Episode 1

On the outskirts of Greek City.

There’s my restaurant on a modest hill. Located where you can overlook the cityscape. Although the restaurant has good surrounding scenery, it actually has more drawbacks. It’s quite far from commercial or residential areas, so not many customers come to this hill.

That is both a disadvantage and an advantage.

This is not a world with cars.

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

Magic and swords. And monsters. Plus dungeons and hunters all mixed up. A fantasy world with empires and kingdoms. It has already been 15 years since I was summoned to this continent. I’m now in my early 30s.

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

My life until now has been far from peaceful. It has always been the battlefield. Battlefield. Battlefield.

As befits the position of a Grand Archmage, I was summoned to countless battlefields. War with monsters. Fights with dragons. The price of fighting with my life on the line was not very great.

They just praised me as a hero.

Tired of fighting, I decided to retire. I thought that it was enough fighting for 15 years. Summoned when I was a naive high school student, I have lived a life of nothing but fighting.

In Korea, military service would have ended in two years. Here, the real battlefield continued for 15 years.

So, I gave everything up and settled in Greek, a local city in the Rubern Empire. Despite building up 9th-class mana, I still haven’t found a way to return to the modern era.

So I have to live in this world.

Remaining as a wizard was far from peaceful. Without fail, there was that something would go wrong from all sides.

Back when I was still in the modern era, I wanted to be the owner of a small restaurant ever since I was young. After becoming a famous chef, I planned to open a small restaurant. My dream was to attend culinary school throughout middle and high school, aiming for a career as a chef. My retirement plan has become a reality in this different world.

But retiring from the life of a famous wizard, rather than a chef, is different from the life plan that I originally dreamed of.

But what does it matter.

It’s been just over a month since I opened the restaurant here. It’s still completely unknown. The customers consist of just a few regulars.

The menu depends on my mood that day.

No, if the customer wants it, I’ll make it. I like a restaurant with freedom.

It’s all for self-satisfaction anyway. I don’t need money.

The treasure I found in the lair of a dragon whose heart I devoured. With that treasure, living and eating is not difficult. So it boils down to self-satisfaction.

A two-story house was built after selling the treasure. The first floor is a 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 grill the size of a small desk and various pots. Dwarf-made cooking utensils crafted with a modern flair. Handmade by special request.

Waking up in the morning, I begin my day by wiping down the tables and kitchen utensils. After cleaning, I head to the market.

By the time I finish everything, it’s noon.

It’s the start of the business, but.

As expected, today too, flies are the only visitors.

“Hey!”

As I was staring blankly, a customer walked in, waving his hand over his head. It was a familiar man. The butcher who supplies meat to our restaurant.

On the first day we met, since then, he would occasionally pop in like this. Of course, since we meet every day at the market, it’s nothing new.

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

“Some good quality meat came in. Here, it’s the same uba belly as that day!”

Mr. Knoll threw the meat into the kitchen. Bright pink meat. You could tell it was fresh just by looking at it.

“I’m a merchant too, but sometimes when such good quality meat comes in, I want to eat it myself.”

“Haa, is that so? Didn’t you say in the morning that no uba meat had come in?”

His words were different from the morning’s. Mr. Knoll then scratched his cheek slightly.

“There really wasn’t! At that time! Really!”

“Yeah? So meat that wasn’t there in the morning fell from the sky by lunchtime?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly it!”

“Are you crazy?”

When I asked back sincerely, unable to believe it, Mr. Knoll scratched his head and pulled out a bar table chair that could see into the kitchen and sat down to speak.

“Yeah, yeah, I surrender! I brought it urgently. I just felt like drinking for some reason.”

“Hmm.”

Anyway, there’s no need to refuse if the customer wants it. It looked like just about one pound. Judging by the amount, it really felt like it was urgently obtained. I wondered what it was like to have such a craving for meat. Especially coming from a butcher who sells meat.

“After eating the dish you made for me that time, I think of it whenever I want to drink. Hehe. So hurry up and make it. You’re just letting flies buzz around anyway.”

“I’m sorry for just letting flies buzz around.”

I shrugged and started preparing the meat.

The first time I met Mr. Knoll was before I even opened the restaurant.

At that time, I was looking for a butcher shop to supply meat, but I hit a snag. It was a small town, so it was quite difficult to get various monster meats. Mr. Knoll’s shop, which I visited last, became a light for me.

“I can get it.”

The last butcher shop I visited. A muscular man spoke as if it was a matter of course.

“Hoho, he used to work as a mercenary in his youth, so he has connections everywhere, so he can get a variety of monster meats.”

“Is that so?”

It was welcome news to hear.

“But, I don’t sell my meat to just anyone. That’s a rule. I can’t stand the meat I painstakingly procured being cooked carelessly. Can you satisfy me?”

“Oh, you damn fool! Are you starting again? Please come to your senses! We’ll starve to death at this rate. Starve to death!”

“This is the only thing I can’t compromise on. It’s my pride!”

The couple raised their voices. The wife had a beauty that seemed like she must have made many men cry in her youth. Even now in her 40s, she still looked beautiful.

“Ma’am, it’s alright. I’m confident.”

I said confidently.

“I’m planning to open a restaurant on that hill. So I’ll show you my cooking.”

I was confident. During my time traveling the world as a wizard, my comrades always praised my cooking.

“Hoho, is that so? Alright. If I like it, I’ll get you any meat you want no matter what. But if I don’t, I absolutely won’t sell it to you!”

“Yes, yes, then could you give me some uba meat? Uba belly.”

“What?”

“Yes?”

Both the wife, who was clutching her husband’s head, and Mr. Knoll looked at me with a face that said, ‘What are you talking about?’

“Belly? You’re going to cook with belly meat?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you eat such a fatty part?”

“It’s alright. I’d like you to evaluate it later. Anyway, to show you my skills, you’ll have to sell it to me once.”

The couple looked at each other. Mr. Knoll made a dumbfounded expression and went into the store. He soon came back with two pounds of uba belly.

“Uba, not Belleren or uka meat, what kind of dish are you going to make? Just take it. It’s for smoking, but I’ll consider it a loss.”

Mr. Knoll said that and went into the store. I tried to pay the sighing wife, but she wouldn’t accept it.

“It’s alright. He may seem like that, but he’s a man with craftsmanship. Maybe that’s why I married him. Hoho.”

They say like husband, like wife. Although she scolds him, she seems to respect her husband’s will and didn’t accept the money.

“Um, does your husband like to drink?”

“What does it look like?”

“He looks like a heavy drinker.”

“He’s exactly how it looks.”

The wife nodded, laughing.

I went home with the uba meat. Uba meat means pork. Here, they call pigs uba. Uka refers to cows. And Belleren is wolf-type monster meat. It’s the most popular monster meat. It has no gamey smell and a chewy texture.

Such uniquely flavored monster meat was more popular than pork or beef in this world. There are many professional hunters. But it was hard to get it in this rural area because it wasn’t often supplied here. Therefore, establishing a trade with this butcher was quite important.

I prepared the cooking as soon as I returned to the store. The couple would be coming soon.

Uba belly means pork belly. It’s a dish filled with my soul. It’s full of memories from my hometown.

The uba meat here had twice as much fat as modern pork. Maybe that was why it was less popular. But if you remove all the fat, the taste actually gets worse. The pork belly Mr. Knoll gave me boasted a very bright pink color, indicating its freshness. It was probably caught today.

Remove the fat chunks from the outside and slice it as thinly as possible.

Inside the kitchen, there was a storage room carved out of a rock. The storage room was frozen every morning using ice-type magic. It was more like a magic refrigerator than a storage room.

The water, fire, and ice used here all rely on magic. That’s my policy, you could say.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on the prepared meat. Of course, salt exists in this world. Pepper does not. Various seasonings and spices from the modern world do not exist in this world.

This is an application of summoning magic.

I have completed the grand magic of summoning modern items.

Because, in order to return to Earth, I diligently researched dimensional travel magic, and as a result, discovered an unexpected summoning magic instead of transference magic.

There are still many improvements to be made. I think that if I improve it, I might be able to travel myself.

The biggest current problem is that the size of the summoned items is limited. About the weight I can carry, you could say.

Moreover, summoning is limited to once a day. Enormous mana is used for summoning across dimensions. Recovery is slow to the point of being sluggish.

And there’s another problem. When summoning unprocessed items, they strangely arrive spoiled. Even processed goods have a shelf life. So this isn’t a matter of shelf life.

But it was still quite convenient. Of course, it wasn’t for free. I leave behind more valuable treasures to bring these over. You could call it an equivalent exchange.

Anyway, that’s why there’s pepper. Meat sprinkled with pepper and salt. I use a secret weapon on the seasoned meat again.

Thermal Blade. A special magic that can divide a monster’s body into more than 100 million pieces with a single attack. When I adjust the mana and spread the magic with fine precision, the meat gets thousands of cuts. Only on the front. The key is to precisely cut off the magic. If the magic goes through to the back, it would just become thousands of pieces of ragged meat.

“Is it here?”

“Seems like it.”

As I was preparing the cooking, the couple appeared side by side.

“Welcome. Please have a seat here.”

I gestured to the couple looking around the empty restaurant. The couple walked to the bar table connected to the kitchen and sat on the chairs.

“The restaurant is really pretty.”

“Pretty? What do you mean, pretty? What kind of business do you expect to run with a restaurant in a place like this?”

“Honey. Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t mind him. He always has a sharp tongue.”

The wife apologized on his behalf. I just let it slide. There are people with that kind of personality sometimes.

“Then, I’ll bring the food out soon.”

No one has ever said that pork belly tastes bad. Even in this world. So I confidently asked for uba belly.

I placed a fireball under the Dwarf-made grill in front of the bar table. The grill started to heat up. I grilled the pork belly sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Sizzle!

The pork belly sizzled with a delicious sound. This sound is a treasure that stimulates the appetite. The thousands of cuts on the front side allow only that part to drain fat, making the outside crispy and the inside tender.

“Hoho, so that’s how you grill it?”

Mr. Knoll and his wife also looked at me with curiosity. Seeing the grilling on the iron plate, they had no more complaints. It’s showtime here. I used a fireball to cover the grill to give the sizzling pork belly a stronger fire taste.

Poof!

And then immediately cut off the mana to extinguish the fireball, and the pork belly is done.

The side dish is salad. I didn’t want to take the risk with ssam (wraps) since preferences vary. And I served sesame oil mixed with salt and pepper, a must-have for pork belly. Although aging onions and making a sauce with soy sauce is also delicious, today I went with the most basic combination.

“Are you a wizard?”

The wife, seeing the fireball, asked with eyes wide in surprise. I nodded.

“Huh, a fireball is just basic magic. The taste is what’s important. This is a restaurant, not a battlefield, right?”

“Alright, dip it in the sesame oil sauce.”

Mr. Knoll, who was about to bring the meat straight to his mouth, dipped the meat in the sesame oil sauce. Although he spoke that way, the aroma of the well-grilled meat seemed to stimulate his appetite, and his movements were very quick. The wife, true to her cautious nature, carefully brought the meat to her mouth.

Chewing sounds came from both of them. This is the only moment that makes me nervous.

“Huh?”

Mr. Knoll’s frown brightened. He looked extremely surprised.

“This, this is uba belly?”

“Yes, it is.”

When I said it with a smile, Mr. Knoll started looking at the meat here and there.

“How can it be so crispy and tender at the same time, giving a full yet refreshing taste? Even if the fire taste is due to magic!”

Mumbling like that, he started devouring the meat.

Chomp chomp.

Chomp chomp.

Chomp chomp chomp.

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

“This is unbelievable!”

“It’s incredibly delicious.”

Only after emptying the plate did Mr. Knoll start making a fuss while looking at me.

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

“Don’t you have something to say before that?”

“Tch. That’s right. You pass! You pass. Just name any meat! Except for what I can’t get, I’ll get you everything! Hahaha! Give me more meat!”

Mr. Knoll shouted loudly and started urging for more pork belly. Saliva was dripping from his mouth. The look in his eyes was that of a predator eyeing its prey.

“Yes, yes, it’s coming.”

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