City of Witches

1.

Eloa stared at Siwoo’s sleeping face, wearing a relaxed expression as she drank the remaining half bottle of her whiskey.

The ruby-red alcohol flowed down her throat, spreading a warm heat inside her.

“...”

With a light spell and a wave of her hand, all traces of their lovemaking disappeared.

The fluids that were sticking on the sheets and their bodies were gone.

All the gathered impurities were burned away by the flame of purification.

After she was done, she dressed Siwoo back in his clothes.

With that, all traces of their encounter were gone.

As if nothing had happened at all.

“It’s almost as if everything was just a dream…”

Even the happiest moments would fade into the past once they were over.

Warm memories between two people stayed in both their hearts.

If that was classified as a full memory, then tonight’s happiness was only half a memory.

Because Eloa would never forget about it…

But Siwoo would never be able to recall it.

She wondered for a moment if she could call it a ‘shared memory’.

But she quickly realized that it was a pointless thought and brushed it aside.

She had made this resolution the moment she gave herself to Siwoo.

Now, there was no room for her to feel regret or sadness, as such emotions were pointless for her.

“Siwoo…”

Sitting by the sleeping Siwoo’s bedside, she stroked his head.

She had used three strokes of her covenant to erase Siwoo’s memories.

Her body was already in dire need of rest, and now she had to suffer the consequences of using self-essence magic.

As if she had been electrocuted, her fingertips had grown numb, while her heart was pounding erratically in protest.

Yet, she still felt the warmth of his body so vividly it tugged at her heart.

“This was bound to happen… It’s almost like fate…”

In truth, Eloa wasn’t really skilled at memory manipulation and it was weak enough to be easily blocked by even the most basic ‘autonomous defense’.

Mind-manipulation magic wouldn’t work on witches with high-level mental defenses to begin with.

But, despite him possessing self-essence magic around the 16th to 17th rank, Siwoo didn’t have any kind of autonomous defense whatsoever.

This was the weakness that Eloa had targeted and it worked on him quite easily.

She erased all the memories of their drunken encounter tonight, as well as the past memories of their intercourse in the rainwater tunnel.

Of course, she replaced those memories with something else, just in case he noticed the inconsistencies and tried to recall the real memories.

In short, for Siwoo, his memories of ‘having an affair with Master Eloa’ was completely gone.

Though she did it without his consent, as his master, she took in upon herself to guide her disciple to the correct path.

Besides, she believed that she should have never let it get this far in the first place.

And thanks to this action of hers, everything went back to normal.

The incident when she tested him and left room for herself to mess around was gone.

So was their first experience in that rainway tunnel, where they violated that line even though they were master and disciple.

What was hard the first time, usually got easier the second time.

That saying was true, because after that incident, she began to see him as something more than a disciple, and eventually, she crossed the line she should never have.

“...Sniff.”

She felt a sharp sting at the tip of her nose.

A master who can’t even give her disciple who loves her a stern scolding…

Instead, she developed feelings for her disciple and allowed him to do intimate acts with her… But that master is gone now…

And I should have been glad about this, but…

She felt some kind of pressure coming behind her eyes and wiped her blurry vision with her sleeve.

Hot tears had started streaming down her face before she realized it.

“Siwoo…”

She knew this shouldn’t have happened.

But he was the one who guided her when she was lost in her sadness after losing Ravi, and gave her a new reason to live…

He was the one who showed her a world that she didn’t know…

She couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

“I’m sorry…for acting on my own…and for always being a burden to you…”

And so, wanting to end things properly, she indulged herself for one last day with him.

She let him do everything he wanted and did everything she wanted to him.

He wouldn’t remember, but she would never forget.

“...”

Eloa lowered her head, reaching to his lips as he slept soundly without any response, and gave him a light kiss.

This was really the end of everything.

She straightened his messy collar, gave his hair one last stroke, and quietly left the carriage.

2.

Early in the morning.

The twins woke up feeling refreshed, but then they noticed something odd.

“...”

“...”

The picnic basket they had piled up in the living room looked different than before.

To be more exact, half of the content of the ‘Sweet Potion’ was gone.

“...Odette, you didn’t drink it when you were sleeping, did you?”

“Wasn’t it you who drank it in your sleep, Sis?”

“I didn’t get up at all last night.”

“Me too.”

Reflexively, the twins questioned each other, suspecting the other.

But, after seeing each other’s reactions, they quickly realized that they weren’t the culprit here.

And that revelation brought out a new question.

““Then, who drank it?””

First, they figured out that the thing that they should do was to find out what exactly had happened when they were asleep.

The people present in this luxurious mansion are us, Mr. Assistant, and Sharon unnie.

Naturally, since we had been sound asleep all night long, we are off the suspect list.

Which means, the one who had drank the potion must be either Mr. Assistant or Sharon unnie!

“Oh no, this is bad!”

“It’s okay if Sharon unnie drank it, though.”

Odile felt cold sweat started to run down her spine.

If Sharon had drunk it, it wouldn’t have any effect on her.

Since the potion would only be effective on ‘males’.

“But, what if Mr. Assistant drank it?”

However, if Siwoo was the one who drank it, things would be entirely different.

From the moment the twins woke up after a long sleep, the only person they would face was Sharon, so, the target of the ‘love’ effect of the potion would be her.

I-It would be like us serving Sharon unnie meals on a silver platter!

“No, it’s like we’re serving her a whole feast on a gold platter!”

“Odette, this is bad! Really bad!”

“Sis, what should we do?!”

The twins were in a panic, as if they had stirred up a hornet’s nest.

It was true that they had vowed to compete with Sharon fairly, but that didn’t mean they were going to give a further advantage to the rival who was already in a superior position than them.

“Hoaahm… Why all the ruckus so early?”

At that moment, Sharon, her hair a mess as she was wearing her pajamas, slouched out.

The twins’ eyes, previously darting around in confusion, instantly focused on her.

“W-What?”

“...”

“...”

Seeing them staring at her, scanning her appearance intently, Sharon was completely flustered.

Clues.

Messy pajamas and hair, squeaky slippers, and a big yawn.

It seemed like she hadn’t gone through a passionate lovemaking session, at least on the surface.

There were no hickeys on her neck or bruises on her wrists.

But, these weren't enough clues to confirm it.

“Good morning.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, I had a good sleep— Huh? Where are you going?”

The twins rushed past Sharon, darting left and right.

“Excuse us!”

“We need to check on something!”

-Bang!

They then burst into Sharon’s room and checked her bed.

“Bed, all clear.”

“No traces of Mr. Assistant scent, all clear.”

Odile ran to check the bed, while Odette buried her nose in it, sniffing it thoroughly like a tracking dog.

“W-What are you two doing?!”

At their peculiar behavior, Sharon’s face flushed as she jumped up in surprise.

Even though they were the ones who provided this accommodation for her, it was still rude of them to barge into her room without permission and rummaged through it.

Feeling quite offended, Sharon marched over to the, and gave them a good whack.

“Ouch!”

“That hurts…”

“For goodness sake! Why are you two so frantic first thing in the morning?!”

The twins meekly accepted their punishment, but they sighed in relief.

If Siwoo was the one who drunk the tea, the room wouldn’t look this neat and tidy.

Still, they decided to double-check.

“Sharon unnie, did you drink the tea in this bottle last night?”

“The black tea in the bottle.”

“Huh? No?”

The twins, who were wearing the look of relief for a moment, instantly made a stiff face again.

This revelation meant that Siwoo was indeed the one who had drunk it.

“What? What’s going on with you two?”

“N-Nothing!”

At that moment, the bell at the entrance rang and the twins rushed out in a hurry.

Sharon, who had been letting out deep sighs amidst the morning hustle and bustle, followed them to see Siwoo’s face.

3.

“...Where am I?”

Siwoo woke up to find himself inside the twins’ carriage.

He looked around confused and there was no one else there.

It seemed like he had drunk a lot and stumbled in here by himself.

“Did I finish this all by myself? No wonder I blacked out…”

Seeing the empty whiskey bottle nearby, he frowned disapprovingly.

He couldn’t remember anything, but at the very least he didn’t have to deal with a worse hangover, thanks to his spirit body.

After tidying up a bit and heading back to the villa, the twins greeted him excitedly.

Odette, with wide eyes, asked.

“Mr. Assistant! Did you drink this?”

When he saw the pretty-looking tea inside the pretty-looking bottle, he admitted it right away.

He remembered that he drank it while cleaning last night because he was thirsty.

“Yeah, I drank it while cleaning last night.”

“...”

When the twins suddenly fell silent after they heard his answer, Siwoo felt a strange sense of unease.

“Were you all planning to drink it together? Sorry about that…”

“N-No! We were planning to throw it away because it was a failure…”

“Y-Yeah! B-But, um… W-Who were you with last night…?”

Who were I with…?

Their question was definitely a strange one, but Siwoo still took a step back to remember what happened last night carefully.

I remember drinking alone and crawling into the carriage, but after that…

Nothing, can’t remember anything.

“Sharon…”

When they heard that, the twins showed an expression as if their world was collapsing.

“...And you two… Why do you ask? Did something happen?”

But when they heard the rest of his answer, they let out a sigh of relief.

“Nothing!”

“It’s nothing, really!”

After calming the two of them down, as they had been in a frenzy since earlier this morning, the four of them finished their breakfast and were getting ready to leave.

The twins went ahead, while Sharon helped Siwoo with the luggage.

“Those two… Doesn’t something seem off with them?”

“Yeah. Did something happen last night?”

“Nope, that’s why it feels off. I just had a good night's sleep…”

As Siwoo tilted his head in confusion, a strange unease began to creep in Sharon’s heart.

How Siwoo had claimed that he slept in the carriage out of nowhere and how the twins questioned him frantically about who he was with were definitely suspicious.

Her intuition told her that something must have happened last night.

Actually, it didn’t matter who he was with.

Because she had already resolved herself for this kind of outcome.

As long as he came back to her, she wouldn’t care about who he spent his time with.

But…

“Did you really just drink by yourself and sleep in the carriage?”

“Yeah.”

Sharon’s eyes were fixed on the sandy beach.

Apart from the twins’ footprints, there were clearly some larger ones that seemed to be left by Siwoo last night.

“You aren’t lying, right?”

“Why would I? I really was alone.”

“...Alright.”

Next to his footprints, there was something else. Footprints that seemingly had been washed away by the waves and blown away by the wind, but they were still there.

They didn’t belong to the twins nor Siwoo, in other words, they belonged to ‘someone else’.

As if someone had walked side by side with Siwoo towards the carriage.

At that moment…

Sharon felt her chest tightened.

Because this clearly showed that he had just lied to her.