City of Witches

1.

“…”

This time, Diana didn’t throw any tantrums.

Actually, she didn’t even say anything.

She just stared blankly at the board, just like what she often did.

By then, Siwoo thought that he had done something wrong.

Did I overdo it?

Maybe I should have tried to win by a narrow margin instead to avoid hurting her pride…

Though Siwoo thought so, it wasn’t like he had any other options to take.

Whether Diana was serious or not when she said it, she did say that if she were to win this game, she’d get him fired no matter what.

If he were to have a narrow win after scratching her pride like that, the chances of him getting fired would be significantly higher.

That was why he decided to win in a different way.

The problem here was that, the way he won was like he purposely took hits from her without fighting back, only to unleash a full combo at the last moment and completely crush her.

With how Diana took great pride in her skills, he realized that what he had done was already beyond scratching her pride, this was the equivalent of him just ruthlessly smashing it into the dirt.

“Hey.”

“Yes, Ms. Diana?”

“You aren’t a newbie, are you?”

Her voice as she said those words was soft and low.

The shock that she had on her face earlier had vanished, replaced by a blank, unreadable expression.

It was hard for Siwoo to tell what she was feeling inside.

What should I say here…?

Should I be honest and just tell her, ‘You were the one who taught me this game, Ms. Diana’?

Or should I just tell her a white lie and say, ‘Sorry for deceiving you,’ to save her face?

“Um…”

“Huu…”

Diana let out a deep sigh.

Then she pressed the reset button on the Witch Board, starting the game over.

Her actions made Siwoo wonder, ‘What would she do next?’.

While they had agreed that if Siwoo were to lose, he’d be resigning from his position without making any fuss, there was no guarantee that she’d keep him as her tutor even if he won.

With her unpredictable moods and temper, his hard-won tutoring job could disappear overnight.

As Siwoo was waiting, all tense, Diana suddenly stood up.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter.”

Dragging her newly changed slippers, she placed her hand on the doorknob to her bedroom.

“I’m really going to bed now, so clean this up quickly and leave.”

After saying that, she slammed the door and shut herself in her room.

Well, I screwed up.

My plan really went off track.

I should’ve won by a closer margin and made it look like a hard-fought victory.

“Haa….”

He let out a bitter sigh.

I don’t need to hear anything else from her… It’s obvious what she’s going to do…

As he thought that, the tightly closed bedroom suddenly creaked open.

Half of Diana’s face, looking none too pleased, peeked out.

“…Tomorrow… Before anything else… I want to take a nap first…”

After saying that, she quickly closed the door.

Leaving Siwoo standing there, dumbfounded. It took a while for him to realize that it was a shy way of her asking for a rematch.

In other words, he managed to avoid being fired after just one day of working.

2.

Diana started locking herself in her room at 2 pm.

Meanwhile, Siwoo’s tutoring session with Countess Yesod wouldn’t start until 10 pm, so he had to wait for quite a while.

He could always use Dimension Shift to go somewhere, but he chose not to.

After all, this place was THE Levana Grand Bath, there were plenty of entertainment and sights to see, so exploring it was enough to pass the time.

Like the greenhouse that was filled with colorful magical plants.

Or a museum that showcased the masterpieces of the famous artists—each piece worth a fortune in the Modern World.

Even the Grand Bath’s architecture alone was beautiful enough to look at. With so many things to sightsee, it wasn’t a wonder that Siwoo lost track of time by just wandering around the place.

“I’m here, since it’s our appointed time now.”

“Come in.”

Then, when the night had fallen, under the bright full moon…

Siwoo headed to Countess Yesod’s private library—she had told him about this place in advance.

After he knocked on the door and opened it, a pleasant scent entered his nostrils.

A sweet scent, like ripe fruit, but at the same time, soft like cream.

Countess Lucy sat at the table with her sleeves rolled up, perhaps to avoid getting ink on them.

She was wearing an elegant outfit, as if she was ready to attend a ball, making her look like a swan, trying to show off her grace.

In the softly lit room that oddly exuded a rather romantic atmosphere, she set down the feather pen with a graceful motion.

“I gave you those clothes as a gift, but they really do suit you, hm?”

“Thank you for your compliment.”

One of the countess’ defining traits was the elegance that flowed from everything she did; from her posture, speech to every single bit of her gesture.

As if nobility was in her very nature.

Siwoo knew that no matter how hard he tried, he could never match the nobility that she exuded so effortlessly like that.

“In any case, I’ve been waiting for you.”

“My apologies, I got caught up admiring how beautiful everything around here is.”

“Oh my, that’s a lovely thing to hear. I’d imagine your standards have risen since you’ve been staying at Countess Gemini’s mansion and all.”

“I believe that each place has its own unique charm. This place took my breath away quite easily if I may say so.”

“Is that so?”

The countess let out a warm smile before rising from her seat.

She then walked around the table.

Seeing her outfit in its entirety, Siwoo was surprised, but he tried to hide it.

He really had thought that she’d dress herself conservatively, but it didn’t seem to be the case. Rather, there was a daring slit on one side of her tight dress.

The slit was so high that it almost revealed her panties, fully exposing her fair thighs.

Since he was a man, his eyes were naturally drawn to it, but he quickly averted his gaze.

He couldn’t help but feel amazed that even though she was wearing a pure white dress, her pale skin was still able to stand out so strikingly.

But, he kept his thoughts to himself, trying to avoid letting his mind wander inappropriately.

“Please, have a seat.”

“Yes.”

As Siwoo settled onto the couch in front of the table, the countess placed several thick books in front of him and asked,

“How was my daughter?”

“As I’ve mentioned before, she’s incredibly intelligent and brimming with potential.”

“Isn’t she?? I’ve met sooo many apprentice witches, but none of them are as clever and adorable as my Diana!”

“I-I couldn’t agree more.”

“So, how did the lesson go today? Did she behave herself?”

As the countess’ eyes lit up with enthusiasm and praised Diana, Siwoo nodded at her. With caution, he answered her question.

“Regarding that, there’s something I have to report…”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Actually, I was only able to fulfill my duty as a tutor for about two hours today… And we only played a round for Witch Board…”

Leaning her body slightly forward, the countess listened intently to Siwoo’s words. When he was done, she just waved his concerns away with a smile.

“Don’t worry about that. Diana is quite stubborn at times. Getting her to play Witch Board on the very first day is already a remarkable progress.”

“Is it really?”

“It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but even after I’ve raised and taught her for over twenty years, I still found it challenging to deal with her at times.”

“Thank you for your understanding.”

“Hohoho, think nothing of it. Alright, now…”

With that out of the way, it was finally time for the private tutoring session that Siwoo had been eagerly anticipating.

As per their contract, after he fulfilled his duty to keep Diana entertained, he would receive two hours of lessons in barrier magic every day.

The idea of learning new magic was exciting enough on its own, so he was looking forward to this moment since the very beginning.

“Before we dive into the lessons, let me calmly explain what the goals of our sessions will be.”

“Understood.”

The countess then placed a sheet of paper on the table.

On it, the ink was still wet, suggesting that she had just written it.

“Mr. Siwoo, your goal is to control the mystic code, the Red Branch, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“To start studying barrier magic from scratch, you’d need to study for more than ten years before you could get to that level. That’s why we’ll instead focus on integrating the barrier magic as an add-on to the existing self-essence magic.”

“Ah, I see.”

In other words, their aim was to control the distortion field in the same way he had applied various elemental magic to his Law of Shadows to make his armor stronger and more durable.

While this method might be less flexible and adaptable compared to creating a new self-essence magic from scratch, it would allow him to save a significant amount of time.

“Of course, even if we’re just going to modify an already existing self-essence magic, the basics are still important. So in these two hour sessions, we’re going to start from the fundamentals of barrier magic. Let’s begin with this book first, shall we?”

The countess picked up the book she had placed on the table earlier.

It was a book that was as thick and heavy as a phone book.

On its cover, ‘Introduction to Barrier Magic’ was written.

“This is the most basic book on the subject that had been passed down in the Yesod Family to teach our apprentice witches. I’ve updated its content myself, and Diana had learned from it too. You can take it.”

“Are you sure it’s alright for me to have something so valuable?”

“Of course. You see, when Diana was young, she kept hiding the book, so I ended up making about ten copies of it. The content itself also isn’t particularly unique anyway.”

“Thank you so much.”

Siwoo quickly flipped through the book the countess had handed him.

The book was quite thick.

It was thick enough that its edges could be used as a weapon if he wanted to. And yet, even though it was that thick, the font of the text was miniscule, to say the least.

He felt like this book contained two or three full textbooks at once.

“It’s a lot, isn’t it? Usually, it takes an apprentice witch three years to learn everything in there. But, my Diana finished it in just six months! Impressive, right?”

“Indeed. Very impressive.”

Her daughter-bragging was as frequent and detailed as the writing in a textbook, so Siwoo just diligently played along.

He had sensed it before, and now he was completely sure of it; the countess was a doting mother.

“But, Mr. Shin Siwoo.”

“Yes, Countess?”

“Given that you managed to shield against the distortion field, I assume that you’ve done some studying on barrier magic?”

“Yes, although I only skimmed through a few books at the Trinity Academy’s library.”

“Before we get into the lessons, why don’t we check your skills first? It might save us some time.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Just a moment, please.”

The countess then picked up a pen and quickly jotted down some problems.

There were ten questions in total, ranging from basic ones to test his understanding of the fundamentals to simple application problems.

The overall difficulty level of the questions was well-balanced.

“Try solving these.”

The first thing he did was to scan the questions.

No matter how difficult and abstract the concept of barrier magic was, at the end of the day, its root was magic formulas.

In other words, it was all about calculations.

He grabbed his pen and began to solve the problems calmly.

Conceptualizing the abstract problems, theorizing the magic formulas needed…

Calculating the effective potential and loss when implementing said magic formulas from the Imaginary and Symbolic Orders into the real world…

Then deriving the necessary formula to actualize a given magic formula in the real world.

Siwoo smoothly solved all the problems, right up to the last one, and then smacked his lips.

The first three questions were not difficult at all.

But, given the examiner was the same person who made the question, he couldn’t help but feel as though his weaknesses were being meticulously probed.

“I think I’ve solved all the ones I could.”

“…”

When he glanced over, he saw the countess blinking as she reviewed his answer sheet.

She stared at it for quite a while, her gaze was completely locked at it.

“Countess?”

“If you don’t mind, may I ask how long you’ve been studying barrier magic again?”

“I started studying it earnestly…around one or two months ago…”

“A month or two…?”

She showed a troubled look before taking back the book she handed to him.

Siwoo stared at her with a bewildered look, but the countess quickly answered the question that he was about to ask.

“You probably won’t need this anymore.”

“Excuse me…?”

“There’s no need to look at it. You’ve already known everything.”

The ten problems that the countess gave him weren’t something a beginner with just a month or two of study could solve.

Also, she didn’t give the problems to him so that he could give her the ‘correct’ answer, she just wanted to observe his thought process.

After all, in magic, especially when it came to abstract magic like barrier magic, there was no single correct answer.

Yet, he confidently wrote down his answers to all ten problems.

While yes, his answers fell short and there were logical leaps in them…

At the same time, he wrote down approaches that even Lucy herself had never considered.

He had attempted to quantify the inherently unquantifiable force field.

To Lucy, his answers had already gone beyond what one could learn from an introductory textbook.

“You’re far more talented than I expected, Mr. Siwoo.”

“R-Really?”

Hearing that praise, the first male witch in history chuckled awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.

His name is… Shin Siwoo, right…?

I want to know a little more about him…