City of Witches

1.

“You seem a little distracted today, Ms. Diana…”

Since the other day they spent their time outdoors, today was the time for Siwoo and Diana to go back to Witch Board again.

Hearing his words, Diana snapped out of her daze.

“Why do you think so?”

“Well, for starters… You made mistakes that you normally would never make. If you’re feeling unwell, why don’t we rest for a bit?”

It was just as he said.

Normally, a game between them would last around 250~300 turns.

But the games they played today lasted for less than 100 turns.

In fact, there was one time when it concluded in less than 50 turns.

Not only that, Diana hadn’t asked for his feedback each time she lost.

She just kept on playing, immediately continuing to the next game after the previous one ended, as if she was in a daze.

When it came to Witch Board, Diana acknowledged Siwoo’s expertise, and she’d always try to learn from him the moment she got the chance to. That was why her current behavior was extremely strange to him.

She cast her glance at him.

They had been playing for over three hours today, but this was the first time they had made eye contact.

“…”

Her mind was in chaos.

It was as if her linguistic capabilities had regressed to that of a toddler’s.

Facing his eyes that were filled with genuine concern towards her, she couldn’t find any words to say.

“I…think…I should take a break…”

“Please do. Thank you for your hard work for today.”

After saying those words in a feeble voice, Diana returned to her bedroom.

Waiting inside her bedroom was a custom-made bed that boasted an ergonomic design.

Without any hesitation, she let her body fall onto said bed that was decorated like a princess’ bed, complete with its canopy.

“Haa… What is this feeling…?”

After finding out about the secret relationship between her mother and her tutor last night…

An unknown emotion that she felt for the very first time in her life appeared in her heart.

Her mother’s sloppy appearance in that novel was etched onto her brain.

The first time she found out the true reason why her mother suddenly assigned that man as her tutor, she was in a complete shock, but she already sorted that particular feeling out with a sleep.

It wasn’t like Diana had no clue what love meant.

Although she found it hard to believe that her mother—the same person who kept warning her about how deceitful men were—was hiding such a secret…

She understood her circumstances, or at least tried to.

Because of Diana…

And all the people around her…

Her mother was unable to express her true feelings, that was why she went ahead and wrote those erotic novels. Diana understood that much, at the very least.

It just showed how lonely and isolated she must have felt all this time.

Even so, Diana still thought that something didn’t feel right.

She understood her mother’s circumstances.

If her mother wanted to meet a new man and had a secret relationship with him behind her back, she was free to do so. There was no reason for Diana to feel uncomfortable about it at all.

At best she’d just feel left out a little and grumble about it, but that was it.

After understanding the matter this far, her mind should be at ease.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

In fact, that was what she really felt last night. That was also why she was able to go to sleep to begin with.

But, the moment she met Siwoo for their tutoring session, the feeling of discomfort came creeping up in her heart again.

“Uuugh…”

She buried her face in her pillow before flapping her legs around, as if she was trying to swim.

The moment when Siwoo came into her room, wearing his usual butler uniform…

From the moment he opened the door and entered the living room, she started to remember the various lines that were written in the novel.

His manly, protruding Adam’s apple…

His firm-looking arms that were visible through the raised shirt cuffs…

Even his serious look as he stared at the Witch Board…

All of them perfectly matched with what she had read in the novel.

This was the reason why she was so restless during their tutoring session.

When she realized that he would be having another ‘tutoring session’ with her mother tonight too…

A new sense of discomfort appeared in her heart.

“It feels weird…”

She felt unpleasant.

Because he took her mother away from her.

Because he knew the sides of her mother that she was unaware of.

But at the same time, she had entirely different kinds of complaints.

You’re my tutor, aren’t you?

You should prioritize me first.

Seriously, mom was right, all men are wolves!

She couldn’t understand why she was feeling this way, but one thing she understood was…

For the very first time in her life, in that brief moment, she felt annoyed at her mother.

“Ugh… Aaahhh!!:

Diana, who was unable to sort out her own feelings, buried her face even deeper into her pillow.

2.

Usually, Siwoo’s private class with the countess would be held in the evening.

But today, Diana retired early, while the countess just happened to have some free time, so they moved the schedule to the afternoon instead.

“Today, we’re going to actually start finding a way to control the Red Branch. In other words, time for some practical lessons.”

“Is that really okay? I still think my theoretical knowledge is lacking…”

“It is okay. I believe that it will be more efficient if you put everything you’ve learned so far into practice and see which area you’re lacking to complete your goals. You can just study that specific area afterwards.”

“I see. But, may I know where we are going right now?”

“Hehe, it’s a secret~”

At first, Siwoo thought that they’d be holding their class in the countess’ private library—where they usually held it in.

But, seeing how they were taking a completely different route, it didn’t seem to be the case.

The countess was walking ahead of him, so he could only see her back from where he was at.

From what he had seen, he could tell that the countess was someone who loved to dress herself up.

Except for her fixation on wearing white dresses, the style of her dress always varied, and she looked extremely dashing in all of them.

As Siwoo was absent-mindedly staring at her back, wondering how much her dresses cost, her swaying buttocks caught his attention.

It was hard for him to believe that she could produce such elegant curves in that particular part of her body, considering how thin her waist was.

The swaying that was created by the harmonic movements of her wide hips and high heels effortlessly captured all his attention, but…

“Mr. Siwoo, it’s rude to stare at a lady’s back so intensely, you know?”

The countess just happened to turn around at that very moment and caught him in the act.

But, instead of getting angry at him, she just admonished him with a seductive smile on her face.

Siwoo racked his brain quickly, trying to come up with an excuse. Luckily for him, he found one almost immediately.

“Please forgive me, it’s just… Your dress looks familiar to me, Countess. Could it be that this is a dress from Flora’s Tailor Shop?”

“Mhm, correct~ You have a good eye.”

The countess let out a mysterious smile—she clearly knew what he was doing, but she didn’t press the matter further.

Instead, she continued the topic that Siwoo had set and started talking about the tailor shop.

She mentioned that most of the nobles of Gehenna had their dresses made there, while Siwoo also mentioned that he had Flora make him a suit before.

Then, their conversation naturally shifted to the shop’s owner, Flora Arabesque herself.

“Flora Arabesque is one of the greatest witches in Gehenna. In fact, until 200 years ago, there were no witches with a higher rank than her.”

It was the first time Siwoo had heard about this, so he couldn’t help but feel surprised.

“Really?”

“Mhm. Well, except for Duchess Keter, obviously. In any case, if she were to keep devoting herself to her magic research, who knows how high her rank would have been… Since time immemorial, she has reached the 22nd rank…”

And here I thought she was just a laid-back shop owner…

I guess it’s because she’s so strong that she has such confidence to act so laid-back, huh?

As they were talking about trivial things, they reached their destination before they realized it.

“…”

“Shall we go in?”

When he saw where they were at, Siwoo’s legs naturally stopped.

Because no matter how he tried to look at it, this place was clearly the entrance to a bathroom.

“…Is this really the right place?”

“Yes. This is the entrance to my private bathroom.”

The countess answered nonchalantly.

Siwoo stared at her, as if trying to ask her, ‘Why are we having lessons in a bathroom?’ but the countess only tilted her head, clearly feigning ignorance.

“Is there a problem?”

“I don’t even know where to begin…”

“Well, since our class starts early anyway, I figured that we should use this time to have a pleasant chat while having a bath together.”

As soon as he heard the words ‘having a bath together,’ Siwoo immediately scanned through the countess’ body.

We just went to fish together yesterday, and now she’s suddenly saying that we should take a bath together?

Isn’t she skipping too many steps?

“Don’t worry. The bathtub is wide enough for two people.”

Before he knew it, the countess was already standing beside him, whispering such words in a teasing voice.

Her breath tickled his ears.

Seeing him all flustered, the countess—who had been driving him crazy for a few days now as he was unsure whether she was testing him or was actually trying to seduce him—started to giggle.

“I was just kidding. Follow me.”

The place didn’t look as fancy as the other bathroom that Siwoo had visited in the Grand Bath before, but it was still fancily decorated.

In fact, it felt more like a hotel lounge than a bathroom. He had just been walking around, but he already felt invigorated.

Inside the bathroom, there was an enormous round bathtub that seemed to be large enough for ten people to enter at the same time.

The bathtub was filled with water and in the center of it was the Red Branch that Siwoo had entrusted to the countess prior to this.

“I expected that the Red Branch would be quite active during the course of the experiment, so I figured it would be better to bring him here. As you might’ve noticed, the bathtub is filled with mana heavy water with 99.9% purity.”

“Mana heavy water?”

“Hm? Ah, you don’t know? It’s something that’s usually used in alchemy; mana water that has been refined to lower its reactivity to an extreme degree. Anyway, we will be experimenting with the Red Branch inside the water. This way if it goes out of control during our experiment, you can use the water as both a buffer and a neutralizer.”

He could tell that the water was completely different from normal water.

For starters, he couldn’t see any refraction from its surface and he could see the bottom of the bathtub clearly.

“Just for confirmation, we’re going to do everything inside the water, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Alright.”

“Ah, before that.”

Siwoo had already taken off his shoes and socks, and was about to jump into the water, but…

The countess placed her slender hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t you think it’ll be better if you take off your top? The water’s temperature is naturally low, so if you just come in full clothes, the cold might be unbearable for you.”

Hearing that kind of request from a woman, Siwoo found it strange, but at the same time, he thought that it wasn’t really a big deal since he only needed to take off his top.

Considering that they had done bareskin contact before, it would be weird of him if he were to be too self-conscious about this.

So, he took off his jacket, vest, and shirt, and stepped into the bathtub. Soon enough, he realized that the countess was right.

The water was freezing cold.

But it wasn’t to the extent that it was unbearable.

“Can I really hold it like this? No more preparation needed?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, there won’t be any problem.”

Hearing the countess’ words, he carefully grabbed the Red Branch that was floating on the waist-high water.

“Ugh!”

The moment he touched the Red Branch, he could feel his palm tingle, as if he had just touched a leaking battery.

He felt a familiar sensation of his spirit body distorting away.

However, unlike the last time he felt it—back then, he felt like his whole body was being torn apart—the tingle was all he felt, so he had no problem holding the spear in his hands.

Moreover, the annoying red barrier didn’t come out of the spear, making him let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, now, try to wrap it with the spell that you prepared and take it out of the water.”

“Okay. Bloom.”

Siwoo then took out a strand of his ribbon.

The ribbon was imbued with a barrier he made to control the Red Branch.

It quickly sank to the water like a water snake, then wrapped itself around the Red Branch. After that, Siwoo carefully tried to pull the spear out of the mana water.

He swallowed hard.

Unlike before when he tightly sealed the spear with a bunch of layers of ribbons, right now it only had a single layer of it.

He was afraid that the spear would go out of control the moment it left the mana water.

After a while, he finally managed to pull the Red Branch out.

And what happened next brought him joy.

The spear that had been disobeying him stayed calmly still as he pulled it out of the water.

With this degree of calmness, he could even freely use Dimension Shift while carrying the thing with him.

“Alright!”

Countess Yesod—who had been watching quietly from the side—spoke in a gentle voice.

“The method you used before could only suppress around 72% of its distortion. While it wouldn’t affect spirit bodies right away, the leakage was enough to make fragile artifacts malfunction. But now, we can safely say that the method successfully suppresses 100% of its distortion.”

“Thank you very much, Countess… I’m forever indebted to you!”

“You’re exaggerating. I only gave you advice, nothing more.”

The countess replied with a bright smile.

From her smile, it seemed like she was genuinely happy with his achievement.

“But this isn’t the end, you still have a long way to go. According to your description, the Red Branch would also let out its distortion field whenever it receives some amount of force, correct?”

“Yes.”

Siwoo recalled the time when he was fighting the Red Knight.

To be specific, the time when his insides were struck by the spear’s distortion each time his sword clashed with the Red Knight’s.

As the countess stated, this method would only allow him to move the Red Branch around. It definitely wasn’t enough to let him swing it freely as a weapon.

“Why don’t we start by hitting it with a light force and see its reaction?”

Nevertheless, this could be considered as a breakthrough.

Siwoo was sure that he would be able to continue to improve his barrier further.

He nodded to the countess’ words and continued with the experiment.

3.

Ahh~

My tears are coming~

A joyous smile appeared on the countess’ lips as she watched Siwoo fiddling around with the Red Branch topless.