Chapter 16
Chapter 16: Old Playlist
After eating the meat-rolled egg fritter, we checked the boss drop item and the treasure chest.
The 2nd Floor boss drop turned out to be—a chicken leg.
"Chicken breast. Chicken leg. Eggs…. This floor really is having quite the chicken windfall!"
"Being able to eat meat often and in large quantities is an enormous blessing. Don't talk like you've got everything you need."
"Who said anything about having everything I need? I'm still hungry!"
"Right. Sure."
Leaving Yuna and Silen bickering behind me, I checked the treasure chest.
"Silen. Lockpicking, if you would."
"Sure. Got it, Mister."
Silen crouched in front of the chest and lightly picked the lock—and the chest flashed once.
That was the drop check, something said to happen extremely rarely with dungeon reward chests.
To put it simply: if the chest just opens normally, it's a Normal item. If it flashes and bounces once, a Rare drop is guaranteed. If it bounces one more time after that, a Unique-tier drop or above is guaranteed. Think of it like the epic beam or drop check that was popular in K-RPGs and you'll get the idea.
Unfortunately it wasn't a Unique drop—but a Rare drop was more than enough.
Upon opening the chest, what emerged from within was something that, by all rights, should never have appeared on this floor.
It was ice.
And quite a substantial amount at that. Around 15 kg by weight.
"Ice…? Is ice a Rare drop?"
"Ice in the middle of a wasteland does sound Rare, I suppose…."
Silen and Yuna stared blankly at the ice before gently reaching out to touch it.
"It's cold…! Ahaha!"
"Well it's ice, so of course it's cold…. Hehe. Wait. It really is cold."
In the spirit of well, at least we were hot, the two of them played around touching the ice.
"Oh…. It doesn't melt very quickly even sitting in your hand. Is it magic ice?"
"Seems like it. It's not that it won't melt at all, but it's holding up well."
Ah. Of course.
Clearing the 2nd Floor Wasteland Boss Room means the rookies who experienced the scorching heat and desert conditions for the first time would have been tormented to the point of mental breakdown—so it made sense for ice to be a Rare drop as a countermeasure against heat exhaustion.
"Master, this…. This ice! I just had a great idea!"
"Don't eat it."
"Ah…."
"Why can't we eat it, Mister?"
"Because it melts slowly inside your stomach too. There's a high chance you'll get an upset stomach. Nothing to gain from eating it."
At my words, the two of them looked back and forth between the ice and me, then spoke.
"Then make us a cool dish, Master!"
"Yeah. I want something…. refreshing too."
I knew that was coming.
Now then. With the ingredients on hand, something I could make would be….
Ah.
A rather interesting dish came to mind.
"There's a dish I can make for tonight's dinner. We'll need to do a bit of shopping first though—that alright?"
Both of them nodded at the same time, needless to say.
.
.
.
.
The ice wouldn't melt quickly, but it felt wasteful to dawdle around doing nothing—so we came up to the surface and headed straight for the market.
"There's not much at the Demeter market, Mister."
"That's right. Let's go to another city nearby. Master. If we're leaving now, Rudra would be the best choice!"
"If we run there now, we should make it in time."
And so the two grabbed my hands and dragged me along, ready to sprint the moment we stepped out of the dungeon.
"We're running all the way to the neighboring Dungeon City?"
"Yes. It's something Swordsmanship Department students do fairly often. After classes end, leaving the academy grounds doesn't count as a violation of school rules."
"That's quite a lenient school policy."
"Ah, that's because a lot of the kids either help out with household chores or go out to support farms as a hobby or side job."
Tears nearly welled up at this unimaginable harsh reality.
My father's generation.
It felt like hearing about a childhood spent dropping your school bag after class and clocking in at the rice paddies to help with the farming.
And so we headed to the neighboring Dungeon City, Rudra Dungeon, and looked around its market.
If Demeter's market was a 1970s general store masquerading as a supermarket, Rudra's was at least the scale of a five-day traditional market.
I stood there slack-jawed at that grand scale, and decided to browse the market slowly.
"So what do we need to buy, Master?"
"First, I'd like to visit a stall selling herbs and vegetables for use as cooking ingredients, and also take a look at a spice shop."
"Then let's look around slowly!"
The three of us browsed the market at a leisurely pace—and around a corner, we came across a group of people.
Light green fabric embroidered with blue thread in the pattern of wind.
Unmistakably an academy uniform.
From among that group, what appeared to be the leader—a girl with brown rolled-bun hair, the hair color of a commoner paired with a gloriously elaborate hairstyle—spotted us and walked over with a smile.
"My, my. Who do we have here? The student council president of the impoverished Demeter Dungeon Academy. And that academy's greatest troublemaker rogue, no less? Have you been well?"
A face that looked refined, yet with brown hair and brown eyes—a subtly unremarkable color combination that made it impossible to mistake her for a noble.
With eyes brimming with self-confidence, she looked at Yuna and Silen and greeted them.
"I've been fine. Hyacinth."
"That's good to hear."
Leaving Yuna to handle the conversation, Silen quietly sidled up next to me.
"Who's that?"
"Hyacinth. Student council president of Rudra Academy."
Rudra Academy. In other words, the academy located right next to Rudra Dungeon—the undisputed top academy bearing the dungeon's very name.
The student council president of that place. No wonder she carried herself with such confidence.
"Silen. Are Demeter and Rudra on bad terms?"
"Hmm. Bad terms…. I'd say so? Well, just watch."
As she said that, Silen subtly gestured for me to pay attention to the conversation between Yuna and Hyacinth.
"Are you still serving as student council president of that dungeon-farming academy that lives off its government subsidies?"
"Yeah. What's wrong with that?"
Yuna, uncharacteristically, had her guard fully raised.
"Someone with your talent could certainly claim a place at our Rudra. And yet you insist on staying there—what an unwise choice."
"Demeter is the academy that accepted me. Say another bad word about it and I won't forgive even you."
"No, I genuinely meant it as a compliment…"
"I said I won't forgive you, didn't I?"
Hmm?
Something seems off….
"Hmph. No matter how you look at it, it's a terrain-shifting dungeon that can't even be fully conquered. Rather than staying at an academy where you don't know when you might die—why not transfer to Rudra instead? If you say you'll bring all the students with you, I could even put in a word with the professors?"
"Are you saying you want to draw your sword right here and settle this? Between student council presidents?"
"No, I'm genuinely not mocking you…. I'm saying I could put in a word, that's all…?"
"Don't say another word. Don't make me angry. Hyacinth."
"No, that's not what I…."
Hmmmm….
How do I put this?
I looked at Silen and voiced the question that had just come to mind.
"That girl, Hyacinth. Could she possibly be…. a good person?"
At my words, Silen folded her arms and let out a deep sigh.
"She's not a bad person. How do I put it…. She's the type who speaks in roundabout ways, so she tends to be misunderstood—but that girl would genuinely get down on her knees and beg the professors to accept everyone from Demeter as transfer students, because Demeter is struggling to survive."
"……."
"It's just that she speaks in an incredibly roundabout way. But she's a good person. She even tried to scout me, the rogue."
"So she's the type who can't be straightforward."
"Yeah. And her compatibility with Yuna is the absolute worst. That stupidly straightforward girl who takes everything at face value—call her simple-minded if you'd like—the Righteous Student Council President, Yuna Linforce, gets into a fight with her every single time."
"Hmm…."
"Hyacinth…. she's not a bad person though."
Hyacinth spoke with good intentions but couldn't be direct about it—and Yuna couldn't pick up on the fact that it was goodwill, so she raised her guard.
The argument between the two was slowly beginning to wind down.
Eventually, one side even started tearing up.
That side was, of course, Hyacinth.
"I, I was being completely sincere…. No. Never mind. If that's your pride…. hic. I'll let this one go! Remember this! That I consider you my rival!"
"If you want to settle things, come to the front gate of Demeter Academy anytime and throw down the gauntlet. I'll accept it without question!"
The fight was over.
A one-sided defeat for Rudra Academy.
Leaving Yuna to catch her breath for a moment, I recalled what I knew about Rudra Dungeon.
It was a single-attribute dungeon. The items it dropped carried the "Wind" attribute—and Wind-attribute items generally sold for cheaper than you'd expect.
And for good reason: there was the easily obtainable compatible attribute of Flight, and if you wanted cutting power, a sword was enough, and for area attacks, Fire-type could do it too—so it was an attribute that got squeezed from all sides.
"That girl's parents are also nouveau riche from the brewing industry. Everyone around them thinks they've made an enormous fortune, but they're quietly paying significant donations on top of high liquor taxes. Their house is ordinary. A modest middle-class at best."
Brown hair. Brown eyes. But the hairstyle was rolled buns.
Academy president—but that academy was only slightly better than Demeter; still a rural academy.
Pretends to be a noble but is a commoner through and through.
And on top of that, a good person who can't be straightforward.
"She's an interesting one."
"Agreed."
Silen and I nodded in unison.
.
.
.
.
With the Demeter-Rudra scuffle finally behind us, we finished our shopping.
After rummaging through Rudra's five-day traditional market for quite a while, we managed to buy vegetables and spices.
We arrived at Demeter and I began cooking, with the two of them attached to my side like magnets.
"Master. What's the cool dish for tonight? Even mild-mannered me got quite frustrated at lunch today, so I want something refreshing!"
"Mister. I've been walking around all day on top of playing tour guide, so I'm hungry."
"Alright. Just wait a moment."
I checked the ingredients on hand and nodded.
First, I trimmed the chicken breast and legs and tossed them into the pot whole along with the spices. Once I confirmed the broth had drawn out, I removed the chicken. Next, I added sugar, vinegar, and salt to the broth and began chilling the chicken stock using the ice.
"Yuna. Silen. Separate the chicken skin and shred just the meat into small pieces. Bite-sized."
"Yes!"
"Got it."
I entrusted that task to the two of them and moved on to preparing the vegetables—cutting everything into sizes matching the shredded chicken, all bite-friendly.
Finally, I placed the prepared vegetables and chicken into a bowl, poured the chilled broth over it, and finished by rinsing the still-frost-exhaling ice and placing it inside.
A dish perfect for eating in the height of summer.
Chogye-tang.[1]
"Be careful not to eat the ice—it's a chicken dish you eat with the cold broth and its tangy flavor. The chicken was starting to look like it might go off soon, so I put in plenty. Eat up."
"Oh. Oh my…. A cold soup—I've never had anything like this in my life!"
"I thought I'd have some resistance to it, but looking at it like this, it seems like it'll be fine to eat…."
The two picked up their forks and spoons and brought them to the bowl—and the moment they took a bite, they shuddered.
"It's delicious. This is incredibly delicious, Master! The chicken and vegetables play off each other perfectly, and on top of that, the tanginess of the vinegar pierces the tongue—yet the sweetness of the sugar holds all the flavors together! A perfect harmony!"
"Yeah. It's good. How do I put it…. It works well as a full meal, but it also feels like eating dessert. I thought the saltiness might be lacking, but it's not. More than anything else, there are so many vegetables that there's less guilt eating it at night."
"Less guilt eating vegetables at night? Why? Is meat not okay?"
At Yuna's innocent question, Silen glanced back and forth between their bodies once—then let out a sigh.
"Get lost. Seriously."
"You're suddenly swearing?!"
Well, I suppose that's how it is.
A rogue whose life depends on agility and has to constantly watch her weight, and a warrior for whom eating a lot and moving a lot is the highest virtue—there are realms they simply cannot understand about each other.
As we ate the Chogye-tang, something glittered in the sky overhead and I looked up.
A single shooting star descending from the sky.
"Waaah…."
"Ohhhh…."
Yuna and Silen gazed at the shooting star, eyes gleaming.
Come to think of it, eating Chogye-tang together under a sky sparkling with stars and a flowing shooting star—that was a rather wonderful experience in itself.
Yuna soon lifted her bowl, closed her eyes, and offered a prayer.
A moment later, Yuna finished her prayer, and I asked what it had been.
"Yuna. What did you wish for?"
"That a spectacular night view like this, with a spectacular dish like this, and a spectacular day like this—may it continue forever!"
"That's a lovely wish."
"Yes! I want to enjoy the happiness of eating Chogye-tang every night like this. That's what I wished for! To put it briefly!"
"Briefly?"
"Tomorrow's starry night Chogye-tang!"
What a wonderful dream.
All of us, together—let's keep moving toward tomorrow.
Footnote: