City ​​of Witches 362

Chapter 362 – #78_Outdoor Activities(4)

#360

1.
This wasn’t Siwoo’s first time tutoring.
During the winter break before his early graduation from science high school, he had tutored a middle school friend of the same age in math.

He started tutoring with the intention of earning some pocket money, but it ended much sooner than expected.
His friend couldn’t understand calculus, and Siwoo couldn’t understand why his friend couldn’t understand calculus.
He also didn’t have the confidence to make him understand.

It was so long ago, so far in the past, that he had forgotten about it.
The reason why that old memory suddenly resurfaced was because the mother of his former student had doted on Siwoo, just like the current Countess Yesod.

Whether the intentions of his friend’s mother back then and the countess now were the same…
Honestly, Siwoo wasn’t sure.
His friend’s mother, who had always provided him with snacks, hadn’t suddenly suggested a night fishing trip.

The two of them took a portal to the lower reaches of the Rabbit River.
After passing through hills dotted with maple trees, there was no need to create decorative lights.
The beautiful starlight, like a handful of diamonds scattered across the sky, replaced the artificial lights.

“Wow…”
“Be careful!”

Countess Yesod exclaimed like a child and ran down the steep hillside.
Seeing her run through such rough terrain so effortlessly, he realized that Countess Lucy was also a witch.
In some ways, the countess seemed more like the daughter…

However, her reaction itself was understandable.
Even Siwoo, who had visited this place during the day, was amazed by the sight of the Rabbit River, which had changed its appearance for the night.

“It’s a nice place. It’s really beautiful.”
“Is that so?”

She seemed a bit disappointed by Diana’s lukewarm reaction to the location she had painstakingly chosen.
Seeing the countess happily stepping on the rocks, he felt a sense of pride for no reason.

“I’ll prepare things quickly. Please wait a moment.”

He gathered stones from around the area, piled them up, and lit a fire with the twigs he had picked up while passing through the forest, placing a water kettle on top.
If he had a portable camping chair, it would be a salmon fishing spot worth at least a thousand points, if not a perfect score.
Countess Lucy watched him with a look of wonder.

“Siwoo, you’re very versatile. You know about places like this, and you prepare everything so quickly.”
“Thank you. I’ll finish preparing for fishing soon.”

In truth, he was just clumsily imitating what his friends used to do…
How could Countess Yesod, who looked so noble, have ever experienced such wild camping?
After finishing the preparations, Siwoo adjusted the fishing rod.

He had learned from his short experience today that the most important thing was the weight of the sinker.
If it was too heavy, it would sink too quickly and risk getting caught on rocks, and if it was too light, it wouldn’t be able to catch anything.

“Are those all fish?”

Countess Yesod peered at the surface of the water from a distance.
Looking there, he could see black shadows moving incessantly against the dark current.
Perhaps because salmon were nocturnal, there seemed to be even more of them than during the day.

“Yes, I think so.”

The countess suddenly turned and looked at Siwoo.
Her magenta eyes, the same as Diana’s, looked at him with a slight smile.

“Siwoo, you have a verbal tic.”

A verbal tic, all of a sudden?

“Huh?”
“When you express an opinion or thought, you don’t say ‘it is’ to confirm it, but rather ‘it seems like’ as if you’re making an assumption.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, you do it during lessons, when you report about Diana, you always do it.”

He didn’t quite understand what she was trying to say, so he remained silent.

“My guess is that it implies ‘there’s a possibility that my opinion is wrong’? It seems like you’re afraid of making mistakes.”

Thinking about it after hearing her words, it made sense.
He had spent five years as a slave, and most of the witches he had dealt with were far superior to him, so he had unconsciously developed that verbal tic.

“Countess Yesod, you are much higher in social standing and as a witch.”
“Oh? Are you saying that if you confidently say something wrong, you might offend me?”
“I didn’t mean to imply that…”
“Anyone can be wrong, anyone can make mistakes. That’s not a fault.”
“Well, that…”
“If you thought I was such an arrogant and stubborn witch, you’ve seen right through me.”

The countess crossed her arms and pretended to be angry.
The reason he knew she wasn’t really angry was because the corners of her mouth, lit by the moonlight, were slightly twitching.
Only then did Siwoo realize that this was a very elegant and refined joke in Countess Yesod’s style.

He had thought she was angry for some subtle and complicated reason that he couldn’t grasp.
Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

“I will correct it.”
“‘I will correct it.’ It literally means to rectify something to the right, but it’s usually a formal expression used in a very strict superior-subordinate relationship when apologizing for a mistake and expressing an intention to improve.”

The problem was that he still couldn’t grasp her jokes.
It felt like she was teasing him, or maybe she was just joking, but the truth was that Siwoo still found the countess difficult.
Even dealing with Count Jemena, whom he had known for quite a while, was difficult, let alone Countess Yesod, whom he had only met four days ago.

“If you continue to insist on that way of speaking in the situations I point out… I’ll assume you see me as a rigid, old-fashioned noble.”
“Um… what should I do?”
“If a witch who was a little more comfortable with you repeated what I just said, what would you say?”
“Honestly?”
“Yes, honestly.”

Siwoo pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Um… I think I would have asked if they hadn’t sobered up from the wine they had with dinner. Or I would have asked.”

He wondered if his answer was a bit rude.
It seemed that his answer had unexpectedly hit the countess’s taste.
Lucy laughed until her pale face turned bright red, and then she praised Siwoo.

“You’re doing much better than I thought! You’re sharp, aren’t you?”
“I apologize if I seemed rude.”
“It’s okay to be a little more comfortable with me than you are now.”

The countess continued to laugh for a while before finally stopping.
Siwoo, who had become curious about her last words, asked.

“So, what is the reason you’re being so nice to me?”
“Yes.”

As far as Siwoo knew, Countess Yesod was an orthodox witch.
Moreover, most high-ranking witches naturally looked down on Siwoo.
He couldn’t easily think of a reason why she would be so friendly just because he had been her daughter’s tutor for a few days.

While her eyes clearly showed that she was about to tease him again.
She shook her head, as if she had changed her mind, and said.

“The salmon Diana caught today, it was actually you who caught it, right?”
“Uh…”
“How did I know? Diana always asks for snacks when she gets praised.”
“Oh, I see.”

Diana had been strangely quiet during dinner tonight.
The countess had noticed it from that moment.
It was a situation where he could easily be suspected of lying to continue his tutoring contract.
He was a little embarrassed.

“I apologize. I had no intention of deceiving you, Countess.”
“I know. If there was even a hint of such an intention, my daughter wouldn’t have stood still. She’s really sharp.”

After praising Diana as if it were a natural thing to do, she suddenly started praising Siwoo.

“Aside from me, you’re the first person Diana has followed so well. It’s almost miraculous.”
“Is that what you call following well…?”

After hearing that he could be more comfortable with her, he had become too talkative.
His true feelings had unintentionally slipped out.

“Just the fact that you brought Diana this far is amazing.”
“I see…”

Diana’s usual behavior added credibility to the countess’s words.
Then, naturally, it was time for fishing.
Siwoo briefly explained how to fish to the countess and showed her a demonstration.

There wouldn’t be any special tricks needed anyway.
The drag setting and the weight of the sinker were the same as this morning.

“That’s it.”
“It looks fun.”

The countess readily took off her shoes and walked into the shallow river, not caring that her dress was getting wet.
As Siwoo had taught her, she cast the lure into the water, not too far and not too close.
But even with so many salmon, she couldn’t catch a single fish, unlike Diana.
She repeated it almost ten times, but still couldn’t catch anything.

“Siwoo, it seems more difficult than I thought.”
“Please wait a moment. I’ll go get a different fishing rod.”

The countess grabbed the hem of Siwoo’s clothes as he was about to step out of the river.

“No, you caught fish with this, Siwoo. Maybe I just lack the knack for it.”

And then, with eyes that shone brighter than the stars, she asked.

“Could you tell me more about it?”

So, what was the ‘knack’ that Countess Lucy wanted to know?

“Forgive me for saying this, but is this really necessary?”
“Of course, I’ve even offered my back for you, Siwoo.”
“When you put it that way… I have nothing to say.”

It was a rather comical pose.
Step one, stand next to Countess Yesod, who had cast the fishing rod, like a shadow.
Step two, hold the fishing rod together in a position that looked like a hug from behind.
The final step, step three.

“Is there something wrong?”

When holding the fishing rod together, their hands were stacked on top of each other.
This last step was the most difficult for Siwoo, amidst all the awkwardness.
Siwoo was starting to get a sense of what was going on.

In the circumstances, it looked like seduction, but he couldn’t be sure for two reasons.
First, she was a high-ranking countess, an orthodox witch, and they had only known each other for less than a week.
And the second, and most important reason, was that.
From their first meeting, she had tried to test Siwoo’s self-control, just like Count Albireo.

The series of actions.
That is, loosening his shirt and running her fingertips over his bare skin, showing him her inner world by pressing their bare backs together, wearing a low-cut dress and trying to show it off, all of these cheesy actions from a 90s romance novel might all be part of a tutoring test.

He had managed to win Diana over and keep his tutoring job, so if he made a hasty judgment and failed the countess’s test, it would be extremely unfair.

But if that was the case, wouldn’t he have been out the moment he set a pillar of fire in the countess’s butt crack?
Actually, thinking about the way she had acted, even for a short time, she didn’t seem like such a calculating person…
But then again, Albireo, who was also a count and a businessman, had put on an amazing act…
He couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“Hurry up.”

The countess, as if she didn’t know about his chaotic thoughts, urged him with a natural voice.
Siwoo sighed softly and hugged the countess from behind.
This time, he carefully placed his hand on top of hers, paying attention to the position of his waist to avoid any illegal parking incidents.

Her hand was smaller than he had expected, considering her usual imposing presence.
He had felt it before when their bare skin touched, but it was soft and warm.

“It works. I thought the position wouldn’t be comfortable since I’m quite tall.”

The lure was cast with a flick.
With one hand on the reel and the other on the handle of the fishing rod, he let the fishing line flow smoothly.
That day, the two of them caught almost ten salmon.