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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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At Yoo Soon-tae’s words, Gang-so nodded.
“That’s right. Want me to show you?”
“I… thought it was something that only existed in wuxia novels…”
“Wuxia novels?”
Yoo Soon-tae, seeing Gang-so’s curiosity, explained what he knew about wuxia novels, and Gang-so was fascinated.
“So, people here think that world is fictional. Even though it actually exists.”
“Anyway, I’ll keep my promise and be your guarantor. But are you really not going to work as an awakened one?”
“I’m not.”
“No! Why not!”
“Because it’s a hassle.”
“Being an awakened one is a hassle… a hassle, you say?”
Gang-so sighed.
“Sigh… I’ve already experienced all the wealth and glory one could desire.”
“With your abilities… I can see that.”
“But I wasn’t happy. It was more trouble than it was worth. And after this bewildering experience, I realized for sure. Such things are fleeting dreams. What remains for me is…”
It was the longing for the girl who was his only family.
But he couldn’t bring himself to say those words out loud.
The emotions were too heavy to be spoken.
“Alright.”
Yoo Soon-tae said.
“If that’s what you want, then so be it. Honestly, having someone as strong as you around is good for me too. If a gate happens to open here and monsters appear, my family will be safe.”
“You’re being practical about that.”
“I used to be a dreamer, but becoming a dad made me a realist.”
They discussed their plans for the future.
‘An isolated person, and my way of speaking and acting are because I learned about the world by reading the only remaining wuxia novels…’
Even he thought it was a plausible excuse that wouldn’t be questioned. But Yoo Soon-tae suggested that he should change his way of speaking because it was quite awkward for this world, and Gang-so decided to follow his advice.
“Oh! Honey! Are the cabbages all chopped?”
“Ugh! I forgot!”
“I’ll slice the onions.”
The two went into the kitchen and started moving busily.
Gang-so looked at Yoo Soon-tae and Lim So-young in the kitchen.
They were truly good people, and he decided to protect them while he was here.
‘By the way, I probably shouldn’t reveal that I was an assassin…’
With a lighter heart, Gang-so continued cleaning.
About thirty minutes passed.
“Hmm! This is a perfect cleaning job!”
The shop, after Gang-so’s touch, was so clean that one might believe it had been remodeled, and it sparkled.
‘As expected, hot water is the best for removing dirt and adding shine!’
As Gang-so nodded in satisfaction, he heard a car outside the door.
Then, the door opened with a chime, and a middle-aged man wearing a work cap entered.
“Mr. Yoo! The vegetables are here!”
Hearing that, Yoo Soon-tae, who had been preparing ingredients in the kitchen, quickly came out.
“Ah! Good morning, Mr. Kim.”
Mr. Kim, as he was called, saw Gang-so next to him, and Yoo Soon-tae quickly introduced him.
“Ah, this is a friend who will be working at our shop starting today.”
Gang-so greeted Mr. Kim.
“I’m… Gang-so.”
He still wasn’t used to the language of this world.
“I’m Kim Jin-seop.”
And he held out his hand.
But Gang-so, not knowing what a handshake was, just stared blankly.
Yoo Soon-tae was embarrassed by the situation.
“I’m sorry. Gang-so is an isolated person, so he doesn’t know what a handshake is.”
“Ah? Is that so?”
Yoo Soon-tae explained handshakes to Gang-so, and Gang-so quickly extended his hand to shake Mr. Kim’s.
“I apologize. I didn’t know…”
“Don’t worry about it! How could I fault you for not knowing?”
Yoo Soon-tae said to Gang-so.
“This is Mr. Kim, who supplies vegetables to our shop. He’s famous for supplying high-quality vegetables.”
“Hahaha! It’s not that I supply high-quality vegetables, it’s that young Mr. Yoo is so meticulous when inspecting them that I have no choice but to give him the best. But… the shop seems brighter today. Did you change the magic stones in the light bulbs to a higher grade?”
“Huh? No, I didn’t…”
Only then did Yoo Soon-tae realize that the shop seemed brighter than yesterday.
It was because Gang-so had used his internal energy to clean.
Even the hard-to-remove fly droppings on the walls and ceiling were completely gone, so it was natural that the shop seemed brighter.
However, Gang-so just smiled quietly.
He felt a sense of accomplishment from his cleaning.
“As usual, I need onions, cabbage, pumpkins, carrots, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms, right?”
“Yes.”
Mr. Kim went outside and selected the vegetables to be delivered, moving them to one side of the back of the truck.
“I’ll help… you.”
Mr. Kim pointed to the onion sacks next to him.
“Then, please help with the onions. Just ten sacks.”
“Alright…”
Gang-so was about to lift the onions with his internal energy, but he shook his head.
He realized that he shouldn’t show his use of internal energy to anyone other than Yoo Soon-tae and his wife.
He had to appear ordinary to others.
That was the way to avoid more trouble.
‘I guess three sacks on each shoulder will look normal?’
Carrying six 15-kilogram sacks of onions at once was far from ordinary, but he wouldn’t realize that for a while.
Mr. Kim and Yoo Soon-tae were surprised.
“Hey! Isn’t that heavy?”
“It’s not very heavy.”
“Wow! This young man is strong!”
Thanks to Gang-so, they were able to finish moving the vegetables quickly, and the preparations for lunch were মোটামুটি complete.
Finally, breakfast was served.
The breakfast menu consisted of rice, egg soup, spinach salad, stir-fried fish cakes, and seasoned seaweed.
“Let’s eat! Ha-young, come eat!”
“Yes!”
At Lim So-young’s call, Ha-young came running, and Yoo Soon-tae patted Gang-so’s shoulder.
“Let’s eat.”
“Okay.”
Gang-so sat at the table and looked at the food on the table.
He felt a warm energy emanating from the food.
Yoo Soon-tae picked up his spoon, and breakfast began.
“Oppa!”
Just then, Ha-young called out to Gang-so.
“Try this! It’s my favorite side dish!”
“What is this?”
“Stir-fried fish cakes! It’s really delicious!”
Ha-young was speaking informally to Gang-so without any hesitation.
But Gang-so didn’t mind. It was Ha-young’s way of showing that they were close.
On the plate was a dish of stir-fried flat fish cakes with onions and bell peppers, seasoned with soy sauce.
Gang-so carefully picked up a piece of the stir-fried fish cake with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.
Chewy.
He felt something both resilient and soft on his tongue. It was the rich taste of fish.
At the same time, the sweetness of sugar, the saltiness of soy sauce, and the crispness of onions and bell peppers harmonized with the soft and oily fish cakes.
‘Hmm…’
But something was missing for a perfect harmony.
As Gang-so was thinking about what it was, his hand automatically reached for the rice.
That was it. What was missing was rice.
When the rice entered his mouth, he felt the perfect harmony of flavors.
“Wow! This is really delicious, just like you said!”
At Gang-so’s words, Lim So-young smiled and said,
“There’s plenty, so eat as much as you like.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Just then, something caught Gang-so’s eye.
“Why is there black paper on the table?”
At Gang-so’s words, Ha-young giggled.
“No! Oppa! It’s not paper!”
Yoo Soon-tae explained further.
“It’s a food made from seaweed. It’s called gim.”
“Where I came from, gim was rolled into a ball and added to dishes… This is unusual.”
“Is that so? Try some.”
Gang-so carefully put a piece of gim in his mouth and was surprised.
‘W-What is this! This strange saltiness that makes me crave rice?’
A pleasant crispness, along with a savory and slightly sea-like saltiness, was felt on Gang-so’s tongue.
“It’s salty…”
“Of course, it’s salty. It’s seasoned with salt. This is usually how you eat it.”
Yoo Soon-tae placed some rice on a piece of gim, wrapped the rice with the gim, and put it in his mouth.
Gang-so also wrapped some rice with gim, following Yoo Soon-tae’s example, and put it in his mouth.
Crunch, crunch.
“…!”
Gang-so was surprised.
It was a wave of flavor.
The black wave was constantly craving the white rice.
“I could eat ten more bowls of rice with this.”
“But you have to be careful when eating gim.”
“Be careful?”
“If you eat gim wrong, you’ll look like a fool.”
“Huh?”
Seeing that Gang-so didn’t understand what he meant, Yoo Soon-tae grinned.
“Like this.”
There was a piece of gim stuck to Yoo Soon-tae’s front teeth. Seeing that, Gang-so nodded seriously.
“You certainly look like a fool. I’ll be careful.”
“Hahaha…”
After breakfast, Yoo Soon-tae said,
“By the way, you’re not bad with directions, are you?”
“I don’t think I’m bad with directions.”
“That’s a relief. Knowing the area is essential for deliveries.”
“If you teach me, I’ll memorize it diligently.”
“Then first, I’ll tell you the places that order delivery most often, so write them down.”
At those words, Gang-so made a troubled expression.
“…There’s a problem. I can speak and read the language of this country, but I don’t know how to write it.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
Yoo Soon-tae, taken aback, waved his hands.
“No, you don’t have to be sorry. I didn’t know because you spoke Korean so naturally. I’m more sorry for not realizing that. But how can you speak and read Korean?”
“It’s thanks to a technique I learned by chance before. But that technique only allows me to understand the meaning of the language, not to write the characters. Is the language of this place called Hangeul?”
“The country we live in is called the Republic of Korea, or Korea for short. And the language is called Hangeul.”
Yoo Soon-tae continued.
“Then, I guess we have to learn Hangeul today.”
At his words, Ha-young said,
“Oppa, you don’t know Hangeul? I know Hangeul!”
Yoo Soon-tae’s eyes lit up.
“Right, you can learn from Ha-young. Even though she’s five years old, she’s already mastered Hangeul, so she’ll be a good teacher.”
Luckily, today was Saturday, so Ha-young didn’t have to go to kindergarten.
Ha-young ran to her room and came back with a sketchbook and colored pencils.
“Today, Ha-young is the teacher! Oppa, you have to call me teacher.”
Seeing her cute demeanor, Gang-so smiled warmly.
No matter how young Ha-young was, there was no reason not to call her teacher.
If there was something to learn, she was a teacher.
“This Gang-so requests tutelage from Teacher Ha-young!”
“Hehe, Teacher will teach you Hangeul well!”
Ha-young wrote the consonants and vowels in her sketchbook, albeit a bit crookedly, but diligently.
“To learn Hangeul, you need to know the basic consonants and vowels. Consonants and vowels combine to form letters.”
Although she was five years old, Ha-young explained Hangeul quite logically.
“Then I’ll show you how consonants and vowels combine!”
Ha-young wrote the combinations of consonants and vowels in her sketchbook and explained them with their pronunciations.
“So, when you combine giyeok with vowels, you get ga, gya, geo, gyeo…”
Gang-so listened intently to Ha-young’s explanation and was inwardly impressed.
‘Compared to when I was learning to read as a child, this is a piece of cake!’
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