4. Working on the Weekend (2)

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After quickly getting dressed and heading outside, I found that a cold drizzle was falling.

I hadn't checked the weather forecast, so I hadn't known it was supposed to rain this weekend.

What terrible luck, having to go to work in weather like this.

I opened the umbrella I'd brought along with a pop and headed for the subway.

Fortunately, the subway was fairly empty.

Despite the weekend, the daytime hour, and the rain forming a consecutive combo, there was even a seat where I could sit.

The heavens must have taken pity on me after seeing how Neria had been tormenting me lately.

They must have thought that, since it was pitiful watching me suppress my lust over and over with a witch right in front of me, I should at least enjoy this much.

I swam through that shallow faith for quite a while.

When I checked the clock on my smartphone, it was already 11:20.

It was too tight to arrive by the time Neria had first suggested, but I thought I could probably make it by noon, which she'd mentioned afterward.

After that, well, I could just finish up after making small talk with the person called her master.

I still didn't know exactly why she wanted to see me, though….

'She said her shut-in disciple had even given her a handjob. Wouldn't that naturally make her curious?'

In any case, nothing dangerous would happen.

As long as I behaved respectfully, it would probably be fine.

Probably.

- The doors are opening.

When the time came and I got off the subway, I could smell the distinctive scent of rainwater even on this platform.

It seemed the drizzle was falling heavily around here, too.

Since that would naturally make the trip take longer than usual, I hurried out of the station so I wouldn't be late.

"Excuse me."

I'd taken only a few steps after opening my umbrella.

Someone called out to me from behind.

"Could I ask you for directions? It's my first time in this neighborhood."

"Ah…, I'm sorry. I'm here to meet a friend, too."

"Oh, I see…."

This again.

Asking for directions.

It was hardly surprising. It happened to me quite often.

If I included things like cult proselytizing, I felt like I experienced something like this three or four times a week.

Thanks to that, I was very used to hearing these sorts of questions and turning people down politely.

"What should I do…."

"……."

But this time, it was terribly difficult to simply go on my way.

Not because she seemed particularly troubled—

or because I was such a kind person—

but because of

that

appearance.

"Could you perhaps look at the map with me?"

"The map?"

"It's embarrassing, but I'm not very good at reading maps…."

"…Ah, I can certainly help with that much."

"Thank you…. I was worried you might be busy…."

"……."

Perhaps a young newlywed.

A sickly-looking young newlywed.

That was more or less my first impression.

From her clothes to even the small details of her hairstyle, she looked clearly a step older than a student, somewhere in her mid-to-late twenties.

And if I had to choose the prettiest person among people around that age, I thought I would name her first without much hesitation.

Soft, pale-blue eyes that looked familiar from somewhere.

Lustrous black hair sliding over her shoulders and across her chest.

And the curves supporting that hair, which kept drawing my eyes.

Despite her fragile impression, as though she might shatter if touched, she fit the scene perfectly, mingling with the rain that faintly divided us.

…Ah, the team leader was around that age too, so she could be one of the candidates, but she was ultimately a witch who would live forever without aging.

Among humans, this woman was the most beautiful.

At least among the people I'd seen with my own eyes, sincerely.

"Here it is. My phone."

"Just a moment."

"I'll hold the umbrella for you."

"…Thank you."

As I took the smartphone from her, we naturally drew closer.

And as we stood there looking down at the screen together, I couldn't help it.

I really couldn't help it, but my gaze turned toward the sight that had been dragged into the edge of my vision.

Naturally, her figure.

A figure that buoyed up her cascading hair and looked as though it would feel incredibly soft to the touch.

But since she was shorter than me, she merely pressed herself closer without noticing my gaze at all.

…Even though she was touching me a little.

As though this level didn't bother her in the slightest.

"I'm trying to get to this apartment marked here…."

"Hmm. Since the station is this way, according to the map, you should turn left up ahead and then…."

"Yes. Turn left and then…."

"……."

…No,

not just a little anymore,

but something very,

very blatantly pressed against me….

"…Turn left, then keep going straight…. Just continue walking straight along the road and you'll…."

It was a strange feeling.

"……?"

As I continued looking at the map she'd handed me, I happened to notice one thing.

It was this.

*****

"…Master."

"Our Neria, you've been doing well all this time. Your skin looks wonderful, too."

"Yes. I've been well. I've also been getting along with the male prostitute you prepared for me, Master. So there's something I'd like to ask you first."

"You're still as bold as ever. I like that. But to me? …You want to know why the two of you arrived together?"

"…Yes."

"We just met right outside. Does that answer your question?"

A person heading for the same apartment as me.

No—the fact that she was a witch.

She had even entered the same unit on the same floor, and now she smiled sweetly at me.

"…What are you? You knew she was my master? You said you didn't know what she looked like."

"…Of course I didn't know…."

"Then did Master recognize you and bring you here?"

"Uh…."

I didn't know.

Rather than recognizing me, hadn't it genuinely seemed as though she was asking for directions?

Keeping my mouth shut about the other strange things I'd sensed, I tilted my head in confusion, and the woman called Master spoke in my place.

"She didn't recognize you. She was planning to mark you down for a 'magic recharge' later."

"……."

"……."

"I didn't know you were the man she's been seeing lately."

She'd planned to squeeze me dry if she happened to see me passing by.

In Korean, that would roughly be what it meant.

"I'll introduce myself properly. I'm Erzel Heca, Neria's master and a water witch."

"…It's a pleasure to meet you, Witch-nim. My name is Nam Dowon, and I belong to the Apprentice Witch Rehabilitation Support Department at Seoul City Hall."

Erzel greeted me as she extended her hand.

I hesitantly took her hand and returned the greeting, and she gave me a faint smile before lightly moving our joined hands up and down.

With the perfectly ordinary strength of a woman's grip, not particularly powerful despite her being a witch.

Perhaps because of that,

even upon seeing her again, she still had the air of a young newlywed who had removed her wedding ring, so I felt as though I were secretly doing something wicked.

A newlywed whose husband had gone away on a business trip.

And beastly affair sex loud enough to carry into the next house.

It wasn't an uncommon trope these days, was it?

Of course, doing something like that with Neria's master would mean accepting that yesterday's Compliment Coupons would be torn into a thousand pieces, but.

"Nam Dowon. Nam Dowon…. I'll remember that. Since you're the man helping my disciple, it would only be polite for me to remember your name, too."

"Thank you…."

Fortunately, Erzel had only been interested in me at first; now that she knew who I was, she seemed to have given up cleanly.

The advances she'd made by subtly pressing her shoulder and breasts against me had vanished without a trace, too.

See? Even though she was holding my hand to shake it, she wasn't doing anything else.

So I could probably start relaxing now.

I gave an awkward smile at Erzel's words and carefully pulled my hand free from her grasp.

…As an aside, I deliberately ignored another pair of pale-blue eyes right beside me, following that movement.

"I've heard all about you. Eve praised you so much, saying she'd really found a good one this time."

"Haha…."

Found a good one. Wasn't that more or less treating me like a decent stray cat?

The thought crossed my mind, but there was nothing I could do about it.

No matter how much witches resembled humans, they clearly didn't think of us that way.

Since the class system had still been alive and well among humans until fairly recently, being treated like a cat wasn't especially surprising.

"…But you really are worth praising. Would it be fair to say that you're well-balanced?"

"…Oh, Witch-nim, wait…."

And in a way, petting a cat you liked whenever you pleased was only natural.

Erzel, whom I'd thought had given up cleanly, approached me first, unlike her disciple, and began kneading my left arm.

"Oh my…."

As befitted a witch, Erzel too was a beauty capable of shaking heaven and earth.

As a result, it did feel good when her slender fingers pressed firmly into me.

Her distinctive sickly image was also to my taste, so I even found myself imagining that dealing with her in bed would be all the more rapturous.

But….

…A single look from beside me, shooting daggers at me as though I were pathetic, was so fierce that

I had no idea how I was supposed to react.

"You seem to like exercise?"

"Master. What you're doing is sexual harassment in this day and age."

"…Rough men can be nice sometimes, too. I consider myself something of a gourmand. Especially when they think they've got the upper hand and whisper dirty things…."

"…Master."

"Do you happen to have any plans this evening…? Since it's Saturday, perhaps you could make plenty of time…."

"Master…!"

In the end, Neria couldn't stand it any longer and interrupted, but Erzel didn't even blink.

Perhaps she simply wanted to use me for a magic recharge; all she did was ask about my schedule.

I had never learned how to deal with a situation like this. (Come to think of it, there wasn't much the team leader had taught me in the first place.)

Still, I had enough common sense.

I chose the words least likely to offend her and forced them out.

"I'm sorry, Witch-nim. I'm currently doing my best for Neria-nim. Spending time separately with Erzel-nim would be…. …difficult, I think."

If I told her that the semen had to be used on her disciple, even Erzel couldn't really object.

It wasn't as though I were the only man in the world.

"…Hmm."

Fortunately, it seemed my answer had been fairly close to the correct one.

With her characteristic hazy smile, Erzel took a step away from me.

Then Erzel turned her gaze toward her disciple and said in a voice tinged with amusement,

"I suppose you are diligent, if you're meeting Neria even on weekends."

"……?"

"I hope I hear good news soon…. Besides, Neria is one of the apprentices I care about most…."

"……."

"Surely it won't just fizzle out after you've even gone as far as a handjob, will it….?"

"…S-surely not. Haha."

"I hope Neria discovers the pleasure of magic recharging soon…."

"…I'll do my best."

No. Wrong.

It wasn't that the idea of it fizzling out was wrong,

nor was it that the part about being diligent was wrong,

but the very beginning was wrong.

The reason I'd hurried over to Neria's house on the weekend

wasn't because I was some pervert who loved working weekends.

"……."

"……."

It was because Neria, blushing right beside you, had used you as an excuse to call me here.

"……I'll try, too, Master."

…Well, I wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but something in the conversation must have gone awry.

And since no harm was done, I didn't say anything.