Chapter 769
Chapter 769
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 769
Chapter Title: Side Story 01: Twins and the Contest (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Perfect timing."
"Sis, you're thinking the same thing as me, right?"
"Of course, Odet."
"Assistant's birthday is coming up soon."
A birthday gift for their beloved lover, Si-woo.
This was the primary reason the twins had resolved to enter the Masterpiece Contest.
Of course, as mentioned before, the Gemernai Count was filthy rich.
There was no way the count, who cherished Odil and Odet like priceless treasures, would ever skimp on spending for them. The twins had always lived with generous allowances, to the point where they rarely even checked prices before buying things.
Just breaking open the piggy banks they'd been secretly saving up would be enough to buy a proper house in Tarot Town. A birthday gift wasn't much of a burden for them.
However.
Is a gift necessarily good just because it costs a lot of money?
No, it isn't.
"Up until now, whenever we've done something for Assistant, we've always just used our pocket money. This time, we're going to earn it ourselves and give him a gift."
No, it isn't.
The husband who sold his watch to buy his wife a hair comb on Christmas, and the wife who sold her hair to buy her husband a watch strap.
Even though their gifts to each other ultimately ended up useless, the story became a heartwarming tale because those gifts contained sincerity, thoughtfulness for their lover—in other words, love.
"If we work hard to earn money and buy him a gift..."
"Assistant will be over the moon, right?"
"Exactly, exactly."
And so, they first pick up the pen.
Webnovels are generally written by typing, but for the twins, a quill pen and scrap of paper felt more familiar.
"Fifty million won should be plenty, right, Sis?"
"Absolutely, that much will do just fine."
The twins' goal was the grand prize of fifty million won.
When apprentice witches of the noble Gemernai Count Family got serious, failing to take first place would be a disgrace.
"What should the gift be?"
"Hmm... Well, let's make a list first."
And so, the twins stayed up all night without writing a single word of the story, instead compiling a list of gifts for Assistant.
2.
Before Sharon's lecture began.
Odil and Odet had arrived at the classroom early and were already seated.
Naturally, it was to work on the novel for the contest.
If their master found out that Odil and Odet, still apprentice witches, had started writing erotic novels, who knew how she'd react.
Plus, in the classroom, they wouldn't get caught up in the chatter of their dedicated maids 'Pecha, Rena, Marsha, Vera',
and they could escape the watchful eye of the terrifying head maid Galina.
Sharon sis wouldn't mind even if they got caught, so it was truly the perfect workspace.
However, even in this ideal environment, their writing hadn't progressed much.
To be precise, they hadn't written a single letter.
"Hmmm... This is tough."
"Hmmm... So hard."
The twins, each wearing round glasses, stared at the blank paper with fountain pens resting on their upper lips.
They had no idea what to write.
They'd read several Gehenna erotic novels before.
The maids had secretly lent them to the twins, after all.
But now that they were in the author's position, it felt completely different.
What material to use, what characters to feature, what the setting should be, and so on.
Too many ideas were flooding in at once, tangling up their thoughts instead.
"Odet, this isn't working. We'll end up not writing a single chapter like this."
"Ugh, so the agony of creation is this painful... I had no idea..."
"Should we just give up...?"
They were so absorbed in brainstorming that they'd even skipped their thrilling web surfing, yet nothing was coming out.
At that moment, when their bodies were twisting in frustration.
"Kids, let's start class."
The classroom door opened smoothly, and someone entered.
It was Sharon Evergreen, hired by the Gemernai Count to teach the twins elemental magic.
"Hello! Eek!"
"Hello! Whoa!"
After habitually bowing their heads in greeting, the twins finally took in Sharon's appearance and let out strange screams.
"Sha, Sharon sis! What's wrong?"
"Is something up?"
"Huh? What do you mean, something up?"
Sharon sis was one of Assistant's lovers.
With her deep green hair evoking a forest fairy and sparkling mint-green eyes.
The seductive witch who enchanted Assistant with her monstrous E-cup breasts.
In other words, a formidable rival to the twins.
But rival or not, they cast aside such thoughts—Sharon looked so precarious.
Dry, ashen skin and hair turned dull and yellowish like weeds.
Cloudy eyes, and the moment she entered the classroom, a whirlwind of alcohol breath.
"Isn't that a booze bottle?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I brought it."
She was even dangling a bottle of liquor in her hand.
"Sorry, kids. Self-study today."
"......"
"......"
Odil and Odet exchanged wide-eyed glances.
Sharon's lectures were infamous for being even more grueling than Associate Professor Amelia's.
For her to declare self-study after filling that massive blackboard three times with writing?
"Sharon sis. What's going on?"
"Nothing, really nothing."
Sharon waved her hand dismissively at the twins as they approached cautiously.
Did she maybe break up with Assistant?
She looked that wrecked.
With no other choice, the twins quietly returned to their seats.
They figured they could brainstorm the novel more in the meantime, but...
A dark cloud seemed to hang only over the corner where Sharon sat, gnawing at their nerves.
And leaning against the windowsill, chugging from the bottle nonstop while muttering to herself—the snippets they overheard were things like 'coin', 'stablecoin, supposed to be safe', 'why does this only happen to me'.
That's right.
Sharon, who had once sparked the Sprout Rebellion, racked up massive debts, and been chased back to the mortal world.
After paying off her debts through tutoring the twins, with some savings tucked away, her greed had quietly awakened.
Saving pennies to make a mountain was an old saying.
All witches with any real wealth invested.
If she didn't roll her spare cash now, she'd be stuck scraping by day-to-day just to fund her research for life.
So, the moment internet service launched in Gehenna, Sharon reopened the crypto exchange app she'd long forgotten.
Stocks were crashing due to wars, rate hikes, and such.
The coins that crypto bros hyped as safe assets were tanking too.
Then, one coin caught her eye...
She didn't know the exact mechanics, but it had safety mechanisms guaranteeing at least minimal value through various methods.
No risk of getting totally scammed like before.
'Whoa, whoa, whoa... how much is this?'
The first three days brought massive profits, leaving her regretting why she'd only discovered this sweet honey pot now.
She felt like an idiot for hunting homunculi on the sly just to pay debts.
Put in money, take out more; put that back in, take out even more.
It was a real money-duplication glitch.
'Ah... if only I had a bit more starting capital...'
In this situation, Sharon started feeling regrets.
'Not 100 or 200 million, but 1 or 2 billion...'
And she went and touched what she shouldn't have.
Futures trading, not spot trading.
Futures trading lets you amplify your principal through leverage.
For example, 1 million won principal at 10x leverage equals a 10 million won investment effect.
'Should've gone 100x from the start...'
To soothe her regrets, she bet all her spare cash on a long position.
100x felt too greedy, so she went with 50x.
She went to bed without even setting a proper stop-loss, and what greeted her three hours later was her entire investment liquidated.
"Ah... my stomach's all knotted up..."
How had she scraped that money together?
Why doesn't the international community properly regulate this gambling den of a crypto market?
At this point, maybe the God of Bankruptcy was possessing her or something.
After getting properly hooked and drowning her jumbled thoughts in booze, the twins timidly approached.
"Sharon sis. We weren't trying to eavesdrop, but... did you lose money on coins?"
"Huh? You girls know about it too?"
Her heartbreak over the loss was brief.
It was surprising that Odil and Odet, who only knew Gehenna, were aware of crypto.
"Yeah, not super well."
"We overheard Master talking about it once."
Only then did Sharon feel a stabbing regret.
She'd been a total sucker.
The real deal, a genuine tycoon who'd grace Time magazine, an investment genius—the Gemernai Count—was right there...
If she'd just asked for a single piece of advice through the twins, this disaster could've been avoided...
"Does the Count do it too?"
"We heard Master runs something like an exchange."
"Yeah, just a fee-based business."
"......"
Sharon started resenting the twins for no reason.
"Sis, are you thinking of trying to recover your losses?"
"Losses?"
"Yeah, we found out about something amazing recently."
Sharon looked at the smartphone the twins held out side by side.
"Masterpiece Contest? Erotic novel contest or something?"
She scrolled through quickly and grasped the situation right away.
The twins clenched their fists, quietly celebrating that their hunch had been spot on.
They hadn't pulled Sharon in as an ally on a whim.
Nobelpia was a Korean site.
And Sharon sis was a 10-year Korean veteran.
With her help, they could get a proper start even now.
"Fifty million won...? That could cover some..."
It could make up for some of the loss, at least.
"Gulp, gulp, gulp."
Sharon finished chugging the bottle and spoke in a resolute tone.
"Alright, let's do it."