Bread with a crispy exterior and moist interior, freshly baked in the morning.

The hollowed-out center filled with sautéed onions and meat.

“Finally……”

Edelle swallowed hard.

The aroma of sautéed onions rising from the sandwich in her hand made her feel dizzy.

Finally, the people of Fonete were putting cooked meat instead of cold ham between bread. And even sautéing onions with it!

“I can’t resist onions sautéed in meat drippings.”

Edelle quickly took a large bite of the sandwich. The sweet onion flavor infused in each thin slice of meat spread throughout her mouth.

“Mmmmm……!”

Edelle chewed and swallowed with a blissful expression. Then, overcome with emotion, she exclaimed,

“Uncle Jo is a genius!”

“……Is it really that delicious, Miss?”

“What’s this, Liam? Haven’t you eaten yet?”

Edelle’s rounded eyes turned toward Liam’s plate. His sandwich remained exactly as it had been when first served.

After she’d gone to the trouble of ordering it for him.

“Hurry up and try it. This is best eaten while it’s still hot.”

“B-but……”

Confusion filled Liam’s eyes as he stared at the steam rising from the sandwich.

“A hot sandwich? I’ve never even heard of such a thing.”

The only sandwiches he’d eaten his entire life were hard bread stuffed with cold ham, cheese, and lettuce.

Though the sautéed meat and onions smelled delicious enough to make his mouth water, he couldn’t quite summon the courage to try it.

“Oh, come on!”

Edelle reached out and thrust a fresh sandwich right under his nose. The sweet, tantalizing aroma made Liam’s nostrils twitch.

With a grin, Edelle urged him once more.

“Just try it. Have I ever called something delicious when it wasn’t?”

“Well, that’s true……”

If Edelle Michelin said something was delicious, then it was delicious. That was a fact acknowledged by everyone in Fonete, not just Liam.

Finally, Liam accepted the sandwich hovering before his face and opened his mouth wide.

“……Well? Isn’t it good?”

Edelle rested her chin on her hand and chuckled. She enjoyed watching Liam’s expression change moment by moment.

It was always satisfying to see someone hesitate out of fear of unfamiliar food, then suddenly light up, and finally focus entirely on the food as if they’d had an epiphany.

‘This is why I love feeding people delicious things.’

Liam devoured the palm-sized sandwich in an instant. Watching him not miss even the meat grease and bread crumbs on his fingers, Edelle said,

“Do you want to finish mine? I need to eat dinner later anyway.”

“Yes, please.”

Edelle cut off the part of her sandwich she’d bitten and handed the rest to Liam.

Staring intently at the cross-section of the sandwich, Liam asked seriously,

“How can it taste like this when it only contains meat and onions? There must be some special secret sauce.”

“Hmm, I don’t think so.”

“You don’t? That can’t be……”

Liam examined the sandwich in disbelief. He couldn’t accept that his tongue, which had followed his food-connoisseur mistress for over ten years, could be wrong.

“It’s probably because of the onions.”

“The onions……you say?”

“Yes. Onions become sweet when you sauté them for a long time. If anything else was added, it would just be salt and pepper.”

Edelle looked around the shop as she munched on her cut sandwich piece.

〈Jo’s Sandwich Shop〉, the most famous eatery in Fonete, was bustling as usual. It was completely different from when Edelle first visited at eight years old.

“I wondered who was brave enough to order the new menu item! Of course it’s Eddie!”

“Uncle!”

Edelle waved cheerfully at Joseph, who was emerging from the kitchen.

Wiping his hands on his apron, Joseph strode over and tousled Edelle’s reddish-brown wig while asking,

“Well? Is it delicious?”

“Uncle, you’re definitely a genius.”

“Haha, you rascal!”

Joseph laughed heartily at Edelle’s sincere compliment. Customers waiting in line at the counter glanced at him.

Edelle lowered her voice, conscious of their stares, but her eyes still sparkled.

“How did you think of adding sautéed onions?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted a warm sandwich?”

“Well, yes, but……”

The temperature had dropped sharply a few days earlier, probably because a festival was approaching. Joseph had caught Edelle’s passing comment about cold sandwiches being uncomfortable.

“But I didn’t expect you to be so spot on!”

“What’s ‘spot on’ now?”

“Ahaha, it’s just something.”

Edelle had only mentioned wanting a “warm sandwich” with sautéed meat instead of cold ham. The seasoned meat and sautéed onion garnish were entirely Joseph’s innate “sense.”

In her previous life as a food service marketer, she had occasionally participated in menu development, but people like Joseph who could create such suitable combinations from just a few words were rare.

‘Well, Uncle has been like that since we first met.’

Edelle first met Joseph Bakers when she ventured into the shopping district at eight years old. Joseph had believed an eight-year-old child who insisted that putting peaches in a sandwich couldn’t possibly taste bad.

Edelle was twenty-two this year, so that was well over ten years ago.

“I really like that you’re such an open-minded person, Uncle. Everyone else is still stuck with just salt and pepper.”

“By that standard, I was completely closed-minded. When I first met you, I was stubbornly refusing to add pepper to my dough and was on the verge of bankruptcy.”

“That’s right! You were!”

Edelle met Joseph’s eyes and giggled.

Even just a decade ago, the only seasonings the people of Fonete used were salt and pepper. And even those were used excessively for preservation rather than flavoring, indiscriminately thrown into both meals and desserts.

So it was as natural as the sun rising in the east that Edelle and Joseph, both insistent on delicious food, became kindred spirits the moment they met.

“Actually, the shop growing this big is all thanks to you. Who else but you would have thought to put peaches between bread?”

“Oh, come on, anyone could do it. They just don’t know better. Right, Liam?”

“That’s correct. Once you’ve tasted this harmony of sweet and salty flavors, it’s difficult to go back to how things were.”

Liam, who had been quietly keeping to himself, promptly replied. Joseph nodded in agreement.

“If it weren’t for you, people here would probably still be unaware of that taste. Not just me, but everyone owes you a great debt.”

“What debt? It’s good to eat delicious things!”

Edelle laughed brightly, fluttering her hands. Though she’d heard this every time she visited Joseph’s shop for over ten years, it still embarrassed her each time.

And for good reason—Edelle had simply wanted to eat tasty food, not completely change the food culture here. After all, she hadn’t invented the “sweet and salty” flavor combination……

‘Of all places to be reborn, I end up in a country obsessed with salt and pepper……’

Edelle smiled sweetly, her round eyes forming gentle crescents.

‘Being Korean in my past life is truly my karmic debt.’

***

Edelle Michelin was extraordinary from birth.

She weaned herself from milk almost as soon as she reached one hundred days old, and when her teeth began to come in, she would invariably spit out baby food if it didn’t contain finely chopped meat or vegetables.

It was only natural. Having worked as a food service marketer in South Korea for a full decade, Edelle was determined to eat only delicious food in this life, if only to make up for her unjust death from overwork.

Of course, keeping that resolution wasn’t easy in the Astère Empire, a nation obsessed with salt and pepper.

“What did he put in the sandwich?”

“Peaches! And he didn’t even add pepper!”

“Joseph has finally gone mad!”

As Edelle had said, Joseph, who made peach sandwiches according to her suggestion, was treated like a madman……

“I hear strange food is trending in the shopping district these days, madam.”

“I saw it myself when I went to Madam Hesse’s dress shop yesterday. How ridiculous they looked, all lined up just to eat a mere sandwich!”

“Tsk, it couldn’t be more vulgar.”

They even had to endure the contemptuous gazes of nobles, but……

“What? Weren’t you saying Joseph had gone mad?”

“And weren’t you calling it devil’s food for not using pepper?”

“……My daughter refuses to eat anything but sandwiches from that shop.”

“I took one bite of what my wife brought home and I can’t stop thinking about it……”

People’s tastes are fundamentally similar, and no one dislikes delicious food. Moreover, in the food service industry, the sweet-and-salty combination is a guaranteed winner.

Edelle’s experience, gained through life-or-death struggles, couldn’t possibly be wrong.