Healing in the Country Side with a Baby Dragon - CHAPTER 27 (Tear Soaked Army Stew)

The first one to react to the thunderous crash was, of course, Oh-sik.

"My lord! It is dangerous!"

He lunged into the yard in an instant, his heavy armor materializing around him in a flash of light.

"You villain! Show yourself!" he roared confidently, glaring through the thick clouds of swirling dust that had risen up in heavy clumps.

He was a seasoned fighter who had just recently shown off his skills against that truck demon, but looking at him now, I couldn't help but feel he looked a little empty without a proper sword. Then again, he was currently gripping a Dwarf EX-grade pickaxe in his hands, so he wasn't exactly unarmed.

'Wait a minute.' a sudden, uneasy thought struck me. 

'If a regular swing from that thing can scorch the earth and make a total mess, what happens if Oh-sik swings it right here?'

If he unleashed that power inside the yard, the entire perimeter wall would collapse.

"Oh-sik." I called out.

"My lord, please stand back. I will handle this intruder."

"Put it down."

"But, my lord!"

"Put it down, quick."

Startled by the unyielding firmness in my voice, Oh-sik slowly lowered the pickaxe.

I let out a soft sigh of relief. Even if our fence was already ruined, the land right outside was private property, and smashing it up could easily turn into a massive legal headache.

"You don't need to be so tense." I said, offering a light word of comfort to soothe his visibly discouraged expression. 

"You're more than strong enough to handle anything, so it's fine. I'll let you know the second there's actual danger."

Oh-sik snapped his head up to look at me. 

"Do you truly believe in me, my lord?"

"Of course. If I don't trust you, who else would I trust?"

I meant every word. Oh-sik was our farm's most exceptional employee—the absolute best worker in the entire neighborhood! The village elders always joked that Oh-sik was better than a team of oxen. If I couldn't trust a guy who was literally stronger than an ox, who could I trust?

Hearing that, Oh-sik's shoulders instantly straightened as his mood did a complete u-turn.

"If you place your trust in me, my lord, I will move mountains and tear down the devil himself!"

As expected, he was a fiercely dedicated worker. There was absolutely no need for him to go around moving mountains, but his loyalty was incredibly reassuring.

"Still, it's a bizarre thing for a person to just fall straight out of the sky." Oh-sik muttered, looking toward the impact crater.

'Though, to be fair, you came here the exact same way.' 

I thought, successfully ignoring Oh-sik as he tilted his head, completely oblivious to the irony.

Suddenly, a deep, booming voice echoed from the clearing dust.

"Oh, shit!"

It was thick, fluent English. 

’English? A foreigner?'

As the dust finally settled, a massive silhouette was revealed. The sheer volume of muscles on the man was staggering.

'What is he, a walking boulder?'

He was a giant whose muscles looked as hard and chiseled as solid rock. He didn't seem to have taken any significant damage from the impact, likely because he had curled his body into a ball at the last second to absorb the shock.

Slowly, the massive mountain of a man rose to his feet. The sheer cinematic gravity of the moment made it feel like epic orchestral music should be swelling in the background, or like he was about to look at me and recite a famous line like, 'I'll be back.'

For a split second, I actually regretted my decision. 

'Should I have just let Oh-sik handle him?'

While I was debating whether or not I should have let my knight loose, the foreigner stood up completely, surveyed his surroundings with a dazed expression, and began muttering under his breath in English. Stripped of the heavy cursing, it was the standard, confused checklist: 'Where am I? Who are you? How did I get here?'

But the moment the dust fully cleared and his face became visible, my jaw dropped.

"Huh? James Schwarzenegger?!"

It was James Schwarzenegger—the legendary Hollywood superstar and an S-class hunter famously revered as America's ultimate protector. A true global icon. When someone like me, who barely has any time for a cultural life, recognizes a celebrity on sight, it means they are famous beyond belief.

But why on earth was a world-class superstar currently standing in my front yard after falling from the sky? Wow, up close, he looked exactly like he did on the movie screens.

Hearing me speak, James turned his sharp gaze toward me.

"Is this the Seolmyun female ghost?" he spat out.

'Wait, what?' 

I stared at him, completely stunned. He had just spoken Korean. Granted, it was a hilariously mangled attempt at a localized curse phrase, but it was Korean nonetheless.

Who would ever believe me if I told them James Schwarzenegger stood in my yard speaking Korean?

"Yes, this is South Korea." I replied, finding my voice. 

"Are you really James Schwarzenegger?"

The moment I confirmed the location, his face lit up with pure, unadulterated joy.

"Oh my God! Finally! Finally in Korea! This is amazing!"

He looked so ecstatic that you would have thought he was a lost citizen returning to his homeland after decades in exile. It was honestly a bit surreal and slightly embarrassing to watch a man of that immense, towering stature jumping up and down with all his massive muscles bouncing in pure excitement.

"Those fucking punks tried so hard to keep me away from Korea." he laughed boisterously. 

"But in the end, I still made it here!"

I kept my mouth shut, deciding not to react to his complaints about his handlers back home. Getting involved in whatever political or bureaucratic drama a foreign S-class hunter had going on felt like a fast track to an international diplomatic incident.

"Alright." he said, calming down slightly as he extended a massive hand. 

"I am James Schwarzenegger. What is your name?"

"Oh, my name is Baek Jin-sol."

"Oh! Baek-soul—Mr. Baek!"

I let out a quiet breath of relief, thankful he hadn't completely butchered my family name.

James, who had been grinning ear to ear upon hearing my name, suddenly pulled his shoulders back and assumed a perfectly rigid, formal posture. His expression turned dead serious as he looked directly at me.

"Hello. My name is James Schwarzenegger. I love you, Republic of Korea. I love you, Entertainment Weekly."

He delivered the greeting with flawless, textbook pronunciation. It was stunning. Why on earth was 'that' specific, bizarre combination of sentences the only thing he could pronounce with absolute perfection?

The mystery solved itself a second later.

"I practiced that every single day." he admitted with a proud grin. 

"I promised myself I would say it the moment I finally set foot in Korea."

I chuckled softly. 

"Ah, so should I call you Mr. Schwarzenegger?"

"No, just call me James, Mr. Baek."

"Alright, James. You can just call me Jin-sol."

"Okay, Soul."

'...Yeah, I probably should have just stuck to my last name.'

Regardless, my curiosity was burning at this point. Had he been brought over directly from the United States by some rogue spatial skill, or was it a Gate anomaly?

"So, where exactly did you tumble out from?" I asked.

"America." James answered with a cheeky, casual grin.

"Wow. You really came from far away."

"It is not far." James countered, shaking his head.

I blinked, a bit taken-back by his casual attitude, though logically speaking, he wasn't entirely wrong. In the grand scheme of things, the United States isn't that far; you just hop on a commercial airliner and cross the ocean. Compared to Baldur and the other entities who had literally crossed through dimensions from another world—places you couldn't reach even if you boarded a rocket to the moon—the United States was practically right next door.

"I suppose that's true. You can just board a plane and travel back and forth whenever you like, right?"

"Oh, that would be nice, but it is not that simple." James said, his smile fading as a deeply melancholic expression washed over his face. 

"If the public finds out that I am actually here, it will cause absolute chaos across the globe."

It clearly sounded like there was a heavy, complicated backstory to his sudden arrival.

But right at that poignant moment—

"The USA!" Oh-sik suddenly roared, his voice cutting through the heavy atmosphere like a foghorn.

James perked up, looking at my knight with a pleased expression. "Oh! Are you an American? An American friend—"

But Oh-sik's outburst stemmed from a completely different, terrifyingly misunderstood source.

"You have come to steal them!" Oh-sik bellowed, pointing his finger dramatically at the Hollywood star.

"What?" James blinked, utterly bewildered.

"Huh?" I muttered, my brain short-circuiting.

Amidst the collective confusion of the yard, Oh-sik stood entirely alone in his absolute, unshakeable confidence.

"China is shocked, Japan is jealous, and America is utterly obsessed with our K-crops!" he recited passionately. 

"You have been sent here on a covert mission to stop South Korea from becoming the world's president!"

*Oh, my god.*

That damn nationalistic YouTube channel! After watching those absurd videos, it looked like Oh-sik's entire perception of global geopolitics had been thoroughly and systematically ruined.

"I will never surrender the bounty of this land!" Oh-sik shouted, striking a heroic pose with his pickaxe. 

"I, Oh-sik, will stake my sacred honor as a knight to defend the great K-crop—"

"Oh-sik, stop! Please, just stop talking!"

I practically lunged forward to cut him off, and only after a frantic intervention did my fiercely patriotic knight finally calm down and lower his weapon.

Once I thoroughly explained the situation and the reality of Oh-sik's internet addiction, James burst into a roaring laugh that echoed across the entire farm. He was clutching his massive stomach, laughing so hard that tears were literally streaming down his face.

"Brrrrrr~!"

Seol-ah, finding his booming laughter infectious, started clapping her hands and chirping happily alongside him.

Meanwhile, Oh-sik was standing off to the side with his armored helmet hanging low in absolute shame. Even though I couldn't see his face beneath the visor, I knew with absolute certainty that he was blushing as red as a ripe tomato inside.

"Oh, man... oh my god, what a fantastic story." James wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. 

"So funny. And who is this? Is this Seol-ah? She is so cute. Sooooooo cute!"

"Bye-bye~!"

Seol-ah gave him a dazzling, bright smile in response to the compliment. Surprisingly, she didn't seem intimidated by James's titanic, muscular frame at all. If anything, she was staring up at him with sparkling, curious eyes, clearly finding his sheer size fascinating.

Further back, our three puppy brothers were huddled together in a tight, cautious pile. They were usually the fierce guards of hell, but right now, they were staring at James's massive, rippling muscles with wide, hesitant eyes, looking like they were the ones who needed protection.

"So... will you be heading back to America right away?" I asked, a faint trace of regret in my voice. He was a global superstar and a national strategic asset; his schedule had to be packed to the second. It felt wrong to let him waste his valuable time hanging around a quiet countryside farm like mine.

Contrary to my expectations, however, James's heavy eyebrows immediately drooped.

"Oh, Soul... do you want me to leave already?" he muttered, his deep voice filled with such profound disappointment that his massive muscles practically looked like they were deflating. 

"If that is what you truly wish, then I suppose I have no choice..."

Right at that exact moment, a familiar translucent screen flickered to life before my eyes.

[The Healing Life of a Beginner Farmer]

[Quest: Cure his homesickness!]

[An elite warrior has finally returned to the homeland he has yearned for after a long, grueling exile. He will find deep healing if you treat him to the specific food he misses the most. The system will reward you in direct proportion to his happiness.]

'Homesickness?' 

I stared at the prompt, completely thrown off. 

'An American superstar is feeling homesick in the middle of rural South Korea?'

What kind of food could possibly satisfy an American's nostalgia? Macaroni and cheese? Homemade spaghetti? A classic, hearty Western dish would usually be the safe bet, but something about the wording of the quest gave me pause.

"Well, since you've already made it all the way here, why don't you stay a little longer?" I offered.

James's eyes practically lit up. "Really? Really, Soul? Is that truly okay?"

"Of course."

"Oh! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Overjoyed, James leaned down and scooped Seol-ah up into a massive, enthusiastic hug. I could see the thick muscle fibers in his arms twitching with excitement, and Seol-ah burst into a fit of giggles, finding the tickly sensation of his strong embrace incredibly fun.

"By the way, your Korean is exceptionally good." I noted as he set her down. 

"Did you study it extensively? Even with practice, achieving that kind of natural flow is incredibly difficult for a foreigner."

James offered a soft, wistful smile. 

"Well... that is because I was actually born right here in South Korea."

I stared at him, completely caught off guard by the revelation. James Schwarzenegger—an American S-class hunter and legendary Hollywood elite—was born in Korea?

"My parents were American soldiers stationed here." he explained softly. 

"I was born on the base and lived in this country until I was eight years old."

"Wow... I had absolutely no idea. I don't think that's ever been mentioned in the news."

"Heh, I am a man with many well-guarded secrets." James boasted, flexing his biceps playfully before his expression turned somber again. 

"But that is the exact reason why my government refuses to let me visit Korea. I am considered a living piece of American freedom."

"Why? Just because you're an S-class hunter, you aren't allowed to come over and visit your childhood home?"

"To them, I am not just a person. I am a national strategic weapon."

'Ah...'

It made sense. As an S-class hunter and the literal shield of the United States, his movements across international borders would be heavily restricted and monitored by global intelligence agencies.

An epiphany flashed through my mind. The quest had specified a 'soul food' capable of curing his deep-seated homesickness. If he had spent the first eight years of his formative childhood living in South Korea as the son of military personnel...

"Aren't you hungry, James?"

"Oh, I am absolutely starving." he admitted, rubbing his stomach.

"Please wait inside for a moment. I'll get everything ready and prepare a meal for you."

I hurried into the kitchen and pulled out a large, deep pot. What kind of food would a young child crave—someone who had lived in Korea during the height of his parents' military deployment? Nostalgia isn't merely about missing a geographic location; it's about yearning for the warm, comforting memories tied to a specific era of your life.

'Tonight, we're having Budae-jjigae (Army Base Stew).'

A rich, spicy, and deeply savory stew was the absolute perfect choice. The aged kimchi I had received from Grandma Kim last week had fermented to an absolute peak of sour perfection. I gathered the essential foundations—high-quality sausages and plenty of Spam—and paired them with fresh onions and green onions pulled straight from my garden.

After whipping up a robust seasoning paste using homemade gochujang (red chili paste), minced garlic, and soy sauce, I artfully arranged the ingredients across the bottom of the pot. To tie it all together, I poured in the rich, deep anchovy broth I had boiled earlier during the elder's noodle meeting.

I set up a portable gas burner right on the outdoor table and placed the prepared pot on top.

The moment James caught sight of the ingredients, his eyes widened.

"Oh... Budae-jjigae!" he gasped.

His eyes locked onto the pot, flashing with an intense, almost frightening gleam of pure recognition. Looking at his face, I knew instantly that my intuition had been entirely correct.

In the outside world, very few people knew the truth about James Schwarzenegger's childhood—that he was born in South Korea to American soldiers stationed far from home. It was a chapter of his life kept under strict wraps. But in James's most treasured childhood memories, his parents weren't just government officials; they were living heroes performing their sacred duty in a distant, beautiful land.

And then, a catastrophic Gate had opened.

He could still vividly remember the day a grim-faced commander had sat him down. 

'James, your parents fell in battle. They fought bravely and remained exemplary soldiers until the very end.'

Before the young boy could even process the words or find a quiet moment to cry, he had been ushered onto a military transport plane lifting off into the sky. Weeks later, his parents finally returned to American soil, their caskets draped under the stars and stripes. Standing amidst the sharp, echoing salutes of uniformed soldiers, the harsh reality of the world had crashed down upon him, and he had wept bitterly.

It was on that exact day of profound grief that James's hunter awakening had occurred.

Decades had passed since then. As an adult, James had climbed to the absolute pinnacle of the world as an S-class hunter. He had achieved immense wealth, a stellar acting career, a beautiful wife, and a cherished daughter. He had built a life of undeniable success, obtaining everything a man could ever dream of.

And yet, a persistent ache had lingered in his heart. 

'I miss it.'

Over the years, he had found himself deeply yearning for Korea—a place he had once tried to erase from his mind because the memories were too painful. He missed the quiet streets he used to walk hand-in-hand with his parents, the comforting food they shared, and the neighborhood friends he used to play tag with. He had quietly started studying Korean again, and with every learned word, his childhood memories flooded back with vivid clarity.

But whenever he expressed a desire to visit South Korea, his handlers and advisors vehemently opposed it. He carried far too much geopolitical weight to move freely.

Whenever the corporate walls of his life felt suffocating, he would close his eyes and recall a specific memory from his youth: walking into a warm, bustling restaurant after his parents finished their shifts on the base. The kind restaurant staff would pinch his chubby cheeks and tell him how cute he was, and a large, battered pot of Budae-jjigae would sit bubbling merrily in the center of the table. It was a sacred time of pure comfort after a long, lonely day of waiting for his parents to return from duty.

"It's exactly the same." James whispered, his voice trembling slightly.

A stew overflowing with the forgotten fragrance of his childhood was bubbling right before his eyes. Before he had even taken a single bite, his eyes were already growing red and itchy.

"Please, help yourself." I said softly, gesturing to the pot.

James hesitated for a fraction of a second before grabbing a ladle and scooping a massive, overflowing mountain of stew onto his plate. He picked up a portion of the broth first, pulling them into his mouth.

*Slurp—*

The exact moment the savory broth hit his tongue, a wave of profound emotion washed over his features. He had finally found it. The exact, unadulterated taste of his childhood.

Before long, he was eagerly diving in with his spoon, scooping up thick slices of spam and sausage, pausing briefly with a look of pure nostalgia as the sharp, perfectly aged sourness of Grandma Kim's kimchi hit his palate. After taking a deep, hearty gulp of the rich, spicy broth, a low rumble escaped his chest.

"Ugh—ahhh..."

It was the classic, satisfied grunt of an old Korean gentleman. James froze for a moment, a tearful smile breaking across his face. His father had always made that exact same sound after drinking a hot bowl of soup.

Suddenly, he looked up at me, his eyes searching. 

"Do you... do you happen to have any soju?"

"Just a moment." I replied, a warm smile spreading across my face.

I walked inside, grabbed a chilled bottle of soju, and filled a small glass for him.

James lifted the glass, downing the clear liquor in a single, practiced motion that perfectly mirrored the memory of his father from decades ago.

"Ugh—it's sweet." he gasped, a soft exclamation of pure comfort bursting from his lips. 

Whenever his father had uttered those exact words at the dinner table, his mother would always playfully scold him from across the room.

With his nose practically buried in his plate, James continued to eat the Budae-jjigae, his massive shoulders beginning to tremble violently. The comfort food he had spent a lifetime yearning for was finally right in front of him, cooked to absolute perfection.

'Why am I crying?' he must have thought. 

It was a testament to a beautiful era he could never return to, and a poignant reminder of the parents he would never see again. At forty-eight years old, James was now significantly older than his parents had been when they died. What had they been thinking in their final moments?

Tears welled up heavily in his eyes, spilling over his cheeks and dripping quietly into his plate as he continued to stuff his mouth with noodles, sausage, and spam.

"Ma-ma... Pa-pa... I miss you. I miss you so much..." he wept openly, the heartbreaking words slipping past his lips.

Hearing his quiet, vulnerable cries, I quietly stepped forward. I placed a warm, steady hand on James's massive, trembling shoulder and gave it a comforting, reassuring pat.

"Bye-bye..."

Seol-ah waddled over as well, extending her tiny, delicate hands to softly stroke James's broad back.

In that quiet yard under the shade of the apple tree, the terrifyingly powerful S-class hunter, the glamorous Hollywood movie star, and the stalwart protector of America completely vanished. In his place sat nothing more than a lonely eight-year-old boy who deeply, dearly missed his parents.

A soft chiming sound echoed in my mind as a final system notification filled my vision:

[Quest Complete: Homesickness Cured!]

[A lonely, wounded child who spent a lifetime yearning for the warmth of his parents has finally found profound healing deep within his heart.]