I Just Traded in the Forest of Monsters, but the World Changed - Chapter 6

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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 6
“……What?”
Fortunately, Cassian hadn’t heard that remark.
Instead, he’d caught the way Se Hee’s expression hardened.
“No, what on earth!”
Yet Se Hee muttered with genuine sincerity.
“I’m losing my mind.”
She couldn’t tell if this was a joke or a glitch.
‘I’m talking nonsense.’
Concluding once more that the system was malfunctioning, Se Hee flipped the meat as if nothing were amiss.
She gripped the wooden twig she was using as a spatula so hard her knuckles whitened, swallowing back a surge of colorful profanity.
The foundation of hospitality was reading the customer’s needs, not fabricating romance that didn’t exist.
This system seemed to lack such parameters.
Meanwhile, Wolf sat beside her, drunk on the aroma of Pork Belly, tapping the floor rhythmically with his tail.
Then she felt a gaze.
When she lifted her head, Cassian was watching her.
‘Great, I must look completely deranged.’
Muttering to herself at empty air, letting meat fall awkwardly—none of it could pass for normal.
Se Hee pointedly turned her attention to the flames.
“Here, have some!”
Cassian’s gaze shifted to her hands.
The way she picked up a single sheet of Lettuce.
How she selected the meat.
Even the angle at which she dipped it in sauce—all of it was natural.
As though she’d always done it this way.
The tips of Cassian’s ears flushed, barely perceptibly.
“We still have plenty of meat, so keep eating.”
“…….”
“Oh, if you’re uncomfortable, would you like to move? The smoke gets pretty thick.”
“No.”
Cassian cut her off firmly.
“It’s fine.”
Watching her nod and turn back to flipping the meat, he felt a wave of inexplicable relief wash through his chest.
Then another small window appeared before Se Hee’s eyes.
[
Caution
]
The current customer is in a Delusion Maintenance State.
“……Hah.”
Se Hee exhaled softly.
‘What’s a “maintenance state” supposed to mean?’
She had no idea how to disable it, and understanding the explanation seemed equally hopeless.
So Se Hee decided to simply pretend she hadn’t seen it.
“Is this dish always prepared this way?”
Cassian asked abruptly.
“Pardon?”
Se Hee looked up.
“Oh, no. It’s just that today…….”
She trailed off.
Because when she tried to explain, she realized there was nothing in particular to explain.
“I’m just eating it because it tastes good.”
At that answer, Cassian fell silent for a moment.
Because it tastes good.
That simple reason dismantled every interpretation he’d conjured just moments before.
“I see.”
Cassian turned back to the fire.
The sizzle and smoke, and Se Hee’s face betraying nothing as she worked the meat over the flames.
He understood then, very quietly.
This was no ordinary meal.
He was certain of it.
Perhaps the only being who could ever touch his Curse had finally appeared.
And perhaps he was already one step too late.
Of course, Cassian didn’t yet understand the reason why.
But he couldn’t deny that something deep within him had begun to stir, quietly and inexorably.
While Cassian’s delusions deepened, Se Hee’s mind was already alive with the clatter of an abacus, its beads snapping through the forest’s silence.
Smoke stung her eyes.
‘Eat fast, then clean up.’
With her belly warming, her eyelids grew heavy.
‘Just hold on a little longer. Really, just a bit more.’
She held on by watching the pink Pork Belly browning over the flame, and the tender green Lettuce leaf resting beside it.
‘I have to treat him well.’
Those gold coins Cassian had pressed into her palm earlier still floated before her eyes.
Once the money was exchanged, even after the fees, she’d come away with an enormous amount of Points.
Se Hee smacked her lips to fend off sleep.
“This is all Points. I have to handle it carefully…….”
Her gaze sharpened like nothing before.
Her eyes locked onto the grill.
Her hands flipped the meat with quickened precision, and her eyes picked through the Lettuce with the finesse of a jeweler appraising gemstones.
“While I’m at it, I should gather this properly.”
Meanwhile, Cassian, watching from directly across, had stopped breathing altogether.
Her lips moved with subtle, precise rhythm.
He couldn’t quite make out the words.
Only a faint melody leaked through, weaving mysteriously through his ears.
‘That potion earlier, too…….’
Watching her expression, Cassian thought seriously.
This woman treated people far too casually.
That very indifference cut deeper still.
For someone who had lived so alone, to encounter a being who asked nothing in return and treated him as a person—this was his first.
Then Se Hee selected the most perfectly browned pieces, their surfaces gleaming, and slid them across to Cassian.
“Here, this is a special service. It’s much better cooked than before.”
Se Hee’s professional smile blazed across her face.
Cassian picked up the meat with trembling fingers and put it in his mouth.
He’d planned not to eat anymore, but seeing Se Hee go this far for him, he found he couldn’t refuse.
The meat, grilled as she sang, struck his mind with far more intense flavor than before.
“Se.”
Cassian paused mid-word.
“To care for someone this much is…… a dangerous thing to do.”
“Pardon?”
Seeing Se Hee’s expression—lost, understanding nothing—Cassian stopped there.
What was to follow never came.
“No, I will visit often. I will seek you out again.”
Se Hee, embarrassed by his sudden sincerity, answered at once.
“It’s all right. Honestly, anyone would help if they saw someone collapsed like that.”
At that, Cassian shook his head and spoke.
“No. Not just anyone could do such a thing.”
After saying that, he continued.
“Usually there’s a reason.”
Cassian drew a short breath and went on.
“I will lead the Elite Knight Order back to this place.”
And quietly he added:
“Of course…… I will come as well.”
‘A knight order?!’
Se Hee’s heart began to race.
A knight order meant at least dozens, possibly hundreds of people.
Cassian added calmly.
“When that time comes, I would hope you would serve it to us directly, as you do now.”
He paused, then added:
“Just as you do today.”
Se Hee’s face already bore the look of someone doing calculations.
“When you come, I’ll prepare a special set menu for you all.”
Cassian nodded at the unfamiliar words.
“Whatever you have prepared, I am grateful for it.”
He didn’t know the exact meaning, but he’d picked up enough to understand she spoke well of his knights.
‘Even at just a coin or two per person, a hundred men would bring in a substantial sum. Converted to Points….’
Even after the commission, the numbers were staggering.
Se Hee thought that with each group that gathered, the path home drew closer.
‘This is a group booking, isn’t it?’
Se Hee couldn’t suppress the smile spreading across her face, drowsiness forgotten.
Her pleasant reverie lasted only a moment before a blue alarm flashed across her vision with a sharp chime.
[The owner’s Kimchi Broth Meter has reached critical levels.
A distributor’s virtue is not to drink the broth first while barely thinking of giving out the rice cakes.]
“Hey, try to read the mood a little,” she muttered at thin air.
At her feet came a low growl.
The Wolf had drawn closer without her noticing.
Until moments ago he’d been drooling at a distance beyond the tent, but now he’d settled right beside her.
He stood with his fur bristling toward the forest, as though he’d taken on the role of guard dog for this territory.
Se Hee caught sight of him and spoke again.
“Ah, but… the Curse you mentioned earlier. If it’s not too impertinent, may I ask how you came by it?”
Her question drew silence between them.
‘Did I just ask something I shouldn’t have?’
Cassian’s gaze drifted toward the flames.
Only the sound of kindling crackling filled the quiet forest.
“…I received it during a subjugation. Nothing worth boasting about.”
After speaking, Cassian offered no further explanation.
Like someone unwilling to dwell on that memory any longer than necessary.
Se Hee simply nodded.
“I see.”
In that same moment, the atmosphere of the forest shifted.

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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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