Chapter 398

[Master, our food looks a bit strange too?]

*Krrr—*

Bel, Charlotte, and the other divine beasts were similarly puzzled.

The only difference was that the humans’ food was served in earthenware pots, while theirs came in ordinary bowls.

This was a restaurant with a unified menu, selling Gukbap even to the divine beasts!

Roan nodded.

“Still, it is fine. It is good for your health.”

[Sniff, sniff. It seems to have a lot of meat… but I don’t usually eat meat that has been submerged in water.]

“Then don’t eat it.”

[Ah, I said I don’t usually eat it, I didn’t say I wouldn’t eat it at all!]

Bel hurriedly stopped Roan, who looked ready to take his Gukbap away at any moment.

He was indeed hungry, after all.

“If you try it, you might change your mind.”

[……Really?]

Bel only sniffed the Gukbap with a skeptical look.

Meanwhile, his friends who had gone to get the side dishes returned.

“We brought them for now… but how do we eat this? Seeing that there are chopsticks, is it food from the Khan Continent?”

“Well, for now.”

“The Khan Continent?”

“Yeah, I tried it when we went out for off-campus service last time.”

Sion offered a brief explanation about the Khan Continent.

At that, Rafia and Riel also seemed to gain some interest.

“Back then, it was food eaten by the nobles of the Khan Continent. But this, so to speak, is the food of the commoners.”

With that, Roan explained the proper way to eat Gukbap.

“There are various ways to eat it depending on preference. You can just season it with this salted shrimp and eat it as is, or you can add this. Adding the seasoned paste is also a delicacy. In any case, Gukbap isn’t just about being served; how you eat it is practically the real cooking process…”

“””Hmm…”””

As Roan gave various examples, his friends pondered with complex expressions, then stared blankly at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Do I need to explain it again?”

“No, it’s not that…”

“Roan, somehow right now…”

“An uncle.”

For some reason they couldn’t name, the three female students spoke in unison, describing him as looking very much like an uncle.

“……What are you talking about? I was only explaining because you didn’t seem to know how to eat it.”

Roan looked somehow even more displeased than usual, but he tried not to show it.

“Of course, that’s true, but.”

“Just… saying.”

“Uncle.”

“Riel, surely you aren’t calling me uncle on purpose.”

“Busted!”

In any case, they were slowly adapting to the noisy atmosphere of this restaurant.

His friends began to eat the Gukbap in their own ways.

The polite Sion added only a little salted shrimp, Demona added chives, and Hector put in a heap of seasoned paste.

[What about me? Can I add some and eat too?]

Bel also fluttered his wings, asking if he could add something too.

Charlotte also acted similarly, apparently liking the smell drifting from the side dishes.

Roan shook his head.

“No, you must eat it as is. It is not good to season your food.”

[Heeing…]

The divine beasts felt disappointed.

Roan spoke with a bright smile.

“Anyway, if you’re ready, try it. Be careful, it’s hot. You probably won’t regret it.”

“I-it’s not poison, right?”

Since Roan spoke with a smile for some reason, such suspicion naturally arose.

“……Should I make you some?”

“Hieek! N-no!”

Fearing they might get caught in something, the friends hurriedly scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and put it in their mouths.

Hmm.

It’s ordinary.

It feels like rice soaked in boiled meat water…

Although the seasoned paste tastes decent enough…

At first, they were slightly disappointed, wondering if this was really worth the great Roan recommending it so highly.

However.

*Slurp— Slurp—*

Well, eating it, it is clean and nice.

The meat also has a secretly good texture.

Since it was so simple, the next spoonful naturally followed.

Even though it was much hotter than normal food, the movement of blowing and putting it in their mouths was extremely natural.

At this rate, I could eat another bowl next time.

To think this is commoners’ food, they seem to eat pretty well in their own way.

Thus, the friends savored the taste in a noble manner, evaluating the Gukbap in their own ways.

……Though that was strictly their own thoughts.

In Roan’s eyes, it was like this:

“Keooo! Wh-what on earth is this?!”

“M-my stomach is burning hot!”

“Yet somehow, I feel like I have to describe it as refreshing…!”

“Right, Sion? Why is this refreshing?”

“So filling!”

His friends were making all kinds of fuss, inhaling the Gukbap frantically!

[Slurrrp— Slurp!!]

*Krrr-slurp—! Krrr-slurp—!*

*Mmmm-slurp—! Mmmm-slurp—!*

*Flap-slurp—! Flap-slurp—!*

*Caw-slurp—! Caw-slurp—!*

‘No matter what, isn’t the last one a bit much?’

……Although he didn’t know how it was possible, the divine beasts were also eating as if they were going to bury their noses in the plates.

“……You’ll burn your mouths eating like that. Be careful.”

Rather, Roan had to be the one to stop them.

Swallowing a large mouthful, Hector asked urgently.

“Roan, just how much is a bowl of this?! Fifteen talants? Ten talants? N-no way it’s twenty talants, right?”

Just how much should one pay for such delicious food?

Honestly, if it was this good, that unfriendly employee earlier?

He felt he could perform a deep bow to her every time he walked in.

“Hmm…”

Roan pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

“Then… twenty-one talants?”

“If it’s that much, it feels too expensive…”

The friends even paused their spoons, sinking into worry.

Even if they made money here and there, spending over twenty talants on a single meal was a burden.

Roan held up three fingers.

His friends’ eyes widened.

“““Th-thirty talants?!”””

No matter how delicious it was, thirty talants for a single bowl?

“W-well… it has this much meat in it…”

“And though we have to bring the side dishes ourselves, it doesn’t seem to matter how much we take…”

“Most of all, because it is this delicious…”

But soon, the friends managed to accept it.

Since the price was high, they wouldn’t be able to come often, but thinking about it, it seemed to be a reasonable price.

Just then, Demona tilted her head.

“Eh? Isn’t it three talants?”

At that, the friends flared up in anger.

“You foolish Demona!”

“Eating such food for a mere three talants! That is an insult to Auntie!”

“Auntie?”

“Ah, for some reason, I felt like I should call the employee Auntie…”

‘Didn’t that guy almost pick a fight with the employee earlier?’

Hector had already buried his bad mood in the past!

“Anyway, Hector is right! It makes no sense to sell this for three talants!”

In short, the friends mostly reacted to Demona’s ‘three talants theory’ as nonsensical.

And Roan put an end to it.

“It is three talants.”

“““??!?!?!!!?!?!!!!”””

The friends’ jaws dropped in shock.

Such a large portion and delicious food for a mere three talants?!

It felt as if their common sense was crumbling.

“I-is it really three talants?”

“For such grand food?”

“……I don’t know if it’s grand, but it is three talants.”

The friends looked at each other hesitantly and conversed.

“Sion, how many talants was the sandwich we ate yesterday?”

“5…….”

“And the pasta we ate the day before?”

“7…….”

Honestly, even at five or seven talants, those places were famous for their cost-effectiveness.

Yet three talants was a truly violent price for food.

Since a very simple hot dog sold at another street stall was roughly one talant.

Hearing the female students’ words, Hector chuckled.

“Hahaha! Why buy pasta for seven talants! For that money, you can eat two filling bowls of Gukbap! For the price of three hot dogs, you can eat another filling bowl of Gukbap!”

“Leave them be, Hector~ How would young kids know the true taste of Gukbap? If you mix seasoned chives in and eat, your stomach feels warm, and your holy spells will come out well~ Surely even your parents would feel relieved~”

Demona also chimed in perfectly with Hector’s words, teasing the female students.

“Urgh…”

“You guys were the same until yesterday…”

The female students blushed in frustration.

‘I heard foreigners react the same as Koreans when they eat Gukbap, but this is rather fresh.’

They weren’t even foreigners; technically, they were complete aliens, yet making sounds like ‘Keooo!’ was honestly funny.

Especially since they were all handsome men and beautiful women befitting named characters—excluding Hector—the cognitive dissonance was incredibly severe.

Was that all?

*Kyaaa—!*

*Kiiii—!*

The divine beasts, which were animals rather than humans, were not much different.

But that was one thing.

“Ke-eurp-kek-kulk!”

“Guk… bap…”

Roan cast curse magic at Demona and Hector without regret.

‘Gukbap fanatics are out.’

While he agreed that Gukbap was a dish with many advantages, looking down on others because of it was wrong!

To block the bad habits (?) from Earth early on, he had to train them well from the start.

Seeing them twist their bodies in regret at not being able to eat Gukbap even during that was slightly dangerous.

“Don’t mind them and finish eating. Although it won’t be of practical help, you’ll be able to take Professor Gulba’s exam better.”

“Yes!”

“I really think so!”

“What on earth is this bowl…!!”

“The bowl is called a ttukbaegi. When hot food is put in it, it doesn’t cool down easily.”

“Oh, indeed the Khan Continent!”

The female students focused on the Gukbap once more, leaving behind Demona and Hector, who had collapsed with their heads on the table.

Warming their bodies from deep within their lower abdomens, it felt as though they could get through whatever exam lay ahead!

‘Well… maybe they can manage Gulba, but Pluvang…’

But the two professors were far too massive mountains to overcome with just a bowl of Gukbap.

Roan was about to tell them this, but stopped, thinking it would only rain on their parade.

Still, taking comfort in the fact that his friends liked Gukbap this much.

* * *

On the way to Gulba’s class.

Since the training ground where Gulba’s class was held lay in a remote part of Acherandir, most of those walking the same path were freshmen.

And the freshmen were harboring mostly similar worries.

─ Although it’s the same for other professors, I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of exam Professor Gulba will give.

─ Isn’t it something like splitting a cliff or moving a mountain?

─ Eh? Even so, that’s a bit too much.

─ Somehow, if it’s Professor Gulba, he seems like he would make us do it while saying, ‘I can do it!’

─ …….

Although it was slightly exaggerated, the terrifying part was that Gulba truly might do such a thing.

“Roan, do you know anything?”

“Hmm, somehow I feel it’ll be something like lifting and lowering a house-sized boulder three hundred times.”

“Fanatic, is that what you do at your house?”

“Hmm? Yes, we do about that much.”

“Ah~ then that won’t be it.”

“What do you mean?!”

Roan pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

“I don’t know well.”

“””You don’t know well?!”””

The friends’ eyes widened at Roan’s words.

To think there was actually something Roan didn’t know well!

It was the same for the other surrounding students.

─ Did you hear?

─ Darc says he doesn’t know well?

─ That obnoxious jerk, then what on earth is he useful for?

‘That’s a bit too harsh…’

Roan suffered a bit of hurt feelings.