Chapter 1296 – ##11_More Than Ginseng…(5)
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1.
Kivele’s spending spree, which far exceeded the production budget.
The staff, who were madly enthusiastic about employee benefits that would make any major corporation envious.
Director Moon, who burned with artistic passion, showing results beyond imagination thanks to the actors’ passionate performances.
And Siwoo, who surprisingly found his role well-suited and managed to pull it off, all combined their strengths.
The Witch’s Tale.
Crank up!
2.
After the last take was finished, and after the wrap party with the staff who had worked hard together.
Kivele and Siwoo returned to Periwinkle Seoul late, as dawn was breaking.
Even though they had become accustomed to the luxurious Gehenna architectural style, they couldn’t help but be amazed every time they saw the urban scenery.
And the rooftop infinity pool that overlooked it all.
Like the day the two first became intimate, they were splashing around, celebrating with champagne.
“Are you jealous?”
“No.”
“Really, you’re not?”
Wearing a sexy bikini and with her hair tied up, she smirked mischievously while tilting her champagne.
He couldn’t help but react awkwardly.
Since the main character in the story was a boy-youth-middle-aged man-old man, Siwoo’s last filming, who played the boy, had already ended four weeks after the start of filming.
Today, he had heard that it was the last day of filming, so he had disguised himself and visited the set.
And what was the last scene he saw?
It was a farewell scene filled with the sorrow of a witch who had no choice but to let go of her lover, and an old man who had to leave his beloved behind.
Confirming their love for each other, and knowing its futility, they still promised future love.
Knowing their separation was inevitable, they foolishly held hands and didn’t let go. Siwoo watched the last moments of the lovers.
It was a predictable story, but Kivele and her co-star’s acting covered everything.
They unleashed all their potential in the climax scene.
The reason was probably because she, who was now getting more used to the name Kivele than the title Periwinkle Sister, was a ‘person accustomed to farewells.’
But this proposition was strange.
There was no such thing as a person accustomed to farewells.
To add to that, they were just ‘accustomed to saying farewell.’
Witches basically lived on a different timeline than humans, and they experienced farewells as they became witches.
“Even though all the kiss scenes were done by a stand-in, are you still jealous? Isn’t that too shameless?”
Siwoo stared blankly at Kivele, who was sneering next to him.
As expected, a witch who was born with a talent for any kind of art.
Her qualities as an actress were excellent. This meant that she was very good at immersing herself in her role.
Even though he knew it was just acting, the fragments of emotion still lingered.
“Shin Siwoo must be happy, right? Now you have a movie star as one of your wives, right? You’re not going to get all excited saying, ‘I’m having sex with a movie star!’ are you?”
Also, based on her past experiences, she was the kind of person who smiled the brightest when she was upset and confused.
She was probably trying to hide it by acting tough like this.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders as she rambled on exaggeratedly.
“Kivele-nim.”
“Why?”
“You worked hard.”
“Hmm, it’s annoying that you’re too perceptive, you know? You’re supposed to pretend you don’t know about things like this, don’t you know?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Well, you’ve always been so nosy.”
She paused, then smiled and leaned against the rooftop pool railing.
The clear dawn breeze of Seoul brushed past her sideburns.
Kivele, who had been choosing her words for a moment, opened her mouth.
“Do you know how old I am?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know, this year marks 360 years since I became a witch.”
“Oh, that’s a lot… Kkyaaaak!!!”
“When that happens, you’re supposed to say, ‘Oh, really? I had no idea, I thought you were in your early 20s,’ you know.”
“Kkyaaaak!!!! You’re a witch, it doesn’t matter!!!!”
Kivele pinched her husband’s side hard as punishment for not understanding the heart of an older woman.
“Anyway…. I thought about you throughout the movie shoot. If you were a normal human and grew old quickly and left my side, what kind of expression would I make? A good actor has to immerse themselves in their role, so there was no one better than you.”
Even though it was acting, her heart felt like it was collapsing.
She held back her tears and tried to soothe her sadness with composure, but the emptiness and futility lingered on her tongue like the bittersweetness of dark chocolate.
And here was Shin Siwoo.
“Then that’s a relief. Because I won’t be leaving you anytime soon.”
The greatest luck he had obtained after giving up on luck.
Kivele rested her head on Siwoo’s chest and chuckled.
“That’s right. It’s a relief.”
2.
The post-production and final editing of the movie were completed.
The investment and distribution company, which had been hiding its strength for a big hit, simultaneously released the marketing materials and teasers it had been hiding on the internet.
-A real witch is starring in a movie?
-Really? That wasn’t just a rumor, it was real?
-That’s the witch from the cosmetics commercial;;
-Did you see the teaser video? Her beauty is insane. Wow, I’m definitely booking a ticket
-Pre-booking is already done. It was harder than signing up for classes
It led to an overwhelming explosion of interest.
The 15-second teaser video, which was intentionally made short, had millions of comments, and all sorts of movie YouTubers rushed in to analyze the short video, make predictions, and generate another round of teasers.
Most people were acting like, ‘Wow, I have to see it!’ but there were also quite a few who were looking at it with a critical eye.
-Movies should compete with acting and story, what is this?
-Have these guys forgotten what the witch did?
-It’s obvious, the content is just going to be a rehash of the same old K-melodrama
-The director is just some no-name, it’s obvious what it’s going to be like lol
As is the nature of internet comments, this was bound to start a fight.
-How did you see a movie that hasn’t even had a premiere yet?
-Did the witch kill your parents? Isn’t it enough if she’s pretty?
-So what if it’s a melodrama? Are we going to see the movie? We’re going to see the witch
The fight attracts attention, and attention attracts more fights.
This endless cycle of hatred was the best marketing.
Now, the premiere tickets, which were being held on a scale several times larger than usual, were becoming more precious than gold.
While the whole world was buzzing about The Witch’s Tale, it wasn’t just the current world that was noisy.
“Did you hear? The Lucky Witch made a movie.”
“Huh? Yeah. Tell her congratulations.”
“But Duke Shin Siwoo also filmed it.”
“?”
“He even transformed into a child actor.”
“???????”
Gehenna was also turned upside down.
If any witch had made a movie, they would have just thought, ‘Oh, okay.’
After the veil of mystery was lifted, there were quite a few witches who were trying to enter the entertainment industry to secure legal research funding.
Witches from Gehenna, who were extremely conservative, classified popular culture as a lower culture and thought of those who worked in it as mere entertainers, but they couldn’t ignore the money in front of them.
For witches, magic and the research funding that went into it were reality.
Thus, the fact that the Lucky Witch had made a movie only left the impression of ‘Oh, that guy has fallen too.’
But Duke Shin Siwoo? A movie? And as a child actor?
“I can’t stand it, I’m too curious.”
“When is it? When is the first premiere? Where is it?”
“I’ve only been to the current world once during the last war… Should I go too?”
In witch society, the existence of Shin Siwoo had become a kind of faith.
Not only had he ended the war, but he was also a pioneer who would find a way to overcome the limitations of witches.
Most witches harbored the emotion furthest from understanding, and they also harbored affection for his handsome appearance.
The problem was that Shin Siwoo had become a flower on a cliff that was too high to flirt with.
He had nine wives, nine.
Moreover, they were all high-ranking witches or from prominent families.
At this point, it wasn’t a flower on a cliff, it was a flower on Mars.
“What’s the story about?”
“A love story with a witch.”
“It’s worldly.”
“And it’s a ‘raising’ story.”
“What’s a ‘raising’ story?”
“Raising them and eating them.”
“Gasp.”
But you can see the lovey-dovey relationship between the young Duke Shin Siwoo and a ‘witch’?
If you just put yourself in the witch’s place, you could get a satisfying sense of vicarious satisfaction.
They had to see it.
“For us, who are the goddaughters, not seeing the movie starring our godfather and ninth godmother is nothing short of a betrayal. Anyone who disagrees, step forward. I’ll strip you naked and hang you upside down in the square.”
“There are none.”
The thirty-two goddaughters, former members of Las Werphanas, also thought so.
“Then, there are no objections to the above agenda. All the goddaughters will attend the premiere.”
The one leading the meeting was Frau Hulle, the ‘Snow Witch,’ who currently acted as the eldest daughter among the goddaughters, and was famous for her cold and aloof nature, befitting her ice magic.
It was the first time the goddaughters had seen her cheeks flushed red.
And it was also the first time they had seen her so excited.
“Actually, I saw the godfather when he was younger.”
Frau couldn’t stand the gazes of curiosity directed at her, and subtly began to boast.
It was a tone that wouldn’t be strange if ‘Aren’t you jealous? lol’ was added to the end.
Originally, Werphanas was a mechanical group based on blind loyalty.
It was closer to a superorganism that served a single cause rather than a group created by individuals for individuals.
There was an invisible but strict hierarchy and a cold division of roles, but….
That was a thing of the past.
New father Shin Siwoo’s ‘living like that is no fun’ theory and the changed living environment had greatly changed the goddaughters.
“Traitor! Drag that woman out!”
“She doesn’t deserve to be the eldest daughter! Resign!”
“She watched it by herself? Me too! Give it to me too! Give me the child godfather!”
“Na-na-na-na-na.”
Led by Nairi, the goddaughters began a chaotic chase, and Frau, with her excited mountain goat-like steps, continued to taunt them as she followed them.
And there was a group that followed Shin Siwoo even more than these goddaughters….
It was the witches from the large-scale hikikomori witch group, Box.
“Honestly, what’s the big deal about filming a movie.”
Margarita, the witch of the ice-free port, who had heard the news, clicked her tongue as usual.
Her long, stretched-out eyes couldn’t take their eyes off the smartphone screen where child actor Shin Siwoo appeared for about a second.
“Margarita. Give me back my smartphone….”
“Wait. I need to see it a little more to understand.”
“It’s been three hours already….”
“Don’t be so petty.”
Oksana, the most popular witch from Box, who had even opened a smartphone, tearfully begged the bully who had forcibly taken her phone and wouldn’t give it back.
“But this movie premiere, it’s happening in the current world, right?”
“I guess so.”
“Then that means we have to go to the current world to see it?”
“……”
Amira, a princess from Egypt, hit the nail on the head with her elegant tone.
In the face of the cruel reality, a total of 56 witches became gloomy all at once.
They had been isolated in the box for a short period of several years, and a long period of several hundred years.
Even now that they were out of the box, they were living in a similar way.
There were many who would have a fit just by stepping on the threshold of the mansion, so go to the current world?
“…Can’t we just watch it on OTT after it’s been released for a while?”
“I’m going to go see it…?”
Sharp gazes were directed at Oksana, who was muttering timidly.
“Traitor.”
“Heartless woman.”
“Bitch.”
“Why, why… You guys are the cowards… Why are you doing this to me?”
Finally.
“How could you do this to me, sister!”
Deneb poured out her resentment, full of sorrow, to her sister.
“You said Siwoo-kun got younger! I wanted to see that too!”
“Calm down.”
“It’s too much! It’s too much!”
Deneb, who hadn’t seen the young Siwoo because of Albireo’s embargo, was protesting after realizing the fact along with the movie’s release.
“Haa.”
Albireo quietly accumulated about 100 head-flick stacks for her son-in-law.
