City of Witches

1.

Inside the dining hall in the main building of the Gemini Mansion.

The table, about the size of eight pool tables put together, had fresh flower arrangements just picked from the garden.

Albireo and Deneb sat at the far end of the seats, followed by Siwoo and Eloa, facing each other, and the twins, sitting beside Eloa.

Sharon was seated next to Siwoo.

Although there were only seven people participating for the dinner, the servants tirelessly brought out various dishes, filling the spacious table with food.

It didn’t take long for a sumptuous feast to spread before Siwoo’s eyes.

There were a bunch of dishes that he wasn’t familiar with, and some that he was familiar with, like roasted piglets and exquisite seafood that were hard to find even in Gehenna.

Accompanying those dishes were a lot of utensils, there were ten forks and knives arranged on both sides of each plate.

Despite him participating in this, Siwoo didn’t understand the purpose of them placing all those spoons and knives near the plates.

It feels like I’m in another world…

The scene was like something that would come out from a more modern version of Harry Potter, making him feel totally out of place.

After they finished serving their food, the maids stood behind each guest like bodyguards and it seemed like they wouldn’t leave the spot anytime soon.

One of the maids (he didn’t know for sure if she was a maid, but she was dressed like one) who was standing behind Siwoo discreetly filled his wine glass and whispered softly.

“If you need anything, please feel free to let me know.”

Everyone in the room was wearing calm expressions except for Sharon and Siwoo, who were staring at everything with wide eyes.

Even Eloa, whom Siwoo thought would relate with him, seemed unfazed.

It seemed like for these individuals who belonged to the upper class in Gehenna, such an extravagant dinner wasn’t something out of the ordinary.

“Allow us to thank you for accepting our invitation, Duchess Tiphereth.”

“Welcome to the mansion, Mr. Shin Siwoo.”

Albireo and Deneb smiled broadly as they welcomed both Siwoo and Eloa.

“...I’m the one who should be thankful here.”

“Likewise. This is the most appealing dining table I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Of course, you both are important guests of our family, after all.”

“We have a special dessert prepared for you, feel free to enjoy yourself.”

With a graceful gesture, the two Countesses, the hosts of this dinner, placed their napkins on their laps, signaling the start of the meal.

The problem here was that Siwoo had no idea where to start, or even how to eat any of these dishes.

Observing the Countesses, he followed their lead by taking the forks and knives placed near the edge of the table.

When he reached out to grab a bite of some kind of roasted bird dish, the maid behind him smoothly served it onto his plate.

This subsequent scene gave him a mixture of comfort and unease.

It was quite daunting, to say the least.

“By the way, Mr. Siwoo, I’ve heard about your achievements in Seoul. Are you injured? The stories of your achievements have been spread all over Gehenna, the rumors about you spread so fast that they’ve even reached the mansion’s wall.”

Deneb, who knew Siwoo a bit better out of the two Countesses, asked in a kind voice.

As she addressed Siwoo in a dignified manner, a dignified smile was plastered in her smile.

“Well, the Duchess was right there, I didn’t really do much.”

“Is that so? But from what I heard, you played a significant role in the incident.”

“Not really, I just helped her out a little.”

“Well, you’re always so humble, Mr. Siwoo. Why don’t we hear what the Duchess has to say about it directly, hm?”

As she said that, everyone’s gaze naturally shifted towards Eloa.

“...”

However, Eloa had been staring blankly into space without a word since the meal began.

The steak on her plate had been cut by her, but she hadn’t even begun eating it.

After she was done cutting the steak, she proceeded to chop the asparagus in her plate.

“Excuse me? Duchess…?”

As the conversation came to a halt, Deneb called out to Eloa with a puzzled expression.

But Eloa kept on chopping the asparagus, ignoring everyone.

“Master?”

“...Huh?!”

Only when Siwoo called out to her did she snap out of her daze, as if she had just woken up from a trance.

Confused, she looked around at the eyes directed at her and at some point, her eyes met with Siwoo’s.

She quickly averted her eyes and looked at Deneb, the words that came out of her mouth next sounded extremely stiff.

“W-What did you just say?”

“I was asking about Mr. Siwoo’s achievements in the Modern World.”

Well, she wasn’t acting like this for no reason.

Earlier, she had spied on Sharon and Siwoo when they were having sex.

If she only had watched them, it would be one thing, but she also felt an intense arousal, leaving her half-panicked due to how shameful it was.

When she heard Deneb’s words, her mind started to twist those words into something strange.

Siwoo -> Modern World -> Achievement.

Waterway tunnel -> Mana replenishment -> Master-disciple sex.

Such a mental gymnast occurred in her mind, making her already confusing thoughts even more chaotic.

Unintentionally, she raised her voice in an attempt to dispel those distracting thoughts.

“I-I don’t know anything!”

“Huh? A-Ah… I see…”

“Excuse me Deneb, it seems the Duchess wants to keep the stories about Siwoo’s achievement to herself.”

“Please forgive my ignorance…”

Eloa’s vehement reaction left everyone feeling uneasy.

Despite Albireo’s attempt to lighten the mood with a light joke, the atmosphere remained awkward.

In truth, Eloa was still reeling from the shock.

As soon as she realized that her underwear was soaked, she quickly escaped from the villa.

Ever since then, she had been in this state, all confused.

The experience was even more traumatizing than back when she was peeping him having sex through his eyes.

At least she could pass that one off as an accident.

Though it was definitely a contender for her most embarrassing moment, she could easily write it off as an unfortunate incident.

But this time…

Watching Siwoo and Sharon engaging in sexual intercourse for so long was Eloa’s own choice.

She could rationalize all the previous incidents with plenty of excuses, but now, there was undeniable evidence that would render all her excuses void.

The love juice that stained her underwear.

While her status as his master was only a temporary one, she couldn’t help but see him as a man.

When she made love with Siwoo before, she had rationalized it by thinking that it was out of necessity. But today, when she peeped on him, she was actually imagining herself in Sharon’s position and felt sexual arousal from it.

This shocked her to the core.

She couldn’t even bring herself to look directly at his face.

Her face burned with embarrassment and guilt.

“Please forgive me, I’m not feeling well right now, so I’ll excuse myself. I’m really sorry for leaving so early, especially since you’ve been so kind and went out of your way to invite me…”

As she quickly stood up, Eloa apologized, since she knew that it was impolite to leave before the host.

With the Countesses’ surprised gaze following her, she made her way out of the dining hall.

“Mr. Siwoo, did I offend the Duchess somehow?”

Deneb blinked in confusion at Duchess Tiphereth’s reaction.

As they said, like mother, like daughter, the expression on her face was exactly the same as the one that the twins would make in a time like this.

Siwoo vaguely guessed the reason for Eloa’s sudden departure, so he explained it on behalf of his master.

“Back during the incident, the Duchess overexerted herself, so she hasn’t been feeling well lately. She often skips her meals as well.”

“Ah, I see.”

“We should recommend a good healer for her.”

After that light incident, the meal continued.

Deneb and Albireo asked a few brief questions in between, allowing them to comfortably enjoy the food.

Though, for some reason, the twins were staying quiet

“Try some of these, Sharon, it’s tasty.”

“I’ll pass, I’m already full.”

“Come on, just a taste.”

“No, really, I’m full.”

Sharon replied in a rather cold tone.

Although her tone wasn't exactly icy or frigid, it was still a complete contrast to when they were making love just a while ago.

Sharon also had her own circumstances.

She felt that she had violated her contract with Countess Albireo.

Instead of making sure that what she was doing was safe or not, she had just hit it with him three minutes after their reunion.

Considering everything, the Countess was her employer.

She planned to stick to the guideline of ‘maintaining an appropriate distance’ from now on.

Since the Countess hadn’t set a clear criteria, she decided to be a bit brazen, drawing her line at ‘as long as we don’t have sex every day’.

Not exactly a strict rule, but she could always employ a stricter rule later if the Countess brings the matter up in the future.

Though she planned that out, it still felt uncomfortable for her to act all lovey-dovey with Siwoo at the moment.

Meanwhile, as he was completely oblivious to the underlying reasons, Siwoo was completely thrown off by her reaction, even more than when Eloa just stormed out the room for no reason.

Feeling uneasy, he glanced at the twins.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, you should try this, it’s tasty.”

“We’re fine, Mr. Assistant.”

“You should have more, we’re already full, Mr. Assistant.”

But even the twins he had trusted were acting strangely off.

Compared to their usual demeanor and the warm welcome they had just given him earlier, it was a stark contrast.

‘This this was prepared by Chef ㅇㅇ, the exclusive chef of the Gemini household, and it’s called ㅇㅇ!’

‘Of course, the food in the Modern World is tasty, but this one will make you fall in love with it for sure, Mr. Assistant! It’s a ㅇㅇ dish made with ㅇㅇ ㅇㅇ ingredients!’

He expected them to react like that, but they didn’t.

Instead, they politely declined him and whispered among themselves.

Of course, the twins also had their reasons for their behavior.

“Did you count it all, Sis?”

“Yes, we only made eye contact with him four times, but Sharon unnie did it ten times! And we’re sitting right in front of him…!”

“Did you see how she acts as if she’s not close to him? This is all part of her strategy to deceive everyone!”

“So irritating…”

After witnessing Sharon and Siwoo’s steamy sex scene earlier today…

The twins held a strategy meeting.

In short, the things that they were discussing during the meeting were…

What special technique that the twins could use while Sharon couldn’t?

What kind of measure they needed to take to get in between those two, who were pretty much lovers already.

However, due to the limited time, they were unable to discuss the matter thoroughly since they had to join the dinner.

So, for the time being, they decided to just observe how those two treated each other during the dinner.

They engaged in a superficial conversation while doing so, just in case that their masters caught on to what they were doing, but their brains were working hard as they tried to come up with a plan.

In any case, since all those women were too occupied with their own things, that left Siwoo with his only conversational partner at the table, the Countesses.

“By the way, Mr. Siwoo, how long do you plan to stay in Gehenna?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe for about a week?”

“Shorter than I expected, I see. If you want, I can arrange a separate villa for you.”

“Would you consider staying here as our household’s guest? We’d treat you with the utmost respect.”

According to the two Countesses, it would be a good idea for him to just live in Gehenna.

They were hoping to deepen the relationship between him and the twins.

After all, if he were to stay here, it would be easier for his relationship with the twins to develop. Also, they were hoping that if he were to get a taste of the sweet fruit that was the Gemini Household’s wealth, he wouldn’t be interested in other witches.

“But, I feel like I’ll be inconveniencing you if that’s the case. I appreciate the thought, though.”

“Is that so? Ah, right, I almost forgot.”

Countess Albireo let out a meaningful ‘hm’ and signaled to the maid standing next to her. The maid then walked over to Siwoo with a small gift box in her hand.

It was a small and sophisticated wooden box. When Siwoo opened it, there was a card that seemed like it was made of platinum.

Naturally, there was a family crest depicting twin birds engraved on it. To the side, there seemed to be some kind of hole being placed there.

“What is this…?”

“A credit card basically. You can use it during your stay in Gehenna. If you show this card anywhere in Gehenna, any expenses will be charged into our family’s account.”

“There’s no spending limit on it, so feel free to use it.”

“Thank you…”

Actually, Albireo had already known his spending habits, so she wasn’t worried even if the card had no limit.

He might buy a bunch of food at once, but that was it. Siwoo wasn’t the type to indulge in unreasonable extravagance.

Her giving him the card was pretty much just a show of wealth than anything, she did it to impress both him and Sharon.

Holding the platinum card in his hand tightly, Siwoo thanked the two Countesses and shared some stories with them.

***

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