In the dungeon named Blood Swamp, the surroundings were a crimson world, resembling blood, with not a single beam of sunlight to be found.
On a slightly flat hill, Sia was weeping softly by a small camp.
Her voice, as if comforting the soul of the deceased, was more mournful than ever.
“Wahhh… Yane…”
Yane, who had braved a long and arduous journey to find her master, finally discovered Sia, but sadly, she was gasping for breath due to the fatigue accumulated from the journey and the suffering caused by the gruesome, undercooked cold noodles she had consumed.
“Oh poor Yane. Sniff… I won’t forget you… Sniff!”
Wiping her tears with her hands, Sia raised a heartfelt prayer for Yane, who had gloriously fallen to the uncooked cold noodles.
“Star light shining upon this land, listen to me, children who praise me. Because of your sacrifice, the foundation will be set in this land, for I will slay and I will revive. No one shall escape your hands, so have pity on this child…”
“Kyaaaak!” (I’m not dead, dammit!)
“Gasp! My prayer has been answered!”
The star light surely heard my prayers!
“Thank you, starlight!”
The mermaid princess, who was watching the scene with a bitter expression, sighed deeply.
To her, Sia was the benefactor who saved her, her sister, and her mermaid friends. However, one of the greatest realizations she made during her month on land was that the deceased saint who had saved them was much more of a delinquent than she had initially thought.
‘I could tell right from the moment I saw her devouring giant salmon like a white pig.’
Sure, there were some mishaps, but it was still fortunate that Sia found her in less than half a day, despite occupying such a spacious dungeon around Geumgangsan.
“But what about the other people, Princess Mermaid? Is anyone hurt?”
“When you say other people…”
“Actually, when the Hunter Train started its raid on the dungeon, I accidentally got caught between the Hunter Train and the gate and was hurled out.”
“……”
Just what on earth happened that could cause a ‘mistake’ of getting caught between the Hunter Train and the gate initiating a dungeon invasion?
The mermaid princess found herself thinking that perhaps this underwhelming saint was not more adapted to the human world than she was.
“Anyway, since that happened, I don’t really know the situation at the Hunter Train side. Menelapie was probably slicing through the front lines. Yane seems to have done well protecting mom…. Teresa would have managed on her own even if she weakened, so everyone would have been fine.”
Just like how the others have faith in her, she would trust them.
“But I haven’t seen the abilities of other S-grade Hunters, so if anyone got hurt, we might need to hurry.”
As long as they hadn’t left their souls.
If they hadn’t died, she could save them somehow.
“I’ve heard there were some minor injuries, but no one is critically injured or dead.”
“Really?”
Then, that’s a relief.
Sia sighed in relief before plopping down on the ground.
It was indeed saintly of her to first check if anyone was hurt.
The mermaid princess nodded inwardly, thinking, ‘Just like the saint who saved my sister and me.’
Sometimes she did seem to be embarking on some culinary madness, but indeed, Sia was a saint at heart….
“I was just worried about throwing away the cold noodles I painstakingly made if I had to rush.”
“…………”
The mermaid princess decided to pretend she didn’t hear the last part.
○○○○○
Anyway, the cold noodles.
Right now, at this moment, what mattered most to Sia was the cold noodles.
Shall she give up and leave since she messed up the cooking?
‘If I were 100% at my best and failed to cook, I’d probably give up.’
Sia remembered the time she had failed to cook butter oak grilled pork belly with dungeon cabbage.
Even though she had all the ingredients, she had faced a catastrophic cooking failure, and this time, with the cold noodles, she was lacking her transport drones and essential ingredients.
But now Yane had brought Sia’s drone.
“Yane~! Good job!”
“Kii… Ek… Pffft…”
Sia ruffled Yane’s head with a smile, but Yane didn’t seem to feel too fond of Sia, who had just given her something poison-like.
It took a long time for Yane to find Sia, and unexpected variables might have appeared, so as Yoonjeong had prepared fully, he had attached a transport drone to Yane, ensuring that Sia met the basic requirements for cooking.
‘This means I could make bibim naengmyeon too!’
For the broth, she used slime fragments that tasted similar to blood pudding. So now Sia just needed to make delicious seasonings and properly cook the noodles again to create delicious cold noodles by her standards.
“Alright… let’s go.”
Sia knelt down, earnestly praying for purification, washing away impurities. Then she put on hygienic gloves and crouched down.
Once a dish has failed.
There shall never be a second failure.
“Given the capacity, let’s just throw everything in and figure it out.”
Though she deemed the cold noodles given to Yane a failure, over 49 servings of cold noodles still remained.
Sia prepared a large mixing bowl.
As for the sauce for the bibim naengmyeon, it would need basic ingredients like gochujang, gochugaru, oligosaccharides, garlic, chopped scallion, ginger, plum syrup, sugar, vinegar, and sesame seeds. Sia’s versatile large-scale transport drone contained all these sauces without missing a single one.
First, she filled the big bowl with gochujang and gochugaru.
Then she added in each ingredient one by one in the right proportions, generously applying plum syrup and sugar since Sia liked sweetness.
The only remaining task was to mix it well.
Despite being a considerable amount, Sia’s strong power allowed her to mix the thick and heavy seasoning without a hitch.
Great. The seasoning was complete.
“Yane~”
“Kiiie…?!”
She called Yane, who was drinking from the corner.
“Try this…”
“Kyaaaak!!!”
But Yane, like a wary cat, planted her paws on the ground and stood upright with her hips and waist straight.
“Hmph…”
Seeing Yane’s overly defensive stance was a little sad for Sia.
Even though she’s had a past, I can’t believe she wouldn’t listen to her master….
“I’ll try it myself…”
“Kii?!”
“Huh?”
Sia was about to forcefully stuff the sauce into Yane’s mouth when the mermaid princess carefully interjected.
Yane looked at the mermaid princess with an expression of disbelief as if to say, ‘Why are you even…?!’
“Yep, great! By the way, I haven’t cooked for the mermaid princess since after the feast ceremony!”
However, Sia, seemingly unconcerned, reached out and offered a handful of the seasoning to the dark-eyed mermaid princess.
“Try it and let me know if the taste is off, please?”
“Understood, saint….”
“Oh, no!!!!”
As the mermaid princess was about to taste the seasoning, Yane intervened.
“Kii, ki, no! Let me…! I’ll…!”
“………..”
“Master, I made a mistake. Kkiiek… I’ll do it instead, just let me…!”
Why is she acting like this again?
As Yane clung to her skirt with tears glistening in her eyes, Sia momentarily thought, ‘Am I some kind of wicked and malicious vegetarian demon king?’
“Gulp.”
“Ah!”
But it was already too late.
The dark-eyed mermaid princess licked the sauce that was on Sia’s hand.
“Ah, no!!!”
Yane rushed towards the mermaid princess as if to demand her to spit it out, but the dark-eyed mermaid princess pushed Yane’s face away with one hand and savored the flavor of the sauce.
During this time, Yane wore a face as if the mermaid princess had just consumed poison.
“Mmm… seems alright.”
“Oh?! Is it okay!? Is it delicious!?”
“Kii, kii…?”
“However, it might be a bit too sweet. It would be better to add more gochugaru and garlic.”
“Okay, let’s see….”
Fortunately, it seemed that the sauce had no issues for Yane.
Still, while doing so, Yane was getting more and more annoyed.
She had been given something inedible that smelled like blood while the dark-eyed mermaid princess was being offered to taste something perfectly normal.
“Kyaaak!”
“Ugh, I see. You seem eager to eat too?”
No. Damn it, you wretched master.
Ignoring Yane’s tantrum, Sia started boiling the remaining cold noodles again.
Thirty seconds weren’t enough, so she decided to boil them for at least three minutes before checking the noodles.
Meanwhile, Sia took out something new from the large-scale drone.
It was a large egg with a rough white shell, about the size of Sia’s face.
“Wyvern egg!”
It was one of the wyvern eggs brought from the Kurtala Mountains’ wyvern ranch.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most delicious and nutrient-rich vinegar egg, but it still was an expensive egg worth at least 30 million won.
Boiling a wyvern egg required a considerable amount of time in a large pot, but Sia, pressed for time, decided to make the yolk in a quicker and easier way.
Crack!
First, she broke the top part of the wyvern egg shell.
Then…
“Yane, eat this!”
“Kiiie…?”
“This is really delicious, it’s fine.”
“…?”
She instructed Yane to suck on the egg white.
Don’t worry.
Even though Yane might seem slightly unsettling to the average person, as a saint’s subordinate, she was one of the cleanest creatures around.
Fully unconvinced, Yane nevertheless followed Sia’s command and started sucking on the egg white.
I’m not telling you to eat some rotten wyvern egg after all. Just sucking on the egg white wasn’t difficult, and Yane actually liked egg whites.
Slurp!
“Yane. Does it taste fishy?”
“Gulp, mmm! Slurp!”
With Yane responsible for the egg white, Sia quickly threw the yolk into the boiling water.
Without the egg whites, she was able to use a slightly smaller pot without worry, and the yolk was easily absorbed in.
Bubble, bubble…
The yolk put into the boiling water quickly cooked and began to solidify. Meanwhile, Sia checked the noodles she was boiling.
This time, the noodles were not stiff, and they had definitely expanded.
Eagerly confirming that the noodles were properly cooked, Sia swiftly drained the noodles and placed them in a huge bowl.
After adding the noodles, she poured in just a little broth to barely cover the bottom of the pasta.
On top of that, she added pickled daikon, sliced pear, and a suitable amount of the seasoned sauce approved by the mermaid princess.
Good. This looks quite decent.
‘Wait! I wanted to eat naengmyeon, but… there’s no sashimi here?’
At that moment, Sia’s gaze was drawn to the dark-eyed mermaid princess.
Wait a minute.
Sashimi…?
“…What is it, Saint? Is there something you need?”
“………”
Noticing the strange looks from the mermaid princess, she realized that Sia was staring at her intensely.
Specifically, staring at her lower body…
○○○○
A little later, Sia was able to complete her sashimi cold noodles.
How she managed to create such sashimi in a waterless place remained a secret between Sia and the dark-eyed mermaid princess.
By the way, the sashimi used in the cold noodles wasn’t particularly fresh.
The bouncy and soft texture would actually be a huge hinderance to eating cold noodles and detract from the flavor, which is why they generally use aged or fermented sashimi. However, the dark-eyed mermaid princess was a necromancer adept at handling spirits.
“I never knew the power of a spirit shaman could be used in such a way…”
“If you think about it, this might be a proper functionality, right?”
“Absolutely not…”
By lightly exposing the sashimi to spirits, it was aged just enough to Sia’s desire.
“Alright, all done!”
“It looks decent…”
“Kiiieeek?”
Sia took a large bowl from the transport drone that Yane had brought over to plate her sashimi cold noodles.
The seasoning was piled atop, the noodles glistening perfectly, with a little broth covering the bottom.
Not only was it perfect slime cold noodles, but it also had a wyvern egg yolk delicately placed on top.
Given just the visual, it seems bizarre if this didn’t taste good.
After painstakingly preparing the slime cold noodles, Sia distributed portions to Yane, the mermaid princess, and the three hunters who had camped with her.
“………”
“Sob, mother….”
“Wahhh…”
Each time they received a bowl, the hunters looked like they were about to cry for some reason.
“Then, I’ll enjoy this meal!”
“…….”
“Why the sad eyes?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Cough…”
“Sniff…!”
Since they claimed it was nothing, Sia decided to enjoy her cold noodles right in front of them.
Slurp.
“Wow, this is delicious.”
Wait, what is this?
Did I really make this?
What’s going on?!
Sia’s expression of delight made Yane tilt her head in suspicion.
However, Sia was already too deep into her meal to pay her gaze any mind.
Slurp.
Slurp.
Chomp, chomp!
“Wow, what IS this? It’s really good??”
Seriously.
It was really delicious.
Cold noodles are fundamentally a dish with a slightly spicy and stimulating flavor.
With spiciness, sweetness, saltiness, and a sour touch too.
Yet, since she mixed all the seasonings in a single go, the flavors distinctly resonated while simultaneously blending into a mysterious harmony.
What was more impressive was…
‘Slime cold noodles… so good…’
They were incredibly chewy.
The slime shards, now having ‘adapted’ to the cold noodles, boasted an absurd texture.
How could this kind of texture be attained?
Despite the incredible chewiness, the swallowing went down smoothly.
“Oh! Vinegar and mustard!”
Quickly adding vinegar and mustard to her cold noodles, Sia then added pickled daikon, pear, and mashed everything up before popping the large wyvern egg yolk into her mouth.
Wow, this is insane.
Absolutely delicious.
The yolk was splendid on its own, but when combined with the cold noodles, the harmony was nothing short of food perfection.
Moreover, the seasoning’s proportions were excellent, and the ‘sashimi’ made with the mermaid princess’s help provided an impeccable texture with a delightful chew.
As the pieces crunched in her mouth, they did not overpower the slime cold noodle’s texture. The taste was sweet…
“Really. So tasty…..”
Gulp.
Gulp.
Slurp…!
“………”
“……….Slurp.”
The hunters appeared increasingly miserable and sorrowful.
In contrast, Yane’s eyes sparkled at Sia’s vibrant eating display.
“Gulp. Haah….”
When Sia downed the broth in one go and cleared her bowl in an instant, Yane cautiously approached her.
“Is it… tasty…?”
“……”
Sia quietly nodded her head.
For Yane, there was no better confirmation than that.
If her master praised the food, then it was most definitely delicious.
“Slurp!”
“I’ll enjoy this, saint.”
“Yes, Princess, eat well too. I need to eat another bowl!”
Slurp!
Gulp.
Gulp.
“Phew.”
“It’s delicious!!!”
“Right?! It’s good!?”
Yane couldn’t help but break into a smile after tasting a mouthful.
It was apparent that it was Yane’s first time tasting cold noodles, yet her vibrant reaction confirmed that it was simply delicious, signifying that it was not a polarizing dish, but purely tasty.
Thus, a modest and little cold noodle party unfolded in the shadowed campsite.
“……..”
“…..Ssob.”
“Huh, aren’t you guys eating?”
“Uh, yes, what!?”
Upon Sia’s question, the hunters flinched visibly.
They had been watching her and Yane, along with the princess, rave about the delicious cold noodles while they hadn’t touched even a single chopstick of it.
“Ha, haha… We’re just not hungry….”
“Princess Mermaid, Yane. It’s quite a distance from here to the Hunter Train base, right?”
“Kiiiek!”
“By human standards, it’s pretty far. The mountains are covered by the swamp, and the journey back will likely be exhausting.”
“Then shouldn’t you all eat and fill your stomachs right now?”
“……….”
At Sia’s words, the hunters’ faces stiffened.
“Hehe, since I made it with great effort, I hope you’ll eat it all.”
“Ugh, how cruel….”
“What did you say?”
“………”
But the hunters could no longer defy Sia.
Though brief, they’d felt her gaze turned icy, sharper than any freezing chill.
With a vague understanding of this strange chilling presence, the hunters ultimately had no choice but to wave the white flag.
“Ugh, it’s nothing…! Yes, we’ll eat it all since you worked hard to make it….”
“Great! I’m relieved! It’s the saddest thing for a dish I made to be wasted.”
“Cough…”
Fortunately, with the pledge to eat it all, Sia grinned and began to devour her portion of slime sashimi cold noodles again… while the hunters began eating their portions with tears of blood flowing inside them.
For them, the more unfortunate reality was that they would feel that this slime sashimi cold noodles was ‘delicious.’
○○○○
Thus, after enjoying the marvelous cold noodles and heading back to their station.
Unlike when they came to find Sia, this time the dark-eyed mermaid princess was walking along with Yane nestled in her side.
“Kiiieee….”
“Oh dear. Looks like Yane has a bit of a tummy ache.”
It made complete sense.
Yane ate quite a bit, and although she could match the average meal size of hunters, she had consumed the entire egg white by herself and had an abundant serving of cold noodles, so it’s no wonder her stomach felt heavy.
“…….”
“Saint, granted she’s your subordinate, was the treatment a bit excessive?*”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Normally, she would snap at Yane to fall back, but her feelings for Yane seemed to have grown a bit.
Given that the mermaid princess brought it up, Sia realized that she may have mistreated Yane a little this time.
Next time, she needed to treat her for real.
‘Those legs are quite sturdy…’
As Sia guided the way, she observed the backside of the dark-eyed mermaid princess, walking in front.
Currently, the princess’s lower body was walking on two legs like a human.
It looked surprisingly natural, and somehow, she found the princess’s rear particularly enticing.
“What are you pondering this time?”
Sensing Sia’s gaze, the dark-eyed mermaid princess furrowed her brow and turned around.
“Oh, I was just thinking how long your legs actually are. Is that also a physical alteration?”
“It’s not a physical alteration. My sisters and I are capable of making human legs from the start.”
“What?! For real?! In fairy tales, they say you’d have to give up your voice to make legs….”
“Who would believe such a fairy tale? Are you a child, saint?”
“………”
Well, in fact, your very existence is like that of a fairy tale…
And as if to show Sia, the dark-eyed mermaid princess lifted her alabaster thigh, revealing a shiny scale of the mermaid starting from her thigh.
“Sigh, before the gates of the Deep Sea Palace shut, mermaids used to live mingled among land humans, scavenging for food or blending into their groups. In reality, some sisters even married humans and had offspring.”
“Oh… that explains why you were able to speak so fluently while making the cold noodle seasoning earlier.”
“But, saint….”
“Hmm? What is it?”
The dark-eyed mermaid princess held Sia’s shoulder and whispered softly only for her ears to hear.
It was understandable, as the dark-eyed mermaid princess had initially felt a peculiar sense of unease upon seeing those hunters and, while being close to those stranded hunters, gradually turned that uncertainty into certainty.
Though she appeared youthful, the dark-eyed mermaid princess was an experienced mermaid who had lived for hundreds of years.
Even without extraordinary senses or the ability to discern what lay beneath the skin, she noticed that the hunters accompanying Sia moved unnaturally and awkwardly.
Almost as if they were forcing themselves to act human despite not being human.
“Those hunters aren’t human…”
“Hahaha! Slime cold noodles! I want to feed Menelapie, Teresa, and Mom too. Right? Isn’t the mermaid princess delicious too?”
“Saint.”
But Sia interrupted the dark-eyed mermaid princess, smiling brightly.
“Shh.”
“…………”
Upon Sia’s reaction, the dark-eyed mermaid princess realized.
Ah, she knew it….
