City of Witches
chapter-303

1.

Seeing Siwoo still didn’t understand the situation, Takasho grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the President’s Office on the second floor.

“Oh, my soul friend, Shin Siwoo! Looking good, aren’t you?”

As soon as the door was closed, Takasho opened his arms and embraced Siwoo tightly.

The scent of strong perfume wafting from him made Siwoo feel embarrassed somehow.

He had been looking forward to meeting him, but when he actually did, instead of feeling something like ‘Glad to see him again after a long time’, he was all flustered, asking ‘What the fuck is going on?’ in his head.

“Dude, why do you look so different? What the fuck? You aren’t using a filter, right?”

Takasho took out a bottle of alcohol and a pair of glasses, pouring both glasses to the fullest.

His luxurious watch flashed in the middle of the gesture as a bonus for the show he put on.

“Oh, c’mon, who do you think I am? Hokkaido's legend! The man with a six-story pagoda of flesh! The number one ace of Kabuki-cho! Mimaya Takasho!”

Seeing the way he laughed frivolously as she flopped down the sofa reassured Siwoo that this guy was indeed the Takasho that he knew.

He was just wearing a different set of clothes than he used to—his loosely fit work clothes with patches here and there.

Now, he looked like a young and rich businessman. Well, at least that was how Siwoo would introduce him to someone if they were to see his current appearance.

“Man, I haven’t been drinking these days since I need to take care of myself and stuff, but there’s no way I wouldn’t drink now that my dear friend is here! C’mon, drink them up!”

Damn, he seems to live quite the life now, huh?

Seeing that his friend whom he was worried about was doing so well, Siwoo let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

Since the cheerful atmosphere fit perfectly with his plan, Siwoo took out his ‘secret weapon’ from his luggage.

“Nice, just add this and it will be perfect.”

“T-This…?!”

Takasho, who was sitting on the sofa, spreading his arms wide, relaxing, jumped up the moment he saw what Siwoo had brought out.

It was one of the secret weapons that he brought for the occasion.

Instant ramen.

Of course, it wasn’t a normal instant ramen.

It was a 6,000 won ramen that used liquid soup as its broth, allowing one to taste the authentic taste of a genuine tonkotsu ramen.

“I remember you bitching about wanting to eat ramen, so I bought some for you. Fifty packages of these things.”

“F-Fifty…? T-This is… Ichiran Ramen! My favorite…!”

Takasho hugged the ramen that fell into his embrace, almost rolling on the floor.

He looked exactly like a drug addict who found a secret crack stash somewhere.

“S-Siwoo-sama… T-This Takasho is glad to be your friend… P-Please know that back then, when I used to call you josenjin...¹ I-It was all a joke…!”

Tears welled up in his eyes.

This was when Siwoo found out that a Japan Mainlander’s dogeza was on a completely different level than the one he was familiar with.

“Oi, Takasho, do it over. Stand up and give me another dogeza.”

“Yes, my lord—! No, my king!”

After that, Siwoo emptied his two bags in front of Takasho.

The content of his bags included potato chips, Japanese cigarettes that Takasho said he missed, some comfortable underwear, razors along with the replacement blades and so on.

There were also various Japanese snacks, instant film cameras and their films, even pictures of his favorite actresses.

Since Siwoo lived in Gehenna once, just like him, he knew how precious those things to him were.

That was why he made a whole list of things to buy this good friend of his and bought everything in that list for him before coming back to Gehenna.

“Ahhh…! Aaaahhhh!! I love this so much…! I think I can fly…!”

Now that he saw his friend rolling around the ground happily, he let out a smile in satisfaction over a job well done.

2.

The two men proceeded to chat over a bag of potato chips and ramen.

Takasho gave Siwoo the answer he had been so curious about.

“After you left, I did a lot of thinking. Like, a loooot of thinking. You were once a slave, just like me, yet you succeeded in studying magic and got your freedom back. It made me think that I’ve been spending my life in vain, wasting my life away…”

There was an ecstatic expression on his face when he boiled the water for his ramen. The face he made when he took a good slurp of the ramen made it seem like he was going to cum or something.

As someone who gave him this gift, there was nothing more joyful for Siwoo than seeing this expression of his.

“That’s why I decided to chase after my dream.”

“Your dream?”

“To become an owner of a host club. To become the true Lord of the Night.Like they said, a man should dream big. I don’t want to waste my life satisfying those witches while I don’t gain anything tangible for it.”

Takasho gulped down his drink, then patted his chest.

“So, I went to see Countess Adonai. As you know, her company takes a big hold on Gehenna’s logistics. I told her to lend me some money so I could start a business.”

“She just lent it to you?”

While it was true that Takasho was adored by quite a few witches, he was still a slave.

No matter how remote this building was, it still required quite the sum to open up a shop in THE biggest marketplace in Lenomond Town…

“You gotta owe it to my explanation. I told her that there just isn’t enough entertainment in Gehenna, particularly in regards to where the witches could satiate their lust.

“Like, there were only two places that they could go and do that; the Velvet Brothel in Tarot Town and Levana Grand Bath in Ars Magna Town.

“There’s a gap between those two places and this place could enter that gap perfectly.

“This is a place for the witches who aren’t wealthy enough to sign up for a membership at the Grand Bath. It’s also the perfect place for the witches who just want to feel the sensation of falling in love, not a physical relationship, but a gentle push and pull between a man and a woman…”

“And she accepted just like that?”

“Well, I had to put my life in line first, of course. If my business didn’t profit within a year or it didn’t break even in three years, I’d become her test subject.”

Siwoo let out a chuckle.

Because he thought this was just his usual morbid joke.

But, Takasho’s eyes were serious.

They were, undoubtedly, the eyes of a man who was ready to risk his all.

“Dude, are you crazy?”

“It’s still better than wasting fifty years of my life for nothing. Like they said, you only live once.”

“...”

“Shin Siwoo, just in case you’re thinking that I’m joking around… I’m dead serious.”

His words made Siwoo feel nauseous.

He genuinely thought that it was good that his friend could finally spread his wings to fulfill his grand ambition, but he still thought that risking his life for it was too much.

If something goes terribly wrong, I should ask Master for her help…

There’s no way I’d just let him become a guinea pig for some random magic experiment.

Of course, he didn’t say that thought out loud, so their conversation continued without a hitch.

“So, how is it going for you?”

“Well, we’re still in the preliminary opening stage. I can see that the business has a lot of potential, though.”

“How do things work here exactly?”

“Well, we take the good-looking slaves among the City Hall’s slaves and educate them, while the alcohol and such were supplied by Countess Adonai herself. You see, the reason why I went up to see the Countess is because she is the only one who has a deep influence in both the City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce.”

Even after Takasho continued his explanation, the whole thing still sounded incredibly reckless and clumsy.

But still…

“Dude, I don’t know what to say. That’s cool…”

“I know, I think so too whenever I see my face in the mirror.”

Siwoo genuinely thought that he was cool.

Not because of his new appearance, but because of the fact that he was determined enough to risk his life to achieve his dream.

“Anyway enough about me, it’s been a while since we met, how have you been? Got any girlfriend yet?”

Girlfriend, huh…?

Well, she’s not really a girlfriend, but quite close to that, I guess…?

I should introduce her to him later.

“Oho, look at your face, so you do have one. Is she a witch?”

“Damn right she is.”

“Oh, damn, show me her pic! What’s her name?”

“Sharon Evergreen.”

“Woah, even her name is pretty! C’mon, let me see her pic~”

Siwoo then opened his phone and showed him a few pictures of Sharon.

Takasho flicked through the phone to take a better look at the pics.

None of them looked amazing or anything.

After all, Siwoo and Sharon spent most of their time watching movies or eating out somewhere and both weren’t exactly the perfect occasion for selfies.

Siwoo also wasn’t a professional photographer.

However, Sharon’s good look and amazing bust turned even the clumsily taken pictures into works of art.

“You fucking josenjin.”

As Takasho looked through the pictures, his eyebrows raised up in fury.

“Are you telling me that you went on dates with this girl, going all lovey-dovey, asking each other ‘What do you want to eat today?’, then you two went on and fuck a ton? Then in the morning, you woke up, rubbed your sleepy eyes, shared a morning kiss and a hearty cup of coffee with her, and while she was making you the coffee, you’d grab her butt as your eyes met?”

“What the fuck? How did you get all that right?”

Fucking hell, this guy.

I’m scared now.

“You traitor!”

“Shut up, you are the one who played around with a bunch of witches at once!”

“Haah… Siwoo, I told you many times, those witches just aren’t in the equation at all. Fuck, I’m so envious of you now… Fuck it, I’m gonna study magic.”

As Takasho kept on scrolling Siwoo’s gallery, another thing made him almost burst into tears again.

He found another witch’s picture.

Eloa’s.

This particular picture was taken fairly recently. What happened here was, Siwoo was randomly taking a picture of the sunset when Eloa suddenly photobombed him.

Of course, Takasho didn’t know any of this. His body shook even more than before.

“Oi, josenjin. Who is this?”

“Ah… Just a witch that I know. She’s teaching me this and that.”

“This and that? This and that you said!? Dude, are you fucking with me right now? Is this why you came to see me? So that you could show off your women to me?!”

“Shut it, why do you care so much?! Hey, stop scrolling! Give me my phone back!”

Takasho was losing it at this point, the speed at which he scrolled through Siwoo’s gallery became faster and faster.

After Eloa’s pictures—well, there weren’t many of them—came the twins’ pictures, which were taken back when they visited him in the Modern World.

When he saw them, Takasho’s hand suddenly stopped.

Reflected on the picture was Siwoo’s face being crushed by the twins’ faces from both sides.

After they took the picture, the twins were arguing with each other because one of them occupied more space in the picture or whatnot.

In any case, anyone who looked at this picture could tell how close they were to each other.

“The Gemini twins… Oi, Shin Siwoo! Didn’t you tell me that you are just looking after those two?!”

“Just give me my phone back quickly!”

“A thief who learns late doesn’t know when dawn comes…”

Siwoo freaked out and took his phone back.

He completely forgot about this particular picture.

Meanwhile Takasho, who was wearing an exasperated expression earlier, suddenly smiled in satisfaction.

“Right, come to think of it, I’m the one who taught you all those things. A student’s success is the teacher’s success as well.”

“Well, I can’t refute that.”

If anything, Siwo knew more than anyone that Takasho’s advice worked wonders.

“Anyway, what are you gonna do now? Wanna work in our place for a bit?”

“Nah, I’m gonna head back to the Modern World later. Don’t worry, I’ll visit your place often before going back.”

“That so?”

Just a while ago, he was raging, perhaps from jealousy, but now there was a soft smile on his face, as if his behavior just now was just a joke.

In fact, it really was a joke.

After all, he was the kind of person who’d give a bigger push to his friends when things were going well for them.

“Bring your girlfriend over next time, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll praise you to high heavens in front of her.”

“Sure. Actually, when I told her stories about you, she did say that she wanted to meet you at least once.”

When they were about to continue their small talk…

-Knock, knock!

After the knocking sound, the door was opened and the blonde man that escorted Siwoo in came into the room.

“I’m sorry to bother you while you two are having such a great time, but, Hyung, someone from the Chamber of Commerce is here. They want to have a word with you.”

“What does he want?”

“He is the one in charge of the alcohol supplies, I think. There’s a problem about tariff or something like that.”

“Huh, really?”

Takasho immediately rose up to his feet, tidying his disheveled suit.

He tapped Siwoo on the shoulder as he stood up.

The moment he straightened his body, the usual Takasho was gone, replaced by the full-fledged businessman Takasho.

“Sorry to cut our time together short, Siwoo. I need to take care of this thing now.”

“Oh, c’mon, don’t be sorry. I’m going to visit often anyway.”

“Alright. Anyway, it’s nice to see you doing so well. Next time, let’s have a real talk over some good booze, okay?”

After saying that, Takasho walked away.

Siwoo was about to follow and leave the room, but the blonde man stopped him, though there was a hesitant expression on his face.

“Um, excuse me…”

“Yes? Is something the matter?”

“Are you…um…close to the witches?”

“Yes. For now, at least.”

“I don’t know if I can say this but… Can I ask you something? The thing is, Hyung…”

When he was about to say something, Takasho’s loud voice echoed from behind the door.

“What are you doing, Paul? Come with me!”

“Yes, Hyung! …Sorry about that, please don’t mind me. I have to leave now, excuse me.”

But, in the end, the blonde man had to leave without the chance to say what it was that he had in mind.