The Archmage’s Restaurant - Chapter 138
# 138
Chapter.33 The food stall
marker recently got a job. The job was to make wooden frames at a large-scale watch factory, a national project of the former Dederan City-integrated Gray City.
The frame was the main body of the clock that was recently spreading across the continent.
A series of actions such as cutting and assembling wood are all done by hand.
Marker was working on that very line. And now the difficult day has finally passed.
When you work hard, the day goes by in the blink of an eye. Of course, the busyness was more than welcome to Marker.
It was like a warm glow to many people, including Marker, to be able to work like this and earn fair money, after the days of literally surviving on grass roots, not a metaphor that was difficult to put into words, were over.
This is something you can’t even imagine when you think about the Deadran City of the past.
Now that I am getting used to my changed life.
Marker wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke to his colleague next to him.
“Since you worked hard, how about going for a drink?”
“Ah, Mr. Marker. sorry. Today that is… “I have a prior contract.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Marker smiled and nodded. There was a reason why he was smiling so hard.
A few months since I started working.
For the first time, I actively invited some colleagues I thought I was close to out for drinks, but today they all turned me down.
Then you can’t do it. How can I say that I have a promise? Marker left the factory with a bitter smile. Since it wasn’t something we had promised in advance, it can be said to be natural.
But for today, I wanted to have a drink with someone. Because today was his 44th birthday. At this age, I don’t attach much meaning to the day I was born.
Still, just going in, washing my feet as usual, and going straight to bed felt like something was missing.
Since he was a single person without a wife or children, he felt the same loneliness as always.
‘Well anyway… The reason things have improved to the point where we can even think about drinking is because the world has changed. ‘You should be thankful for that.’
Thinking like that, Marker slumped his shoulders and started walking.
When you leave the factory, you have to go down a few hills to reach what used to be called the downtown area of Deadran City.
The new name of the city area is called Verna Street. It was said to be the name of a high-ranking person, but like ordinary citizens, Marker was not interested in it.
Because it’s not a fact that you can know that he’s interested.
What is important for him, a mere citizen, is the fact that he is alone today as well.
“Mr. Marker, I have an appointment with my lover today, so could you please switch to the night shift?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Mr. Mark, please give me some advice. That’s what I did today… .”
Among his colleagues, Marker was quite old, so he often came to me for consultation and was asked various requests, and each time he smiled and listened.
So, I thought I maintained a good relationship with my younger colleagues.
Well, since everyone seemed to be very busy after work, I don’t think it would be a big deal if all of today’s invitations were rejected.
Marker thought so as he hurried home from work. Then, as I was almost entering the city, I found an interesting restaurant.
Obviously there was no yesterday. This is a restaurant that suddenly appeared.
I saw quite a few people drinking. I thought it was interesting, so I walked to that restaurant without realizing it.
“welcome.”
“I’m sorry, but this place… What is it? It wasn’t there until yesterday… I wasn’t building a restaurant… .”
“It’s a mobile restaurant. You can think of it as a comfortable bar where you can have a drink after work. “In the country where I lived, they were called pojangmacha (pojangmacha).”
“Is it a food stall?”
Marker tilted his head at the word he had never heard before. But a delicious smell entered my nostrils.
You have to walk a long way back to your favorite bar. For some reason, it felt like he was going to feel a sense of self-destruction on the way there, so Marker decided that he shouldn’t go too far and just have a drink here and go straight to sleep, so he pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Then please excuse me.”
“thank you.”
Then I looked at the menu posted above the food stall.
From familiar beer to distilled fruit wine and soju. Since it was his first time hearing the word soju, Marker asked the young man who seemed to be the owner.
“I know beer and I know a little bit about everything else, but what is soju?”
“It’s stronger than beer and weaker than expensive alcohol like Angal.”
Angal is a distilled alcohol commonly consumed in this region and is characterized by being very strong. You can think of it as being about 2 to 3 times the size of soju.
“And best of all, it’s the cheapest. “The manufacturing method is cheap.”
It’s stronger than beer, but cheaper. Marker thought it was the perfect drink for him right now.
So Marker immediately ordered soju.
The young man immediately placed a pretty bottle and glass in front of the marker. Still, since it was his birthday, he didn’t want to just drink alcohol, so Marker immediately looked up at the menu with snacks on it. The menu was also diverse.
Normally, when I eat alone, I usually just drink alcohol. Because the more money you save, the better.
But today is my birthday.
I was filled with the desire to reward myself for all my hard work.
When I looked at the menu, things like udon and fried Palenque were listed.
Recently, something called fried Palenque has been creating a boom in the area, so Marker had heard of it and was familiar with it. But this is my first time seeing udon. It was my first time trying soju and my first time eating food.
‘That’s not bad either.’
Marker ordered udon without much hesitation. This time I didn’t even ask what kind of food it was.
“There is nothing special around you. There are no animals and, of course, no monsters. quiet.”
“okay?”
While I was waiting for my food, a woman came striding into the restaurant called Pojangmacha. It’s as if you’ve been wandering through a forest, with spring flowers sticking to your hair everywhere.
I don’t even think of her as a crazy woman wearing flowers. I was dazed for a moment by the pretty face.
It doesn’t have a sexy face or anything like that. A beauty with a somewhat elegant face. Yet, when she spoke to the young man, she was surprisingly overflowing with cuteness.
But the strange thing was that the more I continued to look, the more a strange feeling of fear flowed into my mind.
Stop staring.
It’s like a warning in my heart.
Marker lowered his head without realizing it due to that strange feeling. It would be impossible for Marker, an ordinary person, to understand that this is a very subtle action of Dragon Fear.
“But why did you get buried like this?”
“I ran around and buried it. “It’s no big deal.”
The woman shook her head in front of the young man, like a puppy that had fallen into the water. Then, the blades of grass that were clinging to each other fall off little by little. But there are still a lot of them all over my head.
It’s because my hair is very long.
The young man grabbed the woman’s arm, pulled her to his chest, and began to carefully shake off the foreign matter from her head.
“Hya?”
The woman made a strange sound and was pulled into the young man’s chest, and her body froze like a plaster statue.
“Go on the road, go on the road. Ugh.”
“I do not know. “When it comes to roads, I make them.”
Even though he sounds like a toddler, he doesn’t even try to move while being held by the young man.
It seemed kind of sweet.
‘Are they a couple?’
That thought occurred to me, but an unknown fear still rose deep within me, so I lowered my eyes.
Then I don’t think anything again. It’s okay to stare for a moment. However, when you look into the woman’s eyes, a sense of fear comes over you.
Actually, once you get used to this level of fine dragon piercing, it becomes okay.
The regulars of the restaurant on the hill, like the Gray boy, had grown to the point where they didn’t feel anything even when talking to Lulin, but people who met them for the first time still felt scared and couldn’t approach even the nano particle-sized Dragon Fear.
That’s why men who see Lulin for the first time can’t get along.
Anyway, Marker didn’t understand the phenomenon at all and thought there was something strange about it, so he decided to go back after eating only what he ordered, thinking it was probably because he was tired.
And soon, the hot, steaming soup was placed on the table in front of me.
When I looked at it, there was something that looked like noodles inside. But what was strange was that the noodles were completely different from the noodles I usually eat. The noodles are quite thick. As expected, as the name suggests, this is a food I have never seen before.
“bon appetite.”
The young man said with a smile, and Marker nodded and picked up his fork. And I ate the soup.
The light soy sauce flavor and other hidden flavors penetrate your mouth. I drank soju, thinking it goes very well with alcohol.
“Kyaa.”
Strangely enough, I started making sounds that I had never made in my life. I was also hungry, so I drank the soup again.
“Kyaa.”
The sound comes out again without my knowledge. good night.
Slurp.
Compared to the thickness of the noodles, the texture in the mouth was quite good. So, before I knew it, I had a glass of soju and a spoonful of soup. And slurp some udon noodles.
I felt an inexplicable fear and thought it was a strange store, but it was delicious. I thought I might want to come again.
And soju is good too. Compared to the price, the speed of getting drunk is fast. I thought the marker was good value for money.
“That guy eats deliciously. “I’m hungry too, dear.”
“I remember you had dinner earlier?”
“I looked around and found that I was hungry. Isn’t it natural that digestion occurs quickly when you move? Don’t state the obvious. So hurry up and give me food!”
A conversation is heard. It’s kind of a funny conversation. If you don’t look at that woman, you won’t feel fear. So, just listening to the conversation strangely makes the depression disappear.
It’s amazing how the depression of being alone until a day like this disappears little by little.
I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or the funny couple.
“It’s delicious. “I was a little depressed today, but I feel like that depression is disappearing.”
“That’s good.”
Marker thanked the young man and started drinking soju and udon alternately again.
The sun has already disappeared and the night is starting to deepen. Workers from other factories who discovered this restaurant inside the food stalls also began to come in one by one.
Marker felt that if a colleague from the same line came in, he would be caught up in an indescribable feeling, so he couldn’t look at their faces properly, but fortunately, the colleagues he said he had a prior contract with were nowhere to be seen.
‘Yes, there really must have been a prior agreement.’
Marker shook his head and started drinking again. While I was enjoying the peace, an uninvited guest jumped in.
“Hoo, is there a place like this?”
“Brother, isn’t this an unlicensed store? Just by looking at this?”
“It’s like that to anyone, right? Hey, owner!”
Anyone can see that he is an uninvited guest.
Marker was surprised and looked at the men who broke in. At first glance, they looked like gangsters. Of course, there were so many of these thugs in Deadran City that it was impossible to count them, but after the former lord’s large-scale purge, many of them were rooted out.
However, the lord changed again, the number of factories increased, and a lot of people came in from other regions, and because of this, there were people who came into the city and installed things without knowing anything about it.
‘It’s going to be noisy.’
I only found out about this restaurant not long ago, but strangely enough, it was a restaurant I liked, but I felt sorry for Marker.
“Are you doing business here without a permit? Report it? Of course, we will take care of you before that happens, so if you pay the protection fee, it will be different.”
Eventually, the gangsters got to the point and started laughing among themselves. There are 3 people.
“Can I kill you?”
The woman who was eating udon in the corner wakes up. I’m still holding the udon bowl in my hand.