Chapter 73: I Expected It All (2) After stopping by the Doren Mage Tower and Kaysus Cathedral, Lee Jinseo's next destination was the city of Aven.
Aven, the most recent place he had developed as a sales spot, had heavy foot traffic, so his sales were rising by the day.
"Oh! He's here! He's here!"
"But today, there's another one. Which one's the real one?"
"Who cares? It's obvious both of them will be selling bunsik."
Maybe because of that, a huge crowd had gathered at the city entrance as usual to wait for Lee Jinseo's food truck.
But today, unlike before, the crowd's attention split in half.
That was because the carriage with a kitchen—what had appeared at Count Wilson's party before—was planted brazenly across from where Lee Jinseo did business.
"It really showed up at the places we sell, just like you said."
Jason frowned, recalling the bad memory from his first on-site catering job.
Lee Jinseo glanced at the cooks busily preparing bunsik in the carriage across the street, but he didn't see any familiar faces.
Instead, the carriage's shape was almost identical to the one he had seen at the party last time.
"Chef Marco isn't here."
The carriage's crew, presumed to have been sent by Marquis Horus, totaled five.
Three cooks working inside the carriage, and two attendants.
But what's written over there? It looks like a menu list…
A signboard hung beside the carriage had letters large enough to recognize from far away, but it was a script Lee Jinseo couldn't read.
"Jason, what does that say?"
At Lee Jinseo's question, Jason came down from the kitchen and moved to the counter.
"It says… 'bunsik… carriage.' It says 'bunsik carriage.'"
It was within Lee Jinseo's expectations that they wouldn't be able to use the name "food truck" as-is.
"And… the menu is tteok-twig-sun-ra-gim, and they added hot dogs."
"Kimchi fried rice hasn't been added yet, right?"
"Yes."
The menu had expanded compared to before, and his guess that it was still too early for kimchi fried rice was right on target.
From the moment they managed to reproduce gimbap, it was clear Marquis Horus had somehow managed to procure rice—something hard to obtain in the Doren Kingdom.
But to make kimchi fried rice, they needed kimchi, a traditional Korean fermented food.
No matter how much of a cooking genius Marco was, Lee Jinseo judged it would be impossible to reproduce in a short time.
If they even manage to make kimchi, I won't be able to deny it anymore.
At this point, Lee Jinseo wanted to watch and see how far Marco could follow bunsik.
That didn't mean he was going to let Marquis Horus's scheme play out without resistance.
"Huh? They added another sign? It says… during the tasting period, all bunsik is free…"
The moment he heard the word "free," Lee Jinseo lightly bit his lower lip.
So it's here.
Marco's bunsik was limited to tteok-twig-sun-ra-gim, but the taste itself was identical to the bunsik sold at the food truck.
Still, they weren't going to try to win by simply selling the same bunsik.
So the most straightforward choice would have been a price discount, but if it was Marquis Horus, he definitely wouldn't be satisfied with that.
Lee Jinseo had expected him to pressure him even at a loss, and the result was giving bunsik away for free.
On top of that, if Marco personally served bunsik in front of customers, the effect would obviously multiply.
But Marco himself isn't here. If that's the case, then he might be somewhere else—avoiding a direct face-to-face with the food truck while running another bunsik carriage. Or maybe he only used the party to announce that he's back in the field, and now he's completely focused on reproducing other bunsik.
Even as customers poured into the bunsik carriage across the street, Lee Jinseo continued to speculate in multiple directions about Marco's whereabouts.
"What should we do? Should we lower the price?"
Jason, flustered, turned toward Lee Jinseo—unable to bring himself to say they should sell for free.
"For now, we'll keep the existing prices."
"Really?"
"The food truck has more items on the menu. And we don't only sell bunsik."
Lee Jinseo called the still-anxious Jason back into the kitchen, then quietly watched the bunsik carriage.
"The taste is the same. Then there's no reason to buy from over there."
"And it's free, too. It's nice to save money for a while."
"But there's nothing to drink over there."
"Then just buy drinks at the food truck. Let's go."
Just as Lee Jinseo expected, customers who had eaten a generous amount of free bunsik began coming to the food truck one by one, looking for something to cleanse their palate.
They lined up in front of the vending machine to buy drinks the bunsik carriage didn't sell, and people gathered at the counter to order ice cream.
"They're giving bunsik for free over there—so you're charging money here?"
However, unlike before, a customer appeared who tried to angle for freebies.
"At this time, we have no plans to lower prices."
"Will lowering it even be enough? If it's not free, you won't sell anything."
The customer snorted, tapping the coin in his hand upward with his fingers.
"Thank you for worrying about me. But I also have to make a living. Isn't that right?"
When Lee Jinseo responded without losing his smile and made it clear he wouldn't lower prices, the customer's expression twisted.
"Tch. I used to buy here sometimes, but I'm done now. As if I'd come back to a dump like this!"
He knocked aside the ice cream he was about to buy, then went back to the bunsik carriage and started eating more free bunsik.
In that instant, Jason clenched his fists hard at his sides, and Lee Jinseo grabbed his arm and shook his head.
"Take a break for a bit."
Lee Jinseo sat Jason down in a chair and sold ice cream by himself.
Maybe because Lee Jinseo stayed calm while clearly refusing to lower prices, after that first troublesome customer, most people quietly bought palate-cleansers and left.
Some customers acted disappointed because it wasn't free, but Lee Jinseo's stance didn't change.
"Ha… this is too much."
Jason lamented as he watched customers buy drinks and ice cream and then head back to the bunsik carriage.
"It's not something you need to get that angry about. I understand how you feel, though."
"It can't be helped that they go over there because it's free, but… why do they have to say it like that? And why throw the food you're selling? More than anything, I forget sometimes too, but the food truck is a sacred relic, right? How can someone act like that in front of a sacred relic?"
"Ah, about that guy."
Lee Jinseo looked around, then whispered to Jason.
"That guy wasn't actually one of our regular customers. He's never bought bunsik here even once."
"Huh? Come to think of it, I don't remember him."
Even if he wasn't a regular, if he had come multiple times, his face would have looked familiar—but the customer who threw the ice cream didn't feel that way.
More than anything—
{…At this time, the number of visits to the Mobile Cooking Facility is 0, and the number of delivery uses through third parties is also 0.}
That man's information, shown through the Status Window, said he had never used the food truck at all.
"I don't have to explain what purpose he came for, do I?"
"Yes, yes."
"And that guy wasn't alone. He exchanged looks with other people. It even seemed like he had a plan to run if things went wrong."
He hadn't directly harmed the food truck, so it wasn't a major crime, but even that kind of behavior could be handed over to the Order on the grounds of desecrating a sacred relic—if Lee Jinseo really wanted to.
But if things went that way, the atmosphere would obviously shift in an even worse direction for Lee Jinseo.
Even if they didn't show it, deep down they would support the side giving out free bunsik rather than the food truck that stubbornly charged full price.
"When you run a business, you can't avoid meeting troublesome customers. Customers can choose a shop, but shops have a hard time choosing customers. That doesn't mean you should always endure it. It's important to respond appropriately depending on the situation."
"I almost made a huge mistake."
"And the other side isn't just some random troublemaker. He was definitely sent by that man. We can't get dragged into what he wants."
"Man…"
"It was a situation anyone would be angry about, so don't beat yourself up too much. Anyway, it looks like we won't be able to do proper business here, so let's move somewhere else."
After leaving the city of Aven, Lee Jinseo stopped by two other sales locations.
There too, a bunsik carriage was already waiting, and the moment the food truck appeared, they started selling bunsik—free, of course.
And just like before, people appeared again, picking fights about why the food truck wasn't giving it out for free.
But this time, instead of getting heated, Jason responded even more politely and got through it without any problems.
"If it were up to me, I'd love to give it to all of you as a free service! But if I don't sell it at full price like this, I won't have money to send back home to my widowed mother and my younger siblings who are waiting for me! Thanks to my big brother, I don't have to worry about food or a place to sleep, but a person can't live on only that, can they?"
With him going so far as to spill family circumstances, no one openly demanded free food anymore.
But it was still impossible to stop the fact that far fewer customers came compared to usual, and most of them went to the bunsik carriage.
If there were two shops with the same menu and no clear difference in taste, customers would naturally head to the one advertising "free."
Marquis Horus's obsession with blocking Lee Jinseo's food truck—even at a loss—reached all the way to Falstead Castle's vicinity, the last place Lee Jinseo stopped.
"It's here too?"
"I thought the odds of it showing up this far were low… Just like the Lord of the Castle said, he doesn't look like someone who'll back off easily."
A bunsik carriage sat brazenly in a spot just outside Falstead Castle's territory, yet as close to the food truck as possible.
But the atmosphere here was very different from the three places the food truck had visited earlier.
Even after seeing the same "free" sign, the residents of Falstead Castle gathered in front of the food truck, not the bunsik carriage.
Seeing the residents keep their loyalty to the man who had sold them delicious bunsik at an affordable price, Lee Jinseo smiled without realizing it.
"Thank you."
"Me too."
But with a shop giving out free bunsik right across the way, they couldn't keep relying only on loyalty.
Lee Jinseo decided to respond actively to the bunsik carriage's offensive.
"It's time to bring that out. I'll go to the storage for a moment. Please prepare the salad and rice."
"That… ah!"
Jason smiled as he understood what Lee Jinseo meant.
"Everyone, today we'll only sell one menu item of bunsik. We won't take orders right now—please wait a bit."
After speaking, Lee Jinseo took out the pork he had trimmed each day and gathered little by little from Subspace Storage, and Jason pulled out a sign he had made before and attached it beside the driver's seat.
"Donkatsu Now Available"
"Donkatsu?"
"A new menu item!"
"They put it into the fryer? Is it a new fried food?"
The customers waiting at the tables brimmed with anticipation at the appearance of a new menu item.
Tap tap tap.
While Jason quickly sliced cabbage and cucumber, Lee Jinseo put the battered pork into the fryer.
Sssss.
In the quiet, the sound of donkatsu cooking made the customers swallow hard.
With his arms crossed as he watched the fryer, Lee Jinseo judged it was cooked enough and pulled the donkatsu out with tongs.
Meanwhile, Jason didn't stop—opening a can of sweet corn, slicing pickled radish, and scooping rice from the rice cooker.
"The salad and rice are ready!"
"Okay, hand me a plate."
Avoiding the rice and salad set at the edge of the plate, Lee Jinseo placed a large piece of donkatsu in the center.
Then he poured sauce over the donkatsu, finishing a single serving in no time.
"Jason, you haven't eaten yet, right? You eat first."
"Here?"
"No. Over there."
Lee Jinseo pointed toward the table right behind the counter.
"Show the customers what donkatsu is first. You can eat it deliciously, right?"
"Of course!"
Jason grabbed the plate of donkatsu and hurried down from the kitchen.
"Everyone, watch closely! This is donkatsu!"
With the attention of many customers on him, Jason sat down and picked up a fork in one hand and a knife in the other.
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