I Don’t Want the Obsession of a Twisted Archduke

‘Ah, still, might be the first time I’ve ever felt this free.’

Of course, there was certain limit to walking around in the form of a child.

‘We were supposed to go to our destination right away…’

There was certain relief from the cute appearance of a child. Geppel was like a cute baby angel, even as big as he was.

‘I guess it’s fine to look around for a while.’

Meanwhile, Geppel ran to Adin Street without taking a single break.

‘… Should I just take it back.’

When the three of us followed Geppel, his hands were already full of food.

“Come on, this is the most famous lamb chops in Jakarta. You guys should try it! It’s delicious.”

Geppel handed us one by one as skewer.

‘Lamb skewers. Oh, they have some too.’

It felt good; a comforting sight.

Sejan and I grabbed the skewers right away, while Kyle just stared at it.

Geppel who saw his action, asked.

“What, Kyle? Haven’t you ever tried this?”

“…”

“I guess not…”

“… Noisy.”

Kyle took the skewers instead of answering, clearly annoyed by Geppel’s way of speaking. Then, nervously, he took a bite of the lamb skewer.

Kyle’s expression was more and more subtle; controlled. It probably didn’t suit his taste.

‘Turns out lamb skewers are as popular here as the were in Korea.’

I ate mine without hesitation as it was my favorite food, while Sejan mumbled without saying much.

“Well, it’s the first time I have try it, but it’s worth eating.”

“It’s not just worth eating it, it’s delicious.”

While Geppel got angry at Sejan’s remark, Kyle only stared at the remaining lamb skewers. When I saw Geppel giggling, I lost control over my serious expression and ate it up.

Well, it was kind of cute.

We leisurely spent some time looking around the small shops of the street vendors. There were so many familiar sights at once.

Like round dumplings from the east and the long rice cake, made with non-glutinous rice flour, which looked exactly like a garaetteok by the look of it. It didn’t feel like. The familiar sights were once again unlike anything I though of a fantasy world would have.

‘Yes, this is a place where everything comes in. Let’s not think too deeply about it.’

As the original writer, I decided to accept it instead of considering the collapse of the setting. It would take a while to adjust to reality like this.

“Uh.” Geppel looked around us and made a sound full of displeasure.

‘What is it?’

“Ugh.” I also made the same sound in response of what he was showing me.

Geppel was holding a roasted golden frog in front of him, and next to it was grilled grasshoppers, which were written as rare dishes.

‘Oh, I feel sick just by looking at it. I need to get out of here.’

While Geppel smiled significantly, a mischievous grin on his face, he looked at Kyle.

“Kyle, have you ever tried that? That’s a local specialty, so you have to try it.”

You’re lying. It was not a food that anyone and everyone would like.

‘But I’m a little curious about Kyle’s reaction.’

I glanced sideways at Kyle. The expression on his face was distorted more than usual. It was obvious that he didn’t like it.

Oh, my. I quickly covered my mouth. Knowing very well I shouldn’t laugh but was about to.

Kyle, who had been looking at the frog for a long time, said with an uncomfortable face.

“Is that a local specialty?”

“What do you mean, that’s what people love to eat.”

Nevertheless, Geppel did not bat an eyelid and responded with dexterity.

Before Kyle could answer anything, Geppel added.

“Oh, can’t you eat anything like that? Some people can’t eat that.”

“…Who said I couldn’t eat?” Kyle immediately refuted.

It seemed to have touched the pride of the dragon.

“Okay. Then try it. I’ll go get it.”

“… Yes.”

Kyle replied to Geppel’s wedge as usual, but he didn’t seem pleased.

Pff, pfff.

Sejan, watching the scene, was holding back his laughter, almost fainting from behind. So, it was then that poor Kyle, caught in Geppel’s prank, decided to eat roasted frogs.

“Hey…”

Huh? Nearby, I heard a little boy’s voice. When I looked back unconsciously, a very small, thin boy stood. The child had a very pathetic look on his face.

‘Hold on.’

Now the boy was grabbing Kyle’s collar slightly. He seemed to have been targeted.

“I, my, my noble lady. Please buy me flowers, my, my flowers.…”

The boy was holding a flower in his hand; stuttering his words to the fullest extent.

I paused for a moment.

‘That flower must have been…’

In my head, what happened before passed like a panorama.

Yeah, that purple flower.

That flower, the same unnamed wild flower that Kyle had stepped on not long after I came to Romani Castle.

‘It’s a flower that bloomed in this area, too.’

I suddenly got curious, before Kyle said those wild flowers had no value. Then how about now?

‘Will he react a little differently? Shall I act the same way?’

I stared at Kyle without a word. Geppel and Sejan were also keeping quiet.

Kyle opened his mouth in a calm demenure. “…Are you asking me to buy that flower?”

Only silence followed the question.

I almost groaned. Honestly, I was drained of all my energy. Kyle was always cold. I thought he had changed a little.

‘No…’

Back then and now, Kyle.

‘You don’t think that flower is worth anything.’

I saw a boy who was very scared in my somewhat sunken eyes.

‘I’m going to buy some flowers and let him go.’

I tried to hurry up and talk to him, but Kyle opened his mouth again.

“So, what is the name of the flower?”

Huh? I doubted my ears. What did Kyle just say?

The child blinked as if he hadn’t expected the question to come in. He didn’t seem to hear it.

Kyle asked back with a look of annoyance.

“What’s the name of the flower, little boy?”

“Ah, the, it’s a flower called a wild pea. It grows at the foot of the mountain. It usually bloom around May, but it is strangely still blooming now in winter.”

Conceivably, the child was so nervous, and he explained in more details than necessary the flower. I looked at Kyle all along.

‘That flower had a name, too.’

Kyle replied with a smile, thinking it was a new discovery.

“Wild pea, that’s a really bad name. So how much is that?”

“What?”

“Are you not selling those flowers, so tell me the price.”

“Oh, yes, it’s just one copper.”

One copper. Kyle paused when he heard the price.

One copper was so small considering that one silver was worth 100 of them gathered.

Kyle, who had not spoken for a moment, rummaged through his pockets, but what comes out in his hands was gold, gold and more gold. I couldn’t even see one piece of silver.

‘Oh, my God. Now, platinum is coming out.’

One platinum was a large amount of money; worth 100 gold each. It was such a large sum that it was rarely used in the market, not even high nobles were using it.

The child opened his mouth as he watched the gold that kept coming out. I talked to him because he looked cute, and he seemed very surprised since Kyle seemed richer than he thought.

Kyle soon stopped doing what he was doing.

“…”

There was silence. Well, I knew why.

Kyle didn’t even have one silver in the first place.

‘I guess one copper is too low for his standard.’

Nevertheless, Kyle didn’t give the kid a gold coin. He seemed well aware that giving gold to such a small child could be rather poisonous.

“Oh, you don’t have a copper or a silver?” Geppel, who had been watching silently until now, blamed Kyle.

He, then, took a coin out of his pockets.

“Hey, little boy. I don’t have a copper, but I have a silver. Would you like to trade all the flowers you have?”

“Really? Is it really fine?”

It was a funny and cute scene when a kid called the other kid; a little boy. The child was visibly pleased that he didn’t care about such comment.

One silver was a lot of money for a kid.

“Thank you!”

As it was, the boy who received the silver, quickly waved his hand and disappeared. Leaving a basket of flowers in the hand of Geppel.

Suddenly. Geppel shoved the basket of flowers to me.

“Riddel, I’ll give you this.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Yes. I saw you looking at the flowers very seriously, and I think you like them more than I do, so I’ll give them to you.”

Seriously, it was just because of Kyle.

However, I did like flowers, so I decided to accept them. It would not make sense to refuse them.

That’s what I thought , but…

Kyle snatched the basket of flowers before I received them.

“What is it?”

“What?”

At the same time, Geppel and I looked at Kyle without thinking.

Nevertheless, Kyle showed with vigor that he would not hand over the flower basket, holding it tightly in his hand.

“I’ll take this. I’ll trade it for one platinum.”

51

“No! That’s what I bought for Riddel.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it either!”

Before I knew it, the two of them were quarreling. A immature fight between a child and an adult in the eyes of others.

‘… what the hell are you doing in the middle of the market?’

Those two are the only ones who would fight to trade flowers for one piece of platinum.

I sighed deeply, thinking that we should get back to our original goal quickly.

***

After many twists and turns, we ended our journey to the last stall and entered the back alley of the local market.

It was our destination of the day.

Jakarta’s back alley was connected to a slum. Even so, it was no exaggeration to say that it was a clean area compared to other local slums.

‘Actually, the slums in the west have the highest murder cases.’

Still, slums were slums.

‘It’s certainly rare.’

I looked carefully at the buildings while walking down the street. Looking carefully, I needed to find a blue brick building after walking down five blocks.

That was where Geppel wanted to go.

‘Oh, there it is.”

I quickly found the blue brick and went further along the wall. Then again, we walked about 20 steps before stopping.

“Huh? Riddel, why are you suddenly stopping in front of the wall?” Geppel asked wondering.

“We are looking for a portal to a hidden location.”

“What? Do you mean they even use a portal to hide the place?”

Geppel was sporting an expression of pure bewilderment from the recent discovery. It was understandable.

In this world, it was extremely rare for people to actually use portals, and even if they were looking for it, it could only be used by paying astronomical amounts. The people who used portals were also one of the deceased clans.

‘I guess I used to love the word “destruction” when I was a kid.’

I shook my head thinking of my own atrocities when I was young and soon touched the wall. The method was the same as opening a secret passage for Geppel. The door was protected by a password.

‘The password is…’

“Chitkey.”

“Chitkey?”

The wall began to glow lightly while Geppel muttered with questions such as “what does that mean?”.

The portal was opened.

Soon after, a vortex bloomed on the wall, and gradually grew and grew bigger. I looked back, then nodded after checking everyone’s facial expressions. The four of us soon walked into the portal without anyone else.

In an instant, the space twisted, and the scenery changed. Before we knew it, we were standing in front of a white palace.

Shortly after, a polite and heartwarming greeting came to us. “Welcome to Pandora’s shop, where we have everything except for nothing.”

It was somewhat exaggerated to say there were selling everything in the world.

‘A secret shop where cheat keys exist in terms of the game.’

Thanks to this, many nobles were enthusiastic, but sadly, there were only two opportunities a year to buy things. It was also possible only when the local market was opened.

‘Also, most people go back empty-handed because of the fierce competition.’

In addition, there were some products that sold under strict measure, and it was difficult to buy them, as difficult as to buy stars in the sky.

‘It’s a problem if you succeed in purchasing it easily.’

Products such as a love potion, a disposable lie detector, etc.

This line may seem like a suspicious disorder of a miscellaneous merchant, but the products here were very effective. If you drink a love potion, you will love your opponent until you die. A disposable lie detector would reveal the truth that you didn’t even know.

Pandora’s store had a high reputation, but the treatment was different when customers visited in person. They welcomed you enthusiastically and sell you anything.

I soon made eye contact with the man who just greeted me, and I was a little surprised. That man was none other than the owner of the store. It was rare for him to show up.

‘You’re lucky.’

He was a nameless character with natural gray hair and orange fox eyes… It wasn’t built to preserve the image surrounded by veils of portals. Oh, the old me…

Why was my brutality endless?

Anyway, the owner said with a smile on his face.

“Is there anything you’re looking for?”

Jewelry made of the tears from the last mermaid in this world? A dress made of invaluable silk and shaped like an angel robe? Or pheromone perfume that increases your charm by 10 times?

He confidently recited a list of items that the ladies would enjoy looking for. I made sure I didn’t seem to care that I would want those kinds of objects.

I shouted confidently.

“Dessert.”

“What?”

“I’d like to buy a dessert. Can you show me to the dessert room?”

Dessert? Just dessert after coming all the way here. The sound of his heart seemed to be vividly heard.

‘I guess it was because dessert is a product that you can buy in the open market.’

After a brief pause, he quickly came to his senses and quickly led us to the snack room.

His expression was still blank.

***

“Oh, my God, that, that, that…!”

When he arrived at the dessert room with the owner, Geppel was unable to hide his excitement. The room was packed of all kinds of colorful desserts, in line with the reputable rare desserts in this world.

Honestly, I was excited too. And one of them caught Geppel’s eye. That was exactly what had been sitting on Geppel’s desk.

‘It’s the most difficult dessert to get.’

The “Eastern Cultural Snacks” were piled up like mountains. It was an old snack sold in traditional markets in Korea, like Togin Market.

At any rate, Geppel lost his dignity again and ran towards the snacks. Geppel liked desserts. He didn’t just like it. He liked it so much that his hands were trembling if he didn’t have dessert even for a day.

However, the temple forbids dessert.

‘In order to make the body and mind reverent, stimulating food should be prohibited. What am I saying?’

The only food they were giving out at the temple was the same thing, rice, rice and more rice. Or porridge and watery soup. They were also tough breads made of 100% rye and fresh vegetables. Meat once a month, only the steamed kind. Of course, there was no taste.

‘Almost to the level of palate destruction.’

As a result, the fundamental reason why Geppel was playing hooky all the time was because of snacks.

As such…

Geppel, who had been unable to take his eyes off the old snack heaven for a while, looked somewhere and asked.

“Owner, what’s this snack? I’ve never seen it before. That’s very unique.”

“Oh, this is a recent snack from the East. I’m going to put it out at the next open market, but they’re so rare that I don’t know their names.”

“This is all I want.” I jumped into the conversation between the two of them. Whether or not, I added an explanation.

“It’s a snack that maximizes savory taste by adding nuts such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and almond slices, and sweetened with honey called jocheong.”

I was unknowingly excited by the familiar snack I haven’t seen in a long time.

“You can make it soft and hard depending on the person you make it. Anything is delicious, so I recommend it.”

“Really? Then what about this?”

Dumbfounded by my detailed explanation, he swallowed his saliva and soon pointed to something else and asked.

Oh, that one. I didn’t answer that much.

“This is a sorghum cone. It’s made by frying corn, but it’s more savory than sweet. It’s a hard texture, so it’s fun to chew. This is good to enjoy as a light snack. Well, now that I see it, it’s also a medicine.”

Oh, my God. All the snacks that could have been found in in Korea were gathered. Somehow, I felt like I was in my home country. I looked carefully at the snacks.

“Wow, there’s Budae Jjigae. This is a pan-shaped bottle. This is a peanut pancake. Huh? What the. Here’s some plum crackers-aah.”

I paused in the middle of my explanation.

I realized later that I was so absorbed by the snacks than I realized. Sneakily looking around, I faltered. It was from the sight of four person looking at me. Curious eyes as they had discovered a strange animal.

Among them, the owner looked beyond ecstatic.

I immediately blushed under their gazes.

“How do you know Eastern snacks so well?”

Oops. Looking at his jubilant expression, I felt like I had made a mistake. It was not a dangerous mistake, but it just popped up uselessly.

‘Then maybe it’s a mistake.’

Fortunately, the owner seemed to be asking with pure intentions rather than suspicion.

I answered with the most indifferent expression in order not to show my embarrassment. “It just happened to be like that’s what happened.”

“You’re amazing. I don’t know much about Eastern snacks and I’m often confused by all the different sorts of food available.”