City of Witches

Diana made a tower of books, placed a handkerchief on top of it, and sat on it.

While lightly kicking her legs, she brought up an old conversation.

“So, you were wondering why am I so lazy, right?”

“…Huh? Ah, right, back during the fishing trip…”

Diana nodded at that before bringing her knees closer to her chest.

Though it seemed like she already decided to talk about this, there was a hesitation in her expression. As if what she was trying to say was something quite complex.

“I’ve told you about my status quo bias, right?”

She reminded him of the term she used in response to his question back then.

“It’s a bias to avoid change, to wish that tomorrow will be like today, and the day after to be like tomorrow. I don’t want anything to change, I want everything to stay the same… And I…don’t want to become a full witch… I don’t want mom to disappear…”

“…I want her to stay. Forever.”

Her voice turned slightly hoarse.

“It isn’t hard to throw my laziness away and become the diligent daughter that she wants me to be. I just need to work myself a little harder than usual.”

“…”

“But, if that happens… She’s going to disappear, right…? And I’ll be left alone…?”

“…”

“That’s why, I don’t want things to change. I want us to stay like this forever.”

In witch’s society, ‘inheritance’ was something to be proud of.

All witches took it as an honor, as it meant that they were inheriting knowledge that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

To be fearful of it, to the point that one refused to pass on their brand to their apprentice even though they clearly couldn’t continue developing their brand anymore…

Or to be fearful of it just because one didn’t want to see their predecessor disappear…

Were both considered as foolish and shameful in witch’s society.

Because such feelings showed their incompetence as a witch.

Hence why Diana averted her gaze. She didn’t dare to look at Siwoo’s face.

The thought of him giving her a disgusted look over this shameful attitude of hers scared her.

It made her regret telling him all this.

“Strange, right?”

“A little.”

“…You don’t need to be polite, I know what I’m saying is stupid.”

I knew it…

There’s no way he could understand…

Well, I never expected him to anyway… I just wanted to vent a little…

“Oh, no, I think you misunderstood… You see, since you’re Yesod’s apprentice witch, I thought you’d have a more orthodox view of such a thing, Ms. Diana. That’s what I found strange.”

Hearing that, Diana quickly turned her face towards Siwoo.

There wasn’t even a trace of a judgmental look she expected from his face.

Instead, he just blinked at her, wearing his usual gentle expression on his face.

“You…don’t think my view is strange…?”

“Of course. It’s normal for a child to wish for her parent to live a little longer, no? I also wished for my parents to live a long and healthy life.”

“But, I’m an apprentice witch…”

No matter how she thought about it, she just couldn’t understand his carefree reaction.

So, she stared at him, wondering if he was just saying all this to make her feel better.

“Witch or not, they’re still a ‘person’.”

Hearing that, Diana averted her gaze again.

She decided to confide her deepest secret, but for some reason, what she got was the hot sensation in her cheeks.

It was strange.

She revealed her insecurities to Siwoo, someone who was pretty much a stranger to her.

And then she found out that he could actually understand what she was trying to say, and that made her happy.

Actually, ever since that incident in Border Town happened, she had been experiencing strange things.

For example, whenever she had nightmares, she’d dream of his back, protecting her from harm.

At one point, she felt resentment towards her mother, even though she loved her more than anything else in the world.

And there was that surprise kiss that she did…

In any case…

Strange things had been happening, and were currently happening.

Hence why she found it hard to continue her next words.

Because it felt like she was forcing herself to say something she didn’t want to say.

But, she had to say what she had in mind out loud.

Because it was related to her mother, and she was an important person in her life.

“…Mr. Siwoo, I’ve been thinking… If, you could make my mom fall in love with you… Maybe, just maybe… She’ll decide to stay in this world longer and hold off from giving me her brand…”

“I see, so that’s what’s been in your mind…”

After saying that, Diana handed him one of the books she had personally picked.

“Here… Mom likes this book…”

“I haven’t given you my reply yet…”

“Just take it!”

Then, she stacked more and more books on top of his hand.

“But what for? So we can have common things to talk about?”

“Something like that, but maybe you’ll come to like it too…”

In any case, Siwoo understood Diana’s feelings, and why she wanted to do this.

It was just, there were too many problems with her plan for him to agree with it right away.

First, she was just an apprentice witch.

Unlike a real witch, her spirit body hadn’t matured yet, so although she’d age slowly compared to humans, she’d still age.

Which meant, even if things proceeded as planned and the countess held on from passing on her brand, the status quo still wouldn’t be maintained.

Then, there was also the matter with the countess herself. There was no way she’d agree to this.

After all, she was an orthodox witch among the orthodox witches.

If even the twins, who loved and respected their masters as much as Diana, willingly stated that they’d go along with the brand inheritance…

It was obvious what kind of thoughts the countess, an orthodox witch who had lived for more than a hundred years, had toward this matter.

At the very least, there was no way that she’d let Diana age and die without inheriting her brand.

Second, the countess’ feelings.

Him and the countess didn’t even have that kind of relationship. They just flirted with each other for the sake of it and went on with it.

There was no real love between them yet, and continuing it for years just for the sake of fulfilling Diana’s wish wasn’t something that he thought was appropriate to do.

With those two problems in mind…

He came to the conclusion that she really needed to talk about this in great detail with her mother instead of relying on him like this.

Getting him involved in the middle like this wouldn’t solve any of the problems, they’d just end up not knowing about each other’s feelings in the end.

“Of course, I have no intention of asking you to do all this for free.”

Diana hopped down from the tower of books she was sitting on.

“If you succeed in seducing her…”

She turned her moist eyes at Siwoo.

This time, she didn’t avoid his gaze, but instead faced it head on.

There was a little sensuality emanating from her gaze—a proof of her resolve, kind of…

“At that time… I’ll let you do me in the back— Ow!”

“Stop saying such a thing so casually like that.”

But, what she got in return was a vicious flick on the forehead.

Siwoo actually put some force in it, so much so that her head was pushed back.

“It hurts…! Why did you hit me?!”

She jumped upwards, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

For Diana, who had never got a head flick in her life even once, the flick was like the harshest punishment one could ever give.

“Let’s go back.”

“Wait, you haven’t given me an answer yet!”

“Not until you’ve calmed down a little. You are way too agitated right now.”

“O-Of course I am! I-It was hard for me to say all that, you know?!”

“I know, I know.”

But still…

A daughter who willingly sells her body for the sake of her mother…

It’s like something out of some cheap novels…

Although, if there was something that Siwoo knew about Diana…

It was that if left on her own, she’d come up with some ridiculous ideas that made him shake his head like this.

Hence why he decided to let her calm down a little, so she could think about it a little more with a clearer mind.

After buying the books, they left the bookstore and returned to the mansion with Diana still rubbing on her forehead.

2.

The hot passionate moment she had with Siwoo that lasted through the night and continued in the morning gave the countess great energy to go through her busy day.

One thing that was noticeable was that her lips felt looser than usual.

However, the moment she crossed the Gate to the Border Town, her expression changed.

It wasn’t because the lingering feeling left her, though, she just didn’t have the leniency to indulge in those feelings as right now, she had to show an appearance that befit her status as a noble.

Also, the moment she breathed in the misty air of Border Town, her pent-up anger boiled over.

She descended through the winding path, heading towards the Cloud Mushroom Village that was surrounded by the oak trees.

‘The Rebellion of Jack the Cutter,’ a case when a normal human was mutated into a Homunculus.

Jack, one of the slaves, a former death row inmate who didn’t know his place, attacked Diana and was promptly apprehended. The Border Town guards had handed him over to the countess.

Right now, he was in the hand of another witch.

On one side of the village—where the place was turned into a whole forest because of an accident that was caused by a certain someone—there was a workshop that happened to survive through the accident.

Arriving in front of it, the countess opened the door without hesitation.

“Welcome, Countess Yesod.”

“I’m in a hurry.”

The person who greeted the countess was Shriya Shitala, an 18th rank witch who was well-versed in necromancy and mind magic.

While the countess wished to interrogate Jack personally, she knew that this sort of matter should be left to the experts.

Considering that Shriya had solved several crimes prior to this, she was the right person for the countess to rely on.

“Come this way.”

They walked through the messy workshop, towards the basement.

It was a little rude for Shriya, but the countess felt like the place was a little too desolate and gloomy.

Shriya opened the door, and behind the door, a white man could be seen, sitting on a chair, fully restrained.

His limbs were flabby, as if his muscles had shrunken.

His mouth was gagged to prevent him from killing himself, and his eyeballs were bulging out, as if they might fall out at any moment.

He was also acting unusual.

Even though the countess came in, he showed no reaction whatsoever; he just kept staring blankly at the sky like a vegetable.

“I’m saying this so you don’t misunderstand me, Countess. I haven’t tortured him.”

“Even if you do, I wouldn’t mind.”

The countess circled around the chair, examining him.

“The moment I started interrogating him, his brain turned unresponsive. It took less than 15 for his cerebral cortex through his limbic system to fail completely. After that, his limbs started to melt.”

“Hmm…”

Human turning into a Homunculus wasn’t a case that was unheard of.

There were countless Homunculi roaming around in the world, and there were more of them who were still sleeping or lurking in the dimensional rift.

Among those Homunculi, it wasn’t unthinkable that one of them had the power to take over humans’ bodies.

However, humans’ bodies were too fragile to withstand Homunculi’s power.

Which meant, the moment those monsters possessed their body, their body would start failing.

Whenever this happened, the Homunculi would usually just abandon their hosts, leaving them crippled if they were lucky, but in most cases they’d just end up dead.

In any case, it wasn’t strange that Jack ended up like this.

“Still, he went out without saying anything…? What’s the possibility of him being implanted with a ‘gag’?”

“Can’t be sure for now, I’d have to rip his head open first. However, I believe that’s an extremely likely case.”

“How likely?”

“90% chance.”

The reason why Shriya was so sure was because Jack was fully conscious before the interrogation began.

In fact, he was shaking, fearing what was about to happen to him next.

It was extremely unnatural that he suddenly turned like this in merely 15 seconds as soon as the interrogation began.

Hence why the possibility of another witch’s intervention was quite high.

“Can you continue your investigation?”

“Currently, I am in the middle of scouring through the smugglers’ records and interrogating the witnesses.”

Duchess Keter’s inaction.

The unusually active Criminals in the Modern World.

And the fact that Gehenna had been invaded twice in a single year.

Although this particular incident wasn’t really a big incident, and one could just treat it lightly without any repercussions, Countess Yesod had a bad feeling about it.

Her instinct as a businesswoman screamed so.

“So, how should I handle this?”

Shriya pointed at Jack’s crippled body and asked.

“Do you even need to ask?”

“Alright then. I’ll use every flesh of his body to look for all the pieces of evidence I can find.”

“Oh my. If someone were to hear what you said, they’d misunderstand, you know?”

After saying that, the countess turned around and left.

Offering not even the slightest mercy towards the scum who almost brought harm to Diana.