Chapter 85: That Was Far Too Big to Be Called a Customer (5) "Understood."
"Before that, cola first. No—cans, not a plastic bottle."
Charlotte rejected the plastic bottle of cola Jinseo offered, snatched the can of cola that came next, and popped it open briskly.
Gulp, gulp.
She emptied a can in one go, then her hand opened a second can.
"Kha... I can't quit this sweetness and carbonation."
"If you drink too much, your teeth will rot."
"It's fine. I'm only drinking it after two days."
"Did you already finish the cola I sent you last time?"
"Of course."
After getting hooked on cola, Charlotte bought several boxes of canned cola every time she stopped by the food truck.
And the last time she bought some was only a week ago.
Jinseo stared at her with a look of disbelief. A normal human would've gotten not just cavities, but diabetes, if they finished that amount and stayed fine.
"And if something could rot a dragon's teeth, then that wasn't a beverage in the first place."
"That's true too."
"But those kids are still hiding?"
For some reason, Charlotte called the spirits "kids."
When she first appeared in dragon form, Nero and Owl went into the Additional Trailer and didn't come out.
Even after that, every time she visited the food truck, they usually hid as if dead.
"Should I call them out?"
"Eh, leave them. Being scared of me is just a spirit's instinct, so it can't be helped."
Charlotte soothed her disappointment at not being able to see the spirits by eating tuna mayo gimbap.
In fact, not just spirits—she was still a figure of fear to humans as well.
Even those who had gotten used to her through repeated sightings were used to her only from a distance. Almost no one approached her first.
Except for special cases like Jason, who would sprint in from far away after hearing she had arrived.
"Noonaaa! You're here!"
"Noona, my ass... In human years, I'm older than a grandmother's grandmother's grandmother."
Charlotte waved her hands at Jason, who had called her noona several times before and did so again now.
But despite what she said, the corners of her mouth shot upward.
"You still like being called noona, don't you?"
"You're stating the obvious… Fine, I'm in a good mood! Before the tteok-twi-sun-ra-gim comes out, one hot dog as a palate cleanser!"
"Loaded with sugar and extra ketchup?"
"You understand my heart better than the owner!"
Maybe because he quickly grasped her preferences.
Jason and Charlotte surprisingly got along well.
He was the type who approached customers without hesitation, but his affinity with non-human beings was especially strong.
Nero, Owl, and the dwarf delegation.
And now, even Charlotte the dragon.
"And give those kids something to eat too. It's too pitiful that they can't come out because of me."
"Yes!"
Jason—popular with everyone except women around his age—took bunsik for the spirits and went into the Additional Trailer.
Meanwhile, someone else hurried through the castle gate and ran toward the food truck.
"O-oh, you're here? If you'd given notice, I would've come to greet you..."
"Yeah, I'm here?"
Charlotte greeted lightly with a raised hand and took a bite of the hot dog loaded with ketchup.
Oswald appeared with two guards, Dean and Austin, and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a towel.
She was in the form of a human woman now, but if she put her mind to it, she had the power to erase an entire castle from the map in an instant.
Just standing beside her was enough to make cold sweat run down Oswald's face.
"By the way, are you finding that man properly?"
"Yes!"
At Charlotte's casual question, Oswald immediately snapped into attention and answered.
"The kingdom has deployed manpower to track his whereabouts. The moment he's captured, we'll inform you at once, Charlotte."
"Eh, take your time. Mm, but I'd rather it not be too late. A hundred years should do... Hm? Why that face? Was that still too short? Fine, I'll be generous! You can catch him within two hundred years!"
Oswald couldn't decide whether he should be happy or not at Charlotte's excessively generous deadline-setting.
"And I'm very sorry, but I have a request to make of the supreme being, Charlotte."
"Drop that 'supreme being' modifier already. I'm sick of hearing it. Anyway, a request? What is it?"
With fried squid in her mouth, she lifted her chin.
The terrain Charlotte destroyed last time had been quickly restored by her magic.
Even so, perhaps because it bothered her that she had frightened customers and disrupted business, she had said she could grant a few requests.
"We received a report that monsters in the southern forest, far from here, are moving in large groups. If it's possible..."
"Ah, those little creatures? I already drove them off."
"What?"
"I ran into them while flying here. I quietly persuaded them that if they crossed the forest again, I'd burn them along with the entire forest."
At her words—quietly persuaded—a silence fell.
"It was nothing. I just sprayed them with three or four breaths and warned them with draconic words."
Black smoke was rising in the direction Charlotte pointed with her left hand.
Hostile draconic words could knock a listener unconscious or drive them temporarily insane.
In other words… when Charlotte first appeared at Falstead Castle.
Back then, she had shouted, but she hadn't put hostility into it.
"H-hahaha..."
Oswald could only laugh.
It was laughter that no one could tell was from relief or disbelief.
"I can't let those guys come all the way here and harm the food truck's business."
Of course, strictly speaking, her appearance itself also interfered with business.
But a dragon and a human could only have different standards, and her consideration helped in many ways.
So in the end, it benefited the food truck.
"Owner, just say the word. I've got time to spare anyway, so if you need help, don't hold back."
"Yes, understood."
Smiling, Jinseo looked over the customers gathered behind Charlotte.
Most of them had seen her several times, so they didn't look particularly frightened.
Rather, they watched her gestures and every word with interest, quietly eating their bunsik.
To them, she was a dragon who had appeared after hundreds of years, and at the same time, a remarkably beautiful woman, so it was impossible not to look.
"Ah, the Cardinal is coming."
When Fedora, wearing her clerical robes, approached slowly, the customers who recognized her rose one by one.
"Supreme being..."
"Enough, and sit beside me and eat bunsik together."
When Charlotte patted the long bench with her palm, Fedora quietly sat down to her left.
"And you too."
"Y-yes!"
Oswald, still tense, sat down to her right.
Unlike Fedora, he kept a bit more distance from Charlotte.
"Welcome. Shall I get you what you always have?"
"Yes, please."
Fedora's order was always fixed, every time she came to the food truck.
The so-called Clergy Set: special tteokbokki and CoolXs.
"Was tteokbokki always this red? Can I try some too?"
Curious, Charlotte took a bite of the special tteokbokki.
And in one second, her face turned the same color as her hair.
Startled, Fedora hurriedly handed her a pack of CoolXs. Only after drinking it all could Charlotte come back to herself.
"Huff, huff… That was dangerous. How do you eat something this spicy? Is your tongue made of steel or something?"
"I endure it with the heart of drawing closer to Him."
Seeing Fedora calmly put the special tteokbokki into her mouth, Charlotte shook her head.
"Oh dear, I can be a dragon, but I can't be His servant."
Maybe because she had been badly burned by the special tteokbokki.
Charlotte added more bunsik, focusing on less spicy items, and continued talking as she shared with Fedora.
"So Heirem Order clothing is designed like that these days. It's become much simpler than before."
"I'm curious what it was like in the past."
"A thousand years ago, maybe? Back then I remember it being more draping. There was a bit of black in it too."
"Was that so?"
"And..."
The two women chatted, and every so often they would glance toward Jinseo and whisper to each other.
The other customers quietly ate their bunsik, listening in to the two's conversation.
They wanted to join in too, but one was the Cardinal of the Heirem Order, and the other was a dragon in human form, so they couldn't even dare.
But not everyone was afraid to approach the dragon.
"So this is the carriage called a food truck!"
"They said we just had to find the red-haired one... Ah! That's her, right?"
Raggedly dressed children began gathering behind Charlotte one by one.
Jinseo looked over the children's faces carefully, but they were all kids he'd never seen before.
"Noona! Noona!"
"Are you the guardian dragon of the Doren Kingdom?"
"A guardian dragon?"
Hearing the children, Charlotte turned around and pointed at herself.
"No."
"I heard the grown-ups talking! They said you went and defeated vicious monsters!"
"Thank you so much!"
At the children's cute praise, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
"Thank you? Anyway, did you kids eat?"
"No."
"We're hungry."
"Jinseo, give these kids the full-course tteok-twi-sun-ra-gim. All of it."
At Charlotte's order, before serving anything, Jinseo carefully checked the children's condition again.
They were all smiling, but at a glance, they weren't kids who had lived with abundance.
"It looks like they haven't been able to eat properly for a long time. In cases like this, if you feed them too much, they're likely to get sick."
"Then just tteok-twi-sun."
"Since it's greasy, I'm not sure that will be okay."
"Well, then you handle it."
"Understood."
Jinseo chose bunsik that was as mild as possible, less stimulating, and still suited to the children's tastes, placing it on plates.
To prevent them from overeating at once and getting indigestion, he deliberately served smaller portions.
"If it's not enough, tell me and I'll get you more."
The children swallowed hard, staring at the steaming bunsik.
But even though food was in front of them, they only kept looking at it.
"Um… can we take this with us?"
"Why? To take it and eat later?"
At Charlotte's question, the children all nodded at once.
"Yes! We want to give some to the other kids at the orphanage too."
"Orphanage? An orphanage… But did they starve you all or something?"
"Yes!"
At the children's innocent answer, Charlotte's brows drew together.
"Owner, is it a bad harvest year?"
"It isn't harvest season yet."
"Ah, right. Then last year?"
"It shouldn't have been."
"Then why are the kids starving? And if you don't feed them, what's the point of having an orphanage?"
As Charlotte looked puzzled, Oswald—who had been slurping noodles—cut the noodles mid-bite and set down his chopsticks.
"If it's the closest orphanage to Falstead Castle, then it's probably..."
After Oswald roughly explained the distance, Charlotte reacted as if it were nothing.
"From there? That isn't far."
"It will be different for humans."
"If we ask the kids, we'll know for sure. Kids, how long did it take you to get here?"
"We walked from the orphanage as soon as the sun came up!"
In that moment, all the customers looked up at the sky, saw the sun high overhead, and fell silent.
"You walked all this way without eating anything?"
"It's okay! We're used to not eating!"
"Not eating, or not being able to eat?"
"We're used to that too!"
The children answered freely, their faces streaked with grime, yet their smiles were dazzlingly bright.
Bright enough to make other customers, who were eating happily, feel guilty.
"Owner."
Charlotte set down the fork in her right hand, her lips twitching.
"On-site catering. Can you do it?"
Fwoosh.
"Breath! Dodge!"
At Jason's shout, those standing in front of the dragon scattered in all directions.
The ground the breath swept over blackened, and smoke rose in thick plumes.
"Waaah!"
An exclamation burst from the children watching from far away.
"Submit before my power! You lowly creatures!"
Charlotte's booming voice, transformed back into her dragon form, echoed everywhere.
But her size was much smaller than her true body—only about three meters.
Because if she was too big, the children wouldn't be able to see her facial acting.
"...But the hero was not afraid."
Jinseo flipped the page as he read aloud from a picture book.
It was the story of an evil dragon trying to destroy the world, and the hero and companions who gathered to stop it.
< That Was Far Too Big to Be Called a Customer (5) > End
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