Chapter 750
Chapter 750
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 750
Chapter Title: Let's End This Now (3)
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Si-woo woke up completely plastered from the night of drinking and confessed all his sins to Takasho.
For a solid five hours, no less—with a bottle still clamped in his mouth the whole time.
"This is how it happened...".
"You really fucked up big time, didn't you?"
One might say Takasho bore some original sin of his own, even if it wasn't entirely intentional.
That was why he dutifully listened to Si-woo's drunken ramblings that morning, as the guy trashed the alley behind the shop in a haze.
Well, even without that, it was just what you do for a friend.
Takasho had been pretty shocked when he learned the truth.
Up until now, he'd seen Si-woo and Sharon together about five times over drinks with the three of them, and every time, they'd been the picture of a lovey-dovey couple dripping with sweetness.
At first, he'd thought it was just your standard couple spat—the "let's break up" kind of bickering—and even teased them a bit about it.
But this was way more complicated than he'd imagined.
"Come to think of it, you've always been like that—charging in blindly like a brainless banzai rush, or getting kidnapped out of nowhere. I was worried sick, so Sharon must've been tearing her hair out."
"...So, what's your take on it?"
"My take?"
"Yeah, give me some advice."
Takasho drew in a deep breath as he watched Si-woo slumped on the sofa like wilted spinach.
"Go!!!!!"
Then he laid into Si-woo with a thunderous roar.
Not satisfied with that, he kicked him too.
"Listen up, you blockhead son of a bitch! Etch my words into that thick skull of yours!"
"Fuck! What the hell's gotten into you?!"
"I'll ask you this! Is building a harem, Shin Si-woo style, wrong?"
"......".
It was a question even the old Si-woo would've struggled to answer.
But after getting dumped by Sharon, it was even harder for Takasho to spit out.
Before Si-woo could respond, Takasho started answering his own question.
"The answer is 'hell no!'"
With a majestic swell of background music in his mind, Takasho's eyes blazed with a fierce light Si-woo had never seen before.
"Embracing more women and craving more love is the instinct of any red-blooded male. Our DNA urges it—no, demands it, no, forces us to spread our seed far and wide! Any man who defies that instinct and settles for monogamy just because society says so is half-castrated swine."
Si-woo got kicked in the head too, but under Takasho's overwhelming pressure, he couldn't budge an inch.
"But from a woman's perspective, it's a thorny path through hell.
Do you think it's easy for her to trust a man who doesn't look only at her and bet her whole life on him? Those days of striving to flaunt her charms amid invisible rivalries—do you think that effort falls short of a male's pursuit of a female? No, it doesn't!"
"......".
"So, if a guy in that harem makes even a single tear fall from his lover's eye, what does that make him?"
"......".
"Worse than swine. In other words, that's you right now, Shin Si-woo."
Si-woo was speechless under Takasho's piercing speech, which stabbed right at the heart.
Takasho continued in a gentler, deeper tone.
"Shin Si-woo, I get it. I was like you until I was about four. Isn't this basically your first real lovers' quarrel? You're clumsy, don't know what to do. In that world-shattering despair, you might not see the truth clearly."
"Lovers' quarrel?"
Si-woo was already checked out.
He couldn't grasp what point there was in calling it a lovers' quarrel now.
"Saying 'let's break up' in the heat of an argument is definitely the worst thing you can say. If Sharon didn't really mean it, then yeah, it was a mistake on her part. Spank her ass for it later."
"Did you even hear what I said? She dumped me."
"I know, I know. But listen, Shin Si-woo—women are masters at lying."
Takasho extended his thick hand to Si-woo, who had collapsed from the soccer kick.
"Was the Sharon you've seen really the type to worry about being 'number whatever' in line?"
"...Well...".
"Sharon's on her first relationship too. Doesn't it occur to you she might be just as clumsy as you?"
She'd always felt like an older figure—reliable, someone to lean on.
What Takasho pointed out was something Si-woo had completely overlooked, hidden behind that image.
"Go see her, you idiot. If you get dumped again, drinks are on me."
Si-woo grabbed Takasho's hand and stood up.
His booze-fogged mind cleared right up.
"Thanks. I'm feeling sane again. I owe you one. Got somewhere to be now."
"Hey! Hey!"
Takasho grabbed Si-woo, who was already heading for the door.
"Take your sturdy girlfriends with you this time. Don't get caught again."
Takasho's gleaming teeth looked trustworthy today.
No matter how routine the world gets, you can never build tolerance to the crisis of your beloved partner's life hanging by a thread.
Which of Si-woo's lovers in Gehenna hadn't gone through it?
Si-woo was always getting kidnapped or pulling reckless stunts, but when word came that he'd been taken by the Hexennacht, everyone sank into grief.
The mood was worlds apart from when the Witch of the Deep Sea had snatched him.
Back then, they'd all clung to a sliver of hope and joined the search.
Even knowing the Witch of the Deep Sea was a dangerous old witch, she was just one person.
Male witches were rare in witch society, so there was naive optimism that no one would dare touch him rashly.
Sharon had been the same.
She figured she'd do everything she could.
Until the video letter from Lurye arrived, she'd scoured that vast ocean, her body and mind wasting away.
But this time was different.
The place he'd been taken to was the Hexennacht.
Not some unknown individual, but a collective of malicious witches.
Even knowing where he was, the helplessness of being able to do nothing but pray was indescribable.
Days passed where all she could do was shed tears.
That's when Sharon gathered her witch robes and wand.
It's not like there's nothing I can do.
That's just an excuse.
I'm a full-fledged great witch.
Just as Si-woo had risked his life for her, she'd risk hers for him, she vowed—and went to find the others.
They were friends before they were rivals.
She believed they'd all feel the same.
Even if it was like hurling eggs at a boulder, she'd gladly go together.
And when Sharon reached Amelia and Eloa's mansion.
It was completely empty.
Asking around, she learned the two had rushed to the mortal world to rescue Si-woo—without telling her.
Sharon shut herself in her room without a word.
'Of course. Don't get down about it, Sharon.'
She knew how much danger lay in storming the City of Public Works to save Si-woo.
The resolve it demanded.
And why they kept it secret from her.
'I'd just get in the way if I went.'
Both Amelia and Duchess Eloa were 23rd Hierarchy.
Sharon, even as a great witch, was 20th Hierarchy at best. Even leveraging her self-generating magic with top-grade offerings, she could barely muster 21st Hierarchy firepower for a moment.
Butting into an op that risky, she'd only drag them down instead of helping.
'I'll work harder and become a girlfriend who can actually help.'
She knew.
Amelia and Duchess Eloa had chosen that out of worry for her.
'......'
Even convincing herself like that.
Even steeling her words.
Grief, betrayal, helplessness swirled in her chest.
Why didn't they tell me?
Couldn't they have at least told me?
Heading to a place that dangerous, it might be the last time I see their faces.
As friends, even if they had to explain more, wasn't one word—"I'll go too"—possible?
Did they think I'd force my way in recklessly?
Was I so insignificant they could leave without even a "come back safe"?
She knew it was petty griping.
Amelia and Eloa were just being considerate.
As said before, it was a suicidal commando raid. They might pull it off, but Sharon would definitely be in peril.
Still, she resented them.
Her desire to help Si-woo burned just as fiercely.
Unlike the twins, she was a proper witch, yet left behind for not being helpful.
Not even worth discussing it with.
It stung.
And worst of all was her own weakness—feeling betrayed by the women risking their lives in her place.
'I'm really useless...'
She wanted to stand as an equal partner, not just one who receives from him.
But when Si-woo needed help more than ever, all she did was resent the other lovers.
Overcoming her incomplete hierarchy? Thanks to Si-woo.
Escaping her wandering life in the mortal world for Gehenna? Him.
Repaying debts for this leisurely life? Him.
Making all these friends? Shamelessly taking from him.
And Amelia?
Owing even more than Sharon, yet she had the power to repay it herself.
Unlike someone scraping by on pennies, she boasted the highest hierarchy in particle magic among top witches.
And Duchess Eloa?
Setting aside her personal strength, a duke revered by all.
Si-woo's greatest spiritual pillar and mentor.
And unlike Sharon, ridiculously cute to boot.
What about Odil and Odet?
Apprentice witches now, but destined to inherit the Gemernai Count Family.
Inheriting the current count's magic would plant them firmly at 22nd Hierarchy.
The debt choking Sharon to death was mere dust before their wealth.
One name led to another in a chain of thoughts and self-loathing.
The conclusion was simple.
Sharon had leeched off love from start to finish, clinging like a parasite.
Unable to do anything when needed, yet receiving far more affection than she deserved.
Tears flowed.
It hurt so much she could barely breathe.
Maybe she'd always just said she wanted equality?
Si-woo had only ever received her help briefly.
Now he surpassed her in wealth and power.
And not one of his lovers fell short of her.
Had she known deep down?
That true equality was impossible no matter how much time passed?
But his time was so happy, she'd pretended not to know.
'That's it. So that's how it is.'
Sharon recalled a clichéd drama line.
You'd be happier without me.
She'd never empathized before—had even scoffed at those heroines as melodramatic.
But they seemed far more sincere than shameless Sharon.