had left his body.

It was not just a defeat—he had been overwhelmingly overpowered, had his prized blade snapped, and lost in utter humiliation.

The shock had to be immense.

Ria spoke to the Blade Saint.

"Keep your promise."

"......Understood."

The Blade Saint then turned to me and bowed his head.

"I apologize for my rudeness earlier......"

The man who had spoken down to me was now apologizing in formal speech.

I accepted his apology and even offered words of comfort.

"Not at all, it happens. And please don't be too discouraged—think of it as encountering a natural disaster."

"......"

The Sword Saint also spoke to him.

"Chin up. There's always a higher sky above. Consider it an honor to have crossed blades with an absolute master."

"......"

He gave a slight nod, then trudged back toward the Emperor Guild members.

It seemed recovery from this shock would take considerable time.

In any case, it felt satisfying.

'My wife made even the nation's top-ranked guild master feel the wall.'

I was reminded once again that I had married someone truly extraordinary.

I spoke to Ria.

"Ria, good work. Did that help you blow off some steam?"

"Yeah, and I'm sorry. I just couldn't stand him disrespecting you."

"Why would you be sorry for that? I'd have been furious too if the situation were reversed."

Being disrespected myself was one thing, but watching my wife be disrespected was something I could never tolerate.

Ria must have felt the same way.

The Emperor Guild set up camp at a considerable distance from the Bedrock Zone.

'Guess they won't be visiting the restaurant?'

They did not look like they planned to come today.

'Well, nothing I can do about that.'

Then should I at least cook up a simple stew for them?

'If I extend a hand first, maybe they will warm up and visit the restaurant?'

I put that thought into action.

I cooked up a pot of meat stew and had the Sword Saint deliver it to them.

The Emperor Guild initially hesitated, but eventually shared the stew among themselves.

***

The next day, morning.

Ria and I drove to the Rift Management Bureau to complete the registration process for the Crisis Response Team and received our hunter IDs.

"Welcome to the Rift Management Bureau family."

"Welcome!"

"Welcome!!"

At Director Jeong Jae-yong's words, the bureau staff greeted us warmly.

Deputy Director Kim Cheol-su was among them.

Those who had been unable to attend our reception also offered their wedding congratulations.

"Thank you."

"Thank you so much."

Ria and I expressed our gratitude.

We then headed with the Director and Deputy Director to a renowned upscale traditional Korean full-course restaurant with private rooms.

Ria and I had decided to treat the two of them to a meal as thanks for everything they had done.

While waiting for the food, the Director spoke to me.

"Have you seen this photo, by any chance?"

He showed me a captured screenshot from an online community post.

The post contained photos.

They were pictures taken during our reception.

"This is the first time I'm seeing these. Our faces are clearly visible."

"Yes, it seems someone who attended the reception leaked photos of you two. The post with the photos went up early this morning, and the images have already spread to multiple sites."

"There's nothing we can do about that. We expected it would happen."

It was not as if we could have banned photos at a reception.

So photos spreading was something we had anticipated.

I was fine with it.

"Are you okay with this, Ria?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't mind."

As long as Ria was fine, that was all that mattered.

On the other hand, I was curious.

How would people react to seeing Ria in hanbok?

The Director continued.

"This is the first time the face of Ria, who obtained citizenship, has been made public."

"I suppose so. My face has already been widely circulated."

Back when I had worked at Pungjeong, my face had appeared multiple times in Mutuber videos where I was explaining dishes.

After internet articles revealed my name and the fact that I had been a sous chef at Pungjeong, the netizen investigators had started digging, and in the process my face from various Mutube channel videos became widely known.

Deputy Director Kim Cheol-su then said while looking at his phone,

"Oh dear, a news article has been published too. Your photos are blurred out."

"An article?"

"Take a look."

He handed me his phone, and I checked the article.

—Emeria, the Naturalized Citizen Everyone's Talking About, and An Seon-u, the Sword Saint's Benefactor. The Marriage Rumors Were True.

The content described how Ria and I had held a secret wedding ceremony and hosted a reception in the village where we lived.

I scrolled down to check the comments.

—Hands up if you came here after seeing the reception photos!

—His wife is absolutely stunning.

—If I learn to cook, can I get a wife that beautiful?

—I'm so jealous...... I'm signing up for cooking classes starting today.

—His wife is so elegant, the hanbok looks perfect on her.

—Looks like everyone's already seen the photos. Where can I find them?

Among many other comments.

Most praised Ria's beauty.

And there were comments expressing envy toward me.

'They should be envious.'

Every morning when I opened my eyes, I could scarcely believe Ria was lying beside me.

Every single day felt like a dream.

I showed the article to Ria, then returned the phone to the Deputy Director.

After that, the Korean full-course dishes began arriving, and we enjoyed the meal while chatting pleasantly.

Once the meal was over, I asked Ria in the car on the way back to the countryside house.

"What did you think of the Korean full-course meal?"

"Everything was delicious overall. But I still think the Korean food you make tastes better."

It was a renowned upscale restaurant, and to me, their food felt slightly more specialized and delicious than my own cooking.

It seemed even Ria's palate was clouded by love.

***

We took the day off from the restaurant due to the visit to the Rift Management Bureau.

The next day.

Ria stayed at the Rift house to catch up on accumulated tasks.

Today, I went to the restaurant alone.

At lunchtime, the restaurant door opened.

Blade Saint Kim Gang-hyeon and the Emperor Guild members walked in.

The Blade Saint asked me somewhat sheepishly,

"Is it possible to have lunch here?"

"Yes, of course. Please, have a seat."

The stew I had provided free of charge two days ago must have worked.

The wounds of humiliation from his defeat at Ria's hands the day before also seemed to have healed somewhat.

All eleven of them found seats and sat down.

The Blade Saint then asked me a question.

"Is there a menu aside from the wine list?"

"No, the menu changes daily."

"What's today's menu?"

"Yukgaejang set meal. If you'd like something different, I can prepare simple dishes."

"Yukgaejang set meal—that sounds wonderful, nice and spicy. Then eleven servings of the yukgaejang set, please."

Unified order. Excellent.

"Eleven servings of the yukgaejang set, noted."

In truth, I had been cooking the yukgaejang with the plan to offer it to them for free if no customers showed up today.

I had figured two free meals would soften them enough to visit the restaurant.

But apparently, one free meal had been sufficient.