City of Witches

༺ Those Who Almost Lost a Loved One (2) ༻

1.

Being unable to save numerous civilians, it was natural for Siwoo to feel depressed, even though everything else had pretty much been resolved already.

But, it wasn’t like he had control over everything.

He had done everything he could, and more importantly, he didn’t want to add to the gloomy atmosphere in the house.

Sharon already looked sad enough, and it didn’t take a genius to tell that the twins must also have been traumatized by the event as well. If he were to add his own grievances to the mix, nothing good would come out of it.

This was his way of being considerate as an adult.

“Ta-da~! Here it is, everyone! Our officetel’s famous delivery special~!”

The wide six-person table was loaded with food that was delivered to their doorstep.

Siwoo had to pull out all the plates he could find in the kitchen to serve all the food.

He tuned up his enthusiasm a notch to boost the mood, playing his usual part, and the twins eagerly cooperated with him.

The previously gloomy atmosphere had now vanished, replaced by a lively one over at the dinner table.

“Woah!”

“Kimchi! Kimchi! Kimchi!”

“We’re going to eat everything, Mr. Assistant!”

“Sure, sure, don’t hold back!”

Odile looked so excited that she clapped her hands loudly. While Odette carefully savored the new dish that she had just learned about earlier today.

The clothes that they wore added to their usual cuteness.

They were wearing the pajamas Siwoo bought as souvenirs from the aquarium earlier.

Odile wore a blue shark hoodie pajama, and Odette wore a pink rabbit hoodie pajama.

Rabbit wasn’t exactly something that you’d associate with the word aquarium, but they were easy to care for and people find them adorable in general. So, the aquarium kept them as the land turtles’ companions.

‘Will I ever revisit that aquarium…?’

‘No, let’s forget about it.’

Gloomy thoughts tried to creep in, but Siwoo brushed them away.

“Is this enough for everyone?”

“Yes! We’re good!”

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, you both look so cute~!”

The twins’ infectious excitement brought Sharon back to her usual self.

She helped Siwoo to keep the atmosphere warm with those conversations.

Hearing Sharon’s words, Odile immediately responded.

“Cute? What do you mean by that?”

“I know, right? We are young ladies, so ‘elegant’ suits us better than ‘cute’! Hohoho!”

The twins, who were strangely obsessed with being associated with more mature words, sat down and spoke such words while pretending to fan themselves gracefully.

Of course it didn’t suit them to act this way at all.

And Siwoo subtly pointed it out to them.

“Those pajamas don’t suit your statements though.”

“What’s wrong with my pajamas? They’re cute— ah…”

“My pajamas? But they look pretty and cute— ah…”

‘See?’

Just like that, another hilarious comedy routine was unfolding.

Siwoo didn’t even need to try, the twins already walked right into the traps they dug on their own.

Seeing them like this, he couldn’t help but think that they’d do well as celebrities or YouTubers if they were to give up becoming a witch.

It was hard to overlook their charm and entertaining personalities.

Siwoo was already used to seeing them like this, so he only let out a chuckle at their antics, but Sharon was fighting for her life to suppress her laughter.

“Anyway! Forget about these trivial matters! From now on, Sharon unnie! Please be careful with your choice of words!”

“Also, is it okay if we call you Unnie? It would make things easier for us! Besides, you’re our senior anyway since you became a witch before us!”

“R-Really…? I-I mean, are you sure?”

““Yes!””

Siwoo chimed in with a complaint.

“If that’s how it is, wouldn’t I be your senior too?”

“Yes, but Mr. Assistant is Mr. Assistant!”

“I always use honorifics to address you, Mr. Assistant!”

Seeing how smooth the interaction with twins went, Sharon found herself comfortable chatting with them.

This was something that Siwoo had expected to happen. The twins had the personalities that would go along well with Sharon’s.

After all, she could also be quite the mischievous woman herself.

He could envision a future where the three of them got along really well and had a great time together. Occasionally, they’d gang up on him and tease him.

And so, the evening began with a modest dinner banquet.

Siwoo clapped his hands, grabbing everyone’s attention as the host while signaling the start of the delightful feast.

“We might have had a rough day, but let’s just forget about it and enjoy the meal.”

“Mr. Assistant, can I grab a drink?”

“I knew you’d say that, Sis, so I brought some from the artifact~!”

Odette said, holding cans of beer from the fridge.

When she received them, Odile effortlessly popped the cans open.

Just a while ago, she didn’t even know how to do that.

“Mr. Assistant, do you mind explaining each of the dishes for us? We don’t know some of these foods!”

“Is that so?”

“Please! It’s been ages since you last acted like a real Assistant!”

Seeing the giggling twins, Siwoo decided to introduce each dish to them.

First, he pointed toward a red, cooked snow crab.

“This one, the juicy red crabs…well, Sharon here loves these the most.”

“Explain things properly! Don’t drag me into this!”

Sharon playfully slapped Siwoo’s shoulder for his antics, but the slap actually hurts him.

“Wow, it’s huge!”

“You can’t even compare them to the ones we had in Ars Magna Town!”

“By the way, you can eat the innards stir-fry, it’s tastier that way actually.”

The twins enthusiastically dug into the crab meat while savoring every bite of the fried rice that Sharon served.

Speaking of the rice, each of the grains were coated in tasty sesame oil, and it enhanced the delightful flavor of the crabs’ innards.

And this blend of the flavorful innards and scarlet flying fish roe, perfectly suited the twins’ palate.

At first, they tried to give polite criticism to the taste, but before long, they were too busy to scoop up more of the food to talk.

Sharon and Siwoo looked at this scene with delight.

“It made me feel like we’re their parents or something.”

Sharon said casually, while Siwoo nodded in agreement.

He could totally relate to a parents’ feeling when they proudly watched their children enjoying their meals after seeing the twins’ happily eating.

They stuffed their cheeks with rice, making it look incredibly appetizing.

“Next! Next!”

“Please introduce us to the next dish!”

“This one over here is pork belly.”

Then, Siwoo presented the second dish, a pork belly straight out of the delivery.

Unlike other places, the restaurant where the pork belly was from used domestic refrigerated pork, and the price was slightly more expensive than usual.

“Isn’t this just…grilled meat?”

“S-So much fat…”

Gehenna’s food culture had a significant Western influence.

The higher the social status a witch has, especially if they were from noble families like the Gemini Household, the more they embraced the practice of eating only the finest cuts of meat.

Witches from middle and lower classes typically only ate chicken and pork, while the upper class witches preferred beef, lamb, and goose.

To the twins, pork belly with fat attached on it was an unfamiliar and intimidating dish. In Gehenna, they only used pork to make bacon, sausages, or lard, and they had never seen it eaten as a main course.

However, Siwoo was confident that they would enjoy it.

“You’ll understand if you try it.”

“Are you sure?”

“It does smell good…”

Sharon placed some lettuce, perilla leaves and sliced green onions on a plate with ssamjang¹Spicy dipping sauce.

She left out the raw garlic though.

“You can make a wrap with the meat, like a salad.”

“Isn’t it more like cabbage rolls instead of salad…?”

“But, it isn’t even cooked!”

The twins watched the unfamiliar sight with eyes full of curiosity.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, it might look strange, but it’s really tasty. Who wants to try it first?”

Two pairs of wide eyes darted from side to side, following Sharon as she waved the rolls in her hand.

Odile was the first to take a bite.

“I’ll try it first. Aah…”

Sharon didn’t make too big of a roll, but Odile still had to open her mouth wide to take a bite. Even then, she barely managed to fit the whole thing in.

When she carefully chewed and swallowed the bite, her expression showed a pleasant surprise.

“T-Thwis…tashty!”

“Really? Is it that good?”

“Mr. Odile, chew and swallow your food properly before you speak.”

“Mmm—mm!”

Odile gulped hard and swallowed the Korean specialty, the pork belly, in one go.

“Woah! T-This taste is—!”.

She was still stunned, her mouth was wide open. Seeing this, Odette nudged at Sharon.

“Unnie, I’m curious now! Why is she acting like that? Can you make one for me too?”

Sharon quickly made a wrap for Odette, fearing that she might change her mind.

Inside the fresh, moist lettuce was a crisp, fragrant perilla leaf.

Past the slightly crunchy texture, the fatty meat juices, infused with the subtle aroma of charcoal merrily moistened her mouth.

Just when she was able to enjoy the richness of the pork fat, the refreshing flavor of the green onions kicked in.

Odile ate greedily, then she ended up having the same expression as Odile as her mouth gaped open.

“T-This dish…is perfect—!”

“It feels like I’ve missed out on half of my life!”

“Please teach us how to make it!”

Siwoo patiently taught Odile how to wrap the lettuce, while Odette was being taught by Sharon.

While they were at it, they showed various variations, such as pairing pork belly with stir-fried kimchi, fresh garlic, chili peppers, and perilla oil salt dipping sauce.

The twins’ faces lit up with excitement as they enjoyed wraps, their heads bobbed up and down in joy.

“When we get back home, we should start our own pig farm!”

“I can’t believe they turned such delicious food into sausages! We need to spread their greatness!”

After that, Siwoo proceeded to introduce a series of traditional Korean dishes rarely found in Gehenna.

Surprisingly, the twins could handle spicy food well.

In contrast to Gehenna’s cooking methods, which valued the natural flavors of ingredients, Korean cuisine’s straightforward use of red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, garlic, and soy sauce seemed to appeal more directly to the twins.

They could even enjoy dishes such as tteokbokki²Simmered rice cake and kimchi stew.

However, when it came to samgyetang³Ginseng chicken soup, a dish that focused more on the natural flavors of the ingredients, they didn’t enjoy them as much.

Though, it was probably because the medicinal scent deterred them.

Instead…

“So, is this the chicken thing that Mr. Assistant was talking about? How good can a chicken really be?”

“I think turkeys are more delicious than this samgyetang!”

“Have a taste then. This one is yangnyeom⁴A variety of Korean fried chicken seasoned with a sweet and spicy sauce of gochujang, garlic, sugar, and other spices chicken, coated in a sauce made from gochujang and malt syrup, while this one is just a plain fried chicken.”

“Alright, I’ll taste them both~”

Despite their words, the twins couldn’t hide their excitement toward the upcoming flavors.

They enthusiastically grabbed a chicken leg each and began to devour them with excitement.

Through previous experiences, Siwoo had already guessed their preferences.

“Oh—!”

“My God—!”

Their reaction as they savored the chicken’s taste was comical.

‘I wonder how they would react if I were to give them spicy chicken ramen?’

‘If I were to put it on YouTube, it’d probably get millions of views in one go.’

“T-This is…chicken…?”

“What’s with this sauce…?”

And he thought that after military service, his patriotism had disappeared down to his very bones.

But he realized at this moment that, if the twins were unable to handle the salty, spicy Korean food, and preferred the bland food from the Gemini’s Household, his heart would probably break down in pieces.

“Proud Korean⁵Gukppong (Korean: 국뽕), a derogatory Korean word that is used to pejoratively describe a [South] Korean nationalist. moment, huh?”

“What?”

“Don’t mind me.”

Sharon, who was eating some pig’s trotters next to him, looked at him strangely, but he brushed her off.

At the moment, he was too occupied with watching the rest of the twins’ reactions.

“This is a culinary innovation! Alright, I’m going to open a branch of this chicken restaurant in Gehenna when I get back! Imagine the profit!”

“Right, right! We’ll open it right next to our manor!”

Not only that, the twins also showered praise on other dishes, like pig’s trotters, grilled intestines, raw fish soup, bulgogi, and kimchi stew.

Before long, a pile of empty beer cans had accumulated next to the twins. They were surprisingly good drinkers.

“Haaah…I don’t wanna go back…”

“S-Sis…I feel like I’m going to puke…”

After indulging in a two-hour feast, they flopped down on the cough.

It was a little impolite, but Siwoo decided to let it slide.

Besides, he couldn’t see them ever receiving the ‘clean up after eating’ lesson, so he didn’t make a fuss about it.

Also, they were the ones who footed the bill for the food.

“Go have fun, I’ll do the dishes and join you later.”

“Ah, no, leave it to me, I’ll do it later tonight.”

“I said I’ll do it~! Now, go out and watch a movie or something!”

Wearing rubber gloves, Sharon gently nudged Siwoo forward.

Odile lay back against the couch’s head, feeling as if she could melt away. Odette was right next to her, sprawling in the exact same position.

“Are you going to sleep like that?”

“It’s too early to sleep isn’t it?”

“Yeah, the night is just starting…hoaahm…”

Despite their words, their droopy eyelids gave away their fatigue. They blinked lazily, like a drowsy pair of calves.

“Why don’t we watch a movie together?”

“A movie? Sure, I want to watch one!”

“M-Me too!”

When Sharon was done with the dishes, she joined as well.

And so, the four of them sat side by side on the couch while watching a movie.

Footnotes:

• 1Spicy dipping sauce
• 2Simmered rice cake
• 3Ginseng chicken soup
• 4A variety of Korean fried chicken seasoned with a sweet and spicy sauce of gochujang, garlic, sugar, and other spices
• 5Gukppong (Korean: 국뽕), a derogatory Korean word that is used to pejoratively describe a [South] Korean nationalist.