Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Celebrating the First Lunar New Year Since the Wedding

The Sword Saint was serious.

"The Bamboo Fragrance Guild is a family guild anyway. It was never created for profit."

"Still, would the guild members not object?"

"The guild members are all my disciples. They will follow wherever I go without complaint."

The bond between master and student seemed stronger than I had thought.

In any case, having the Sword Saint join the guild I would be creating was reassuring for me.

'If Eriksson and Santos join as well, it would become a guild with combat power ranking in the top three worldwide.'

On top of that, if the knight quartet were included as unofficial guild members, the guild would boast the strongest fighting force in existence.

'All four members of the knight quartet are S-Rank or above, after all.'

Regardless, I had no great interest in things like military power or rankings.

The guild was simply meant to allow my companions to conveniently travel back and forth through a Gate portal inside the building.

It was truly a social, family guild.

Setting that aside, I was very pleased with the building.

'I will spend about a month looking further. If I cannot find any other suitable listings, I will go ahead and purchase this building and have it completed.'

***

It was the day before Lunar New Year, the greatest of Korean national holidays.

The first Lunar New Year holiday since my marriage to Ria.

Our companions had all gathered at the Rift countryside house.

"Wow, so this is where you live, Chef."

"This is amazing......! I can't believe a place like this exists inside a Rift."

"Incredible......!"

Kim Myeong-hun, Jeong Ye-rim, and Joel, visiting the Rift house for the first time, looked around in admiration.

"I should have shown you around sooner. Sorry for only bringing you now."

The three waved their hands and shook their heads at my words.

"No, Chef. We're grateful you brought us at all."

"You brought us because you trust us, right, Oppa? We're actually touched."

"It is an honor to be invited."

We gathered around the wooden platform bench and began frying an assortment of jeon.

Pollock jeon, flounder jeon, oyster jeon.

Yukjeon, donggeurangtteng, pepper jeon, perilla leaf jeon.

Three-color jeon, shiitake mushroom jeon, pine mushroom jeon, hobakjeon, tofu jeon.

Kimchi jeon, potato jeon, seafood scallion jeon, soybean paste pancake, and more.

Ruina looked at the array of jeon laid before her and said,

"There really are so many types of jeon."

Ria spoke while flipping a jeon.

"There are. In Korea, when holidays come around, families gather like this and fry all sorts of jeon together."

"Really? What a fascinating custom. But making them while chatting like this is so fun. And snacking on them one by one is delicious."

"Haha! Right? It is fun."

Ria and Ruina seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Perhaps it was because this was their first time experiencing a Korean holiday.

Eventually, the burden of preparing all the food might make the holiday feel overwhelming.

'Then again, maybe not. I have enjoyed it since I was a child.'

Holidays spent with my father as a boy.

Whenever a holiday came, my father would always prepare a feast.

I had helped him make the food from a young age, right there beside him.

My father always entrusted the seasoning to me.

-Our Seon-u has to do the seasoning for it to be just right.

He would say that.

I had an exceptional palate from a young age.

That was why I had been the one to season the jeon, the japchae, and the galbi marinade.

'Those were happy times with Father.'

If my father were alive, he would have been so delighted to meet Ria.

It was a shame he had passed away so early.

Tomorrow, after the morning service ended, I would visit the columbarium where my father's ashes were enshrined.

Since it was a holiday, a lunch service would be difficult. Instead, I planned to hold a morning service.

I wanted to share holiday food with the customers on the Fourth Floor of the Rift, which was why I was operating even on the holiday.

For that reason, I was preparing all the food in advance now so that tomorrow I could sell quickly and wrap up the service.

As each batch of jeon was completed and piled onto platters, I stored them immediately in Acresia.

While working, Ruina said to me,

"Seon-u, once we finish frying all the jeon, could I have some makgeolli to go with them?"

"Of course. Drink to your heart's content. I will give you every variety of makgeolli we have."

"Wow, thank you! That sounds delicious."

Ruina, the heavy drinker, licked her lips.

"Lady Ria, you will have a drink with me too, right?"

"All right, let us have a drink together."

"I am so excited!"

The knight trio also chatted while diligently frying jeon.

Vice Commander Garrett scowled when he saw Neville snacking on the jeon.

"Neville, you rascal, eat in moderation. You seem to be eating more than you are frying."

"Vice Commander, there is so much here. What is there to worry about?"

"You fool, did he not say these are being sold to customers tomorrow? There might not be enough."

"Tch...... understood."

I spoke to Neville.

"I prepared plenty, so let us all have a drink together after we are done. For now, focus on frying. There are too many jeon that are either undercooked or on the verge of burning."

Being beginners with little jeon-frying experience, they were quite clumsy.

"Got it. This is harder than I thought."

Eriksson was just as much a beginner.

The Sword Saint, on the other hand, was an expert jeon fryer.

Kim Myeong-hun, Jeong Ye-rim, and Joel, being Korean, were also doing well.

'Then, shall I get started on the dumplings?'

Tomorrow morning's menu would be a full spread of rice cake and dumpling soup, an assorted jeon platter, japchae, and braised beef short ribs.

First, I took the dumpling wrapper dough I had prepared and aged in advance, stretched it out long, and cut it into individual portions.

Using a small wooden rolling pin, I rolled each wrapper with three rotations.

SWISH SWISH SWISH!

One dumpling wrapper was complete.

I repeated the process at machine-like speed.

In an instant, I had made ten wrappers.

"Chef's hands are literally a machine."

"I think he's faster than a machine."

Jeong Ye-rim and Joel were impressed.

I then placed a wrapper on my left hand, used a stainless steel spatula to scoop the filling twice, and used my index finger and thumb to fold it into a pretty shape.

"How are his hands that fast and precise? A machine would weep."

"Seriously. They say if you fold dumplings beautifully, you will have a beautiful baby. Your baby will be gorgeous, Oppa."

At Jeong Ye-rim's words, Ria reacted.

"Really? If you fold dumplings beautifully, you have a beautiful baby?"

"Yes, Ma'am. It is true!"

"Hmm? Is that so?"

It was just a folk saying.

But Ria looked overjoyed.

If it made her happy, that was enough.

'If the baby takes after Ria, it will definitely be beautiful.'

Ria then washed her hands and came over beside me.

"I want to fold them with you."

"All right. I will show you how."

I taught her slowly through verbal instructions and hand demonstrations.

Folding dumplings while holding a spatula was something only experienced dumpling masters did.

But with Ria's dexterity, she would be able to do it after a few rounds of practice.

"Make it pretty......"

Ria murmured quietly as she folded dumplings with great care.

It was clear she was trying hard to make them beautiful because of the folk saying.

'Adorable.'

To believe that and concentrate this hard.

Watching Ria's innocent side like this, the other companions wore warm smiles too.

Neville commented,

"Where has our charismatic commander gone?"

"She is cute, and that is nice to see, is it not?"

"Fair point."

"Neville, you have been looking happy lately too, making all sorts of things out of wood as a hobby."

"I suppose I have. More than anything, it is nice to live without the smell of blood."

"Indeed."

That last answer came from Benny.

When he said that, Garrett and Neville whispered quietly,

"Benny might actually miss the bloodsoaked battlefields. He always looked happiest when fighting for his life."

"True."

Benny made a face as if he had been wrongly accused.

'This really has a holiday atmosphere.'

With so many people gathered, it was lively and noisy.

I looked at the dumplings Ria had folded.

"Ria, after just a few tries, you are folding them beautifully."

"Really? I am concentrating incredibly hard right now."

Just how beautiful a baby was she trying to have?

"I hope the baby looks like you, Ria."

"Why?"

"That way, when the child grows up, I will not have to hear, 'Why do I look like Dad instead of Mom?' as a complaint."

"Pfft! What is that about?"

"It is not a laughing matter. It is very important. Looks matter a great deal."

Whether a man or a woman, appearance accounted for at least half of first impressions.

No — in Korea, perhaps nine-tenths?

Ria shook her head.

"I would rather the baby look like you, Seon-u."

"Why?"

"If the baby looks like the person I love, I think it would make me happy every time I see its face."

"Ahem."

My cheeks lifted on their own.

And so, Ria and I flirted even while folding dumplings.

We were making two kinds — kimchi and meat.

I planned to put two meat dumplings and two kimchi dumplings in each bowl of soup.

Ria and I finished folding the dumplings quickly together.

Then we made the japchae and braised beef short ribs as well.

With the jeon frying also completed, all preparations for the service were done.

"All right, now let us enjoy the holiday among ourselves."

"Hooray!"

We ate jeon and dumplings while drinking makgeolli.

Then we played Yut Nori.

Ria, the Sword Saint, Rin, Eriksson, and Jeong Ye-rim were on one team.

The knight quartet along with Kim Myeong-hun and Joel were on the other team.

I served as referee and photographer.

I explained the rules, and the game began.

When Rin's turn came around —

"It is your turn, Rin. Throw."

"Okay!"

Rin struggled to grip the yut sticks with her tiny hands and threw.

The result was mo.

"Great job, Rin!"

"Yaaay!"

Ria and Rin high-fived.

The Sword Saint and Eriksson also held out their hands.

Rin smacked palms with both of them too.

Rin threw again.

This time, gae.

"Caught one!"

She had captured an opponent's piece that was out at gae.

Rin was on a roll.

Eriksson said to Rin,

"Not bad, little one."

"Hehe! Rin is good!"

In the end, Ria's team won the first round, with all their pieces reaching the finish first.

The second round went to the knight team.

In the third round, Ria and Rin led the charge to claim victory, making the final score 2-1 in favor of Ria's team.

After Yut Nori, Ruina said she would liven things up, stuck a spoon in a soju bottle, and began singing.

Watching her, Eriksson scratched his cheek with his index finger.

"......She can actually sing."

Everyone else was clapping along, but Eriksson alone stared at Ruina without blinking, unable to look away.

'Eriksson's reaction is suspicious......'

Eriksson had just turned twenty.

That made a seven-year age gap.

'Well, Ruina looks young for her age, so the gap is not obvious.'

Apparently, a mage of Ruina's caliber aged slowly regardless.

The same applied to Awakened Hunters.

Whether Awakened, knight, or mage — the higher one's Mana reserves, the slower one aged.

So the age gap was largely meaningless.

Setting that aside, all the knights took turns singing one after another.

The Sword Saint sang a rich, traditional folk song.

Then Ria sang a piece as well.

'Is this the first time I have heard Ria sing?'

There had never been an opportunity to hear her sing before.

Come to think of it, I had never taken her to a karaoke room either.

Neville provided accompaniment on a lute-like instrument he had handmade from wood and monster sinew.

Ria's song began.

'Her tone is as beautiful as her face.'

A clear, pristine voice, as if untouched by a single flaw.

"Wow."

Rin, sitting on my lap, was entranced.

"Rin, is Ria's voice pretty?"

"Yeah, it's pretty. Ria is pretty."

She hit the high notes with ease.

Having commanded a knightly order, her diaphragmatic breathing was solid.

When Ria's song ended, Rin and I applauded.

"Ria, you are the best!"

"Ria is the bestest!"

Ria approached us shyly where we sat on the mat.

She sat beside me and leaned against my shoulder.

"My singing is not very good, so it was embarrassing."

"It was not lacking at all. You could go on a TV singing competition."

"Haha! That is absolutely not true."

Then it was Rin's turn.

She clasped her two little hands together and sang the nursery rhyme Ria had taught her.

I could not tell whether she sang it well, but she was simply adorable.

The response was the most enthusiastic of the whole evening.

Bell was the most enthusiastic of all.

"Awoo-!"

And so, on the eve of the holiday, we gathered together, made food, played games, and spent a joyful time.

***

The next day.

I began the morning service.

Since all the food had been prepared the previous afternoon, I was able to fill orders quickly.

For the dumpling soup, I added sliced rice cakes and dumplings to the bone broth and brought it to a boil.

I topped it with egg garnish, green onions, and beef garnish, and it was done.

I also served the main side dishes: the assorted jeon platter, japchae, and braised beef short ribs.

The basic accompaniments were kimchi, seasoned spinach, and seasoned bean sprouts.

Dessert was either cinnamon punch or rice punch, served with ice floating on top.

The Hunter customers who received the menu were deeply moved.

"Wow, this is a generous spread. And all this for just two Lowest-Grade Magic Stones?"

"What is the occasion today?"

The front-of-house staff explained the significance of the Lunar New Year, the greatest of Korean holidays, to those customers.

On the other hand, there were also multi-guild allied Hunter parties from Korea.

"I never imagined I would be eating Lunar New Year food inside a Rift. I am moved."

"Why do I feel like crying? I miss my family."

"New Year's morning rice cake soup is the best. Thank you so much for preparing holiday food for us, Chef."

They were more satisfied and moved by today's menu than anyone else.

Since the food had been prepared in advance, I had plenty of time today. I personally went to every table to greet each customer who had visited.

"Please enjoy the food, and I wish you all a prosperous New Year."