Chapter 56

An expertly-lit campfire…

EunAh was sitting next to the fire, cheeks puffed up. She seemed to be miffed about the fact that she had to let the lake dragon go. Sumire was sitting next to YuSung and was glancing intermittently at the boy, grinning creepily all the while.

‘Sh-shin YuSung-ssi is sitting next to me…’

EunAh, meanwhile, was giving her reason as to why she had lost against the boss monster.

“…Hey, the lake dragon that appeared was some sort of subspecies, and… it was a lightning element on top of that.”

YuSung finally understood why EunAh had failed to capture the dragon. The situation was even unluckier than he thought it could be.

He tended the flames while nodding along to her story at the same time.

“So you couldn’t really do anything.”

In fact, the situation that EunAh was in was a consequence of being one of those hunters that the Fist King had labeled as ‘hunters these days who rely on their Traits’.

YuSung himself was raised to use his outstanding physical characteristics as the basis for his master’s techniques. Due to this, he could exhibit incredible combat prowess even without using his Trait.

“Don’t feel so down about it, though. You found the lake dragon’s habitat, didn’t you?”

“R-right! And we have Shin YuSung-ssi with us now, so W-we’ll definitely be able to…”

EunAh, at Sumire’s words of comfort, glanced down at the bandage on her leg, then her expression relaxed, and she let out a breath.

“…Leave it. I’m fine now.”

She still seemed to be bothered by it, though. Not surprising, considering the fact that she kept running into situations where her Trait had been useless—first, the Silver Beak, and then the lake dragon subspecies.

“Tch…”

EunAh, frustrated, lowered her head back towards the campfire.

“S-still, I’m sure you’ll feel a bit better after eating some tasty food!”

Sumire took various cooking utensils, devices, and ingredients out of her Pocket.

YuSung looked at Sumire, reacting to the mention of food.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” he asked, wanting the meal to be prepared as quickly as possible. Sumire blushed at the suggestion.

“Oh, th-then…! Can you please chop the vegetables?”

“Of course.”

Sumire bit her lip to stop a smile from reaching her face as YuSung began helping her side by side.

‘I-I’m… cooking… with Shin YuSung-ssi!’

A man and a woman cooking dinner together?

Sumire placed the pot over the campfire. Meanwhile, her delusions were growing.

“Hu, huhu! Huhu…”

Her delusions had already gone past dinner. She was cooking breakfast for YuSung at the moment.

EunAh, used to being treated like a princess, killed time surfing the internet on her Pocket instead of helping the two out.

Though, that only lasted for a moment. She put her Pocket away soon after and instead watched YuSung and Sumire cook, leaning her chin on her hand.

“I-I have to coat the bottom of the pot with butter… then stir the onions until they’re brown…”

“Okay, how about I stir the onions for you?”

“Oh, th-thank you! Then, I’ll prepare the other ingredients…”

The two seemed to be having fun. EunAh’s eyes narrowed.

‘…Guess they’re enjoying themselves.’

She felt slightly left out at those words.

EunAh had never done anything with other people in her life before. No one had ever dared to ask or tell her to do anything, after all.

Even so, as she watched them cook, an odd feeling began to stir up in her chest.

“Next, you have to stir-fry the meat, as well, then you pour in the water, then the chicken stock and curry roux…”

Sumire was pouring all kinds of ingredients into the pot. EunAh chose that moment to approach her.

“Hey, uh… isn’t there anything I can do? It’s kind of boring doing nothing all by myself.”

She glanced towards the curry as she spoke, trying to throw the girl a hint. Sumire stared at her, dazed.

“EunAh-ssi… w-wants to help with cooking?”

“…What’s so fascinating about it?”

“But the rumors…”

“What about ‘em?”

Seeing the peculiar light in EunAh’s eyes, Sumire didn’t continue the train of thought, but if one thing was certain, it was that the girl in front of her was changing, bit by bit.

All three members of the party pitched in to finish the curry.

Sumire poured YuSung’s share into a white bowl.

“This is your share, Shin YuSung-ssi… oh, a-and! I made some rice and karaage at home!”

She took out some expertly-fried chicken karaage from her food storage kit—It was a recipe she had devised over many, many grueling attempts in order to take revenge against the delivery fried chicken.

“I-it goes well with… the curry, if you eat them together.”

Sumire carefully placed the karaage on his curry.

YuSung scooped up some curry with his spoon.

Sumire was staring at the spoonful of curry as if she had entered the dish for a competition.

Munch munch.

Every time YuSung’s mouth moved, Sumire nodded. Her expression was deathly serious.

Gulp.

The moment of truth… YuSung had swallowed the curry.

“This is…”

Sumire gulped as the boy began to give his verdict. In fact, the curry recipe was also something she had prepared for her chance of victory.

YuSung grinned at the other girl’s dazed expression.

“Really good.”

—A few simple words from YuSung.

But Sumire’s face was almost completely covered in red from them.

“Th-then! Is my karaage… better than the chicken you had a few days ago, Shin YuSung-ssi?”

The defeat of her lunchbox had been weighing on her that entire time. No, that moment had turned into a traumatic experience for her.

“Hm…”

YuSung thought hard about his answer, then opened his mouth to give his honest opinion.

“I think, if you combine this chicken with the curry, this is more delicious than the chicken I had before, but if you compare just the chicken with each other… the delivery chicken is just a teensy, tiny bit more delicious…”

He laughed in an apologetic manner.

Sumire was as still as a statue. She had completely frozen up at his response. It seemed like the intense flavors of the delivery chicken had a stronger impact on YuSung than her own karaage.

“D-d… delivery chicken. I-I suppose so… it was… delicious. It really was…”

All she could do was forcibly laugh through the tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

EunAh, watching the reactions of her teammates, picked up her own spoonful of curry with a blank expression on her face.

‘…Well, it should be edible, at least. I’m pretty hungry.’

As a member of the ShinSung group family, EunAh had grown up eating all sorts of delicacies. She didn’t have any high hopes for Sumire’s curry.

Nom.

* * *

* * *

But her eyes widened as she placed the spoon in her mouth.

‘…Huh?’

It was the most delicious curry that EunAh had ever tasted.

‘What the hell.’

Glance.

EunAh side-eyed her party leader. Just how could he compare the sumptuous taste of the homemade karaage to chicken bought from a restaurant? The deep, rich curry perfectly complemented the spicy, fried meat as well.

As she bit into the fried chicken, its juices leaked out and mixed with the flavor of the curry that had seeped into the batter.

To EunAh, Sumire’s curry was heaven in a bowl.

‘Th-this is… incredibly delicious.’

She scooped another spoonful of the curry without thinking, but Sumire chose that moment to engage with her.

“Wh-what do you think, EunAh-ssi? I bet it isn’t very good… you’re rich, after all. You must be used to eating better food than this…”

EunAh twitched at the other girl’s defeated tone. Even she couldn’t believe the fact that she had fallen in love with the unsophisticated dish when she had lived her life tasting fine cuisine from all around the world.

She was unwilling to put down Sumire’s dish just for the sake of her own pride.

“…It-it’s good. Totally edible.”

She coughed out of embarrassment right after, but EunAh acknowledged the dish.

Then it was Sumire’s turn for her eyes to grow wide.

“R-really?!”

EunAh nodded in lieu of a verbal answer.

To her, the curry wasn’t special just because it was delicious. She wasn’t sure why but eating it warmed something in her heart.

Nom.

EunAh placed the spoon in her mouth once again. She looked first at Sumire, then to YuSung.

‘…A party, huh.’

At some point in her life, EunAh had begun distancing herself from others, constructing a wall between her and them. She wasn’t always like that, when she thought about it.

[Haha, Miss EunAh, I hope you put in a good word for me to the president!]

[EunAh, do you wanna join our group? I bet it must be embarrassing to mingle with the common folk.]

The people who approached her never looked at her, EunAh, but only at what surrounded her.

[She’s just lucky.]

[She’s not even that amazing on her own, right? She was born into a rich house, and she was born with a strong Trait.]

[The only thing she’s good at is running to her father for help. I bet she hasn’t put a single ounce of effort into anything.]

—Insulting her behind her back.

[Do you have time today? I have something I want to talk to you about.]

[So about that proposition I gave you earlier.]

—Approaching her while pretending to be friendly.

—People kept hurting her.

And maybe she had grown tired of being hurt. When her brother had fallen into a coma, showing weakness had ceased to become an option for her.

She wouldn't get hurt if she didn’t approach people and didn’t try to open up to them.

So EunAh gave up.

But something was different that day. EunAh had joined a party, had traveled with them, had her wounds patched up by them, and had eaten dinner with them.

She would have normally dismissed such activities as childish and annoying, but they weren’t all that bad.

‘Well… I think I can put up with this until the International Competition.’

Before she had any inkling of it, EunAh’s feelings towards a normal lifestyle were gradually changing.

YuSung smiled as he watched the girl, who was lost in her own thoughts.

He knew that even a small event could be the start of a life-changing process.

* * * *

Time passed until the night grew darker and darker. YuSung walked towards the piece of flat land they had found earlier and stopped.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“I’ll place the tent here. No objections, right?”

“Y-yes!” Sumire fiercely nodded her head.

YuSung took out the tent from his Pocket.

Voom!

With one touch, the tent rather efficiently set itself up. Sumire and YuSung both began taking out various items and placing them in the tent.

EunAh watched the two with a bemused expression on her face.

“What? Where’s my tent?”

Her logic dictated that everyone should have their own tent. That was an obvious fact to her.

However, YuSung’s answer to her question was calm and completely contradicted EunAh’s thoughts.

“This is a four-person tent.”

He had only prepared one tent for the excursion.