City ​​of Witches 32

Chapter 32 – #08_Ars Magna Town (1)

#31

1.
Sophia left Siwoo, who was slumped over, and exited the room.
Thinking about Siwoo’s moans beneath her, she felt a pointless desire, but quickly gave it up.

He was the first man Amelia had shown interest in since she came out of that cramped shack.
Although he himself vehemently denied it.
She wouldn’t do such a shameless thing as stealing her precious friend’s chance at romance.

“I can’t do that.”

In the first place, Siwoo had no experience with women, and Amelia had no experience with men.
It was obvious what would happen if the two of them met.
Especially Amelia, she would probably be as stiff as a piece of wood in bed, and Siwoo would be flustered.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if their first experience was like that?
Generally, women prefer to be led a little, it makes them feel more comfortable and attracted.

She thought she should teach him a little about how to handle a woman, so she educated him in advance along with the reward.

“Ugh…”

She stretched and pulled the hood of her robe over her head.

Actually, Sophia was partly responsible for Siwoo’s suffering.

If she hadn’t encouraged Amelia in the first place, Amelia wouldn’t have been rejected by Siwoo, and Siwoo wouldn’t have been tormented.

Also, the rumor that Amelia was interested in Siwoo wouldn’t have spread, and with his noble looks, he would have received love from various witches.

Of course, he himself didn’t like being treated like a slave.

“Elites are always picky.”

The night was deep.
Since witches didn’t need to sleep, she had to do what Siwoo had asked her to do.

She had to decide the fate of the guys who had been caught by the guards and make sure they kept quiet so that it wouldn’t be known that Siwoo had used magic.

“It’s good that I don’t have to sleep at times like this.”

Sophia leaped out of the window.
Her robe wrapped around her body, feathers sprouted, and she turned into a large raven, flying into the moonlit sky.

2.
Slaves didn’t get special holidays.
Even on their one day off a week, they had to work until lunchtime, so it was a given.

Siwoo, who had been like that, was now lying comfortably on the straw bedding, his limbs limp.
The sun, visible through the skylight, was already high in the sky.

This was the taste of sleeping in.
For Siwoo, who always woke up before dawn or at dusk, it was a tearful luxury.

“How long has it been since I’ve been this lazy?”

He realized for the first time that being able to sleep in without doing anything was this happy.
It was because he had received his first vacation during his slave life.

Just the day before yesterday.
Amelia, who woke up late in the afternoon, appointed Siwoo as her assistant and gave him a day of reward vacation in recognition of his hard work wandering around Border Town late at night.

Can you believe it?
A vacation given by Amelia.
He was dumbfounded, but it was fortunate for Siwoo that she seemed to have changed her nasty attitude even a little.

“Huh?”

Then, in the distance, he saw someone walking along the grass path.
He had avoided her so much that he could now tell who it was just by her walk.
It was Amelia.

“What is it.”

Siwoo hurriedly put on his clothes.

“No, if you gave me a vacation, you should let me rest. Why are you bothering me like this?”

Still, he couldn’t greet her in such a shabby state.
By the way, he really liked the underwear he had received from Amelia a while ago.
He felt proud every time he changed his clothes.

His displeasure at Amelia’s sudden visit was somewhat eased when he saw the underwear.

“Is this slave mentality?”

Siwoo opened the barn door and went to greet Amelia.
There was only a wide open field where the lodgings were, so there was no reason for Amelia to come.
In fact, she had never come once in five years.

Amelia, wearing a parasol under the dazzling sunlight.
She waited for Siwoo, who was running towards her, with a haughty expression as usual.

“What brings you here? Associate Professor.”

Amelia’s blonde hair sparkled in the sunlight that pierced her side.
He tried not to think about it, but he remembered Amelia’s naked body he had seen at the inn, and his thing twitched.

Men were such sad creatures.
Siwoo calmed down the thing that kept trying to grow by repeating good thoughts.
Amelia waited until he stopped panting before opening her mouth.

“I’m going to transfer you as my exclusive slave tomorrow. You’ll start learning what you need to do as an assistant. Today, I came to move your lodgings to a closer place. It won’t take long, so follow me.”

Come to think of it, it was more than a 30-minute walk from here to the research building.
If he was her exclusive slave, it was natural for him to be closer.

“More than that, you lived in a pretty nice place.”

A nice place? What were the other slaves’ lodgings like?
Amelia said, looking at the barn floating on the green hill.
Well, it did look like a decent building from the outside.
It wasn’t a place made for people to live in, though.

“Yeah, it’s… nice.”

Amelia tilted her head slightly at Siwoo’s ambiguous response.

“Then, I’ll escort you. Where should we go?”
“We have to go to your lodgings to move your things.”

Amelia, as if asking what was obvious, blinked her eyes and started to climb the hill, passing Siwoo.

“I’ll escort you.”

The mana water, the magic stone, and the magic circle drafts were in that house, but he wasn’t too worried.

After all, he had stuffed them in a box in the straw pile, and there was no reason for Amelia to look inside.
He would have to come back one more time at night after moving the lodgings.

Thinking about this and that, he opened the barn door for her.

“It’s a bit embarrassing because it’s a shabby place.”

As the inside of the barn, which had been hidden by the door, was revealed, Amelia’s expressionless eyes gradually widened.

“I’ll clean up as quickly as possible, so please wait.”

There wasn’t much to pack anyway.
Siwoo went to the straw pile and covered the box well with straw, while taking out his clothes and underwear from the almost half-rotten wardrobe.

“……”

Amelia stood like a stone statue in front of the door, looking around.
Her expression was full of confusion.

“Amelia, I’ve packed everything.”

At Siwoo’s call, Amelia snapped out of it.
After a slight hesitation, she asked.
Her voice was more subdued than usual.

“Is this really where you live? Really?”
“Yes.”
“For five years?”
“Originally, it was a different lodging, but about a week later, my lodging was moved here. I was notified that the existing lodging was being rebuilt.”

Even with Siwoo’s concise explanation, Amelia remained silent.
She simply blinked her long eyelashes, staying quiet.

Here we go again.
When talking with Amelia, conversations often ended abruptly like this.

“I hope our next lodging is a bit nicer.”

To break the suddenly awkward atmosphere, I made a lighthearted joke, and Amelia lowered her head.

Was living in a place like that such a shock?
Well, Siwoo had a hard time accepting it at first too.
For a well-raised young lady, it’s understandable to experience culture shock.

Just as I was about to brush it off, Amelia suddenly grabbed my sleeve.

“Um…”

I could feel the fabric of my sleeve being pulled by her delicate hand.
A fragrance that completely blew away the bad smell nearby wafted from her.

“Manager, there’s something I want to say.”
“Yes, please go ahead. I’m listening.”

Amelia looked up at my face as if she had made up her mind.
And as soon as she opened her mouth, I heard a sound like she was swallowing her breath, as if something had caught in her throat.

“Associate Professor?”

Amelia, who couldn’t speak for a long time as if she was malfunctioning, let go of my sleeve.
A sigh that couldn’t become a sound slipped out.

“From now on, Manager Shin Siwoo is my personal slave, so I can’t let him wear such unrefined clothes.”
“B-but these are the cleanest clothes I have…”
“We’ll move that later, so follow me for now.”

Amelia left the barn and strode ahead.
Why is she suddenly acting like this?
Still, there’s no reason to refuse if she’s offering clothes.
I was running out of clothes to wear anyway.

I threw my bundle onto the pile of straw and followed Amelia.

2.
Amelia felt uncomfortable.
Her stomach felt uneasy.

It was as if something inside her was twisted and heavy, like when she had a stomachache from eating spoiled cheese a long, long time ago.
It all started after seeing Manager Shin Siwoo’s lodgings.

Amelia unconsciously squeezed her eyes shut.

After he openly refused Sophia’s offer to serve her at night.

The next day, Amelia, fuming, went to the academy’s administration office.
In a very calm tone, Amelia ordered them to give Siwoo the worst lodging available.

How dare a slave refuse a witch’s order?
Moreover, to insult her so openly.
Although she didn’t show it at the time, Amelia couldn’t calculate a single magic formula all night, her face flushed.

At that time, she didn’t have the slightest doubt about whether this was a fair punishment.
It was the first time she had ever felt such intense, almost naked shame.

Knowing how much discomfort a bad sleeping arrangement could cause, Amelia carried out the best revenge she could think of at the time.

The reason she remembered this long-forgotten incident was simple.
She had to inform Siwoo, who was now her personal slave, that his lodgings needed to be moved closer to the research building.

Twelve months a year.
Grass magically transformed so it would never wither.
His lodgings were located in a prime spot where long grass swayed in the refreshing breeze.
There was plenty of sunlight, and above all, the view of the academy from the hill was magnificent.

When Amelia saw his lodgings from afar, she doubted her own memory.
She had clearly ordered them to assign him the worst lodgings, so how could there be such a huge wooden building in such a good location?
It wasn’t that she was particularly upset now, but she did have some doubts about the academy’s handling of things.

As she walked with her parasol, the door opened in the distance, and Siwoo came running out.

“What brings you here, Associate Professor?”

After telling him her business, Amelia moved to check his lodgings, just to be sure.
In fact, the reason she had come all this way was to see where he had been living and how her revenge had been carried out.

It was a strange feeling.

“It’s a bit embarrassing since it’s a shabby place.”

As she was escorted awkwardly by him, Amelia doubted her eyes when the door opened.

The floor was damp with mud, and there was a strange smell.
The ceiling was rotten and worn, with several places where you could see the sky, and wooden boxes and straw were scattered around as if they were furniture.

She had clearly ordered them to assign him the worst lodgings.
However, the ‘worst lodgings’ that Amelia had imagined were about the level of a regular house in Taro Town.
Since the academy’s facilities were all luxurious and beautiful, she hadn’t expected such a gap to exist, even at the lowest level.

And for that reason, the lodgings where Siwoo was living were clearly not a place fit for a human being.

Amelia frowned at the sudden ache in her chest.
A feeling like her heart was throbbing.
This feeling was strange.

“Is this really where you live? Really?”
“Yes.”
“For five years?”
“Originally, I was in different lodgings, but about a week later, my lodgings were moved here. They said they were rebuilding that building.”
“……..”

She checked, just in case, but her karma was clearly revealed.
An uneasy feeling.
Siwoo, who seemed to be about to leave the lodgings first, made a joke to Amelia, who didn’t even know why she was feeling this way.

“I hope our next lodging is a bit nicer.”

Siwoo, who seemed to be about to leave the lodgings first, made a joke as if it was nothing.
Amelia couldn’t help but grab his sleeve.
She felt like she had to say something.
She had a feeling.

“Um…”

Amelia was a noble, and he was just a slave.
Nevertheless, she wanted to apologize for this matter.

He would probably be dumbfounded.
She didn’t know if he would understand if she said it wasn’t intentional.

“Manager, there’s something I want to say.”
“Yes, please go ahead. I’m listening.”

She barely managed to open her mouth.
But the moment she tried to put an apology into words, she was suddenly out of breath.

What should she say?
Where should she start?
What tone, what manner of speaking, what expression, what gesture, what breathing should she use?

It wasn’t like she was performing a very complex magic spell.
Even though she just had to offer a single apology, her mind went blank as if it was completely blocked.

“Associate Professor?”

Feeling his questioning gaze, Amelia blurted out whatever came to mind.
It felt more like she was just spitting out words rather than thinking them through.

“From now on, Manager Shin Siwoo is my personal slave, so I can’t let him wear such unrefined clothes.”
“B-but these are the cleanest clothes I have…”
“We’ll move that later, so follow me for now.”

This wasn’t it.
Amelia bit her lip and went out of the barn first.

Now that it’s come to this, she’ll just buy him a set of clothes.
Just enough to wash away the guilt that had vaguely sprouted, as much as she had made a mistake last time.

Let’s just be nice to him to that extent.
Amelia decided that.