City of Witches

A night without fine dust.

Or ultra fine dust for that matter.

Such a night in Seoul was as rare as a wild ginseng and tonight happened to be that night, one without smog nor cloud, showcasing the full moonlit night.

After changing into his swimsuit, Siwoo came out while taking a sip on his alcohol, enjoying the night view.

Prior to that, he followed Periwinkle to a certain room.

When he saw a swimsuit lying on the bed, he was a little scared.

Fortunately for him, she didn’t offer to put his swimsuit on for him, nor did she ask for his help to put on her swimsuit.

In any case, Periwinkle seemed to be a thorough woman, a completely different type of person than him, who loved to push through without a clear plan.

Thinking back, he felt like he had been dragged around by a leash.

If he were to let his guard down, there was a good chance that she’d suck him dry and turn him into a dried fish.

“Did you wait for too long?”

The large glass door slipped open and Periwinkle walked in.

Seeing her, Siwoo’s eyes were wide open.

Clinging closely to her body was a white monokini with its top and bottom joined together by strings in the sides. An unconventional design for sure, but it looked terrifyingly good on her.

The top barely covered half of her chest, just the slightest movement could reveal her areolas. While the bottom part only consisted of a small amount of fabric, so small that if she didn’t adjust the line properly, her pubic hair, if there was any, would be exposed.

On her clearly exposed belly button, a sparkly-looking piercing could be seen, decorating it.

Despite her showing so much skin, her gait was filled with confidence.

The sight of her showing off her body with the urban lights as her background was like a model walking down the runway.

Of course her beauty surpassed that of a model, it wasn’t even a fair comparison to begin with.

“Oh, your body looks good. Someone’s been working out, I see.”

Periwinkle approached him, closing the distance between them without any hesitation whatsoever.

He didn’t know if it was because of the atmosphere she exuded or because of her body proportion, but from the distance, she seemed to be taller than him. She actually was a head shorter than him, though.

“It isn’t that worth mentioning. But, yeah, I’ve been working out these days, I guess.”

“Why are you so stiff? It isn’t like I’m a tax inspector or anything! C’mon, you’re supposed to entertain me! Now, one, two, three!”

“…”

“You’re still so stiff, jeez. I thought some alcohol would loosen you up a little.”

How to avoid his death…

He was thinking to bail out immediately after finding out about that, but that seemed impossible to achieve.

Besides, now that his hands and feet were pretty much tied, he couldn’t even run if he wanted to.

Acting as if she couldn’t wait anymore, Periwinkle giggled before walking toward the pool.

Then she called him, her tone carried a subtle rebuke.

“Do you prefer weed instead?”

“Sorry, I’m not that lively of a person.”

“Still, are you planning to just stand there? Do you want to be some kind of lighthouse or what?”

“I’ll go in.”

He followed behind Periwinkle and entered the waist-high pool.

At first he was worried that the water might be cold, especially considering the weather that had grown colder lately.

But that worry turned to naught as he felt the warmth of the water.

‘Maybe she pulled out hot spring water from somewhere and directed it all the way here with a pipe or something? Actually, that sounds like something she’d do…’ He thought, but he didn’t say it out loud.

In the end, he gave up thinking about it. How much money she wasted for the hot water was irrelevant to him anyway.

And so, the two of them entered the pool together.

When Periwinkle snapped her fingers, a soothing music, suitable for a romantic atmosphere, began to play.

“It feels nice doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it feels as good as it looks. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“No need to thank me, it’s my first time here too. It’s not bad.”

“You’re right.”

That brief, awkward conversation was followed by no less awkward silence.

Then again, he didn’t even know what people usually talk about when they went to a normal pool, let alone a luxurious one like this.

Or what they usually do in general.

Both of them didn’t bring swimming caps and goggles, so it wasn’t like they could just do 50 m freestyle competition.

As he stood around awkwardly like that, Periwinkle’s voice rang out in his ears.

Maybe it was just him, but her voice sounded rough and gritty, like sandpaper.

“Is that all?”

“Yes?”

“That’s all you can say? Really?”

“I don’t know what you’re expecting me to— Heup!”

Suddenly, she scooped up some water from the pool and poured it on Siwoo’s face.

“You’re so boring.”

Her cold voice pierced his ears.

Rather than anger, her tone filled with ridicule and scorn.

“Let’s see~ I gave you a ride, gave you some good alcohol to drink, brought you to a nice hotel, gave you a kiss when you hesitated and I even invited you to a nice swimming pool like this~ But, you’re still ignoring me like this! I thought I’d take you out to play since you look nice and all, but look at you, never even tried to take the initiative.”

“…Ugh…”

Her sharp nail poked on his chest.

She stopped being amicable and started whining.

Maybe her patience had run out because of Siwoo’s boring responses.

Or maybe her previous personality was just a facade to begin with.

“Sorry.”

Though he never did it again these days, forcing a smile in front of someone who was angry at him was one of his specialties.

That was the skill he acquired from living his life as a slave for five years.

He turned to face Periwinkle, wearing a smile that seemed like it was printed out of cardboard.

His goal was to confirm whether she was telling him the truth or not, and to stay out of trouble. So, even though he hated doing this, it wasn’t like he had much of a choice.

“Just sorry?”

At the same time as the word ‘sorry’ came out of her mouth, her nail dug in deeper into his chest.

It would be a lie if he were to say that it didn’t hurt him.

“…I’ll do better.”

“If I knew you’re this boring, I’d just let you die back then. You’re making me regret wasting my magic to keep you alive.”

“…”

“Huh, that wasn’t enough to rile you up? Okay, let’s change the subject then. Forget about repaying me for saving your life that one time. Let’s talk about my divination. If you want me to help you, then entertain me.”

“How?”

Still, it wasn’t like she was a bad witch.

He was just too careless.

All this time, he had been surrounded by especially kind and gentle witches.

He forgot that your average witches acted just like her.

Siwoo let out a sigh inwardly while letting out an awkward smile outwardly.

“I’ll just be direct. Since you aren’t good at leading a conversation or lightening up the mood, it would be better if you were to entertain me in other ways, is that fine with you?”

“Yes.”

The previously warm water had turned cold.

Periwinkle let out a seductive smile as she drew in closer to him.

“Have you ever done ‘it’ with a witch?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, you live with Evergreen, don’t you? From how intense her glare was back when we first met, you definitely know what I was talking about.”

When she suddenly brought up his private life, he forgot to control his facial expression for a moment there and let out a frown.

He didn’t know if she was just trying to get a reaction out of him, but he took a mental note that if she were to degrade Sharon in any ways, he’d definitely make her pay in the future.

“…”

“Was that a difficult question to answer? Or maybe the alcohol wasn’t enough to make you talk? Ah, could it be that you think that you’ll be cheating on her if you were to answer that question?”

She kept on hounding him, giving him more and more pressure.

He had heard of a shitty method during a job interview called the pressure interview and he felt like he was going through exactly that at the moment.

“How good exactly did you make her? She was sooo protective of you, you know? I heard that she was practically living on prayers at one point, but it seemed like she was living THE life, huh?”

“Ms. Periwinkle, if you dislike something about me, please tell me, I’ll try to fix it.”

Siwoo bowed his head politely, but his tone was firm.

Though his social position and magic skills were beneath her, the gap wasn’t as big as when he was a slave.

As a witch, she was a citizen of Gehenna.

If she were to touch him, she’d risk offending not only Duchess Tiphereth but Countess Gemini as well, so there was no way she’d do something so reckless.

His last words were basically him trying to warn her ‘Do it in moderation’.

Regardless of her attitude, she was still his savior and he did promise to do her a favor.

He could only grumble and complain like this because he was alive.

That was why he had been enduring this whole thing, bowing his head while humbling himself.

At that moment, a certain person came to his mind.

Since what was going on currently was similar to what happened back then, a bitter feeling ended up appearing in his heart.

He found it amusing that the thought even came to his mind in the first place, though.

After he left her with a single letter, he thought that she’d contact him first.

Maybe I should visit her after I visit the twins in Gehenna.

I mean, while that stupid farce between us is finished and she might have decided to let me go completely, I still need to meet her at least once.

But, she never asked to meet me even once, that’s the problem.

Perhaps it was some kind of psychological escapism.

All sorts of thoughts came to his mind.

But, that didn’t last long as he was dragged back to the unpleasant reality.

Thanks to that brief tangent, the anger that was boiling inside him had calmed down for a bit.

“…”

“…”

He wondered what kind of gaze she sent beneath his bowing head.

Even though he was anxious, he quietly waited for her reaction.

“Pfft… Ahahaha!”

Suddenly, laughter began to pour out.

She held him on his shoulders while laughing, helping him to stand up.

“Why are you so serious? I was just trying to probe what kind of person you are. Can’t really trust all those goody two shoes, you know? Did I make you mad?”

Siwoo looked at her warily, wondering if she was trying to deceive him.

She was like a coin.

It was impossible to gauge her reaction, just like when one threw a coin, one wouldn’t know if it would land on head or tail, he also didn’t know what kind of reaction she’d let out if he were to do this and that.

“So, did I make you mad? Don’t worry, you can be honest, I won’t be mad at you.”

“A little, yes.”

He answered in a sour voice.

At this point, his impression of her, ‘a free spirited person, but not a bad one’ had gone. But that didn’t matter, since he owed her his life anyway.

“Still, it’s nice to see that you have pride. I thought you were a pathetic guy who lives under the control of a witch just because she got a rein on your lower body or something. If that’s the case, I’d be disappointed for real.”

There was one thing that he wanted to say to her though.

“I don’t mind you mocking me or whatever, but please keep Sharon out of this. If you want me to do something for you, please tell me so I can fulfill your wish.”

“Are you saying that because she is your woman?”

Periwinkle, who shook her head helplessly, or maybe pretended to shake her head helplessly, left the pool and went back inside.

In his heart, he kept on repeating words such as ‘There’s a fifty-fifty chance that I’ll die,’ and ‘One wrong move, I’ll die for real’ to keep his wits together.

Anyway, is she treating me like this because I didn’t contact her after she gave me her business card? Or maybe I said something wrong during our conversation.

While thinking as such, Siwoo followed Periwinkle to the bedroom.