Chapter 18
Eventually, Mr. Galosh and I agreed that he’d come back once his quota reset next month.
Since he was originally a warrior from an orc tribe, he was quick to defer to the strong.
“……”
Baek Yeonhwa sat with her mouth tightly shut.
Judging by her bright-red face and spinning eyes, she seemed thoroughly embarrassed after realizing her own contradiction.
“Ahem, Ms. Baek Yeonhwa?”
“Yeees!”
Startled, she answered in a fluster.
It seemed we could finally have a normal conversation.
“That’s called being a picky eater, right? When you eat, there are foods you dislike. That’s a personal preference, not something wrong or shameful.”
“……”
“The same goes for your taste in the opposite sex. Which kinds you don’t want and which kinds you do. There’s nothing particularly shameful about stating that.”
Suddenly, among the papers scattered by Baek Yeonhwa’s punch, I spotted Lee Cheolsu’s.
A man who openly wanted a beastkin.
I realized it as soon as I said it.
Some preferences did need to be a little embarrassing.
“I-I see.”
But there was no need to correct her. She nodded at my words and declared—
“I-I’d at least prefer him not to look like that!”
“Exactly. It’s much easier for us to work when you give us conditions like these. I’ll even give you a special one-time free matching service, so please be honest.”
“Do you really have to go that far—!”
She seemed moved less by the free service than by the fact that we were making an exception for her.
Someone like Baek Yeonhwa had the makings of an S-rank.
There was no way I could let a woman like this slip away.
“Yes, then. Could you tell me what kind of man you want?”
“Hmm, let me think about it for a moment—.”
About thirty minutes later.
“So.”
I briefly summarized the conditions Baek Yeonhwa had listed.
“He should be handsome. At the very least, neat-looking. Preferably smell like a forest, have little body hair, not look intimidating, be stronger than you in combat, come from a reasonably well-off family, be particularly good at singing, and have a decent educational background?”
“……Did I really say that much?”
Huh.
“Phew, Ms. Baek Yeonhwa.”
“Yes?”
“I have a good solution.”
“A solution? Not a person?”
I shook my head and gave her a small smile.
“If you go to Cyber City on the sixth floor, there’s something called a hologram game, you know?”
“……”
“Since your family is wealthy, go there and play a pretty-boy dating simulator.”
“Th-that’s just imaginary!”
“You’re the one wanting a man who’s practically imaginary!”
Even so, this wasn’t going to work.
We needed to compromise.
“Phew, just wait a moment.”
I couldn’t match her with anyone from S- to A-rank as a free trial.
So while I was making a list of people around the B-rank level whom she might be satisfied with—
“Um, excuse me—.”
After finishing tidying the office, Kim Yang, who had been quietly watching, cut in.
“W-what about the boss?”
“What?”
“What’s with that all of a sudden?”
“A-ah, earlier you compared it to being a picky eater.”
Right.
With her arms crossed, Kim Yang calmly explained. Her chic expression and tone were a terrible mismatch for her stammering.
“P-picky eating s-sometimes happens when you’ve never properly tried something.”
“Ah! You mean she’s piling on all these conditions because she’s never met a man before?”
“D-don’t steal my words, boss.”
“……”
Anyway, that was her point.
In that case, it might be worth using me as a baseline and finding out how much she was willing to accept.
“Hmm, as for you, great hero—.”
I was unexpectedly nervous.
It was my first time being evaluated, too.
“Your face isn’t really my type, to start with. And the cigarette smell is a bit much.”
Why did that hurt to hear?
“You also seem a little stingy. Can you fight at all?”
“……”
“Uh, even if you can’t answer, I’ll let that slide, but anyway… Overall, your first impression is good!”
She hit me with every criticism, then soothed me at the end.
* * *
“Then! I look forward to working with you!”
“Yes, we’ll contact you within a week.”
After making a fist-and-palm salute and being seen off, Baek Yeonhwa left Meracle.
It had been surprisingly fun.
It felt quite good—not simply choosing a spouse, but having time to freely pour out everything she thought about it.
‘Maybe I went a little too far.’
There had been quite a few things she’d blurted out after wondering if they were okay.
As she spoke, she realized that, surprisingly, she had preferences of her own.
‘I liked some things, too.’
She had thought she didn’t have any.
Was that why?
After leaving the building, Baek Yeonhwa glanced at a gukbap restaurant.
‘Maybe just one bowl in secret—.’
The only thing she’d eaten since coming down to the third floor was the byeokgokdan she’d brought with her.
Since things had turned out this way, why not try some food from the third floor too?
“Welcome!”
As she entered the restaurant, a warm-looking middle-aged woman greeted her.
“Greetings, proprietress! I’ll have whatever’s most popular here!”
“Pretty lady, our most popular dish is sunji haejangguk. Can you eat it?”
Sunji haejangguk?
A glance showed people with pale skin and an ominous aura greedily eating in a corner.
She was being picky about something she had never even tried.
That phrase ran through her entire life.
“I’ll have that, then!”
Baek Yeonhwa sat down with a bright smile.
Then she looked around the restaurant in amazement.
“Oooh, how fascinating.”
Economic news playing on the TV.
Dwarf laborers having soju with gukbap early in the morning.
People with an ominous aura eating sunji haejangguk.
‘Are those the vampires from the fourth floor I’d only heard about in rumors?’
She had heard they were bad people.
By nature, an inn was a place where incidents and accidents happened often.
As she stayed alert in case they threatened the place, the middle-aged woman who brought the haejangguk explained with a smile.
“Oh, don’t worry. Those folks are, you know, those things—what was it? Cosplay!”
“Uh, yes? Cos—?”
An unfamiliar word.
“They’re imitating vampires. Apparently vampires are cool? So they wear their capes. I heard real vampires can’t go around when the sun’s up, though?”
“Ah, but how did they obtain the capes of such dangerous people?”
“Online shopping. These days, you can get anything that way.”
The fifth floor’s Old Murim had no internet.
They had tried installing a transmission tower, but the Azure Dragon immediately brought down a bolt of lightning and destroyed it.
“What a fascinating world.”
She nodded and picked up her spoon.
A large chunk of sunji.
Surprisingly, the sight did not make her feel repulsed.
Its aroma was unexpectedly savory, making her mouth water.
‘There was a reason the proprietress was so confident!’
She was smiling brightly and about to take a big spoonful when—
KWA-A-A-AANG!
A deafening crash of lightning made her ears ring.
The people inside the restaurant flinched and looked out the window.
“What was that? It isn’t even raining!”
“Talk about lightning out of a clear blue sky.”
“Wow, that startled me.”
“……”
Baek Yeonhwa slowly lowered her spoon with a sympathetic smile.
‘Even on the third floor.’
As expected.
The Azure Dragon really was incredible.
She took money from her robes and placed it on the table.
Leaving the steaming bowl of sunji haejangguk behind, Baek Yeonhwa quietly walked outside.
She was picky about food without trying it.
Because she had never experienced it, she didn’t know her own preferences.
Meracle really was competent.
The words fit her perfectly.
Baek Yeonhwa took out a byeokgokdan.
The only food the Azure Dragon had ever allowed her to eat.
Crunch.
Always the same taste.
She quickened her pace.
The path she took was always the same.
There was always only the sect at its end.
* * *
“Ugh, I can’t believe I’m short 30,000 won in the till on my very first day. How did I miscount?!”
Lenea fumed as she left work.
Even though it had been a short shift because she was still learning the ropes, the till was still off.
Grumbling, she was heading to Meracle to vent her frustration when the gukbap restaurant lady from the first floor was standing at the entrance, looking around.
“Is something wrong, ma’am?”
“Oh my! It’s Lenea! You’re adorable as ever today! Are you done with your convenience-store shift?”
“Yes!”
“What a good girl. Working part-time already at such a young age.”
“Hehe! It’s nothing!”
Her acting was perfect.
The gukbap restaurant lady completely believed she was twenty years old.
‘As expected, that bastard boss’s sense of smell is far too good.’
If she had just lied and said she was twenty from the start at the other matchmaking agencies, it probably would have worked.
But because she’d been caught at Meracle, she’d assumed the other places would find out too and confessed that she was 1,901 years old.
“Lenea, by any chance, did you see a woman in a white martial-arts uniform? She has black hair and is quite pretty.”
“That sounds exactly like the customer who was at Meracle!”
“Really? Did she go back up to Meracle?”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, she ordered gukbap but left without eating it. She even left the money on the table.”
Lenea glanced inside the restaurant.
Sure enough, a bowl of gukbap sat alone on the table.
“Haa, we can’t just leave that there. Lenea, if you don’t mind, would you like to eat it? If she comes back, I can cook her another one.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yees!”
Woohoo!
It was Lenea’s first time eating sunji haejangguk, but she dug in enthusiastically. It was quite tasty.
She was a little shocked when they explained what sunji was, since she hadn’t known, but her stomach didn’t hurt and it tasted good.
‘I mustn’t fall behind the times. I’m in my twenties. I’m sensitive to trends. I can’t let myself stagnate.’
A youthful mindset unbecoming of a 1,901-year-old.
That was Lenea’s motto.
After that, she went home.
The Lenea who had been living in a pavilion behind Daebongsan was gone now.
She had rented a proper room.
Though it was a building with tiny studio apartments packed tightly together, for the first time in 1,901 years, she had a space entirely to herself.
“I’m stuffed.”
She immediately spread out her bedding and lay down.
It was only 1 p.m.
Since she’d just eaten lunch, she’d sleep for exactly one hour.
With that thought, she closed her eyes and opened them again.
“……What is this? Is the clock broken? It says six in the evening?”
An entire day had vanished.
She wondered if the studio apartment had been cursed or something, but unfortunately, that probably wasn’t it.
When she went outside to get some fresh air, a familiar scent reached her nose.
In other words, the familiar scent of Marlboro cigarettes.
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
The two people met each other’s eyes and made the same sound simultaneously.
The room right next to hers.
Kim Juseon, looking tired as if just off work, was inserting a key into its lock.
The story continues off the page
Floaties for Everyone
Swim lesson at the water park, and she's demonstrating on you