She muttered to herself, “He’s the protagonist.”
The man with starry, twinkling eyes lowered them slightly. Felix absentmindedly observed her bright turquoise eyes, causing his head to tilt slightly. For some reason, he felt both pleased and nostalgic in the presence of this woman.
“Hmm, hello!”
Hubert opened the door and gestured toward the protagonist, who was still standing and gazing at her. Fortunately, Sylvia, who had regained her composure, hurriedly moved out of the way.
She was too flustered to even offer a greeting. That’s how overwhelming the protagonist’s appearance was, like a crazy person had slapped her cheeks.
Felix also entered cautiously, feeling a sense of incomprehension. She couldn’t understand the unknown feeling as she looked at those bright turquoise eyes.
[Wow!]
The six fairies, excluding Eryngium, also cheered.
As the last member entered the house, Sylvia closed the door. With all twelve mercenaries inside, the house suddenly felt quite cramped. If she hadn’t remodeled it, the house might have collapsed under their collective weight.
“Um… welcome?”
Sylvia, the homeowner, didn’t say anything, and everyone wore puzzled expressions. But in the midst of the silence, a slightly agitated, clear voice disrupted the tranquility.
Hubert quickly replied, as if they had been waiting for this moment. “Thank you, um… come to think of it, we haven’t asked for your name.”
Despite his curiosity about the changes in the interior and the house itself, he held back from asking. Instead, Sylvia’s bright and cheerful voice caught his attention.
“Oh, I see. I haven’t mentioned my name to the regulars.”
With a bright smile and a gesture that revealed the peridot ring on her hand—a unique gesture in this world of magicians—Sylvia introduced herself.
“Once again, welcome. I am Sylvia Arbor, a plant magician.”
Finally, Hubert and Dennis, their curiosity sated, nodded with enthusiasm. Other members of the mercenary group clapped and cheered.
“Thank you so much! We entrust ourselves to you during the winter!”
“You’re our benefactor!”
With a cheerful whistle, the enthusiastic cheers from the mercenaries made them appear less like knights of a chivalric order and more like true mercenaries. Dennis swallowed his tears as he observed the transformed attitudes of his subordinates. He couldn’t decide whether he should like or dislike this change.
Felix had been strangely fascinated with the woman from the moment they entered. Listening to the fairies’ voices, he couldn’t help but wonder.
[This place is really nice! Ah, it’s so refreshing.]
[It’s been a long time since we’ve been in a place without the dirty energy of demons, and it’s so clean and filled with beautiful plants!]
In the midst of their enthusiastic chatter, Sylvia briefly thought about the fairy who had left the house earlier but pretended not to notice while discreetly observing the six fairies who were now hovering around Felix.
Winter would be coming soon.
Sylvia worried about Eryngium.
★★14. Hurry up and eat. Is this your first time eating rice?★★
Sylvia had planted numerous trees in the backyard, growing fruits, vegetables, rice, and barley abundantly. She felt the breeze gently caressing her skin as she worked diligently in the garden.
“There’s so much to do.”
She smiled contentedly, thinking back to the men who had filled her house.
“Maybe it’s because their bodies are so healthy?”
She had a brief moment of self-deprecation but quickly dismissed it.
“I’m just looking; it’s not like I’m applying makeup.”
Justifying herself, Sylvia used her wind magic to remove the husks from the rice she had harvested previously. She had saved up a generous amount of white rice, and the sight of it made her swallow her saliva. She had been looking forward to this day.
“I need to collect this much at least to eat as much as I want.”
Thinking of white rice, she pondered what would be good side dishes. It was not difficult to cultivate rice. With her plant magic circle, she could grow all kinds of vegetables and grains she desired.
However, threshing had been a challenging task, and she had struggled with it. Ultimately, the repeated threshing had improved her control over wind magic, making her more adept at handling it.
If she were in Korea, she wouldn’t hesitate to prepare white rice with dishes like kimchi stew or soybean paste stew, or perhaps stir-fried pork or grilled pork ribs. However, as much as Sylvia loved to eat and claimed to know various cooking techniques, making soy sauce, soybean paste, and gochujang (red chili paste) from scratch had been beyond her capabilities.
She knew the ingredients that went into them, but she had never actually made them herself, and the process involved growing crops using her magic from the very beginning. That part was challenging.
As Sylvia recalled various side dishes she wanted to prepare, she decided to start with what she could do and headed to the kitchen. The kitchen was now completely separated from the rest of the house. Although there had been small window-like openings before, Sylvia had sealed them all. Despite knowing that they were the protagonist and people on the protagonist’s side, she didn’t want to show everything just yet.
Perhaps Eryngium had disappeared to avoid revealing such details, or maybe it was because Sylvia knew how the protagonist would turn dark in the future. Whatever the reason, she had decided to keep some things hidden for now.
First, she took out some pork belly and thinly sliced it. After cutting it into bite-sized pieces, she added onions, carrots, green onions, and minced garlic. She then began stir-frying it all together in a large pan, which she had pre-ordered to be spacious enough to prepare a meal for nearly twenty people.
She seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, and finally, she added finely chopped pineapple.
This was a dish Sylvia had often enjoyed in Korea. She had seen fruit being added to Southeast Asian dishes on television and had tried making it at home.
To her surprise, pineapple paired exceptionally well with meat. Its refreshing taste combined perfectly with the meat, resulting in a delightful flavor. Once the pork was cooked, she wrapped it tightly with wind magic to keep it warm while she prepared the rest.
The new kitchen was well-equipped with shelves for her convenience. She placed a pan on one of the sturdy branches that made up the shelf and retrieved another pan.
This time, she took out some thinly sliced beef and chopped it into small pieces. She had to make do with gochugaru (red pepper flakes) alone, as she didn’t have gochujang (red chili paste). She prepared a variety of fruit juices she had made in advance and mixed them into the gochugaru, adding a generous amount to achieve a spicy flavor. Then, she added the brown sugar chunks she had painstakingly created from sugarcane, which was quite different from regular white sugar. Lastly, she included minced garlic, salt, pepper, and ginger juice.
After letting it sit and mature, she ended up with a sauce that was slightly different from gochujang but similar enough in taste.
She generously coated the chopped beef with the sauce and mixed it thoroughly. Of course, she used her wind magic to do so.
When she cooked with magic, she rarely used her hands. Cooking typically involved a lot of manual work, getting hands wet, and drying them repeatedly. However, since she began using magic, her hands were always soft and smooth.
She finished preparing the spicy marinated beef. Tangy, spicy, and slightly sweet, this beef dish was complete. Just eating it by itself would be delicious, but as a side dish, it was unbeatable.
When served with white rice, this spicy beef dish made the rice disappear quickly.
For the large rolled omelet, she finely chopped various vegetables and mixed them with the eggs. She rolled it up neatly, sliced it into attractive pieces, and then generously drizzled it with homemade tomato ketchup.
The homemade ketchup, made from tomatoes, was fresh and slightly thinner than store-bought ketchup, but it tasted delightful. Sylvia used a variety of fruit juices to create the ketchup’s unique tangy flavor, so even if she poured it on liberally, there was no need to worry.
The last side dish Sylvia prepared was a vegetable salad with mayonnaise dressing. She separated the egg yolk from the whites. Meanwhile, she boiled the egg whites using water and fire magic.
She mixed the egg yolks with plenty of lemon juice in the olive oil she had prepared herself, using wind magic to whisk it thoroughly. Then, she added salt and pepper for seasoning, and that was it.
It was truly simple.
She included apples, cucumbers, red onions, cabbage, and nuts in the salad. She also finely chopped the boiled egg whites and added them to a wooden bowl. She poured plenty of mayonnaise over the ingredients and seasoned with pepper once more, ensuring everything was evenly coated.
“Is the rice ready?”
Sylvia murmured to herself as she stood in front of a pot, similar to a traditional Korean cauldron, where the rice had been cooking. The subtle aroma of the rice filled the air, making her mouth water.
“How long has it been since I had rice?”
She had missed it dearly.
She turned off the heat and carefully placed the pot on a shelf. It needed a bit more time to steam, so she left it there.
The most crucial part for Sylvia was the protagonist’s meal. She knew that this particular dish would never be touched by anyone else.
So, what she had prepared was…
A potted plant.
In the pot she had prepared, cucumbers dangled from long branches, and small bell peppers hung alongside them. Inside, a bowl covered with ice contained washed mangosteens, oranges, and peaches.
With a satisfied smile, Sylvia opened the kitchen door and left.
As she sat around the table she had set up, the mercenaries gathered like hungry baby birds, eagerly awaiting their food. Despite their imposing appearance, they seemed quite different now.
The ravenous Croban Mercenary Company sat around the table, eagerly waiting for Sylvia to bring out the food she had prepared.
Sylvia brought wooden plates and handed out spoons, forks, and a container with knives.
“Please help yourselves.”
She began serving the food she had made. The pork and pineapple stir-fry was divided into five portions and placed on the table, followed by the spicy marinated vegetables and the rolled omelet with homemade ketchup. Finally, the mayonnaise salad was served.
The mercenaries looked at the unfamiliar dishes in awe, expressing their amazement and suppressing their hunger as they eagerly awaited their first bites. Each of them held their wooden plate and utensils firmly. Sylvia filled a large wooden bowl with rice and approached the table. As they saw Sylvia carrying the bowl filled with rice, they couldn’t help but stare, and Hubert exclaimed in surprise.
“This is cucumber, and this is bell pepper. They’re sweet and refreshing, so please enjoy. Oh, I suppose the regulars will wash them for you?”
Sylvia raised a bowl filled with clean water and almost brought it over but then asked, as if she had remembered something. She gazed at the bowl filled with the potted plant and fruits and Hubert replied with a startled voice.
“Huh? Uh, yes.”
Finally, Sylvia smiled and took her seat, filling her plate with rice. It was quite a generous portion.
“Well, then, let’s eat.”
She greeted them and confidently took bites of her food, and everyone else followed suit, eagerly holding their spoons.
“We’ll enjoy it!”
They responded with enthusiasm.
She muttered to herself, “He’s the protagonist.”
The man with starry, twinkling eyes lowered them slightly. Felix absentmindedly observed her bright turquoise eyes, causing his head to tilt slightly. For some reason, he felt both pleased and nostalgic in the presence of this woman.
“Hmm, hello!”
Hubert opened the door and gestured toward the protagonist, who was still standing and gazing at her. Fortunately, Sylvia, who had regained her composure, hurriedly moved out of the way.
She was too flustered to even offer a greeting. That’s how overwhelming the protagonist’s appearance was, like a crazy person had slapped her cheeks.
Felix also entered cautiously, feeling a sense of incomprehension. She couldn’t understand the unknown feeling as she looked at those bright turquoise eyes.
[Wow!]
The six fairies, excluding Eryngium, also cheered.
As the last member entered the house, Sylvia closed the door. With all twelve mercenaries inside, the house suddenly felt quite cramped. If she hadn’t remodeled it, the house might have collapsed under their collective weight.
“Um… welcome?”
Sylvia, the homeowner, didn’t say anything, and everyone wore puzzled expressions. But in the midst of the silence, a slightly agitated, clear voice disrupted the tranquility.
Hubert quickly replied, as if they had been waiting for this moment. “Thank you, um… come to think of it, we haven’t asked for your name.”
Despite his curiosity about the changes in the interior and the house itself, he held back from asking. Instead, Sylvia’s bright and cheerful voice caught his attention.
“Oh, I see. I haven’t mentioned my name to the regulars.”
With a bright smile and a gesture that revealed the peridot ring on her hand—a unique gesture in this world of magicians—Sylvia introduced herself.
“Once again, welcome. I am Sylvia Arbor, a plant magician.”
Finally, Hubert and Dennis, their curiosity sated, nodded with enthusiasm. Other members of the mercenary group clapped and cheered.
“Thank you so much! We entrust ourselves to you during the winter!”
“You’re our benefactor!”
With a cheerful whistle, the enthusiastic cheers from the mercenaries made them appear less like knights of a chivalric order and more like true mercenaries. Dennis swallowed his tears as he observed the transformed attitudes of his subordinates. He couldn’t decide whether he should like or dislike this change.
Felix had been strangely fascinated with the woman from the moment they entered. Listening to the fairies’ voices, he couldn’t help but wonder.
[This place is really nice! Ah, it’s so refreshing.]
[It’s been a long time since we’ve been in a place without the dirty energy of demons, and it’s so clean and filled with beautiful plants!]
In the midst of their enthusiastic chatter, Sylvia briefly thought about the fairy who had left the house earlier but pretended not to notice while discreetly observing the six fairies who were now hovering around Felix.
Winter would be coming soon.
Sylvia worried about Eryngium.
★★14. Hurry up and eat. Is this your first time eating rice?★★
Sylvia had planted numerous trees in the backyard, growing fruits, vegetables, rice, and barley abundantly. She felt the breeze gently caressing her skin as she worked diligently in the garden.
“There’s so much to do.”
She smiled contentedly, thinking back to the men who had filled her house.
“Maybe it’s because their bodies are so healthy?”
She had a brief moment of self-deprecation but quickly dismissed it.
“I’m just looking; it’s not like I’m applying makeup.”
Justifying herself, Sylvia used her wind magic to remove the husks from the rice she had harvested previously. She had saved up a generous amount of white rice, and the sight of it made her swallow her saliva. She had been looking forward to this day.
“I need to collect this much at least to eat as much as I want.”
Thinking of white rice, she pondered what would be good side dishes. It was not difficult to cultivate rice. With her plant magic circle, she could grow all kinds of vegetables and grains she desired.
However, threshing had been a challenging task, and she had struggled with it. Ultimately, the repeated threshing had improved her control over wind magic, making her more adept at handling it.
If she were in Korea, she wouldn’t hesitate to prepare white rice with dishes like kimchi stew or soybean paste stew, or perhaps stir-fried pork or grilled pork ribs. However, as much as Sylvia loved to eat and claimed to know various cooking techniques, making soy sauce, soybean paste, and gochujang (red chili paste) from scratch had been beyond her capabilities.
She knew the ingredients that went into them, but she had never actually made them herself, and the process involved growing crops using her magic from the very beginning. That part was challenging.
As Sylvia recalled various side dishes she wanted to prepare, she decided to start with what she could do and headed to the kitchen. The kitchen was now completely separated from the rest of the house. Although there had been small window-like openings before, Sylvia had sealed them all. Despite knowing that they were the protagonist and people on the protagonist’s side, she didn’t want to show everything just yet.
Perhaps Eryngium had disappeared to avoid revealing such details, or maybe it was because Sylvia knew how the protagonist would turn dark in the future. Whatever the reason, she had decided to keep some things hidden for now.
First, she took out some pork belly and thinly sliced it. After cutting it into bite-sized pieces, she added onions, carrots, green onions, and minced garlic. She then began stir-frying it all together in a large pan, which she had pre-ordered to be spacious enough to prepare a meal for nearly twenty people.
She seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, and finally, she added finely chopped pineapple.
This was a dish Sylvia had often enjoyed in Korea. She had seen fruit being added to Southeast Asian dishes on television and had tried making it at home.
To her surprise, pineapple paired exceptionally well with meat. Its refreshing taste combined perfectly with the meat, resulting in a delightful flavor. Once the pork was cooked, she wrapped it tightly with wind magic to keep it warm while she prepared the rest.
The new kitchen was well-equipped with shelves for her convenience. She placed a pan on one of the sturdy branches that made up the shelf and retrieved another pan.
This time, she took out some thinly sliced beef and chopped it into small pieces. She had to make do with gochugaru (red pepper flakes) alone, as she didn’t have gochujang (red chili paste). She prepared a variety of fruit juices she had made in advance and mixed them into the gochugaru, adding a generous amount to achieve a spicy flavor. Then, she added the brown sugar chunks she had painstakingly created from sugarcane, which was quite different from regular white sugar. Lastly, she included minced garlic, salt, pepper, and ginger juice.
After letting it sit and mature, she ended up with a sauce that was slightly different from gochujang but similar enough in taste.
She generously coated the chopped beef with the sauce and mixed it thoroughly. Of course, she used her wind magic to do so.
When she cooked with magic, she rarely used her hands. Cooking typically involved a lot of manual work, getting hands wet, and drying them repeatedly. However, since she began using magic, her hands were always soft and smooth.
She finished preparing the spicy marinated beef. Tangy, spicy, and slightly sweet, this beef dish was complete. Just eating it by itself would be delicious, but as a side dish, it was unbeatable.
When served with white rice, this spicy beef dish made the rice disappear quickly.
For the large rolled omelet, she finely chopped various vegetables and mixed them with the eggs. She rolled it up neatly, sliced it into attractive pieces, and then generously drizzled it with homemade tomato ketchup.
The homemade ketchup, made from tomatoes, was fresh and slightly thinner than store-bought ketchup, but it tasted delightful. Sylvia used a variety of fruit juices to create the ketchup’s unique tangy flavor, so even if she poured it on liberally, there was no need to worry.
The last side dish Sylvia prepared was a vegetable salad with mayonnaise dressing. She separated the egg yolk from the whites. Meanwhile, she boiled the egg whites using water and fire magic.
She mixed the egg yolks with plenty of lemon juice in the olive oil she had prepared herself, using wind magic to whisk it thoroughly. Then, she added salt and pepper for seasoning, and that was it.
It was truly simple.
She included apples, cucumbers, red onions, cabbage, and nuts in the salad. She also finely chopped the boiled egg whites and added them to a wooden bowl. She poured plenty of mayonnaise over the ingredients and seasoned with pepper once more, ensuring everything was evenly coated.
“Is the rice ready?”
Sylvia murmured to herself as she stood in front of a pot, similar to a traditional Korean cauldron, where the rice had been cooking. The subtle aroma of the rice filled the air, making her mouth water.
“How long has it been since I had rice?”
She had missed it dearly.
She turned off the heat and carefully placed the pot on a shelf. It needed a bit more time to steam, so she left it there.
The most crucial part for Sylvia was the protagonist’s meal. She knew that this particular dish would never be touched by anyone else.
So, what she had prepared was…
A potted plant.
In the pot she had prepared, cucumbers dangled from long branches, and small bell peppers hung alongside them. Inside, a bowl covered with ice contained washed mangosteens, oranges, and peaches.
With a satisfied smile, Sylvia opened the kitchen door and left.
As she sat around the table she had set up, the mercenaries gathered like hungry baby birds, eagerly awaiting their food. Despite their imposing appearance, they seemed quite different now.
The ravenous Croban Mercenary Company sat around the table, eagerly waiting for Sylvia to bring out the food she had prepared.
Sylvia brought wooden plates and handed out spoons, forks, and a container with knives.
“Please help yourselves.”
She began serving the food she had made. The pork and pineapple stir-fry was divided into five portions and placed on the table, followed by the spicy marinated vegetables and the rolled omelet with homemade ketchup. Finally, the mayonnaise salad was served.
The mercenaries looked at the unfamiliar dishes in awe, expressing their amazement and suppressing their hunger as they eagerly awaited their first bites. Each of them held their wooden plate and utensils firmly. Sylvia filled a large wooden bowl with rice and approached the table. As they saw Sylvia carrying the bowl filled with rice, they couldn’t help but stare, and Hubert exclaimed in surprise.
“This is cucumber, and this is bell pepper. They’re sweet and refreshing, so please enjoy. Oh, I suppose the regulars will wash them for you?”
Sylvia raised a bowl filled with clean water and almost brought it over but then asked, as if she had remembered something. She gazed at the bowl filled with the potted plant and fruits and Hubert replied with a startled voice.
“Huh? Uh, yes.”
Finally, Sylvia smiled and took her seat, filling her plate with rice. It was quite a generous portion.
“Well, then, let’s eat.”
She greeted them and confidently took bites of her food, and everyone else followed suit, eagerly holding their spoons.
“We’ll enjoy it!”
They responded with enthusiasm.
