Chapter 1: The Beginning of Meat

## Outskirts of Grayke City

On a modest hill stands my restaurant. It’s located in a place with a nice view of the city. Despite the good scenery, there are more drawbacks than advantages. Since it’s quite far from the commercial and residential areas, not many customers make the trek up the hill.

This is both a disadvantage and an advantage.

This is a world without cars.

Of course, there are no bicycles, motorcycles, or airplanes either.

It’s a world of magic and swords. Monsters and dungeons mixed with hunters. Empires and kingdoms. Fifteen years have passed since I was summoned to this fantasy world. I’m now in my early thirties.

I am a wizard. A retired wizard. I was known as a great mage who broke through the wall of the strongest class, the 9th class. But now, I am the owner of a restaurant.

My life so far has been far from peaceful. Always battle after battle after battle.

As a great mage, I was called to many battlefields. Wars against monsters, fights with dragons. The rewards for risking my life were not very great.

They just praised me as a hero.

Tired of fighting, I decided to retire. I thought fifteen years of fighting was enough. Summoned when I was a high school student in Korea, I had lived a life of constant fighting.

In Korea, military service would have been only two years. Here, the real battlefield lasted fifteen years.

So, I gave up everything and settled in Grayke, a provincial city in the Ruben Empire. Despite accumulating the mana of a 9th class mage, I still haven’t found a way to return to the modern world.

Therefore, I must live in this world.

Remaining a wizard was far from peaceful. Surely something would go wrong everywhere.

Even when I was still in the modern world, I had dreamed of becoming the owner of a small restaurant since I was young. After retirement, I wanted to shine as a famous chef and then open a small restaurant. My dream of becoming a chef led me to attend culinary school throughout middle and high school. My retirement plan has become a reality in this different world.

Although I ended up living the life of a famous wizard instead of a chef and then retired, the basic concept of my dream hasn’t changed.

But what does it matter?

It’s been just over a month since I opened this restaurant here. It’s still completely unknown. My customers are just a few regulars.

The menu depends on my mood for the day.

Or, I cook what customers want. I like the freedom in my restaurant.

After all, it’s for my own satisfaction. I don’t need money.

I have a treasure I found in a dragon’s lair after eating a dragon heart. With that treasure, living isn’t difficult. So, it’s all about self-satisfaction.

I sold the treasure to build this two-story house. The first floor is the restaurant, and the second floor is my home. The first-floor restaurant consists of a kitchen and four tables. In the kitchen, there is a small iron plate the size of a desk for grilling meat and various pots. The cooking utensils were handmade by dwarves, commissioned specifically for me with a modern touch.

My day starts with cleaning the tables and kitchen utensils. After cleaning, I head to the market.

By the time everything is done, it’s lunchtime.

But as usual, no customers today either.

“Hey there!”

While I was daydreaming, a familiar man walked in, waving his hand above his head. It’s the butcher who supplies meat to my restaurant.

Since the day we first met, he occasionally drops by like this. Of course, we see each other every day at the market, so it’s not a big deal.

“What wind blows you here? You didn’t say anything at the market this morning.”

“I got some quality meat. Here’s some uba belly, just like that day!”

Mr. Knoll threw the meat into the kitchen. The meat was a clear pink, indicating its freshness.

“Even though I’m a butcher, sometimes I get the urge to eat good quality meat myself.”

“Ha, really? This morning, you said there was no uba meat.”

His words from this morning were different. Mr. Knoll scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“There really wasn’t any this morning! Honestly!”

“Right, and the meat fell from the sky by lunchtime?”

“Exactly!”

“Are you crazy?”

I asked in genuine disbelief, and Mr. Knoll scratched his head, pulled out a chair at the bar table facing the kitchen, and sat down.

“Yes, yes, I surrender! I got it urgently because I felt like eating it.”

“Hmmm.”

Anyway, if a customer wants something, there’s no need to refuse. It looked like just about a pound. Seeing the amount, it seemed he really wanted to eat the meat. I wondered why a butcher would crave meat so much.

“After tasting your cooking last time, I get cravings whenever I feel like drinking. Hehe. So hurry up. It’s not like you have any other customers.”

“Sorry for only attracting flies.”

I shrugged and started preparing the meat.

—

I first met Mr. Knoll before opening the restaurant.

At that time, I was having trouble finding a butcher to supply meat. Since it was such a small town, finding a variety of monster meat was quite difficult. The last place I visited was Mr. Knoll’s shop, which became a beacon of hope.

“I can get it.”

At the last butcher shop, a muscular man said confidently.

“Haha, he has contacts from his mercenary days who can supply a variety of monster meat.”

“Really?”

It was welcome news.

“But I don’t sell my meat to just anyone. That’s a rule. I can’t stand my hard-sourced meat being cooked any old way. Can you satisfy me?”

“Oh, you miserable fool! Again with this? Please get a grip! We’ll starve to death at this rate. Starve to death!”

“This is my pride!”

The couple raised their voices. The wife was a beauty who seemed to have driven men wild in her youth. Even now, in her forties, she was still quite beautiful.

“Ma’am, it’s okay. I’m confident.”

I said confidently.

“I’m opening a restaurant on that hill. So, let me show you my cooking.”

I was confident. During my days as a mage traveling the world, my companions always praised my cooking.

“Oh, really? Fine. If I like it, I’ll get you whatever meat you want. But if I don’t, I absolutely won’t sell it to you!”

“Yes, yes, then could I have some uba belly? Uba belly, please.”

“What?”

“Sorry?”

Both Mr. Knoll and his wife, who was pulling at his hair, looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Belly? You want to cook with the belly?”

“Yes.”

“Why eat such a fatty part?”

“It’s fine. Please just judge my cooking afterward. Either way, you have to sell it to me once.”

The couple looked at each other. Mr. Knoll made a ridiculous face and went into the shop. He soon returned with two pounds of uba belly.

“Uba, not Bellerene or Uka? Let’s see what kind of dish you make with this. Just take it. Consider it thrown away since it’s for smoking.”

Mr. Knoll said that and went back into the shop. I tried to pay his wife, but she refused.

“It’s fine. He has a craftsman’s spirit, after all. Maybe that’s why I married him. Haha.”

The wife seemed to respect her husband’s stubbornness despite the scolding.

“By the way, does your husband like to drink?”

“How do you think he looks?”

“Like a drunkard.”

“That’s exactly right.”

The wife smiled and nodded.

I took the uba meat and returned home. Uba meat is pork. They called pigs uba in this world. Uka referred to cows. Bellerene was wolf-type monster meat. Among monster meats, it was the most popular. It had no gamey smell and had a chewy texture that was excellent.

This unique taste made monster meat more popular than pork or beef in this world. There are even specialized hunters for it. However, in this rural area, it was hard to come by, making this butcher shop very important to me.

As soon as I got back to the shop, I started preparing the meal. The couple would arrive soon.

Uba belly meant pork belly. A dish full of my soul. It was filled with memories of my hometown.

The uba meat in this world had twice as much fat as modern pork. Maybe that’s why it was less popular. But if you remove all the fat, the taste gets worse. The pork belly Mr. Knoll gave me was a clear pink, indicating its freshness. It must have been freshly slaughtered today.

I removed the outer fat lumps and sliced it as thinly as possible.

Inside the kitchen, there was a storage room carved out of a stone. Every morning, I used an ice-type spell to freeze it. It was more of a magical refrigerator than a storage room.

All water, fire, and ice used here relied on magic. It was my rule.

I sprinkled salt and pepper on the prepared meat. Of course, there was salt in this world. Pepper didn’t exist here. Various seasonings and spices from the modern world didn’t exist here.

This was a product of summoning magic.

I perfected a great summoning spell to summon modern items.

Because, to return to Earth, I diligently researched dimensional transfer magic, and as a result, I discovered a peculiar summoning spell instead of transfer magic.

There are still many improvements needed. I think if I keep improving it, I might be able to transfer myself.

The biggest current issue is the size

of the summoned items is limited. It’s only as much as I can carry.

And the summoning can only be done once a day at most. It uses a tremendous amount of mana to cross dimensions. Recovery is slow.

Another problem is that raw items summoned tend to spoil quickly. Processed items also have a shelf life. So, it’s not an issue of shelf life.

But it’s still quite convenient. Of course, it’s not free. I leave a treasure of greater value and bring the item. Equivalent exchange, if you will.

Anyway, that’s how I got the pepper. I sprinkled salt and pepper on the meat and used my secret weapon.

Thermal Blade. A special magic that can divide a monster’s body into over a hundred million pieces in one strike. By fine-tuning the mana, I applied the spell delicately to the meat, creating thousands of cuts on one side only. The key was to stop the spell precisely. If it went through to the other side, it would turn into thousands of pieces of shredded meat.

“Is this the place?”

“Seems like it.”

While I was preparing the meal, the couple arrived together.

“Welcome. Please sit here.”

I gestured to the couple, who were looking around the empty restaurant. They walked over to the bar table connected to the kitchen and sat down.

“The place is quite pretty.”

“Pretty? What kind of business can you do in a place like this?”

“Dear. Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t mind him. He’s just foul-mouthed.”

The wife apologized on his behalf. I just let it slide. People like that exist from time to time.

“Then, I’ll serve the food soon.”

No one had ever said pork belly didn’t taste good. Even in this world. That’s why I confidently asked for uba belly.

I set a Fireball under the dwarf-made iron plate in front of the bar table. The plate started to heat up. I grilled the pork belly seasoned with salt and pepper.

Sizzle!

The delicious sound of sizzling pork belly. This sound was a treasure that stimulated appetite. The thousands of cuts on one side of the meat allowed the fat to drain away, making the outside crispy while keeping the inside tender.

“Oh, that’s how you cook it?”

Mr. Knoll and his wife watched me curiously. They stopped complaining as they watched the grilling process. Now it was showtime. To add a stronger flame flavor to the sizzling pork belly, I used a Fireball to engulf the iron plate.

Boom!

Then I immediately cut off the mana to extinguish the Fireball, and the pork belly was done.

I served it with a salad. I didn’t want to take the risk with wraps (ssam) since preferences could vary. And I provided a dipping sauce of sesame oil mixed with salt and pepper, which is essential with pork belly. A sauce made with onions marinated in soy sauce is also tasty, but I went with the most basic combination today.

“Are you a mage?”

The wife seemed surprised by the Fireball and asked with wide eyes. I nodded.

“Hmph, Fireball is just a basic spell. What’s important is the taste. This is a restaurant, not a battlefield.”

“Fine, dip it in the oil sauce and try it.”

Mr. Knoll, who was about to eat the meat directly, dipped it in the oil sauce. Despite his words, his quick movements showed that the aroma of the browned meat was stimulating his appetite. His wife, as expected, carefully brought the meat to her mouth.

Munch, munch. They chewed the meat. This was the only moment when I felt nervous.

“Huh?”

Mr. Knoll’s frown turned into a bright expression. He looked extremely surprised.

“This is uba belly?”

“Yes.”

I smiled as I replied, and Mr. Knoll examined the meat closely.

“How can it be crispy yet tender, with the fat giving a rich yet refreshing taste? Even if the flame flavor is due to magic!”

Muttering like that, he started devouring the meat.

Slurp.

Slurp.

Slurp.

He just kept eating. The pork belly was disappearing in the blink of an eye.

“This is unbelievable!”

“It’s really delicious.”

Mr. Knoll exclaimed after finishing his plate.

“Hey! Give me more! More, more, more! The meat I gave you should be more than this, right?”

“Don’t you have something to say first?”

“Tch. Right. You pass! You pass. Tell me what meat you want! I’ll get you anything I can! Hahaha! Now give me more meat!”

Mr. Knoll, with saliva dripping from his mouth, urged for more pork belly, his eyes like those of a beast.

“Yes, yes, coming right up.”

I answered with a smile and put all the remaining meat on the iron plate.