Chapter 22. Kimchi and a Ghost (1)
“That’s a lot of stuff today.”
Yukgap wiped the sweat from his forehead while unloading the truck.
Seryun, who had brought the ingredients, answered flatly.
“Of course. Today is the day we’ve been preparing for.”
At his meaningful words, Yukgap sighed.
“Whew. I agreed to do it, but I’m honestly worried whether we can handle it properly.”
“It’s already decided. Don’t overthink it. If you intend to run a business in Korea, this was a process you would eventually have to experience anyway.”
Unlike Yukgap, Seryun was perfectly calm.
Maybe experience really did make a difference.
Victoria, wearing loose floral work pants, waved from the other side.
“Yukgap! Seryun! We’re ready!”
Robert stood beside her with blades mounted on both hands.
His eyes gleamed.
[Give the order. I am fully prepared.]
Seryun looked at the two of them and smiled quietly.
“Hehehe. It seems everyone has prepared themselves mentally.”
“Don’t even ask. Those two actually trained for this.”
Yukgap shook his head while remembering the past few days.
Unlike him, Victoria and Robert seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Once everything was ready, Seryun’s red eyes gleamed calmly.
“Then shall we begin Restaurant Shelley’s first kimjang?”
“Five hundred heads of salted cabbage! I soaked them thoroughly using my special salt!”
Victoria proudly showed off a huge basin filled with cabbage.
Her voice overflowed with pride.
Seryun, however, looked deeply suspicious.
“Special salt made by you, Doctor? I’m finding that difficult to trust.”
“Don’t worry! It only exploded three times while I was making it!”
“How exactly does salted cabbage explode?”
Was that even something salted cabbage was capable of doing?
Seryun looked completely dumbfounded.
[Entering extermination mode.]
A red light appeared in Robert’s eyes.
The blades attached to both arms began spinning with a mechanical hum.
As Robert minced garlic, he beeped loudly.
[Be violated, butchered, and disassembled! Powerless organic matter incapable of resistance!]
“At least we won’t have to worry about ingredient preparation.”
Seryun muttered while watching him.
Apparently, Robert had even prepared special blade attachments for today.
Thanks to that, the garlic for the kimchi was being mercilessly minced.
At least ingredient preparation would not be a problem.
“How is the kimchi seasoning coming along?”
Next, Seryun checked on Yukgap.
Yukgap had piled up chives, green onions, carrots, and other ingredients.
“Don’t worry. If there’s one thing I’m confident in, it’s using knives.”
Yukgap gripped monomolecular cutters in both hands.
Then he began chopping the ingredients at incredible speed and with perfect spacing.
His hands moved so quickly that it almost looked as though the ingredients were disassembling themselves in midair.
“I never imagined we’d actually make kimchi ourselves at Restaurant Shelley.”
Yukgap muttered while preparing the ingredients.
Victoria agreed.
“Same. I thought we’d just keep buying it from Seryun.”
Until now, they had purchased kimchi and most of their ingredients from him.
But for some reason, Seryun had suddenly insisted,
“You need to learn how to make your own kimchi!”
And so, somewhat unexpectedly, he had ordered them to make a huge batch.
Thanks to that, they were now sitting together preparing kimchi.
“I can’t supply you forever. Once you’ve experienced kimjang at least once, you’ll be able to produce your own kimchi in an emergency.”
Seryun answered while mixing the seasoning.
Something about those words gave Yukgap an ominous feeling.
“What do you mean by that? You sound like you’re about to die.”
“I’m undead. I’m already dead.”
Seryun answered with his lifeless face.
He was a Lich who had died once and returned.
Because he had blended into their daily lives so naturally, Yukgap sometimes forgot that fact.
“Still, Seryun isn’t wrong. We currently rely on him for most of our ingredients. If something happens to him, the restaurant will have problems too. Learning how to handle things ourselves isn’t a bad idea.”
Victoria spoke while mixing kimchi seasoning beside Seryun.
More than anything, she seemed to be enjoying the kimjang itself.
She had even bought tacky floral work pants because she said people always wore them while making kimchi in Korean dramas.
“You’re not wrong.”
Yukgap nodded while chopping the remaining ingredients.
Seryun suddenly spoke in his usual indifferent tone.
“To be honest, Doctor Mary appeared in my dream recently.”
“Doctor Mary...?”
“Yes. Doctor Victoria’s mother.”
Mary Frankenstein.
Victoria’s mother and the former owner of the workshop that had now been converted into Restaurant Shelley.
How did Seryun know her?
“You knew her?”
“We were former colleagues. We worked in the same laboratory. She was brilliant and wise. She was practically a model for all alchemists.”
Seryun recalled the past.
Victoria joined in.
“The reason Seryun and I became connected was all thanks to Mother!”
Yukgap had always wondered how a gloomy Lich with mysterious thoughts and the endlessly carefree Victoria had ended up working together.
Apparently, Mary Frankenstein was the reason.
“To be exact, after hearing that Doctor Mary’s daughter had come to Korea, I contacted her to ask how she was doing.”
“I had no idea how to open a restaurant in Korea, so I was really relieved when one of Mother’s friends offered to help.”
“The Korean restaurant industry is more brutal than you think. A naive foreign girl could be eaten alive down to the bone before realizing what happened. She was Doctor Mary’s daughter, so naturally I couldn’t just stand by.”
Seryun and Victoria chatted while remembering old times.
At this point, Yukgap naturally became curious.
“If you’re praising her that much, Victoria’s mother must have been incredible.”
Seryun answered flatly.
“There are rumors that she was the last person in the twentieth century to complete the Philosopher’s Stone.”
“Puhahahahaha! Hahahahaha!”
Victoria suddenly burst into loud laughter.
Seryun frowned openly.
“Why are you laughing?”
Victoria waved him off.
“You don’t actually believe a ridiculous rumor like that, do you? Mother was amazing, but she never completed the Philosopher’s Stone. If she had, do you think I’d be struggling like this?”
“Well, I simply meant she was impressive enough for such rumors to exist.”
Apparently, even Seryun did not fully believe the story.
Yukgap carefully asked,
“Come to think of it, I’ve always wondered. How old are you?”
Seryun looked to be in his late twenties.
But Yukgap had always assumed his real age was much greater.
Now he had learned Seryun had worked in the same laboratory as Victoria’s mother.
Perhaps Seryun was unimaginably old.
“Are you curious?”
“Yeah.”
When Yukgap nodded, Seryun hesitated briefly before answering honestly.
“Age doesn’t mean much to us undead. Age is something only the living accumulate. My age effectively stopped the moment I died. Whether I remain like this for decades or centuries, nothing changes.”
“That’s deep.”
“So be grateful that you are alive. Growing older and looking back with regret is also a privilege of the living.”
Then Seryun continued talking about his dream.
“Anyway, Doctor Mary stared at me sadly for a long time before disappearing. It bothered me all day. Then Doctor Victoria contacted me and said she had run out of kimchi. The moment I heard that, I felt that I needed to prepare something.”
Yukgap stared at him in disbelief.
“So your answer was kimjang?”
“Few things are more important to Koreans than kimchi.”
Seryun looked more serious than ever when talking about kimchi.
There was almost a craftsman’s pride in his expression.
“Victoria, didn’t your mother appear in your dreams too?”
“Not really. I don’t dream very often.”
Victoria answered casually.
Yukgap nodded as though he understood.
“I think I understand why your mother appeared in someone else’s dream instead of yours.”
If Yukgap were Mary, he too would probably trust an old laboratory colleague more than a careless daughter whose head was permanently in the clouds.
“Hm? What does that mean?”
While they continued making kimchi, Victoria suddenly turned around and tilted her head.
Yukgap asked,
“What?”
“It feels like someone’s secretly watching me.”
Yukgap looked around.
“There’s nothing there.”
“Maybe a ghost?”
“What kind of ghost walks around in broad daylight?”
Victoria pointed at Seryun.
“An undead walks around in broad daylight! Why can’t a ghost?”
“Just mix the kimchi. At this rate, the sun really will set before we finish.”
Yukgap answered flatly.
They still had a mountain of kimchi left to prepare.
They did not have time to stop working over some supposed ghost.
“Looks like we’re almost done with the kimjang.”
Seryun smiled with satisfaction while looking at the mountain of kimchi.
Thanks to everyone working together, they had finished faster than expected.
“Great work, everyone!”
Victoria spoke brightly.
Yukgap and Robert, who had also spent the day making kimchi, responded casually.
More than anything, making the kimchi they had always eaten was a surprisingly fresh experience.
“It wasn’t too bad.”
[Slaughtering innocent organic matter was enjoyable.]
Once their war-like kimjang finally ended, Seryun smiled sinisterly as though he had been waiting for this moment.
“Good. Then let us add the final divine touch.”
