Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 236

“Huh, already?”

The people waiting for their orders looked at the pizzas in surprise. It wasn’t as if the pizzas had been pre-baked; how could they be ready so quickly after ordering?

Yet, the steaming pizzas before them were undeniable.

“Wow, look at this. The presentation is incredible.”

“How can there be so many toppings?”

Park Yu-min smiled, placing the pizzas on the tables.

“Enjoy your meal.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Park Yu-min stepped away.

“I only came to take pictures… but the quality is better than I expected? I’d gladly pay for this.”

“Usually, celebrity-owned restaurants are super expensive. But this place is affordable, and the portions are huge.”

“…Wait a minute. If we’re talking about value for money, it’s not just good, it’s amazing! If it tastes good, what more could you ask for?”

Park Yu-min’s ears perked up.

Unlike the men in dark clothing filling most of the tables, three women sat at the first table that had placed an order. In general, men’s opinions didn’t matter much when it came to pizza places.

For a pizza place to succeed, it was the women who had to say it was good.

It wasn’t that there were no men in pizza places, but the majority of customers were women.

A woman holding a slice of pizza tilted her head.

“These slices seem a bit too big, don’t they?”

“The pizza is big.”

“Is that so?”

The woman holding the pizza looked at it with a subtle gaze. There was no cheese pull [the visual of melted cheese stretching when a slice is lifted]. So, even though the toppings were plentiful, it felt a little plain.

‘I’ll know when I eat it.’

The woman’s eyes widened as she took a bite.

“Wow, this is delicious.”

“Is it good?”

“It’s a bit strange. It looks like American-style, but it’s very light. How do they bake a pizza like this?”

“Light? It looks greasy at first glance.”

“Just try it. It’s no joke.”

Park Yu-min clenched her fist slightly.

‘Yes!’

The reaction was better than expected. Her anxiety about Kang Jin-ho’s pizza had completely vanished. She thought it would be a success if they just made a decent pizza, but this was a huge hit.

‘Well, how could it not be delicious?’

They had piled on the ingredients, and it was baked with such high heat, so it was natural that the oil was drained. Usually, baking a pizza with that much heat would result in uneven cooking, with some parts burnt and others undercooked. But Kang Jin-ho was performing magic, baking the pizza evenly with near-divine control.

‘He’s really weird, but his abilities are amazing in unexpected areas.’

But there was no time to dwell on it.

“Hey, Yu-min! The pizzas are coming out!” Joo Young-gi, carrying the pizzas, called out to Park Yu-min loudly.

“I’m, I’m going!”

Startled, Park Yu-min rushed to the kitchen.

“Wow.”

The space connecting the kitchen to the hall was filled with pizzas. In the short time she had been serving, he had baked that many pizzas again.

“Is he some kind of pizza-baking machine…”

Even a machine wouldn’t be able to bake pizzas at this speed. He had unnecessarily high abilities.

Park Yu-min smiled brightly and carried the pizzas. It was easy to feel discouraged when the store was empty, but seeing it full for the first time made her feel energized.

After delivering all the ordered pizzas, Park Yu-min wiped her forehead and headed back to the kitchen. Even though all the pizzas were baked, Kang Jin-ho hadn’t peeked his head out.

‘What is he doing?’

Park Yu-min entered the kitchen and her mouth fell open.

“J, Jin-ho, what are you doing?”

“Cleaning.”

Of course, cleaning was a good thing.

Especially in a restaurant, cleanliness was something to be praised.

But that didn’t mean that after making food once, you would wipe the tables until they shined like that…

Even though the tables were made of stainless steel, did they really shine that much?

It wasn’t just a figure of speech; they were truly dazzling.

‘He chose the wrong industry.’

If he had opened a car detailing shop with his polishing skills, the waiting cars would have blocked the road.

Kang Jin-ho, having finished wiping the tables and making the cooking utensils gleam, started mopping the floor.

“Ah, no, Jin-ho.”

Wasn’t mopping the floor a bit too much?

Joo Young-gi peeked his head out from behind Park Yu-min and started clicking his tongue.

“That crazy guy, he’s started again.”

“Woah, is he always like that?”

“No, that guy has a weird kind of cleanliness. Usually, cleanliness means you can’t stand things being dirty around you. But that guy doesn’t care about lying in the grass or crawling in the mud when he’s training or working. But when it comes to a place that needs cleaning, he can’t stand it being dirty. He used to get a lot of people in trouble because of that.”

“Wow.”

Whether Joo Young-gi said anything or not, Kang Jin-ho was mopping the floor as if he was going to tear it up.

“…The hygiene inspection will be no problem.”

People kept coming in.

And they kept leaving.

Even though the store had a lot of tables, the time from ordering to the food coming out was so short that the turnover rate was faster than expected.

“How can the pizza be so light?”

“It’s really crispy but soft. It’s weird?”

The fact that the reactions were getting better as time went on was also encouraging. But unfortunately, a problem arose.

“…We’re out of ingredients.”

“F, find some!”

“It’s not possible. There needs to be a fermentation time. We can’t just use it right away after making the dough.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Let’s take a break for now. We can use the fermented dough in the evening.”

“Okay, I understand. I’ll tell Eun-young too.”

As Park Yu-min was about to run out, sweating profusely, Joo Young-gi grabbed her and held a towel to her face.

“If you walk around like that, do you think the customers will lose their appetite or not?”

“I’m sorry.”

“If Kang Jin-ho walks around sweating, he becomes a man passionate about his work, but if you or I walk around like that, we’re just dirty.”

“Wow… I know it’s reality, but it feels really bad.”

“Reality is always harsh, man.”

They apologized to the customers and took a break. Kang Eun-young’s performance was also stopped, and it was decided to resume in the evening.

As the customers who had stormed through the hall like a whirlwind finished taking pictures and left, the tables were quickly emptied.

“Kuh…”

Joo Young-gi nodded repeatedly as he watched the scene.

“If we just open the floodgates, it sells so well, why were there no people all this time?”

“It’s because you didn’t open the floodgates!”

Kang Eun-young, who was sitting in the staff waiting room after taking a break from her performance, retorted bluntly.

“What kind of world is it these days that you’re waiting for a persimmon to fall from a persimmon tree? If it doesn’t fall, you have to climb the tree and pick it!”

“I’ve learned a lot, madam.”

Joo Young-gi joked.

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

Kang Eun-young kept fixing her hair.

It seemed inevitable that her makeup and hair would get messed up from performing outdoors.

“Give me a pizza. I want to try it too.”

“There’s none left?”

“Did you throw away everything that was left on the tables?”

“No. There’s nothing left on the tables. I didn’t even get to taste it.”

“Wow.”

Kang Eun-young’s eyes widened.

“My brother is that good at cooking? He couldn’t even make ramen properly in the old days?”

“When was that ‘old days’?”

“About ten years ago?”

“That’s enough time for the landscape to change and high-rise buildings to be built.”

“…That’s strange? He shouldn’t be that meticulous…”

Kang Eun-young, looking suspicious, shouted into the kitchen.

“Brother! Your sister is starving to death! Aigo! [A Korean expression of distress or exasperation]”

“…Okay.”

When a reply came from the kitchen, Kang Eun-young leaned back on her chair, satisfied, and purred like a cat.

“But it’s really ridiculous. It was a place with no one, but did it fill up like this just because you performed?”

“Just me? Do these people know who I am! I’m Kang Se-ah, Kang Se-ah!”

“Yeah. So, who knew it would be like this just because Kang Se-ah performed.”

“Aigo, my fate.”

Kang Eun-young sighed deeply.

Why were the people around her brother so uninterested in celebrities? It was a mystery.

How ridiculous was it for a top idol to be doing a narration event at a pizza place? Could these people even understand?

“Tomorrow, you’ll realize my power.”

“Why?”

“There’s no way business will be as good as today without me! It’s obvious that people will drop off.”

“Hmm…”

“Even if my brother comes out alone, there’s a limit with just pizza. It’s obvious that later they’ll be grabbing my pant legs and begging me to come back, and that’s when they’ll realize my power!”

“That won’t happen.”

“Just you wait!”

Kang Jin-ho came out of the kitchen with a smile and placed a pizza in front of Kang Eun-young.

“You worked hard.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Kang Eun-young smiled happily, as if she was pleased that Kang Jin-ho had praised her.

“Hey, didn’t you say there were no ingredients left?”

“We have to leave some for us to eat.”

“…This is strange? He wasn’t originally that meticulous.”

Joo Young-gi clicked his tongue and took a slice of pizza to his mouth.

“That’s mine!”

“How can you eat all of this by yourself? We’re all eating together.”

“Tch.”

Kang Eun-young clicked her tongue and picked up a slice of pizza. Then she tasted it.

“Hmm?”

“Oh?”

Those who ate the pizza all widened their eyes and looked at Kang Jin-ho.

“Wow, how did you do this?”

“The texture is weird. It’s crispy but moist.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded lightly.

‘It works here too.’

The secret wasn’t in the oven or the heat. After he was able to get some ingredients, his master would sometimes bake a pizza with the Heat Yang Gong [a martial arts technique involving internal energy] and throw it to Kang Jin-ho.

Although the ingredients were different, he tried to apply the pizza made with the Heat Yang Gong at that time, and it seemed to taste good.

Kang Jin-ho also took a bite of the pizza.

‘It feels like it.’

It was too refined and luxurious to be called a taste of memories, but the taste he had eaten back then was contained in this pizza.

“At this level, you could have done well just by selling pizza.”

“I know, right.”

Kang Eun-young shouted at Joo Young-gi and Park Yu-min’s outrageous words.

“You ungrateful people!”

“…Thank you for your hard work, idol-nim [a respectful term for an idol].”

“We would have failed if it wasn’t for Kang Se-ah-nim. Yes, indeed.”

“Okay, that’s right.”

Kang Se-ah giggled and said to Kang Jin-ho.

“But brother, the number of customers will definitely drop off starting tomorrow.”

“It’s okay. Right now, there are too many customers for the three of us to handle. It’s good that they drop off a bit.”

“That’s not the mindset of someone running a business.”

Although she said that, Kang Eun-young also nodded. It wasn’t possible for her to keep taking time off her schedule, so it would be a success if the number of customers dropped off a bit and the business was run stably.

Even today, she wouldn’t have been able to make time if she hadn’t turned her company upside down, shouting, ‘My brother’s store is going to fail!’

“It’s good to have a moderate number of customers.”

But neither Kang Jin-ho nor Kang Eun-young knew.

That a second wave was coming, which would make today’s crowd seem like a joke.

The prelude was slowly opening.

And…

“No, where did everyone go!”

Jo Gyu-min, who had been busy controlling the crowd, shouted in disbelief as he watched the people who had left like a receding tide.

“I’m, I’m hungry!”

Jo Gyu-min knocked on the store door with a tearful voice.

“Please open this! Jin-ho-ssi! [a respectful term for Mr.] Kang Jin-ho-ssi!”

The pizza that would fill his stomach was no longer available.