“Wow.”
“This is where lessons will take place from now on.”
The place I took the little one to was a lecture hall located on the 199th floor.
From large lecture halls to small seminar rooms and meeting rooms,this floor contained every place related to studying or work.
“This is amazing. But why does a floor like this exist?”
“That, well...... I’ll tell you if the opportunity comes.”
When one ran a hotel for a long time, all sorts of things tended to happen.
This floor was one of the things included in that “all sorts.”
“For now, just think of this as the place where you’ll study.”
For a little one like her, a small study room was enough.
It had a whiteboard, a chalkboard, and several bookshelves filled with textbooks, making it perfect as a place for lessons.
The little one looked around the study room here and there before sitting firmly at the desk.
“I know what this is.”
“Of course you’d know what a desk is.”
“A cot!”
“......I see.”
In an apocalypse, sleep would be more important than studying.
I understood that, but......
First, I should check her common sense and how much she knew.
“Little one. Sit there and answer what I ask.”
“Yes!”
“Do you know what mana is?”
“No!”
“What about souls?”
“What comes out when you die?”
“Okay.”
She had no basic knowledge of magic or spirit arts.
“You know how to read numbers, right? What about the four basic arithmetic operations?”
“Numbers are what you use when counting monster heads.”
“Twisted, but acceptable. What about reading and writing?”
“I don’t know.”
Her basic education in numbers and language was also severely lacking.
Well, I understood.
In a world like that, the skills related to survival would be more important than letters.
But from now on, this was an area she needed.
Then, what kind of textbook would be best to use?
I took several textbooks from the shelves and stacked them beside me. There ended up being quite a few, but all of them were necessary.
“I’ll tell you in advance. If you want to reach the realm you’re thinking of, there’s a lot you’ll need to learn. It’ll probably take several years.”
If she learned the blessing of resurrection or spirit magic in a mere twenty-three days, even the word genius would not be enough.
“Don’t be impatient. Think of it as slowly building things up one by one. Understood?”
“Yes! Mister!”
“Then let’s begin.”
The first subject we would start with was the Korean alphabet.
***
Most of the hotel’s systems were automated.
The hundreds of clones I had created handled their respective tasks, and the spells and arts I had meticulously set into algorithms moved in perfect order.
Aside from the occasional case where a guest sought me out personally, there was not much hotel work I needed to pay attention to at this point.
Thanks to that, I could invest the entire afternoon lesson in the little one’s education.
“Let’s end today’s lesson here.”
“Ugh, okaaay.”
The little one collapsed onto the desk just like that.
It seemed that studying for the first time was not easy for her.
Even so, considering that, she had followed along rather well.
“Is it hard?”
“Mm, it’s kind of complicated. It’s different from things I just have to memorize.”
“You’d better get used to it. Most of all, these basics will be useful even after you return.”
“Do you think so?”
“Of course.”
Being able to read and write was quite important.
The harsher the environment, the more important the sharing and exchange of information became.
Well, whether people could be trusted was a separate issue.
“You still have a long way to go, so there’s no need to rush too......”
Growl.
So she answered with her stomach instead of her mouth.
“We’ll talk about the details next time. Rest for today. Eat something tasty too.”
“Food? There’s food?”
“......Then what did you eat yesterday?”
“I didn’t eat anything.”
Come to think of it, I had not seen the little one eat anything for two days.
This was my mistake.
I had not properly told her that meals were provided for free at the hotel.
“Get up. Let’s go eat.”
“Wow! Really? Real food?”
“Yes. Real food.”
It seemed I really did need to pay more attention.
***
“Waaa......”
The place I took the little one to was the restaurant floor located on the 30th floor.
I casually called it a restaurant, but its form was closer to that of a wide street, no, a metropolis.
However, the special point was that every place there was filled with eateries.
“Everything here is a restaurant?”
“That’s right.”
“But what is a restaurant?”
“......A place where you eat.”
Well, of course.
There was no way the concept of a restaurant would exist in an apocalypse world.
Wherever one sat with something to eat would be a restaurant.
The buildings lining the street all had different styles, and naturally, all kinds of restaurants were located inside them.
There were the representative foods of my homeland, such as Korean, Japanese, Western, and Chinese cuisine, as a matter of course.
There were also foods made with specialties that existed only in particular dimensions, such as hayaka, lutrek, and bafi steruk.
Everything related to food existed here, so it was faster to look for what did not exist.
“This is a place where guest satisfaction approaches one hundred. I put my heart and soul into making it.”
Truly, I could not even remember how much I had racked my brains to create a perfect restaurant floor.
There were so many things to consider for gastronomy, and the range of guests’ needs was enormous as well.
Trying to include all of that had taken quite a lot of effort.
“When you’re hungry, come here and eat. Don’t starve yourself.”
For hotel guests, every menu was provided for free.
Whether it was rice soup, a thirty-dish table, or an imperial meal.
Anything at all.
“Hehe, yes. Then are we eating at one of the restaurants here today too?”
“That would be fine, but. Mm.”
A small desire arose within me.
The desire to feed something delicious to this little one, who had never eaten a proper meal, and even when she had eaten, had only eaten spoiled canned food.
“Come this way.”
“Huh? This isn’t a restaurant.”
The place I took her to was the giant lounge I had made on the restaurant floor.
It was designed to evoke both the atmosphere of buying food from food trucks and eating it outdoors, and the feeling of a family on a camping trip leisurely enjoying food together.
Even planting a single tree or plant there had taken quite a bit of care.
However, because most guests ate their food inside the restaurants, it was usually quiet.
“Sit over here.”
A table with a grill plate set in the middle.
If one were Korean, one would immediately know what to eat here, but this little one was moved by something else.
“I know what this is!”
“You know this?”
In a world that did not even have a proper desk, there was a grill table?
Had she seen one abandoned in some ruin?
“Yes! This is a barricade where fire comes out from the middle!”
“......I suppose it could be modified that way.”
The fire coming out was the same.
Only its purpose had changed from cooking to survival.
I applauded the creativity of the person who made it.
“It’s not?”
“Originally, it’s a table where you cook food and eat.”
“The fire was really strong, though. Wouldn’t everything burn?”
“What you saw was a modified version. While you’re here, set aside your apocalypse common sense a little.”
The common sense of that world was considerably twisted...... Should I prepare a separate class on hotel common sense?
“Sit still there. I’m going to prepare a few things.”
Though calling it preparation made it sound like more than it was.
I put fire stones, which were useful for controlling heat, into the burner and placed the grill plate on top.
While the grill plate heated up enough, I brought side dishes from the storage and laid them out. That was all.
“Can I eat this?”
“If there’s something you want to eat, you can eat as much as you want, but! Don’t just shove it in like that.”
“Wy?”
“......Don’t talk while eating. Swallow first, then speak.”
The little one could not wait even for that short time and was cramming the side dishes I had laid out into her mouth.
If someone saw her, they would think she was a barbarian who did not even know how to eat.
The baby barbarian struggled to chew and swallow the food stuffed full in her mouth.
“How else am I supposed to eat?”
“Let me ask first. Why did you eat like that?”
“Because if there’s food, you have to eat it first.”
That was strangely logical.
“Otherwise, you won’t get to eat it.”
“......Here, the food won’t disappear, and no one else will take it from you. Most of all.”
With a single gesture, I refilled the side dishes the little one had eaten.
“You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, as much as you want.”
“......Ah.”
“So there’s no need to hurry like that. I haven’t even brought out the main dish yet.”
“I...... see. Hehe.”
The little one smiled sheepishly, but she still could not take her eyes off the side dishes.
Even knowing that there was no need to do so,removing a habit ingrained in the body was difficult.
“Later, I won’t say anything no matter how you eat. But for now, wait. Since you’re eating anyway, you should eat something even tastier.”
“These are tasty too!”
“I do have good hands for cooking.”
It would be fine to lay out only side dishes and eat them like a home-cooked meal,but today was different.
If I were treating someone to Korean food for the first time, then naturally, I had to serve the most popular menu.
Pork belly, loved by men and women, old and young alike.
When I brought out a thick slab of pork belly from the ingredient storage, the little one’s eyes went round.
“What is this?”
“It’s a part of pork called pork belly. Have you heard of it?”
“Uh, I’ve heard adults talk about it. They said that long ago, people didn’t just eat canned meat, but ordinary meat.”
For pork belly to have become something like an oral legend.
What a truly sorrowful world it was.
“Are we eating this?”
“That’s right. Watch closely.”
The grill plate had heated sufficiently, so I immediately placed a slab on top of it.
Sizzle.
Along with a delicious sound, a rich, oily scent spread out.
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since I had pork belly too.
After entering the realm of transcendence, I no longer needed to cling to meals, so unless it was for gastronomy, there was no reason to eat.
“It smells good! Can I eat it?”
“Wait just a little.”
Because it was thick pork belly, it took time to cook.
I browned both sides, thoroughly seared even the edges, and let the heat reach the inside.
Once the heat had more or less reached the center, I finally cut it into bite-sized pieces.
“Can I eat it now?”
“Not yet. It needs to cook a little more.”
“Ugh, how much longer do I have to wait?”
“Until the red color disappears.”
“......Is this torture?”
“Well, it is a torturous time.”
***
Still, thanks to the good fire, the meat cooked quickly.
As the sliced pork belly turned brown one piece at a time and began singing for us to eat it,I placed the best-cooked piece in front of the little one.
“Here. You can dip it in salt, or try eating it with the pickled onions or green onion salad here.”
While I pointed at the side dishes I had quickly set out,the little one simply put the pork belly straight into her mouth.
And the little one who had encountered her first pork belly
“Hnnng!”
opened those large eyes wide and flailed her arms about.
I had not expected such an intense reaction.
She was the kind of child who made feeding her pork belly feel worthwhile.
“Is it good?”
“Yes! Really!”
“Eat a lot. If it isn’t enough, I’ll grill more for you.”
“Really? I can eat all of it and then eat more?”
“Of course.”
Whatever else might happen, this hotel would never run short on ingredients.
“I want more, more!”
“Don’t just eat it plain. Wrap it in lettuce and perilla leaves too. Dip it in the ssamjang there.”
“Yes!”
“I’ll grill kimchi, bean sprouts, and balloon flower roots for you too, so eat them together.”
“Yes!”
Like a racehorse that had only been waiting for the words “eat,” the little one began absorbing the meat at a rapid pace.
Rather than chewing, it seemed more appropriate to say she was drinking it.
“You’ll get indigestion. Eat slowly.”
“Ish sho good!”
Even so, every time she took the first bite of something, she reacted just like before.
She was the kind of child who made grilling for her feel worthwhile.
“Here, I’ll give you some cider. Drink some of this too.”
I took a can of cider from the storage and gave it to her, only to realize something.
‘I need to teach her how to open cans too......’
Hiss, click!
Gulp, gulp.
“Kyaa! Mister, this thing explodes in my throat!”
“......That’s because it’s carbonated.”
Now that I thought about it, they used a lot of canned goods in her world, didn’t they?
Her behavior had made me mistake her for a barbarian.
“I want to drink more of this!”
“I’ll give you more. If you drink too much, you won’t be able to eat the meat, so little by......”
“I wondered what this scent was. So the Proprietor was grilling meat himself.”
While I was taking out another can of cider for the little one, an unexpected guest approached.
“May I sit as well?”
He was one of the three from Murim, the Martial Alliance Leader, who paid his lodging fees more diligently than the others.