City of Witches
chapter-307

1.

Late at night, when even the moonlight was hiding behind the clouds and the insects were fast asleep.

Inside a certain dimly lit room, the twins’ whispers could be heard, accompanied by the sound of bubbling liquid.

“Odette, do another check. This isn’t it.”

“Huh? Alright, wait for a bit, Sis…”

This place was the alchemy room, located right next to the library. Inside, Odile and Odette were working, racking their brains together.

Since this room was Countess Gemini’s property, an actual chaebol, it was filled with cutting-edge equipment and high quality materials that could make witches that dedicated their lives to alchemy drooled in envy.

There were hundreds of alchemy-related equipment lined up inside, from complex distillation tubes, centrifuges, scales, mana-powered heating plates, precisely measured test tubes, and various reagents.

Covering their bodies with oversized robes, the twins were accompanied by an opened book that they placed under a dim lantern.

Odette was busy preparing the materials that they needed, while Odile was drawing a magic circle to heat up the cauldron they were using.

The book they were using as a reference was a rather thick book.

It was the second volume of the ‘Forbidden Potion Formula’ that they found today in the old library.

The twins were really desperate right now.

Until a while ago, they thought they were fighting on the same ground as Sharon to win Siwoo’s love.

They genuinely thought that they were equal in position.

But, when they happened to see Siwoo and Sharon having sexual intercourse, they realized that the relationship between those two were far deeper than they expected.

Moreover, they also realized that Sharon possessed a certain charm that they couldn’t even dream of having no matter how hard they tried.

That was the reason behind their desperation that was so deep to the point that they wouldn’t even hesitate to take up the monkey’s paw.

After meticulously scouring through the library to look for a move that could perhaps shift the tide of the battle to their favor, they finally found the answer inside this potion book.

Without a shred of hesitation, they immediately started working to concoct the potion they needed.

A considerable amount of time had passed since they started working on it.

Shadow was casted on their faces thanks to the dim lantern light.

Their bright, purple eyes, glinted with madness, the kind of glint that one would see in a mad scientist’s or an unhinged witch’s eyes.

“Odette, the book said to inject the furnace with mana for 3.3 seconds five times.”

“Ugh… I can’t do that, Sis… It’s too hard…”

“Fine. Move away, I’ll do it myself.”

In truth, Gemini’s self-essence magic didn’t really have a relation to Alchemy.

However, a witch’s apprentice was similar to a medical student.

Just like both a surgeon and plastic surgeon had to learn about the human body as a whole in their students’ days, as an apprentice, the twins also had to learn about all the magic systems that were currently relevant.

This was also the reason why they were learning Elemental Magic from Sharon.

From all the things that they had learned, the thing that the twins excelled the most at was potion making.

Well, they only studied the subject earnestly because they could cause all kinds of mischief with it, but still, they were pretty good at it.

“This is even harder to make than the potion that made Master grow a beard a long time ago…”

“Even the potion that could make people sleep for three whole days isn’t as hard as this one to make…”

The first potion that they were talking about was the ‘Viking Potion’ that could make anyone who drank it grow a beard.

While the second potion was the ‘Hibernation Potion’.

Basically, it was a potion that they made because they wanted to sleep all day long without anyone disturbing their sleep so that they could skip all their classes altogether.

Both potions were rather difficult to make, but the difficulty still fell short compared to the one they were currently making.

Maybe because they got the formula from the second volume of the book, the difficulty was a few levels higher.

What they needed to do here was to place all the meticulously gathered ingredients into the furnace that was powered by mana. The problem here was that they had to inject their mana to heat the furnace up at the right timing so that the potion could be concocted properly.

After a long struggle, the twins finally managed to make a pretty-looking purple potion.

-Fizz!

“Phew…”

“Finally… After a long, tough fight…”

Odile finished her potion making by putting the steaming flask into ice water to cool it down.

Now, they only needed to take one more step left.

“If we put in the reagent and a snowflake pattern is formed inside, that means we succeed!”

It was simply a waste of both time and material if they were to consume the potion just to check if they succeeded in making it or not.

That was why most potion formulas would come with a reagent that the potion maker could use to check if their potion would work or not.

The clear liquid in Odette’s hand was the reagent for this particular potion.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

“We’ve already failed three times… Surely, we’ll succeed this time…”

“Odette! You’ll jinx us!”

“S-Sorry, Sis…”

The twins gulped as they dropped a few drops of the reagent into the flask.

When they did, a pretty-looking snowflake bloomed inside the flask.

“Woah…!”

“We did it…!”

As if celebrating the twins’ successful endeavor, a few more snowflakes bloomed inside the flask before fading away shortly after.

“Sis, if we give this to Mr. Assistant…!”

“We can get our payback against Sharon unnie!”

The twins didn’t invite Sharon to the two days one night strip out of the kindness in their hearts.

While Sharon wasn’t aware that they were there when she was having a sex with Siwoo, after seeing such a scene that invoked their jealousy greatly, there was no way that they’d take it lying down.

And so, they created this new version of ‘Eros Potion’, one that was created specifically for males.

The ‘Sweet Potion’, the potion that would make anyone who drank it fell into a blind love with the first person they saw.

While the effect was slightly different than Eros Potion—which increased one’s lust while also increasing one’s affection toward the first person they saw—both of them would still produce a similar effect.

Their plan was to make Siwoo drink this potion, make him fall in love with them and show the scene off to Sharon.

This was the perfect payback that they had been working on.

“Alright, Odette! With this, our payback can finally begin!”

“We’ll teach her to never mess with us ever again, Sis!”

“Hehehe…”

“Fufufu…”

Though they had been staying up all night long, the sinister smile in their faces hid any hint of fatigue.

2.

At this point, one of you might have asked, ‘Why the hell would you go to the beach during late autumn?’.

Well, the thing here was, Blue Narrow Sea had a typical Mediterranean Climate, which meant that during the summer, the air would be hot and dry, while during the winter, the temperature wouldn’t drop too low.

The place had a similar climate to that of California's coastal areas.

In the twins’ words, if they were to come during this time period, while the water would be colder than during the summer, they would still be able to swim around as much as they liked.

It was early in the morning. The carriage that Siwoo, the twins and Sharon were in, stopped in front of Flora’s Tailor Shop.

By the way, Siwoo tried to visit Eloa this morning, but she didn’t even open the door for him.

Though, it wasn’t like she outright ignored him. She told him, ‘I’ll be fine, just go on ahead’ and ended the conversation there.

He could try to coax her, but there was simply no time to. The one who invited him to the picnic was the twins and it would be rude to them if he were to keep them waiting any longer, so he decided to obey Eloa and went on ahead.

As for why they went to the Tailor Shop first instead of going straight to the beach…

Well, to go to the beach, one had to wear proper attire for the occasion first.

In other words, they were here to get themselves a nice swimsuit.

“Do we really need to go this far just for a swimsuit, though?”

Siwoo asked dumbfoundedly.

He thought that they’d just pick up something from the Border Town and be done with it, but…

They went on ahead and asked for a custom-made swimsuit in this Tailor Shop instead.

“Of course! Swimsuit and fashion go hand to hand and you don’t need me to tell you what fashion means to a Lady, right?”

“We always get a matching swimsuit from here! They always finish our orders nicely and quickly!”

The twins were visibly excited.

Pushing and pulling Siwoo from both sides, they dragged him to the Tailor Shop that resembled a church.

This was the same Tailor Shop that he visited with Amelia back when they were trying to get a suit for him.

They went to this place twice, once when he was still a slave and once when he lost his memories.

Just like a church, the shop had a majestic air and an extraordinary solemnity that made it hard to believe that the place was a Tailor Shop and not a church.

“Hello, Ms. Arabesque!”

“Hello!”

“My, it’s been a while isn’t it? What are you lively Gemini Ladies up to this time?”

“We want to get another matching swimsuit!”

“Please make us a good one! We’ll wait patiently!”

The twins cheerfully raised their hands as they greeted the shop’s owner.

Flora, who was holding her tobacco pipe with a languid expression as always, accepted their greeting while pushing out the smoke out of her mouth.

From how friendly they were to each other, it was safe to assume that the twins visited this place often.

Then again, the twins had always worn matching clothes, so chances were that all their clothes came from this place.

At that moment, Flora slowly turned her gaze towards Siwoo.

“Hm? Aren’t you that kid from last time? Everyone’s been talking about you lately, hm?”

“Yes. You remember me?”

“I’ll never forget any customers that I personally made their clothes for.”

Flora tapped her head, trying to emphasize her point.

Siwoo felt a little surprised though, since she didn’t show as much interest in him as other witches did.

He speculated that it was probably because she had long given up her interest in magic and raising her rank, and was now completely focused on making clothes.

Of course, this kind of reaction made Siwoo feel elated. Ever since he came back to Gehenna, he felt like he had turned into a rare Pokemon or something.

“So, I assume that I’d need to make swimsuits for everyone here too?”

“Yes!”

“H-Huh? Me too?”

“Of course! Why do you think we brought you here with us, Unnie?”

“T-Thank you…”

Sharon, who thought that she would be just tagging along, was surprised by the twins’ words.

Of course, she’d try her best to not make the twins pay for her swimsuit.

She still had a conscience, after all. There was no way that she’d be that impudent after ignoring her contract with Albireo twice.

“Alright, why don’t we start with the twins’ swimsuit first?”

3.

Only after the twins and Sharon were done did Siwoo get his turn.

Flora was undoubtedly a master of her craft.

This was especially true given the fact that she managed to make high quality clothes for three people in less than fifteen minutes.

Though, swimsuits in general would need less time to make than normal clothes due to them only covering the necessary parts of the body (probably), but her speed was still worth noting.

When she saw Siwoo walking through the veil that covered the measuring room, Flora let out a smile.

“Well, look at the man. Not only did you nail a Baroness back then, you also nailed a Countess’ apprentice witches and a famous Elemental Witch in one go.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Oh, no need to be modest. All three of them told me to make the swimsuits look as pretty as possible. Especially the twins, they were really pushy about it. Well, they always are pushy about things, but they’re even more pushy than usual this time.”

“They’re just excited for the picnic.”

It was an awkward topic for him, but thankfully, Flora didn’t ask any further questions.

Instead, she started making his swimsuit in the air without even taking up his measurements.

Now that he got a chance to look at it again, he realized how sophisticated her control over her telekinesis was. The precision was almost at the same level as a surgeon’s during a surgery.

“I don’t need to take another measurement for you. Do you want me to make it loose or tight, like spandex tight?”

“Just make them like normal shorts, can you?”

“Alright. You’re the only man whom I made three separate clothes for, so you can be more proud of yourself.”

“Thank you, it’s my honor.”

After that, she started to sew a Hawaiian pattern on the black fabric.

At that moment, Siwoo was struck with curiosity.

He knew that Flora had abandoned her advancement in magic for the sake of making more clothes since she liked it so much.

But he never knew what her self-essence magic was.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Ask away, I’m bored anyway.”

“Is your self-essence magic related to weaving?”

Hearing that question, she turned her gaze towards Siwoo.

“Hm? Why are you asking that?”

“Well, they said that each witch has a unique self-essence magic, so I’m curious.”

“I see. Well, it isn’t like it’s something I need to hide. My self-essence magic is related to weaving. In fact, I made all my clothes using my magically spun thread.”

“Ahh…”

“The clothes I made naturally grants the wearer some resistance against all types of magic, but I honestly rather make clothes for the other witches to doll themselves up instead. Don’t wanna see my creations all tattered and battered, you know? Anyway, try this out.”

“You’re done already?”

During the duration of that short conversation, she was done making his swimsuit.

Since she had been adding some floral and tree patterns into the swimsuit, he thought it would look frivolous to some extent, but it actually looked nice and simple.

“I don’t put anything special in your swimsuit. The witches’ swimsuits though, are different. Look forward to it, okay? I put some serious effort into making them.”

When he tried on the swimsuit in the dressing room, it fitted his size perfectly.

It was also extremely comfortable to wear, even more comfortable than your average underwear.

“Not bad.”

After trying out the swimsuit and putting on his clothes, Siwoo went back to the carriage.

***