Ch.416Late-Arriving NPCs. (4)

[*Ahem. This is quite an unusual cooking method. However, I question whether food prepared by throwing in ingredients so haphazardly will taste good.*]

When I returned home with the maid who introduced herself as Courier Orwell, she immediately began preparing a meal in the living room using ingredients she had somehow placed in front of our house beforehand. Hmm, this smell seems familiar, like something I should recognize. Hmm?

As Ragni, Miho, Chikuyo, and even Ray, who returned carrying Ira and Gor’s body fragments wrapped in a cloth, watched her cook quickly while we rested, dinner was prepared faster than expected. Wait, is this…?

“I’m not sure if it will suit your taste. This is a dish that recently became popular in Aiti. Originally, it’s a soup eaten with a grain called rice made from a crop called paddy, but quite a few people eat just the soup. Please enjoy.”

As she handed us bowls filled with soup and prepared her own portion before sitting down, I found myself staring blankly at Courier Orwell. She mistook my reaction and began asking if she should prepare something else, thinking I had already tasted it and found it disagreeable. No, that’s not it.

“Um, what is this soup called…?”

“Ah, its formal name is Gochujang Mixed Meat Soup, but we usually just call it Gochujang Soup.”

She explained that the term “mixed meat” meant you could add any kind of meat because it would taste good regardless, not that the quality of the meat was inferior. Everyone nodded in understanding and began moving their spoons, except for me.

‘…Wait, isn’t this clearly Budae-jjigae (Korean Army Stew)?’

I alone was too dumbfounded to move my spoon.

I felt like lightning struck my head the moment she mentioned paddy and rice! But, did Aiti originally have something like this? What’s going on? Did I miss a sub-quest, and this is actually some kind of Easter egg in the game?

While I was spacing out, unable to touch the soup (stew), Ira sitting next to me started urging me to eat quickly, saying, “Brother! It’s a bit spicy but delicious!” Ah, yes. Right.

*Slurp*

“How is it? You seemed concerned about it.”

“Ah, it’s delicious. So much so that I’d like to try that rice you mentioned.”

Of course it’s delicious! It’s Budae-jjigae!! Damn it!! How could it not be tasty?!

I want to hit myself for not realizing it when I first smelled it. There’s even minced garlic and beans in it, and although it seems slightly less fresh, there’s even green onion. Is [Aiti] a country of Korean cuisine? What connection could there be between Korea and Haiti…? Wait, [Aiti]… “IT” powerhouse… is this some kind of pun? Hahaha, dear developers? No, right? I really hope that’s not the joke. It makes me want to confiscate your dentures.

In the midst of my confusion, the taste of my past life that I was experiencing for the first time in nearly 20 years wasn’t particularly special. It was delicious as Ira said, but it felt like I had adapted to the food here and was just thinking, “Oh, a familiar taste. Feels like instant food.”

I did feel it would have been better with rice, but here it’s normal to just have soup for breakfast. Maybe Budae-jjigae is really just soup with gochujang? Well, everyone else seemed to be enjoying their meal, and I continued eating dinner without saying anything. When Ira’s bowl was almost empty, Secretary Orwell finally began to speak.

“First, I’d like to explain why I acted the way I did earlier, and what the current situation is regarding the Behemoth incident in Aiti.”

Her explanation went like this: Aiti’s chairman, Torque Bigman, had immediately planned to send support equipment and troops after hearing about the Behemoth from Ragni, or more precisely, from Nati. However, the vice-chairman and many other elders strongly opposed this and insisted on strengthening Aiti’s defenses instead, so the support plan was scrapped. Instead, they were preparing to intercept, believing Aiti would likely be next after Nati fell.

While they were doing this, Nati managed to defeat the Behemoth without any casualties. As a result, Aiti, which hadn’t contributed even a spoon—let alone dirt from under their fingernails—to the Behemoth battle, had no right to claim any of its materials. Since it was unthinkable for a magitech city to not acquire materials from the strongest field boss to appear in thousands of years, they reluctantly decided to purchase them using emergency funds.

Obviously, the anti-support faction should have lost their influence since the battle results showed they could have obtained materials just by participating in the raid or sending support supplies. The problem was that they were the “majority.”

Due to their poor decision-making, they had to spend a large budget to purchase materials, but they argued that bowing and begging to “mere mages, elves, and beastfolk” was against Aiti’s history and will. They raised their voices again, saying they should use Nati’s requests for material sales and support as leverage to gain the upper hand, since Nati was still in recovery.

Naturally, Chairman Torque Bigman intended to dismiss this as nonsense, but after “certain information” came to light, he agreed to act according to their wishes on the condition that he would personally come here. However…

“They refused to give up until the end and filled just under half of the escort forces with their own people. If the chairman or I, as the transaction manager, were to bow to Nati and Siltra, they planned to cause ‘accidents’ like earlier to sabotage the deal.”

“Are they really that crazy? Why would they go that far…”

“As the chairman mentioned earlier, more than half of the council members, including the vice-chairman and elders, are old men—stubborn seniors who have fallen behind the times. They can no longer develop new magitech items or come up with brilliant ideas, yet they hope that their old creations won’t be overshadowed by newly emerging engineering products. If Behemoth materials enter Aiti, the city will naturally make tremendous progress again. Just from what I’ve seen, the monster’s hide is lighter than mythril yet boasts superior strength—such materials are objects of fear for them. Moreover, the magitech train we brought for show was originally scheduled to be scrapped as an impossible project. It wouldn’t have been possible without something that Nati Naika, the dean of Nati, sent about six months ago. Ironically, they barely managed to get their junk—which cost hundreds of billions of cans in taxes—moving with outside help, yet they refuse to acknowledge this and try to show it off as their own achievement. Even now, its power source is unstable, and it might not make it back to the city.”

After she finished speaking, Ray served her tea, and we could now understand why she had responded the way she did initially.

Half of the escorts—if she hadn’t acted that way, they would have thrown some ridiculous tantrum and started a fight right there. In that case, even the escorts who weren’t part of their faction would have had no choice but to fight. But we had already taken down two of them… was that okay?

“I deliberately chose two expendable people. They were combustible trash placed by the weakest elder among the council—an opportunist old man with no money or skills but plenty of greed. Their master wanted to prevent this transaction by any means necessary, so I kept them by my side, expecting they would definitely cause trouble.”

By now, they would have received sedatives from our people and wouldn’t wake up until it was time to return. As she said this with a smile, she looked much scarier than when she was acting difficult earlier.

Anyway, I understood their situation. It might sound like an excuse, but they were clearly having their own difficulties.

“I understand your side of the story. So? What was the ‘certain information’ the chairman heard, and why did you come here in person? I hope you won’t give the clichéd answer that it’s to successfully trade for Behemoth materials and establish additional diplomatic relations. With your internal affairs in such disarray, both the chairman and you, his close aide, came out personally. Additionally, the ‘important matter’ we hoped for—the restoration of the golem—being accepted without payment just for clearing a dungeon doesn’t make sense with what you’ve told us so far. Are you willing to explain that part properly?”

As I was trying to organize my thoughts and move on, the intelligent Ragni picked up on all the parts I had missed and questioned her. That’s right—they spent a lot of money on materials, so they should want payment for Gor’s repairs. Actually, based on what was discussed earlier, it was almost like creating a new one. They should want payment for that, yet they’re saying they’ll do it just for us clearing a dungeon. Plus, what information did they hear that made the chairman decide to come personally?

As everyone became genuinely curious after hearing Ragni’s words, she cleared her throat several times before speaking.

“Ahem. As you’ve met and spoken with the chairman, you probably know that he is an authority on golem magitech.”

“…I don’t know about being an authority, but I certainly felt his passion for stones… for golems.”

“Well, how passionate he is about golems was… honestly obvious even without seeing him twice.”

“Yes! He kept asking me about how Gor feels!”

“…AHEM! AHEM!!”

In response to our three reactions about Gor, Orwell cleared her throat even louder and moved the conversation forward as if refusing to hear any more.

“Word reached him—a man who has devoted his life to golem development—about a ‘female-type golem’ that temporarily held off the massive Behemoth, and a request asking if it could be restored. As a result, the original plan to send a moderate elder from the opposition who still had many years left to live, just to complete the transaction, completely fell apart when this information arrived. With the chairman moving personally, even though the opposition was in the majority, they couldn’t remain idle.”

…So you’re saying the stone-lover went berserk after hearing about Gor? Good grief, what a crazy world. Why are such perverts the leaders of each city?!

As the conversation gave me a headache, I rested my chin on my hand and drank the tea Ray had served, while she immediately continued.

“And finally, we heard ‘certain information.'”

“Wait. Hearing about Gor wasn’t the ‘certain information’?”

“Jack, we still don’t know why they’re not charging for Gor’s repairs.”

“Yes, that comes a bit later. What I’m about to tell you is the reason we’re not charging for repairs, and the bigger reason why the chairman wanted to come out personally.”

After saying that, she drank her tea as if her throat was truly parched or she was anxious. After taking a deep breath, she began to move her lips.

“…Although we haven’t found physical evidence yet, we’ve discovered circumstances suggesting that many of the anti-support faction elders have joined hands with the Holy Nation. And in the process, it appears that a new piece of equipment called a Large Monster Detector has been smuggled out of the country.”

“What?”

“Wait!!”

“Sister, this is…”

“Whether they close their borders or whatever, both Siltra and Aiti are being played by outsiders the same way.”

“…What do you mean?”

I immediately hugged Ira tightly in my arms after hearing her words. Then, I carefully looked at my woman who had spoken with a cold voice at the end.

Ha, this is ridiculous. We haven’t even heard what the equipment looks like or what it does, but everyone here figured it out just from the name.

“The Holy Nation awakened the Behemoth, but it was the traitors—the old men of Aiti—who helped them find it. So, we are in no position to charge you for the golem restoration costs.”

More than Ira, more than me, killing intent began to rise in Ray’s eyes—the one who had been most heartbroken over Gor’s destruction.