City ​​of Witches 558

## Chapter 558 – #115_Survival Report (2)

#558

1.
“Haa…”

Deneb Geminai sighed deeply.
Uniquely, she was the younger head of the Geminai family, where twins inherited a single mark.

Unlike her usual office table, where she handled current business procedures, it was now littered with wine glasses and empty bottles instead of pens and contracts.

Albiereo Geminai, the elder head of the Geminai family and Deneb’s sister, watched her with a worried expression.

“Sniff, sniff…”

Deneb, who had been staring blankly at the sky, sighing, and taking sips of wine, now pulled out her third handkerchief to dab at her tears.

“Deneb.”
“Yes, sister… When did you get here?”
“What are you talking about? I’ve been here the whole time.”

She had been there for an hour.

“Ah, that’s right… That’s right. You were comforting me too. Sorry.”

The combination of heartbreak and intoxication had turned Deneb, who was usually sharper than her sister, into a drunkard.
Albiereo worriedly grabbed Deneb’s wrist as she reached for another bottle.

“Stop drinking.”

She had lost count of how many bottles she had gone through.
In truth, her spirit body wasn’t so weak that it would suffer lasting effects from acute alcohol poisoning, but alcohol still eroded the mind.
If drinking could make one forget all the world’s worries, the world would be many times happier.

“Just one more bottle… I’ll just have one more.”
“Do you know how many times you’ve said that?”

Unable to watch any longer, Albiereo confiscated the bottle from her sister.
Deneb didn’t resist, weakly letting the bottle be taken from her.

It had been well over six weeks since Shin Siwoo had been kidnapped by the Deep Sea Witch and gone missing.
In fact, everyone was avoiding saying it, but even the fact that he had been kidnapped was a hopeful thought.
If the Deep Sea Witch had intended to kill him, she would have had more than enough time to do so.

Therefore, a heavy, funeral-like atmosphere hung over the usually lively count’s estate.

And that was because Shin Siwoo was the twins’ prospective husband.
Since the news of his disappearance, the twins had cried their eyes out.

When they had tried to follow the search party to the mortal realm, they had thrown a tantrum, and then they had gone on a hunger strike, so Albiereo had been left to soothe and appease the twins alone, giving her a headache for a while.

“Sister… I’m sorry, because of me… What should I do…?”
“Why is it because of you?”
“But… I can’t face the twins either…”

Albiereo patted Deneb’s back, listening to her complaints that had been repeating for weeks.

As you can see, as time passed, Albiereo had become somewhat calm.

There was no point in being anxious.
She could only support the witches who had gone on the search and do her best.

However, Deneb was not easily forgetting her guilt.
It was because he had chosen to stay behind that Deneb had been able to escape from the Deep Sea Witch.

And currently, Deneb had an unspoken hypothesis…
Although it was for the sake of replenishing her magic power, they had shared their bodies several times, so wasn’t it possible that her innocent younger sister had begun to see Shin Siwoo as a man, not just a prospective husband…? She had been thinking this a little.

The difference in worry would be significant between a prospective husband disappearing and a man she had given her heart to going missing.
And although she didn’t want to admit it, Albiereo thought her younger sister’s distress seemed closer to the latter.

“Sister… I’m okay now. Go take care of your work.”
“Are you sure? Are you going to drink again after I leave?”
“No, I’m going to sleep. I should take a nap. I feel bad that you’re stuck here because of me…”

Surely not, right?
Albiereo shook her head, cutting off her pathetic delusion.

It was not right to have such a wicked hypothesis about her prospective husband, who might not even be alive, and to feel such a bitter emotion.
And even if Deneb had her immature side, even if she had truly developed feelings for Shin Siwoo, Albiereo had no doubt that she would handle it well.

Just as Albiereo put on the gloves she had taken off and stood up, the office door burst open.

“M-Master! Master!”
“Master! Master! Master! Master! Master!”

A pair of identical dolls burst in, almost breaking the door.
No, they weren’t dolls, but the doll-like, cute Odile Geminai and Odette Geminai.

Normally, Albiereo would have told them not to be so frivolous and to come back in quietly, but this time, she couldn’t.

Since Shin Siwoo’s disappearance, the twins, who had been turning yellow like dried moss, could only regain their vitality like fresh flowers for one reason.

“Sister… My head is pounding… Make the twins be quiet…”

The twins jumped and ran towards her, while Deneb collapsed on the table, covering her head.

“Master! It’s a telegram! A telegram! Your assistant is safe and sound!”
“I knew it! There’s no way your assistant would die anywhere!”

The twins hugged Albiereo at the same time.
The tears welling up in their eyes showed how much they had suffered.

“What…!”

Deneb shook off her hangover and the effects of the alcohol in an instant and jumped up from her seat.
She bit her lip and trembled, then hugged the twins tightly, sharing their joy.

2.
Let’s rewind a little to Auckland, the largest city and former capital of New Zealand.

Recently, a strange object was discovered off the coast of Auckland.
On the surface, it looked like just another piece of sea trash, but it was emitting periodic magical energy waves, so the Auckland branch manager immediately went to retrieve it.

What they found were several letters, photos in an envelope, and several cassette tapes.

At first, the object was unidentifiable, but the branch manager soon realized what it was.
The man in the photos matched the photos of the male witch that had been distributed to various location points by order of Duke Tiferet, and the photos were enclosed in the box.

The branch manager immediately contacted Duke Tiferet through a hotline, and less than a day later, Amelia, Eloa, and Sharon received the box containing the message.

They immediately booked a hotel room and put their heads together.
With trembling hands, they opened the box.

Inside were several letters written in Siwoo’s handwriting.

The letters were for Amelia, the twins, Sharon, Eloa, and many others who were worried, informing them that he was safe and explaining why he hadn’t been able to contact them.

Each person had about ten pages, and the gist of the densely written letters was as follows:

He had been kidnapped by the Deep Sea Witch, but had established a good relationship with her and was living comfortably.
He had not been able to contact them because of L’lyeh, who was extremely reluctant to communicate with the outside world.
He would be able to return after overcoming his trials, so they shouldn’t worry too much.
He was sorry for making them worry.

In fact, this alone did not dispel the three women’s doubts.
Their worries were not so light that they could simply believe the contents of the letters and move on.

“It could have been written under duress.”
“I think so too. In the first place, it would be a letter written under the Deep Sea Witch’s censorship. Or it could be a deception to stop the search.”
“Besides, we don’t know when the photos were taken.”

Despite their various anxieties, the three women couldn’t hide the color returning to their faces.
He was their lover, whose life or death was uncertain.
Finding even a clue that he was alive was like a welcome rain after a long drought.

-Are you all doing well?

The three women, who had been reading each word of the letter as if caressing it, with tears in their eyes, finally shed the tears they had been holding back when they heard Siwoo’s voice through the old cassette player.

“Listen carefully. If there’s anything strange, tell me immediately, okay?”

Meanwhile, Eloa was listening to Siwoo’s voice.
Even if it was a message written under duress, they had spent time together.

There might be a code to signal a crisis, an emergency sign that only those who knew Siwoo would understand.

However, as she listened to the recording for almost an hour with a nervous heart, she felt somewhat relieved.
First of all, the recording was very long.

If the Deep Sea Witch was trying to induce complacency and disrupt the search by confirming the hostage’s safety, the shorter the length and the less information, the better.

However, Shin Siwoo had described his life in the submarine in great detail, and his voice, which was full of apology as if he was embarrassed by his own thoughts, was very peaceful.

It was hard to imagine that the Deep Sea Witch wouldn’t have thought of what Eloa had thought.
In other words, it was highly likely that the recording had been made without any falsehoods or lies, and that his safety was guaranteed.

-So… please don’t worry too much and wait for me. I’ll be back soon after I complete my trials. And there’s one more thing I want to tell you… Ah, it would be better to tell you when I get back. I’m sorry again for making you worry. Take care.

As the tape cut off and the voice message ended, the three women sighed deeply.

“That’s a relief… It’s really a relief.”
“I thought Siwoo would be doing well wherever he went.”
“Well, he’s whose disciple, after all.”

While he was living a more comfortable life than they had imagined, they didn’t feel even a little bit sorry for the hardships they had gone through.
What could be better news than the fact that their beloved lover, whose life or death was uncertain, was safe and sound?

“The search must continue.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s move the search base to the coast near Auckland.”

Of course, that didn’t mean they were going to sit around and wait for him to return.
There were still many possibilities, and he might have been hypnotized by mental magic.

They were about to move immediately to narrow down the search area by analyzing the surrounding ocean currents.

“What’s this?”

Eloa and Sharon, who were about to get up to resume the search, found another cassette tape tucked away in the corner of the box’s cushioning material.
While the letters, photos, and the recording they had just listened to were neatly packaged, this one looked as if someone had hastily shoved it in.

“It seems there was another tape left. Let’s check it out.”

The lovers gathered again.

-Click!

They rewound the tape to the end and then played it.

-Rustle, rustle

The sound that followed was different from Siwoo’s recording.
Unlike the previous recording, where the sound was clear, albeit of poor quality, because it had been recorded with the microphone right in front of his mouth, this one sounded distant, as if it had been recorded secretly.

-Are you still writing letters?

There, they heard a woman’s voice with a tone as high as the twins’.
The unfamiliar voice probably belonged to the Deep Sea Witch.

-Yes, I have a lot of letters to send.

Siwoo’s voice sounded a little further away, so they could guess that the Deep Sea Witch had recorded this.
The three women sensed something was wrong and quietly made eye contact.
Then, they listened to the sound coming from inside.