Chapter 482 – #101_Housewarming(8)
#481
1.
The new year dawned.
Lucy Yesod was pacing anxiously in front of Diana’s bedroom door.
“Diana.”
“……”
Diana had been acting strange since the Harvest Festival.
She was a lovely daughter who, due to her naturally lazy disposition, would shut herself away unless Lucy practically begged her to come out.
It seemed like she was becoming a bit more lively recently with Shin Siwoo as her tutor, but as soon as his visits became less frequent, she immediately retreated back into her room.
If you listened closely at the door, you could often hear sounds like sobbing, and sometimes even ominous, unintelligible curses being muttered.
At first, Lucy thought Siwoo’s absence was the problem and tried to arrange a meeting, but she was met with a sharp refusal.
Lucy was fretting over her daughter, who was going through a late adolescence.
Even though she was a renowned great witch in Gehenna and an unparalleled businesswoman in the mortal realm, Countess Yesod was nothing more than a clumsy, doting mother in front of Lucy.
“Are you going to stay in your room again today? You always participated in the charity event.”
“……”
Like the Geminai family, the Yesod family also visits Border Town for charity work at the start of the new year.
As the purpose was virtuous, even the lazy Diana had always accompanied the countess.
However, this year, for some unknown reason, she had stayed in her room, and the countess had come to her daughter for one last attempt at persuasion.
After a long silence, the countess sighed softly and said,
“Alright, if you want to rest, you should. Mommy will go. I hope our daughter feels better soon.”
Just as the countess turned her back, the door quietly opened with a click.
Standing there was Diana, with her hair a mess and a deeply depressed expression.
“Diana….”
“Mommy, I have something to tell you.”
2.
About 15 minutes passed.
Countess Yesod was covering her flushed face with both hands.
It had been revealed that her daughter, Diana, knew about the embarrassing relationship between Siwoo and Countess Yesod, as well as her secret hobby of writing.
No matter how much she loved her daughter, or rather, because she loved her daughter, having such a shameful secret exposed was an unbearable embarrassment for Lucy.
The fact that her efforts to keep Diana isolated from sexual knowledge had failed was a minor issue compared to the shame that made her face feel like it was about to explode.
“……”
Just as Countess Yesod was unable to speak and had her head bowed low, Diana hesitantly got up and warmly embraced her mother.
She had worried that her concerns might trample on her mother’s pride.
Even in a parent-child relationship, there were things that were difficult to talk about.
But she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
Even though she was trying to act cheerful, her mother, who had been deeply hurt by Shin Siwoo, was worried about Diana, who was shut up in her room and depressed.
Even if she didn’t know anything, she couldn’t bear to see her mother, who was already going through a hard time, suffer even more because of her.
It was better to tell the truth, even if it was shocking, and comfort her mother.
“Mommy, it’s not your fault at all. The only bad one is that horny witch, Shin Siwoo.”
“……”
“I’m sorry for not listening to you and pretending not to know. You must have had a hard time, right?”
“……”
“I love you no matter what, Mommy.”
In the end, Diana, with her ruby-red topaz eyes filled with tears, hugged Lucy.
She was mistaken in thinking that her mother’s silent, bowed head was due to a rush of old sadness or emotion.
Of course, there was emotion.
But Countess Yesod was bowing her head due to a much more fatal embarrassment.
Moreover, there were several things that Diana was mistaken about.
“My daughter… thank you.”
“What for? Of course, I should do this much.”
“But… there’s a slight problem that’s different from the truth.”
“Yes…yes?”
Diana tilted her head in confusion.
The picture she had imagined was of a kind daughter comforting her mother, who had been unable to honestly express her pain.
But on her mother’s face, which she had raised, there were clear traces of gratitude, but even more so, a blush of embarrassment.
“First of all… my relationship with Siwoo… I’ve decided to continue it…”
“Huh?! No! What? No, Mommy, do you have no pride?”
It was a truly shocking statement.
At the same time, it was a statement that made her very angry at her mother.
Shin Siwoo had rejected the Harvest Festival date course that Diana had prepared.
He even made up ridiculous excuses, saying he already had a lover.
There was no way that such a terrible man would propose a relationship to her mother again, so it must have been her mother who had held onto him.
“No…! You must have known what kind of trash he is! But you’re still going to keep seeing him?”
“Diana… Mommy knew from the start that he had a lover. He didn’t hide it either.”
“Eek…!”
It was a relationship that was adulterous from the start?
This was something Diana had never even imagined.
Even though her mother was the author of erotic novels, she never imagined that she would follow the path of an erotic novel, falling for a man who already had a lover.
“I didn’t even know that one of those lovers would include Duke Tiferet…”
One of those lovers was even Duke Tiferet.
Diana didn’t know how to react to the confession that contained unimaginable content.
She could only open and close her mouth with a complex look.
“Still, it’s great that we can keep seeing each other, isn’t it?”
The most absurd thing was that, even in this situation, there was a strange glow on her mother’s face.
It was so ridiculous that Diana frowned.
She had felt that her mother was a bit of a fool when dealing with Diana, but she didn’t know that she was at the level of being called an idiot when it came to relationships.
Wasn’t she just a pathetic woman who was completely infatuated with a gigolo and would even hand over her house deed?
As she was wondering who to be angry at and whether she should sternly lecture her mother right here,
A statement that completely erased Diana’s worries was heard.
“Siwoo might be able to suggest a new method of inheriting the brand. Then Diana and Mommy can live together forever.”
“Yes…?”
It was a ray of light on a problem that Diana had been pondering for a long time.
3.
The charity event started at dawn on New Year’s Day.
In the plaza with white flagstones, the wagons of various witch families were lined up, filled with warm clothes and blankets to distribute to the citizens, baskets of preserved food to fill their tables throughout the winter, and toys for the children.
The children lined up to receive dolls, the women with headscarves and aprons, and the men carrying firewood back home were all smiling brightly.
They chatted while drinking tea from a large teapot, and in one corner of the plaza, a makeshift stage was set up where bands played instruments.
It was a good thing for once.
Siwoo participated in the charity event.
Siwoo, who had been working hard to carry luggage until just now, had slipped away to a quiet place to smoke a cigarette.
Amelia had left for a while to extract fragrance, and the Geminai counts were going from house to house, personally delivering food baskets to the elderly who had difficulty moving.
The twins were warming up in the carriage for the upcoming performance.
He had been with someone all the time lately, so this time alone felt like a long time.
Thanks to that, he could lean against the wall of the alleyway with a relaxed mind, smoking a cigarette and observing the bustling activity.
In fact, unlike Border Town, where most people were serfs or smugglers, the citizens of Taro Town were guaranteed a fairly high standard of living.
No one starved to death, there were no beggars begging on the streets, and no one died of disease.
As long as there were witches, there was no fear of being threatened by petty or major crimes.
During his time as a slave, Siwoo had looked at those citizens with pity.
He felt a sense of kinship with them because they were deprived of their freedom for serving witches and were destined to be confined to Gehenna for hundreds of years.
But seeing their faces, which did not seem to have a single worry, he even thought that those concerns were unfounded.
They were enjoying their own simple happiness in their own positions.
Although their technology was far behind the mortal realm, so they couldn’t enjoy the conveniences of civilization…
At least, it was undeniable that their expressions seemed brighter than those of the people who were busy going back and forth in the middle of a bustling city.
Then, suddenly, someone’s voice was heard next to him.
“Excuse me.”
It must be for the charity event.
She was wearing neat but comfortable clothes.
A novice witch with a cape covering her shoulders and boots was standing there.
It was Diana Yesod, with her faded silver hair and beautiful ruby-red eyes, with whom Siwoo had a complicated relationship in many ways.
“Ack!”
He hadn’t met her since he was hit by Diana’s barrage of attacks the day before the Harvest Festival.
Therefore, the rampage she had shown that day was still deeply ingrained in his mind.
But unlike his expectation that a sharp scolding and a fierce shout would come,
Diana was tapping the frozen ground with the tip of her boots, hesitating.
“Oh, it’s been a while.”
“It has…hasn’t it?”
“Are you okay? That… the recent injury…”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine now.”
In an awkward atmosphere, they exchanged awkward greetings.
Then, Diana suddenly bowed her head.
It was a quick change of attitude and an apology, just like when she had suddenly gotten angry before.
“I’m sorry for misunderstanding you on my own…!”
Until now, Diana had cursed Siwoo for his beast-like actions.
So, when she heard that he was involved in the commotion in Taro Town, she didn’t care.
No matter how much he had saved Diana from danger, she could not forgive his actions of playing with her mother and then abandoning her.
But this morning, through her conversation with her mother, she learned the truth and the misunderstandings in detail.
The fact that the two had a casual relationship from the start.
Furthermore, that it was her mother who had made advances to Siwoo, who already had a lover.
The belated realization that Diana had been too focused on the delay of the succession and had placed excessive expectations on Siwoo.
And finally, that although she didn’t know how, the key to solving Diana’s long-standing problem might be in his hands.
Diana’s tyranny must have been like a bolt of lightning to him.
Even Diana had no choice but to bow her head.
If his mood soured, the new method or whatever might disappear.
“I… I know all the truth now.”
“Ah…”
“About the relationship between my mother and Siwoo, and about the succession.”
“Uh…”
With that one word, Siwoo remembered.
The vanished magic replication.
Countess Yesod had tried to use the replication of the brand that occurred when Siwoo ejaculated inside her to research a succession method where the predecessor would not die.
But nothing had happened during his sex with Amelia yesterday.
He was already planning to talk to Countess Yesod about this issue.
“By any chance, do you know where my mother is right now?”
“Yes?”
“It’s an important matter… Could I talk to the countess for a moment?”
Siwoo accepted Diana’s apology and asked her to guide him to Countess Yesod.
