“Hmmmm…….?”
Due to Katrina’s visit, I found myself in a dilemma.
Originally, I was planning to check the information on the fifth of the Seven Deadly Sins right after returning from the Skyscraper Guild.
After all, Kyler knew the location and could guide me.
On top of that, it was a dungeon no one knew about.
If I just quietly went and lured Sloth, it would’ve been a perfect crime—no, a perfect plan.
‘But a Level 9 Meeting was held, huh.’
The Level 9 Meeting I had only heard about in rumors.
It actually existed. Ta-da.
Since Kyler is staying in our dungeon, maybe it was impossible for him to attend in the first place?
Anyway, putting him aside, six Level 9 Awakeners became aware of the existence of the Hero and the Demon King.
The Hero is probably Emily.
And the Demon King……….. as unfair as it is, I was the closest match.
“Why me, a mere kind-hearted farmer!!”
Oh, world! Why do you falsely accuse me!
Anyway, I decided not to touch the Seven Deadly Sins for now, just to be cautious.
Since it was still an undiscovered dungeon, it wasn’t urgent, and my initial goal in bringing Sloth was to complete Emily’s quest.
The quest of a Hero candidate who needs to forge a sword using Divine Steel.
Sloth, among the Seven Deadly Sins, is said to be an excellent blacksmith, so I figured I’d recruit him and clear the quest at the same time.
But if I recruit a Sin again or complete Emily’s quest, it might send another message to the Level 9 Awakeners.
Squish squish.
Watching the slimes crawling mindlessly and watering the fields quickly calmed me.
Yeah, what could possibly happen?
And if something does, what are they going to do to me!
“Brother.”
“Huh? Jae-seong.”
Jae-seong, who had been going back and forth between the restaurant and dungeon with Ara to transport ingredients, came over to the field.
“When are the guests you invited arriving?”
“Oh, right. Tomorrow. 7 p.m.”
“Hm, Brother, what do you think about including rice cakes in the dessert menu?”
“Hmm, flavor-wise it’s perfect.
But wouldn’t it be a bit heavy to eat after a full meal?”
“So we think alike.”
But Ara, who had been listening silently, shook her head vigorously, disagreeing.
“You must have rice cakes! Why would you leave out something so delicious!”
She reacted passionately with a face that said she couldn’t understand.
In the end, after a moment of thought, Jae-seong agreed to add bite-sized rice cakes.
“But there are quite a few types of rice cakes. Last time we made songpyeon for Chuseok, but there’s also sirutteok, rainbow tteok, injeolmi, and garaetteok.”
“Injeolmi doesn’t sound bad. If we use your soybeans to make soybean flour and drizzle honey on top, it’ll be tasty.”
Oh, I can already imagine how good it would taste.
Apparently Ara could too, because she suddenly drooled with a blank expression.
“That sounds delicioussss.”
“Then shall we try making it now?”
Unlike songpyeon, injeolmi isn’t steamed but pounded.
Can we even make it…?
‘Why am I even worried.’
Even if Jae-seong couldn’t make it, we had Ara, Ras, and Ashu.
Especially Ashu—given her speed and athletic ability, she could definitely make rice cakes in no time.
She’d basically become a real moon rabbit.
We decided to try making injeolmi as a test and called the kids.
– What’s a rice cake, Great Overlord?
– Chewy? Never heard of it!
– Has the time come to use my strength?
– Ashu is super curious!!
Since calling only Ashu and Ras felt unfair, I called everyone.
With sleepy Cheong still strapped to my back, we decided to start by making a mortar.
“If you have strength, the old way is best.”
Nowadays, everything is factory-made and machine-pressed, but we didn’t have such equipment anyway.
We brought over a root of the World Tree and started carving.
Mamon and Frey helped with the work.
The huge root quickly took the shape of a mortar.
We dug out the inside and completed it.
The pestle was finished even faster.
We matched the sizes and made a mortar and pestle set.
– Now, time for our secret ingredient…!
Frey started applying something carefully.
Then the freshly made, slightly rough-looking mortar set began to shine and looked polished.
“Ooh.”
When I touched it, it really was smooth.
Must be a material the Alfheim use for carving.
– It’s a finishing compound made from World Tree sap and pollen we collected!
– Hmph! Why didn’t you mention my poison is in it too!
So Mamon’s poison is in it too, huh.
It really is a universal poison.
“Wow, you two are amazing. Thanks to you, we can make rice cakes now.”
– Hehe.
– Kekeke.
Jae-seong brought over soaked and steamed rice.
As soon as he opened the lid, soft steam billowed out and surrounded us.
“Yum.”
Ara immediately scooped it up with her hand and popped it into her mouth.
But I understood.
It was hard to just sit still while freshly steamed rice was in front of you.
“It’s delicious!”
“Good, good.”
Jae-seong then roasted soybeans to make soybean flour, and we placed the rice into the mortar.
“Jae-seong, is this how you do it?”
“Yeah, just try it. You’ll learn as you go.”
We put in a handful of steamed rice, about the size of two fists.
The rice stuck to the mortar with a squelch.
I grabbed the pestle and started pounding.
“Is this how you do it?”
“Oooh.”
Cheong, now awake, watched Ara and me make rice cakes with fascination.
The other kids also watched the pounding process in awe.
Chop chop chop!
At first, it felt mushy, but I got the hang of it quickly.
As an Awakener, I had much better physical abilities than normal people, so I had good sense.
“I want to try too!”
“Wanna switch? Okay!”
We switched.
Ara grabbed the pestle, which was slightly taller than her, and tried moving it around.
“It’s a little too tall. Wait a sec.”
I quickly found a chair from somewhere.
Ara climbed up and began pounding with great energy.
Chaap!! Chaap!! Chaap!!
Such a cheerful sound!
I once saw a video where they flipped the rice with wet hands in between pounding.
Should I try that too?
The exceptional dynamic vision of an Awakener helped me time it perfectly.
Then, between Ara’s pestle strikes, I swiftly slipped my hand in to flip the rice cake halfway over.
“Kyu-seong Kyu-seong! What was that just now?!”
“You match the timing like this to flip the rice so it gets pounded evenly.”
“Oooh! That’s amazing!”
Ara’s pounding rhythm turned even more excited and bouncy.
Thanks to that, it became even harder for me to catch the right timing to flip the rice cake.
‘But this is fun?’
And it really was a lot of fun.
Besides, Ara was controlling her strength—if she hadn’t, the mortar would’ve broken long ago.
I wasn’t even scared of getting hit.
– Oh.
– Ashu wants to try it too.
I assigned the flipping to Ashu and the pounding to Ras.
– Is this how it’s done?
Ras was too strong.
He looked a bit unstable—I was worried he might break the mortar.
On the other hand, Ashu was getting frustrated.
– Faster! Faster, faster!
What should I do?
After some thought, I switched their roles.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!!
Ashu began pounding the mortar at an incredible speed.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
It was so fast that none of us could keep up.
“Is… is that really okay?”
– There’s no way I can get my hand in there now!
Did we pound the rice too much?
I stopped Ashu for a moment and checked the condition of the rice cake.
“Ooh.”
Chewy.
No, this was beyond chewy—it was almost rubbery.
I stretched it and managed to pinch off a small piece and popped it in my mouth.
So chewy it felt like gum.
But surprisingly, it went down just fine.
It was tasty? Why?
‘This has its own charm, doesn’t it?’
Was it because I used rice that I had grown?
If it had been ordinary glutinous rice, it might’ve turned out weird, but this one was fine.
We decided to stop here and presented the chewy gum-like rice cake to Jae-seong.
“…What is this? Rubber?”
His reaction was just like mine.
But after he pinched off a piece and tasted it, he nodded with an approving look.
“Not bad, right?”
“Yeah. Since the ingredients are so good, even this texture feels unique and charming. Let me coat it with some soybean flour.”
He cut the rice cake into small pieces.
After coating the warm pieces in roasted soybean flour, our familiar injeolmi was complete.
“Wow……”
“It smells so good!”
Ara drooled as she gazed at the injeolmi, and Cheong shouted with joy.
The other kids who had helped make the rice cake stared blankly at the warm injeolmi.
“Now, it’s tasting time!”
I handed out three pieces each.
Then I took a smaller portion of mine, dusted it generously with soybean powder, and popped it into my mouth.
Squiiish.
A taut texture that pushed against my teeth.
But with a little more force, it tore cleanly.
“Mmm!”
Delicious.
The soybean flour was incredibly nutty and sweet.
I almost wanted to eat the flour on its own.
The rice’s flavor and sweetness came next, blending beautifully with the powder.
And the unique texture was just a bonus.
“It’s delicious! Is there no more?”
Ara, who had already eaten all three pieces, looked around to see if there were any left.
“Since we’re still craving more, should we make a bit more?”
– Yes, please!
Mamon reacted enthusiastically.
He must’ve really liked the rice cake.
At this point, maybe we should start a rice cake factory?
We could ask the goblins to mass-produce mortars, then have the rabbits pound the rice.
“Puhuhuhu.”
“The Demon Lord’s evil laugh!!”
Ara pointed at me and shouted.
Ara, please… I’m already on edge about the whole “Demon Lord” thing. Sob.
When I shared the idea with the kids, they were all on board.
Especially Ashu, who said the breeding tribe kids would love it too.
– It’d be great to use up all their stamina on making rice cakes!
“…What do they normally use it on?”
– We are the noble Breeding Tribe! We use our strength to thrive and grow our lineage! Though lately, it might be a bit much…
I-I see.
No wonder it feels like there are more rabbits lately—they’ve been very busy.
With that decided, we made a little more rice cake.
Fortunately, we still had plenty of rice left.
This time, we pounded it a bit more slowly and for a shorter time.
That resulted in soft, chewy rice cakes.
“How fascinating.”
Ara’s eyes sparkled at the different texture.
The other kids touched the rice cake too and started playing with it like a sensory toy.
“You shouldn’t play with food, you know.”
I chuckled and told them gently, then carefully coated more rice cake with soybean flour.
This time, the rice cake had the familiar texture we all knew.
“Mmm!”
Still delicious.
The ingredients were so good, it was impossible to mess up.
But comparing it to the earlier batch, I couldn’t say which was better.
It all came down to personal taste.
“I like the one Ashu made more.”
Cheong seemed to prefer the chewier version.
Ashu puffed up with pride.
– Ashu is a rice cake master!
“That’s right!”
As I continued munching on the rice cake, an idea suddenly came to me—what if we made various types and created a rice cake gift set?
“It’d be perfect for Chuseok.”
“For what?”
“A mixed rice cake gift set. Then we could send it out as a gift.”
“Oh! That’s a great idea, Brother. I want to make one too and give it to Mr. Junichi as a gift.”
“Sounds good.”
We got to work right away.
Discussing the types of rice cakes and how much to make.
Since we’d already decided to build a rice cake factory, the quantity wouldn’t be an issue.
– I’ll start making more mortar sets as soon as we return!
Mamon shouted excitedly.
Looks like goblin snacks are going to be rice cakes for a while.
Mamon went over to Ashu to discuss the number and size of mortars.
He was so serious—it was adorable.
“I’ll go ahead and make some rice cakes for the guests arriving tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Jae-seong.”
Tomorrow, our guild members would visit the restaurant.
I was really looking forward to seeing their reactions.
***
And at that very moment—
The news of Kyu-seong’s contract renewal finally spread across the world.
At the same time, the fact that Katrina had visited Korea became known.
“We can’t just sit around doing nothing.”
Hearing that the contract hadn’t been finalized yet, people everywhere began to take action.
Even industry giants who had remained still until now began to move.
Top guilds from China and Japan.
And from the U.S. and the EU.
Even the powerful forces in the Middle East, who had stayed quiet until now.
All eyes were on Korea, the eye of the storm, as a strange tension began to spread.
Cliche Novel 