Chapter 50
After the audience that left Ruan with incomprehensible confusion ended,
Ruan headed towards the Monster Product Guild, leading Ralph, who wore a satisfied expression like someone who had just had an emotional reunion with a long-lost friend.
While meeting the dwarves and viewing the products they made from monster by-products, Ralph seemed genuinely delighted and interested.
As Ruan struggled to stifle the dwarves who were proudly showing off their cosplay goods while discussing with Ralph how to best sell the dwarf-made luxury items, the time for the evening banquet approached.
“The evening banquet has been prepared,” Ruan announced.
Ralph, who was exchanging greetings with the dwarves, flinched at this.
Then he turned his head to look at Ruan’s face… and once again became an endlessly brightening light.
“A Reinke evening banquet! I’m really looking forward to it!”
‘He’s extremely happy? Was he very hungry? Should I have given him something to eat earlier? Don’t they feed the head of the merchant group at the merchant group?’
While Ruan was pondering, Ralph, who had left the workshop with visibly excited steps, twitched his nose and said:
“Venison steak with thyme and rosemary, grilled trout with butter sauce, mushroom stew and goose liver terrine, and lamb ribs with mint jelly… It’s going to be a delightful dinner!”
He recited the menu items in an excited voice. As far as Ruan knew, these were indeed the dishes prepared for tonight’s banquet.
Ruan’s eyes trembled at the accuracy with which he named even the accompanying sauces.
‘How does he know that… from here…?’
* * *
After the evening banquet,
Ruan, having guided the guests to their accommodations so they could rest from their travel fatigue, headed to the office to finish up the remaining work.
After shuffling through documents until late, Ruan leaned back heavily in his chair.
“Ah… I’m a bit hungry…”
The food that had been placed before him during the banquet flickered in Ruan’s mind.
The dishes prepared to welcome the guest, one of the most prominent merchants in the empire, were menus rarely seen on Reinke’s usual tables. It was enough to make one’s eyes roll as a possessed person whose biggest complaint about possessed life was the food, but…
In the end, Ruan was the person in charge of this reception. With so many things to attend to, he had barely touched the lavish spread before him.
‘It’s fortunate that even if I couldn’t eat properly as the host, the guest enjoyed the food.’
Ruan recalled Ralph Steiner eating.
Ralph Steiner truly enjoyed his food. Including his life as Kim Ha-jin, Ruan had never seen anyone enjoy food as much as him.
‘It was almost like watching one of those eating scenes that gets repeatedly referenced and remembered whenever “eating deliciously” is mentioned… The kind that reflexively makes you think “Wow, he’s really enjoying that food” regardless of context.’
Of course, as befitting someone with wide connections in aristocratic social circles and a baron himself, Ralph Steiner displayed impeccable, sophisticated dining manners. Upon close inspection, every movement, from his use of cutlery to bringing food to his mouth, was nothing short of elegant.
The size of each bite was not excessive, nor was his eating speed too fast.
Yet, observing his entire dining process, strangely, the only thought that came to mind was that he was ‘eating heartily’.
The sight of this gentle-looking handsome man eating with an extremely happy and moved expression from start to finish, expressing varied appreciation, made observers want to add just one more thing to his plate.
‘He seemed like he could find good food anywhere he went without starving. Of course, that wouldn’t happen since he’s one of the richest people in the empire.’
In any case, the sight of Ralph Steiner eating was not only infinitely satisfying for the host… but also made those recalling him later infinitely hungry.
Remembering the scene of Ralph biting into the crispy roasted lamb, Ruan unconsciously swallowed.
‘I… want to eat lamb too…’
The more he thought about it, the hungrier he felt.
Ruan slightly rolled his neck resting on the chair backrest to check the time. There was still quite some time before the Northern Grand Duke, who had gone on patrol, would return. It seemed there was enough time to have a late-night snack and go to the bedroom.
Usually, he would have gone to the kitchen to get something to eat, but… given the late hour, the kitchen staff would have all gone home. Unless he wanted to gnaw on black bread, it would be difficult to find something to eat.
‘After seeing all that delicious food, I dislike black bread even more…’
Ruan, sprawled in his chair, pondered what could be both delicious and easy to obtain.
But Reinke didn’t have convenience stores or food delivery apps. It was hard to think of anything that satisfied both conditions.
‘Actually… even if the Sirah Empire had food delivery apps, Reinke would probably be an area where no stores would show up…’
As Ruan was making nonsensical thoughts due to his emptiness, something that somewhat satisfied both conditions suddenly came to mind.
“Potatoes. There were potatoes.”
He had obtained a few potatoes that Yount had grown for testing. Actually, Yount had hurriedly given them to him after seeing Ruan burst into tears after taking one bite of potato pancakes… but such trivial details weren’t important to Ruan right now.
‘Those potato pancakes were really delicious back then…’
The moment of putting the freshly made, golden-brown pancake into his mouth, feeling the crispy edges crumble with a crunch, the oil spreading in his mouth, the moist and chewy inside wrapping around his mouth with heat, the nutty sweetness that emerged with each chew blending heavily with the oil…
Although it was a shame there was no soy sauce to add umami or soju to clean the oily residue in his mouth… after eating hard and sour black bread, eating familiar delicious food was so moving.
Just recalling those potato pancakes made his mouth water.
If he could, he wanted to make potato pancakes right away, but in Reinke where everything was precious, it was awkward for Ruan to use oil just to make a late-night snack for himself.
Vowing to definitely succeed in this business and create a decent source of income for Reinke, Ruan abruptly rose from the chair he had become one with.
‘For now, the reality is that there’s no oil or anything, so I’ll just have to make roasted potatoes.’
Since Ruan, who wasn’t part of the kitchen staff, couldn’t use the Northern Grand Duke’s castle kitchen personally at this hour, he had to go somewhere with a cooking space he could freely use.
Grabbing the well-preserved potatoes, Ruan headed to a corner of the training ground’s backyard.
There was a makeshift barbecue facility set up by the knights. It was a place where the knights, who always had high calorie consumption matching their activity levels, would secretly grill small game like rabbits or birds.
The place, which Ruan had visited a few times on Joachim and Magda’s invitation, was still equipped with salt, firewood, large stones to block the wind and keep the fire from going out easily, and to place skewers on.
In truth, it was a bit embarrassing to call it a ‘facility’… but it was sufficient for making a simple late-night snack. As a result, not just knights but quite a few others used this place.
‘There’s no one here today.’
Which meant…
Ruan’s gaze fell on the cold firepit.
It meant Ruan had to light the fire himself.
Heaving a deep sigh, Ruan recalled the young knights who had taught him how to light a fire when he said he didn’t know how.
‘They really teased me mercilessly… But seriously, how many modern people know how to light a fire with flint, not a lighter or matches, and on firewood at that?’
Well, anyway. Thanks to that, he had become a slightly less incompetent modern-origin possessed person.
Ruan first took out dry firewood and bark that had been carefully covered with orc leather to keep them dry, stacked them well, then used flint to light the straw prepared nearby and pushed it between the firewood.
The embers that seemed to die down for a moment caught on the bark and grew.
Watching the fire spread to the firewood, Ruan skewered the potatoes he had brought and placed them on the stones set up on both sides of the firepit.
Then, as he crouched in front of the fire, the warmth of the bonfire felt quite pleasant, perhaps because of the cool night air.
Ruan basked in the warmth and fell into thought.
The season suitable for planting and growing potatoes had already passed, so full-scale potato farming was scheduled to start next spring.
That meant eating potatoes would be a distant prospect for a while.
‘This might be almost the last time I eat them like this…’
Thinking this made him feel oddly attached to the potatoes roasting over the fire.
How long had it been since he placed the potatoes over the fire and gently rolled them to prevent burning? A savory smell started wafting up as the potatoes cooked.
Just as he judged the potatoes to be cooked enough and was about to take the precious potatoes off the fire to eat…
Ruan suddenly felt an intense gaze directed at him.
He turned his head.
Next to Ruan sat a large dog, its mouth full of drool, staring at the potatoes.
