Chapter 661 – #134_A Peculiar Date (2)
#661
1.
I was lucky.
Today’s date destination was Dignity Town, the deepest part of Hexennacht.
The ostensible purpose was to go on a date and purchase the magical crops and medicinal herbs that Yebin had listed.
It was a good opportunity.
Not only could I observe the gate, but I could also take advantage of Linne being away from home to ask Alice and Yebin to search for the red branch hidden within the mansion.
“Master, I’m coming in.”
Siwoo, who had headed to Linne’s room early in the morning, was a little surprised.
Linne, who always insisted on wearing only black training clothes or a yukata, looked different than usual.
It was still all black from head to toe.
However, the kimono that wrapped around her body was decorated with a piece of oriental painting embroidered with splendid gold thread.
“Your clothes look good on you.”
If it had been just this, I would have thought, ‘Oh, she’s just dressing up.’
But what was this?
Linne was even wearing makeup.
In particular, the red eye makeup that extended along the corners of her eyes was as beautiful as plum blossoms in bloom.
Plum blossoms are a symbol of fidelity, but when Linne, who usually didn’t decorate herself at all, wore such makeup, it exuded a strange sensuality rather than fidelity.
“You’re wearing makeup too…?”
“It is beneficial to me if you feel desire.”
I understood what she meant.
It had been three days since the magic amplification failed.
Linne must have analyzed the cause in her own way and come up with an alternative.
Perhaps she judged that if Siwoo felt sexually attracted to her, the wave could manifest even if it didn’t exactly match her ‘taste.’
If that were the case, I would have to do something about her stiff way of speaking first…
But I didn’t bother to interfere.
“Well, okay. You look beautiful.”
After a trivial conversation, we left the bamboo forest of Hyangwolru and headed to the elevator.
The elevator descended endlessly, as it went down to the end of the huge underground city, the depth of which was hard to fathom.
Inside the rattling steel box.
Linne’s small back of the head was visible, as she was slightly ahead of Siwoo.
“Hmm.”
I got an erection.
I couldn’t help it.
I felt like Pavlov’s dog.
Recently, whenever I looked at the back of her head from this angle, it was always the same situation.
Just as I was awkwardly reloading by putting my hand in my pants, the elevator door opened.
As soon as the door that had been blocking my view disappeared, a huge noise pierced my eardrums.
At the same time, I was met with an amount of light that was almost blinding.
Siwoo opened his mouth.
I had looked down below when I crossed the drawbridge before.
But I never expected that such a different world would greet me so soon.
Unlike the residential area of Arcana Town, it was directly connected to the plaza, so the first scenery was vast.
The first thing that caught my eye in the open plaza was a witch’s cauldron.
However, the scale was extraordinary.
Underneath the brass cauldron, which resembled a blast furnace, a bellows that made a hissing sound created a hellish fire.
There were not just one, but four or five of them, so the area was naturally stained crimson like dusk.
“Come on.”
Siwoo, who had been standing there blankly, followed Linne.
If Arcana Town had maintained a scene like the Industrial Revolution era at the very least, Dignity Town was a separate landscape that had escaped the scenery of existing historical cities.
Huge gears of unknown purpose and pipes intertwined like vines everywhere.
When the occasional bursts of steam played a cacophony like a makeshift orchestra, Siwoo thought of the word steampunk.
Steampunk is based on a temporality that encompasses the past, present, and future.
In keeping with that atmosphere, the buildings surrounding the plaza, crooked like drunkards, were all different in size, standard, and architectural style.
Some buildings were made of shabby wood and slate materials that could be found in Border Town, while others were at least 10 stories high and had glass fronts.
Still others looked like a ‘witch’s house’ from a fairy tale, with huge distillation devices instead of chimneys, while others were in the shape of a pointed tower, with their tips reaching up to the upper town.
It was chaotic, chaotic.
If you turned your gaze away from the plaza to the street, the chaos would double.
Sometimes cars rolled on the firmly packed asphalt, sometimes horse-drawn carriages, and sometimes palanquin bearers walked with palanquins on their shoulders.
Even if I tried to accept it up to this point, the retro-feeling streetcars running on the railroad tracks that were suddenly laid down made the name of the witch’s city seem out of place.
There were so many witches that it was reminiscent of a rush hour subway, but as I looked around, the number of great witches among this large crowd was very small.
Well, it was natural, since only a few people stayed in Border Town even in Gehenna.
Generally, witches who prefer quiet places for research would not want to stay in such a place for long.
“It’s amazing.”
“This way.”
Perhaps that was why the witches, who had been looking at Siwoo with greedy eyes, turned their heads when they saw Linne.
There were also witches who smacked their lips with lingering eyes, but none of them directly spoke to her or flirted with her.
The first destination was a medicinal herb shop.
Following the signpost at the edge of the plaza, we entered an alley, and the noise that had been making my head spin subsided.
“It’s very gloomy.”
An alleyway that was completely blocked when two people passed by.
Dignity Town was so dark that not even a single ray of moonlight reached it, so all the lights had to rely on artificial lighting.
And perhaps because there was no room to install such infrastructure in the alleys, only a dimly glowing green light illuminated the area underfoot.
“……”
Linne didn’t seem to want to engage in trivial small talk, so she silently moved on.
After wandering through the winding and narrow alleyways like an ant tunnel for about 10 minutes, Linne stopped in front of a three-story wooden building.
It was no different from the other buildings that were closely attached to it.
If it hadn’t been for a wooden plank that could hardly be called a sign, I would have passed it by.
“Is this it?”
-Creak
Linne entered first without knocking.
As soon as the door opened, a thick cloud of smoke stung my eyes.
Siwoo, who had spent time studying abroad, immediately recognized the identity of the smoke.
The sour smell of dried grass pickled in vinegar being burned.
It was the smoke of a type of cannabis.
As if to match the exterior, the interior furniture was all made of wood.
It wasn’t very fancy.
Glass bottles filled with dried plants were densely placed on the shelves that lined the inside, and a two-pan balance and weights for measuring weight were scattered on the table.
Among them, there were also magical crops with the certification mark of the Jemernai Magic Tool Shop, which was strangely welcome.
A shop with no sign of anyone, even though the bell on the door rang.
I had guessed from the sign that had no intention of attracting customers, but the purpose of the workshop was 90%.
It seemed that business was just a hobby.
Siwoo, who couldn’t wait any longer, cleared his throat and opened his mouth.
“Excuse me.”
“Get out.”
A voice came from inside the space hidden by a curtain.
The shop owner who appeared was a witch who appeared to be of Latin descent.
Her hippie look, decorated with psychedelic colors and patterns, was impressive.
Between her fingers, she held a cigarette that looked like a piece of paper rolled up with a filter inserted.
“Haaam, it was a good time….”
The witch, who was complaining with her eyes glazed over, regained her senses as if she had been splashed with cold water when she saw Siwoo.
And when she saw Linne next to him, she made a face as if she had bitten into a bug.
She was exploding with curiosity and interest at the appearance of a male witch, which she had only heard rumors about, but she only felt uneasy about the sudden visit of the Sword Witch.
“W-what is it? Am I too drunk?”
“I came to buy something.”
“Kyaa! It’s real!”
The witch, who had been rubbing her eyes, seemed to realize that this was not a hallucination only after Linne spoke.
She screamed and was terrified.
“Sword Witch…. Why, why are you here?”
Linne was notorious as a walking natural disaster.
Even in Hexennacht, where the use of force was restricted, a one-on-one meeting with her was not a pleasant experience.
“Yes, as you said, I’d like to buy something.”
Judging that it would be no good to needlessly put forward the intimidating Linne, Siwoo directly engaged in the conversation.
Only then did the witch turn her attention back to Siwoo, stare at his face, and exclaim in admiration.
“Wow…. It’s a real male witch.”
The witch, whose bright eyes had returned, became hazy again.
She swallowed the saliva that was flowing from her mouth, then shook her head.
She was out of her mind, staring at other people’s faces, then glancing at Linne out of the corner of her eye.
“So, you came to buy medicine? Not for anything else?”
After a generous minute or so, the witch stepped inside the counter.
It seemed that she had finally relaxed, as she brought the cigarette back to her mouth.
“So, what items do you need? Just so you know, there are a lot of things I don’t have. I’m still in the middle of moving materials.”
Siwoo handed over the note that Yebin had written.
The owner took out the glasses that had been tucked into her cleavage and looked at the note.
“Hmm, red moss, Artemis mugwort, mandrake, Bellan fern, Angoldamcho, catnip…. Huh?”
The hippie witch, who had been reading out the items with a great sense of professionalism despite being flustered by the sudden visit.
“Huh?”
First, she looked at the note, then at Linne.
“Huh?”
Next, she looked at the note, then at Siwoo.
“Uhhh?”
Next, she looked back and forth between Siwoo and Linne.
Her pupils were shaking, losing their composure.
She was more surprised than when Siwoo and Linne first entered the store.
Because the items written on the note were, to anyone, materials for making a tonic or an aphrodisiac.
A male witch who had visited a secluded shop alone with Linne, who was famous for being desolate even among the Qliphoth.
And the list of medicinal herbs they were ordering were ingredients for an aphrodisiac?
A super-class scandal was unfolding before their eyes.
“Hey, hey.”
The witch glanced at Linne, then leaned forward.
I put my ear to her as she gestured.
“I won’t charge you, so can you tell me just one thing?”
“Yes.”
“You’re trying to make an aphrodisiac, right?”
The hippie witch was more skilled as a pharmacist than I had thought.
It was a mistake I hadn’t considered.
I was in a quandary because I couldn’t even tell if the rumor would be good or bad if it spread.
“Witch of Freedom.”
Linne stepped forward first.
“Y-you know me?”
“I know.”
Her expression, which had been excited that a famous person like the Sword Witch knew her witch name, was distorted at Linne’s next words.
“Your face, your name, your origin.”
She wasn’t stupid enough not to know what it meant.
It meant that she should keep quiet about this fact, and that she would come to her if she disobeyed.
At that time, she would be able to admire the silver of the blade in its beautiful scabbard.
“I swear. I’ll absolutely keep it a secret.”
The Witch of Freedom, who had turned pale, hurriedly packed the items.
Siwoo smiled wryly at the sound of the door locking as soon as we left the store.
