Translator: Nox

Chapter 1

1. Book

"His Majesty is entering~"

Eunuch Jang's voice echoed long and wide, and the civil and military officials gathered in Geunjeongjeon Hall bowed their heads all at once.

In the center of the silent space, a man strode towards the Dragon Throne located at the highest point.

The man wore a Dragon Robe of scarlet silk embroidered with golden dragons haphazardly.

It was clear that this space, no, everything in this country revolved around him.

The high-ranking officials in Official Attire were all focused on what orders would fall from his lips.

It was not once or twice that state affairs had been completely overturned by his one word.

No, it wasn't just that.

Perhaps the head of one of them could be chopped off right away.

After a long, thorny silence, the man's voice finally echoed softly.

"...Amazing."

It was the first word from the man sitting on the throne.

"Soft yet sweet, spicy yet electrifying, tangy yet sour, fishy yet refreshing, that new feeling embracing all harmony and contradiction..."

Since everyone was bowing their heads, they couldn't see his expression, so all they could know was his voice.

A sensual and passionate voice, like a young poet reciting poetry.

"Therefore, I have decided."

• Swish

The sharp sound of a sword being drawn echoed through the main hall.

It was said to be the man's habit to draw his sword himself at important moments.

The man in the red Dragon Robe took a step forward with a gleaming sword in his hand.

He stopped in front of a woman kneeling like a lonely island in the middle of the desolate, wide stone floor of the main hall.

"I will immediately..."

The woman closed her eyes tightly as she felt the blue sword light reflected on the floor.

Was she going to die like this?

But,

"...Appoint this woman as the Royal Cuisine Master of the Royal Kitchen."

An unexpected word popped out.

Royal Cuisine Master? That meant the best chef in the palace who served food to the King?

A stir began among the civil and military officials filling the main hall at the sudden words of the red Dragon Robe.

Regardless, the man continued without paying attention.

"From today, you shall cook for me every single day. But!"

"..."

"If you serve the same dish even for one day, you will be severely punished, so be aware."

Suddenly, the woman's head began to spin dizzily.

This strange place, this strange situation, and this man in the red Dragon Robe standing with a sword pointed at her.

Where on earth did it all go wrong?

Could it be from that day, which had now become a distant memory, but was only a few days ago?

---

'Beep beep-'

"Cinq minutes avant la fin (5 minutes to the end)"

Along with the mechanical alarm, the lights on the scoreboard in the hall turned on.

Dozens of different foreign languages ​​flew noisily into contestant number 32, Yeon Ji-yeong's ears.

But she couldn't lose her focus here.

'Hoo, slowly, just like I prepared.'

Ji-yeong took a deep breath and turned up the power on the induction range.

A dish that is completed by heating the surface to a high temperature.

But the light that should be turning bright red soon... something was strange.

'...?'

She pressed the button repeatedly, but the induction range's heat did not increase.

'It's broken!'

The moment that thought crossed her mind, the tips of her fingers trembled.

Less than 5 minutes left until the end.

This was not a place where excuses that the equipment was broken would work.

She had to complete the dish no matter what.

'There's no other way.'

Ji-yeong opened the wooden box placed on one side of the table and took out the things inside.

Korean paper and straw rope that had been used to package the ingredients brought from Korea.

Ji-yeong first rubbed the straw rope with her palm to loosen it into a bundle of straw, then pushed it into the pot along with the Korean paper scraps.

Then, when she shot a flame using a torch, it caught fire in an instant and smoke rose.

She heard that it was against the rules to light a fire in a studio full of lights and filming equipment.

But was this the time to worry about that?

"Excuse me, what are you doing now?"

A staff member wearing a headset hurriedly approached, and Ji-yeong spat out sharply.

"Can't you see? I'm cooking!"

The more cornered she was, the harder she pushed back.

That stubbornness that had been pointed out so many times since cooking school had finally exploded.

Leaving the dumbfounded staff member next to her, Ji-yeong placed a small grill in the pot where the straw fire was burning.

Then, after placing the prepared ingredients on top and closing the lid,

'Sizzle-'

The sound of the surface of the ingredients cooking from the heat of the straw fire was heard.

Sweat formed on Ji-yeong's forehead.

"1 minute left until the end"

Now it was time for the garnish.

She stirred the veloute sauce, which was made by mixing cream and bean soup and simmering it, to create a velvety foam, then spooned it on.

And on top of that, she lightly placed a tuile made by mixing misugaru (roasted grain powder).

Now, it was time to take out the secret weapon.

When she opened the lid of the prepared jar, a fragrant and sweet energy burst out.

The scent was so strong that people at the next table glanced over.

When she poured the golden, sticky liquid from the jar with a spoon, a beautiful abstract painting was drawn on the dish.

"Beep-"

Right then, the end signal sounded.

This was Paris, France.

Inside the studio where the world's best cooking competition, 'Cuisiner d'Or', was being broadcast live.

The war-like time in which chefs from over 50 countries around the world poured all their efforts into presenting their dishes within a limited time had just ended.

And contestant number 32, Yeon Ji-yeong, the only Korean participant in this competition, was standing right in the middle of it.

'That person is...'

Ji-yeong felt like her breath was stopping when she discovered someone among the judges who had come up on stage to evaluate the food.

A white-haired man who sharply examined the completed dish as if he were appraising pottery.

The idol of countless chefs, 'Alain Bocuse', called the living god of cooking.

From now on, all evaluations were entirely up to him.

His attitude towards food was truly worthy of being called the god of cooking.

The way he put the food on the table in his mouth, closed his eyes, and rolled it around for a long time as if savoring old wine, had an aura that made people hold their breath.

In his mouth, taste, smell, texture, and even every tiny taste bud were mobilized to analyze the food.

But that was all. After that, there were no words of evaluation or changes in expression.

'Ah... I'm so nervous that I feel like I'm going to faint.'

The more she felt this cold and precise food appraisal approaching, the faster Ji-yeong's heart began to beat.

When it was finally Ji-yeong's table's turn, she noticed the staff member who had warned her earlier whispering something in his ear.

She didn't even need to hear it to know.

He was probably telling him that she had used a straw fire, which was prohibited indoors.

Ji-yeong's insides were burning black, but on the outside, she spoke calmly.

"Korean beef cooked at a low temperature is braised with shiitake mushrooms in a 300-year-old soy sauce, then smoked with straw fire. It is flavored with a 4-year fermented Citron Syrup from a 500-year-old citron tree."

A fleeting expression of interest crossed the face of the 'God of Cooking' as he listened to the explanation.

After taking a spoonful of Ji-yeong's dish and putting it in his mouth, he closed his eyes.

Ji-yeong was impatient about how long that short moment of him savoring the taste would last.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes.

Ji-yeong felt like she had briefly made eye contact with those blue eyes.

He made a subtle expression that was hard to understand, then nonchalantly moved to the next table.

---

Everything that happened after that seemed like it had happened in a dream.

"This year's 'Cuisiner d'Or' winner, Mademoiselle Yeon Ji-yeong from Korea!"

The next day, the media headlines all poured out the name of an unfamiliar Korean.

Underneath it was Alain Bocuse's review.

"This young female chef from Korea is connecting two worlds, old Korea and modern France, through cooking. And that connection offers an amazing experience that completely immerses the person eating the food in a new world."

---

[Are you Ms. Yeon Ji-yeong?]

A stiff voice heard over the phone.

Seeing that it was a Korean number, it seemed to be another media company.

"Yes, that's right. Um, I'm sorry, but can I do the interview by email?"

While trying on clothes in a room as chaotic as if it had been bombed, Ji-yeong responded lukewarmly.

Interview requests had been pouring in since morning, but she didn't want to waste unnecessary time.

She was about to have a meeting after being offered the position of sous chef at Alain Bocuse's Michelin 3-star restaurant.

A position that every chef in the world dreamed of.

As Ji-yeong put on a neat jacket for the first time in a while and looked in the mirror, the voice over the AirPods continued.

[......Is your father Yeon Seung-woo?]

"Yes, that's right."

Something felt strange from then on.

Why were they looking for her father when they called her?

Ji-yeong turned her gaze to a small frame placed on the desk.

Inside it was Ji-yeong in her school uniform, and a middle-aged man with a stubborn expression wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

A historian who occasionally appeared on TV educational programs and was quite well-known in academia.

But the image of her father was not very affectionate to Ji-yeong.

'...Because he was only interested in being buried in old books.'

It must have been after her mother suddenly passed away.

Her father had been engrossed in researching old books to the point of obsession.

And.

That 'incident' happened.

One day, Ji-yeong inadvertently entered her father's study and discovered an old book.

'Record of Yearning for the Clouds'

A book of unknown authorship that was found in a pile of old books in Hwanghak-dong Bookstore.

The ancient book that her father was translating contained content that Ji-yeong could not have imagined.

It was a book that recorded the 'cooking methods' of the time.

'What... what is this feeling?'

Strangely enough, after that day, the contents of the book constantly lingered in Ji-yeong's mind.

Eventually, Ji-yeong even went so far as to create dishes based on the contents of the ancient book.

The experience of the recipes of a person who lived hundreds of years ago being revived as real food at her fingertips.

Wasn't it the same as the author of the past controlling Ji-yeong's hands, who was living in the present, transcending time and space?

And that experience was enough to completely change Ji-yeong's life.

"You said that if I get a perfect score on the college entrance exam, I can live my life the way I want from then on, right?"

What Ji-yeong said while handing over her perfect score report was that she would give up entering university and go to France to study cooking.

That day, her father slapped Ji-yeong's cheek for the first time, and Ji-yeong ran out of the house as if fleeing.

That was already seven years ago.

She was never going to return to Korea forever.

"...What's going on?"

[I'm sorry to suddenly say this...]

The voice on the phone responded dryly to Ji-yeong's question.

[Your father, Yeon Seung-woo, has fallen unconscious.]

---

The outer highway to Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Ji-yeong stepped on the accelerator.

The evening glow of Paris was reflected in the rearview mirror of the rental car.

How should she express this feeling?

The voice on the phone said that her father might not last even a few days.

She thought they had cut ties, so she thought she wouldn't have any feelings.

She didn't know her heart would be so complicated.

'The book that my father found ended up making everything like this.'

All of Ji-yeong's memories were intertwined with the moment she first read 'Record of Yearning for the Clouds', that ancient book.

From the time she was trimming vegetables at cooking school to last night's awards celebration.

And the sudden phone call that informed her of her father's condition, the numerous memories that had occurred in the meantime flashed by like a panorama.

What Alain Bocuse's review mentioned, 'connecting two worlds', might be her father's book, not Ji-yeong.

'There was something I couldn't say to my father.'

If she went back to Korea, would she be able to say those words that she had always owed him?

At that very moment,

A severe pain like a blade stabbed into Ji-yeong's head as she was driving the rental car.

Ji-yeong could tell instinctively. This was not just a simple headache.

An aching pain that dug into somewhere deep in the central nervous system in her brain.

Ji-yeong's vision began to blur.

At the same time, the old letters of 'Record of Yearning for the Clouds', the splendid French dishes, and the memories that had occurred in the meantime flew in quickly like a passing lantern.

So many images gathered and seemed to be bizarrely mixed like a collage of modern art, and then, a storm-like shock swept through Ji-yeong's head in an instant.

And, as if an overloaded fuse had blown, her consciousness disappeared.

The last thing Ji-yeong saw was the lights of a large truck approaching from the opposite side, along with a long honking sound.

---

A sea of ​​pitch-black darkness.

Ji-yeong, naked, was slowly floating in it.

The calm surface of the water reflected her appearance like a mirror.

Ji-yeong's body floated towards the surface as if approaching herself.

The very moment when the two Ji-yeong would meet on the surface.

"Huh!"

With a deep breath, Ji-yeong opened her eyes.

When she raised her upper body, the water filling her lungs spewed out.

Ji-yeong coughed and coughed.

It was an unfamiliar place.

She vaguely remembered up to the moment of the accident on the outer highway in Paris.

Could it be that she was ejected from the car by the impact and drifted to this strange waterfront?

Ji-yeong touched her body here and there, but surprisingly, there was no injury anywhere.

But the real surprise was from then on.

"......Huh?"

A group of people surrounding Ji-yeong at a distance.

Only after seeing them did Ji-yeong realize what she should really be surprised about.

Clothes that looked like they were from a historical drama, but even more shabby, dirty beards that they had never shaved since birth, and topknots with a lot of stray hairs sticking out.

Their appearance, whispering among themselves with torches under the twilight of early evening, was unmistakably that of Joseon Dynasty people.

"Where... where is this?"

Even in the midst of her bewilderment, Ji-yeong could vaguely feel it.

She had now come to a strange world far away, one that could not be connected by common sense.

And just as fate had unintentionally led her from Seoul to France, this time it had led her to an even stranger place.