The corridor had fallen into silence. The footsteps of two people and the heartbeat of one person spread faintly through it.

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Tokatok.

Only once Kang Geom-ma’s door came into view did the emergency siren above Saki’s head flare up.

‘How did things end up like this?’

It had taken far too long for her to regain her senses.

Why, why! Why had she suddenly blurted out that she wanted to eat kimchi jjigae?

Was it because she had been watching so many Kang Geom-ma-related YouTube videos lately? Because she kept getting bombarded every hour of every day with thumbnails stamped with a K? Was that why the word kimchi had suddenly popped out?

What was even funnier was that it hadn’t been something she said completely unconsciously.

It had been a line that came from the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness. That was why it confused her even more.

And on top of that, when she had entered this dorm building a little while ago, the matron had looked at her with a strange expression.

Saki had tried to ask her what that look was for. But the matron had already pulled down the shutter as if she had seen nothing at all. That look would not leave Saki’s mind.

‘No! They say you’re supposed to listen all the way through Korean! Why! Why did the other person always had to fill in the rest of the sentence?!’

To begin with, the academy rulebook clearly stated in bold 〈N-O D-A-T-I-N-G〉, didn’t it?

And yet it was ridiculous that boys and girls could freely come and go between each other’s dorm buildings.

No matter how much they guaranteed the cadets’ freedom, shouldn’t there be some minimum rules?

‘Even if I think that, in the end, I too….’

Haa. Pressing between her brows, Saki let out a sigh.

Yeah, she’d come this far. She should be a little more honest with herself.

Because it was the first time in her life that she had ever gone to a boy’s room, and she was nervous.

If she thought about it, Kang Geom-ma was utterly clueless. Other than when his eyes sometimes went blank for a reward, his desires were unnaturally inorganic for someone his age.

The probability that something would happen with a guy like that? It approached zero.

That part stung her pride, but….

Trailing after him, Saki suddenly looked at Kang Geom-ma’s back.

‘Kang Geom-ma, it doesn’t seem like he’d ever personally treated anyone to a meal… and even less like he’d ever let anyone into his room.’

A bolt of electricity ran through Saki’s brain. If that were true, then she would be the first in all of this. A small smile rose to the corners of her mouth.

At that moment, Kang Geom-ma stopped walking. Snapping back to herself, Saki also came to a sudden halt.

We were here. This was it.

“Ah. Y-yeah.”

“Just before turning the doorknob, Kang Geom-ma asked.”

Unlike your dorm building, it was going to be way smaller. If you want, should we just go out and eat instead even now?

“Saki firmly shook her head side to side.”

It’s fine. And our building is just unnecessarily huge. It’s weird for a cadet dorm to be that big in the first place.

“If you’re fine with it.”

“Creak.”

The doorknob turned the rest of the way. Saki calmed herself by pressing a hand to her chest.

As soon as she stepped into the room, Saki reflexively swept her gaze over the inside. Just as he had said, the room definitely could not be called large.

Roughly about five pyeong? But because it was so well organized, it felt larger than that.

The pillow, bedding, teaching materials, overview books, and every other item were arranged with sharp, squared-off precision.

She had imagined a boy’s room would have socks strewn across the floor and smell like a stale bachelor.

Then she would lightly scold him with, Ugh, look at this. At least clean up a little! And then maybe tidy it up for him a bit.

That had been the idea, but….

Saki let out a silent exclamation. This was much cleaner than her own room.

There was not even a speck of dust, nor any smell at all. It was, quite literally, a colorless and odorless clean room.

That was because Kang Geom-ma had worked in a kitchen, the very front line of cleanliness. And on top of that, hadn’t he devoted three years to the nation? The habits ingrained into his body over many years had carried over into this life as well.

Watching Saki look around like a meerkat, Kang Geom-ma jerked his chin toward the bed.

Sit over there.

“…Can I sit on the bed?”

“There’s a chair, but it’s too hard, so I don’t really use it. For the record, I washed the bedding yesterday, so it’s nice and fluffy.”

“No… that’s not what I meant…. Anyway, thanks….”

“Sitting gently on the bed, Saki quietly turned her gaze toward the kitchen area.”

Kang Geom-ma was taking out the ingredients they had bought together at the market and carefully checking them.

The expiration dates and freshness didn’t seem to be a problem.

“After finishing the check, Kang Geom-ma rolled up the hem of his shirt by a handspan. Revealing the solid muscles of his forearms, he gripped Sashimi.”

Saki stared at the sight in a daze.

It was definitely a small and simple space. Even so, it gave her a sense of satisfaction that filled her chest.

It was completely different from her family home, which was only disgustingly large and suffocatingly oppressive.

‘Home….’

During the vacation when she had not returned to Japan, there had not been a single message from home.

That probably meant whether their daughter had come home or not was of no interest to them.

Honestly, now that she had already fallen out of her father’s attention, it was easier on her heart. It had been a knot of conflict that had been twisted wrong from the very beginning.

When Saki had been thirteen, there was something her father had once said while stroking her head.

– If one was not the best in this world, one was forgotten by history. Look at me. Even though I stand at the head of a nation, was I not still overshadowed whenever I stand beside Senior Sword Emperor. I did not wish to bequeath that humiliation to my children. At the very least, I want my own child to reach the summit. That said, I had no intention of forcing upon my child what I myself could not achieve. If you lack the qualifications, then at the very least show the possibility that you could rise to the Seven Stars. If even that was impossible, then I, your father, would find it difficult to embrace you as my child. I did not have that much time to spare, my third one.

Her father had never once called her by name. When she was little, she had simply thought it was because he was stern.

But as time passed, she had no choice but to realize the true meaning.

That Saki Kojima was not the kind of child her father considered worth calling by name.

Watching Saki make a troubled expression, Kang Geom-ma quietly looked at her. He called her by name.

Ryozo, you could’t handle spicy food, so I’ll make the kimchi jjigae milder than it was at the festival.

“Ryozo nodded silently. Then she abruptly turned toward the window.”

The sky was dark. In the middle of it, the hazy moonlight soaked into her cheeks.

The sound of the chopping board reached her ears. It truly was pleasant to hear.

Ryozo wanted that sound not to end after just one minute.

* * *

My kimchi jjigae made Ryozo scrape the bottom of the stone pot with her spoon.

Apparently the reduced spiciness and the sweetness from the sugar suited her taste.

At that, I smiled silently. When I’d first met her, Ryozo wouldn’t put anything in her mouth other than yokan.

So seeing that kind of girl scraping the pot clean made it hard to hold back a smile.

And one more amusing thing was this: I was serving Korean food to a Japanese person.

In my previous life, I had run a Japanese restaurant for Koreans. This was the exact opposite of that.

It felt extremely new to me. It felt like I was contributing to the globalization of Korean food. Like a slight sense of patriotism was swelling up in me, maybe?

After all this was over, I seriously considered opening a Korean restaurant.

……

I scrubbed my face hard. Yeah, this kind of rising sentiment was fine. Up to this point, it was still a healthy kind of patriotism.

But if it went any further, it’d turn into nationalistic delusion. From there, there’d be no controlling it. I felt a sense of crisis.

I didn’t know what Korea’s status had been like on Earth, but in this world, it was already more than enough. Overflowing, really.

As I’d said before, this was the world’s number two great power and the country where Hoakin Academy was located.

And then they threw me into that set as a package deal.

Korean + Hoakin cadet + □□□

The impact of that combination was too strong.

Those thumbnails cobbled together from that combination, and the comment sections constantly crying out for `Jumo~!` The overdose of nationalistic hype had become outright madness.

‘This is insane.’

And I was suffering under it without even being able to fight back. I could neatly slice through the Legion Commanders’ spells, but in front of those videos I was completely helpless. If only I could slice those too, like magic.

‘…Could I maybe cut them?’

If I could cut and slice anything, then maybe YouTube videos would be possible too, wouldn’t they?

I’d already cleanly cut fear itself before and even made an ogre drop dead of a heart attack. It might not be a bad idea to try.

Smack!

I slapped my own cheek. Cutting YouTube videos with a sashimi knife? My thoughts really were getting deranged. When things weighed on me, I came up with nonsense ideas like this.

There was no doubt my mind had gone seriously off the rails. At this rate, before long even I’d be searching for Jumo.

Why were you slapping yourself when you were all alone?

“Ryozo asked as she slowly took off the rubber gloves. Since I had made the meal, she’d insisted that she do the dishes.”

Before answering, I glanced toward the sink.

Ah, I’d had to rewash those dishes later.

Well, it wasn’t like a girl who was practically Japanese royalty would have ever washed dishes before. Even so, she was still better than Chloe, who would have broken the plates.

“I thought there was a bug on my cheek.”

“With the weather this chilly, do you think any bugs are still around? And bugs wouldn’t come to a clean room like this anyway. There’s nothing to eat.”

Naturally, Ryozo sat down next to me. Fresh wrinkles formed in the bedcover.

In the silence that rose like something holding its breath, she suddenly asked an unexpected question.

“Geom-ma, what’s the one thing you want most in life?”

I turned my eyes and looked at Ryozo. Several emotions were circling in her eyes.

Emptiness, sorrow, anxiety.

Every emotion I read was negative. I didn’t know why Ryozo was making that expression like she was sunk in a dream.

But I noticed one thing clearly. This question was one she’d thrown at herself. And its real meaning was that she was asking me for counsel.

‘What I want, huh….’

Thinking back, I had been running in such haste that I hadn’t planned out my future at all.

At best, what I had dreamed of in the early first semester had been a `peaceful, uneventful, safe` life.

Of course, at this point all of that had already been completely ruined. The reason was obvious. Because I had kicked it away with my own feet.

And when the main story had long since been twisted like a pretzel, it wasn’t something I could just avoid with lazy excuses anymore.

Whatever the case, I had gotten involved in the trunk of the story too. In a sort of supporting role, helping Hero Leon from behind. In practice, I’d already done that several times.

…But then, what happened after the Demon King was subjugated?

As things stood now, my life was basically one that had been sprinting forward while looking only three years ahead.

But after the Second Human-Demon War ended, I would still remain here unchanged.

‘Then what am I supposed to do from that point on?’

From Ryozo’s offhand question, my thoughts stretched on at length.

“Sorry. That was too sudden, wasn’t it. It’s just that it feels like you don’t really have much desire for anything, Geom-ma. I was curious whether there was something you wanted.”

In the suddenly still atmosphere, Ryozo waved her hand. I opened my mouth shortly.

“Family.”

“…?”

“I don’t have parents. And it’s not like I can just get them by wishing for them. So it’s really just something I want, that’s all.”

I was serious. Across both my previous life and this one, I had never once felt the warmth of a family.

For some people it might be something ordinary, but what I wanted more than anything was family.

Ryozo’s eyes blinked twice, then widened greatly. Her face flushed bright red.

Was that really so cringe-worthy? Just as that thought crossed my mind, a faint voice slipped out.

“Family… you can just make one….”

“Hm?”

Ryozo hurriedly got up from her seat. She dashed toward the door.

“Th-th-that! We can talk about that again three years from now, when we’re adults!”

Leaving those words behind, Ryozo vanished, her sky-blue hair fluttering behind her.

I stared blankly in that direction for a moment, then brushed off the bed.

Rollin~

At that moment, my phone lit up.

[Manager Seong: Sword Demon-nim, I’ve prepared the schedule for your visit to the Association’s Korean branch tomorrow. And Sword Demon-nim… a slightly troublesome situation has come up.]

Tap tap tap.

[Me: If you say troublesome, what kind of troublesome? Is it something like not being able to access the Monolith?]

[Manager Seong: Well… you spoke with the Vice President this afternoon, didn’t you.]

[Me: I did. It was just some stock phrase like he wanted to buy me a meal when he came to Korea later.]

[Manager Seong: Yes, but after you left, the Vice President contacted me separately. He said that after discussing swords with you, he was eager to see a true man as soon as possible.]

I never discussed swords with him, though. To Spear Saint, was asking someone to share a meal the same as crossing swords in conversation?

[Me: Even putting that aside. When you say he’s moving up the schedule, when exactly do you mean?]

[Manager Seong: He’s expected to arrive in a few hours.]

Rollin~

[Manager Seong: On top of that, he added that he would like to personally guide your visit to the Korean Association. I tried my best to stop him, but it was beyond me. I’m sorry. ㅠㅠ]

Tap.

[Me: ?]