Chapter 1238 – #289_Continuing Story (5)
#1232
1.
After witnessing countless of Shin Siwoo’s daughter-in-law hopefuls trying to split off, Albireo ultimately failed to meet Siwoo.
She heard that he was spending time with the baby in the cabin.
It wouldn’t do to get angry in front of a baby, and tea time was a serious matter, so she chose to return to the mansion for now.
“My stomach hurts…”
At this rate, she might be the first witch to develop a stomach perforation due to stress-induced gastritis.
Therefore, she sipped on warm, double-boiled milk instead of black tea. Just in case, she decided to cut back on wine for a while too.
She was the mistress of the prestigious Geminai family and a star of the Gehenna social scene. What that meant was that if she wanted to know about internal Gehenna information, she could gather most of it in about 30 minutes.
Recalling a conversation she had overheard while walking through the hallway, Geminai had gathered a lot of information about the ‘box’.
‘Box liberation’ was one of the good deeds that Shin Siwoo had recently done.
The Witch of Proverbs, as befitting her heinous public image, had ground up witches whole to make ceremonial attire. Shin Siwoo, instead of monopolizing or being greedy for the attire, had given the witches trapped inside new bodies and freedom.
Not only that, but he had also provided them with lodging and jobs, which was heartwarming in many ways, and it was a frequently circulated story that made people feel proud of Gehenna, saying, ‘Wow, this is what a fair and just Gehenna Duke is like.’
It was like giving up the legacy of a feat comparable to Orselia’s. If anyone else had done that, Albireo would have given them endless praise.
“Suspicious, suspicious.”
But the person involved was Shin Siwoo. Like a radioactive substance that had exceeded its critical mass, he was a bewitching son-in-law who had escaped control and was corrupting the witches.
“I need to see it with my own eyes.”
She thought that there must be a backstory to this incident as well.
2.
Although they had regained their freedom, the witches who came from the box did not venture beyond the villa that Siwoo had provided.
No, if they had escaped that cramped place and found freedom, shouldn’t they go to some resort or something? Why were they holed up in the villa, looking so miserable?
There was a heartbreaking story behind it.
They had spent years, some as short as a few years, others as long as hundreds of years, isolated from reality.
During that time, their only social interaction was mental communication with the victims of this mansion, who were all connected as one.
Except for the naturally lively and optimistic red-haired Oksana, they all felt a subtle aversion to going outside. They felt uneasy when they went out into open spaces, and they were overcome with tiring tension when they talked to people who weren’t their boxmates.
They had become reclusive hermits semi-voluntarily.
Anyway, in a sense, the 56 witches, who knew each other better than sisters, gathered in the hall with a common purpose. They were there to discuss one issue together.
Luna, who was in charge of the meeting, banged on a chalkboard she had found somewhere to draw attention.
“Everyone, pay attention! You all know today’s agenda, right?”
The other 55 witches nodded in unison. They were all unique beauties, but they nodded at the same time as if they had rehearsed it.
The Witch of Souls had said that the longer they spent time outside, the better they would gradually become, but this was also a side effect of spending a long time in the box.
“Let’s be honest with each other, okay? I’m interested in Shin Siwoo. I feel a little flutter in my heart. Raise your hand.”
Among the witches who were looking at each other, hands slowly went up.
The number was 55, including Luna. Only one person, Margarita, was uninterested, twirling her hair and looking away.
“Then, Margarita, would you mind leaving?”
“What? Why?”
“We’re here to talk about Shin Siwoo today anyway. If you’re not interested, it’s a waste of time.”
“Ah… no? It’s not a waste of time? I enjoy listening to your pathetic worries?”
“Okay, okay, then stay.”
Everyone knew her tendency to be contrary, so they chuckled lightly. Margarita stubbornly denied it, but she succeeded in staying put.
“Actually, you know this is abnormal, right?”
“Yeah. We just slept with him once, right? Even if it felt good, it wasn’t voluntary. What did the Witch of Souls say?”
Even though emotions moved separately from reason, this was not something that could be easily explained.
Of course, it was true that they felt overwhelming gratitude towards him. It was also true that he was damn handsome and good in bed, so their hearts were drawn to him.
But for all those feelings to be connected to something like romantic love, there was something wrong.
“She said there was no magical influence left on our spirits. They were cleanly and neatly separated, and there was no trace of other people’s desires or consciousness flowing back.”
“Then why are we like this?”
“Instead, I heard a hypothesis…”
Luna shared the hypothesis she had heard from the Witch of Souls about this phenomenon.
Unless they were extreme narcissists, there had to be another person for them to love. That was why they had been completely cut off from emotions like love, affection, and longing while in the box.
Shin Siwoo was the first ‘outsider’ to appear in front of them, who had been imprisoned as one for a long time.
It was like when you look at light after being in pitch darkness, a very long afterimage remains. The goodwill, curiosity, and attraction they had felt towards him were still working even after they had returned to reality.
“And the decisive catalyst was… sexual intercourse with him.”
Moreover, history proves that the power of post-coital affection is terrifying.
Why else would the ‘honey trap’ be one of the espionage techniques favored by various national counterintelligence agencies? Moreover, the witches who were part of Orselia’s carefully selected Royal Noble Collection were all chaste nobles or royals.
They were bodies that didn’t know men, like orthodox witches, and for them, Shin Siwoo was too strong of a stimulus.
“Ahem… it was unavoidable.”
“Ahem…”
Everyone coughed and blushed.
It wasn’t just Amira and Margarita who were thinking of him and pleasuring themselves. If you suddenly opened all the doors in the mansion, one of them would be reminiscing about that day and having a happy time.
“So what are we supposed to do?”
“She said to accept it naturally. To face our feelings by frequently contacting and meeting Shin Siwoo. If the problem is the afterimage imprinted on our eyes from seeing something too bright, then we should intentionally look at the light to wait for light adaptation. If we do that, the emotions and consciousness that were focused only on him will naturally return.”
“I knew it. So it’s just a delusion, right? Then shall we go meet Shin Siwoo right now?”
Margarita’s expression was unusually bright at the surprisingly clear answer.
She took out a hand mirror and diligently fixed her makeup, excitedly deciding what dress to wear and that she should wear something a little daring for her underwear.
Margarita wasn’t the only one.
Like people who had been given a plausible reason to act openly, they were all suppressing the corners of their mouths that were trying to curl up.
Then someone threw cold water on them.
“But how do we go find him? He’s always outside.”
The floral scent that had been fluttering in their flower-filled minds disappeared, and only heavy silence lingered.
You might think, ‘Can’t we just go find him?’ but…
It wasn’t easy. That was everyone’s conclusion.
They were witches who had been perfected in the most hikikomori-like form.
“How about we call him here instead?”
“He’s the busy Duke of Gehenna. He seems really busy these days, so it’s not right to ask our benefactor to come here…”
“Hehe, I knew you’d say that, so I prepared something.”
Oksana stepped forward.
She was the only one among the mansion’s residents who was free to go outside. Moreover, she was a genius in interpersonal relationships who could have small talk for more than 5 minutes.
Oksana, who had made full use of her abilities, willingly shared the information she had painstakingly gathered with her sisters.
“Know your enemy and know yourself, and you can succeed in your conquest! I’ve gathered all the information about him. It was really hard, you know? Let’s start with analyzing our target. We can do this inside the house.”
“Ooh! As expected of Oksana! I knew I could count on you!”
Various things were quickly written on the chalkboard.
“First of all, Shin Siwoo is said to be a terrifying womanizer.”
“Ooh, that means there’s hope for all of us, right?”
“Certainly… that technique couldn’t have come without a lot of experience.”
“I heard that one of his lovers is an apprentice witch who hasn’t inherited her powers yet?”
“Well, if you see a man that reliable, even an apprentice witch would fall for him.”
“Even if I were her teacher, I would have allowed them to date.”
“And he even has a child!”
“Ah! So that’s why he had that gentle kindness unique to married men!”
“Could I have his child too?”
It was a bizarre sight.
The witches didn’t frown at the points that should have been criticized, but instead only gave positive reviews. What was even more frightening was that they weren’t even aware of it.
This was known in professional terms as the halo effect, or in more professional terms, as being blinded by love.
Anyway, based on this information, they had a heated discussion about how to seduce him, how to have a natural meeting, and how to maintain a good relationship with his main partners.
Therefore, they didn’t notice the shadow that was moving away…
The owner of that shadow was Albireo, who was eavesdropping on the mansion from afar using magic that read sound waves.
She walked with heavy steps, as if she had lost all her fortune overnight, and tried to hold on to her fading mind. She went into any pub in the Malcuth Gallery of Lenomond Town and drank wine straight from the bottle.
“Hic…”
She didn’t care about gastritis anymore. How was she supposed to accept the fact that her son-in-law had come back from the war after having sex with 56 witches while sober?
It wasn’t that Shin Siwoo had expressed his personal desires, but as a result, he had brought back 56 more potential lovers.
He was a hateful son-in-law, but he had been doing a lot of good things lately.
Albireo had also looked at Siwoo, who had stopped at 9 lovers, and had tried to see him in a good light, saying, ‘Oh, well, at least it’s not a double-digit number.’
But suddenly, it wasn’t that the number was going to go from 9 to 10, but that the number of digits was about to change. From a single digit to a triple digit.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
Albireo marched fiercely towards the cabin in the cork tree forest where Siwoo was.
