Chapter 27

Chapter 27

I Installed a Dating App and Girls from Another World Became Obsessed with Me.

Episode 27: Martial Arts (4)

Even by my standards, the inventory was an absurdly overpowered ability.

Even with a weight reduction enchantment, a tent was still a tent. Due to its inherent bulk, it was difficult to carry multiple tents in a bag.

However, if they were the same product, I could carry tons of them in a single inventory slot.

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

It might seem a bit excessive, but having spares was always better than not enough.

“Are you so heartless of a gentleman that you can’t even offer a lady a place to sleep?”

Unbelievable.

“Since when did I become a ‘gentleman’? Where did the person who called me a lecher go?”

“Ugh…!”

For the record, I was not the type to hold grudges or be petty.

This argument wasn’t some childish revenge for what happened during the day; I just wanted to tease Cheon Yeo-hwa, who seemed so assertive.

When else would I get a chance to tease Cheon Yeo-hwa? She usually doesn’t even let me talk to her.

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

“You’ve finally revealed your true colors, you lecher!”

“Trust me, I’ll just hold your hand.”

“This lady has no brother like you! And we are definitely not on hand-holding terms!”

“Too bad.”

See? The reaction was better than I expected.

She was like a cute doll that squished when you press her; it’s fun to tease her.

“Then you can sleep outside.”

Of course, if you asked if I had no feelings about being called a lecher all day, I’d say there’s a tiny bit of resentment, but teasing Cheon Yeo-hwa was just more fun.

Cheon Yeo-hwa seemed to be racking her brains, not expecting me to refuse to yield.

“…What do you want?”

Cheon Yeo-hwa, now trying to bring me to the negotiation table, looked quite determined.

Meanwhile, the way she tightly fastened her collar showed a gap moe that oddly didn’t fit her identity as the Heavenly Demon Sect’s young lady.

“What do I want? I told you earlier.”

“S-sleeping together is out of the question!”

Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face was flushed red, as if it would explode any moment.

What was she even thinking?

“Sleeping together?”

“Didn’t you just say you were going to hold my hand and sleep…?”

“I was talking about why you’re going to Xi’an? I asked you earlier, but you didn’t tell me.”

“…What?”

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

“Of course, the sleeping together thing was a joke.”

As I said playfully with an innocent expression, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face crumpled.

“Ugh…!”

Looking at me with a murderous glare, she turned around and went into the tent.

It was like a cat claiming its spot.

Before I knew it, I had lost the tent.

As I stared blankly at the scene of being evicted by my tenant, the setting sun disappeared completely beyond the mountains.

I was wondering if I should take out another tent to sleep in when my stomach growled, demanding food.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten since entering this martial arts world. After walking all day, it was no wonder my stomach was staging a massive peasant revolt.

‘Doesn’t she get hungry?’

Even for a martial artist, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s level shouldn’t be able to skip meals.

She was not on a diet, was she?

“Aren’t you going to eat dinner?”

“…”

Cheon Yeo-hwa, nestled in the tent, didn’t reply.

She seemed to be really sulking.

‘Was I a bit harsh?’

Thinking about it, it might have seemed rude to the Heavenly Demon Sect’s young lady.

I might have been too modern in my approach.

But I had no idea how to appease a woman.

‘Maybe making her something delicious would cheer her up?’

Considering how happy she looked whenever she ate chocolate, it wasn’t an impossible idea.

But what should I make?

‘What ingredients do I have?’

For reference, time stops for ingredients inside the inventory. If I ordered jjajangmyeon and put it in the inventory right away, time would stop, and I could enjoy noodles that weren’t soggy whenever I wanted.

But I had eaten so much delivery food while living alone that I was a bit tired of it, so I didn’t want to rely on it for every meal here.

Instead, I had stocked up on expensive beef from the supermarket, which I usually never touched. And various spices and butter.

Of course, having more ingredients meant less inventory space, but I didn’t want to meticulously plan my food storage when I was just trying to eat well.

The ratio of food in my inventory and bag was 60% high-calorie emergency rations and 40% expensive and hard-to-find ingredients like beef.

Incidentally, about 40% of the emergency rations were packaged delivery food. To be honest, there wasn’t much good-tasting emergency food.

But I was too lazy to cook every day, so I didn’t want to increase the proportion of ingredients.

Even if I was tired of eating the same thing, familiar food was the best in the end.

‘Decided.’

Today’s menu for the Heavenly Demon Sect’s young lady would be 1++ Korean beef steak, using the tenderloin, which was the least polarizing cut.

Of course, I had never made steak before. I had only ever had the cheaper brisket for stews.

Naturally, I had never grilled a steak.

But I wasn’t worried.

‘It’s not like this is a restaurant; I can just grill the beef with olive oil and salt.’

I had seen plenty of videos online.

After washing my hands, I placed a large griddle over the fire. While waiting for the griddle to heat up, I took out the tenderloin.

It was about 2kg.

Since a typical steak serving was about 300g, I figured this would be enough. It might seem like a lot, but my appetite had increased since becoming a mage, and Cheon Yeo-hwa was a martial artist, so she would probably eat a lot too.

I sprinkled salt on both sides of the beef on the cutting board. I considered adding pepper, but I heard that pepper can sometimes interfere with the flavor of good meat, so I skipped it.

After the simple seasoning, I set the beef aside and poured plenty of olive oil onto the heated griddle.

‘Should be good to put it on now, right?’

I carefully placed the beef onto the griddle.

Chi-iiiik—the sound of the meat frying in the oil echoed through the quiet forest. The sizzling sound tickled my ears and made me even hungrier.

And there was no way Cheon Yeo-hwa, a martial artist with heightened senses, wouldn’t have heard that delightful sound.

As if her hearing was tormenting her sense of taste, Cheon Yeo-hwa endured it by forcefully covering her ears.

But just as Kang Hyeon-u melted butter on the griddle, her sense of smell began to torment her sense of taste. The savory smell that stimulated her nose was too much for Cheon Yeo-hwa to bear.

Kang Hyeon-u smiled brightly when he saw Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had emerged from the tent like a person possessed and approached the griddle.

“You came out?”

“…Ah.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face flushed red as she finally grasped the situation.

“You must be very hungry, right? Just wait a little, it’s almost done.”

Whether Kang Hyeon-u didn’t notice Cheon Yeo-hwa’s reaction or was pretending not to, he turned back and focused on cooking.

Cheon Yeo-hwa felt a sliver of gratitude towards him.

Soon, the rested meat was sliced into appropriate sizes and placed on a plate.

—

The garnish was a salad I had bought at the cafe. I had brought it just in case, and it was a good thing I did.

It wasn’t a menu item I particularly needed, but it felt a bit rude to just give a woman a plate of meat.

“Where did you get this kind of meat…? Is this also magic?”

“Something like that.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa gave a small smile at Kang Hyeon-u’s shrug.

“I can’t guarantee the taste, but try it. Tell me if it’s not enough.”

“…Thank you, I’ll eat well.”

The smell was savory, and the visual was a properly cooked medium. Actually, I wanted to do medium-rare, but I thought Cheon Yeo-hwa, being an old-fashioned person, would be horrified, so I cooked it until there was as little red as possible.

Yam, I put a piece of meat in my mouth.

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

Even though it sounded like self-praise, it was genuinely delicious. There was no gamey smell, and it wasn’t tough.

The rich juices and tender texture were a pleasure to chew.

“Mmm! This is truly delicious! I never imagined you were a cook!”

“I’m not a cook, it’s just good ingredients.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa seemed satisfied with the steak as well.

We were able to finish a satisfactory dinner with laughter.

Of course, except for the part where we ran out of meat in the middle and I grilled another 2kg.

After roughly cleaning up, it was finally time to sleep. Considering we would be walking all day tomorrow, even sleeping earlier wouldn’t have been enough.

I was a mage, not a knight.

There was a limit to maintaining stamina with mana because I didn’t know when we would have to fight.

“Good night.”

“…Then where do you plan to sleep?”

“Me? Well…”

Thinking that Cheon Yeo-hwa might sulk again if she found out I had spare tents, I planned to put her in the tent first and then set up my own tent a little further away.

“Anyway, don’t worry about me, just go in and sleep first.”

Full and tired from walking all day, I felt like I could collapse any moment.

“W-wait a moment…!”

Cheon Yeo-hwa suddenly grabbed my sleeve, forcing me to stop.

What’s wrong with her?

“Th-that…”

“Huh? What?”

Cheon Yeo-hwa, hesitating and unable to speak easily, was a strange sight.

Although we hadn’t known each other for long, she had always been straightforward with what she wanted to say.

The problem was that her straightforwardness often included harshly criticizing others.

“If you have nothing to say, can I go? I’m a bit sleepy…”

“Y-you too!”

Interrupting me, Cheon Yeo-hwa leaned close, her cheeks flushed redder than ever.

“Won’t you sleep in the tent with me…?”

The forest at midnight was truly quiet.

Perhaps due to the season, there wasn’t even the sound of crickets.

As a result, our breaths became clearer and clearer in the narrow tent as time passed.

“…”

“…”

I was so tired I felt like I would collapse as soon as I lay down, but now that we were lying back-to-back in the narrow tent, I couldn’t fall asleep.

In fact, I felt more and more alert as time went on.

“…Are you asleep?”

Cheon Yeo-hwa seemed to be in the same boat.

“No.”

“Didn’t you say you were sleepy earlier?”

“Yeah, I did.”

It was strangely hard to fall asleep.

Was it because I was tense?

No matter how hard I tried not to touch her, our backs occasionally brushed against each other. Each time, the warmth from her soft skin drove me crazy.

‘Ah… Primordial Celestial Lord…’

Although I hadn’t read the Tao Te Ching, I tried to benefit from the location since there were two prominent Taoist sects nearby.

Just like how praying in church feels different from praying at home.

Of course, it didn’t work.

“…Thank you.”

“Huh?”

A slightly trembling voice came from behind me.

“If you weren’t here, I would have slept on the dirt floor, hungry again tonight.”

I wondered what she was talking about, but the topic was heavier than I expected.

“…Weren’t you from a wealthy family?”

“Does it look like it?”

“At least your appearance?”

“Hehe, you’re honestly rude.”

Her clothes were clearly a luxurious fabric, but there were signs of wear and tear in various places.

She must have been wearing them for quite a while.

“You probably see me as a superficial, annoying woman with many secrets.”

“I didn’t really think that.”

Cheon Yeo-hwa flinched slightly at my immediate response.

“Thank you, even if it’s just words.”

Her voice was strangely excited.

“To be honest, I was suspicious of you.”

“Me?”

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

“‘Was’ means it’s past tense, so you don’t think that now?”

“There were too many openings I showed you to be an assassin. And…”

What was it?

The tent suddenly went silent.

I turned to see if Cheon Yeo-hwa had fallen asleep, but her breathing was still uneven, so she wasn’t asleep.

Why did she stop talking?

“…It’s nothing.”

Ugh.

“Hey, I don’t know if you know this, but do you know the two ways to piss someone off?”

“Hm? What are they?”

“The first is stopping mid-sentence.”

“And the second?”

I was suddenly sleepy.

“Hey? What’s the second way?”

Until just now, the tension of lying next to Cheon Yeo-hwa in the narrow tent kept me awake, but now that I was a bit relaxed, all the accumulated fatigue was hitting me at once.

“Why do you stop talking?”

“Ugh…”

“What’s the second way??”

“Umm…”

“Hey!”