City ​​of Witches 764

Chapter 764 – #162_A Field Trip To The Mortal Realm (3)

#764

1.
And so, Siwoo’s welcome-back party began with the famous Siwoo House delivery food defense.

“To the safe and peaceful future of our assistant…”
“Cheers!”

The various dishes piled high enough to break the table legs were, in fact, somewhat inferior in quantity and quality compared to the daily dinners at the Gemonae County estate.

The chefs at the county estate were each close to being master craftsmen, and they didn’t skimp on the budget when it came to sourcing high-quality ingredients.

However, the reason why street food eaten at a foreign night market tastes good isn’t necessarily because the ingredients and the chef’s skills are outstanding.
When a somewhat excited atmosphere is added to food that has the unique local flavor of the region, it transforms into a delicacy in itself.

“I like the assistant’s hometown food.”
“Yeah, it feels kind of like junk food.”

Korean delivery food culture basically pursues spicy, salty, and stimulating flavors, so such an assessment is understandable.
Anyway, if it suited the picky palates of the twins, there wouldn’t be any major problems.

“Oh, is this the food of your homeland?”

Meanwhile, Luelle held and put down her fork, seemingly unsure of what to eat first.

When they lived together in Akula, one of the most common topics of conversation was food.
Luelle, who had always lived under the sea, had many dietary restrictions, and as such, she showed interest in a variety of foods.

“This is cup ramen.”
“Ooh, is this a food that is sold everywhere in Korea?”

Of course, Siwoo had prepared a cup of ramen for her, and Luelle was eating it quite deliciously.

By the way, it seemed like Luelle had been with the mothers-in-law all day yesterday…
Siwoo wondered what they had done with that combination that she was only arriving now.

“Luelle.”
“Hmm?”
“What did you do with the countesses yesterday?”
“I toured the hotels of the mortal realm. And we had a serious discussion about the national projects of the Nukelavi Kingdom.”
“National projects?”

Luelle, who seemed to like the cup ramen, put a forkful of noodles into her mouth and chewed, then spoke.

“The oil drilling rights.”

In modern society, which is highly dependent on natural resources, oil is the lifeblood of civilization and flowing gold.
There’s talk of moving away from oil and using electric cars, but it’s clear that there’s still a long way to go.

The previous Nukelavi had predicted this trend 200 years ago and acquired oil fields, which were cheap compared to now, and won the auction for drilling rights.

Siwoo looked at Luelle with a slightly worried expression.

Compared to her personal power, Luelle’s mental age was on par with the twins.
She was arrogant and self-centered, but in reality, she was quite a pushover.

“The kingdom’s treasury should be as full as possible. How is my wise move as the queen of the Nukelavi Kingdom?”

See?
As soon as a ‘grown-up’ story came up, she lifted her chin and wiggled it, showing her self-absorbed version of Luelle.

Could such a Luelle have made a proper contract with the mothers-in-law, who were seasoned businesswomen?

In Siwoo’s mind, he pictured Luelle pretending to carefully examine documents she didn’t understand, then casually signing them.

He knew that his mothers-in-law were good people…
But he had never seen them as businesswomen.

“Siwoo, that’s rude. It was a fair contract. The equity participation will also be based on a reasonable valuation.”

The eldest mother-in-law, who was eating pig’s trotters with the most elegance in the world, said while wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“It’s not that I doubted my mothers-in-law.”
“Is that why you had such a worried look on your face?”

As Siwoo gave a wry smile, Luelle, who had finished assessing the situation, interjected.

“How could anyone dare to deceive me when I have my eyes wide open? With this, the military expenses to build the Nukelavi’s grand fleet will be secured within 20 years. Imagine a carrier fleet floating like a picture on the blue Pacific Ocean. How is it? Doesn’t it give you chills?”

“Luelle, you remember that there’s a military action ban clause in the contract, right?”

“Why do you keep nagging when I’m just going to float it on the high seas? The master is too worried.”

“How can you float a carrier fleet even on the high seas? Our company will get dragged into it too. These days, if you dig into things like the source of funds, it all comes out!”
“Siwoo, please say something. I barely managed to persuade her last night after talking about it all night, and now we’re back to square one!”

It seemed like the mothers-in-law had also suffered quite a bit.
Well, Luelle tended to be persistent once she got fixated on something, so Siwoo, knowing her nature, could understand their struggles.

“Luelle.”
“I won’t listen. Even if it’s the request of the national consort, I cannot give up on the kingdom’s prosperity and military strength.”
“Luelle, aren’t you strong enough without a carrier fleet?”
“Why are you asking something so obvious? If it’s on the sea, I can face even the strongest 7th Fleet alone.”

There wouldn’t be any exaggeration in those words.
The military wasn’t developed to deal with ‘individuals’ who possessed transcendent power.

What good would a great fleet be?
If they were swept away by a human-ending wave hundreds of meters high, they would be torn to pieces.

“Then wouldn’t building a fleet be a waste of national power?”
“It’s not a waste. I’m so disappointed that even you can’t understand this romance.”

Luelle, who was sticking to her opinion that ‘you’re pathetic for not knowing how cool aircraft carriers are,’ put a spoonful of food in her mouth and then made a face.

“I wondered where that musty smell was coming from… Siwoo, what is this strange food?”
“Ah, that’s Chadol Doenjang Jjigae. It might be a bit polarizing. It’s a fermented food.”

“Truly, truly a terrible food. Green hair! How can you eat it with such a delicious expression?”
“Hmm? Why? It’s delicious?”

Sharon, whose taste buds had been completely localized, was mixing the Chadol Doenjang Jjigae with rice and was preparing to charge towards the long-awaited king crab.

Sharon’s soul food was, after all, king crab.
She was looking at the freshly peeled crab claw with loving eyes, not caring about Luelle’s taunts.

“Haa… I’m so happy… um…”

Luelle, who was watching Sharon, exclaimed.

“As expected of someone with a strange taste for Doenjang Jjigae, you don’t know how to eat it.”
“What? Why are you picking on Sharon?”
“Assistant, should we kick her out?”
“I told you not to call me Sharony!”

As expected, with so many people, the dining table became noisy just from everyone saying one word each.
The mothers-in-law, who usually emphasized dining etiquette, were also turning a blind eye today, making it even more boisterous.

Luelle stood up from her seat and walked towards Sharon.

“I, who am the benevolent gift of the sea, will personally teach this pitiful one who cannot fully enjoy the gifts of the sea how to enjoy crustaceans deliciously.”

That’s right.

Akula’s diet, which was always submerged under the sea, was overwhelmingly skewed towards seafood.
Therefore, Luelle was quite proud of her seafood knowledge.
Siwoo had even been scolded for not being able to properly distinguish the origin of sea urchins and had to take a blind test.

“The preparation is all wrong. If you do it like that, the precious meat will remain inside the shell, won’t it?”

Luelle, who had rolled up her sleeves, picked up a pair of small scissors with skilled hands and extracted the leg meat of the king crab.

After cleanly extracting every last bit of meat, even the red parts, she opened the crab shell with her small hands.
She dipped the plump crab legs into the innards that had collected inside and handed them to Sharon.

“Here, try it.”
“Wow, it’s really delicious?”

Sharon, who had eaten the crab, let out a pure exclamation.

“Huhu, the innards are the soul of the crab and the essence of the sea. I’ll also teach you how to clean it neatly, so follow along.”
“Okay, okay, show me.”
“Okay, put the scissors in like this…”

Luelle was arrogant and haughty, but she liked people who listened to her well.
In that sense, she seemed to be quite compatible with Sharon, who was a wise listener.

Meanwhile, Amelia was silently observing the table.
Amelia didn’t usually engage in active conversations with people other than Siwoo, and she was especially quiet during meals, but today she was unusually silent.

“……”

There was a reason for that.
Amelia had a very sensitive sense of smell and taste.

Even after reconciling with Siwoo and participating in the Gemonae family’s dinners, Amelia had only enjoyed salads, poached eggs, and lightly salted bread.
It was partly due to her natural constitution, but it was also because she had become accustomed to a life without stimulating meals.

For Amelia, who preferred very bland food by normal standards, Korean food was generally a high hurdle.

Even from this distance, the smell of garlic wafting from almost all the dishes was enough to make her head spin.

Moreover, having had the memory of encountering the terrifying dish called Kimchi Jjim, she had to be cautious with every attempt.
As a result, she was picking at her food, carefully exploring ‘is this okay to eat?’

“Amelia, do you not have an appetite?”
“No.”

Siwoo, who hadn’t missed Amelia’s appearance, asked.

She couldn’t say that there was no food that suited her taste.

Hometown food with memories was precious.
She didn’t want to appear picky in front of Siwoo’s hometown food.
That’s why she was looking for something she could eat, wasn’t she?

“Is everything here Siwoo’s hometown food?”
“Rather than hometown food, it’s more like mortal realm food that’s hard to eat in Gehenna.”

Things like Mala Tang were Chinese food, and the sushi there was originally from Japan.
After carefully looking at the table, Siwoo, who had noticed something, smiled.

“Ah, now that I think about it. Do you remember the food we ate on our first trip? They deliver it there too.”
“…Yes?”
“Ah, it must have been inconvenient to bring it since it’s far away. You should have said something. You liked this, right?”

For Siwoo, Kimchi Jjim was a special dish that shared the memories of the two of them.

It was a dish that Amelia had asked him to make when he had lost his memory and become a boy, but had failed, and it was also the first meal after he had reconciled with her.
He thought it would surely be the same for Amelia.

“……”

Siwoo scooped a generous portion of the bright red Kimchi Jjim, which Amelia was desperately pretending not to see, onto her plate.

“Enjoy your meal. Let me know if you need more.”
“Siwoo, I hate you.”
“Huh?”

Amelia, who found Siwoo particularly hateful today, was the one who said that.