#14
1.
Siwoo’s moment of clarity lasted a very long time.
Even two days after the incident in Tarot Town, he was still clutching his head.
“Damn it, why did I do that?”
Of course, Odile and Odette were the ones who started it.
Siwoo had only gone along with the two apprentice witches’ rhythm.
It’s not like he had any moral hang-ups, and it would be a lie to say he felt guilty about the pleasure he got from tricking the twins.
It would also be a lie to say he didn’t feel good.
However, Siwoo had a different concern.
From the middle, Siwoo actively deceived the twins and went along with their actions.
The problem was that, looking back, this was a very risky thing to do.
Later, when this escapade was exposed, there would be a big difference between saying, ‘I was just tied up and had to endure it!’ and saying, ‘While I was at it, I got a craving for a blowjob and told them to put their mouths on my dick.’
The former would probably be difficult to survive, but the latter would be a death sentence.
Even if Siwoo was a witch, she wouldn’t let a scoundrel who played with her apprentice witches, who were like her own children, live.
“Still, it felt good.”
He blankly recalled what had happened that day.
The dizzying ejaculation, the twins’ soft tongues, and the hot oral mucosa.
Sometimes, the sensation still came back like phantom pain.
Siwoo flicked his throbbing crotch and picked up the broom to finish cleaning the dorm.
There were no classes today, and Amelia’s trivial work instructions (disguised as harassment) were also absent, so he finished his work around sunset.
He was cleaning the barn, a habit he had developed over the past five years.
“What felt good?”
“Eek!”
“How noisy.”
Siwoo jumped at the sudden giggling sound.
“Hi? How have you been?”
“Hello.”
The unexpected guests were Odile and Odette.
It had only been two days since they hadn’t attended class.
Looking at Amelia and the twins, he realized that truly radiant people changed the atmosphere around them.
He was tricked into thinking the shabby barn had turned into a ballroom.
Completely identical appearances, the same hairstyles tied up in a bun, the same accessories, and the same dresses.
The beautiful figures of the two girls, with their playful smiles, were so alike that it felt strangely discordant.
It seemed like they had put all their effort into confusing Amelia today.
Whether they succeeded or not, no one knew.
“W-what brings you here?”
Siwoo held the broom diagonally, wary.
He felt guilty, so he didn’t know how to act.
“More importantly, how can you just come here like this? This is the servants’ quarters! What if someone gets suspicious!”
If the twins, who had never contacted Siwoo privately, suddenly visited his dorm, someone might find it suspicious.
That was why Siwoo was terrified.
“Suspicious? Have we done anything bad?”
“Do you live in such a shabby place…? Oh, I’m sorry…”
Unlike the relatively composed Odile, Odette seemed to be in culture shock at the animal pen-like dorm.
She looked confused.
Regardless of their different reactions, Siwoo wanted to get the sisters out of there as soon as possible.
Although they might be more flexible than Amelia, they were still very witch-like in that they didn’t consider other people’s circumstances.
“That’s too rude, isn’t it? We came here with a gift, you know.”
“A gift?”
Odette gracefully handed over a luxurious wooden box to Siwoo, who didn’t lower his suspicious gaze.
It was moderately luxurious, enough for commoners to use as a jewelry box, but too plain for Odile to use.
“What is this?”
“It’s the compensation the shopkeeper sent to the assistant the other day.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, that had happened.
Siwoo opened the box.
Silver coins filled a small leather pouch, a bundle of expensive magic paper that looked expensive at a glance, and a small bottle filled with liquid.
There was also a small note inside.
[To Siwoo, I am sorry for what happened the other day. I was ashamed that I had forgotten the most important virtue of a merchant, trust, by being caught up in petty profits. If you don’t mind, would you visit my shop again? I would like to treat my life-saver to a meal.]
There weren’t many words, but the letter was full of sincerity.
The shopkeeper, who had been too flustered to realize it before, had finally come to his senses.
Siwoo had risked his life to fight a witch for a con man who was in danger of dying.
“So, he had some decency after all. There was also a letter for me, which I set aside.”
He felt somewhat proud to be the protagonist of a fairytale-like story.
“This is mana water.”
“To be more precise, it’s something made in the joint workshop of the ‘Emerald Tablet Society.’ It’s very hard to get.”
Odette explained in detail.
Siwoo picked up the bottle, which was wrapped to prevent breakage, tucked between the bundles of magic paper.
A sealing wax, proving that it was unopened and genuine, was stamped on the paper label.
The contents were a clear, bright blue color.
It was mana water of high purity, enough for witches to use in their research.
Siwoo suppressed the corners of his mouth from rising and asked.
“Can I really take all of this?”
Odile waved her hand as if it was nothing.
“It’s fine, it’s nothing to me. Why don’t you use that money to fix up this shabby house?”
“Thank you so much.”
Siwoo bowed his head.
This was a really big gain.
Not only had he received the magic paper he needed to replenish, but also mana water made by the largest alchemy society, the ‘Emerald Tablet.’
He had been at a loss as to how to gather mana water after completing the magic circle.
The mana concentrated in this amount of mana water would be more than enough to activate the formulas Siwoo was creating.
“I’d like to treat you to something, but… as you can see, this is a barn. I’ll make good use of the things you’ve given me. Then, I’ll see you out.”
“Wait.”
Now that Siwoo had his harvest, he was about to send Odile and Odette away, but his smile froze.
*Surely, they’re not going to try to give me that ridiculous sex ed here again, are they?*
He was determined to refuse and kick them out.
“The magic you were creating to open the door. Could you let me take a look?”
“Huh? You really don’t have to.”
What was this all of a sudden?
Certainly, if Odile, who was nominally a witch apprentice of a count, were to give him feedback on his theories, it would be a great help.
However, Siwoo was unfamiliar with this sudden kindness.
Moreover, it was Odile’s kindness, whose intentions he couldn’t fathom…
“You actively cooperated with us too, right? We’ll help you escape. Odette and I have already agreed on it.”
“What do I have to do?”
Siwoo asked about the terms of the deal without hesitation.
Odile laughed boldly, as if she liked that he wasn’t being frustrating.
“It’s as you expected. Come to the hideout in Tarot Town every weekend from now on.”
*Figures.*
There was no way she’d do something like that for free.
But it wasn’t like it was a complete loss for him either.
If Odile set her mind to it, Siwoo had no right to refuse anyway.
He was in a situation where he should be grateful just for the pretense of negotiating.
“Understood.”
He lifted the straw and opened the chest hidden underneath.
Inside was a magic theory book consisting of 228 sheets of paper, about the size of A4.
It was filled with Siwoo’s calculations for constructing a magic circle, blueprints of the magic circle, and predicted values from thought experiments, without a single gap.
“Here it is.”
Odile, who received the paper filled with letters and formulas on both sides like a practice sheet, looked dazed for a moment.
2.
Creating a magic circle with a certain level of complexity is no different from composing a symphony.
Just as a grand symphony brings together melodies from stringed, percussion, woodwind, brass, and keyboard instruments, each producing different sounds, magic must weave together various formulas, characters, and magical power to create a beautiful harmony.
Could even a genius musician compose a symphony with their eyes closed?
Impossible.
Similarly, even a witch with an exceptional brain cannot create a magic circle of a certain size entirely through mental calculation.
They calculate and complete the detailed form of the magic circle, memorize it in their head, and then activate it.
In this way, activating magic is similar to conducting.
Just as a conductor cannot simply memorize a piece of music, a witch also needs excellent direction and correction for successful magic.
Anyway, what Siwoo had diligently written down on paper over the past three years was the draft of a magic circle to open a door.
Once all the calculations, division experiments, and planning were completed here, he planned to connect all the magic paper together to complete a huge formula.
Odile and Odette sat side by side, looking at Siwoo’s magic circle draft with serious expressions.
About three minutes passed?
Odile’s hand, which had been flipping through the pages at a speed that made one wonder if she was even reading them properly, stopped.
“No way…”
Odile and Odette exclaimed at the same time.
Siwoo, who had been anxiously wondering if the magic circle he had been working on alone was actually crude, lowered his head and looked at the page the twins were looking at.
It was the part of the calculation formula that distributed the amount of magic power to the magic power number, which was being aligned to activate the magic circle after the outline was completed and before the seal was applied.
“Is there a problem?”
Odette answered instead of Odile, who had her lips tightly shut and her eyebrows furrowed.
“Is this really written by Assistant Siwoo?”
“Yes.”
“Without any help or corrections?”
“Yes.”
“No one has ever taught you magic, but you did it alone?”
“That’s right.”
After the exchange, Odette let out a short sigh.
Leaving Siwoo, who had no idea what was going on, the twins were lost in thought again.
“Um, is it that bad?”
Siwoo felt uneasy.
The magic circle to open the ‘door’ that Siwoo had finally devised was a variable magic formula consisting of 6 conjunctions, n changes (which flexibly change according to various variables), and 1 deployment.
540 runes of 34 types were used as magic power elements, and about 258 ‘branches’ connected the magic circles to ensure high stabilization and flexible adaptation to variables.
Since it was impossible to keep experimenting with such a large-scale magic circle, he divided it into 88 parts and wrote them on magic paper, verifying errors by activating them separately.
It worked well back then.
Could there be a big problem when they were combined into one?
He was worried that he might hear that his three years of effort had been fundamentally futile, and his heart was pounding.
“I can’t understand it. How does this formula come about? It’s like you skipped three steps in the calculation process…”
“Um… if you don’t mind, could you tell me what the problem is first?”
Odile looked up at Siwoo with a dumbfounded expression.
“Problem?”
Siwoo swallowed hard.
“The problem is that a male assistant is completing a self-made magic without a seal?”
“Huh?”
Self-made magic out of nowhere?
“It’s unique and innovative. It’s an approach that breaks away from the existing system. Shall I be honest? I can’t understand even half of it. Neither can Odette.”
“No, I understood about 55%.”
Odette’s outburst from the side didn’t even register in his ears.
“Structurally, it’s perfect. The placement of the runes is also correct. Yes, you asked what the problem was, right? The biggest problem is that there’s no way to calculate and verify this. Because it’s your own self-made magic that you created for the first time.”
Odile, shaking her head as if she was extremely confused and couldn’t believe what she was seeing, stated definitively.
“Assistant is a genius. Ridiculously so.”
“Though not as much as us.”
Odette added.
