63
“Well, first… How many people are left in the village?”
Yeon Ji-ho came out of the caravan and looked around the village that was almost completely burned down. Thanks to the open window of the caravan, Chronos, who was sitting inside, poked his head out of the window and said:
“Not many people were taken away. It was a village with few people to begin with.”
“Why did they take those people?”
They didn’t take everyone in the village, just some. They even left behind Chronos, who was the reason they came to this village. That point didn’t make sense.
“…They told me to find Your Excellency.”
“Ah.”
“It seems they judged that they no longer needed hostages since Baal was already captured in the imperial palace.”
How cruel.
Yeon Ji-ho suddenly had such a thought. Hadad had decided that he couldn’t find Set himself. So he took only the weak villagers and made Chronos find Set.
Was Hadad… originally such a ‘character’?
Yeon Ji-ho recalled the contents of “The Star of Hadad,” though he couldn’t remember the exact dialogue anymore. Although his memory was fuzzy as it had been a while since he read it, he didn’t think Hadad was that kind of character. It was then that he noticed something.
“Mommy. Waaah… Mommy.”
Maybe three or four years old. A child with a very small build was seen crying in a corner of the village. Yeon Ji-ho quickly approached the child and swiftly picked up the tiny child.
“Little one. Did you lose your mommy?”
“Waaaah. Waah!”
Yeon Ji-ho returned to the caravan with the child who could barely answer and just kept crying. As he did so, he saw that several small folk had gathered besides the child he had brought.
First, Yeon Ji-ho passed through the people and climbed into the caravan, whispering kindly to the child in his arms.
“Shall we eat some chocolate?”
“Choco…?”
Yeon Ji-ho rummaged through the caravan drawer and took out a Kanada chocolate bar he had brought. Then he peeled off only the top part of the foil and placed it in the child’s hand. The chocolate, which was of a reasonable size in Yeon Ji-ho’s hand, transformed into an enormous chocolate when the child grasped it.
“Sniff.”
“Here, blow your nose, hng.”
Fortunately, the tears stopped quickly when Yeon Ji-ho wiped the bridge of the child’s nose, which was dripping with snot. The child now seemed curious about the chocolate in front of him, sniffing it before taking a big bite.
Immediately, the child’s eyes widened. The child, who kept chewing in his mouth, took another bite of the chocolate even though he hadn’t finished what was already in his mouth.
“You should eat slowly. It’s okay.”
Eventually, Yeon Ji-ho came out of the caravan with the child in his arms. He was wondering if the child’s mother might be around, and fortunately, as soon as Yeon Ji-ho looked around, a small woman came running.
“Rey!”
Seeing the woman who approached and grabbed his waist, Yeon Ji-ho slowly put down the child he was holding. Just as the child’s feet were about to touch the ground, the child clung to Yeon Ji-ho’s neck with one arm.
“I want more choco!”
“Huh? Uh, well…”
“Rey! Won’t you come here right now?!”
Although he must have seen his mother, the child who didn’t want to leave Yeon Ji-ho’s arms made only Yeon Ji-ho uncomfortable. In the end, he was able to safely return Rey to his mother’s arms only after whispering to the child called Rey that all the chocolate was his.
“What on earth is this that you’re acting like this? Hm?”
“Mmm, it’s yummy.”
The child’s mother let out a deep sigh as Rey ate, clutching the chocolate with both hands. She conveyed her gratitude to Yeon Ji-ho on behalf of her child who was distracted.
“Thank you so much. It seems my child wandered off alone while I was distracted.”
“Ah, yes. It’s fine. I’m glad he found his mother safely.”
“But that choco… chocolate thing…”
Perhaps because it was food her child was eating, the child’s mother was also very interested. Yeon Ji-ho smiled slightly and readily explained.
“It’s called ‘chocolate’, and it’s very sweet. I gave it to him because he wouldn’t stop crying.”
“I, I see.”
But the child’s mother’s reaction was lukewarm. Yeon Ji-ho was about to get nervous, wondering if the child’s mother was sensitive about food, when a rumbling sound came from her stomach.
“Oh my…!”
It seemed her hunger was stimulated because chocolate starts to give off a sweet smell when it melts. Only then did Yeon Ji-ho slowly look around at the people gathered around the caravan.
Besides Rey and Rey’s mother, everyone looked shabby. Although it had been several days since the imperial knights left, most of the village had burned down, so they hadn’t had time to eat.
After contemplating, Yeon Ji-ho finally excused himself from Rey and his mother and returned to the caravan. There, Set was still talking with Chronos.
“…Ji-ho?”
“You know, Mr. Set. Um…”
“Ji-ho, what’s wrong? What is it? Tell me anything.”
“Would it be okay if I served some food to the people?”
Set delayed his answer for a moment at Yeon Ji-ho’s question. He looked around, estimating the number of people, and said quietly:
“Even if there aren’t many people, we’ll use up quite a bit of the ingredients we brought if we take care of all of them.”
“It’s okay. We can use local ingredients to make food after this.”
As Yeon Ji-ho grinned and said this, Set finally nodded. Having obtained permission at last, Yeon Ji-ho immediately approached the kitchen of the caravan.
In fact, the caravan’s kitchen was so small it was embarrassing to even call it a kitchen. Since caravans are designed to utilize space as much as possible, the kitchen consisted of only a small sink and a 2-burner induction cooktop.
To cook enough food for all these people here…
“Ah, army stew.”
It was appropriate for handling large quantities and easy to make quickly as he had memorized the recipe. Clapping his hands, Yeon Ji-ho quickly began preparing the ingredients.
Army stew is known to taste best when made roughly.
First, he used up the ham he had brought. The really fortunate thing was that before coming here, Yeon Ji-ho had prepared most of the ingredients in large quantities in case their group grew. After cutting up all the ham, which was bigger than his forearm, there was quite enough to eat.
Then he took out the vegetables for the broth, kimchi, and the meat that had been half-used on the way here. Rather than making everything look pretty, he roughly cut everything into reasonably sized pieces to eat, so the ingredient preparation was done in no time.
“Hmm, the induction cooktop’s heat is too weak…”
Although Apophis had solved the electricity problem so they could use the induction cooktop and refrigerator, it would take hours to boil the large pot of army stew with the induction cooktop.
After pondering, Yeon Ji-ho finally took out a portable gas burner. And he left the cramped kitchen to go outside.
Amidst the disorderly people, Yeon Ji-ho brought out a camping table. Then Set, who had been doing something else far away, came over and unfolded it instantly.
“Ji-ho, what needs to be moved?”
“Ah. Everything’s in the kitchen.”
“I’ll bring it.”
With Set’s help, a makeshift kitchen was quickly set up outside. A large pot containing all the army stew ingredients was placed on the portable gas burner with a heavy thud.
Click, click, clickclickclick…
Yeon Ji-ho lit the gas burner and stood in front of it, quietly waiting for the stew to boil. As the delicious bubbling sound gradually started, he finally brought out what he had prepared.
“…Is this too much?”
What Yeon Ji-ho had brought out was all kinds of noodles, from ramen noodles to udon noodles to glass noodles. He planned to substitute noodles for rice as there wasn’t time to cook rice, but when he took out everything he had, the amount was quite substantial.
After deliberating, Yeon Ji-ho added the noodles while making sure the broth didn’t reduce too much. Soon, white steam carrying a delicious smell began to reach people one by one.
As a result, he gained the attention of everyone around. Yeon Ji-ho looked around while stirring the pot with a ladle.
“Anyone want to eat?”
“Me, me.”
“Me too…”
People approached Yeon Ji-ho as if they were enchanted. Worried that someone might fall if the crowd rushed in, Yeon Ji-ho asked them to line up in order. Fortunately, the small folk all lined up to wait for food without anyone being greedy.
Smiling, Yeon Ji-ho was about to put a few slices of yellow cheese into the pot for the perfect finish.
But at that moment, the cheese smell, which felt unusually intense today, rushed into Yeon Ji-ho’s nose. At the same time, Yeon Ji-ho dropped the ladle and covered his mouth.
“Urgh…!”
His throat convulsed painfully. Set’s face, watching from afar, contorted instantly.
