Chapter 1: I don’t think its free.
The figures gathered in the Hohenstein royal palace all wore grave expressions.
“This is the first time the Lord God has even granted an oracle… Hoo. I only hope we will not be disappointed after raising our expectations.”
“Nonsense! Do you not trust the Lord God? This time it is certain!”
Those assembled were the royal retainers, the priests dispatched in large numbers from the holy nation that worshipped the Lord God.
And the king.
“Silence. Proceed with the summoning.”
“……Yes!”
When she, dark circles heavy beneath her eyes, gave a light nod of her chin, the people who had been debating the summoning all bowed their heads deeply at once.
It was the charisma befitting a wise ruler who had protected the kingdom for ten years even amid the great catastrophe of the Demon King’s army invading the human world.
Yet in truth she was muttering something entirely lacking in charisma to herself.
‘Please, let this hero party succeed…!!’
-Squeeze.
She squeezed her eyes shut completely, the lids trembling from exhaustion.
The hero party.
A gathering of those who had received the Lord God’s blessing. Beings who grew endlessly stronger the more evil they destroyed.
The Demon King’s army’s natural enemies, whose every action carried divinity.
The last remaining ray of hope for humanity that was walking the path of ruin by the moment.
Yet humanity had lost hero parties no fewer than twice in the past ten years.
Once in battle against the Four Heavenly Kings. The other time in their very first battle right after selection.
Even a hero party consisted of ordinary people immediately after receiving the blessing, and that was how it had happened.
And the Lord God had granted an oracle to select a third hero five years after the previous hero party’s annihilation.
Having keenly felt how powerless humanity without a hero had been against the Demon King’s army for the past five years, the king placed earnest hope in this hero summoning.
Having been disappointed twice already, it would have been natural to abandon expectation…
But this time the Lord God Himself was said to be sending down an apostle.
There was no choice but to hope.
‘May the savior of humanity come this time…!!!’
“Then, we shall begin the summoning!”
The expectations others placed on the hero summoning were equally great, so the ritual began at once without further words.
And then,
-Fwaaaah!!!
‘…It was summoned!’
The interior of the royal palace was filled with a dazzling light that gradually faded.
That light was the explosion of divine power announcing the success of the summoning formula.
Everyone without exception turned their gazes toward the summoning circle.
Carrying earnest prayers.
———And the mouths of the women who saw the man who appeared atop the summoning circle all fell open at once.
“Wow…”
‘Lord God, did You perhaps select him by appearance…?’
Antique white clothes. Sharp features. Brilliant golden hair cascading down to his shoulders.
An exceedingly handsome man stood there.
At a glance one might mistake him for a woman…
Yet the prominent Adam’s apple, the slenderly extended fingers, and the overall atmosphere subtly revealed his gender.
Their admiration rose another notch when he opened his eyes.
“………? Ah, um. Ahem.”
He looked up at them, then soon gazed into empty air and smiled.
The decadent beauty filling those eyes held a charm that kindled fire in the hearts of many women.
Even the king could not hold back and parted her lips.
“……Silence. It seems he is receiving the Lord God’s words, so everyone close your mouths.”
“…Yes.”
Interpreting his fixed gaze into the air as the figure of a saint receiving the Lord God’s oracle, the king commanded silence.
Because a faint divine power lingered about him, the king’s hasty assumption sounded rather reasonable…
Contrary to expectation, the summoned one, Lee Sihyun, was simply fixing his gaze on the status window that had floated up before his eyes.
[To subjugate the Demon King’s army——.]
‘I got possessed into that game!! This is going to be fun!!!’
Recognizing the familiar UI that had appeared before his eyes, Sihyun realized at once that he had been possessed.
In complete contrast to their serious atmosphere, his heart soared boundlessly.
It was the pure gamer’s way of thinking that considered it true fortune to be able to play a full-dive game he had thought impossible before death in this manner.
‘Now then… this is the standard, right? Status!’
-Ding!
=====
Name : (Undecided) (24 years old, Male)
Level : 0
Title : Porter
Stats : Strength [1.50] Agility [3.00] Intelligence [2.10] Luck [7.70] Magic Power [0.50] Divine Power [1.05]
Owned Skills : Cooking Lv.Max (Normal)
Owned Blessings : None
Current Status : No special notes
Preferred Cuisine : Korean food in general
=====
‘Ohhh! Ohhhh!! There’s a cooking skill…… Hm?’
Sihyun cheered once more after opening the status window.
Yet at the keyword “Porter” in the title, his brows furrowed slightly.
‘…Right. I needed to adjust the value rankings too.’
The reason Sihyun had been judged a porter by the status window was simple.
Dungeon Princess was a game in which the value among units placed in a party was sharply divided.
That value indicating strength was counted by the cost called divinity. In the game one had to form a party combination within limited divinity.
And what decided a unit’s performance within that divinity was the skill.
Because the cooking skill had a value of 0, the status window had expressed him, who possessed only the cooking skill, as the porter of the hero party.
A sigh escaped his lips.
“Sigh…”
‘Treating the cooking skill this poorly? Developer, you really are a plump little rice cake.’
“U-um… Apostle-nim?”
“……Yes?”
He withdrew his eyes from the empty air with a sigh.
A priest carefully approached.
“Did the Lord God perhaps bestow words upon you?”
‘Lord God…? Ah, judging by the clothes and reactions, they are treating me as the Lord God’s apostle on the day of summoning? Ohh, the setting is fun!’
“Yes. I was commanded to save this world.”
The quick-witted Sihyun instantly grasped how he was being treated from that appearance. Afterward he began acting according to that setting.
As a pure gamer who had completely mastered even things like TRPGs, this kind of role-playing was a fragrant spice that enhanced the flavor of the game.
The acting, in which he even changed his tone from his usual sharp voice to a gentle one, worked perfectly.
“O-ohhh…!! The Lord God has not abandoned us, has not abandoned humanity!!!”
“Uwooooo!!!”
The people cheered at the words that the apostle the Lord God Himself had sent down had received not some complicated oracle but a direct command.
Even the king herself trembled her shoulders in anticipation, and the people fell into a frenzy of excitement.
This time it might truly be different. This hero party might truly end this long war and restore peace to humanity.
This time at last, the savior of humanity had come.
———But afterward the atmosphere of the hall reversed one hundred and eighty degrees at the priest’s words.
“Th-then did the Lord God not bestow some special ability upon you? Since you are one the Lord God Himself sent down, you must surely possess an extraordinary power!”
“Of course! I know how to cook!”
“……Yes?”
When asked if he had a special ability, he answered with a confident smile.
Their excitement cooled rapidly.
“…That is remarkable. But can you do nothing other than cooking? Such as using magic, or caring for people with divine power.”
“Knowing how to cook is enough, is it not? …The Lord God said so.”
“……Haaaaaah.”
Afterward they let out long sighs.
…Everyone had expected it to some degree.
How could such a delicate-looking man possibly shoulder the task of saving the world in the first place.
Thinking he had clearly been sent down merely as someone to clean up after the other heroes, they could not help but be disappointed.
And that appearance touched Sihyun’s reverse scale.
‘……Just now, that was completely ignoring the cooking skill, right? Without even knowing how broken the cooking skill is!! I will not let you off just because you are pretty!!’
“Why that reaction?”
“…It is nothing. Merely——”
“Are you saying I look useless?”
“……!!!!?”
Sihyun rose resolutely with a combative expression.
…Of course that was only Sihyun’s thought. To them it only looked as though he was smiling with overflowing sex appeal, but anyway.
Sihyun slowly raised his right hand just like that.
“It will be faster to show you directly.”
-Crack!!
And a massive magic circle formed at his fingertips.
A top-tier spatial magic was cast as if it were nothing.
The people who had been disappointed gathered their gazes once more on that radiant sight.
Afterward his pure white hand plunged into the magic circle.
[Cooking Lv.Max (Normal) – Having reached the realm of a master, you can cook anywhere, in any situation.]
[Additional Effect : Vulcanus’s Blessing (Mythic, Unique) – The blessing of Vulcanus, god of blacksmiths. You can summon the armaments that Vulcanus Himself forged.]
‘Now then. To show off that I am good at cooking….’
-Rummage rummage.
His hand disappeared as if it had entered another space.
-Grab.
‘Yes. Visually this is the best.’
Only after rummaging through the empty air for a moment and seizing what he sought did he withdraw his hand in satisfaction.
In that hand that emerged from the magic circle beautiful as if lightning were rising…
Was a knife. And a heavy Chinese cleaver at that.
“…………!!!!?”
“A knife came out of empty air!? What is that!!!”
“Was he a great mage!?”
At the sight of him summoning a knife from empty air without even casting, the people in the royal palace were so astonished they could not even point out that he had drawn a weapon and simply collapsed in shock.
Yet Sihyun only raised the Chinese cleaver to his chest with a confident face.
With an expression that looked utterly harmless to the world.
“If you taste my cooking, your thoughts will change. Now then… may I borrow a kitchen?”
It was only one hour before the fact that Sihyun’s cooking was hundreds of times more broken than expected would be known to the entire world.