City of Witches

1.

For the whole meal, a bright smile didn’t leave the countess’ face as she listened to the tale of Diana catching the huge salmon from Siwoo—of course he embellished the tale quite a bit, but the countess had no way of knowing that.

After the dinner was over, there was one last task that Siwoo had to do left for the day.

The cozy private tutoring session with the countess.

“Would you mind escorting me, Mr. Siwoo?”

As they left the dining room together to head toward the countess’ private library, Countess Lucy held out the back of her hand that was covered by a white glove.

Seeing this, Siwoo hesitated for a moment.

Because he remembered last night’s incident.

Prior to this, he had told himself repeatedly that he wouldn’t let such an incident happen again, and he knew that if he were to take her hand, the probability of such a thing happening would increase.

However, it wasn’t like he could just refuse her hand; it would be extremely rude if he were to do so, especially considering that she had only been showing him good favor so far.

And so, he decided to take her hand in his palm and escort her to her private library.

“It would be an honor.”

Perhaps it was because of the elegantly decorated hallway…

Or maybe it was because of the countess’ calm gait, despite the slight drunkenness on her face…

Siwoo felt like he was escorting a real noble lady.

As if noticing that he was pondering about such a thing, the countess opened her mouth.

“You look like a knight right now, Mr. Siwoo.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It feels like I’m being escorted by a really dependable knight.”

“Maybe my height gave off that kind of impression…”

As they exchanged such a trivial conversation, they arrived at the countess’ private library.

The air that had been considerably cooled down due to the sun setting was warmed back up again due to the blazing fire in the fireplace.

Siwoo sat down on the sofa, while the countess sat across from him—the same sitting arrangement that they had been following ever since the first day.

“You’re doing such a good job with Diana, I’m thinking of rewarding you.”

“Please take care of me in today’s class too.”

Siwoo thought that she’d make fun of him again because of what happened last night, but to his surprise, she started the lessons without doing anything like that.

Did that mean his class tonight would go smoothly, though? Well, the answer for that was yet to be found, as he soon noticed a whole different problem than yesterday…

“Hmm… So your plan is to control the Red Branch using your ribbons rather than your shadow?”

“Yes. The shadow is a rather abstract kind of magic, so it’s heavily influenced by the spear’s force field…”

Siwoo answered her question calmly.

Then, he glanced at her.

Yesterday, the countess was wearing a party dress that revealed most of her back.

But today, it wasn’t the case.

This time, her dress completely covered her back, but in turn, it revealed her cleavage.

While that wasn’t something worth mentioning normally, the problem here was that the slit didn’t just show a glimpse of her cleavage.

Because it was a bold-looking slit that went down from her shoulders to her navel, showing off her voluminous upper chest, side chest and even some of her lower chest.

Her dress was a bold dress that could easily be taken off by just tucking its collar in a little.

Back during dinner, he wasn’t particularly conscious of it.

Because their sitting position was so far apart across the table—the table itself was so long, probably as long as three billiard’s tables—he couldn’t really see all the details all that well.

The lights were too bright for him to see clearly, and Diana was also sitting next to her.

In any case, the atmosphere back then was too distracting for him to be too conscious of her outfit, but now…

“Let me see that.”

The countess tucked her hair behind her ear before reaching out to grab the paper in front of Siwoo.

Her upper body leaned close to him like a flower bud, her valley of abundance and motherhood caught his attention completely.

A sweet scent that reminded him of whipped cream wafted into his nostrils, accompanying the alluring scent of her perfume.

They were the only people here.

The fireplace and the candlelight somehow brought a romantic atmosphere into the room.

With the countess occasionally licking her voluptuous lips with her tongue, and Siwoo seeing everything within such a close range…

It was hard for him to not be conscious of her.

“The idea itself doesn’t seem bad… But we won’t know if it’s practical or not unless we start working on the force field first.”

But the countess didn’t seem to notice her precarious situation; her clothes might just fall off if she made the wrong move, and he’d end up seeing things that he wasn’t supposed to see.

While Siwoo could accept the logic that she was wearing such clothes because she probably liked them…

If the clothes were this provocative, it was hard for him to think that she didn’t wear it on purpose.

It really feels like she’s doing this on purpose…

He barely managed to avert his gaze away from the scenery that had been trying to forcefully drag him in.

“Alright, why don’t we start creating the force field based on what you’ve seen yesterday, Mr. Siwoo?”

Meanwhile, the countess didn’t seem to notice his problem, as she just went on with their class.

2.

“Is seeing it once enough for you?”

“Sorry?”

“Our vision sharing.”

“A-Ah, yes, once is enough.”

“I can do it a few more times if you want me to. Also, if you’re restraining yourself because of what happened yesterday, don’t worry, I really don’t mind.”

All this time, Countess Lucy had actually been secretly watching Siwoo’s reaction.

The countess knew and was well aware of her own striking appearance.

She held a great confidence in her mature and curvy body, as well as her attractive face.

But knowing of that fact on her own and confirming it through another people’s reaction gave off different feelings.

She had long noticed Siwoo’s glances at her cleavage—which she had purposely exposed.

His protruding Adam’s apple, moving intensely as he swallowed his saliva.

And his cute and rather innocent gesture as he scratched his head in embarrassment.

All those reactions boosted her confidence as a woman—not as a witch, a noble or Diana’s mother—even more.

And it also brought her this strange urge to tease him, just so that she could see more of his reaction.

“Oh my, how could I forget. The dress that I’m wearing doesn’t have any opening on its back…”

The countess let out a faint smile as she placed her hands on her dress’ shoulder straps.

Just a slight slide to the side would probably make the dress fall down to the floor.

“…We could do it from the front instead. What do you think?”

Of course she had no intention to actually do that

From a moral standpoint, it wasn’t an appropriate thing to do. Besides, it was also against a noble’s manners to show one’s body to a mere acquaintance like him.

She was just saying those words to see his dramatic reaction from yesterday again.

“T-There really is no need, Countess! I-I can just take it slowly no problem!”

As he said those words, Siwoo stood up hurriedly, as if hot tea had been poured on his thighs.

Seeing the reaction that she had been expecting from him, the countess was barely able to suppress her giggle.

“Well, if the vision sharing is unnecessary… We can just stop our class here for the day. But don’t you think it’s a pity?”

“Huu…”

“Mr. Siwoo, don’t you think it’s a pity?”

“Um, I admit that I do think it’s a pity. I-I mean, it’s a pity that I didn’t get to learn more, n-not because of other reasons…”

Seeing his reaction, the countess almost rolled around laughing while holding her belly.

As a head of a large-scale business firm, she had met all-sorts of people.

After living for so long, she gained the ability to judge someone’s personality just by looking at their eyes or the way they speak.

Since they had been talking privately like this for four days straight now, she was already able to roughly judge Siwoo’s overall character.

He’s a sincere man, overall a good person.

Just the fact that Diana, who was extremely picky in every single aspect of her life, listened to him well, was enough to prove that judgment. There was also his way of speaking, his behavior, and the movements of his eyes that didn’t have any shreds of ill intentions behind them.

Even though he was stuck in this kind of situation; a situation where it was extremely easy to give birth to such a feeling.

“Mr. Siwoo.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have other appointments after our class is over?”

Hearing that question, Siwoo’s pupils shook.

The one thing that gave the countess pleasure from teasing this man was the fact that she could tell how flustered he was just by looking at his eyes.

Then there was also the way he fiddled with his clothes while giving her rather vague answers.

“If you don’t… Are you willing to spare me some of your time?”

“Um, may I ask what you need from me first, Countess…?”

‘As expected, he’s responding cautiously,’ Lucy thought before calmly answering his question.

“I just want you to take me to go out and fish.”

“…Right now?”

“Mhm. Your stories back at the dinner table intrigues me.”

Siwoo seemed to think for a moment, but it didn’t take long before he nodded his head.

“Alright.”

3.

Diana was tossing and turning in her bed.

Thanks to Siwoo dragging her out for so long, she was exhausted, both physically and mentally, but she was unable to fall asleep.

The reason for it? She couldn’t get the time when she went fishing with him off her mind.

“Ugh…”

Overall, the experience annoyed her.

It made her wonder if it really was worth it going through a Gate just to do all that.

That impression didn’t even count the time when that unexpected accident—where she dived headfirst into the cold river on a cold winter day—happened.

But she would be lying if she were to say that only bad things happened during that time.

She had to admit that it was a fresh and new experience for her.

The taste of victory that came after a long period of trial and error was etched in her mind.

Even the sensation of catching her first bite—a bite filled with vitality and vigor—still remained vividly on her fingers.

Though that first bite ended up quite disastrous since she made a mistake of holding onto the rod too tightly and got dragged by the gigantic salmon because of it.

‘All men are wolves.’

‘They’re inferior creatures compared to us witches, creatures who could never escape their fate of death.’

‘When you’re dealing with men, you need to be careful so that you don’t get taken advantage of.’

Those were the words of her mother that she always emphasized to her.

They became tinted glasses that always covered her worldview. Even now, she was still looking at Siwoo through those tinted glasses.

Even if he could use magic, even if he was the first male witch in history, even if he was extremely good at Witch Board, all those things didn’t matter, because at the end of the day, he was still a man.

But…

‘Let’s switch spots. It seems there are more fish here than where I am.’

‘I want to have some fun too, you know? Pay attention to me as well!’

‘Let’s go back. It’s been more than two hours.’

Looking back, even though she had been treating him harshly, he had never let out even a single frown at her.

She knew that there must be more than enough times that she hurled hurtful words at him and turned the atmosphere ice cold.

Diana was the apprentice witch of a countess’ family, and he was just a normal witch.

Not only that, her mother promised him magic lessons in exchange for him to act as her tutor.

In other words, even if Diana were to throw a huge tantrum at him, he wouldn’t be able to do or even say anything about it.

But even considering that, she couldn’t feel that he was hiding his resentment at her at all.

Which meant, he genuinely didn’t mind her prickly attitude, and he didn’t find her annoying at all.

Instead, he just let out a bitter smile and let everything slide, it was hard for her to not see him as a good person.

Although, there were indeed some rude actions that he unintentionally did in the heat of the moment…

‘Go on, show it off.’

Like when he shoved the big fish he had caught into her hands and told her to brag about it to her mother.

But that was the moment when she realized…

That he was an extremely attentive person; he’d pay attention even to the tiniest details.

And so, Diana decided that she probably needed to adjust her tinted glasses.

“But, there’s a possibility…”

That everything is just an act…

The stunt that the man pulled when he purposely went easy on her during their matches made it hard for her to look at him favorably.

So what if it’s just his way of being considerate?

It only serves to humiliate me in the end!

“Huu…”

Her feelings were complicated.

She felt like everything that she knew had turned distorted and twisted.

Her mother, who had repeatedly insisted that men were dangerous and lowly creatures, was actually writing a novel about a witch who was dominated by one of those creatures.

The male witch, Shin Siwoo, who she had never seen favorably, didn’t fit the savage description that she had heard from her mother.

He is just…a normal person…

“Ugh…”

A normal person who is both attentive and caring.

At that moment, Diana suddenly felt her heart pounding a beat faster.

She didn’t say her thoughts out loud, but she was suddenly struck with the anxiety that usually accompanied someone when they found out that the person they had been praising behind their backs found out that they had been doing that.

“Urrg…”

Diana shook her head, trying to shake off the distracting thoughts.

Right, now that I think about it, it’s been a while since I last went to mom’s secret library.

I’ve caught up with what she had written last time, so she should have written more while I was gone, right?

The last scene Diana left it off on was the scene where the delivery man and the witch were having a sex near the witch’s sleeping apprentice witch.

It left on a cliffhanger where the apprentice witch was tossing and turning in her sleep. Diana was curious on how it would go from there.

“…”

Now, she was caught in a moral dilemma.

That book was clearly an erotica, so the right thing to do was to stay away from it.

Besides, digging further into her own mother’s secret hobby was definitely not a good idea.

However, at this point, she was already way too invested in the story, just like a soap opera addict. Her curiosity to find out what was going to happen next with the delivery man and the witch was driving her crazy.

Mom must have fallen asleep by now, right…?

Thinking as such, Diana left her room in her slippers, dragging her blanket with her.