City of Witches

༺ The City Life (2) ༻

1.

Summer in Gehenna was close to that of the Mediterranean countries.

Of course, not every place in Gehenna was like that, it was composed of different kinds of regions from various parts of the world, after all, but it was especially the case for the Lonomond Town, the place Siwoo used to live in.

In other words, after a summer filled with plenty of sunshine, there would be a period of hot and dry weather, better known as the ‘dry season.’

And that fact made Siwoo forget about a certain thing in particular.

How miserable summer in Korea was. Not only did he have to suffer through the excruciating heat, he also had to go through the suffocatingly high humidity.

“Afri-cola, please.”

“That’ll be 4500 won.”

Just like any other day, Siwoo bought his cigarettes and smoked in the dimly lit alleyway in front of the convenience store.

The heat rising from the asphalt beneath his feet made him feel like his spine was being burned. It was as if he was directly absorbing all the sun’s heat.

It even made the heat coming from the cigarette butt he was holding unbearable.

“So hot.”

‘Fuck, it’s so hot.’

‘It’s way too hot.’

‘Since my spiritual body can keep me from having to shit and piss, why can’t it keep me from sweating as well?’

While muttering his discontent under his breath, he flicked the cigarette butt into its case and trudged his way back to his home, a place blessed by the grace of AC.

“Phew…”

The sudden drop in temperature instantly relieved him of the stifling heat, sending him shivers down his spine.

But even the scientific blessing that could spare him from the torture of the summer nights couldn’t solve all his problems.

It had been about three months since he returned to Korea.

During this time, while he diligently completing the tasks he had previously left undone, he had immersed himself in magic research without slacking even a little.

At first, he found everything incredibly fun.

Sorting his self-essence magic, which had grown by leaps and bounds when he was unconscious, turning the parts he only knew by intuition into magic circles and so on. Those series of tasks filled him with a deep sense of accomplishment.

Not to mention that he could practice using magic while he was at it.

But lately, in the past month or so…

Things didn’t feel so pleasant anymore.

In Gehenna, there was the Trinity Academy, the treasure trove of magic knowledge.

Just stepping into the library allowed him to read countless books that could fill him with both inspiration and magical knowledge.

Whenever he faced a challenge or he was having a doubt about something, he could always turn to either Amelia or the twins for help.

But, he was in the modern world right now.

Magical books were just either something related to occultism nonsense or something fictional. There was also no one that was capable of offering him the guidance that he sought.

He understood that advancement in any field required a solid foundation of knowledge.

Even though he was building his own unique magical system, he still couldn’t create something out of thin air.

Without the required knowledge, he’d only end up circling around useless matters instead of making an advancement.

Ironically, it was through his extraordinary intuition in magic that made him realize he couldn’t tackle this problem by himself.

In any case, after he managed to identify that problem, he stopped all of his magic research.

Instead, he began to indulge himself in more frivolous activities, wasting both his time and money.

Inside that dimly lit room, he took out a can of beer while laying down on the couch. He planned to continue watching the movie he had started earlier.

The living room was a mess. It was filled with all sorts of junk from all of his online shopping.

“…”

While he was immersing himself in the movie.

He began pondering on how to overcome the current situation he found himself in.

While taking a brief break from his research to look for inspiration was a good idea…

He doubted that he could come up with something by doing this.

There were a total of twenty five formulas and arrangements that he couldn’t understand.

‘Can I even continue my research without knowing about those formulas?’

Siwoo kept on pondering, but in the end, all his thinking only further convinced him that his situation was hopeless. Realizing this, he let out a deep sigh.

2.

His fate had been severed.

Which meant, he had become a ghost.

An existence that didn’t belong in this world.

The more time went by, the more he felt the truth in those sentences.

Luckily for him, the phone that was registered under a fake name was still functional.

However, the points he had accumulated on the delivery apps he used vanished in a mere week.

He thought he could cool off his head by playing a game, so he ordered a computer to try out the newly released games. Nothing happened when he played the offline games, but when it came to online games, all of his accounts just disappeared shortly after he started playing.

This phenomenon created a void in his heart that he was unable to ignore. There was a lingering sense of emptiness that he could feel clearly.

There was no one he could talk to.

He couldn’t build a deep relationship with anyone.

After all, no matter how many good memories he made with someone, they’d all vanish within a week. At that point, there was no reason for him to even try.

In theory, he could try to become an Exile. In the best case scenario, he could create a genuine relationship with those bunch.

But, there was no guarantee that they would be friendly towards him.

“Hilarious.”

‘No matter how much I try to justify living like this as the price for being alive, it’s still too much of a burden to bear…’

He let out a bitter smile before turning up the volume of the speaker.

The loud punk rock song somehow eased the silence inside the house a little.

“Even ordering food is starting to get tiresome…”

At first, he was practically like a possessed person; grabbing and eating whatever food he could find. But eventually, he felt like every food tasted the same.

Lately, his meal time decreased from five to three times a day. Not only that, he also only ordered his food from a handful selection of restaurants.

Despite all that, he managed to learn one truth.

No matter how frequent he ate them, Korean beef, tuna and crabs tasted great.

While he was vibing to the loud beats, enjoying the modern lifestyle, a distinct sound pierced through his ears.

-Bang bang bang!

‘…Hey! …can…open—!’

That prompted him to turn off his speaker.

As the deafening noise started to disappear, that distinct voice became clearer.

It was the voice of a woman, accompanied by the banging sound on his door.

Perhaps because she thought that he couldn’t hear her, she increased the volume of her banging and her voice.

-Bang bang bang!

“Hello? Please open the door!”

‘What’s going on? Could it be that she heard all the noise?’

The music box Siwoo possessed had an ability to conceal the presence of mana whenever he casted his spell.

That same music box had another ability; to mask his presence from his surroundings.

“Ah.”

At that moment, he realized.

One of the levers of the music box, the one that needed to be wound once a day, was unmoving.

He never really paid attention to it unless he was going outside or was about to cast his spells since most of the time, his brand would suppress and conceal his own mana.

And because of that, he became careless. He forgot to wind it again, causing noises from inside his room to be leaked outside.

Still, he didn’t let down his guard.

“Bloom.”

He created particles made of dark shadows.

Then, he refined them to make a long spear.

There was no guarantee that this unexpected visitor was one of his neighbors.

He simply didn’t have enough information to make sure that the woman outside his door wasn’t an Exile.

After knowing Yebin, he knew that not all of the Exiles were evil.

It turned out that the ‘Banishment’ that those Exiles subjected to would be extended to their successors as well, even if they had never done anything wrong. He was aware that a lot of such witches were living out there.

“I still gotta be careful.”

Siwoo cautiously opened the door.

As soon as he did that, the woman who had been knocking on it with frustration began pouring out her complaints like a machine gun.

“Hey, do you know what time is it? I’m already dying trying to pull an all-nighter for my exam, but thanks to you, I can’t—”

Her hair was styled in a bob. The attire she wore suggested that she had just put on whatever she could grab and rushed here.

When she saw Siwoo’s face, the woman, who had her brows furrowed in anger, stopped her rant mid-sentence.

Fortunately for Siwoo, this house hadn’t been discovered by the Exiles.

This was a little impolite, but Siwoo knew that witches inherently possessed exceptional beauty.

Even Ea, the wicked witch, had an unworldly beauty that Siwoo couldn’t even deny even if he wanted to.

While the woman standing in front of him was quite pretty, she wasn’t as pretty as a witch.

He spent a considerable amount of time living among the witches.

It wasn’t hard for him to tell if the other person was a witch or not.

Realizing that he was safe, he let out a sigh of relief and dispersed the spear of shadow.

“Sorry, I didn’t know the noise would leak outside. I’ll be more careful from now on.”

The woman, who had been staring intently at his face, blinked her eyes a few times before opening her mouth.

“I-I see… Please be careful from now on, then…”

“Okay.”

That should be the end of the conversation, so it should be okay for him to go back inside. But, he couldn’t bring himself to close the door while the woman was still standing there.

“By the way, can I ask, when did you move in?”

‘Huh? So suddenly?’

Her question puzzled him, but he still gave her an answer.

“It’s been three months, I think.”

“I see! I had no idea! Strange, huh? Anyway, I live next door, apartment number four. On the same floor!”

After muttering to herself in a soft voice, the woman suddenly revealed her address.

Not sure what she was getting at, Siwoo once again got caught off guard when she threw another random question at him.

“Is that like an accessory or something? It looks cool!”

“This? Ah, yes, it is.”

She asked, while pointing at Siwoo’s eyepatch.

Thanks to the cool eyepatch, she was distracted from asking about her previous concern any further.

The eyepatch he was wearing was a classic black eyepatch made of luxurious weather. It wasn’t some cheap junk one could get from a hospital for an eye disease. Naturally, the expensive looking eyepatch would gather a lot of attention.

“Anyway, thanks for keeping the noise down…”

“Oh no, you don’t need to. Rather, I should apologize since this all happened because of my carelessness.”

Just as he was about to finally close the door, the woman hurriedly raised another question.

“Do you happen to go to the university nearby?”

“No, I’m unemployed.”

“Ah, I see… Well, next time we meet in the elevator, let’s greet each other often, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, then… Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

When she first came to his doorstep, she looked so angry to the point that he wouldn’t be surprised if she were to rip his door out of its hinges. But when she was about to leave, she somehow turned docile. She even bid him goodbye politely like a cute little lamb.

“What was that?”

‘And I thought I’ve seen all sorts of strange women.’

He closed the door, turned on the music box and cranked his speaker volume up again.

All while pondering over the previous encounter.

‘Greeting each other if we happen to meet in the elevator, huh…?’

‘Well, it’s not like she’ll remember about this encounter.’

“Anyway, I wonder what the twins are up to.”

Before he realized it, his mind wandered to the people closest to him, the Gemini Household’s apprentice witches, Odile and Odette.

The witches from Gehenna rarely sent their apprentice witches to the mortal realm. Siwoo reckoned that they were probably studying hard so that they could come and visit him as soon as possible.

Assuming that it wouldn’t happen for at least five more years, it meant he had to continue living like this for around that long.

“Hmm… I should probably go on a trip somewhere…”

He remembered that alongside the counterfeit passports Albireo gave him, there was a business card tucked in.

She said that it was a way for him to contact the VIP service of the airline that the Geminis owned.

Apparently, he could rent a private plane if he were to contact that number. Not only that, they’ll also make a reservation at a hotel for him.

He was basically living a life of luxury and indulgence with someone else’s money.

Back when he was still a slave, this was the kind of luxurious life he couldn’t dare to dream of. Yet, he still felt uncertain about this whole matter.

‘You know, maybe I should go on a world tour? That doesn’t sound too bad.’

He muttered under his breath as he looked down at the card.

“Anyway, how rich are those guys exactly?”

From an airline to a whole credit card company.

Siwoo had only enjoyed the benefits that those two companies provided, but it seemed like the Geminis owned more companies than those two.

When he looked up the related parent company, he found out that they also involved themselves in other profitable industries such as steel, petroleum, insurance, finance and a bunch of other things.

They even branched into aerospace, automaton and chemicals.

When he found out that their net worth was as high as 505 trillion won, ranked 12th in the whole world, his jaw fell into the floor.

He thought that their wealth was only limited to Gehenna, but it turned out that they were also extremely wealthy in the modern world as well.

While he was aware that they shouldn’t be the only one owning that massive company, this discovery still shocked him.

“Anyway…”

In any case, he no longer had to struggle.

No matter how hard he tried to study math (which for some reason, didn’t seem to work out), he wouldn’t get any recognition. Working was also pointless because his money wasn’t lacking.

While he could try to continue his magic research, he knew more than anyone that it wouldn’t get anywhere.

He felt like he was just sucking honey out of the Geminis’ nipples without exerting any effort.

‘Well, it isn’t like I don’t like this kind of life, but it’s just… How do I say it…?’

‘…Boring, I guess?’

“You know what, I should eat and cool my head down.”

He shook his head.

‘Eating something tasty might help ease my worries.’

That day, he went to a nearby restaurant and ordered a whole live fish to turn into sashimi.