Ch.110Chapter 5. Spring Days at the Academy (4)

The original protagonist is addicted to tteokbokki.

He loved tteokbokki so much that he always ate it during meetings with the heroine, and whenever they gathered in groups, they always ate tteokbokki.

Usually, men take women to pasta or sushi restaurants when they’re not particularly close, or to steakhouses if their wallets allow.

But the protagonist stubbornly insisted on eating tteokbokki from the start.

I thought perhaps it was his survival strategy as a blonde, blue-eyed foreigner living in Korea, but thinking about it now, maybe the author just really liked tteokbokki.

‘Whenever tteokbokki appeared, the descriptions were unnecessarily detailed.’

The descriptions were so specific and verbose that I couldn’t tell if I was reading a Korean nationalist light novel or an essay by a tteokbokki food critic.

The tteokbokki descriptions were so excessive that they took up more space than the banter with the heroine, so it was only natural that readers complained about the text being “slathered with rice cakes” or having “speed bumps made of rice cakes.”

I obviously skipped those parts.

But when I realized that each daily chapter contained nothing but praise for tteokbokki, and there weren’t even any bonus chapters, I seriously considered dropping the novel several times.

Still, I thought ‘since they wrote this much, maybe I should read it once’ a few times, and eventually, while reading, I learned about the protagonist’s tteokbokki preferences.

The protagonist is the author’s avatar.

The author was obsessed with tteokbokki.

Therefore, it’s only natural that Ymir likes tteokbokki.

But.

“What did you just say?”

“I said tteokbokki was my first.”

Ymir picked up a thick rice cake with his chopsticks and placed it on his plate.

Then he stretched it out lengthwise, put the end in his mouth, and began to chew.

“Right, tteokbokki was your first. Mine was fried food.”

I picked up a squid fritter with my chopsticks.

The ring-shaped fritter was slightly larger than a finger ring, and I poured a bit of tteokbokki sauce onto my plate.

“…Hmm.”

Ymir frowned as if something displeased him, but I continued swirling my chopsticks inside the squid ring.

“…!!”

Ymir’s eyes began to shake widely.

While chewing on the rice cake, he seemed to choke momentarily, broke off the rice cake, and put his plate down.

“*cough* What are you doing?”

“Coating it with sauce.”

I continued swirling the inside of the ring with my chopsticks.

The tteokbokki sauce began to coat the chopstick tips generously, and I lightly gripped the squid fritter from both sides.

“…Professor?”

“What.”

“What are you doing right now?”

“Eating. With you.”

I picked up the oval-shaped squid fritter with my chopsticks and took a big bite.

Thanks to delivery, it had cooled enough not to burn the roof of my mouth, and I chewed the fritter while slightly raising my eyebrows at Ymir.

“What.”

“……”

Ymir furrowed one eyebrow, then reached for a fritter.

Crunch.

With an openly displeased face, she took a large bite of a pepper fritter.

As if chewing on tough meat, though not smacking her lips, she chewed the fritter deliberately loudly.

“Not good?”

“No. It’s delicious. I always eat like this.”

“You eat so ungracefully. You definitely couldn’t do food broadcasts. Your ratings would plummet.”

“Like I’d ever appear on entertainment shows?”

“You never know.”

I picked up a large piece of tteokbokki, placed it on my plate, and wrapped it with fish cake.

Even soaked in sauce, the chewy texture was visibly apparent, and I took a big bite of the fish cake-wrapped rice cake.

“……”

“What now.”

“Do you have scissors?”

“Yes. But don’t Westerners dislike using scissors at the table?”

“Humans use tools when they need them.”

Ymir took the scissors from me and began cutting the elongated fritters.

The fried fish cake was split in half, the seaweed roll disintegrated with noodles spilling out, and the remaining pepper fritter was mutilated beyond description.

“Come to think of it, I was eating without cutting. Should I cut the rice cakes too?”

“I’ll just cut half of them.”

Ymir continued cutting while deliberately looking at me, but I wasn’t bothered at all.

If she was trying to make some kind of “metaphorical” protest, I was far more experienced in that department.

“I was so hungry I wasn’t thinking. Just a moment.”

I took out two tall glass cups from the kitchen shelf and poured the plum-flavored drink that came with the food.

“Is spicy food okay for you?”

“It’s fine. You handle spicy food quite well, Professor.”

“This is nothing. I’ve built up tolerance from eating spicy food often.”

“You don’t seem to eat it often though?”

“My wife loves spicy food.”

Ymir’s hand froze while drinking.

“Your wife likes spicy food. I see.”

Round 2 begins.

“How much does she like it?”

“She can finish the ‘Death Tonkatsu’ challenge.”

“…Isn’t that infamous for being extremely spicy?”

“That’s right.”

Despite the extreme spiciness, my wife, “the Chairman,” succeeded in finishing it.

She enjoyed all kinds of spicy foods, and every time I ate with the Chairman, my stomach felt like it was on fire.

“If you think you can’t handle it, let me know. Since you’re an ability user, I can tell you a solution later.”

“Is there something?”

“It’s not something to discuss while eating.”

“Hmm… okay.”

Ymir nodded immediately and continued chewing and swallowing the rice cake.

“Professor. Since you’re sharing something good with me, should I share something good with you too?”

“Something good? What is it?”

“Well, something about abilities?”

Ymir took a sip of her drink, then moistened her lips with her tongue.

Any appearance of seductiveness must be just my imagination.

She’s probably just cooling her burning lips with her tongue.

“Like, these kinds of abilities might exist, that sort of thing.”

“Are you talking about abilities listed on the wiki?”

“Well? Some might be, some might not.”

Ah.

She’s proposing a trade.

If I share the Goblin’s know-how, Ymir will share abilities that Platinum Sun has stolen from demons.

“Interesting. So what kind of ability has Ymir thought of?”

“Hmm….”

Ymir put down her plate, leaned her upper body slightly closer to me, and smiled.

“Spatial teleportation?”

“……”

That sounds incredible just hearing about it.

“The ability to mark coordinates and teleport through space.”

“You’re saying you can do that?”

“Me? No way. If I could do that, I’d be appearing everywhere.”

Ymir waved her hands dismissively.

But her eyes were slightly smiling, clearly suggesting “Ymir can’t do it, but Platinum Sun can.”

“The Goblin probably can’t teleport either, right?”

“He might be able to do something similar?”

“Really?”

“If he wanted to, he could probably do anything.”

By etherealizing and moving to appear somewhere else—that’s teleportation.

It would consume a ridiculous amount of mana though.

“Like the Goblin being on Sejong Island and appearing in Jeju 30 minutes later.”

“30 minutes… hmm. What I’m talking about is a technique that takes almost no time, truly moving to another place in just 1 second.”

“That should be possible too?”

“Really?”

“Probably.”

It’s a technique that requires using 90% of my magical power and being prepared for the transformation to immediately break.

And if I use that technique, there’s only one destination I can go to.

The Chairman’s side.

‘It’s contradictory.’

The idea of abandoning everything to flee to the Chairman’s side implies a dangerous situation, but to make such a move, I’d have to use 90% of my magical power.

It’s not an emergency escape mechanism; it’s essentially useless for any purpose other than meeting the Chairman.

This ability doesn’t work even with assistance from Qiongqi’s or others’ magical power.

Unfortunately.

But what about a being overflowing with magical power like Ymir?

“Ymir. Do you think spatial teleportation is easy? You need to calculate coordinates, ensure there are no objects at the destination, and above all, be confident that you can transport yourself and everything you have completely.”

“……”

“What?”

“Nothing. I just thought you sound very much like an ability user.”

“These are just thoughts from reading novels and watching movies. Even if I’m not an ability user, I can imagine having abilities, right? Just like assuming E-rank Ymir could use spatial teleportation.”

“Hmm….”

Neither Ymir nor I intend to reveal our abilities here.

“If I meet the Goblin, I should ask if spatial teleportation is really possible.”

“I don’t know if you’ll ever meet the Goblin, but go ahead and ask. Who knows? Maybe if you just provide some ideas, the Goblin might open up his bag of tricks.”

“Would the Goblin share his secrets with a hero aspirant?”

“Why not, as long as you’re not a villain or demon? If you say you’ll help eliminate villains as vicious as himself, wouldn’t he gladly help?”

“The Goblin must have his own agenda.”

“That’s for you to answer. I don’t know what he would want from a hero aspirant.”

If the Goblin and Platinum Sun ever meet, they would exchange useful techniques.

A win-win situation.

An ideal relationship.

“Hmm… thinking about it, spatial teleportation would be convenient. If I learned it, couldn’t I enter your house anytime I wanted?”

“Do you want to be reported for breaking and entering?”

“Then if you could teleport, where would you want to go? To your wife?”

“Hmm… a place I’d want to go.”

I picked up my glass and addressed Ymir.

“Ulleungdo Island.”

“…Why?”

“Because I could patriotically enjoy myself for more than 2-3 days without worrying about others.”

“…2-3 days?”

“Yes.”

Ymir quietly watched me while chewing her tteokbokki.

“2-3 days… of patriotism?”

“Of course.”

“Is… is that possible?”

“Yes. Despite how I look.”

I leisurely drank my beverage and winked at Ymir.

“I’m the man who went on a patriotic trip with my wife at Christmas and returned after watching the New Year’s sunrise.”

If you’re confident, try to challenge me seriously.