Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 115

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 115

 

 

”Chef or whatever, why aren’t you giving us food!”

“The facility has no money, so they’re telling us to starve!”

“Does that make sense?”

“Of course not! There’s no way the facility doesn’t have money!”

After lunchtime passed, the children were all furious and poured out their suspicions.

The Teachers at the facility would probably eat up all of the Owner Chef’s food too.

Having completely forgotten the announcement that today’s meal would start at 2 o’clock, they cursed the Teachers like that.

“Tch. This place is the same too.”

Adults really are beings you can’t trust.

But they couldn’t leave this place.

Because they knew that if they left, they’d have to live as homeless.

Dirty homeless people who targeted their bodies.

Scary gangs who saw them as merchandise.

“Ptui! Let’s go smoke cigarettes…”

Flinch!

The Boys and Girls who were turning around froze their bodies.

It was because of a 16-year-old Young Girl with green and pink highlights in her hair, wearing leather clothes, with piercings, chewing candy.

The Young Girl who had been sent back to facilities as many as six times, Emma.

Compared to how they, who were problem children themselves, had only returned twice so far, Emma was truly an unbelievable problem child.

Perhaps she really was a Gang Boss’s girlfriend like the rumors said.

“Do you, do you want to come too?”

“…Never mind.”

“Mm-hmm.”

The children who lowered their heads hurriedly passed by the Young Girl, and the Young Girl clicked her tongue.

“When they don’t know anything…”

But now she wondered what any of that mattered.

Crunch!

It was the moment she turned around after chewing the candy.

Tap tap tap!

An 8-year-old small Boy running toward this direction.

The Boy who spotted the Young Girl and hurriedly shrank back shouted toward the Boys and Girls behind him.

“Huff! Huff huff! Why are you here! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Why, why?”

“They’re telling us to eat!”

The Boys and Girls burst into hollow laughter.

“So they are going to give us food after all.”

“Damn! How generous of them!”

It was already 2 o’clock. Their anger was flaring.

“Hey, what should we do?”

They said the Broadcasting Station came for filming.

“They’re definitely going to film our pitiful appearance or about that Chef!”

Whatever the reason, they would film them eating.

Expecting them to deliciously clean their plates of the food the Chef made.

“…Ah! Hey, everyone listen. How about we do this? If the food tastes like dog food, let’s just curse up a storm.”

“Wow! That sounds fun!”

“Should we throw plates too?”

“Let’s go! Let’s hurry and go!”

The facility Teachers, Owner Chef, and Broadcasting Station who dared to use them to make money.

They would throw shit at them.

Anyway, if they got kicked out of here, they could just go to another facility.

Having nothing to lose, they laughed menacingly and headed to the Cafeteria.

 

Meals at the Temporary Custody Protection Facility were buffet-style.

But today was a bit different.

“If you sit in your Seats, they’ll bring the food to you.”

But today they said there were two themes for the food.

“So it will be distributed in two rounds. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes. Well, do whatever.”

It didn’t matter.

They were going to curse anyway.

‘Go ahead and be humiliated!’

Emma sat near the Boys and Girls who smiled while imagining the Teacher’s face turning red and being flustered shortly after.

Rattle!

As the Teachers came out of the Kitchen pushing trays loaded with dishes and the Camera followed behind them, Emma’s eyes lit up.

‘It’s not meat?’

Blue-green vegetables on the Plates.

Anyone could see it was salad and vegetable stew.

The Teacher looked at the agitated Emma with pity.

“You’ll be able to eat well today too, Emma. All of today’s cooking is vegan.”

When the surprised Emma looked at the Teacher, the Teacher met her gaze with a warm smile.

Emma, who had been sent back to facilities six times due to severe meat allergies.

At least for today, they wanted her to eat to her heart’s content without any worries.

“Avocado Salad mixed with lemon Sauce and pot, Pot-au-feu? Something like that. It’s an appetizer, so more food is coming, so eat moderately.”

“…Yes.”

‘Vegan cooking…?’

Emma quietly looked at the salad and Pot-au-feu before picking up her Fork.

Crunch.

The refreshing and sweet lemon Sauce spreading in her mouth, the crisp texture of lettuce, and the luxuriously oily taste of ripe avocado burst forth and revealed their presence.

So she realized.

“So that’s why.”

The reason she had no choice but to be abandoned.

They sent her back to the facility because they couldn’t make something like this every meal.

‘Then why did you say you’d take me in?’

Why did they welcome her with smiles?

Why did they say it wouldn’t be difficult?

‘You shouldn’t have given me hope at least!’

Emma gritted her teeth and brought the Pot-au-feu to her mouth with a Spoon.

“Huh?”

Emma urgently looked for the Teacher.

 

* * *

 

“What is this, what’s with this taste?”

“Meat. Where’s the meat?”

No matter how much they searched here and there, there was no meat.

Even what they served as Steak was vegetables.

“There was definitely oil…”

“Don’t tell me the meat is for the teachers to eat among themselves?!”

The boys scrunch their faces, mistaking the olive oil floating on top of the pot-au-feu broth for meat grease.

They weren’t the only ones getting angry.

Murmur murmur.

Most of the boys had scrunched faces.

“Hey. Should we do it now?”

Among the boys and girls, the boys nod their heads.

“Let’s do it.”

It was the moment the boys were about to stand up, looking at the approaching camera.

“Why? I think it’s delicious.”

“Me too.”

Flinch!

“This… is delicious? Is something wrong with your tongues?”

“Yeah!”

“It’s food that won’t make you gain weight!”

Though the taste was a bit bland, pot-au-feu was a dish they’d never tried before in their lives, and they could freely eat steak sauce that would normally be too rich for them.

The portion was quite lacking, but it was truly a meal they enjoyed.

Plus, the sharp-tasting ice cream was also made with almond milk that wouldn’t make them gain weight. A dessert made with almond milk that was good for beauty but too expensive for them to even think of buying.

“Where else would we get to try a chef’s cooking?”

“Right. We’d have to be over twenty to eat it, wouldn’t we?”

“And yet you can’t endure just one meal without meat?”

The girls looked at the boys with contempt as if asking whether they were savages who couldn’t live without meat, and the boys scrunched their faces and glared at the girls asking what was wrong with their tongues, but couldn’t argue back.

Because they knew chef’s cooking had no connection to them.

And even without meat, the taste was amazing.

Bland, but sophisticated flavor.

The boys who clicked their tongues turned their heads away.

“Phew, that’s a relief.”

“Right. I thought they’d complain about there being no meat…”

A chef is indeed a chef, it seems.

“Hoho, that’s the charm of vegan food.”

The Owner Chef, raising her nose high and glancing at Johann and Hong Hee-sook, stepped toward the cafeteria.

Now it was time to decorate the finale.

“Hoho, was everyone satisfied with the meal?”

“Yes!”

“It’s pretty!”

‘Yes, this is it!’

This praise. These expressions.

The Owner Chef smiled proudly.

Meanwhile, Johann and Hong Hee-sook paid no attention to the chef.

“You know how to do pretty plating too.”

Looking at the bibimbap with colorful vegetables neatly arranged on top made their mouths water naturally. The elegant and pretty colors made them want to take a photo.

‘How did he season them so well?’

Johann, who finished seasoning the vegetables he had prepared and brought out their colors even more.

Not only was the finishing touch good, but the arrangement of colors was also beautiful. The pure white vegetable tempura and tofu dumpling soup, and even the pear compote soaked in red liquid.

It was as if a beautiful painting had been drawn on the tray.

“Haha. They say the completion of food is plating, after all. If you hadn’t seasoned the vegetables so well, I wouldn’t have been able to do this kind of plating.”

Originally, plating was the territory of the Royal Kitchen.

The job of the Royal Kitchen court ladies was to check if the food made in the Royal Kitchen contained poison and serve it neatly so the king and royal family could eat deliciously.

However, the ‘Master Chef’ was different.

It was due to his experience commanding the kitchen at the gisaeng house.

Having realized early on that beautifully presented food always received praise and was completely finished, he also paid attention to plating.

‘Benjamin and Hugo Ballin influenced that too.’

Thanks to the artistic sense of the ‘Art Student’ and ‘Artist, Hugo Ballin’, he could present things even more beautifully.

Johann’s friends and the ladies felt frustrated watching Johann and Hong Hee-sook praising each other like that.

‘Do they have any intention of winning or not?’

“Oh, it seems the chef has finished talking.”

“Yes!”

“Let’s go too!”

Johann and his friends, the ladies, and teachers headed toward the cafeteria, pulling their trays.

 

* * *

 

“Does it not suit your taste?”

The Owner Chef’s eyes trembled at the grilled cauliflower steak that was left after just one bite.

Emma, who had been scratching her body, answered coldly.

“No.”

“If you don’t like it, then why…”

“Ch, Chef.”

When the teacher quickly whispered about Emma’s situation, the Owner Chef hurriedly apologized.

“S, sorry. I didn’t know…”

“It’s fine. Please go.”

“Mm.”

As the Owner Chef hurriedly left, Emma gritted her teeth.

Memories of that day surfaced in her mind.

Bang bang bang!

‘Kyaaah!’

‘Run away!’

The restaurant from that day when blood and screams erupted.

The restaurant she first went to with Mother.

Mother, who smiled for the first time that day, died.

In Emma’s memory, Mother was a scary person.

She was a demon.

From the time she could remember, Mother always had alcohol on her lips, and no matter what Emma did, she was displeased and angry.

“I can’t live like this! How did I give birth to such an idiot!”

“You’re six years old and can’t even wash dishes properly?”

“Didn’t I tell you not to come out of your room!”

“Go stand in the backyard!”

Mother was angry even about the meat allergy that developed as she grew up.

“Why can’t you eat what everyone else eats!”

“Don’t pick it out, eat everything you’re given!”

On days when she ate meat or fish, she would scratch her whole body until it bled, unable to sleep.

The verbal abuse, glares, and violence that always poured down from above her head.

On days when Mother’s boyfriend came, the intensity became even worse.

Once, when strange sounds came from Mother’s room and she knocked on the door, she was beaten unconscious, and after that, whenever Mother’s boyfriend came, she was kicked outside whether it was raining or the sun was setting.

‘It was cold. It was scary.’

No matter how much she cried and clung, Mother was cold.

She didn’t even pretend to listen, and when the boyfriend left, she would beat her.

Emma thought all mothers in the world were like that.

But when she went to kindergarten, she learned that wasn’t the case.

The words ‘Why did you give birth to me?’ always lingered on the tip of her tongue.

It was one day like that.

Mother suddenly said let’s go to a restaurant.

‘I thought she was finally going to abandon me.’

Even when I held her hand, even when I walked slowly, she didn’t hit me, so I thought that was it.

So I clung to her even more.

Because it was the last time.

Because Mother smiled at me for the first time too.

But….

Bang bang bang!

Someone who suddenly burst through the door opened fire randomly at people.

Blood splattered on Emma’s face as she froze in shock.

It was Mother’s blood.

Mother with a hole in her head, bright red blood flowing out.

Mother’s eyes as she collapsed onto the table, the eyes that had been glaring at Emma, seemed to be saying this.

‘I shouldn’t have given birth to something like you….’

Mother who hated her even until the moment of death.

Emma was so sad about that.

‘All I wanted was one kind word, one warm smile….’

After that day, whenever Emma saw meat, she would remember the steak soaked in Mother’s blood.

‘Fuck! Fuck!’

Scratch scratch scratch!

Bang!

As the memories of that day she tried to forget came flooding back, Emma mercilessly scratched her body and slammed the table.

Later she found out that Mother hadn’t been planning to abandon Emma.

She had won the lottery and was in a good mood, so she took Emma to the restaurant to eat out.

After hearing those words, cold ice formed in Emma’s heart.

Mother hating me was also because of me.

Mother dying was also because of me.

Emma’s heart froze like that.

“…What are you looking at.”

“Oh, nothing!”

The children who hurriedly turned their heads away chattered forcedly.

‘Idiots.’

When Emma turned her head, Johann’s food began coming out from the cafeteria.

“You waited a long time, didn’t you?”

“No….”

Emma, who was answering reflexively, was startled.

‘Wh-what kind of man’s face is that!’

A refreshing scent wafted over and made her heart pound.

Emma quickly turned her head and opened her eyes wide when she saw the food placed in front of her.

“Wow!”

“Whoa! It’s pretty!”

The surrounding children burst into exclamations.

The Owner Chef’s food from earlier was also pretty, but this had a different kind of beauty. If the Owner Chef’s food had the beauty of a luxurious restaurant that one could only dream of, this was like a mysterious Eastern painting she had never seen before.

The children quickly took out their mobile phones and started taking pictures, and Emma also silently stared at the food.

‘But….’

“Is this meat?”

Dark brown round beans. They looked exactly like minced meat.

“No.”

“No… you say?”

It seemed like this rich boy was making fun of her.

Johann smiled brightly, noticing that expression.

The ‘Master Chef’ also smiled.

Because the most interesting moment for a cook was approaching.

“Yeah. I ground up shiitake mushrooms that were dried well for a month into beans that were soaked for eight hours. I mixed in finely chopped pine mushrooms too, formed them into balls, then fried them and braised them in a soy sauce-like sauce. Pretty convincing, right?”

The moment of telling others about my hard work.

The moment of introducing the care put into this one dish.

“…What?”

“And this white soup is….”

Johann explained each dish one by one, and Emma’s eyes wavered.

“Ten hours? Five hours?”

Ten hours to make the white chunks in the small bowl, five hours to make the broth – a lot of time was spent making one bowl.

“Why?”

Why did he make it so carefully?

Why did he readily serve what he made like that to people like them?

Johann smiled gently at her confusion.

“I hope you’ll be happy eating the food I made.”

Whether it’s an unhappy moment, a sad moment, or a difficult moment, the wish that for just the moment of eating the food he made, they would forget everything and be happy.

That is the heart of a cook.

“That’s why I can cook with a smile no matter how hard it gets.”

Thump!

The kindness without expectation shook her heart.

It shook the hearts of the surrounding children.

“Why on earth… How can you think like that…?”

Was it because he was a rich family’s child and really didn’t know what unhappiness was?

When her eyes and the surrounding children’s eyes became sharp, Johann scratched his cheek.

‘They’re pretty twisted up.’

Like his old self.

Maybe that’s why.

“What do you know about us!”

“Why wouldn’t I know? I don’t have birth parents either, just like you.”

Johann responded as if it was no big deal.

“What?”

At those words, Emma’s eyes widened, and the cafeteria became quiet.

“What bullshit are you….”

“I’m adopted too. I was just lucky enough to be adopted by a rich family. Hmm, the place I was born was in the forest of the Rocky Mountains. No, I’m not sure if I was born there. From the time I could remember, I was being beaten by someone called Father in that place.”

He mixed in some exaggeration and lies.

“I got beaten if I couldn’t speak foreign languages well. I got beaten if I couldn’t memorize math formulas too.”

I was beaten every day.

Meals were raw meat. The meat of beasts with blood dripping down.

Holding a small spear, I hunted and killed beasts with wolves, filled my stomach with that meat, and made clothes from those animal hides to wear.

Nothing was obtained for free, and I always risked my life.

Then Father died. Right before my eyes.

“A sense of liberation? Well… When you have to survive immediately, where’s the time for such luxury?”

Living like that, I met Larry.

“That was my first stroke of luck.”

The second was meeting good people like Emily.

“Th-that’s not luck….”

“I survived.”

I came to a city where I no longer needed to feel threats to my life, and came under the protection of an excellent guardian.

If this isn’t luck, then what is luck?

“Crazy….”

His teeth chatter at the misfortune on a completely different level from his own.

He wants to cry out asking how they can smile.

Johann smiled as he watched them.

“So you all should straighten your shoulders too. You’re alive right now.”

Being abandoned by your parents isn’t your fault.

You did nothing wrong, so don’t be depressed, don’t suffer.

“You hate people? Can’t trust them? Then don’t trust them. No one’s asking us to believe in them.”

Instead, you must endure. You must bow your head. You must be clever. You must keep your eyes and ears wide open.

You endure for the luck that will come someday.

And you seize that moment.

“Like me. Now eat well.”

Johann set the food down beside him, and Emma and the children’s gazes followed Johann.

‘It’s not my fault?’

These are words she’s hearing for the first time in her life.

Words that no one had ever said to her.

Not the teachers at the facility, nor the foster parents.

Emma looks at the bibimbap with trembling eyes.

She clumsily mixes it and brings it to her mouth.

It’s unfamiliar.

The taste is as unfamiliar as its appearance.

But why is it?

‘It’s warm.’

Like the frozen nuggets Mother made for her.

Like the bacon she grilled in the morning.

Her mouth becomes warm.

Crunch!

This is snacks.

The crispy fried food is like the snacks she ate while hiding next to her sleeping mother on the living room sofa, watching TV.

The most thrilling and happiest taste in the world.

And….

“It’s delicious.”

Emma looks at the clear red juice with pear in it.

Juice with warm pear and a sweet and sour taste that’s also warm.

It tastes like the sunlight in the front yard that she felt beside her mother talking with friends.

Drip!

‘No! Don’t cry!’

If you show weakness, you get devoured.

You get trampled and crushed.

That’s the world where children without parents live.

So these tears are just from the pepper in the pear being spicy.

Emma thought so.

“Sniff!”

“Sob!”

The children thought so too.

 

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