City of Witches

“Hey! I don’t know where the hell did you come from, but that thing is mine!”

Siwoo was standing in confusion watching the dying Homunculus he barely even touched when a high-pitched, annoyed-sounding voice came from behind his back.

He turned around to see the owner of the voice.

The place was still enclosed by the Interdimensional Barrier.

Since that was the case, it was safe to assume that the voice belonged to a witch.

When he turned his head, he saw a woman standing there, dressed exactly like he had imagined.

On the rooftop, fences were installed on its edges to prevent people from attempting to off themselves. The aforementioned woman was standing on that very fence, carefully balancing herself so that she wouldn’t fall to the beautiful city behind her.

Seeing raindrops falling on her pointed hat, coupled with how she dressed exactly like how a witch in Europe would dress, made the spectacle look quite impressive.

At the end of her wand, decorated with flowers, there was a shining green sapphire glowing with mana.

She also draped a robe over her shoulders and wore a black skirt that covered some parts of her thighs.

Overall, the outfit she wore wouldn’t look out of place in Gehenna, except for her boots, those pairs were different from what Siwoo used to see.

Either it was because she wanted a better mobility or she wanted to add a touch of style to her outfit, she wore knee-high boots instead of heels.

It felt slightly out of place, but it suited her quite well as it gave her an air of confidence.

But still, encountering a witch on top of a building near Sinchon Station…

If this was Gehenna, seeing someone dressed like this wouldn’t be a big deal, but here, it felt like he was stumbling at a cosplay photoshoot or something similar to that.

Then again, he didn’t really have any right to say anything about that, considering he was still dressed in full-body armor…

“Whoops!”

Suddenly, the witch jumped off the fence and stepped in a puddle. At that moment, she furrowed her brows.

It seemed like some water had gotten into her boots.

“Can’t you see the scar on its side? Do you think it came out of nowhere? Now, will you kindly fuck off or stay here and fight me?”

The witch, with a voice filled with hostility, pointed her wand at Siwoo and sneered.

He had been unable to see her face clearly due to the shadow cast by her hat, but when he was able to, he was taken by surprise.

For some reason, she looked strangely familiar to him.

Her hair was a mix of deep green and teal.

Just by seeing that, he could already make a guess who she actually was.

The beautiful part-timers who worked at the cash register at the convenience store on the first floor of the officetel he lived in.

‘It really is a small world.’

Thinking back on how carefree he was when he was in her presence, he couldn’t help but feel a little scared.

But, who could blame him? No one would expect this kind of development.

Who would have thought that a witch would work as a part-timer in a random ass convenience store?

If she were the owner of the store, now that would make a lot more sense.

“What? Move out of the way!”

The witch waved her wand at him, who was still frozen in shock, as if she was shooing away a pesky bug.

So, he quickly took a step back.

But, he was still holding on to his weapons.

After all, this was the first time he met a witch in the modern world.

He had heard more than enough times about how bad it would be if a witch found out that a ‘male’ like him was able to wield magic.

She could suddenly attack him without warning, claiming that she was doing it for the sake of research.

“Please… Something good, please…”

But, contrary to his expectations, the witch was acting rather oddly. She walked right past him and squatted down as if she was a punk from the neighborhood, which was a little inappropriate considering the dress she wore. Then, she delivered the last blow to the Homunculus and dug through its body.

‘Huh?’

‘Wait… Her reaction is… Normal… Kind of?’

Even the twins and Sophia were surprised when they saw him using his magic for the first time.

But, this witch didn’t seem to care about these things.

‘Oh, wait…’

Siwoo touched the helmet that covered his face up to his nose.

Up until now, he hadn’t said a word and his body was completely covered in armor, so she couldn’t tell his gender by looking at it.

His face was also partially hidden by his helmet.

Maybe, the witch in front of him thought that he was just another witch hunting for Homunculus.

That should be a reasonable guess, if he were to follow common sense.

She probably thought that he was just a witch that was taller than average. The chances of her guessing that he was actually a man who was working his rank through the hierarchy while going around to hunt Homunculi was slim.

“Haah… Another dud… What should I do now…?”

Staring at the witch, who sighed like a man at a racetrack after losing his last bet, he pondered.

Maybe, if he were to keep his helmet on and sneakily walk away, he could hide his true identity from her.

He didn’t want to start an unnecessary conflict, after all.

“Hey.”

“…”

So, he tried to tiptoe out of the rooftop, only for the witch to call out to him.

For a while there, he was unsure how he should react.

He had come a long way, reaching a level that was unimaginable back when he was a lowly slave who could barely even use any spells.

Now, if he were a character out of a shounen manga, he might have thought something along the lines of, ‘I want to see how much stronger I’ve become!’ But Siwoo clearly wasn’t that kind of person.

Instead, he was actually unhappy with this development. It was far too early for him to be meeting any witches.

Unsure on what he should say to her, he let out a sigh and lowered his head, watching as the witch came closer to him.

In contrast, the witch strode through the puddles with confidence and approached him.

“Oh, you don’t need to be scared. I’m not here to fight you, you see? I’m not like the rest of them.”

She tapped his shoulder in a friendly manner, leaving him with mixed feelings.

Although he knew that not all Exiles were wicked, thanks to Yebin, he wasn’t naive enough to trust anyone just by hearing them utter a few words.

The witch was all friendly to him, but that was only because she thought he was a proper witch. Now, if she discovered that he was a… Rare species, who knew how she would react.

“…”

“Judging from your appearance, you aren’t from around here… And… You probably were exiled here not too long ago, am I correct?”

“…”

‘Not good.’

Things would turn badly for him if this continued any longer.

The funny thing here was that, when he saw her at the convenience store, she always looked tired and gave off the impression that she didn’t want to talk with anyone.

Now, she was the one who acted all friendly, despite Siwoo clearly trying to show that he didn’t want to talk with her.

‘Why is she even trying to get along with a stranger without a care in the world?’

Seeing how carefree she acted, it seemed like she had a lot of confidence in her abilities.

“You’re trying to catch a Homunculus and hand it over to collect a bounty at the Witch Point, right?”

“…”

‘Witch point? Bounty? What is she on about?’

The witch happily rambled on about things he had never heard before.

Amidst the fierce downpour, a fragrant scent wafted through the air.

It was the exact same scent that she smelled whenever he paid the bill at the convenience store, which further convinced him that she really was the part-timers he often encountered there.

“Sorry, but this area, including Sinchon and Hongdae, is my territory. I don’t welcome other people here. Since you seem unaware about this, I’ll let you slide this time. But, there’s no next time. The moment I see you again, I’ll immediately deal with you by force.”

“…”

Hearing her words, Siwoo nodded.

At this point, he regretted his previous decisions.

‘I should have jun run away the first time I see her.’

“Don’t worry, I understand how it feels. When I first got here, it was tough on me too. I have no status, no money, no information… Compared to Gehenna, life was way more miserable here.”

“…”

“By the way, I can tell you ways to make money quickly. I mean, you’ll need them if you’re planning to settle down here, no?”

To make things worse, she started talking about money right from the start.

This further convinced him that he should avoid her at all costs.

“So, there’s this thing called blockchain— huh?”

The witch, who had been talking all this time, suddenly stopped in her tracks.

In front of Siwoo’s partially covered eyes, he saw a pair of trembling mint-colored eyes.

This was the first time he had ever seen that kind of eye color.

“Aren’t you the guy who comes to buy cigarettes every day? But this… is magic, no? What? But, you’re a male…?”

The confused witch took a step back and Siwoo did the exact same thing as her.

His main main priorities were ensuring his safety through conversation, finding a way to escape and getting ready to fight if needed.

To achieve all that, first he took off his shadow gauntlet to show off the ring that was given to him by Countess Gemini.

Given by Albireo, the ring ensured his status as a guest of the Gemini Household.

“I come from the Gemini—”

“W-Wait!”

And the following development went as he had anticipated.

The moment she saw the ring, her face turned pale.

“I-I can get the money soon… I-I wasn’t trying to deceive you! I-If you can just wait for one… N-No, two weeks—!”

Her confidence from moments ago vanished, and she became flustered and desperate.

‘What’s going on?’

He looked at the witch with a bewildered expression.

For some reason, the witch, who had appeared elegant until now, looked rather pitiful.

2.

“So you didn’t come here to collect money. I really thought that you were another servant sent by the Countess to do just that…”

“Ah no, that isn’t the case.”

“Phew… I was so scared…”

The witch introduced herself as Sharon Evergreen.

She had changed from her wet witch dress to a casual outfit of jeans and short-sleeved shirt. They were having a quick chat at the last train stop.

To summarize, Sharon wasn’t a ‘Dangerous Exile’ like Siwoo had initially thought.

In fact, she was a witch Siwoo had heard of before.

There was an incident called the ‘Sprout Rebellion’ back in Gehenna, a major incident that transformed Cloud Mushroom Village, a village in Border Town, into an oak tree forest.

It was caused by an experiment going out of control, causing acorns lying on the ground to grow rapidly, leading to the destruction of nearby workshops and homes.

When he first heard about that incident, he even thought, ‘Such a clumsy witch like that exists…?’

Even so, he never could have imagined that he’d actually meet with the person responsible for the incident.

“So, you’re trying to get your citizenship back by paying off your debt?”

And this was why he concluded that Sharon wasn’t a dangerous witch.

To the witches in Gehenna, citizenship was pretty much their IDs.

Those witches wouldn’t overstep certain limits to avoid getting exiled from the city. Since Sharon was working to get hers back, Siwoo was certain that this was the case with her as well.

Not to mention that he had another layer of security, the Countess Gemini, whose influence extended to the Tree of Sephiroth itself.

“Yes…”

There was also the fact that the reason for her exile wasn’t because she was doing forbidden magical experiments or killing civilians.

“How much are we talking about?”

“…In Korean won, it should be around… 58 billion 88.42 million won…”

‘The fuck? That many?!’

“Wait, are you telling me destroying a few houses got you that much debt?”

It would be one thing if it was Tarot Town, but the incident happened in Border Town, where the value of the properties weren’t particularly high.

‘Yes, she destroyed an entire block, but there’s no way it cost that much.’

‘Maybe she got scammed?’

“Most of it came from the witches suing me for destroying their research materials… You know what? Let’s just stop talking about this… It’s just making me depressed…”

Her shoulders slumped as she spoke, as if she was shouldering the weight of the world.

At this point, the heavy rain that had covered the night sky had finally stopped.

In front of them, the night sky glistened with pure clarity.