City ​​of Witches 203

Chapter 203 – #45_Those Who Almost Lost (2)

#201
1.
Of course, putting everything else aside, the fact that so many civilian casualties occurred was depressing.
But what could I do?
I did everything I could, and I didn’t want to create a gloomy atmosphere for no reason.
Sharon already seemed down, and the twins must have been mentally shocked, so I thought it wouldn’t be good if I was also drooping.
It was my way of being considerate as an adult.

“Alright, here it is. Our officetel’s famous delivery food defense!”

Delivery food was laid out to fill the wide six-person table.
I even took out all the dishes that were stashed in the corner of the kitchen to transfer the food.
By acting as usual, even with a bit of forced tension to liven up the mood, the twins cooperated well.
The lukewarm gloom was gone, and the dining table was lively.

“Waaah!!!”
“Kimchi! Kimchi! Kimchi!”
“Assistant! We’re going to eat all of this today!”
“Don’t stop us!”

Odile clapped her hands like a seal, delighted. Odette chanted “kimchi,” a new cultural item she learned today.
The twins’ costumes were quite cute.
They were pajamas that they bought as souvenirs from the aquarium today.

Odile had a blue shark hoodie pajama. Odette had a pink rabbit hoodie pajama.
It was strange to see a rabbit at an aquarium, but it was a very easy-to-raise and beloved creature, so it had a place there with the land turtles.

I wonder if we’ll ever be able to go to that aquarium again…
Never mind.
I stopped thinking depressing thoughts.

“Is this pretty much everyone?”
“I think so?”
“Odile and Odette, you both look so cute.”

Perhaps influenced by the twins’ atmosphere, which was glowing like a three-way fluorescent lamp, Sharon had also returned to her usual self.
She smiled brightly and spoke to Siwoo.
Odile immediately reacted.

“I don’t know what you mean by cute.”
“That’s right, we are also proper ladies, so rather than cute, the expression ‘elegant’ is more fitting, ohoho!”

Odile and Odette, who were strangely obsessed with being called mature, suddenly sat down and pretended to fan themselves elegantly.
As an aside, they really didn’t look the part at all.
I subtly pointed it out.

“But isn’t that something you shouldn’t say while wearing those pajamas?”
“What’s wrong with pajamas? They’re cute, ah…!”
“What’s wrong with pajamas? They’re pretty and cute, so they’re good, ah!”

See?
A skit completed in an instant.
The twins fell into a trap without me even intending it.

Whenever I saw them like this, I thought they could make a good living as celebrities or YouTubers if they quit being witches.
They were so pretty and had so much entertainment value.
Siwoo was used to their antics and just chuckled, but next to him, Sharon was desperately trying to hold back her laughter with her head down.

“Anyway! Let’s pretend that minor comment didn’t happen! Please be careful with your word choices in the future! Sharon, unnie.”
“Is it okay if I call you unnie? It would be easier if we spoke casually! You’re our senior who became a witch before us!”
“Should we…? Or should we?”
“Yes!”

Siwoo interrupted, complaining.

“If that’s the case, aren’t I also a senior?”
“You’re just the assistant.”
“I always use honorifics, though?”

Sharon was slowly starting to talk comfortably with the twins, thanks to their easygoing behavior.
Come to think of it, considering the twins’ usual behavior, they seemed to be a good match for Sharon.
Sharon was also quite mischievous.
I could picture a future where they would become even closer and team up to oppress Siwoo.

Anyway, the dinner feast began.
Siwoo clapped his hands to get their attention and announced the start of the small party as the host.

“We had a bad day today, but let’s shake it off and enjoy our meal.”
“Assistant! I want to drink!”
“Unnie, unnie, I knew you’d say that, so I brought some from the artifact.”

Odette, who somehow knew, came with both hands full of canned beer from the refrigerator.
Odile opened them without hesitation.
They were quick learners indeed.

“Assistant, could you explain each dish? There are so many foods I don’t know!”
“Should I?”
“Assistant, you’re acting like your old self for the first time in a while.”

Siwoo told the giggling twins about each dish.
First, there was the red snow crab.

“Ah, this is called snow crab. Sharon, who’s sitting here, likes it the most.”
“Don’t explain it in a weird way!”

Sharon slapped Siwoo’s shoulder. Her hand was stinging.

“Wow! It’s so big!”
“It’s nothing like the one we ate in Ars Magna Town!”
“It’s delicious if you stir-fry rice in the innards like this.”

The twins diligently picked out the crab meat and then ate the fried rice that Sharon gave them.
The savory flavor of the innards and the rice grains coated with sesame oil.
The combination with the popping orange flying fish roe seemed to suit the twins’ taste perfectly.
The twins, who had initially tried to evaluate the taste politely, were soon busy scooping up the fried rice with their noses practically buried in the crab shells.

Sharon and Siwoo watched them with warm smiles.

“It feels like we’re the parents.”

Sharon said casually, and Siwoo agreed.
Today, I understood how my parents felt when they looked at me with proud faces as I ate only meat.
The twins were eating so deliciously, their cheeks puffed out as they munched on the rice.

“Next! Next!”
“Give us the next one!”
“The next dish is samgyeopsal.”

The second dish Siwoo presented was delivery samgyeopsal.
Unlike other places, it was a bit pricey, but they used domestic chilled pork.

“Assistant? This is just grilled meat.”
“Fat… there’s fat… too much…”

The food culture of Gehenna was quite Western.
The higher the status of the witches, like the Geminai family, the more so.
Usually, middle and lower-class citizens and witches ate chicken and pork, while upper-class witches enjoyed beef, lamb, and goose.

Among them, samgyeopsal with a lot of fat was only used to make bacon, sausage, or lard in Gehenna, so it was a very unfamiliar and threatening food for the twins.
But Siwoo was confident.

“Once you try it, you’ll take back those words.”
“Really?”
“Sniff, sniff, it smells really good…”

Next to them, Sharon wrapped a piece of samgyeopsal in lettuce, perilla leaves, and ssamjang with green onions.
She seemed to have left out the raw garlic.

“She, she wrapped the meat in salad.”
“Maybe it’s like an instant cabbage roll…?”
“But that’s not even cooked?”

The twins watched the unfamiliar scene with wide eyes.

“Odile, Odette. It might look unfamiliar, but this is really delicious. Who wants to try it first?”

The two pairs of wide eyes moved left and right, following the ssam that Sharon was waving.
The first to move was Odile, as expected.

“I’ll try it first. Aaaah….”

It wasn’t that big, but she opened her mouth wide and barely managed to fit the ssam in.
Odile chewed carefully and her eyes widened.

“Ima-shup… so da-da-hae…!”
“Really? Is it that delicious?”
“Odile, please chew and swallow before you talk.”
“Umm, umm, umm…!”

Odile diligently nodded her head and swallowed the famous Korean samgyeopsal. A healthy flush rose on her face.

“Ooh! Th-th-this taste…!”

While Odile was blankly opening her mouth, Odette begged Sharon.

“Unnie! What is it? Why? Please wrap one for me too!”

Sharon quickly wrapped a ssam for Odette before she could change her mind.

Moist and fresh lettuce with crisp and fragrant perilla leaves.
After passing the slightly rough texture, the juicy flavor of the oily meat with a subtle charcoal scent filled the mouth.
Just when you thought you were getting tired of the tender pork fat, the flavor of the green onions hit you.
After eating diligently, she made the same blank expression as Odile and opened her mouth.

“Th-this food is perfect…”
“I’ve wasted half my life!”
“Please tell me how to make it!”

Siwoo taught Odile how to wrap a ssam, and Sharon taught Odette.
They also taught them variations of eating it with stir-fried kimchi, raw garlic, chili peppers, and sesame oil salt.
At the same time, Odile and Odette, who had put the ssam in their mouths, jumped up and down, making a fuss.

“As soon as we get back home, we’re going to take over a pig farm!”
“I feel sorry for the citizens who turn such delicious food into sausages! We need to spread this new culture!”

Siwoo introduced traditional Korean dishes that were hard to find in Gehenna one by one.
The twins were very good at eating spicy food.
Moreover, unlike Gehenna’s cooking methods, which emphasized the original taste of the ingredients, Korean cooking methods, which used a lot of red pepper powder, pepper, salt, garlic, and soy sauce, seemed to appeal to the twins more directly.

They ate things like tteokbokki and kimchi jjigae with relish.
On the other hand, samgyetang, which could be said to have preserved the original taste of the ingredients, was surprisingly unpopular.
Maybe it was because of the herbal smell.
Instead.

“Is this the chicken that Assistant was talking about? How delicious can chicken be?”
“That’s right, I like turkey more than samgyetang!”
“Yes, please try it first. This one is called yangnyeom chicken, which is made with a sauce of gochujang and corn syrup. This one is fried chicken, just fried.”
“I’ll try it first!”

Contrary to their words, Odile and Odette were already smacking their lips, as if their expectations for the food had increased.
Soon, they each grabbed a drumstick and bit into it.
Siwoo had already roughly guessed the twins’ tastes through the previous trials.

“Ooh…!”
“No…!”

The twins savored the chicken with a truly cartoonish reaction.
It was a bit of a devilish idea, but I wondered what their reaction would be if they ate buldak ramen.
It would easily get 10 million views on YouTube, wouldn’t it?

“This is… chicken?”
“What is this juice…”

What is this? I thought my patriotism had disappeared to the roots after my military service.
Seeing the twins, who had only eaten the mild dishes of the Geminai family, lose their minds over the sweet, salty, and spicy Korean food, made my heart tingle.

“Is this national pride?”
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing.”

Sharon, who was diligently eating jokbal next to me, looked at me with a puzzled expression, but I brushed it off.
Right now, it was more important to watch the twins’ remaining reactions.

“This is a culinary revolution! I think we should open this chicken restaurant in Gehenna right away! It will definitely be a never-ending fountain of wealth!”
“That’s right! Let’s open it next to our house!”

In addition, the twins’ praise for jokbal, makchang, mulhoe, bulgogi, and kimchi jjigae poured out one after another.
They also drank beer so well that a pile of empty cans accumulated next to them.

“Haa… haa… I don’t want to go back…”
“U-unnie… I think I’m going to throw up…”

After a two-hour mukbang, the twins immediately collapsed on the sofa.
It might seem rude at first glance, but well.
No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem like the twins had been taught that they had to clean up after eating, so let’s let it slide.
Besides, the twins had essentially paid for all the food they ate today.

“Go play. I’ll do the dishes and come.”
“Ah, no. If you leave it, I’ll do it at night.”
“I said I’d do it~ Let’s all watch a movie. I think you’ll like it.”

Sharon pushed Siwoo away while wearing rubber gloves.
Odile was lying on the back of the sofa, her head lolling as if she were melting. Next to her, Odette was stretched out in the same position.

“Are you going to sleep like that?”
“It’s too early to sleep already, isn’t it?”
“That’s right, our night is just beginning, haaam~.”

Their eyelids looked heavy for someone who said that. They were blinking slowly like cows.

“Then let’s watch a movie together.”
“A movie? Ah! I wanted to see that too!”
“M-me, me, me too!”

Sharon, who had finished washing the dishes, joined them.
The four of them sat side by side on the sofa and watched a movie.