City ​​of Witches 8

“Something Fun Has Happened.”

Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

Odile’s small face was adorned with a suspicious smile. At first glance, she appeared to be an innocent and immature girl, but regardless, her essence was that of a witch.

Odile and Odette always used honorifics with Siwoo, calling him “Assistant-nim, Assistant-nim.”

This wasn’t out of respect for Siwoo, nor was it because they treated him as a person. It was simply because Amelia had introduced Siwoo as her assistant in class.

Therefore, outside of the academy and not during class, Siwoo was nothing more than a mere slave. That thought was clearly evident in Odile’s attitude and tone. Odile, who already had a vector that could go anywhere, had become even more dangerous.

“Show me what the Assistant bought.”

A slave buying magical supplies at a magic tool shop. Even an idiot would realize that this was a suspicious situation. What would happen if they found out he could use magic?

It would be fortunate if it ended with all the magic documents he had been researching and recording being confiscated. If word got out that a lowly slave was using magic, which was only permitted for witches, he could have his city slave status revoked and become a private slave. Of course, this was just Siwoo’s speculation.

Feeling as if a blade was pressed against my throat, I handed over the bundle of enchanted paper with trembling hands.

“Enchanted paper?”

Odile flipped through the paper like she was counting a wad of cash. I wondered what to say, how to defuse this situation. Should I sell Amelia’s name, saying it was her errand? Should I lie and say I didn’t know they were magical supplies?

“Mister shopkeeper, aren’t you going too far?”

The person Odile spoke to was unexpectedly the shop owner. I glanced over. The shop owner, who had been looking at the ground and fidgeting with his glasses with an anxious expression, quickly raised his head.

“W-what do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb.”

Turning back to me, Odile fanned herself with the enchanted paper and asked,

“Assistant, how much did you pay for these?”
“12 pennies, so I bought 3 sheets for 1 shilling, and so far I’ve bought 2 sets.”

Odile wore a smug smile. Her white teeth gleamed under the oil lamp lighting the ceiling.

“This cheap stuff for one silver coin for 3 sheets?”
“Excuse me?”
“Even if the other party is a slave, you shouldn’t rip them off this badly.”

I was shocked and looked at the shop owner. Now I saw it. As the owner of a magic tool shop, he must have met witches often. It was unnatural for him to be sweating like a waterfall just because he met a witch.

“Assistant, haven’t you been living too naively? When you trade at a shop, you should check the condition and market price of the goods.”
“M-Madam Witch, you’re mistaken. Here’s the quality certificate from ‘Jemernai Co.’…”
“No, no, there’s no need to see that.”

Odile took out a sheet of enchanted paper and rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger. The thin paper, which had been stuck together as one, split into three layers.

Between the two split sheets, there was a thin silver foil so thin that you could see through to the other side. It wasn’t aluminum or anything like that, but very, very thin pure silver refined by alchemy.

“Look at this! The silver foil is a mess! This will cause a lot of noise, and when drawing magic circles, it wastes strokes for stabilization.”

Odile crumpled the paper.

“Not only are you selling these defective products for money, but you’re charging a silver coin for 3 sheets. You look so nice, but you have a very, very wicked heart.”

I belatedly felt betrayed and glared at the shop owner. I had been touched by his attitude of treating me as a customer despite being a slave. I never imagined I would be backstabbed like this.

“Should we take a look at that quality certificate too? If you’re really selling such defective products, we need to hold the managers of our paper mill accountable.”
“Our paper mill…?”

The shop owner opened his mouth in shock and stared at Odile with wide eyes.

“N-no way…”
“Yes, I’m that Jemernai.”

‘Jemernai Co.’ is a magic tool company owned by one of the seven ‘Counts’ in Gehenna. In other words, the witch in front of me was a member of the ‘Tree of Sephipot,’ the highest decision-making body in Gehenna.

More precisely, she was an apprentice witch of that Count.

“In a transaction, even if the person being taken advantage of is an idiot, you should have been thorough enough not to get caught.”
“I…I have committed a crime worthy of death…”

The shop owner prostrated himself on the floor, begging for forgiveness, but Odile didn’t even look down at him, instead, she was fiddling with her fingernails.

“I was blinded by momentary greed and committed a great wrong…!”
“Where did you get those?”
“I asked a friend named Dick at the paper mill to take out a few items that were going to the junkyard. I swear, I will never, ever do this again…”

The shop owner’s appearance as he spilled his friend’s name and begged for forgiveness was unsightly and pathetic.

Yes.

As if his life depended on it.

“Please, please, spare me…!”

Odile, without even raising an eyebrow at his pitiful pleas, began to chant.

“Sing.”

Her cheerful voice filled the magic tool shop with a huge wave. Even if she was an apprentice witch who had not inherited even 10% of the mark, a witch was still a witch. The wave of magical power was so intense that it made the fine hairs on my body stand on end from head to toe.

It was magic.

“The shop owner sold magic tools to a slave without permission. Moreover, he brought in defective products and even forged the certificate? This is an act that could greatly damage our company’s credibility. Do you think ‘Odile Jemernai’ will forgive that?”
“Guh…Guh-uh…”

The shop owner suddenly clutched his throat and collapsed forward. He began to struggle, foaming at the mouth and writhing in agony.

I reflexively gauged the flow and rules of magical power.

The magic Odile was using now was an application of alchemy and barrier magic using five elements. A barrier based on runes, which dominated the space, was invisibly deployed.

The range was the floor where the shop owner was painfully rolling around. Odile was creating a low-oxygen state in the enclosed space. So, no matter how hard he tried to breathe, he was gradually suffocating.

“Odile-nim!”
“Don’t interfere.”

I tried to stop Odile. What came back was the cold and arrogant voice of a witch. The words of a mere slave could not calm Odile’s anger.

“Do you think I’d just let a swindler who almost severely damaged our company’s reputation go quietly?”

If things continued like this, he would die.
A person was about to die right before his eyes.
Siwoo closed his eyes for a moment, hesitating.

Strictly speaking, Siwoo didn’t even need to get involved.
The shop owner was just a swindler who took advantage of Siwoo’s situation.
He was only receiving a just punishment.

But was it really right to kill someone over something like this?

“…There’s no way.”
“What are you doing?”

Odile was puzzled by Siwoo’s sudden action of grabbing a mana potion from the shelf.

“Bloom!”

After pouring the mana potion onto his palm, he began to manipulate that mana, instantly turning it into plasma.

-Shwaaak!

His bangs fluttered as the explosively rising mana surged within his body.
Siwoo shaped it into countless thin lines.

Although each had slightly different lengths and thicknesses, their purpose was the same.
Interference devices to halt the operation of the deployed magic circle.

They were called ‘Dispel Pins’.

“That won’t stop it.”

However, Odile’s reaction to the Dispel Pins was lukewarm.
It was amusing to see a slave showing off, but she didn’t seem to take it seriously.

It was understandable.

The Dispel Pin itself was a simple magic, found in the first chapter of every basic magic textbook.
It was just a mana spike that didn’t require complex formulas or calculations.

However, using that pin to perform a dispel was a completely different matter.
To dispel, one had to understand and decipher all the mana strokes and the meaning of the characters used in the magic circle.
And then, one had to insert the pins in the correct places, in the correct order, to block the mana.

Although it was his first time actually attempting a dispel, fortunately, the formula Odile had deployed wasn’t that complex.
He inserted two pins into the triangular protrusions on the far right.
The invisible attribute Odile had first applied was released, and the shape of the barrier became visible.

“What…?”

Despite Odile’s bewilderment, Siwoo didn’t stop.

His next target was the stabilization device located at the apex of the triangle inscribed within the circle.
It was a kind of firewall that normalized the barrier when it was interfered with by external mana.
If he interfered with the barrier without removing this, the pins would immediately disappear due to the barrier’s homeostasis.

“Ugh!”

A splitting headache made his head feel like it would explode, but Siwoo continued to direct the pins, waving his hand like a conductor.
As the pins were inserted one after another, the large circle surrounding the barrier shattered like glass and scattered into the air.

The final target was the pillar, the core of the barrier.
He inserted twelve pins into the pillar supporting the ceiling of the barrier, completely halting its operation.

“Done!”

He had succeeded in dispelling the barrier before the temporarily stopped stabilization device could reactivate.

“Haa… haa… Thank you, thank you…”

The shop owner, his breathing returned, kissed Odile’s shoes, expressing his gratitude for surviving.
However, Odile paid no attention to him.
Her eyes were wide, staring intently only at Siwoo.

The magic he had studied wasn’t for nothing.
He had dispelled the barrier of Odile, a high-ranking witch’s apprentice, with his own power.
The sense of accomplishment that bloomed within his labored breaths made his heart tingle like an electric shock.

“Hoh…”

And that sense of accomplishment vanished like a bubble the moment he noticed Odile’s gaze.
Her intensely curious eyes, almost frightening, were piercing his chest.

Oh well, whatever.
Siwoo knelt before Odile, just like the shop owner had done.

“This lowly being apologizes for daring to interfere with the magic of the great witch! But I couldn’t bear to watch my beloved magic being used to kill someone!”

He subtly included the fact that witches were known to be obsessed with magic in his excuse.
Odile looked down at Siwoo intently.

“Assistant, first, there’s one thing to correct. I wasn’t really going to kill him.”
“Yes?”
“I was just going to give him a stern lesson. A lesson that playing with a witch’s things could cost you your head.”

So, he had interfered for nothing?
No.

Even so, how could he just stand by while someone was dying in front of him?
Besides, Odile was a curious apprentice witch, and she would have relentlessly questioned why Siwoo had bought the magic item in the first place.

“I thought you were just a handsome slave, Assistant, but you’re not?”

Odile walked lightly, as if she were about to fly, and helped Siwoo up.
Siwoo looked up at Odile with a bewildered expression.

“Interesting, interesting, so interesting. You understood the structure of my barrier at a glance?”

If not, a dispel would have been impossible.

“I’m really sorry…”
“No, you don’t need to apologize. I’ve suddenly developed a great fondness for you, Assistant.”

Odile’s fingertip tapped the table, and a series of numbers appeared, carved into the wood.
68.29.121.

Such a series of numbers was a vault number used like an account in Gehenna.

“Mister, I hope you’ll put all the silver coins you’ve swindled from our Assistant into that vault.”
“Yes, yes. Of course.”
“I also believe you’ll add a generous amount as compensation and an apology. I’ll overlook reporting you to the city hall, so show some sincerity.”
“Thank you! Thank you!”

Not only had he been spared his life, but he had also avoided being reported to the city hall, so the shop owner’s face was filled with relief.
Leaving the shop owner, who was bowing repeatedly until his head touched his feet, Siwoo and Odile went down to the first floor.
As soon as they came out, Odile turned around and asked.

“Assistant, are you free?”

Frankly, being with Odile was uncomfortable.
He didn’t particularly like her violet eyes that seemed to try to decipher every thought, nor her sinister air that always seemed to be plotting something.

“Well, I’m a bit busy today.”
“Really? Then I’ll have no choice but to tell Professor Amelia the good news. The fact that her assistant is actually a wizard with tremendous talent.”
“…I’m very free.”
“That’s the spirit.”

Only then did Odile smile with satisfaction.

Including this point, Siwoo disliked witches.