City of Witches

1.

Diana entered the Gate, returning home with light steps.

Her steps were so light, it felt like she was walking at 1.2 times of her usual speed.

Currently, it was just past noon, a time when she had to go outside, as per Countess Yesod’s instructions.

But, today was a special occasion.

It was a day for her to reward herself.

She just had a full-on duel that made her head heat up, and that game left her drained.

The game made her go through different kinds of emotions, from anger to agony to despair to joy. Thanks to that, she was more exhausted than ever and she believed that she deserved a good rest as a reward.

That was why, right now, she was floating around in the private pool of Levana’s Public Bathhouse.

Her hands were holding a bunch of grapes that she ate one by one to celebrate the joyful occasion.

“Ah~ Sweet~ Sweet victory~”

The grapes tastes sweeter than usual~*

*

That whole game was just so good~

Especially the look on his face after I beat him~

“Pfft…!”

When she recalled SIwoo’s blank face, she immediately burst out into laughter.

His expression when she told her ‘I don’t want to bully someone weaker than me’ specifically was etched in her mind.

“Pfft…! Ahaha…!”

One of her wins from Siwoo was back when he barely even knew how to play, but she actively ignored that and just laughed to her heart’s content.

“So what?”

It’s too much trouble to play another game anyway.

In the end, I’m the one who’s gonna win, so…

Who cares?

“This world is all about the result after all! Ohoho…!”

With a bright smile on her face, Diana comfortably laid her body down on the sunbed.

It has been a while since I’ve felt so at peace~

The warm pool with a dome above me to protect me from sunlight~*

*

Surrounded by the lush tropical trees and flowers~ Covered by their pleasant scent~

Too bad I still have something to do, or else I’d just spend the rest of the day sleeping…

“Heh, anyway, time to recap today’s games~”

The aforementioned thing that she had to do was this.

Watching her previous games to admire her amazing plays.

While replaying the games she played this morning in her mind, she set up the Witch Board that she had brought here with a clear excitement on her face.

Though she seemed a little distracted, she actually managed to remember each and every move that happened in both games.

As she replayed the games, she recounted all the feelings she had back then.

This was when I fiercely pushed forward!

Then, he counterattacked me with an even fiercer momentum!

He got me real good for a good while and even forced me on the defensive!

But, I managed to make use of his blunder and achieved a grand victory! …Huh?

“Wait…”

The smile on Diana’s face suddenly turned into a frown.

Because she noticed something that she failed to notice back when she was playing.

The part when Siwoo made a huge blunder that led to her decisive counterattack.

She could feel an uncomfortable sensation in her mouth, as if a fishbone got stuck into her teeth while she was eating.

Diana replayed the part when Siwoo made that foolish blunder over and over again.

“Huh…?”

And the more she did it…

Something is strange…

I could almost smell it… There’s something weird in his move…

Back during the game, she was too occupied to think about anything else.

Her mind was too exhausted by the crazy dogfight Siwoo started and when he made that mistake, she was too happy to care.

But now the game was over.

She had composed herself considerably and she felt this sense of discomfort when looking at it.

Diana tried to collect her thoughts once again.

Question, why did he choose to continue the dogfight instead of holding his formation?

Answer, because he didn’t realize that he held the advantage there.

So far, that sounded to be a reasonable conjecture.

But…

Question, why did he try to start those obviously fruitless skirmishes and tried to occupy the runes I didn’t need?

Answer…why…? I don’t know….

Could it be…?

He might not be familiar with the basics of the Witch Board.

But, it was clear that he at least had a general understanding about magic.

After all, if he didn’t, Diana would have beaten him easily the moment he started the dogfight.

That made this particular move of his all the more weird.

It was too crude and thoughtless, unlike the previous moves he had been dishing up until that point.

“No way…”

At that moment, Diana’s face turned pale.

She tried to reject the notion in her heart, but her head rejected her rejection.

“He went easy on me…?”

Now that I think about it, he even made some more subtle mistakes… Was it because he tried to not get caught by me?

Diana resetted the Witch Board and started recounting again from the beginning.

This time, she started with a different goal than before.

She went in with the premise of ‘He went easy on me in this game’.

If he really did that, all the moves I thought were mistakes held completely different meanings…

So, she began to review all of those moves she deemed as his mistakes the first time she saw it.

The result was, at the end of the day, those moves were still clever ones.

On a scale of 1 to 10, they were solid 6-7s.

In other words, they really were moves that he made so that she wouldn’t notice him going easy on her.

There’s no way those were mistakes or blunders!

They’re way too elaborate!

She tried to deny that notion a couple more times, but…

Each time she did, reality only hit her harder.

Her bright smile was no longer plastered on her face.

The grapes in her hand were already crushed pitifully, their juices sipped from the gaps between her fingers.

“How dare he—!”

By this point, her conjecture had become a 99% certainty.

The moment his victory was pretty much decided, Siwoo stopped playing seriously.

Instead, he gave her a way to counterattack and let himself lose to her.

Diana, who wasn’t aware of this, ended up making a fool of herself, believing that her victory was legit and he was genuinely making such a blunder.

Not only that, she even acted all smug in front of him like a fool.

“Ow, my head…”

A wave of dizziness struck her.

The fact that he was going easy on her itched her pride, making her anger boil.

At the same time, she was also ashamed for acting all smug like a fool in front of him like that.

She also felt bewildered over the fact that she had lost against a newbie who had just played the game for three days.

All kinds of emotions swept over her like a storm.

If she were to put herself in his shoes, watching her opponent acting foolishly while bragging about the win she practically gifted them…

Oh, gosh…

What did I…

“I need to go back to that place and—!”

Thinking that she should go back and confirm her conjecture with him…

Diana jumped up from the sunbed.

But…

‘Hm? You won’t be coming back tomorrow?’

‘Why should I? I’ve already won. Sorry, but I don’t like bullying someone who’s clearly worse than me at the game. Anyway, that was quite fun. I’ll take my leave now.’

…She remembered this silly comment she made.

After saying something like that out loud, there was no way she could just go back and request for a rematch with him.

Thinking of the shameful thing that she had done, her face turned visibly red. Also…

If I were to come back there, ask for a rematch and get humiliated by him again…

She realized that she didn’t have the confidence that she’d be able to handle that degree of humiliation if that were to happen.

“Ugh…”

Diana came out of the pool, trying to calm her pounding heart.

At the same time, she tried to calm the anger in her heart.

The opponent she had been looking down upon was a strong one, that was for sure.

At least he was strong enough to beat her in a best of five.

She acknowledged her mistake for being too complacent all this time.

Diana changed her clothes.

Then, she locked herself in her room with a book in her hands.

All the laziness she had was gone.

One’s strength in Witch Board reflected one’s capabilities in magic.

That was why she decided to study hard in her magic, sacrificing her eight hours of precious time so that she could repay this humiliation she felt.

2.

Currently, Countess Deneb Gemini and Countess Lucy Yesod were having a tea party.

Hours had passed since they first started talking about their business deals and now they were relaxing while tidying up the documents they brought.

“These days, I’m so proud of Diana. Do you want to know what happened?”

“Oh my, please.”

With a bright smile, Countess Lucy took a spoon of her cabinet pudding that was topped with plenty of caramel syrup.

Meanwhile, Deneb just nodded at her while smiling, expecting her to brag about her daughter again.

“As you’ve already known, Countess Deneb, our Diana is smart and bright, but her personality is a little lacking.”

“I remember you talked about that before.”

“Lately, it came to my mind that it wouldn’t be good for her future if she were to keep this up, so I scolded her and kicked her out. I told her to go out after she ate her breakfast and only come back when it’s dinner time.”

“Mhm.”

“And it has been a week since then! She has been listening to my words for a whole week!”

Deneb blinked her eyes, a smile was hanging on her face.

She was waiting for Lucy’s next words, but…that was it, that was all she wanted to say…

Is this…even something worth bragging about…?

For Deneb, whose apprentice witches would run away from home the moment she turned her gaze towards the other side and she had to chase after them and drag her home, she couldn’t relate to Lucy’s sentiment at all.

She also didn’t know how to respond to her. For example, she could try to make a light joke or something, but seeing how happy Lucy was, she just couldn't bring herself to.”

“Oh my… That’s…amazing…”

“Right? Right??”

After that, Countess Lucy proceeded to speak about Diana nonstop to Deneb.

Then, as if something had just crossed her mind, she asked Deneb a question.

“Right, I forgot! There was something I wanted to ask you about, is that okay?”

“If I can answer it, of course.”

“Countess Gemini, you’re close to that male witch, right?”

“You mean Shin Siwoo? Yes, I am, he is our important guest and benefactor, after all.”

Not only did he save the twins' lives, the twins also loved to follow him around.

“Yes, him. He…isn’t a weird guy or anything, right…?”

“Is there something wrong with him?”

“These days… Diana has been visiting the host club to meet up with him. She said that they’re just playing Witch Board together, but I’m a little worried about it, you see…?”

“You don’t need to worry, he isn’t that kind of person. If anything, it’s rare to see such an upright man these days.”

“Is that so? But why would someone like him work at a host bar…?”

“As far as I know, the owner of the bar is his friend and he’s helping him out.”

This was another Lucy-esque worry, but this time Deneb could relate to it.

After all, there was a time when she was also worried over the fact that the twins were a little too attached to him.

Of course, nowadays she had trusted him enough to let the twins travel together with him.

“Is it possible that Ms. Diana is interested in Siwoo as a member of the opposite sex…?”

That was why she asked that question, to probe the relationship between him and Lucy’s apprentice.

Lucy’s answer couldn’t be more firm though.

“Of course not!”

She jumped off her seat and slammed the table.

“My dear daughter isn’t interested in that kind of thing! Since he’s a real male witch, she definitely just came to meet him to satisfy her curiosity!”

She has a point, that sounds like what her daughter would do.

As far as Deneb knew, Countess Lucy was the most conservative and stubborn witch out of all the most conservative witches she knew.

And Diana wasn’t much different.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s a former slave, so has a good understanding about how things work in Gehenna. Besides, he isn’t the kind of person who’d do something like that.”

“If you say so… Phew… In any case, I think I need to meet him in person soon.”

It was natural for a witch to treasure her apprentice so much, but even to Deneb, Lucy’s overprotective-ness was a little…excessive…

Deneb sipped her black tea, hiding her bitter smile.

“You’d be surprised to see him in person. He’s really attractive, you know?”

“Hmph, all men are the same in my eyes.”

3.

When the tear party—that lasted a little bit longer than expected—ended, the sky had already turned dark.

Countess Yesod walked through the corridors of the large bathhouse and went to Diana’s room.

Even though they didn’t have dinner together today, she still wanted to ask her daughter how her day was going.

“Sweetie~ What about taking a bath with mommy tonight~?”

She opened the door to her daughter’s room, smiling brightly at the thought of her seeing her lovely daughter.

But what she had seen behind the door made her frozen in place.

The sight before her eyes was so unbelievable that she was having a hard time believing it.

“A-Ah…”

It was the sight of Diana, sitting at her table, holding a pen made of a peacock’s feather.

She let out a groan before looking around the pile of magic books on the table.

The girl was so absorbed in her study that she didn’t even notice Lucy’s presence.

Seeing this, the Countess shut her mouth tightly.

She could feel the tip of her nose turning hot and there seemed to be something stuck in her throat.

The sight unfolding in front of her made her about to shed her tears.

Dear Lord…

My cute Diana is studying at this hour…?*

No matter how many times she rubbed her eyes, she still saw the same sight.

There was a frown on her daughter's face—as if she was in a rut—and her hair was messy since she had been using it as an outlet to release her frustration, but she was still studying hard.

Had there ever been a time when she put this much effort into studying?

Lucy’s heart raced at this new sight, the sight she’s seen for the very first time ever since she took this girl in as an apprentice.

She quietly closed the door and left, afraid of disturbing her dear daughter.

“Sniff… My Diana…! My dear daughter…! Sniff… You’ve finally grown up…!”

Seeing how much her daughter had grown in this short period of time, Lucy couldn’t help but shed her tears while pressing her hand on her mouth.

With that, the night turned into an emotional night for the Countess.