Chapter 183: The Boons of Civilization
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 183: The Boons of Civilization
Munch, munch.
A patty topped with cheese, tomato, lettuce, and sauce, all sandwiched between a well-toasted sesame seed bun, filled his mouth. It was a flavor packed with MSG, something he could never easily find in the other world.
After a few bites, there comes a point where your throat starts to feel clogged. That’s when you suck down cola through a straw. The refreshing carbonation washes everything down.
“Phew…!”
Delicious. No other word could describe it. The magic seasonings his teacher made, or the cola she created with carbonation and lime.
He had thought they were perfect magical reproductions in the other world, but compared to the real thing, they fell miserably short.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I came back just for this.
The great thing about hamburgers and cola was that anyone could have them. A homeless man with no house or job, a disabled person missing a limb—anyone could easily get their hands on these two things.
It was a taste that made humans lazy. Yohan licked the sauce from the corner of his mouth and glanced at the other witches’ reactions.
Fortunately, they all seemed to be having a similar experience.
“Mmph…! This is good.”
“Especially these… French fries? They’re the best.”
“Well, aside from getting a little grease on my hands…”
As the witches ate with satisfaction, Yohan, savoring his hamburger, let out a deep sigh as he felt eyes on them.
They’re filming again.
This was the problem with the 21st century. The way cameras were shoved in your face at any given moment. Not even the most powerful witch’s magic could stop it.
And once you were captured on camera? Photos of the witches, with their exceptionally distinctive looks, would be forever imprinted on the sea of the internet.
Worse, some so-called “courageous” people—or, in Yohan’s view, just plain clueless—would even approach their table while they were eating.
“You’re celebrities, right? Can I get a picture with you?”
“We’re not.”
“What? But…”
“I said we’re not celebrities. Please leave.”
After Yohan said that, the women who had approached them after seeing the witches would storm off, muttering things like, “Who the hell does he think he is, speaking for them?”
In moments like these, he was glad the witches couldn’t understand Korean. If they had, they would never have let those girls who insulted him get away with it. And if they committed murder using magic in the 21st century, you could kiss any chance of a peaceful life goodbye.
“Alright, is everyone about done?”
“Hm? I think so.”
“Then let’s get a move on. I have a lot to do today.”
“A lot to do…? What are you planning?”
Hearing Evangeline’s question, Yohan grinned and waved the new smartphone he’d bought with the money Agapeite had earned.
In the year he was gone, a lot had happened on Earth. To name just one thing—.
“Binge-watching all the dramas and movies I missed.”
There was a mountain of entertainment waiting for him.
[Don’t go!]
[Oh, Nooooo!!]
“Sob, hic…”
“Yohaaan… should we go save them? Huh?”
“…Teacher, I told you, it’s a drama. A drama.”
The first thing Yohan did after their meal was buy a house. Although Agapeite’s future predictions had earned them tens of billions of won overnight, even that wasn't enough to buy a house in the heart of Seoul for over a dozen people, so they moved to the Gyeonggi-do area.
He bought a detached house with an absurd number of rooms and had all sorts of home appliances delivered. Just as you'd expect from the Republic of Korea, where money can get you anything, the entire process—from purchasing the house to the move-in cleaning and furniture delivery—was finished in a single day.
The civil servants and the National Tax Service, who were supposedly always looking to cause trouble, were actually on Yohan’s side. This was because Yohan had reported 100% of his income without trying to hide anything and had paid his taxes perfectly.
They might be devils to those who try to evade taxes, but to those willing to pay, they’re absolute angels.
After buying the house and arranging the furniture, Yohan immediately plopped down on the sofa and started watching dramas. The dramas, webtoons, anime, and movies that had piled up during the year he was gone—a vast world of entertainment welcomed them.
“Hic… Yohan, that person, can’t we go save him?”
“It’s a drama, Beatrice…”
“So that person isn’t real? But he looks so real.”
A few of the witches, who didn’t understand the concept of a drama, occasionally had trouble distinguishing reality from fiction, but it wasn’t a major problem.
He spent the whole day watching dramas, satisfying his hunger with pizza, hamburgers, and chicken, and cracking open a drink first thing in the morning to chug it down.
As he spent his time like this, Yohan began to think he had been a fool for ever believing he could live in that other world.
I was so stupid.
How could I ever live my whole life in that other world, leaving all this good stuff behind?
It was a foolish notion.
Alcohol, ice cream, fried food, all sorts of entertainment and pleasure.
Things you couldn’t enjoy in a medieval-level civilization.
In the 21st century, you could get them so easily.
“Ahhh, now this is sex.”
“Hm? You want to do it?”
Evangeline, who was right beside him, had overheard the words that slipped out of his mouth and pounced on them as if she’d been waiting. Viciously mauled by the lioness who had only been pretending to sleep, Yohan was left a sobbing, drained mess.
One thing was certain: Earth was overwhelmingly better than the other world.
“Yaaawn…”
After a wild round with Evangeline and getting swept up in the mood with the other witches who joined in, Yohan emerged, stretching his arms as he began to look for the others in the house.
However, only Linna and Linne were sitting in the living room watching a documentary. There wasn't a trace of the other witches.
“What, where is everyone else?”
“…They’re all passed out after having sex with you.”
“You know I’m not talking about Teacher. Where are Hekaterina and Makina?”
Those two were witches who weren't particularly willing to sleep with him, or in some cases, never had at all. As such, they were his biggest headaches and the hardest to control.
Hearing Yohan’s question, Linna shrugged as if to say she didn’t know. But next to her, Linne, who had been studying, knew where they had gone and spoke up cautiously.
“Th-Those two… they went out earlier. They said it was boring staying here…”
“…What?”
And so, Yohan learned that two of the witches had gone out on their own. The news was truly shocking.
The fact that those two were not the kindest of witches suggested that they had the highest probability of causing some kind of trouble.
Immediately, Yohan threw on some clothes and bolted out of the house. Only then did he realize.
There’s… no way to find them…!
There was one way to locate them.
Watching the news.
His reasoning was that since they were bound to cause trouble anyway, he’d be able to find them quickly just by keeping an eye on the news channels.
But that also meant he wouldn't be able to stop them from causing that trouble in the first place.
“Oh, what’s this?”
Hekaterina walked down the street, watching the cars honking and zooming by. Those carriages, which seemed to be made of solid chunks of steel. They looked like miniaturized versions of the trains she had seen in the Empire.
To a witch who had lived for ages in a medieval world, they were utterly terrifying objects. And for Hekaterina, the Witch of Fear, a fearsome object was synonymous with a lovely one.
Hekaterina instantly fell in love with cars.
“They’re magnificent… I wonder if they’d give me one if I asked?”
Muttering that she had something new to ask Yohan to buy for her, Hekaterina was followed by Makina, who had come to the city with her and was experiencing a similar level of shock.
It had been this way since they first arrived, but now that she could freely observe these mechanical devices, she couldn’t hide her pounding heart.
All around her were objects far superior to the machines she, the Witch of Machinery, had spent decades, even centuries, painstakingly creating.
“That handphone… so everyone really does carry one around.”
The pinnacle of science. Makina let out a gasp of admiration at the fact that every citizen walking down the street was holding such a highly advanced scientific marvel, the construction of which she couldn't even begin to fathom.
If she could, she would have snatched a smartphone from someone’s hand and taken it apart to see how the damn thing worked.
And just then—the smartphone she had been dreaming of was held out right in front of her.
“Excuse me… I’ve been watching you for a bit, and I really like what I see. Could I get your number…?”
The man who spoke to Makina held out his smartphone. But Makina, who couldn’t read Korean, tilted her head and pointed to herself, as if asking if he was talking to her.
The man nodded, and thinking it was her lucky day, Makina took the smartphone. When Makina looked ready to give him her number, the man smiled happily.
A moment later, however, that smile turned to fiery rage.
Snap—.
“H-Hey, are you crazy?! Why did you break it!?”
“What’s with the sudden change? Weren’t you giving this to me?”
Makina, who had popped the back off the smartphone with her grip strength, tilted her head in confusion at the man who was now glaring at her, clutching his broken phone.
Watching this unfold, Hekaterina began to cackle with laughter.
Only the man whose smartphone was now broken was left on the verge of tears.