I am back – Chapter 219

I managed to finish the hamburger.

It wasn’t that expensive, but it wasn’t exactly tasteless food either. I can’t say for sure if it was good for my body or not, but it was essentially made to be sold, so it couldn’t have been bad.

However, there was a very fundamental issue.

Mom didn’t seem all that happy about buying me the hamburger.

She might have felt the simplest joy of buying me something I liked, but I don’t think she’d feel the joy of giving something beyond that.

Probably because I chose the hamburger, she thought I didn’t know about tastier food.

“No, really. I’ve eaten a lot of delicious things in another world.”

“I heard that you weren’t in a situation where you could eat freely.”

“Well… there were times like that, but…”

Though I expressed it as “there were times like that,” it was almost always like that. Irrelaysia was in a state of war, and this war was different from mere conflicts between nations. It was a fight where the survival of humanity itself was at stake.

Of course, just because the kingdom and the elves were wiped out doesn’t mean there were no other countries. Perhaps the states remaining in the east managed to fend off the Demon King’s army… though the possibility of that was exceedingly low.

However, when we went to the capital, I did get to enjoy good food as much as possible. In fact, I could eat much more meat in Irrelaysia than I ever did on Earth. Whenever we headed to the capital, I feasted on truly delicious meals prepared with great care by the palace’s head chef, and the food supplies we carried… well, they didn’t taste great, but they weren’t made from ingredients that were just awful; they were somewhat passable.

“Still, I definitely never starved.”

It wasn’t that we hunted beasts out of sheer hunger; it was more about wanting to eat something a bit tastier. The first thing the kingdom would send out in the battlefield was always the supply lines. Not only would they create paths, but they would also send mages to open portals for transporting food tirelessly, so we never went hungry while fighting.

“……”

Yet, even as I slowly walked down the road and said all this, Mom didn’t seem to buy it.

“Okay, fine.”

Frustrated, I stopped walking and said, “Then what kind of food did you like, Mom?”

“Huh?”

Mom, who had been walking ahead of me, suddenly stopped and turned back to answer.

I wasn’t the only one who struggled back then. No, if we really compared our hardships, Mom had it much worse. She worked hard to earn money to feed me while trying to stop me from working part-time, allowing me to keep my grades up.

She must have felt the burden of spending extra cash to buy me hamburgers every month. Sometimes, I even got an allowance.

“Can you name really delicious food, Mom? Something that stands out from what you usually eat.”

Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything if asked, but I figured Mom couldn’t either. We lived together after all.

“That’s…”

“See? You can’t even say it.”

I sighed lightly and said, “You’d probably just think of steak or something like that. You make sure to eat three proper meals while working, right?”

“……”

This time, it seemed like Mom had no reply to my words.

“At least I’ve occasionally gone to nice places to have good food; what about you? You aren’t just scraping by with whatever, right?”

Mom didn’t live with us. Although the house wasn’t too far, she insisted on staying where she had lived before coming back to this world because she didn’t want to live in a newlywed couple’s house.

That’s understandable. I’m a grown adult now. While it might seem a bit early to be independent, being this way isn’t so bad. Mom supports my independence because she trusts me and my sister.

But then again.

Does Mom eat properly on her own?

Whenever I visit her during holidays or Christmas, she prepares a feast, but does she live like that day to day?

As I narrowed my eyes and looked at her, Mom avoided my gaze.

“See?”

I said to Mom, “And the hamburger? It’s a food full of memories for me. It’s what we used to eat together every month. I waited so patiently to eat it back then.”

“R-really?”

When I said that firmly, Mom replied, looking a bit out of it.

“Yeah. Do you know what I ate first when I returned?”

As I said this and started walking again, Mom walked alongside me and asked, “What did you eat?”

“Jajangmyeon. I pondered deeply before ordering it.”

“Jajangmyeon?”

“I told you. I had high-end steak and similar stuff there. There was spaghetti and things like that. But there was no jajangmyeon in Irrelaysia. No sweet and sour pork either.”

“Ah…”

It seemed Mom understood what I meant.

“It stressed me out more than I thought that something I liked and enjoyed was something I couldn’t eat. Still, if I had the recipe for something like jajangmyeon, I might have been able to make it. But what about ramen? Just knowing the general method doesn’t mean I can recreate it.”

“That’s true.”

Mom smiled in response to my words.

“The craving and the want for food isn’t determined by its price. It’s more that it’s just food I love. Who knows? If I dined on super expensive meals, there might be something I really love among them.”

“Oh, I see.”

In response to my words, Mom nodded a few times.

And for a few minutes, we walked in silence again.

“Then can I pick something really expensive to eat today?”

“Huh?”

“It’s a day for me to treat you to what you’ve always wanted.”

Mom said with a smile.

“So, I want to buy you something you want to eat.”

“Oh, I see.”

This time it was my turn to answer back.

“Well, friends sent us both out for just that.”

I paused for a moment and said, “So… let’s go with what Mom wanted to treat me to. I’ll just tag along and eat happily.”

“Really?”

Mom chuckled and linked her arm in mine, leading me along.

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a place I’ve wanted to see together for a long time. Son, I’ll treat you to enough that you’ll think you’re full today.”

“Uh, uh-oh…”

Mom’s sudden enthusiasm ignited a fire in her, making me nod involuntarily in agreement.

*

Expensive and delicious food.

The standards for such food can definitely vary; prices change dramatically depending on the region where the food is found.

Due to the development of distribution, the cost of eating at a seafood restaurant in Seoul might not be vastly different from the price at a coastal town. However, the story changes when eating foreign food in Korea. If it’s an ingredient that’s not commonly known in Korea, it’s more expensive, and if the cooking method is unfamiliar, it becomes pricier too.

Thinking about it, there are expensive ingredients in every country.

For example, shellfish are considered quite pricey even when eaten in Korea.

“I shouldn’t have eaten the hamburger.”

“There you go! You should have thought of that, right?”

As I let out a hollow laugh saying that, Mom also laughed and replied.

I’ve heard that tone a few times before. It wasn’t her chastising me or trying to teach me a lesson, but rather that playful nagging tone I’d heard of ‘Oh dear, you should have done better’ when she mentioned it.

When was that again? I think it was when we went out together for a day, and I woke up late. Something like “Well, you should have gone to bed early the night before.” Of course, that didn’t mean we didn’t go out. While it wasn’t a very far trip, and I didn’t have to pay a bunch for it, playing in the park was still fun enough.

“Right.”

But today is a day to let Mom do what she wants. I just smiled and responded that way.

And, well, I didn’t dislike the food either. It was more like… I just hadn’t eaten it much.

There was a large lobster sitting between Mom and me.

Well, it was the kind of image that typically springs to mind when someone mentions ‘expensive food.’

“Thanks for the meal.”

“Yeah, eat a lot.”

“You too, Mom.”

“Mom’s full… no, really.”

Mom said, patting her stomach with her hand.

“…I really shouldn’t have eaten the hamburger.”

“Right?”

It seemed like Mom and I laughed together for some time like that.

But after a little while, maybe Mom’s hunger returned, as she was able to eat some with me.

Just for the record, we didn’t leave any food behind.

It seemed like the amount I could eat hadn’t lessened at all since having a child.