City of Witches

1.

A new dawn had arrived.

Siwoo stretched his body before getting off the bed.

Last night, after he was served a nice meal, the Countesses assigned him to a private lodgings.

It was a two-stories building made out of stone near the main building of the Gemini Mansion, a distance away from the villa where Sharon resided in.

Of course, the facilities inside the building were top-notch, there was no need to question it. It went without saying that his quality of sleep was also excellent due to this.

He looked at the window to see that it was still dark outside, not a strange thing, since dawn had just started.

Out there in the garden, he could see the glistening dew on the neatly trimmed lawn.

“It’s still six, huh?”

Though he tended to oversleep these days, for some reason, he was wide awake now.

Maybe because of his five years living in Gehenna as a slave, when he used to wake up around this hour, his internal clock adjusted to that and got him awake at this time too now that he was back in here.

Well, whatever it was, he didn’t really care.

“Hoahm…”

He got up to smoke some cigarettes on the terrace.

The cool late autumn breeze roused him awake completely.

As he placed some of the cigarette’s ash into the ashtray, he began thinking about his plan for the day.

First, he listed off the things he wanted to do in Gehenna.

He planned to find some relevant research to gain complete control over the ‘Red Branch’.

Currently, all he could do was prevent it from emitting the distortion field everywhere.

Even so, the method he had wasn’t perfect. The distortion field would still leak out and the spear would become a liability if he were to bring it with him while he was casting Dimension Shift.

He could bring it through the ‘Gate’, but that was really the best he could do.

Besides, that was mostly because those ‘Gates’ were created by Duchess Keter herself. They were way more stable than Siwoo’s Dimension Shift. Actually, he couldn’t even compare the two even as a joke.

Then, the next thing he wanted to do was to meet Takasho again.

There was nothing special behind this wish, he just missed the guy.

He also planned to check up on Sharon.

But, he had done exactly that yesterday.

That left Amelia…

“Hmm…”

Honestly, he didn’t feel like doing that.

To him, Amelia was like an ex-girlfriend who’d make him feel comfortable whenever her name was mentioned.

Like someone who he broke up with on a bad note, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate her, at the same time, he didn’t have any good memories with her either.

After he regained his memories, his relationship with her was torn apart, but he still left a note to her before he left Gehenna.

Though, he wrote it while he was drunk, so he didn’t remember the content clearly…

‘Sorry for speaking so harshly.’

‘Both of us made mistakes to one another, it isn’t right to put the blame solely on one of us.’

‘I hope after we finish sorting our emotions, we can have a proper conversation.’

He remembered it to be something similar to that.

But, he never heard anything from her ever since.

The only thing he had heard about her was that she had quitted her job as an Associate Professor, but she never visited or even contacted him.

That was why he thought that this was her way of declaring that their relationship was completely over.

Of course, it wasn’t like Siwoo was feeling guilty for leaving or feeling indebted to her or anything.

Before her sudden change of attitude, Amelia was the worst boss he ever had in his life.

Still, he couldn’t help but think about her.

He could still remember the warmth she provided her back when he turned into a child and lost his memories.

And he could also remember the tears that came out of her eyes as she took in all of his anger and resentment when he finally got his memories back.

That was why he wanted to talk with her again.

He held on to the faint hope that the reason why she cut contact with him was because of her lack of social skills and clumsy nature.

“Hmm… Maybe I should just visit Takasho first.”

In the end, he decided to postpone doing the heavy stuff for later.

Instead, he’d finish the things that he could finish right away.

Even though Siwoo was back in Gehenna, they didn’t just change the twins’ schedule arbitrarily.

Which meant they’d be living like Daechi-dong’s exam takers until their next holiday.

From what he could tell, the Countess were rather strict as parents.

That meant, he couldn’t hang out with the twins freely, so he figured that he should just visit his old friend to spend his free time.

-Knock, knock

After he took a light shower and finished getting ready…

He knocked on the door to the room where his master was staying.

By some coincidence, or maybe the Eloa had requested it from the Countess, the rooms they were staying in were right next to each other.

Since he knew what happened to her in the past, he didn’t think that his master was being overprotective or anything.

“Master, are you still sleeping?”

There was no special reason behind it.

Greeting his master every morning had just become a habit of some sorts to him.

After a while, he didn’t receive any answer, so he was about to turn back when…

“...Come in.”

A tired-sounding answer came out.

When he opened the door and came inside, he saw the sleepy-looking Eloa sitting on her bed, most likely she had just woken up.

From her voice and her eyes, it was clear that she was tired.

Even so, she was still a witch.

Her disheveled hair and sleepy eyes couldn’t diminish her beauty in the slightest.

While she was adjusting her pajamas, Siwoo poured a glass of water for her.

“Are you okay? You don’t look good.”

“I’m fine.”

Her voice suggested otherwise, though.

She was clearly less energetic than usual.

“You’re dressed up already? Where are you going?”

“Trinity Academy to meet a friend who helped me a lot back in the day. You know, the one I’ve told you before.”

“Takasho?”

“Yes, him.”

When their eyes met during their casual conversation, Eloa quickly turned her gaze away.

Seeing her reaction, Siwoo had a rough guess on what was weighing on her mind.

The combination of the awkward noises she heard back in the inn and the question that the Countess had asked her last night might have brought back a particularly awkward memory for her.

Now that he managed to figure that out, his master’s embarrassment spread to him as well.

He was unsure on what to say to her, since it wasn’t like he could just say something like ‘Don’t worry about it’ and brushed the whole thing off…

“Alright, it’s time for me to go. See you later, Master.”

So, he decided to flee, but…

“...Siwoo, wait.”

Eloa’s voice stopped Siwoo from leaving the room.

When he turned around, she averted her gaze again. After a long silence, she finally opened her mouth.

“...I’m sorry.”

“Huh? For what?”

“Just… For everything… I’m sorry…”

That was when Siwoo realized.

For Eloa, the intercourse wasn’t merely an embarrassing experience, the emotion she felt was deeper than that.

That day, when he had no choice but to have sex with her to replenish her mana…

Back then, she said something along the lines of ‘I will take responsibilities in the future’ and made her move.

She immediately placed the top of her head under his nose and made him smell the scent of her body.

From her point of view, she was probably thinking that she was seducing him by force, even though that was the correct course of action at the time.

Of course, context mattered a lot in that particular event.

Honestly, Siwoo thought that it was nice to do it with a beautiful woman like Eloa, so he didn’t really mind it that much.

However, as the upright person she was, Eloa didn’t share the same feeling. She probably thought it as a rape than anything.

She hadn’t said anything about it since then, but she suddenly apologized for it now.

He came to the conclusion that she had been too embarrassed to bring the topic up, but now it seemed like she had resolved herself.

Though it was too late to apologize at this point, he decided that he should just accept it.

Also, it wasn’t like he was in the position to receive such an apology from her anyway.

“It’s fine. I understand everything.”

“...Huh?”

“Hm? What? Do you think I don’t understand your predicaments, Master?”

At Siwoo’s words, Eloa’s eyes turned wide open in surprise, just like a rabbit.

That was the first time her pretty pair of eyes looked at him directly ever since he entered the room.

A wind blew into the room as her pink, fluffy hair puffed up a little.

Her magenta-colored eyes trembled frantically.

“...”

She went silent for a long time, seemingly agonizing about something.

After the silence went around for a minute and when the atmosphere was just about to turn awkward…

She threw a question, trying to confirm if he really had said what she had just heard.

“...What about yesterday…?”

Yesterday?

Siwoo didn’t quite get what she was trying to say, then he remembered what happened back at the dinner table.

When they were asking about his exploits during the meal, Eloa suddenly left the table.

Not only that, she left Deneb hanging by ignoring her question.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere at the table turned quite awkward.

Actually, Siwoo already had a guess why she reacted like that.

If she were to actually talk about what happened back in the waterway tunnel, she’d have to explain about the time when they had sex. That was probably also part of the reason why she decided to apologize to him today.

Whatever it was, he nodded his head in affirmation.

“Yes, that too.”

“D-Did you really…?”

“Of course.”

Suddenly, Eloa’s face turned red.

It wasn’t the color of a ripe peach anymore, but the deep color of a strawberry.

She then began to speak in a low voice, as if she was completely ashamed of her actions.

“I-I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to… Something must have gotten into me… I’m so ashamed…”

The tone she used as she apologized wasn’t quite a normal one.

It sounded as if she was admitting some huge crime or something.

She looked so remorseful it felt like if Siwoo were to slap her right cheek, she’d promptly slap her left without any hesitation.

He stared at her dazedly.

“But…why…didn’t you say anything…?”

She really doesn’t need to be so remorseful just for that…

Though, the sight of her worrying so much about the problem that he deemed as insignificant made her look pitiful and cute.

Then again, that’s just how she is, I guess.

“Well, it might be strange for me to say this but… It’s because I enjoyed it too.”

“You…enjoyed…it…?”

He didn’t think much when he said it, now that he thought about it more, those words sounded a little strange.

Because it sounded like he was saying something like ‘I enjoy the mana transfer moment I had with my master’.

Still, if this could relieve some of Eloa’s burden, he figured that he was fine with her perceiving him as a weirdo.

His image might be ruined, but that was a small price to pay to keep the gloom out of his precious master’s face.

“Yes and I will keep that moment as one of my most precious memories. Anyway, I need to go now, my schedule is a little packed for today.”

However, that didn’t mean the embarrassment she felt from receiving her bewildered look was gone.

After he finished saying his goodbye, he immediately left the room.

“What was I on about, seriously…”

Though he took advantage of the situation and said that he’d cherish the memory, he still felt embarrassed by his words.

In any case, what was done, was done, all he could do now was to give her some space.

Anyway, time to go look for Takasho.

If there was one person who helped him the most during his five years of slavery, it was Takasho without a doubt.

Not only did he provide Siwoo with a lot of good things, he was also his good friend, so Siwoo was set to give him a bunch of good things to repay all the favor he owed him.

With him were two large suitcases, each of them were big enough for an adult woman to hide in, both filled to the brim with Modern World items.

By the way, items from the Modern World were sold at an extremely expensive price in Gehenna.

The ‘Gate’ back in the Border Town wasn’t something one could just enter for free.

Since enormous resources were needed in the process of loading in the goods by ships, most things that came from the Modern World were luxury items for the witches.

Bringing in things like Persian silk carpet was more profitable compared to hundreds of boxes of cup noodles, especially since they’d need to invest in roughly the same amount of resources to load those things in.

That was why ‘cheap things’ like ramen or cola were practically nonexistent in Gehenna.

And the things that Siwoo stuffed inside those suitcases were such items.

“That should be everything.”

After he finished sorting all the items he brought, Siwoo then prepared to take the Gate to the Trinity Academy.

2.

After Siwoo was gone, the door was tightly closed.

Eloa remained silent as she looked at the door he just went through not too long ago.

Though she hadn’t made any noises or anything, her heart was caught in a storm.

Last night, she was stuck, tossing and turning on her bed, drowning in self-loathe.

This was because she remembered the time when she secretly peeked in when Sharon and Siwoo were having sex and her underwear somehow turned wet as she did.

After a long contemplation, she came to a decision.

She could keep the latter case to herself as a shameful stain in her history.

But, she had to at least apologize for the former case.

She had to tell him about the voyeurism and give him a proper apology.

That was what she had decided to do.

So, when Siwoo came over to her room as usual…

Though she had been agonizing and contemplating, she was able to utter her apology right before he tried to leave the room for the first time.

But, the answer that he gave her was not something she ever expected and it caught her completely off guard.

‘It’s fine. I understand everything.’

He said those words.

‘...What about yesterday’s…?’

She tried to make sure that they were both talking about the same thing.

And his response was…

‘Yes, that too.’

‘D-Did you really…?’

‘Of course.’

He knew everything already.

Even so, he didn’t get mad at her or anything.

However, his next words were so surprising to the point that Eloa didn’t know if she should be grateful for this outcome or not.

When she asked him why didn’t he say anything if he noticed…

With a shy look, he…

‘Well, it might be strange for me to say this but… It’s because I enjoyed it too.’

‘I will keep that moment as one of my most precious memories’

Enjoyed it?

He will keep it as a precious memory?

Is he trying to say that he likes it when I see him having a sex with another woman?

To the point that he’ll be keeping it as one of his most precious memories?

This matter had derailed too much from the common sense that Eloa was familiar with.

To begin with, Eloa didn’t understand much regarding the relationship between a man and a woman.

And she knew about this flaw of hers pretty well.

However, even with her limited knowledge, she knew that Siwoo’s answer was not normal at all.

Does he really have that kind of perverted preference??

Or maybe he’s just trying to make me feel less bad?

Knowing him, it’s probably the latter, but…

In the end, thanks to Siwoo’s ambiguous words and actions, Eloa had to take a cold shower for a long time to calm herself down.

***

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