#27. Martial Arts (4)

#27. Martial Arts (4)

The Inventory was an ability so overpowered that even I found it absurd.

Even with a Lightweight enchantment applied, a tent was still a tent. Since it took up a fair amount of space, it was difficult to carry several in a bag.

However, if they were the same item, I could carry them by the ton in a single Inventory slot.

In other words, I had several more of those one-person tents in my Inventory.

It might have been a little excessive, but when it came to spares, the more the better.

“Are you saying a man cannot spare a place to sleep for a woman?”

Unbelievable.

“Calling yourself a man now? Where did that person who called me a lecher earlier go?”

“Ungh...!”

For the record, I am not the sort of person who holds grudges or is narrow-minded.

This argument was not some childish revenge for what had happened during the day. I simply wanted to tease Cheon Yeo-hwa, who seemed so strong-willed.

Would I ever have a chance to tease Cheon Yeo-hwa if not now? Normally, she would not even let me speak to her.

“If you really want to sleep in a tent, you can sleep with me.”

“At last, you have revealed your true nature, you lecherous bastard!”

“You trust me, right? I’ll only hold your hand.”

“This lady has no elder brother like you! And still less are this lady and you on terms where we would hold hands!”

“What a shame.”

Look at that. Her reaction was better than I expected.

The way she folded whenever I pressed her was as cute as a plush toy, making her fun to tease.

“Then you can sleep outside.”

Of course, that did not mean I felt absolutely nothing about being treated like a lecher all day. It was just that teasing Cheon Yeo-hwa was more fun.

Perhaps she had not expected me to refuse to yield, because I could almost hear the sound of Cheon Yeo-hwa furiously racking her brain.

“...What do you want?”

Cheon Yeo-hwa, who was now trying to get me to sit down at the negotiating table, wore a fairly resolute expression.

At the same time, the way she firmly pulled her robe closed created an oddly cute contrast with her identity as the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s young lady.

“What I want? I already told you.”

“C-co-sleeping is out of the question!”

Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face was flushed so red it looked ready to burst.

But what on earth was this woman thinking?

“Co-sleeping?”

“You said it earlier! That you would sleep holding my h-hand...”

“I was talking about why you’re going to Xi’an. I asked you earlier, but you never told me.”

“...What?”

At that moment, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s sharp eyes widened.

“Of course, I was joking about sleeping together.”

When I said it playfully while feigning innocence, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face crumpled in an instant.

“Grrr...!”

Cheon Yeo-hwa glared at me viciously, as though deeply offended, then abruptly turned around and went into the tent.

She had the posture of a cat claiming a spot for itself.

Before I knew it, she had stolen the tent from me.

While I stared blankly at the sight of my home being taken away by its tenant, the setting sun completely disappeared beyond the mountains.

Just as I was wondering whether to take out another tent and sleep, my stomach growled, demanding food.

Come to think of it, I had not eaten a single meal since entering this martial-arts world. But after walking all day, there was no way my stomach could avoid launching a large-scale peasant uprising.

‘But isn’t she hungry?’

Even for a martial artist, I did not think someone at Cheon Yeo-hwa’s level would skip meals.

Surely she was not dieting.

“Aren’t you going to eat dinner?”

“...”

Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had made a nest for herself in the tent, gave no answer.

She seemed to be thoroughly sulking.

‘Was I too harsh?’

Thinking it over, I realized she might have found my words a little rude coming from someone addressing the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s young lady.

It seemed I had approached things with too much of a modern mindset.

Even so, I had no idea how to placate a woman.

‘Would she feel a little better if I made her something tasty?’

Considering how happy she looked whenever she ate chocolate, it was not an entirely impossible idea.

The question was what I should make for her.

‘What ingredients did I bring again?’

For reference, time stopped for ingredients inside the Inventory. If I ordered jajangmyeon and put it straight into the Inventory, time would stop as it was, allowing me to enjoy noodles that had not gone soggy whenever I wanted.

That said, I had eaten so much delivery food while living alone that I was getting a little tired of it, and it felt wrong to rely on delivery food for every meal even here.

Instead, I had swept up expensive beef from the supermarket—meat I normally never even had the chance to eat. I had also brought various spices and butter.

Of course, as the number of ingredients increased, I ran into the problem of running out of Inventory space. But since this was all for the sake of eating and staying alive, I did not want to scrutinize every little detail while preparing food.

At present, sixty percent of the food in my Inventory and bag consisted of high-calorie emergency rations, while the remaining forty percent consisted of expensive, hard-to-obtain ingredients like beef.

For reference, about forty percent of the emergency rations were packaged delivery food. The truth was, there was not much tasty food to begin with.

Still, cooking every day was a hassle, so I did not want to increase the proportion of ingredients too much.

Even if you got tired of eating it every day, familiar things were ultimately the best once you came full circle.

‘I’ve decided.’

The menu for the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s young lady tonight would be steak made with 1++ Korean beef, using striploin, the cut least likely to be disliked among the various options.

Of course, I had never eaten steak before, either. The most I had eaten was some foreleg meat meant for soup.

Naturally, I had never grilled steak, either.

Still, I was not worried.

‘This isn’t a restaurant. I just need to put some beef seasoned with olive oil and salt on the grill and cook it.’

I had seen plenty of it online.

After washing my hands quickly, I placed a large griddle over the fire. While waiting for it to heat up, I took out the striploin I would be eating today.

It weighed roughly two kilograms.

A normal serving of steak was about 300 grams, so I figured this should be enough. It looked like a lot, but my appetite had increased after becoming a mage, and Cheon Yeo-hwa was a martial artist, so I assumed she would eat a lot as well and prepared plenty.

I sprinkled salt over both sides of the beef on the cutting board. I considered adding pepper too, but I had heard that pepper could actually get in the way when the meat was good, so I left it out for now.

I left the simply seasoned meat aside for a moment, then generously drizzled olive oil over the fully heated griddle.

‘Should I put it on now?’

I carefully placed the beef on the griddle.

Sizzle- The sound of the meat sizzling in the oil rang through the quiet forest. The tingling sound made my stomach growl even more.

And there was no way Cheon Yeo-hwa, a martial artist with heightened senses, failed to hear that mouthwatering sound.

As though her sense of hearing were tormenting her sense of taste, Cheon Yeo-hwa endured by clapping her hands over her ears.

But just then, Kang Hyeon-woo melted butter on the griddle, and her sense of smell began tormenting her sense of taste as well. Unable to endure the savory aroma tickling her nose any longer, Cheon Yeo-hwa gave in.

Kang Hyeon-woo spotted Cheon Yeo-hwa emerging from the tent like someone possessed and approaching the griddle, then smiled brightly.

“You came out?”

“...Ah.”

Only then did Cheon Yeo-hwa seem to realize what she had done, and her face reddened.

“You must be really hungry, right? Just wait a little. It’s almost ready.”

Whether Kang Hyeon-woo had not noticed Cheon Yeo-hwa’s reaction or was pretending not to, he turned his back again and focused on cooking.

Cheon Yeo-hwa felt at least a little grateful for the way he acted.

Before long, the meat finished resting, was cut into appropriate-sized pieces, and was placed on a plate.

As a garnish, I used a salad I had bought at a café. Good thing I brought it, just in case.

It was not a dish I particularly needed for myself, but it felt a little wrong to simply put a slab of meat in front of a woman.

“Where on earth did you get meat like this...? Is this magic too?”

“Something like that.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa gave a faint smile at Kang Hyeon-woo’s shrug.

“I can’t guarantee how it tastes, but try it first. Tell me if it isn’t enough.”

“...I shall eat it gratefully.”

The aroma was savory, and it looked nicely medium. I had wanted to make it medium-rare, but I thought Cheon Yeo-hwa, an old-fashioned person, might be horrified, so I cooked it until as little redness as possible remained.

Nom. I put a piece of meat into my mouth.

‘Wow, what is this? It’s fucking delicious.’

It might have sounded like self-praise, but I was not exaggerating at all. It was genuinely delicious. It had no gamey smell and was not tough, either.

The rich juices and tender texture made it satisfying to chew.

“Mmm! It’s truly delicious! I never imagined you might be a cook!”

“I’m not a cook. I just had good ingredients.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa also seemed satisfied with the steak.

That was how we were able to finish a satisfying dinner with smiles on our faces.

Except that we ran out of meat halfway through and I had to grill another two kilograms.

After roughly finishing the cleanup, it was truly time to sleep. Considering that we would be walking all day again tomorrow, even going to bed earlier would not have been enough.

I was a mage, not a knight.

Since I never knew when I might have to fight, there was a limit to using mana to keep my stamina up.

“Sleep well.”

“...Then where do you plan to sleep?”

“Me? Well...”

I thought Cheon Yeo-hwa might sulk again if she found out I had another tent, so I put her in the tent first and planned to set mine up a little farther away.

“Anyway, don’t mind me. Go in and sleep first.”

With a full stomach and exhausted from walking all day, I felt as though I could collapse at any moment.

“W-wait...!”

When Cheon Yeo-hwa suddenly tugged on my sleeve, I had no choice but to stop walking.

What was with her?

“I-I...”

“Huh? What is it?”

It was strange to see Cheon Yeo-hwa hesitating and unable to get the words out.

We had not known each other for long, but the woman I had seen so far had always been the type to say whatever she wanted without hesitation.

The problem was that whatever she wanted to say included sharply insulting other people.

“Can I go if you have nothing else to say? I’m a little sleepy...”

“Y-you too!”

Cutting me off and thrusting her face close to mine, Cheon Yeo-hwa had a vivid red blush on both cheeks, brighter than ever before.

“Would you not sleep in the tent with me as well...?”

***

The forest in the middle of the night was utterly silent.

Perhaps it was a matter of the season, but I could not even hear the familiar chirping of crickets.

Thanks to that, the sound of my breathing and Cheon Yeo-hwa’s grew clearer and clearer inside the narrow tent as time passed.

“...”

“...”

I had been so tired that I thought I would collapse the moment I lay down, but now that we were lying back-to-back inside the cramped tent, I could not sleep.

If anything, I seemed to grow more wide awake as time passed.

“...Are you asleep?”

Apparently, it was the same for Cheon Yeo-hwa.

“No.”

“Did you not say you were sleepy earlier?”

“I guess I was.”

It was strangely difficult to fall asleep.

Was it because I was tense?

Even though I tried as hard as possible not to touch her, there was no avoiding our backs occasionally brushing against each other. Each time it happened, the warmth radiating from her soft skin drove me crazy.

‘Ah... Primordial Heavenly Lord...’

I had never read the Tao Te Ching, but since the two leading Taoist sects happened to be nearby, I tried to take advantage of the location and hope for some benefit.

It was like how praying in a church felt different from praying at home.

Of course, it had no effect.

“...Thank you.”

“Huh?”

A slightly trembling voice came from behind me.

“If you had not been here, this lady would have gone hungry again today and slept on the dirt.”

When I wondered what she was talking about, I realized the subject was far heavier than I had imagined.

“...Weren’t you the daughter of a wealthy family?”

“Do I look like one?”

“At least based on your appearance?”

“Hehe, you are rudely honest.”

Her clothes were certainly a long robe made from high-quality fabric, but there were signs throughout that it had grown old and worn.

She had probably been wearing it for quite a long time.

“In your eyes, this lady must look like a troublesome woman whose outside is all flash and full of secrets.”

“I didn’t particularly think that.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa’s body flinched slightly at my reply, which had come out without even a second of hesitation.

“I am grateful even if you are only saying that.”

Her voice sounded oddly buoyant.

“To be honest, this lady had been suspicious of you.”

“Of me?”

“More precisely, I thought you were an assassin sent by the First Young Master to kill me.”

“You used the past tense, so does that mean you don’t think so anymore?”

“I had shown you far too many openings for you to be an assassin. And...”

What was it?

Suddenly, the tent grew quiet.

I turned over, wondering whether Cheon Yeo-hwa had fallen asleep, but judging by how unevenly she was breathing, she did not seem to be asleep.

Why did she stop talking midway?

“...It is nothing.”

Ah, shit.

“You may not know this, but do you know the two ways to make someone angry?”

“Hmm? What are they?”

“The first is to stop talking in the middle of a sentence.”

“And the second?”

I suddenly felt sleepy.

“You there? What is the second?”

I had been unable to sleep because of the tension of lying in a narrow tent with Cheon Yeo-hwa, but perhaps the tension had eased a little, because all the fatigue that had built up seemed to come rushing over me at once.

“Why do you stop talking in the middle of a sentence?”

“Khhrrk...”

“I asked what the second way was??”

“Mmm...”

“Hey!”