HRB 142

Haaah, Sebastian, letting out a grand sigh, finally managed to utter this.

“I miss them.”

A face he hadn’t seen in months; he felt like he might forget it if this continued.

Eddie, who had been quietly watching Sebastian and diligently wiping the POS machine with a wet wipe, also sighed and empathized.

“Me too.”

The two were silent for a while.

As only the faint hum of the rotating refrigerator echoed in the quiet space, Sebastian, thinking it had been long enough and perhaps this was it for today, was about to take a sip of the last remaining drink when Eddie spoke.

“Speaking of which, Sebastian?”

“Yes, what is it now?”

Sebastian, his face openly showing annoyance at how bothersome questions about Gerold seemed to be, brought the drink bottle to his lips. But Eddie launched a surprise attack on that face.

“How far have you and Gerold gone?”

Gasp Fortunately, he hadn’t drunk anything yet, so he didn’t spit it out, but Sebastian’s face turned bright red.

He turned to Eddie with a slightly angry expression.

“Eddie, what are you, Ebon? Are you going to keep ambushing me like an assassin?”

“Uh, well, it wasn’t intentional…”

Don’t people who are close ask questions like this? They know each other well enough. Eddie tilted his head.

“Besides, if it were Ebon, he would have attacked before even thinking of it as a surprise.”

“That’s not what’s important right now!”

“Sorry, you don’t have to say it if it’s uncomfortable.”

Eddie responded in what he thought was a mature way. A warm consideration that he didn’t have to speak if it was uncomfortable.

However, Sebastian didn’t seem to be in a mood for such mature responses.

Sebastian, blushing and flustered, ground his teeth and opened his mouth.

“……You don’t know that the inn’s soundproofing wasn’t that great, do you?”

“Huh?”

“I heard everything back then. You stayed up all night.”

For a moment, Eddie blinked, unable to understand what he meant. But soon, he realized when Sebastian was referring to, and his face turned a deep crimson.

“What… wait a minute, you heard all of that?”

“Of course! When you two first started, I caught you, didn’t I! And then all night long, I could hear those sounds, how could I not know?”

“No—”

“‘It’s good,’ ‘There’s nothing more to come out,’ I heard all of that with my own two ears!”

Sebastian seemed to think the two of them had built the Great Wall that day, but that was a complete misunderstanding.

That day, they were just… rubbing against each other…

Thinking that far, Eddie’s face flushed intensely.

Eddie, who hadn’t expected to be counterattacked, stammered, unable to explain or clarify, and seeing Sebastian’s face, which inexplicably wore a smile of victory as he looked at Eddie’s flustered expression, he couldn’t help but blurt out.

He spat out the words that had risen to his throat.

“You… do you insert yourself?”

“What…?”

Sebastian stopped mid-sentence, realizing the meaning himself, and his face turned bright red, just like Eddie’s. Is this person serious?

“No, what are you talking about! Eddie, are you really crazy?”

From then on, a childish argument began.

“Who inserts themselves? It’s Ketron, right? I knew it!” “What? And you!” “It wouldn’t be surprising if Gerold was on top!” “What do you mean?”

Such childish exchanges continued back and forth, and finally, realizing that there would be no winner, only two losers, they both grew tired and slumped.

“Eddie, the way you talk, you seem like an ordinary person. Are you really a prince?”

Sebastian seemed genuinely surprised that his boss, who was bickering with him, was a prince.

Well, who wouldn’t be? Even Eddie himself found it strange that he was a prince. It was a valid question. Of course, if Gerold or Ebon heard this, they would have glared with fierce eyes.

“Uh, well. Yes.”

“What kind of vague answer is that?”

“It’s true that I’m not very princely.”

In reality, he had no years of life as a prince. His identity was revealed due to an attack incident, and if the Emperor, who had become sensitive about Eddie’s safety, hadn’t summoned him to the Imperial Palace, he probably would have lived his life without ever knowing what it meant to be a prince.

Lee Jeong-hoon, an ordinary South Korean youth from the 21st century, was not a person with a strong sense of authority. He hadn’t been born into such a family either. Even ordering someone around with a mere gesture felt awkward.

“What exactly do you do, Eddie? Honestly, this place, and you being a prince, I don’t really feel it. You, who was just a friend I chatted with every day, suddenly being royalty, I thought the world was playing a joke on me.”

Sebastian grumbled, as if this was something he had wondered about for a long time.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have been able to ask normally, but given the current situation, being alone in a place where no one could overhear them, he seemed to think it was a good time for a secret conversation.

Though Sebastian hadn’t intended it, the moment he heard the question, Eddie was reminded of his private meeting with Laila a few days prior.

“Who exactly are you?”

It must have been right after she said, “I apologize for inviting you to such a humble place.” She had spat out that question at Eddie as if she had been waiting for it.

Coming from the Saintess, who was known for being kind and considerate, the question was utterly out of the blue, and Eddie didn’t know how to react, his eyes rolling around.

It wasn’t a question about Eddie’s status, but something more fundamental.

“What do you mean by that…?”

Because she was the Saintess who heard the voice of God directly, Eddie knew her words weren’t entirely baseless. But all Eddie could do was feign ignorance.

Seeing Eddie’s attitude, Laila seemed to sense that he had no intention of explaining and let out a small sigh.

That day too, Eddie had a long conversation with her, much like he was having with Sebastian now.

“God said. There are no words to define you.”

“I know it’s presumptuous, but I asked God if you were truly the one who loved him.”

“Just in case you were a bad person. Out of concern.”

“……It was a needless worry.”

“I once held him in my heart… but I know that place beside him is not mine.”

“Please take good care of him.”

She, who had been engaged to a fake hero without recognizing the true hero right beside her, how much pain must she have felt after her memories returned?

But since she could smile steadfastly while looking at someone else whom the man she loved, loved, Eddie didn’t think he needed to worry about her.

Sebastian’s question, while slightly different from hers, had a similar undertone. The meaning of “Who exactly are you?” was the same.

“I am….”

Although he started speaking without a clear direction, Eddie didn’t know what to say. I am? I am.

“Just an ordinary person.”

In the end, that was all Eddie could say. In reality, he was an ordinary person.

Whether it was good luck or bad luck, he was just an ordinary person who had been dragged into this world.

“No. I’m a lucky person.”

Because he was lucky enough to fall into this world and meet Ketron. While dying was unlucky, meeting Ketron immediately after falling here was fortunate.

Whether it was reincarnation or transmigration, how easy is it to have a healthy body, a good appearance, and an extraordinary status?

Everyone might have the heart of a prince, but in reality, they were commoners. If you had to say, Eddie was on the lucky side.

“Honestly, if you’re talking about the luckiest person, isn’t it you?”

Besides, there was another lucky person here. Sebastian, who had been listening to Eddie’s words, looked puzzled.

“Me?”

“Yeah, when you first came here and took the test, you just picked the ingredients as your heart desired.”

“Ah, well, I did do that.”

When asked to pick kimchi ingredients, unlike everyone else who hesitated, Sebastian was the one who picked the correct answers without hesitation from the start.

“I didn’t know that would be the start of the Kimchi Hell, though.”

“Aha, I see.”

Eddie chuckled. It had been months, but the memory was vivid.

Back then, he had genuinely hoped to manage the inn well and make a living, without any major worries.

He didn’t know his true identity, nor the will of this world’s story, and lived peacefully without knowing when the bomb he carried might explode.

Time had passed anyway, things had happened, and now he was a prince. The days when everyone didn’t know Eddie’s identity, and the days when they didn’t know Ketron, were gone, and reminiscing about them changed nothing.

Eddie quickly dispelled the faint, wistful memories that were starting to bloom.

Instead of reminiscing, he decided to plan for the future.

“Sebastian.”

“Yes.”

“I want you to take over the inn. What do you think?”

Of course, Sebastian, hearing about his future, which had not been agreed upon, widened his eyes.

“……What?”

“Honestly, it’s probably difficult for me to work directly as the innkeeper now.”

No matter how much Eddie rebuilt the inn and grandly reopened Eddie’s Inn Ver2, he couldn’t work like he did in the past.

Eddie was a prince, and Ketron was a Hero. Gerold and Ebon would also gain immense fame as members of the Hero’s party upon their return, so they couldn’t work as they did before.

Therefore, Sebastian was the only one who could actually work.

“You be the de facto owner.”

“Well, I’m not an idiot, so I can roughly guess the reason, but it’s still too sudden.”

“That’s how life is. Opportunities always come suddenly.”

“You sound like you’ve lived a lifetime.”

Although he grumbled, Sebastian didn’t seem to dislike the proposal much.

He probably had his own worries. How to envision his future with Gerold. Eddie had just added an option to those worries.

“Then what will Eddie do?”

“Me? I’ll be a figurehead owner.”

And the convenience store provider?

Eddie scratched the back of his head. Regardless, one of Eddie’s Inn’s identities was its convenience store items. The main menu would still be fire chicken noodle.

He just wouldn’t be on the front lines, so being a figurehead owner would suit him.

What’s a figurehead owner? Seeing Sebastian’s bewildered face, Eddie chuckled.

“You’ve rested enough, haven’t you?”

Eddie got up from his chair and stretched his stiff shoulders. They still hadn’t even looked at a fraction of the convenience store items.

“Let’s brainstorm business ideas. And let’s have some tastings, Owner.”

This was the prelude to a food torture session disguised as brainstorming business ideas, but Sebastian, who didn’t know that yet, just looked bewildered.