Chapter 76
A "Temporarily Closed" sign hung firmly on the door of the Full Moon Restaurant.
The endless lines of customers and the lively noise that had filled the restaurant every day came to a stop.
"Hmm! All right, look at this!"
Hong Man-gi spread an old cookbook notebook across the center of the table.
He had carefully borrowed it from Master Im Jeong-sik's house.
The final page remained stained with black ink.
Sitting across from him with serious expressions were Lee Yu-han, Kang Jae-min, and Poming.
"Today, we're not going to restore a dish. We're going to restore one person's lost memories."
Hong Man-gi spoke seriously.
"This may be completely different from resolving the regrets of a dead spirit."
He continued.
"We're trying to restore something missing from a living person's soul, his memories."
Hong Man-gi looked at each of them.
"We could fail. We may end up accomplishing nothing. But... I have to try. I feel like I need to."
Lee Yu-han and Kang Jae-min silently nodded.
Hong Man-gi had already told them everything about Master Im Jeong-sik.
The tragic story of such a great chef had been more than enough to move them.
"Of course we're doing this together, Hunter. We're a team."
"That's right, Chef. Just tell us what you need."
Hong Man-gi gave them a faint smile.
"Good. Then we're starting a new project."
Hong Man-gi pushed every sense he possessed as a Gourmet Alchemist to its limit.
His attention first turned toward the final page stained black with ink.
"Our most important clue is right here."
He placed his hand over the page and closed his eyes.
He did not activate Material Reconstruction.
Instead, as a chef and as a person, he tried to feel the faint traces remaining on the page.
The texture of the paper.
The way the ink had spread.
Even the faint smells absorbed throughout several decades.
"...There's a slight sweetness. Something like honey or grain syrup."
Hong Man-gi's nose twitched.
"And... it's very faint, but I can smell something nutty, like roasted grain."
He turned toward Poming.
"Poming, what do you think?"
Poming sat on his shoulder and sniffed the page with an extremely serious expression, almost as though wearing invisible glasses.
"Sniff, sniff... hmm! Chef is right! It smells like honey and roasted grain!"
She continued sniffing.
"And... this is... earth? No, it's the slightly bitter earthy smell from root vegetables! Something like balloon flower root... or deodeok!"
Poming's SSS-rank senses of taste and smell pulled out one faint clue after another.
"Good. Then let's look directly inside this thing."
Hong Man-gi placed his hand over the page.
This time, he activated Material Reconstruction.
His eyes began glowing faintly gold.
[Crackle.]
The molecular structure of the ink-stained page unfolded before him in three dimensions.
The fibers of the paper.
The arrangement of carbon particles across its surface.
Even microscopic organic molecules absorbed over the passing decades.
"Dismantle, then analyze."
Following Hong Man-gi's will, the ink particles began separating on a microscopic level.
He traced backward toward the oldest marks that had first touched the paper before the ink spread.
The faint traces left at the exact moment Im Jeong-sik had originally written the words.
It was like searching for a needle inside a desert.
The process demanded extreme concentration.
Cold sweat formed across Hong Man-gi's forehead.
Kang Jae-min and Lee Yu-han held their breath while watching the miracle unfolding beneath his fingertips.
After some time,
"...Found it."
Hong Man-gi whispered.
Beyond the faint scattered particles of ink, several characters appeared like afterimages.
[...old... ...pumpkin... ...seed...jang....]
"Old pumpkin? And... seed-jang?"
Lee Yu-han repeated in confusion.
The word was unfamiliar.
Then Poming flapped her tiny wings.
"Seed soy sauce! It's seed soy sauce, Chef!"
"Seed soy sauce?"
"Yes! It's the oldest and deepest-tasting soy sauce passed down through a family for generations!"
Poming explained excitedly.
"Whenever they make new soy sauce, they add a little of the old seed soy sauce so its flavor and history continue into the next batch. You could call it one of the essences of Korean cuisine. It's an incredibly valuable ingredient!"
Every piece suddenly connected.
"Then... 'Old Pumpkin Porridge Seasoned with Seed Soy Sauce.'"
Hong Man-gi completed the name of the recipe.
The sweetness of honey.
The nutty flavor of grain.
The earthy bitterness of root vegetables.
And the deep savory flavor of seed soy sauce.
All the clues pointed toward a single dish.
However,
'Knowing the name isn't enough.'
To perfectly reproduce the flavor, they needed the exact ratios and cooking process known only to Master Im Jeong-sik.
And above all, they needed to understand the philosophy contained within it.
"We need more clues."
Hong Man-gi thought for a while, then shook his head.
Even Material Reconstruction could not restore fragments of memory that had completely vanished.
At that moment,
Kang Jae-min and Lee Yu-han stood at almost exactly the same time.
"Chef."
Kang Jae-min spoke.
"If you're searching for traces of the past through alchemy, we'll search for memories still remaining in the present."
Hong Man-gi looked confused.
"...Memories remaining in the present?"
This time Lee Yu-han stepped forward.
He held Im Jeong-sik's notebook.
"Hunter, I noticed something strange while reading this earlier."
Lee Yu-han opened the notebook somewhere near the middle.
Alongside the recipes were short notes marked with dates.
[April 5, 1998]
Owner Kim from "Jongno Gukbap World" came asking for the secret behind my kkakdugi broth. How could I reveal a recipe passed down for three generations in a single day? Instead, I served him a cold bowl of dongchimi.
[November 20, 2003]
Grandmother Park from "Gwangjang Mung Bean Pancake House" asked me to prepare banquet food for her son's wedding. She raised her children through years of hardship by selling mung bean pancakes. To repay that heart, I boiled a precious octopus and sent it with her.
[July 12, 2010]
The young fellow from "Eulji Naengmyeon House" came complaining that his cold noodle broth lacked depth. I saw my younger self in his eyes. I quietly suggested simmering chicken feet together with pork bones.
"This is almost like the Master's diary, but all the names appearing here are...."
"...Real restaurants."
Hong Man-gi and Kang Jae-min realized it at the same moment.
The notebook preserved the names and stories of old restaurants around Jongno whose owners had interacted with Master Im Jeong-sik.
'He was constantly interacting with other cooks and spreading his philosophy....'
Kang Jae-min's eyes flashed.
"Chef, these people must remember. They could have clues about Master Im Jeong-sik's cooking and his final recipe."
"Good."
Hong Man-gi firmly grabbed their shoulders.
"I'll stay here with Poming and keep analyzing the traces in the notebook."
He continued.
"You two follow this map of memories and gather the scattered puzzle pieces. I'm counting on you."
"Leave it to us, Chef!"
"We'll be back, Hunter!"
Kang Jae-min and Lee Yu-han left the Full Moon Restaurant with determined expressions.
They carried Im Jeong-sik's old notebook, filled with his memories.
The first place they visited was "Jongno Gukbap World," the restaurant mentioned most often in the notebook.
The restaurant had seventy years of history.
Even though lunchtime had long passed, it was still filled with customers.
"Excuse me, is Owner Kim here?"
Kang Jae-min called toward the kitchen.
A white-haired elderly man wiping sweat beside a boiling cauldron raised his head.
"You're looking for me, young men? What is it?"
The two carefully showed him Master Im Jeong-sik's notebook and asked about his cooking.
The moment he heard the name "Im Jeong-sik," both joy and deep longing passed across Owner Kim's face.
"Master Im... so you're asking about that man. Haha...."
He smiled.
"That man's rice wasn't food. It was medicine."
His eyes became distant.
"On days when I felt weak and empty, one bowl of pot rice made by that man could bring strength back into a body that had none."
However, when they asked about his final recipe, Owner Kim shook his head.
"His final dish...? Hard to say. That man was always trying something new."
Then he paused.
"But there was one thing he always emphasized. The foundation of every flavor is jang, fermented sauces."
He smiled.
"He used to say that if you had good jang, you could roast dirt and still turn it into food."
Owner Kim's expression became serious.
"Especially the seed soy sauce he personally maintained and inherited through generations. That was a treasure. Nobody who tasted it could ever forget the flavor."
Seed soy sauce.
The core ingredient Hong Man-gi and Poming had deduced was confirmed once again.
The two next visited Gwangjang Mung Bean Pancake House and Eulji Naengmyeon House.
The owners there also remembered Master Im Jeong-sik clearly.
"Old Im? Don't even get me started. That man's tongue was unbelievably picky."
One owner laughed.
"He came to taste our mung bean pancakes and complained endlessly, the batter is too wet, the oil temperature is too high."
The smile softened.
"But thanks to him, our pancakes improved another level. I'm grateful to that old man."
Another owner said,
"Master Im always emphasized harmony."
"No ingredient should overpower another. Each ingredient should preserve its natural flavor while still coming together, like an orchestra."
The owner smiled faintly.
"I imagine his final dish would have contained that philosophy as well. Something extremely simple, but perfectly harmonious."
The testimonies continued to accumulate.
How deeply he respected natural flavors.
How seriously he followed the fundamentals.
How his cooking had comforted people.
Finally, after asking around for some time, they discovered a small vegetable garden Master Im Jeong-sik had often visited shortly before retiring.
An elderly farmer in a wheelchair welcomed them.
"There was something Master Im took from my field for the last time."
The farmer looked toward the sky as though searching through distant memories.
"That autumn had especially good sunlight. The old pumpkins grew wonderfully."
He smiled faintly.
"That man came and asked for the ugliest old pumpkin in the field, the one that had been exposed to sunlight the longest."
The farmer continued.
"He said that one would have the deepest sweetness. He said he was going to use it to make... one final soup for his wife."
'Old pumpkin... one final soup for his wife....'
Every clue was finally beginning to form a single picture.
Meanwhile, at the Full Moon Restaurant,
Hong Man-gi and Poming continued searching for the final puzzle piece by analyzing faint stains in the notebook and scents embedded within old cooking tools.
Then the restaurant door opened.
Kang Jae-min and Lee Yu-han rushed inside.
Their bright expressions were filled with excitement and certainty.
"Chef! We found it!"
Kang Jae-min shouted.
He quickly shared everything they had learned throughout the day.
Seed soy sauce.
Harmony.
An old pumpkin grown beneath strong autumn sunlight.
Hong Man-gi listened and confirmed that every piece matched the clues he and Poming had analyzed.
Inside his mind, every scattered fragment finally assembled into one complete image.
A single warm bowl of porridge.
Made for the wife who had shared his entire life.
A dish containing all his philosophy and love within the most common and humble ingredients.
"...'Natural Old Pumpkin Porridge Seasoned with Seed Soy Sauce.'"
Hong Man-gi quietly spoke the completed name.
Then he raised his head.
"Good. Then let's make it."
