THE WILD ODDBALL

"YEAH, you're probably dead already."

Zoe turned to Isaak Viotto to glare at him. She just told him the story of how Liane had sent her to that world. And that was what he had to say after listening to her? She punched him in the arm out of frustration. "God, you're annoying."

[And let's not think about the possibility of my death in the meantime.]

Isaak Viotto, who was touching the arm that she just punched, looked at her in disbelief. "Did you just punch me?"

"Don't act as if you're hurt. Your body is uselessly sturdy," she complained, then she raised her closed hand to show him that her white knuckles had turned red. "See? I also hurt my fist when I punched you. Plus, I didn't hit you that hard, did I?"

"It's not that I'm physically hurt," he said defensively. "I'm just shocked that someone as small and as feeble as you have the guts to punch me."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Argh, stop being cringey."

"How can you say that after you mentally scarred me?"

"Now you're being dramatic, Isaak."

He looked more shocked now. "Did you just decide on your own to drop honorifics when talking to me?"

"Your title is too long," she complained lightly. "But come to think of it, you're still older than me. Should I call you 'oppa?'"

"What does it mean?"

"It means 'older brother,'" she said, too lazy to explain that it was a term that younger girls could call older guys that weren't blood-related to them.

"Why am I your older brother?" the ghoul duke complained. "Just call me by my name."

"Okay, Isaak," she said, satisfied. "You can just call me by my name, too."

"That's the plan, Zoe."

Hmm?

For some reason, she liked how her name rolled off his tongue nicely. In fact, she felt warm inside. Did she just get closer to Isaak?

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's just nice to hear you say my name casually." She smiled brightly at him. "It makes me feel like we've become friends."

"We're not friends," Isaak said bluntly. "I don't want to be friends with you."

She clicked her tongue. [So stingy.]

"Did you just click your tongue at me?"

She changed and demeanor and smiled sweetly at the ghoul duke. "I did no such thing," she lied casually. Then she gently patted the arm that she had punched earlier. "I apologize for hitting your muscular arm, Isaak."

Damn.

Patting the ghoul duke's arm felt nice because of his arm muscles.

Isaak, on the other hand, sighed as if he was so done with her. "You're an oddball, Zoe."

Zoe laughed, then she winked at him. "I'll take that as a compliment, Isaak."

***

"MISS, you have a good eye for spotting the freshest salmon here, huh?"

Zoe smirked proudly while carrying a huge salmon in her hand. It was heavy, but she was used to it, so she didn't mind. "This one doesn't bend that much even if I hold it like this," she said to the fish vendor. "This salmon is very fresh. I'll take this one. Whole."

Of course, she didn't stop there.

She also checked the color of the gills, smelled it, rubbed the scales, and inspected the eyes since it was a whole fish.

[Yep, this one is indeed fresh.]

Right now, she and Isaak were in the fish market.

The street was full of vendors selling different types of fish. It was already late at night, but the market was still buzzing. She missed the times she would go to the market to buy ingredients for her restaurant.

"You know your fish, huh?" Isaak, who was walking beside her, asked after they left the stall that sold salmon. "It's amusing to see you smell and touch the fish back there."

"Uh-huh," she said, while looking at the floating salmon behind Isaak.

The ghoul duke volunteered to "carry" the salmon for her.

But he didn't even touch the fish. The salmon was put in a transparent box, then he used his ability to control the wind to keep it afloat.

"For me, it's more amusing to see magic," she said, then she turned to the ghoul duke. "As I said before, we don't have that in our "hometown."" She snapped her fingers when she remembered something. "Isaak, do you think I can also use magic?"

"I suppose so," he said. "You have Mana. It's weak, but it's still Mana. I am not just aware of what the real Lady Rochester's ability is."

"The "madam" said this body is weak, though."

"You don't sound convinced."

"This body is gorgeous."

The ghoul duke let out some fake cough. "Excuse me?"

"I'm just saying that this body doesn't look like the body of a sickly person," she explained. "Lady Zoanne is fit and healthy."

"Are you saying that the "madam" lied to you?"

"Nope," she said while shaking her head. "I'm saying that Lady Zoanne is a mysterious person."

"It's not really unusual for nobles, especially for those who are successors to rich and powerful families, to hide the real condition of their health, though," the ghoul duke explained. "They do that to appear weak and avoid the greedy eyes of people around them."

"Lady Zoanne has missing memories."

"Excuse me?"

"The sexy red-haired villain told me that he worked as a volunteer in the temple where Lady Zoanne stayed for a long time," she said casually, while looking around. "When I possessed this body, I gained all of Lady Zoanne's memories and abilities. But no matter how much try to recall it, Lady Zoanne doesn't have those kinds of memories with the sexy red-haired vi–"

"Just call him "Red Snake,"" Isaak cut her off in an annoyed voice. "Why do you keep on calling him "sexy" anyway?"

"Well, he is," she said defensively. "Have you seen him smoke? I don't promote smoking, but damn, he looks so hot doing it."

The ghoul duke looked at her with cold eyes.

"I'll just call him "Red Fox" since most people know him as "Red Snake" already," she said with a pout. "Anyway, it seems like the Red Fox is suspecting that I don't remember him."

"What made you say so?"

"He tested me," she explained, then she squinted her eyes when something caught her eye. "I pretended that I remember him. I'm not sure if he bought it."

"I will have my people investigate the temple where Lady Zoanne served in the past."

"Thanks," she said, then she grabbed the sleeve of his robe and dragged him to the stall that caught her attention. "I already asked Dal, my attendant, to look into it as well. But the more the merrier."

She knew that she used the idiom wrong, but whatever.

Her mind was already a mess because she saw something strangely familiar. It made her heart thump hard and loud against her chest.

[Could it really be…?]

She stopped in front of a stall that sold octopuses. But it wasn't the raw and live seafood that caught her eye.

"Ma'am, may I know what kind of condiment is thus?" she asked the vendor when she picked up a jar filled with a familiar red condiment.

The table in front of the vendor was filled with seafood.

But it had an elevated shelf where different condiments were displayed.

"Ah, the merchant that sold it to me called it 'red chili paste,'" the elderly woman said with a smile. Even though she was busy cleaning some webfoot octopus, she still entertained her nicely. "I don't really know what that is, but he said we can use it as a dipping sauce."

[This looks like gochujang.]

In Korea, they called red chili paste 'gochujang.' And yes, it was a good dipping sauce. She was shocked to find Asian food in a novel with a Western-like setting. The Eastern Continent must be the Asia of this world.

[Let's try if it tastes like gochujang.]

"Ma'am, I'll buy this," she said, then she pointed at the cleaned webfoot octopus in the basin filled with water. "And can I have one of those?"

"Of course," the kind old woman said. "Let me just wrap it up for you."

"No need, ma'am," she said politely as she opened the lid of the jar. It smelled like gochujang, and it made her heart beat with excitement. "I'll help myself, ma'am."

After saying that, she picked up a dead and cleaned webfoot octopus.

Then she dipped the tentacles in the gochujang.

"Lady Zoe?"

Ah, she almost forgot that Isaak was standing beside her. Aside from the fact that he was usually silent, only people on his level could feel his presence. He was that strong.

But this time, she purposely ignored the ghoul duke.

Instead of responding back to him, she just put the gochujang-covered tentacles in her mouth. Then she chewed on it, slowly to savor the taste.

The lady vendor, along with the people around them, looked shocked.

Even Isaak was looking at her the way he did when she ate steak tartare before. But his shock was soon replaced by amusement. Then he sighed and shook his head.

She didn't care about their reactions, though.

[This is gochujang!] Zoe happily thought to herself, but wondered at the same time. [Why do I feel strange instead of pleased to find a Korean product in this novel?]

This world was fiction so something like gochujang appearing there was possible, right?

***

[I AM slowly getting convinced that fire doesn't exist in Zoe's world.]

How could this lady eat live octopus and make it look like it was the most delicious thing in the world?

Isaak was seriously amazed while watching Zoe entice everyone around them.

[She looks cute–]

He froze at the ridiculous thought that crossed his mind. But he quickly denied it. No, he didn't and would never think that Zoe was cute.

And it wasn't important, anyway.

While watching Zoe gobble up a live webfoot octopus with so much gusto, the things that she shared about how she ended up entered his mind.

[Empress Liane, you scammed Zoe, didn't you?]

Based on Zoe's story, he could say that the real Zoe was already dead. He also had a feeling that there was no way for Zoe to return to her own world.

[You didn't tell her that on purpose. Did you, Empress Liane?]

The former empress, the only sister-in-law that he would ever recognize, was a good person. But sometimes she could be cold and cunning. After all, she was the empress and she wouldn't have reached that top position by being kind.

But he was certain that Empress Liane had a reason for lying to Zoe.

The problem was Vaughn Wilson.

[The Red Snake is related somehow to the real Lady Zoanne Rochester,] Isaak thought to himself. [I need to keep an eye on that bastard to protect Zoe, but I also need to return by Princess Runa's side.]

Should he just kidnap Zoe and bring her to his territory?

***

NOTE: Hi! Please consider ADDING 'I Won't Let The Ghoul Duke Go Hungry!' to your LIBRARY. Thank you! <3