I’m Quitting Everything and Selling Cola

Chapter 171

Chapter 171. Power Struggle (2)

Afternoon sunlight poured peacefully through the windows of the reception room.

"Urgh……"

Penelope was sprawled across the sofa, groaning.

After her confrontation with Clarisse. She had drunk so heavily that she was now suffering from a wretched hangover. Worried she would sleep the whole day away if she stayed in bed, she had somehow dragged herself out as far as the reception room—

And it was nothing short of hell.

Only after downing several glasses of honey water was Penelope able to recover somewhat.

"Phew, a bit better."

As the headache subsided, her sense of reality slowly returned.

The assignment the Queen had thrown at her. Clarisse, who would clearly not stand by and do nothing.

"Ah, my head hurts again……"

Whatever was she to do about all of this?

Set up a thousand furnaces or something? Should she rent out every nearby restaurant?

With a minimum of fifty thousand and no telling how many she would actually need to serve, she genuinely had no idea where to begin.

Click.

"Ugh……"

The sound of the front door opening rattled through her head.

"You're back? Already?"

They were back sooner than expected. They had said they would go sightseeing and do market research, so she had assumed they wouldn't return until evening — yet here they were, with the sun still high in the sky.

Penelope staggered to her feet and went to meet them.

"How was the capital? Did you bring anything good back to eat—"

The words died in Penelope's throat as she moved to greet them warmly. Because the state Serena and Brigitte had come back in was a sorry sight.

These were not the faces of people returning from an enjoyable outing. They had the glazed, hollow look of someone who had lost everything and been tossed out onto the street. On top of that, there was no sign of Jurgen anywhere.

"Where's Jurgen?"

"There she goes again, looking for Jurgen first. Absolutely stuck to him like glue."

"Pardon?"

"Ah, it's nothing……"

Serena stuck her lip out listlessly.

"Why the atmosphere? Did someone pickpocket you?"

"……"

"Or did you run into a noble you knew, Serena, and get an earful?"

"……"

Serena trudged over and collapsed onto the sofa. Brigitte crouched down beside her, hugging her knees.

"Penelope…… we're done for."

"What on earth are you on about?"

Serena stared up at the ceiling with a defeated expression and muttered.

"Two hundred thousand, apparently."

"Pardon?"

"Jurgen said we need to prepare for two hundred thousand people."

Penelope's head went blank.

The number she had been working with was one hundred thousand at most. Of course that was already more than enough, but never had she expected the figure of two hundred thousand to come tumbling out like that.

It was the scale of feeding an entire major city whole. A scene in which a population of that size all gathered in one place, clamouring for food. The mere thought of it made her chest seize up.

The funding, the Royal Household had said they would provide.

But could Y&P Trading Company realistically manage the logistics, the cooking, the distribution, all at that scale?

Serena muttered gravely.

"Penelope…… do you think they might have called us here simply to bury Y&P Trading Company?"

"What a disrespectful thing to say."

"Otherwise, why would they give us a mission this absurd. Elevation to Royal Trading Company? That was all just bait! They're planning for us to fail and be humiliated, dragging the Rosemore family name through the mud along with us — a high-level political assassination!"

That couldn't be it.

Because Sister Clarisse had come in person and openly pressured her to 'go back.'

But even to Penelope's eye, Serena's suspicion was reasonable. It was that much of an impossible task.

"Ha…… this is giving me a headache."

The hangover that all those glasses of honey water hadn't managed to shift had suddenly cleared right up.

"So where is Jurgen? What did he say?"

"Well! Master took one look at the square and said 'Hmm, as expected — it really is vast. Even bigger than I thought'……"

"And then?"

"He vanished! He told us to head back first and then—"

"He did say something about needing to devise a new strategy……"

Even for Jurgen — could he really pull off this unprecedented mass catering? Serena, Brigitte, and even Penelope, who believed in Hanbin above all else, felt the seeds of doubt quietly beginning to sprout.

And so, with nothing but a heavy silence pressing down on the reception room—

Time passed helplessly.

Until the sunlight streaming through the windows turned amber, and long shadows stretched across the reception room floor. Jurgen did not return.

"Penelope…… do you think I could slip away on my own?"

Serena, draped across the sofa, murmured vacantly at the ceiling.

"Absolutely not."

Penelope replied with a weak voice.

"Where has Master Jurgen gone off to, and what is he doing…… You don't think he went to argue with the Queen?"

"……Even if it's Hanbin-nim, going to the Queen is…… Actually, he might just……?"

—Grrruumble.

Shattering the solemn silence, a thunderous rumble rang out from Brigitte's stomach. Serena and Penelope's gazes snapped simultaneously to Brigitte.

"S-sorry…… I was so shocked I missed lunch……"

Brigitte's face turned red as she clutched her stomach.

"……Come to think of it, my stomach is unsettled too."

"Shall we eat something?"

"Yes! I'll cook!"

"I'll help."

"No, no! I'll do it!"

Just as they were rising to eat Brigitte's cooking and lift their spirits somehow—

Creak.

Jurgen walked in.

"Everyone's gathered here, I see. Why does it feel like a funeral parlour?"

"Where were you?"

"I borrowed a kitchen for a while. At the former restaurant where Chef Gabriel used to work."

"A restaurant?"

At that moment. A peculiar scent drifted past the tip of Penelope's nose.

"……?"

This smell. It's familiar. Not just familiar — it was a smell so deeply embedded it might as well have been stamped into anyone who was a member of Y&P Trading Company.

The sweet-and-savoury aroma of a Ganjang-based sauce. And along with it, the comforting, fragrant scent of freshly cooked rice.

"This smell…… is it Braised Ribs? Wait — but it seems somehow different too."

Brigitte tilted her head.

"Perfect timing! We were just about to eat!"

"I timed it well then. Do sit down and eat."

The silver dome covering the tray was lifted. White steam curled up as the contents within were revealed.

"Another curious creation."

The dish Jurgen had brought looked a little different from the grand Braised Ribs Full Spread of the Royal Kitchen. There were no elaborate plates, no array of side dish bowls.

There was only a single bowl.

Atop white rice. Braised ribs piled generously high, their glaze gleaming with a lustrous sheen. Beside them, neatly sautéed vegetables added a colourful array, with finely sliced spring onion and sesame seeds scattered over the top.

A plain, unpretentious bowl of rice topped with meat. Yet the visuals alone were so appetising they bordered on violent.

"Go ahead and try it. Before it gets cold."

Jurgen picked up one bowl and handed it to Brigitte, who was standing there in a daze. Then he held out the remaining two to Serena and Penelope.

"It seems like Braised Ribs…… but also a little different."

"It's a Braised Ribs Rice Bowl."

"A Braised Ribs Rice Bowl — what's that? Isn't it just meat on top? With some vegetables mixed in."

The smell was unmistakably Braised Ribs. But the quality was different from the Braised Ribs sold at the Royal Kitchen.

Rather than the feel of something grilled over charcoal, there was a moist, tender sensation of retained juices.

Penelope stirred through the bowl with her spoon. Between every grain of rice, the rich Braised Ribs sauce had seeped in like a coating.

Meat and rice and vegetables all came together, and the sound of them being mixed was satisfyingly dense.

The moment she took one large mouthful of it all—

"……!"

Penelope's eyes went wide.

Tender. The moment it entered her mouth, the meat fell apart like snow melting. Without even a few chews, it dissolved along the grain in a tender, yielding texture.

The intense charcoal fragrance characteristic of grilled ribs was absent, but in its place the deep, rich savouriness unique to braised dishes burst forth. This was thanks to the broth and seasoning that had been simmered long and slow until they had soaked right through to the core of the meat.

Above all, the harmony with the rice was extraordinary.

In the Royal Kitchen's Braised Ribs Full Spread the meat had been no more than a 'side dish' in the end— The ribs in this rice bowl felt as though they blended with the rice as one in itself. The crunch of the vegetables interspersed throughout added a pleasing variety of texture.

"Hmmmm…… it's so good……"

Before she knew it, Brigitte was cradling the bowl in both hands and wolfing down the rice with desperate urgency.

"This is incredible…… it's genuinely delicious?"

Serena too had her eyes wide open, unable to stop spooning it in.

Even Penelope, who had thought how different could it be, couldn't stop marvelling as she scraped up the very last grains of rice.

With warm, filling carbohydrates and the savoury, salty meat broth going down, her churned-up stomach settled into comfortable calm.

"Well?"

Brigitte answered first.

"You steamed the ribs!"

"Precisely."

"Ahhh! So this is the secret weapon?! Of course! There's no way to grill meat one by one for two hundred thousand people!"

Brigitte clapped her hands.

"If it's braised, it can be cooked in large quantities, and kept warm for a long time! The meat becomes tender, so it's easy to eat for the elderly and children alike!"

Brigitte, a culinary genius, grasped its efficiency at a single glance.

Jurgen smiled. Since time immemorial, braising had been no different from the salvation of mass catering.

"And this — the rice bowl format is also highly advantageous."

Jurgen tapped the empty bowl with his finger.

"There's no need to lay out numerous side dishes. No need to prepare separate knives and forks. A single spoon is all it takes. Because one bowl holds rice, meat, and vegetables all at once."

"Wow……"

Serena let out a murmur of admiration.

"With this…… it might actually be possible? The turnover rate would be incredible."

At last, the picture formed in her mind. Not the chaotic scene of tens of thousands of people wandering in search of a table, but an image of everyone holding one warm bowl in hand and enjoying the festival.

"Rice with meat on top…… simple, but certain."

Penelope looked back down at her empty bowl.

"Ha……"

Penelope let out a hollow laugh. It felt as though the punishing hangover and the congestion that had been blocking everything up had been blown wide open.

With one answer in sight, a chain of inspiration followed.

"Jurgen, what do you think about making the bowls out of paper?"

"Oho……"

Jurgen was impressed.

This rice bowl had, in his mind, always been destined to be completed as a 'cup rice' form.

The moment he had heard the number two hundred thousand, disposable containers had been the first thing he thought of. Yet Penelope had arrived at the same conclusion in an instant, without any such prior knowledge.

"Sharp as ever."

"Nothing to be surprised about, is there? I thought we could apply the grease-proof paper coating technique used on the inside of CCC chicken boxes."

Penelope rested her chin in her hand and continued.

"If we make that coating paper a little thicker and mould it into a cup shape, wouldn't it be possible to hold the rice bowl in it too?"

"Precisely. That's exactly what I had in mind."

As Jurgen smiled with a look of admiration, Penelope gave a self-satisfied little laugh. A warm current flowed between the two as what seemed like a perfect solution was being worked out — when—

"W-wait a moment."

Serena, who had been holding her head in the corner, raised her hand with a pallid face.

"In theory it's perfect…… but there's one practical problem."

"A problem?"

"The process for making those paper bowls needs to be realised within a week — and who exactly is going to……"

Jurgen's gaze turned toward Serena. Penelope's gaze turned toward Serena.

"Ah."

Serena grasped the truth immediately.