City of Witches

1.

What did witches usually do in their free time?

This question wasn’t really different from ‘What are your hobbies?’ or something similar to that.

It was because the answer really depended on the witch in question’s tastes and preferences.

Some of them spend their time by reading a book, by riding their horse through the hills, by watching plays or by taking baths in a luxurious bathtub.

But, what did they usually do when they hang out with other witches? Now, that question would get you a whole different answer completely.

In Gehenna, where there was a severe lack of entertainment, there was one traditional game that was popular among the witches called the Witch Board.

The most basic Witch Board would have a large dodecahedron hologram appear above a crystal ball.

That dodecahedron itself consisted of countless smaller dodecahedrons.

This dodecahedron-shaped hologram would act as a board for the game—just think of it as a weirdly-shaped chessboard.

As for the rules of the game, they were as follows:

1) On the provided game board, each corner represented a ‘pass’ and each vertex houses a ‘rune’ essential for drawing magic spells. These runes are randomly placed using a random algorithm within the crystal ball.

2) Passes and runes alone are insufficient to complete a magic spell. Therefore, each player is provided with three ‘mana orbs’ that they can strategically place on the board to initiate the game.

3) Once the game commences, players take turns making moves like in go1, using the runes and the passes on the vertices to craft magic spells.

4) Players cast the spells they create to attack their opponent's mana orbs or defend against their opponent's attacks.

5) The first player to capture all three of their opponent's mana orbs or force their opponent to surrender is declared the victor

With that concise and quick explanation, Diana finished her presentation.

“It looks complicated…”

What happened prior to this was Diana expressing her desire to compete with Siwoo in a board game.

Coincidentally, the game that she challenged him to play, the Witch Board, was quite a popular game—the club had a few boards themselves, Siwoo only needed to take one of them from the third floor.

But, the game rules were a little complicated for him to follow properly.

That was why he said those words after hearing her explanation.

“You’ll understand when you try it. If it’s your first time playing the game, I’ll walk you through it.”

To put it simply, what he needed to do was to connect some lines and runes to cast a spell.

Then, he’d need to utilize those spells to attack the opponent’s mana orbs or to defend against their attacks.

I guess this is some kind of simulation board game, similar to chess or go, huh…?

Thinking as such, Siwoo began to connect a few lines using his eyes and imagination.

That was when he found that the task wasn’t as difficult as it sounded.

Though, because the board space was limited and the runes were scattered, the spell he could cast was pretty limited.

“This game can even the playing field, basically. Also, unlike magic battles, you take turns attacking.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

That was another reason why this game was popular among the witches.

In actual magic battles they had to factor in a bunch of variables.

Also, no matter how great one’s magical thinking was, if there was a clear difference in ranks and amount of mana, the victor of the magic battle was pretty much decided.

But, in Witch Board, Grand Witches and Apprentice Witches alike could only make their moves once per turn.

Not only that, use of magic beyond certain levels was prohibited.

Also, since self-essence magic was pretty complex, casting one of them would easily take hundreds of turns, so one couldn’t rely on that, unless their opponent was willing to wait for that long.

In other words, this game was perfect to showcase one’s magical thinking and flexibility.

“So, is this really your first time?”

“Yes. Actually, I’ve never even heard of this game before this.”

“Alright, I’ll concede nine turns for you. Feel free to do anything during that time.”

By the way, Diana was extremely confident in her skills about this game.

Witch Board was one of her hobbies.

In fact, she was good enough to compete directly against Countess Yesod herself, thanks to her amazing aptitude in magical thinking.

Actually, she was confident that she could take on any witches in this board game.

“So, how do I start?”

“First, you need to place your mana orbs. Well, you can just place them anywhere within the decahedron.”

“I see.”

Since he was a newbie on this game, Siwoo decided to just take up on her offer.

He quickly placed his orbs in three locations without any shred of hesitation.

The moment she saw that, Diana tilted her head.

This was because he chose to place his orbs right next to each other.

As for why she looked so puzzled, not only was this something that others wouldn’t normally do, it was also considered as an inefficient move.

Because normally, one would want the mana orbs to be as close as possible to the corners so that one could utilize more of the board.

Putting them all closely together like what Siwoo did would only lessen both the space and magic available.

Well, I guess this really is his first time playing…

“That’s nine.”

“...”

Seeing how Siwoo spent his nine turns, Diana became more firm in her beliefs.

Nine efficient turns were more than enough to destroy one of her mana orbs and made her start at a massive disadvantage.

Because one less mana orb meant that there was less magic that was available to be utilized.

Even as a first timer, if he was talented enough in magic, he should be able to see it from that angle.

But he couldn’t even do that.

Now Diana became more sure that all the fuss and rumors were just gibberish.

“My turn now.”

After that, they exchanged their moves, taking turns.

The moves she took were pretty much standard moves.

At the end of the day, what they needed to do to win was to utilize the various runes that were scattered across the board.

By effectively occupying those runes and reading the opponent’s intentions, one would be able to occupy more runes and gain advantage over the other player.

In other words, build a bunch of spells, get a bunch of runes and gain more advantage over the opponent.

Even if the number of the mana orbs were the same, the player with more runes would be the one who could use attack spells more effectively.

Of course, this was also applicable to defense spells as well.

And that’s the end of the game.

Naturally, since he was at a complete disadvantage from the start, Siwoo ended up losing the game.

All his attack spells were deflected, all his defense spells were crushed, and all his mana orbs were destroyed by Diana.

It was a total defeat, the game only lasted ten minutes from start to finish.

“So easy.”

Diana triumphantly declared her victory.

Then again, this victory was already predetermined.

Even if she were to concede nine turns to Siwoo, he was still a beginner, and she was an expert.

But, winning or losing wasn’t the point here, it was the process that led to that victory that mattered.

Diana successfully blocked all of his attacks and won overwhelmingly. It was the equivalent of winning a chess game without losing more than four pieces.

Meanwhile, Siwoo was staring at the board.

It was as if he had gained something from that previous game.

The atmosphere around him looked quite serious.

“Hm… So that didn’t work, huh?”

Did he really try to win with that stupid strategy?

Diana looked at him dumbfoundedly.

Whatever. Even if his heart is in the right place, he just isn’t good enough.

Thinking that she was putting too much thought into it, Diana reset the game board by pushing the button on the board.

“One more?”

“Yes, please.”

Of course, she believed that it was uncouth for a skilled player to bully a novice like this, but the thing here was he wasn’t a complete novice.

As per his claims, he was someone who understood the law of magic.

Diana believed that if he dared to go out of his way to advertise himself as a ‘male witch’ to attract customers, then he shoulda put enough effort so that he was worthy of that title.

As that thought came to her mind, she finally realized another reason why she felt so uncomfortable with him.

Because he is using the fact that he’s walking the path of magic as a way to gain monetary profit…

With this realization, her aversion towards him grew deeper.

“I’ll concede nine turns this time too.”

“Thank you. I was able to learn a few things from the previous game.”

Siwoo decided the placements of his three mana orbs in an instant.

The exact same place as before.

Once again, he clammed all his mana orbs together, hindering himself and narrowing the space he could utilize.

Nine turns passed and he did nothing to improve his situation at all.

“Huu…”

Should I just tell him?

Thinking that she couldn’t watch him anymore, Diana finally opened his mouth.

“Don’t put all your mana orbs together like that, it will only hinder you when you’re making moves later. I’ll give you another chance, so do it over. Place them somewhere else on the board, give them some distance, it’ll make your life easier.”

Actually, giving advice to someone like this wasn’t in Diana’s style at all.

But, she still went out of her way to do it because she didn’t want the game to end in another overwhelming victory for her.

With this in mind, it was understandable that Siwoo’s answer towards her kind gesture surprised her so.

“Ah, don’t worry about me. I’m thinking about doing something else this time. Also, I think I’m slowly getting the hang of the game.”

Something else?

Do you even hear yourself right now?

With her all-too-sincere advice ignored, Diana gave him an even more incredulous look.

Because his moves weren’t just something ‘different’ or ‘unique’, they were something that was completely out of the norm, the standard plays.

Standard plays didn’t exist for nothing.

What considered standard plays were the highly generalized principle as the result of countless trials and errors.

In other words, their potency and efficiency had already been proved.

“Don’t worry, I know what I am doing.”

The problem here was that, from his tone and the look in his eyes, it was clear that the man in front of her was serious.

This made her feel even a bigger aversion towards him than when he tried to market himself as a real witch.

And so, she gave her final verdict.

She shouldn’t expect anything else from this so-called male witch.

That he was only an idiot who willingly spread stupid rumors about himself for the sake of appearances.

And that after this game, she should just go back home quickly.

After the nine turns had passed, they then took turns, exchanging their moves.

Just like the previous game, it was another easy game for Diana.

This time, she utilized a different strategy and slowly built her way up towards victory.

Everything went smoothly.

She managed to occupy 15 passes and the optimal runes needed for her attack.

Of course, she didn’t forget to secure a good defense, just in case of a sudden counterattack from him.

I’ll teach you directly how dumb of a move clumping your mana orbs together like that is.

Her plan was to cast a cannon magic to blow all of Siwoo’s mana orbs in one go.

She calculated that she’d be able to achieve her victory within five moves.

“...Huh?”

But then, she caught onto something. All this time, she had only been focusing on her own moves and she had been neglecting something.

“Ah, you noticed. I thought I did a good job hiding it too…”

Among the complex-looking dots, lines, and runes…

There lay a barely noticeable trap.

If Diana were to proceed to execute her five moves victory strategy, that trap would have been triggered.

“...”

The thing that Diana had been creating was a magic cannon that had been amplified over and over again.

On the other hand, what Siwoo had been creating was a large ring tunnel that would guide her cannon into her mana orbs.

If she were to fail to notice this trap and press on the offensive, she’d end up taking out all of her mana orbs in one fell swoop instead.

How did I not notice that?

Was I being that careless?

No…

This trap is just too cleverly hidden…

“Of course I noticed it.”

Diana casually told that lie and changed her strategy.

Then, she slowly destroyed the ring tunnel that Siwoo had made and claimed her victory in twenty turns.

Of course, this outcome was shocking to her.

Because his strategy was completely out of the norm.

It was a one-shot strategy, if it failed, then there would be no coming back from it.

Yet, he almost pulled it off against her, even though she thought of him as nothing more than an overconfident punk.

“Well, there’s no way I could recover after you noticed that one. Good game, Ms. Diana, it’s my loss.”

“...”

Although she won the whole thing, it still left a bitter taste in her mouth.

She quickly hit the reset button on the board.

“One more. I’ll concede another nine turns this time too.”

No way, I’m letting you off just like that after pulling off that stunt!*

*

Not if you actually have been planning for that from the start!

If he could do it again, I might need to reevaluate my opinion about him…

Facing the motivated Diana, Siwoo held up an hourglass with a perplexed expression.

“I’m sorry, but our time is running out. I need to serve the witches who have made reservations now.”

That was when Diana noticed that her surroundings had grown busier than before.

“I’ll give you more money. Please extend the time.”

“You know I can’t do that, Ms. Diana. As the apprentice witch of Countess Yesod, you should know the importance of following through a contract more than anyone.”

Those words were enough to break her momentum, as she haughtily nodded in agreement.

“Fine. Then I’ll come by tomorrow, same time. Get ready.”

“Alright. I’ll escort you to the door.”

As she stepped out of the door while being escorted by Siwoo, Diana made a vow to herself.

I’ll definitely come back tomorrow!

1. Chinese chess.