I Just Traded in the Forest of Monsters, but the World Changed - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
The Mercenary Unit, who had arrived as intruders, were gradually transforming into genuine guests, their attention fixed on every gesture of Se Hui’s fingertips.
Watching this unfold, Se Hui suddenly understood something.
This forest was drawing people in far more than she had anticipated.
She sensed instinctively that this would not end with a single day.
But that was a problem she could address later.
For now, there was only one thing that mattered.
Teaching them how to cook ramen.
Se Hui set a pot of water over the fire and spoke.
“Pour in about this much water.”
“Yes….”
“Is this about right?”
The mercenaries mimicked Se Hui’s every gesture, tilting their pots to match the water level.
Hands that would normally grip sword hilts and traverse battlefields moved with infinite caution now, focused on nothing but the height of the water.
“Don’t make the fire too strong. If it boils over, that’s on you.”
At her words, the mercenaries hastily pulled out branches and smothered the flames.
As they widened the gaps between the logs, the roaring fire quickly subsided to a gentle glow.
“That’ll do.”
Se Hui nodded and turned her attention to the pot.
She added noodles to the boiling water, drained it at precisely the right moment, then squeezed in the Red Sauce—darker and deeper than crimson—without hesitation.
A sharp, pungent aroma cut through the air and reached the mercenaries’ nostrils.
Vargas was the first to cautiously pick up the chopsticks.
He stared at the ends of them for a long moment, then looked back down at the bowl.
His face made it clear he had no idea how to grip two thin sticks.
One of the unit members standing nearby swallowed hard.
“Captain, is that… a weapon?”
Vargas hesitated for a moment, then tightened his grip on the chopsticks.
The two sticks crossed with a sharp crack.
At that thin, brittle sound, Se Hui lifted her head.
“Ah.”
She grasped the situation at once.
“That’s not how you hold them.”
Se Hui picked up the chopsticks and demonstrated slowly.
“Like this. Keep one still and move only the other. Think of it like a pair of tongs.”
Vargas nodded with grave concentration.
And proceeded to imitate her.
The chopsticks bent awkwardly in the wrong direction and tapped the rim of the bowl.
Se Hui watched for a moment, then turned away without a word.
‘Well… they’ll figure it out on their own.’
Meanwhile, Vargas gripped the chopsticks as if to preserve the dignity of his rank.
He twirled a large clump of noodles and shoved it into his mouth.
“…!”
Vargas’s face turned purple in an instant, and he began shrieking and rolling across the ground.
He flailed his arms, grasping at thin air as if trying to seize his own tongue, while tears poured from his eyes like a waterfall.
“Vargas, get ahold of yourself! What’s wrong?”
The unit members nearby rushed to steady him in alarm, but Vargas had already lost all reason and staggered toward the tap.
He plunged his head under it, desperately trying to cool the inferno in his mouth.
At the sight of such anguish, the mercenaries froze, chopsticks in hand, struck with terror.
Yet the lingering scent of spice made silent, irresistible appeals to them.
Trembling with fear but ravenous with hunger, the mercenaries one by one began placing noodles in their mouths.
“Gahhh! This isn’t food, it’s… it’s burning souls! My soul is burning!”
As if on cue, screams erupted from all corners.
“Water! Give me water, or—no, it’s getting spicier!”
“Why is sweat coming from my eyes too!?”
One mercenary pounded his chest; another wept yet refused to let go of the noodles.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s agony, but I can’t stop.”
Someone clenched his teeth and nodded in grim agreement.
Just then, Vargas—having apparently cooled the heat—lifted his face, streaked with tears and mucus.
Se Hui’s expression, watching the spectacle unfold, was distinctly ambiguous.
‘Ah, looks like everyone added way too much sauce.’
Se Hui watched the mercenaries’ reaction for a moment.
‘Strange. That red sauce does look unusually dark,’ she thought.
Se Hui forced her voice into an appropriately stern tone, hiding the businesslike smile playing at her lips.
“All right, everyone pull yourselves together and finish every last bite. You’ll be punished if you leave food on your plate.”
“Yes! I shall gladly endure this trial!”
“Understood!”
The moment the words left Se Hui’s mouth, a collective gasp tore through the gathered mercenaries.
Some swallowed curses; others screwed their eyes shut.
Yet not a single one put down their chopsticks.
‘This isn’t even that hot,’ she mused.
The area in front of the tent was a disaster.
Red sauce was smeared across their faces and beards, while tears and mucus mingled together and dripped down their chins.
‘It’s the complete opposite of just a moment ago.’
Not long before, these same men had come here with weapons drawn.
Now they didn’t even have the luxury of remembering that fact.
“Is it really that spicy?” Se Hui asked.
Vargas meant to nod in response, but his head simply drooped instead.
A tear fell from his chin with a soft tap.
“I—I… It feels like my insides are on fire.”
Vargas couldn’t manage another word.
He tried to draw breath, but the air wouldn’t reach his lungs.
Se Hui tilted her head, puzzled.
‘That’s odd. It’s only mildly spicy to me.’
“Well, I don’t find it particularly hot,” she said.
A mercenary nearby lifted his head at that, only to immediately bow it again.
“That’s the scariest thing you’ve said yet, ma’am.”
Se Hui didn’t pursue the matter further.
She had a feeling that whatever answer she’d get would just be more trouble.
Vargas stared at her as if she were something incomprehensible.
‘This is what she calls spicy taste?’
It felt like his very understanding of spice was being negated.
Over his years as a mercenary, Vargas had traveled far and wide, but he’d never encountered anything like this—a torment so searing, so utterly brutal to the palate.
Through tear-blurred vision, he watched Se Hui’s retreating figure.
Unaware of his gaze, Se Hui casually turned and headed toward the tent.
She opened her Inventory and pulled out a two-liter beverage.
As she poured it into a paper cup, the pink liquid gleamed softly, as though holding captured sunlight.
“Here.”
Se Hui held the cup out first to Vargas, who had been the one writhing in agony.
“Drink this and get yourself together.”
Vargas looked at her face before he looked at the cup.
In his current state, he couldn’t decide whether to trust it.
Having just consumed what felt like hellfire in noodle form,
‘What if…’
he found himself harboring suspicions about Se Hui.
“Wh-what is this?”
“It’s a beverage. You’re supposed to drink it along with spicy food, you know.”
At those words, Vargas’s eyes wavered uncertainly.
His tongue and palate were still burning with pain.
“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to,” Se Hui said with a shrug.

“Then you can just keep suffering.”
When Vargas continued to hesitate, Se Hui added,
“Normally I’d charge for this, but you look like you’re in such bad shape that I’m giving it to you free.”
At that, Vargas didn’t hesitate any longer.
He gritted his teeth, gripped the cup, and took a sip with the half-resigned expression of a man surrendering to fate.
……
Vargas froze.
The moment the cold liquid touched his scorched mouth, pain surged through him once more.
But this time, it came differently.
Behind the sting bloomed an almost unbelievable sweetness.
The cool sensation spreading across the tip of her tongue cut through the roaring heat in one swift stroke.
“Uh…….”
Vargas’s shoulders heaved visibly.
And then.
“Aaaaaaaa—!”
This time it was not a cry of pain.
Vargas sank to his knees, gripping the cup between both hands.
His legs buckled beneath him as if all strength had drained away.
Tears still streamed from his eyes,
but his expression had transformed entirely.
“This…… can this be real.”
Vargas cried out, his voice trembling.
“This isn’t mere water. It’s Holy Water that purifies suffering……!”
A few mercenaries exchanged glances and murmured among themselves.
“Commander?”
“What did he just say? Did anyone catch that properly?”
“No, something about purification, I think.”
Vargas lifted his head, cradling the cup to his chest.
His gaze found Se Hui at once.
All hostility had vanished from his eyes.
In their place lay reverence and certainty, mingled with an emotion he could not name.
“The pain is truly gone.”
Vargas spoke the final words like a confession, then without hesitation pressed his forehead to the ground.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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