Surviving on the Northern Front with Gukbap

Chapter 4 - Unlocked

It was as Ian had predicted.

Jeros was quite fond of Ian.

He was different from the outsiders he had met until now.

His impudent attitude was a secondary matter; the biggest difference was his gaze.

Contained within his eyes–

'Was a bastard whose desire to live wouldn't die.'

That was Ian.

Usually, when outsiders were caught by Bert, the light in their eyes would gradually fade.

Like a flower wilting without water.

But Ian was not like that.

Even though customers treated him more harshly because of his small frame, he silently did his best at his work in the shop.

Was it perhaps because Bert also found it comfortable to have Ian do all his work for him?

He kept Ian alive for quite a long time without killing him.

Having watched Ian for such a long time, Jeros, uncharacteristically, had grown attached.

So Jeros casually dropped them.

Pieces of information about Bert, so that Ian could prepare for death.

'Even so, I wasn't expecting this much.'

It was meant as, 'if you're going to go, at least try to resist before you do'.

But instead, the one who ended up dead was Bert.

Moreover, Ian, who had killed Bert, didn't have a single scratch on him.

He seemed to be mentally in shock, but his body had no injuries at all.

'How?'

Bert was a reserve soldier of the Duchy's army who had completed his mandatory military service.

Furthermore, it wasn't like he had only killed one or two outsiders.

A man like that was killed so helplessly by an outsider?

He just believed the blood all over Ian's clothes and his words, and didn't check Bert's corpse.

Only after the fact did he felt a sense of regret.

'I should have at least checked to see how he killed him.'

He should have witnessed the scene with his own two eyes.

Once that thought occurred to him, he couldn't stay still.

'He's probably already gotten rid of the corpse, but I should at least ask.'

Today, having gotten off work at dawn, was his day off.

For the first time in a while, Jeros wrapped his leather going-out cloak around himself.

A moment later, he arrived at The Fairy's Leg,

BANG, BANG, BANG.

“Hey, Ian! Are you in there!?”

The door was firmly locked, and no answer came back.

“……Don't tell me he ran away?”

Could it be, did he bolt with Bert's money?

Just as this anxiety washed over him,

Creeak.

The door opened.

Ian was looking at him with a gaze full of suspicion.

……

I opened the door cautiously.

With the kitchen knife hidden in my pants, of course.

'Phew. He came alone.'

The possibility that Jeros might backstab me and throw me in a cell.

And thus the possibility that he might raid the place with other guards.

I couldn't help but calculate.

“Hey, you bastard. If you were in there, why didn't you answer.”

“……”

Because I couldn't say what I was really thinking,

“I was planning on taking the day off. To get the shop in order and all.”

I let Jeros inside and closed the door again.

At that, Jeros started sniffing and said.

“Did you clean everything up? The smell of blood is already gone.”

His tone, as if disappointed, was unsettling.

“After foisting your own work onto me, you say that now?”

“How did you dispose of it? I doubt it was the village's public crematorium.”

“I buried him in the snowy mountain behind the village fence.”

“What? That wild mountain that takes about two hours to walk to outside the village?”

As he asked, Jeros's nostrils twitched.

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“Heh heh. You went there and came back alive?”

“……?”

“Today must be your day to pick up the Chief God's gold coins. No wonder.”

'A day for picking up the Chief God's gold coins' means’

A day when miraculous things happen one after another.

“Why is that?”

“You didn't die by Bert's hand~ no, more than not dying, your limbs are all intact~ on top of that, you went into an Ice Bear habitat to bury a corpse and came back without a scratch~. Heh heh.”

So the mountain I went to was an Ice Bear habitat.

'Crazy.'

Belatedly, goosebumps crawled all over my skin.

I went into a bear habitat and came back out?

“Next time you bury a corpse, go to the hill near the village entrance. Why go the long way when there's a place nearby. Tsk.”

I doubt there will be a next time I have to bury a corpse, but…

“But the guards patrol the area near the village entrance periodically.”

“We'll turn a blind eye to burying a corpse for 10 copper coins. Only your eyeballs are from around here; your head is empty, a perfect outsider through and through.”

Jeros sat down in his usual seat while muttering something I couldn't understand, and then,

“So how could an outsider like you have killed Bert? Hmm? How did you kill him?”

Jeros looked at me with interest.

“……I don't know either. How I managed to do that.”

I said that, but in truth, I could still recall it vividly.

Even though at least 10 hours have passed since this morning, it plays out in my mind like it happened one minute ago.

Slow motion, dodge, and slice.

SHLICK.

“Heh heh. The first time is hard, but the second time is easy. Right. Next time you kill someone, I'll clean up the corpse for you.”

As he said this, Jeros's eyes were uncomfortably sparkling.

“Well... an incident like this morning's……”

I almost said, 'I hope it never happens again', but I didn't.

Because that was too meaningless a wish.

To live in this medieval world, means that one way or another, I could die, or I could kill.

I have to steel my heart.

“Anyway, is that what you came to ask? About how I killed Bert?”

“That was my main purpose, but seeing the scene and your condition, it seems like a lost cause already. Since it's come to this, I was just planning on getting a free meal before I go.”

That's right.

It wasn't enough for him to take 8:2 of the profits; he also decided to get his meals for free.

“……I'll bring it right away.”

I wasn't exactly in a pleasant mood, but without any particular complaint, I filled a bowl with pumpkin soup and served it to Jeros.

Thud.

Jeros, upon seeing the 'Ian-style' pumpkin soup, froze for three seconds after looking at my dish and then spoke.

“Ian. What is this?”

“What do you mean? It's pumpkin soup.”

“This is?”

Jeros grimaced and stirred the soup with his spoon.

“This thing that looks like orc diarrhea?”

It does look quite a bit different from the original, but,

“Aren't you being a bit harsh to a dish made with such care?”

“Wait, Ian. Didn't our contract clearly state that you could do what you want with the menu, but that you had to leave Bert's pumpkin soup as it was?”

“The one I made is delicious too, you know. Don't judge it just by its looks; please try it.”

Jeros glared, looking back and forth between the pumpkin soup and me.

In the end, as if he had given up, he let out a deep sigh.

“Hah. Damn it. To think I'd miss Bert.”

Seeing him talk like that, Jeros must have genuinely liked Bert's pumpkin soup.

'Crazy bastard.'

This is why these medieval guys are hopeless.

To think he's dying to eat that kind of garbage.

“Dammit. If I eat a smooth soup like this, I'll get hungry again in no time.”

Ah, so that was the point.

I went back into the kitchen and brought out a piece of rock bread.

“You can have this too. It's free anyway, no matter how much you eat.”

“But this rock bread tastes bad…… hoo. Alright. I'll try the pumpkin soup first.”

Jeros slowly lifted the spoon he had been stirring with.

Then he stared at the soup for a long while again.

'Seriously, it's not like he's performing a memorial rite.'

Come to think of it,

I had never seen Jeros eat anything other than pumpkin soup at our shop.

He said that on days he ate something good, he went to the Wyvern Tail, the biggest pub in this town.

'Why?'

Hmm. It's not like I could figure it out just by thinking about it.

So please,

'Just eat it already, you idiot. Stop staring blankly at it.'

Just then,

The wooden spoon finally entered Jeros's mouth.

Munch.

“!”

Thump, thump.

When the dish I had poured my heart and soul into actually entered a person's mouth, I became unexpectedly nervous.

Munch, munch.

Jeros rolled the pumpkin soup around in his mouth.

There's almost nothing to chew, but he's making such a big deal of it.

Is it a habit?

Gulp.

I looked at Jeros's expression after he had completely swallowed the soup.

I also almost swallowed dryly, but I barely managed to hold it in.

The Jeros who had been scowling before eating was gone, and in his place was a completely expressionless Jeros.

“How…… is it?”

My voice became smaller without me realizing.

But Jeros was silent.

“……”

Damn it. It seemed like he didn't like it.

Was adding sugar a mistake after all?

I guess I have to accept that the palate of a modern person is different from that of a medieval person.

With this thought, I reached for Jeros's pumpkin soup bowl.

“I'm sorry. I'll remake it Bert's style—.”

GRAB!

“?!”

I didn't see it at all.

Before I knew it, Jeros was grabbing my wrist.

It was truly in the blink of an eye.

Jeros's hand slowly opened.

“Ah?”

I felt awkward and stepped back, and Jeros's spoon moved again.

It was from then on.

That Jeros's spooning motions started to get faster, little by little.

Shovel. Munch. Shovel! Munch munch.

Before long, he wasn't even chewing properly and was just swallowing it down.

Guzzle. Guzzle.

He soon lifted the entire bowl and drank from it.

The wooden bowl was empty in an instant.

Thud.

Only the sound of the empty bowl being placed on the table echoed emptily through the shop.

“……Would you like some more?”

Jeros remained still, neither affirming nor denying, but I quietly refilled his pumpkin soup.

Like that, Jeros ate four full bowls in a row, and left the shop without a word… but…

'Huh?'

……

Jeros, a second-year guard, considered routine to be important.

Set duties, set training, set nutrition.

It was his ironclad rule that he had to maintain a routine to be able to respond to life's variables.

So, as part of his routine, he had been eating Bert's pumpkin soup at The Fairy's Leg.

Adequate nutrients for the price.

For a soup, the ingredients were also substantial, so the feeling of fullness lasted a long time.

Of course, that pumpkin soup wasn't delicious from the beginning.

He got used to the taste as he kept eating it, and reached the point of even enjoying it.

That's why he felt a sense of rejection as soon as he saw Ian's pumpkin soup.

Because it was so very different from Bert's.

Because he felt like his routine was collapsing.

However,

'it's free.'

He no longer had to pay for food.

Furthermore, money was scheduled to enter his own pocket in proportion to how much Ian sold.

There was no need to refuse.

He just needed to mentally prepare himself.

The moment that pumpkin soup touched his lips.

'!!!!'

It was a feast of flavors he had never tasted before in his life.

The harmony of the smooth pumpkin particles and the milk that coated his tongue.

And,

'How can it have this kind of sweetness?'

He could taste an intense sweetness that couldn't come from pumpkin alone.

An ecstatic sweetness that you would only expect to feel from fruit.

It was truly a taste he'd never had before.

'It's so delicious.'

It clung delightfully to his palate.

“……”

It was so delicious that he couldn't get a hold of himself, and he couldn't even speak properly.

On his way out after eating pumpkin soup until his stomach was about to burst.

'My routine.'

A bowl of pumpkin soup on his way to and from work,

Jeros, who had always maintained an empty stomach on his days off.

But today, his routine was completely broken.

Nevertheless, he was delighted.

He felt refreshed.

And at the same time,

'It also feels like strength is surging through my body.'

He didn't know why, but he felt like he had energy to spare,

And it didn't feel right to go home and rest like this.

'Hah. And it's my day off.'

There are other things he’s supposed to do on his day off.

'……The routine is already ruined, I might as well go train.'

And so, Jeros arrived at the 2nd Battalion's training ground.

Just as expected,

As soon as he appeared, the other soldiers began to keep their distance.

Something about 'Psycho Jeros', and 'I heard it was his day off today, why did he come?'.

The idiots were whispering.

“What are you all staring at? You should just be doing your own work.”

Only when Jeros shouted into the air did the soldiers look away.

Jeros scoffed lightly and drew his sword.

'It's definitely lighter.'

Before beginning his sword forms in earnest, he swung it around here and there, and something was different.

'Hmm. I wonder if it's just my imagination.'

Jeros erased his stray thoughts and took his stance.

……

After Jeros enjoyed his fill of dining-and-dashing and left the shop,

< The customer is satisfied with the service >

< You have obtained 1 ‘Satisfaction.’ >

< Customer-Jeros Silver acknowledges the food. >

< You have obtained 1 ‘Recognition.’ >

As expected, I was able to get additional points.

However,

This wasn't the end.

< You have obtained 'Recognition' from a single customer 2 or more times. >

< A new function will be unlocked. >

“…What is this?”

At the top of the system window, next to [Shop Window], a new tab has appeared.