TRVBC 08

Chapter : 08
Country Life Is Wonderful! (2)

Time passed like an arrow.

Before I knew it, nearly a month had passed since Karl started coming to the café every single day.

Even today, as I sat at the counter resting my chin on my hand, I could see a dark head outside the open window.

It was Karl Dryan.

He’s here again.

Rain or wind—it didn’t matter. That man came every single day and stood guard in the same place.

At first, I had written letters demanding that he be thrown out immediately, but I gradually grew used to the reality of that massive rock-like man occupying a corner of my café.

I exhaled through my nose while still leaning on my hand.

He kind of feels like a decoration I placed in the café.

It wasn’t a joke—Karl really didn’t feel like a person. He was like a statue. If I didn’t tell him to move, he wouldn’t shift an inch from the window.

If I were him, I’d go crazy standing still like that.

Even bringing him inside didn’t help. He still just sat there unmoving.

He only started moving when he ate something.

Is he here to eat again today? Should I just tell him to come in?

I needed to know why he was here in the first place before I could decide what to do.

While thinking, I opened the envelope I was holding. Inside was a fresh letter that had arrived from Nanari yesterday.

Her handwriting is always so energetic.

Nanari had a habit of pressing hard on her pen, leaving ink blobs at the start of her letters.

The content was extremely brief:

<To Miss Viviana Goldwordi, who is very shy:

Just feed him.>

It was the first time I had seen a letter where the address section was longer than the actual message.

I told her to take her brother away, and she tells me to feed him?

I puckered my lips and held the letter up to the light. There was nothing hidden.

So he’s really just coming here to eat? Every day? For a whole month without missing a single day?

No way.

I let out a dry laugh at the absurdity of my own thoughts. What was so special about my food that he’d guard this place for a month?

There must be some ulterior motive. Maybe that idiot crown prince ordered him to watch me.

That guy—despite treating me however he pleased—was surprisingly cautious.

Sigh, what a life.

Ignoring him was one thing, but there was a limit to pretending someone standing at the edge of your vision didn’t exist.

I walked over and leaned against the window frame. His polished, mirror-like eyes turned toward me.

Ugh.

Still an overwhelming gaze.

A sharply carved jaw like polished marble, a solid chest and shoulders with no excess fat, thick arms and thighs—

I forced my wandering eyes upward and smiled awkwardly.

“Um… have you eaten breakfast today?”

Shake, shake.

Karl shook his head as if it were obvious. I knew it—he had spent the past month standing here on an empty stomach every day.

Well, whatever the reason, thanks for being a customer.

Even if I’d prefer a normal customer, not a golem guarding my door.

“Then come inside and order. Don’t just stand there blankly.”

“……”

Karl said nothing.

I sighed through my nose.

Even a clam probably opens its mouth more than this guy.

I turned away and said in a slightly haughty tone,

“From now on, even if I don’t say anything, just come inside and sit. Standing there hurts your eyes.”

At that, something finally shifted in Karl’s eternally rigid expression.

It was only a slight bend in his thick eyebrows—but compared to his usual stone-like face, it was a clear change.

* * *

Even though I opened a grand café, there was nothing particularly special about it.

What I had poured all my effort into was securing funding, buying land, and carefully erasing my traces so that none of the novel’s characters would come looking for me after I “retired” from the story.

Know what I forgot?

I never learned how to cook.

I can’t believe I’m walking the failure route of beginner entrepreneurs.

I groaned inwardly. I used to watch TV and scoff at business owners who opened shops without market research or preparation—never did I imagine I’d become one of them.

But I was too busy. At some point, my goal just became “open a shop and quit everything.”

So I only started properly cooking after I left the original story, and even that came with difficulties.

I had gotten used to eating food made by others. Cooking it myself was much harder than I expected.

Endless trial and error.

What’s more, the few customers I did get ran away in fear after seeing Karl Dryan standing at my door.

I’m not desperate for money right now, but still… I don’t want my café to fail.

Though honestly… I wasn’t even sure how much I cared.

Anyway, the café was quiet, and I was slowly sinking into the rhythm of stillness.

On another empty morning, Karl entered the shop with his usual expressionless face. I waved him over.

“Come here and wash your hands. You’re helping me make breakfast.”

“……?”

At the word “help,” Karl tilted his head slightly.

I lifted my chin.

“You’re going to keep coming every day anyway, right? It’s annoying to charge you every time, so just help make it. We’ll settle it like that.”

“……”

Karl quietly walked into the kitchen.

The kitchen had been built entirely to my height and body proportions, so Karl looked even larger standing inside it.

Wow, he’s really huge.

Even my younger brother Benjamin was big, but Karl was on another level. At this point, wasn’t he less human and more like a grizzly bear?

I shivered at the strange feeling as I watched his back.

And that discomfort peaked when he tied on a pink apron.

It looks like it’s about to rip.

Of course it didn’t fit him—it was my apron—but it clung to him like it might burst at any moment.

Still, that awkwardness didn’t last long. Soon, I found myself strangely mesmerized by the combination of pink fabric and muscle.

…That’s kind of attractive in its own way.

Karl glanced back at me with a puzzled look. I quickly shook my head to clear my thoughts.

Dangerous. Definitely dangerous.

Karl stood in the kitchen, shoulders stiff with tension. I smiled and placed a wooden cutting board, plates, and prepared ingredients in front of him.

“Today we’re making rice balls. It’s easy, so don’t be so tense.”

“……?”

At “rice balls,” Karl tilted his head.

In an empire where bread was the staple food, the word itself must have sounded unfamiliar.

Explaining it a hundred times won’t help—better to just show him.

I lifted the freshly cooked rice pot and placed it on the cutting board. The board doubled as a pot stand.

When I opened the lid, a cloud of steam burst upward, and the warm, savory smell of freshly cooked rice filled the air.

“Careful, it’s hot.”

I sprinkled salt and sesame seeds, then mixed the rice with a spoon as steam kept rising. Karl watched the movement with serious eyes.

“Isn’t it sticky? It’s interesting, right?”

Nod.

Seeing a huge, intimidating man wearing a pink apron and standing so seriously in my kitchen made me smile without realizing it.

He’s kind of like a puppy.

I thought it without meaning to—and immediately jolted in surprise.

Wait, what? A puppy? No way. Even if I’m being generous, he’s a hunting dog.

“……”

The “fierce hunting dog” tilted his head at me.

Whether puppy or hunting dog, he looked harmless right now.

I tightened my loosening thoughts.

Don’t be fooled. This man has definitely been sent by the crown prince for some unknown mission, coming here every single day for a month.

He knew where my café was, yet didn’t inform other nobles or the capital. He wasn’t doing anything else either.

So what exactly was his mission—coming here like this every day?