Archmage's Restaurant - Chapter 86: A Week in Korea (5)

If Rurin hadn’t been by my side, I might have lost the will to live and cursed my fate, becoming a wreck of a man.

The transition to the fantasy world.

I can only describe my fate in that world as harsh. I didn’t have great power from the beginning, and the years that followed were marked by countless near-death experiences.

If there’s one thing to be grateful for in that world, it’s meeting an innocent dragon.

After that, I spent two days rolling around in the hotel room, unable to pull myself together. It wasn’t until after two days had passed that I managed to get out of bed.

I can’t stay down like this.

Above all, I have Rurin. Whether my feelings for her are familial, romantic, a love-hate relationship, or just pure affection—whatever they are, I still have this dragon by my side.

I have to keep going.

Besides, I no longer have any reason to be attached to this land. I spent 15 years in that other world. If not for my parents, that world would have felt far more familiar to me.

I have a restaurant to run, neighbors to care for, and most importantly, Rurin belongs to that world.

Yes, let’s go back.

I’ll bury all the sadness I feel over my parents here in this land and fully cross over to the other world.

With that thought, I opened my eyes. Rurin was leaning against me, poking my cheek playfully.

“Stop poking me, it hurts.”

“Huh?”

Rurin reacted, quickly jumping up.

“What is it?”

“You’re back to your usual self! You’ve finally come to your senses!”

“Well, yeah.”

When I nodded, Rurin’s eyes lit up.

“Ooooooh!”

She raised her arms in excitement. Then, she stopped poking me and threw herself at me. I held her back.

“Stop charging! Just take it easy for now.”

I lifted Rurin up and set her down on the floor. Then, I fully got out of bed and delivered the important news to her.

“Rurin, let’s go back to our world.”

“Oh, good! Finally! I knew that other world was the best.”

“Really? Then why don’t you go back alone?”

She jumped up in excitement, so I threw out a playful suggestion. Rurin narrowed her eyes at me.

“What’s that? Have you lost your mind after moping for a few days?”

“No, my brain is perfectly fine.”

“If you stay here, then I’ll stay here too. That’s a truth of the universe, something that won’t change no matter what. How could you not know that?”

“That much of a universal truth, huh? Haha.”

Yeah, this is just like Rurin. Somehow, her antics warmed my heart. I wanted to hug her, but I restrained myself. Her birthday isn’t too far off, after all.

Everything can wait until after that.

Everything.

“Yeah, obviously I’m going back too. I don’t have a home here anymore. My home is the restaurant on the hill. And it’s where your lair is too.”

“You’ve finally got your mind back. Good to know.”

Rurin crossed her arms and nodded firmly.

“This place only makes you sad. I don’t want to stay here any longer!”

Her next words stung a bit. This dragon has been making my emotions sway quite a bit recently. I quietly looked at her. Rurin stared back at me.

We locked eyes for a while before I shook my head.

“Yeah, let’s go back.”

Finally, I returned to the main point and began casting the summoning spell.

Since my mana had been boosted by the dragon orb, the summoning magic had also gotten stronger. That’s why the black hole appeared in the first place, so I figured I could cross over again the same way.

That thought hadn’t changed.

But there was a problem: I couldn’t use the summoning magic.

“Rurin, something’s wrong. I’m out of mana. I haven’t fully recovered yet.”

“What are you talking about?”

Rurin shook her head and started moving her mana. Her behavior showed there was nothing wrong on her end.

“My mana is fine.”

Rurin disappeared in an instant, then reappeared just as quickly. She must have used teleportation.

“Huh? You know, something’s off with me too. My mana isn’t recovering as fast as it usually does. What’s going on?”

“You too?”

“Now that I think about it, there’s barely any mana in the air here. That’s it! This world itself lacks mana, so I can’t replenish it as quickly as I normally would. Hmm, summoning magic is a pretty big spell, so it’ll probably take a bit longer for my mana to recover. This world really is strange, lacking mana and all.”

“Ah, I see. There really isn’t much mana here.”

When I first arrived here, I didn’t pay any attention to mana because I was so focused on finding my parents. And afterward, the shock of their passing had me too distracted to notice.

It’s only now that I’m trying to use mana that I can clearly feel it. There’s no mana to draw upon at all.

A land almost devoid of mana.

It makes sense. If there were plenty of mana, there’d be no reason for this world to be without mages. So, for now, we just have to wait until our mana recovers.

Even in the other world, summoning magic required a lot of mana. Before my capacity increased dramatically, I could only use summoning magic once a day.

Mana absorption, storage, and the ability to manipulate it—those are all factors that determine one’s class. My mana recovery rate has sped up significantly.

As long as there’s even a little mana, I’ll be able to recover. But it’ll take a few days. In other words, we’re stuck here for at least a few more days.

***

Rurin is sleeping soundly at the hotel. She’s not particularly bothered by the fact that we can’t return for a while.

She’s lazing around here just like she did in the restaurant, dozing on the dining tables there, and now she’s doing the same here.

It feels like a dream that she was by my side the whole time, patting me when I collapsed without even sleeping.

The shift in her behavior is extreme.

Of course, I’ve got my own issues.

Since I haven’t been working at the restaurant, I’ve been relaxing and sleeping along with her. I’m starting to worry that I won’t be able to adjust when we return.

Maybe the first few days will be a little tough.

But I’m still determined to go back.

My life is no longer in Korea—it’s in that other world.

Running the restaurant, interacting with people, and living that life… it’s already been several days since I’ve felt the joy of that.

So I woke Rurin up, soothing my heart alone. The sun was already high in the sky.

Since we can’t return for a few days anyway, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to enjoy ourselves a little while we wait.

Maybe I could seal away the bad memories, and strolling through the streets of this land I won’t return to could turn into good memories instead.

Sssshhhhh!

I splashed Rurin, who hadn’t fully woken up yet, with a stream of water, submerging her.

“Mmmm….”

Rurin didn’t snap out of it, as usual. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. As long as she gets clean, that’s all that counts in the end.

“Huh? It’s warm now. I’m going back to sleep.”

She muttered nonsense and curled up in the bath. Giving her a warm wash didn’t work.

Mercy is over.

Ssssssssshhhhh!

Cold water poured down on her.

Then, I left the bathtub and returned to the room.

Five seconds. Four seconds. Three seconds. Two seconds. One second. A scream soon echoed from the bathroom.

“It’s cold! You! If I catch a cold, you’ll be the one who suffers!”

Rurin ran out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, shouting absurd threats. I handed her her clothes without saying a word.

Rurin even looked good in the clothes of this era. No, what wouldn’t suit her face? She’d probably look good even in an Eskimo outfit.

“Cold water is good for the skin. I did it for your own good. Look, your skin is all firm now.”

“It was firm to begin with!”

Rurin huffed, proudly asserting a fact that no one could deny.

Since it was true, I didn’t argue. Instead, I took the hotel key and headed out. Naturally, Rurin followed.

“Let’s go eat. I’m getting tired of hotel food.”

“Food? Sounds good. I’m hungry….”

Actually, as soon as I snapped out of it, there was one dish I was craving: jjajangmyeon. [1]

The last time I ate jjajangmyeon was 15 years ago. I figured I might as well eat it before going back. Though jjajangmyeon is classified as Chinese food, it’s basically Korean cuisine.

Plus, it holds sentimental value as something I ate throughout my childhood.

Come to think of it, I’ve never tried to recreate jjajangmyeon at the restaurant. Now that I’ve thought of it, I want it even more.

The nostalgia of eating jjajangmyeon with friends during my school days pulls at me.

Without much thought, I walked into a nearby Chinese restaurant. It was a delivery-focused place on the second floor. Delivery places usually have small dining areas.

Three tables, maybe

. Yeah, this is exactly the kind of Chinese restaurant I remember. Somehow, I felt excited. I opened the door and went straight in, placing my order right away.

“Two jjajangmyeon and one tangsuyuk [2] , please.”

“Yes! Thank you.”

The lady took our order and went inside. Soon after, a man carrying a delivery bag walked in and addressed the man in the kitchen.

“Boss, the building’s water pipe burst.”

“What? The water pipe?”

“Yeah, so they shut off the water. The building manager will be up soon to explain the situation.”

“What nonsense is that? Are they trying to ruin my business?”

The man, who I assumed was the owner, stormed out of the kitchen. The lady who took our order frowned and approached us.

“Sorry, but we can’t serve you right now. Is that okay?”

“Oh, no problem. We’ll come back another time.”

“What?! I’m hungry!”

“They said the water’s out.”

“The water? Can’t they just make it without water? Like at the restaurant?”

Rurin confidently stood up and gestured toward the kitchen.

I should have stopped her. Soon, an enormous amount of water flooded the restaurant. It was like a tidal wave, completely sweeping through the place. It was like a flood? Or a leaking house?

“Hey, what the hell?!”

“What… you said there wasn’t any water. We always just make water at the restaurant, so what’s the problem…?”

I scolded her, and she looked a little sheepish but whispered with a face that said she didn’t understand why I was mad.

“Don’t use magic here. We need to conserve mana. Don’t use it, got it?”

“What’s going on here?! Where did all this water come from? Is this some kind of joke?”

The lady, apparently thinking it was because of the burst pipe, saw the soaked floor and ran outside, ready to confront the building manager.

Feeling guilty, I left some money for the cleanup and quietly left the restaurant. This day is off to a bad start.

“Hehe, it worked out. I didn’t like the place anyway.”

“What? You said you were hungry, so what didn’t you like? Don’t tell me you used magic on purpose….”

Rurin didn’t answer and ran to hide behind me. Guilty as charged.

I’m sure it was because she didn’t like the attitude of either the owner or the lady. Sigh.

But now I want jjajangmyeon even more. I changed my mind.

Going to a small delivery place was a mistake. This time, I took Rurin to a traditional Chinese restaurant in the busy downtown area, one known for its course meals.

The large hall was full of tables, with some private rooms as well. Red columns and decorations reminiscent of China stood out everywhere.

I led Rurin to a private room and sat down. Rurin, fascinated by the table, started spinning the lazy Susan wildly.

The round table, designed for passing dishes around easily, spun out of control. It was dizzying.

“This is convenient! Do you just put a bunch of dishes on here and spin them to share? Ooh, make one of these for the restaurant!”

Rurin started laughing before the food even arrived, having already figured out the advantage of the table. She’s scary. As expected, no one can beat Rurin when it comes to analyzing food-related things.

“Are you going to make one and steal other customers’ food?”

“Rurururururururun!”

“Stop speaking in Rurun’s language all of a sudden!”

I tugged at her cheek as she started speaking in a monster’s language, then waited for the jjajangmyeon. Soon enough, the jjajangmyeon arrived. Along with the tangsuyuk. Ignoring the course meals, we had only ordered two jjajangmyeon and one tangsuyuk.

* * *

Footnotes:

[1] Jjajangmyeon is a Korean-Chinese dish consisting of noodles topped with a thick, savory black bean sauce made from fermented black soybeans (chunjang), diced pork, and vegetables. Despite its Chinese origins, jjajangmyeon has become a staple in Korean cuisine, especially known as a popular comfort food. It holds cultural significance in Korea, often associated with informal gatherings and celebrations. Many Koreans also enjoy it as a nostalgic meal from their childhood, making it a beloved dish across generations.

[2] Tangsuyuk is a Korean-Chinese dish made of deep-fried pieces of pork (or sometimes beef) served with a sweet and sour sauce. The sauce typically includes ingredients like sugar, vinegar, and vegetables such as carrots, onions, and cucumbers, giving the dish its distinctive tangy flavor. Tangsuyuk is a popular choice at Korean-Chinese restaurants and is often ordered alongside other dishes like jjajangmyeon. Its crispy texture combined with the sweet and sour sauce makes it a beloved comfort food in Korea.