Chapter 18
In the end, Mr. Gallosh agreed to come back next month once the quota reset.
He was originally a warrior from an orc village, so 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'd realized her contradiction and was deeply embarrassed.
"Ahem, Ms. Baek Yeonhwa?"
"Y-yes!"
She answered in a panic, startled.
It looked like we could finally have a healthy conversation.
"You call it picky eating, right? Having foods you dislike. That's just a personal preference, not something wrong or shameful."
…….
"Romantic preferences are the same. An unwanted partner, a preferred type. There's nothing especially shameful about stating it."
Suddenly, among the papers scattered by Baek Yeonhwa's punch, I spotted Lee Cheolsu's.
A man openly looking for a wild one.
Only after saying it did I realize.
Some preferences do need to be a little embarrassing.
"W-well, then."
But there was no need to correct Baek Yeonhwa. She nodded at my words and declared.
"At the very least, I hope he doesn't look like that!"
"Right. In fact, giving us conditions like this makes our job much easier. I'll even give you one free matching session, so please be honest with me."
"Th-that far—!"
She seemed more moved by the fact that I was treating her specially than by the free service.
Baek Yeonhwa was more than worthy of an S-rank.
I couldn't let a woman like that slip away so easily.
"Yes, then could you tell me what kind of man you want?"
"Hmm, let me think about it first—."
About thirty minutes later.
"So."
I briefly organized the conditions she'd dictated.
"Looks: handsome. At the very least, clean-looking. Preferably a forest-like scent, not much body hair, not rough-looking, stronger in combat than me, from a somewhat well-off family, especially a good singer, and with a decent educational background?"
"D-did I say that much?"
"Oh."
"Hoo, Ms. Baek Yeonhwa."
"Yes?"
"I have a good method."
"A method? Not a person?"
I shook my head and smiled faintly.
"If you go to Cybertown on the 6th floor, there's something called hologram games, you know?"
…….
"Your family happens to be rich, so go there and play a pretty-boy dating sim."
"T-that's just an imaginary thing!"
"But you're the one who wants a man that's practically imaginary!"
Even so, this wasn't right.
Compromise was necessary.
"Hoo, wait a moment first."
I couldn't match her with S- to A-rank candidates on a single free trial.
So, while I was listing B-rank candidates she might be satisfied with and mulling it over.
"U-um, excuse me—."
After finishing tidying the office, Kim Yang, who'd been watching silently, chimed in.
"H-how about the boss?"
"Huh?"
"What are you saying all of a sudden?"
"A-ah, you compared it to picky eating earlier, right?"
I did.
Kim Yang folded her arms and explained calmly. Her cool expression and tone really didn't match.
"P-picky eating can also happen because someone has never properly tried something."
"Ah! You mean because you’ve never met a man before, you've ended up plastering on all these conditions?"
"D-don't steal my line, boss."
Anyway, that was the gist of it.
Then it might be good to use me as a benchmark and see how far she'd allow things.
"Hmm, as for you, hero—."
Kind of nervous, huh?
This was my first time being the one under evaluation.
"Your face isn't really my type, for one. And the cigarette smell is a bit much."
Why does that hurt to hear?
"You seem to have a bit of a petty streak, too. Can you fight at all?"
"……."
"Uh, if you can't say anything, we can skip that. Anyway... overall, your first impression is good!"
She tears into you and then softens it at the end.
* * *
"Then! Please take care of it!"
"Yes, we'll contact you within a week."
After returning the fist-and-palm salute and seeing her off, Baek Yeonhwa stepped out of Meracle.
Surprisingly, it had been fun.
It wasn't just choosing a spouse; it was a time to pour out everything she thought, and that felt surprisingly good.
"Maybe I went a little overboard."
There had been quite a few things she'd blurted out, wondering if they were even okay to say.
As she spoke, she realized she had tastes of her own after all.
"I liked something too."
She had thought she didn't have anything like that.
Was that why?
Once outside, Baek Yeonhwa glanced toward the soup restaurant.
"Maybe just one bowl in secret—."
The only thing she'd eaten since coming down to the 3rd floor was the byeokgokdan she'd brought with her.
Since things had come to this, she might as well try the food on the 3rd floor too.
"Welcome!"
As she entered the shop, a kindly-looking middle-aged woman greeted her.
"Good day, ma'am! Please give me your best-selling dish!"
"Pretty young lady, our best seller is sunji haejangguk. Think you can handle it?"
Sunji haejangguk?
Glancing over, she saw people with pale skin and a foul aura in the corner over there gorging themselves on it.
She was picky about something she'd never even tried.
This was a line that pierced straight through her life.
"I'll have that, please!"
Baek Yeonhwa sat down with a bright smile.
Then she looked around the shop and clicked her tongue in amazement.
"Oooh, fascinating."
An economics news segment on TV.
Dwarven laborers having soju and gukbap from early in the morning.
People with a sinister air, eating sunji haejangguk.
'Are those the 4th-floor vampires I'd only heard rumors about?'
I had heard they were dangerous people.
In the first place, inns are places where incidents and accidents happen often.
Just as she was keeping watch in case they might threaten the place, the auntie who brought the hangover soup smiled and explained.
"Oh, don't worry. Those folks are just, you know—what was it? Cosplay!"
"Huh, excuse me? Cos-?"
A strange word.
"They're just copying them. Vampires are cool, apparently? That's why those people are wearing capes. I hear real vampires can't get around when the sun's up?"
"Ah, I see. But where did they get capes for those dangerous-looking folks?"
"Online shopping. These days you can get everything that way."
The old martial world on the 5th floor had no internet.
They tried installing a transmission tower, but the spirit beast immediately struck it with lightning and smashed it to pieces.
"What a fascinating world."
She nodded and picked up her spoon.
A hefty chunk of blood curd.
Surprisingly, just looking at it didn't make her feel repulsed.
The smell was surprisingly savory, and it made her mouth water.
'So that was why the auntie was so confident!'
Just as she smiled brightly and was about to take a big spoonful—.
KWA-AA-AANG!
A thunderclap that rang painfully in her ears.
The people inside the shop also flinched and looked out the window.
"What was that? It isn't even raining."
"That really was a bolt from the blue."
"Wow, that startled me."
"……."
Baek Yeonhwa slowly set down her spoon with a pitying smile.
'Even on the 3rd floor.'
As expected.
The spirit beast truly was amazing.
She took out money from her pocket and placed it on the table.
Leaving the steaming sunji haejangguk behind, Baek Yeonhwa quietly stepped outside.
She was picky without ever having tried it.
Because she hadn't experienced it, she didn't know her own tastes.
Meracle was indeed competent.
It really was the perfect description.
Baek Yeonhwa took out the 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 walked was always the same.
At the end of it, there was always only the sect.
* * *
"Ugh, to think the till would be short by 30,000 won on the very first day. Where on earth did I miscount!"
Lenea stormed off home from work.
Even though she'd cut it short since today was just training, the register total was still off.
Muttering to herself, she was heading to Meracle to clear up this injustice when the auntie from the 1st-floor gukbap shop was standing at the entrance and looking around.
"What's wrong, auntie?"
"Oh my! Lenea! You're adorable as always today! Done with your convenience store part-time shift?"
"Yes!"
"That's very admirable. Working part-time already at such a young age."
"Hehe! It's nothing!"
Her performance was perfect.
The gukbap auntie completely believed she was twenty.
'As expected, that boss bastard has a nose that's too sharp.'
If she'd lied to the other matchmaking companies from the start and said she was twenty, it probably would have worked.
But because Meracle caught her, she'd figured she'd get exposed anywhere else too, so she'd admitted she was 1,901.
"Lenea, have you seen a woman in a white training uniform? Black hair, pretty-looking."
"One of Meracle's customers was exactly like that earlier!"
"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 into the shop.
Sure enough, a single bowl of gukbap sat there all alone on the table.
"Sigh, I can't just leave that there. Lenea, if it's okay, do you want to eat it? If she comes back, I'll just make her another bowl."
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Y-yes!"
"Yay!"
And so Lenea, though it was her first time eating sunji haejangguk, ate it with gusto. It was pretty tasty.
She'd been a little shocked when she heard what the blood curd was, because she didn't know what it was, but her stomach didn't hurt and it tasted good.
'I can't fall behind change. I'm in my twenties. I'm sensitive to trends. I can't get stuck in a rut.'
A youthful mind that didn't seem like that of a 1,901-year-old.
That was Lenea's motto.
After that, she went home.
The Lenea who used to live in a pavilion behind Daebong Mountain was gone now.
She had properly found herself a room.
Even if it was a building where studio apartments were packed together, for the first time in 1,901 years she had a space that was entirely her own.
"I'm stuffed."
She spread out her blanket and lay down right away.
It was only 1 p.m.
Since she'd just eaten lunch, she'd only sleep for one hour.
Thinking that, she closed her eyes and opened them again.
"……What? Is the clock broken? It says 6 p.m.?"
A day had vanished.
She wondered if maybe the studio apartment was cursed, but unfortunately, that probably wasn't it.
Stepping outside to get some air, a familiar scent reached her nose.
More specifically, the familiar scent of Marlboro.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
The two of them met each other's eyes and made the same sound at the same time.
The room right next door.
Kim Juseon, who looked tired as if just off work, was in the middle of inserting a key into it.
notes":"Normalized the chapter title to a natural numbered-style English title. Kept the final neighboring-room line neutral with 'it' to avoid guessing Kim Juseon's gender. Also smoothed a couple of awkward repeated/over-literal phrasings in the draft."}]} version:3 արձassistant to=summary ฝ่ายขายข่าว:={