City of Witches

1.

Three days after her closed-door training started.

Diana had been busy studying magic while practicing her Witch Board skill for her revenge match.

It was the first time she had ever put in this much effort in her long life as an apprentice witch.

After all, no matter how much she enjoyed the Witch Board, at the end of the day, it was only a game.

She never felt the need to dedicate some of her time to practicing it earnestly.

Not only that, she had also realized something.

How powerful revenge was as one’s motivation, as it even managed to let her overcome her own laziness.

Countess Yesod had to wipe her tears away more than a hundred times after seeing her studying from the morning till late at night. That was how motivated Diana was.

As for what exactly she studied during that time, she was analyzing the famous witches’ notations and reading through magic books related to Dispel Pin in more depth.

Of course, she naturally tried to analyze Siwoo’s playstyle as well and ended up discovering a surprising fact.

“That shameless man deceived me…”

The male witch…

Wasn’t a beginner at all.

His method of building his groundwork in advance before using Dispel Pins to steal advantages from her…

Was a specialty of a certain witch from the 19th century.

Of course, he wasn’t copying that witch’s moves down to a T, but the way he set his formation up was identical to the witch’s.

Even the way he clumped all his mana orbs to concentrate his power was similar.

Which meant the tricky method that he had been using wasn’t his own, but something that he copied off someone else.

And yet he pretended as if he was playing for the first time.

He acted as if he was someone who didn’t know how to play.

That led her to let her guard down and got her victory stolen from right under her nose.

Of course, she didn’t intend to hold it against him.

Though he was playing sneaky and dirty, he practically won the last game with a direct fight, not with Dispel Pins, and that fact wouldn’t change.

“Just wait and see… I’ve already prepared my surefire plan…!”

However, she was confident that she’d win against him this time. She had put all her effort into studying and she had grown considerably more than before.

If she were to give an estimation, she was 1.5 times stronger than before.

As long as she could shut down his Dispel Pin, her victory was assured.

And so, she jumped off her chair and headed towards the host club with a confident gait.

2.

“S-Siwoo hyung is already tending to a guest now…”

Diana, whose heart was filled with revenge, let out an atmosphere so cold that one would think the snow had suddenly fallen, even though it was still May.

She went out of her way to come here at seven in the morning, yet Siwoo didn’t even come down to greet her.

Instead, it was the man she had seen the first time she came here who came to meet her with a flustered expression.

“I’ll order something expensive. Bring me to him.”

“H-Huh? W-Wait for a moment…!”

“There’s no time to waste. Bring me to him. Now.”

If she wasn’t in her current state, she’d probably decide to either wait or just go back tomorrow.

But not now.

Because she had been training so hard that she wouldn’t feel satisfied unless she thoroughly beat that man in a game.

Diana passed through the flustered doorkeeper and headed straight to table 1, where Siwoo always sat.

Her thumping steps were filled with emotions and when she opened the temporary blinds…

Three pairs of eyes, surprised by her sudden appearance, were staring at her.

“...Uh, hello there?”

“...”

“...”

Two people she never expected to be with Siwoo were there.

The two girls, wearing half-bonnets that were wider than their faces and dresses that looked as expensive as Diana’s.

With their curled black hair, purple eyes and cute faces that were like a doll, there was no way that Diana would mistake these two apprentice witches for anyone else.

“Huh? Why are you two…?”

After all, they were the daughters of her mother’s friend, the girls whom her mother always compared her to whenever she scolded her.

The twin witches who shared the same witch name, the apprentice witches of Countess Gemini.

“You are that lazy girl…?”

“Oh, you are the apprentice witch that never listens to your mother!”

Hearing their strange descriptions of herself, Diana’s blood pressure instantly rose up.

“What’s with those weird descriptions of me?!”

Since Countess Gemini and Countess Yesod were close, they were naturally aware of each other’s existence.

But they were acquaintances at best, not friends.

That was why Diana was surprised to find them here.

There was another thing that surprised her.

It was the fact that the twins were clinging closely to both Siwoo’s sides.

If intimacy could be judged by the distance between one person and the other, that was the kind of distance that only lovers could have.

Also, one of the twins was putting a piece of fruit into the man’s mouth.

“I thought I’d need to introduce you to each other, but it seems like I don’t need to…?”

“Well, we know each other, but we aren’t that close.”

“We just know each other’s faces.”

Seeing Siwoo casually accepted the fruit the twins gave him, Diana was dumbstruck.

She couldn’t process what was happening at all.

However, even though she didn’t know why those two apprentices seemed to be so close with him, at the end of the day, her goal of coming here didn’t change.

The only thing that mattered to her now was her revenge.

And so, she called out to him with confidence.

“I came for a rematch.”

“A rematch?”

“And I don’t want others to get in our way, so I need those two to go away.”

Diana declared in an authoritative voice, placing her hands on her hips.

Even though her and the twins were apprentices of Countess Households, that didn’t mean they were equals.

After all, the twins hadn’t finished their training to receive their brands yet.

Meanwhile, Diana had been preparing herself for the succession ritual for three years.

She was also older than them and was considerably more skilled than them.

That was why she thought she could demand such a thing with confidence.

“What? Getting in whose way? What are you talking about? Also, are you close to Mr. Assistant?”

One of the twins glared at Diana, pointing her finger at her.

“Mr. Assistant! You promised us you’ll play with us today!”

Meanwhile the other one just tilted her head while holding Siwoo’s hand tightly.

Though what they did were different, both of them casually dismissed Diana’s words and implied that whatever her demands were, they would never happen.

“Won’t you two just play around anyway? My business with him is more important, that’s why—”

“Huh? Is that a Witch Board? Mr. Assistant, you know how to play Witch Board?”

“We’re pretty good at it, Mr. Assistant! Wanna play together?”

“Stop ignoring me!”

Diana tried to get them to listen to her, but the twins just dismissed her again and focused their attention on Siwoo.

That was when Diana realized that trying to persuade those two would be a waste of time, so she turned her gaze toward Siwoo instead.

“You! Play a game with me first! You were the one who told me to come back here, weren’t you?!”

“I haven’t seen you for a few days, Ms. Diana… Honestly, I thought you wouldn’t come here ever again…”

Diana scolded Siwoo a little harshly, meanwhile the latter looked flustered while facing her.

Seeing this interaction, Odile didn’t miss a beat to express her displeasure.

“Hey, we’re the one who reserved him first, why are you acting like you own him or something? Are you even close to him?”

“Did you just ‘Hey’ me…?”

“Yeah, so what? You’ve been acting so rudely towards us, why should we act politely to you?”

“I’m not! I was just saying that my business is more important than yours, so it should be prioritized—”

“Whether your business is more important or not, it doesn’t matter. We’re the ones who reserved him first, what right do you have to take him away from us, huh? Why are you being so stubborn about this anyway?”

“Mr. Assistant, why is she even here in the first place?”

“Please stop fighting, I’ll explain…”

And so, Siwoo explained the situation to the twins.

After hearing that, they gave Diana a strange look.

The hostility in their eyes subsided a little, replaced by relief and a sense of victory.

“I see, so you two aren’t close at all? You just played a few games with her?”

“That means she’s the one who shouldn’t get in our way. Did she really think such an excuse is enough to separate us apart? Ridiculous.”

“Ms. Diana, I’m glad that you come back, but as you’ve already known, Ms. Odile and Ms. Odette had made their reservation first, so I can’t follow your demand to kick them out.”

Seeing how the three of them ganging up against her like that, Diana could feel her blood pressure rising even more.

She bit her lip before sitting down across Siwoo.

“Fine. I won’t tell them to go away. Just play with me.”

“...Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, can we let her join us? I promise I’ll make up for it tonight after I’m done with my job.”

The twins stared at each other and started communicating with their eyes.

“If that’s what you want, Mr. Assistant, sure!”

“I want to see how you play, Mr. Assistant!”

“Thank you.”

Realizing that the three people in front of her were closer than she thought, Diana’s gaze turned a little strange as she stared at them.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t just let them distract her, so she tried to calm her mind and set the Witch Board up.

She had a lot of things to say to him, but there was no way she could ask those while the twins were here.

Her pride wouldn’t allow her to reveal the fact that she realized how he went easy on her and that she had spent a few days training to take revenge on him in front of these twins.

“You go first…”

“Okay.”

“...Also, do it properly this time. I won’t be fooled by you anymore.”

With Diana’s roundabout declaration, they finally started their game.

Diana took a deep breath before calmly calculating her moves.

She had realized that she couldn’t just blindly follow the standard playstyle anymore.

Instead, she had to keep as many options available to her as possible so that she could respond to her opponents’ plays freely.

The game proceeded as usual, with her gradually controlling the runes while putting up pressure on Siwoo, threatening to attack him if he were to let his guard down.

This time, instead of blindly trying to stabilize her formation and go for the late game or rushing out to close the game quickly, she aimed to balance both strategies.

“Hmm…”

She didn’t know if it was because the mood was right or if it was because of some other reason, but she could feel the flow of the game better.

Now, she could clearly see what needed to be thrown away and what needed to be taken to gain even the slightest advantage against Siwoo.

At one point, Siwoo was about to set up his Dispel Pin, but she managed to disrupt that, all while preventing other variables from interfering with her plans.

Overall, the game was pretty tight.

Siwoo’s strategy was a do-or-die strategy that would get him to lose all his gas in the mid-game.

Despite that, the game was still tight even though they were entering the late game.

If one were to look at the odds, it would be 5.5 to 4.5 in her favor.

Even though she had been pressuring him repeatedly, for some reason, he always found a way to hang on and prolong the game.

However, no matter how much one tried to cover the whole board, the game area was limited to the board.

Even if he were to keep dodging her assault like a slippery snake, eventually he’d run out of space to run into.

That was what Diana was trying to aim for. She analyzed the board while keeping her guard up against his Dispel Pin.

-Tak!

As Diana was calculating her moves…

She could hear the twins’ voices, as they started to comment on the game out of boredom.

Well, actually, they were just whispering among themselves instead of commenting, but she could still hear it nonetheless.

“Ah, that’s not it…”

“Why did she even do that?”

Of course, she tried to ignore them.

They’re just saying that because they don’t know how to play.

It isn’t even worth responding to.

“You’ll just give yourself up with that move…”

“Why does she keep making strange moves…?”

“Anyway, Mr. Assistant is really good!”

“As expected of Mr. Assistant!”

Ignore, ignore…

Giving myself up? There’s no way I’d make such a blunder.

He doesn’t have enough lenience to set up a trap for me anyway.

The game is clearly in my favor, they can’t even see that and they still said those words? Ha!

Though she tried to ignore them, in the end, she couldn’t take it anymore and opened her mouth.

“Can’t you two shut up?”

“What? Do you think you’re in a position to demand something from us after we conceded our precious time to you? Besides, we’re just talking among ourselves.”

“Just admit that you’re bad at the game.”

“Haa, seriously… Just stop talking…!”

They weren’t wrong, but their words still pissed Diana off.

Whatever, it doesn’t matter.

We’ll see if my moves are right or wrong soon anyway!

Though she resolved herself like that, the twins still managed to inflict mental damage on her with their words.

That was probably the reason why she made such a huge blunder not long after.

“Ah…”

She realized her mistake a moment too late.

Of course, Siwoo capitalized on her mistake, making even better moves than what Diana had expected.

Her current position considerably worsened, as if she had just lost one of her legs in a tug-of-war.

“Ugh…!”

Diana tried to make up for her blunder, but…

Siwoo’s attacks were too relentless for her to handle and eventually, he managed to completely crush all of her formations.

That one blunder was enough to turn the game around.

“As expected of Mr. Assistant, there’s no way she could beat you!”

“You’re amazing, Mr. Assistant!”

Diana hung her head down, her shoulders were shaking.

Meanwhile, Siwoo tried his best to stop the twins from getting rowdy.

Because he didn’t want them to pour more oil into a burning house.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, please stop it… Also, Ms. Diana, that was a close match, if only you didn’t make that blunder—”

“I know!”

After saying that, Diana glared at the twins while gritting her teeth.

“You guys said that you’re good at Witch Board, right? Fine, play with me next.”

It was clear that Siwoo was the target of her anger before she sat down, but now, she had directed everything at the twins.

“Huh? You want to go against us?”

“We’re really good at the game, you know? Do you think you can beat us?”

Odile accepted the sudden challenge with a snort.

Meanwhile, Odette crossed her arms and threw Diana’s provocation right back at her.

“Of course I can beat you! Why don’t we make a bet? Whoever lost the game will have to leave this place!”

With that, Diana threw her glove to throw the twins out, so that she could finally have a proper showdown with Siwoo in peace.