【Unique Setting of “Happiness”】
How long I had waited for this moment.
‘Just pass the preliminaries.’
I reminded myself, grabbing the ingredient basket I had prepared in advance.
My secret weapon is in here.
“I’m off, Anne!”
A little later.
I placed a fried egg on top of fluffy rice, mixed it with soy sauce, and created a plausible visual.
Soy sauce egg rice!
Moreover, this isn’t just any soy sauce egg rice.
It’s a delicacy with butter added!
What more needs to be said when even the sesame oil and sesame seeds have been added to maximize the savory flavor?
“This is a truly wonderful taste.”
“Hmm, it’s strangely addictive. I feel a variety of emotions in this dish.”
“Wow, the taste is amazing. What ingredients did you use?”
The judges continued to praise.
And in this dish.
There was one secret ingredient that I had been planning to make.
The source of the flavor was the king crab soy sauce I made using the seasoning I bought from the general store a while ago.
I was practically an expert in sauce blending.
‘You guys should be thankful that I didn’t put seaweed flakes and kimchi in there. If I had, someone might have fainted.’
I wore a proud smile, but I couldn’t erase the bitter feeling hidden inside.
‘More than anything, this dish is.’
It held a lot of meaning for me.
Soy sauce egg rice was a hearty meal from my childhood when I grew up eating humble meals, always being mindful of others.
After my mother passed away, I had to wander around, moving from one relative’s house to another.
‘You should be grateful we didn’t send you to an orphanage.’
‘Did you clean? Hey! Scrub harder! Do you want to be kicked out of here?’
They treated me like a slave, crushing my young pride.
And I often resented my parents.
‘If you were going to be like this, you shouldn’t have given birth to me.’
Most of my childhood memories were filled with difficult and sad events, but there were also a few small joys that I could count on my fingers.
Soy sauce egg rice was always with me during those times.
It might just be a simple dish to someone else, but it was a valuable dish filled with the joys and sorrows of my life.
Because of that, I forced myself to swallow the rice, even when I was crying, so that my mom wouldn’t be heartbroken watching me from heaven, and I persevered.
Maybe that feeling was conveyed to the judges through the dish.
I had somewhat anticipated the current situation.
Because when setting up the game in the beginning, I had used real money to add soy sauce egg rice to the menu.
‘The menu I added with cash didn’t disappear even when I restarted the game.’
So I thought the settings would be applied as is this time as well.
However, I needed an ingredient that would definitely capture the taste of the judges in case of an unforeseen situation.
And that secret weapon was the king crab soy sauce.
‘Honestly, you can’t resist this!’
The king crab soy sauce I made contained various ingredients, creating a flavor that ordinary soy sauce could never imitate.
And the result was successful.
I easily passed the preliminaries and received ‘Love Goggles’ as a reward.
‘Yes!’
A good start.
Now, I just need to find the right opportunity to use the item when its effect will be the best.
The corners of my lips naturally turned upwards.
I couldn’t see it noticeably, but I felt that I was growing little by little.
I was enjoying the joy when it happened.
A man dressed neatly in a suit was smiling at me.
“Little lady, it’s nice to see you here again.”
My eyes widened as well.
“Uh oh?”
This person is…
Memories flashed through my head in an instant.
‘Come on, pick one, pick one! Buy one bottle of soy sauce and get one free! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! A discount that the boss is secretly giving away!!’
The image of the employee rolling up a paper funnel into a megaphone and raising his voice for a closing sale was vivid in my mind.
Not only that, but even the scene of him politely greeting me.
‘My name isn’t Mister, it’s Raymond. May the glory of God be with you, little lady.’
I recognized the man’s identity and opened my mouth wide.
It was so unexpected that it felt like a hidden event.
“M-Mister no, Raymond, how did you get here.”
“Because I’m the one who sponsored the item.”
“The item?”
As I blinked my eyes as if asking what he was talking about, Raymond pointed at my hand and smiled again.
“Yes, that reward.”
At those words, my head went down.
If it’s an item, could it be this?
My gaze moved busily between the ‘Love Goggles’ and Raymond.
I had never thought of this connection.
I couldn’t even imagine it.
This time, I asked with curious eyes.
“Then what happened at the general store back then?”
Raymond’s appearance of rolling up a funnel and raising his voice was that of a complete merchant.
It was as if he had manipulated customers’ hearts more than once or twice.
“Haha, I was helping my busy brother’s store for a while before the National Foundation Festival that day.”
Wow, I really didn’t know that.
The game didn’t even show these detailed elements.
It was only later that I realized that Raymond was a judge.
‘If I had done something that Raymond could have found fault with that day, would the result have been different?’
It was only for a brief moment, but I had that thought.
Raymond was also a human being, so I couldn’t be sure that there wouldn’t be any emotions in his evaluation.
I decided to live even more righteously because of this.
Perhaps my expression looked serious, Raymond coughed and tried to change the atmosphere.
“Ahem, I don’t usually reveal my identity like this. But your dish was so impressive that I couldn’t help but say hello.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes, I said that day, didn’t I? That you have a good eye.”
He smiled, raising the corners of his lips.
I didn’t know what to do with his straightforward praise.
Anyway, I felt like I had to respond, so I quickly gathered my thoughts.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Raymond. Thank you so much for the reward!”
“I’m more grateful. You showed me an unusual dish. Oh, and there’s a special gift added this year.”
“A special gift?”
I widened my blue eyes again.
“Check it out.”
Raymond handed me an envelope decorated with gold trim.
I quickly opened the envelope.
I couldn’t resist my curiosity because he said it was a special gift.
What was in the envelope was none other than an ‘Astrology Ticket’.
“Wow, astrology. I wanted to see it at least once.”
“Meet Grandma Horuru, the master of astrology. You’ll be able to gain the wisdom you need in life.”
I was quite interested in this kind of thing.
When I was living as Cha Se-i, a twenty-two-year-old in Korea, I remembered seeing tarot cards a few times out of curiosity.
‘Tarot was full of mysterious things, but the astrology here must be even more special?’
My expectations naturally rose.
I smiled brightly, closing the envelope.
“Thank you for the wonderful gift!”
“I hope it helps you. Ah, I have to go now because people are calling me. See you again when the time comes, little lady.”
With that, Raymond turned around.
Watching him walk away, I suddenly thought that fate was a strange thing.
I thought he was just someone who passed by, but I met him again like this.
‘I hope there are more good adults than bad adults in the world.’
For some reason, the reward I received from Raymond felt even more precious.
While I was immersed in emotion, Anne ran up and gave me a bouquet of flowers.
“Miss! Congratulations!”
“Thank you, Anne.”
“You’re amazing! When did you learn this? Anyway, there’s nothing our Miss can’t do.”
Even a hedgehog thinks its own baby is pretty.
Anne was fussing over me, who had only passed the preliminaries.
Besides, I was embarrassed to hear such praise from Anne, who had a knack for cooking.
“Anne, shall we go now? My neck feels a little stiff.”
I deliberately stroked my neck, pretending to be tired.
Now that I had achieved my goal, there was no reason to stay here any longer.
Anne fussed over me.
“Oh my! Our Miss, you must be very tired? Let’s go home and rest quickly. I’ll make you some warm tea.”
“Okay.”
How many steps had we taken?
Suddenly, Anne was looking around strangely.
“Anne, what’s wrong?”
“I thought I saw someone just now.”
“Who?”
“You know, that tall servant of Lady Lagenne.”
Tall servant? If it’s a tall servant.
Ah!
“Parker. His name is Parker.”
Because it was a noisy first meeting, I couldn’t forget that name even if I tried.
He was the one who quickly snatched me away when I was about to be run over by a carriage.
“Ah, Parker! That’s right, that was his name. Our Miss really knows everything.”
“Ahem, it’s just a name.”
“Still. Well, that Parker, or Paka, is so taciturn that there’s no need to call his name.”
Anne was adding a lot of unnecessary words today.
Because of that, my heart was burning.
If Parker is here, it means that there is a very high probability that Sister Lavie is also here.
I also asked, looking around.
“Anne, did you really see Parker?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am.”
“You didn’t see him wrong, did you?”
“No! Is that man a common face? There’s no way I could have seen him wrong.”
Hmm!
Parker doesn’t have a common face?
I had never thought about it, but since Anne said so, I thought so.
Maybe…
‘Sister might have participated in the martial arts competition.’
That’s right! Why didn’t I think of that?
Although I couldn’t make a date appointment, if it’s Sister with her skills, she would have been able to participate in the martial arts competition.
‘Instead of approaching her directly, I should have asked what she was doing during the National Foundation Festival.’
Damn it!
It was a regret that I couldn’t use indirect expressions.
But isn’t it said that the earliest time to start is when you think it’s too late?
“Anne, we have a place to stop by for a while.”
I turned around and walked straight away.
A little later, the place we arrived at was the martial arts arena.
I once heard that the right side of the stadium center is more suitable for viewing.
Anne and I sat side by side on the right side and looked around.
I wondered if I could see Parker towering among the people, but finding him among the many spectators was like finding a needle in a desert.
“Wow!!”
Just in time, the audience erupted in thunderous cheers.
Everyone couldn’t hide their excitement.
‘Who came out that made them like that?’
I brought the telescope lens to my eyes to solve my curiosity.
‘Huh? That’s.’