North Woods And Chestnuts (5)

“Rurin, you need to use a weaker fireball when cooking. What’s this?”

The remnants of the scrambled eggs, now ashes, sat on my head. Also on Rurin’s head.

“Hehehe! You look funny!”

“You look funny too.”

“But you, it’s a bit strange. I made it weak, but it’s stronger than usual.”

“Huh?”

Rurin tilted her head as if it was truly strange. She inspected her hand that used the magic.

“Stronger than usual?”

I have a suspicion about the increased strength. It’s the dragon orbs. Are the effects of the dragon orbs already showing? As expected, the absorption is incredibly fast for a dragon.

“Looks like you’ve absorbed a lot of mana already.”

“Is that so? As expected, I am amazing!”

“Yes, being amazing is good, but what about this?”

I pointed to the chaotic kitchen, but Rurin was triumphant even in this situation.

“I didn’t know my mana got stronger, so it can’t be helped!”

She declared confidently.

“Stop joking and clean up.”

No use arguing with a smiling face. I cleaned up the frying pan. Unfortunately, cooking had to stop. The Palenque eggs I brought from the forest were the last ones.

The result was a failure, but there was one gain. She could follow the cooking well. As for the fire control, it couldn’t be helped since she wasn’t used to her strengthened mana.

So, at least, my ambition to make Rurin capable of simple cooking couldn’t be abandoned.

I decided I would continue teaching her and handed Rurin a cup of ramen.

“A bet is a bet, so at least make this. This is something anyone can cook.”

“Is this the one we ate in the underground? Hmm, it looks a bit different. Surely it’s not that spicy dish from before?”

Rurin frowned, recalling the Buldak Bokkeummyun.

“No, this is the mild one we had underground.”

“Really?”

“Yes, tear it open and pour boiling water up to this line. Then wait a bit, and it’s done.”

“Oh, it’s simple. Too easy! This is nothing for me.”

Rurin confidently started boiling water and poured it into the cup of ramen. She was confident, but careful while pouring the water.

If she couldn’t even make cup ramen, then her hands were not dragon hands but dirt hands.

The cup of ramen filled with water.

Steam rose from the boiling water. Fortunately, the cup of ramen was completed without any issue. Thank goodness.

I sat at the table with Rurin, slurping the ramen. It was tasty when eaten occasionally.

“It’s good. But those candied chestnuts from earlier were better.”

“You said it was bad? You insisted it was bad.”

“I didn’t say that. You must have heard wrong.”

“What? You don’t want to eat the ramen?”

“I made this, so it doesn’t count! You, don’t you want to eat it?”

Rurin tried to retaliate while drinking the ramen broth. Of course, a temple poke punishment soon followed.

“Ah! It hurts!”

Then the same dialogue was uttered. Peace is indeed a good thing.

Elena walked into the restaurant hesitantly. She was always like this. The reason was Rurin. When Rurin wasn’t in the restaurant, her behavior was very natural.

But when Rurin was sprawled on the table sleeping like now, she became extremely unnatural. Just looking at this scene, it was easy to mistake her for a very pitiful elf.

“Hello. Mr. El.”

“Welcome.”

Elena nodded as usual and sat at the bar table.

“Gororong!”

But she flinched at every breath sound from the dragon. It was a mystery why she kept coming to the restaurant.

If she was that scared, wouldn’t it be better to avoid it? I was grateful if she liked my cooking that much. After all, our restaurant was one of the few places where she could eat various vegetable dishes.

Still, I wished she would be a bit more confident. As long as she didn’t provoke, the dragon wouldn’t harm an elf.

Moreover, if I had to say, our dragon was very friendly to the elf. The reason was that Elena was extremely polite to Rurin.

“The vegetable dish again today…”

“Gororong!”

Rurin’s sleeping sound. The distinctive breathing sound is “gororong.” It’s more like a snoring dragon’s version of breathing than actual snoring.

Elena, who was about to mention the vegetable dish, flinched again at that sound. I shook my head and took the order.

“Got it, please wait a moment.”

“Yes!”

Elena nodded hesitantly.

Of course, it’s a reaction I wanted to fix, but to a third party, it was very amusing. Watching Rurin’s reactions made Elena flinch, and each time, her long elf ears perked up.

Considering the relationship between elves and dragons, there’s nothing I can do about it immediately.

She really liked my pasta dishes. So, I served pasta again today.

Even while eating, her reactions were amusing. She slurped the noodles well but coughed whenever Rurin moved.

It looked like she might choke if left alone.

While her reactions were funny, it must have been very tough for her. I couldn’t bear it any longer, so I picked Rurin up and took her upstairs, laying her on the bed.

Once the source of her fear was removed, she brightened up and started eating the pasta, even initiating conversation.

“Recently, fewer men with ill intentions have come. Thanks to Mrs. Rayne, many really sick and needy people have come, and I’m happy. Thankfully, I’ve been able to help everyone recover so far.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

Elena smiled happily. Treating the sick was her calling and life goal. Previously, some men had ill intentions towards the beautiful healer, which was a problem.

The reduction of such thugs at her clinic was somewhat related to me, but I had no intention of revealing it.

“Yes, and the dressing you taught me to go with the vegetables, it wasn’t that hard, so… Kyaa!”

Elena, who was in chatter mode, screamed as if she had seen a ghost. Next to her, the dwarf chieftain had come up from the underground, seemingly the cause of her fright.

The dwarf chieftain frowned and spoke to Elena.

“Elf maiden, why do you look at a dwarf as if he were a monster?”

“Wh-why is a dwarf here!”

It was the complete opposite of facing Rurin. She looked at the dwarf with hostility, not fear or reverence.

“I should be asking why an elf is here, but I have no business with you.”

The white-haired dwarf ignored Elena lightly and approached me.

“Mr. El, about that candied chestnut you gave us yesterday, could we get some more? The dwarf children really liked it.”

The dwarf chieftain scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed by the request.

“Oh, yes. I made a lot of candied chestnuts.”

I immediately handed over three glass jars, and the chieftain’s face brightened. He took the jars with his scarred, thick hands and bowed his head.

“Thank you very much. It’s the first time I’ve seen our dwarf children like something more than beer. Haha.”

The dwarf chieftain hurriedly went back underground, hugging the jars of candied chestnuts. It was a heartwarming scene. Who would’ve thought a dwarf would come asking for more candied chestnuts? It made me secretly happy.

“A dwarf lives here?”

The ignored elf couldn’t close her mouth and asked me once the dwarf was gone.

“They’re part of the crew working on the lair below. It’s related to the dragon.”

“Oh, the Great Being… right?”

“So please, forget the enmity between dwarves and elves here.”

“Yes… I was just surprised.”

The grudge between dwarves and elves is nothing compared to the enmity between Red Dragons and Black Dragons.

These two races had waged a war that nearly brought the entire continent to ruin.

“Oh, Ms. Elena, take a jar of this too. It’s candied chestnuts made from bonin. It’s sweet and delicious. Take it and try it. It has nothing to do with meat, so you can eat it without worry.”

“Really? Well, if Mr. El made it, it can’t be bad. Of course.”

“Thank you for saying that, haha. Well, even the dwarves came back for more.”

Elena’s eyes sparkled at the mention of delicious food unrelated to meat. She sat down and resumed eating the pasta. After confirming she had finished, I handed her some water, and she nodded and drank it.

And just then.

“You!”

The dragon I had moved to the second floor jumped down to the first floor and pointed at me.

Puuuuub!

And the elf spat out the water she was drinking. Like a sprinkler.

“I was awake! Why did you move me to the second floor? It’s not even time to sleep.”

“You were dozing off, what are you talking about?”

“Great Being.”

The elf who spat the water out stood up and knelt before Rurin. Elena flinched at the sight of Rurin sleeping. When Rurin was awake, she was an object of worship that Elena couldn’t even move in front of. But she was still hugging the jar I gave her tightly.

“Oh, an elf? Hehe, that’s delicious!”

Then Rurin pointed at the candied chestnuts and spoke.

“It would have been better if it tasted bad.”

Perhaps still hung up on the bet, she said that and disappeared to get some beer.

“Mr. El, thank you. It’s almost time to open the clinic again, so I’ll be going!”

Elena, who had become somewhat immune to the sleeping dragon, still had no immunity to the awake dragon. She fled the restaurant, but she still hugged the jar of candied chestnuts tightly as if she wouldn’t let it go.

Elena returned to the clinic, almost fleeing.

“Haa, that was scary.”

She wiped the cold sweat and sat on a chair. No matter how much she dealt with them, dragons were always a difficult presence for her.

Since witnessing the elves from the neighboring village where she lived being wiped out without a trace due to the wrath of a dragon.

That happened over a hundred years ago, even before the Dragon War. Despite the passage of time, the fear of dragons was still vivid to her.

“Still… Mr. El is kind. I’ve never met a human like him.”

She mumbled incomprehensible words to herself while looking at the jar on her desk.

The jar was filled with bonin. And the bonin was submerged in liquid. No, it definitely wasn’t water, Elena thought as she opened the lid of the jar.

She had just eaten pasta, but she was so frazzled that she didn’t even know where it had gone.

She carefully picked up a bonin with her hand. It was slippery and a bit sticky. She tilted her head slightly and put it in her mouth.

“It’s delicious!”

Elena looked at the bonin with a curious expression. When she lived in the elf forest, she only remembered eating these chestnuts raw.

Raw bonin was tasty enough, but this was beyond imagination. First of all, it was sweet. Sweet and delicious. Sweet things were also the truth for Elena.

She had first discovered the concept of sweetness from El’s cooking.

“This is amazing. It’s the first time I’ve felt envious of the Great Being…”

Elena mumbled to herself as she brought another bonin to her mouth. This was a problem. She thought she might end up eating the entire jar right where she was.

So she stood up.

Instinctively sucking on her sugar-covered fingers.