Chapter 91

Tommy, who returned to the kitchen with me, looked at me with a bewildered face and asked,

“Are you out of your mind right now? You want to eat in this situation?”

“Don’t say it like that. You haven’t eaten dinner either, running around the dwarves’ houses with me.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

“And it was necessary.”

“Necessary?”

“Well, let’s focus on cooking for now.”

After saying that, I unpacked the ingredients I had prepared and showed them to Tommy. Seeing them, Tommy silently started cooking with me.

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The dish we were making this time was pasta, a food that can be seen everywhere from simple home cooking to high-end restaurants.

It’s a simple dish where you boil the noodles and pour any sauce over them, making it a beloved meal for everything from dinner to late-night snacks.

Especially, the dish we were making this time was Aglio Olio Pasta, one of the simplest pastas to make.

Aglio Olio is a dish made from the Italian words for garlic (Aglio) and oil (Olio). Literally, it’s a simple dish where you stir-fry pasta noodles with garlic and oil, and that’s it.

Of course, Aglio Olio Pasta has a position similar to bibimbap in Italy, so it has excellent versatility. You can add bacon, pepperoncino, herbs, shrimp, or cheese according to your taste, but for a simple late-night snack like now, just garlic, oil, and salt are enough.

So, this cooking process wasn’t particularly special either.

Since Tommy runs an inn, his kitchen always has pasta noodles prepared for guests’ meals, so all we had to do was boil the pasta.

To prevent the pasta noodles from sticking together and to remove the flour smell, adding a small amount of salt to the boiling water makes the noodles even better.

Since the noodles will be stir-fried in garlic oil later, boil them 2 minutes less than the desired doneness.

While waiting for the noodles to boil, instead of just sitting around, we prepared the ingredients.

The only ingredient that needed preparation for Aglio Olio was garlic.

After peeling the garlic, removing the stem, and washing it, slice it thinly for the pasta.

In this process, some people prefer minced garlic instead of sliced garlic, but there’s no rule saying you can’t do either.

The finer the garlic is minced, the better the garlic flavor infuses into the olive oil, but it also burns more easily and loses the texture of the garlic, so there are pros and cons.

Of course, if you slice the garlic and add twice the amount, the flavor will still infuse well, so it’s not a problem.

Seeing me slicing a mountain of garlic without hesitation, Tommy looked at me with a somewhat disgusted expression.

Hey, garlic tastes better when you add this much, okay?

After that, when the noodles were done boiling, add olive oil and garlic to a pan and heat it.

If the temperature is too high and the garlic burns, it will taste bitter, so keep the heat between medium and low.

If you’re using minced garlic instead of sliced, lower the heat even more.

When the garlic starts turning yellow, it’s time for the next step.

Take one or two ladles of the pasta water per serving and pour it over the olive oil.

If you skip the pasta water and stir-fry the noodles in the garlic oil, the garlic will likely burn during the process. The pasta water prevents the garlic from overcooking.

After adding the pasta water, season with salt to taste.

If it’s too salty, just add more pasta water or plain water. It’s that simple.

Then, add the pre-boiled pasta noodles to the sauce mixed with pasta water and garlic oil, and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the noodles from sticking.

When the pasta water has reduced and the flavor and aroma of the garlic oil have infused into the pasta, it’s done.

Tonight’s late-night snack:

Aglio Olio Pasta

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The amount of pasta we made was enough for nearly 20 servings, including the Dwarven Warrior Squad, so not just Tommy and I, but the rest of the group had to help carry the pasta.

When all the plates were on the table and all the food was served, Gale frowned and said,

“The garlic smell is strong.”

“What’s wrong? Is it something you can’t eat?”

At my words, Gale stared at me silently as if trying to figure out my intentions, then chuckled and said,

“…No. It’s fine. It’s better than eating bloody meat and bitter grass that hasn’t been properly cleaned.”

“That’s good to hear. If anyone here can’t eat food with garlic, let me know.”

I said with a smile, looking around at the dwarves sitting in the inn. Contrary to my relaxed demeanor, the dwarves in the inn remained silent with cold expressions.

Geez.

Way to kill the mood.

It’s not like I’m feeding them something they can’t eat.

“Well, then, let’s assume everyone can eat it and start the meal. There’s not much, but eat to your heart’s content.”

As if proving there was no poison, I twirled the pasta with a fork and took a big bite.

Mmm.

The pasta noodles were perfectly coated with olive oil, which was infused with the aroma of garlic. Despite being just oil-coated noodles, they had a deep and rich flavor.

The al dente texture, which might feel a bit firm, added a point of interest to the otherwise simple dish.

The salt added just the right amount of seasoning, making the pasta neither too bland nor too salty, so it was easy to keep eating.

In terms of composition, it was just sliced garlic and oil-coated noodles, which might seem simple or even shabby.

But precisely because of its simplicity, it felt perfect for a late-night snack after skipping dinner.

Somehow, it felt like when you wake up alone at dawn, ordering chicken or pizza feels too heavy, but scraping together leftovers from the fridge and mixing them with gochujang and sesame oil for bibimbap feels guilt-free and satisfying.

While it’s nice to have fancy toppings like bacon or shrimp and eat like at a restaurant, sometimes cooking like this, wandering around in pajamas and rummaging through the fridge, has its own charm.

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Seeing Kurt eating, Damian smirked and twirled a large forkful of pasta just like him.

Outwardly, it seemed like he was simply enjoying a late-night snack, but his true intentions had been clear for a long time.

The reaction he wanted was for the other dwarves, including himself, to refuse to eat the garlic pasta.

But Damian was no ordinary vampire.

The extermination rank of a vampire starts at silver.

This implies that there are vampires who surpass the silver rank.

And Damian, who was smirking at Kurt, was one of those vampires who surpassed the ordinary.

He was a noble, a count-level vampire who led a bloodline, distinguishing himself from ordinary vampires.

If you were to rank him, he would be gold rank, surpassing silver.

While a silver rank could destroy a small village, a gold rank could erase an entire city.

Most vampires appearing in human society today were not originally vampires but became so after being chosen through bloodsucking.

But Damian was a trueblood, born a pure vampire.

Thus, unlike other half-breed vampires, Damian didn’t show allergic reactions to garlic.

He just found the smell unpleasant.

But that was a problem easily overcome with a little patience.

‘He seemed to want to deduce my identity by seeing me struggle to eat garlic, but too bad.’

No. Even if he couldn’t eat garlic, it wouldn’t mean much.

It would be absolutely impossible to identify him among the dwarves with such a trivial trick.

The way he blended in with the dwarves was through a special ability only vampires of the same bloodline could use, completely different from the magic or aura used by humans.

Thinking this, Damian considered throwing the pasta away and twisting Kurt’s neck, but he changed his mind and decided to eat the pasta he made.

He was curious to see Kurt’s flustered face when he saw Damian finish the pasta without leaving a trace.

‘After enjoying his flustered face, I could reveal myself and slaughter all the food in this inn. That would be fun. How would he react when I break his neck? Would he say something stupid like, “Huh, how… even with garlic…?” before dying?’

Somehow, imagining that scene made Damian feel cheerful. He smiled, his eyes curving like crescent moons, and put the pasta Kurt made into his mouth.