Chapter 64
.
Certainly, Lady Kihased….
No, someday I’ll have to tell her apart from her apprentice.
Hearing Lady Rin’s words reminded me of something.
A few days ago, on the day I experienced Team Leader’s magic for the first time.
It was amazing and pleasant to warp straight to the entrance, but hadn’t I also wondered whether it was really all right to use magic so recklessly, leaving oneself without any defenses?
Even I had thought all witches lived together in the Otherworld until I started this job.
That belief was so widespread it was practically common sense, and in all my time actually living here, I’d never once seen a witch in person.
Why was I so certain? If I’d ever encountered a witch even once, that face would have stayed with me for life and become my ideal type.
Besides, the department that helped and supported witches wasn’t easy to find either; it was hidden away like a secret base on Seoul City Hall’s fourteenth floor.
Since witches as a species had a population comparable to that of an endangered species, perhaps there were so few jobs that they could get tucked-away positions…. But there was no reason to hide them so thoroughly too, was there?
So I had assumed that witches living among people in the present world, like Neria and Team Leader, kept their identities well hidden, whether they lived like game-addicted shut-ins or worked as civil servants.
With Lady Rin’s explanation, the puzzlement I’d felt that day was resolved immediately.
"Now it’s your turn to answer. Why did you come here?"
Along with the short question, Lady Rin gazed at me.
Her witchlike, alluring eyes shimmered with an enchanting violet glow and caught my gaze.
If Lady Erzel’s case was the same, the apprentice witch must have eyes like that too.
But I’d only seen one master-and-apprentice pair so far, so it was too soon to be certain.
I simply kept it in mind, so I’d be able to recognize her if I happened to run into her someday.
"As you guessed earlier, I stopped by because of Team Leader. It’s a personal matter."
"Oh, a personal matter?"
"That’s right."
"A personal matter. Personal matter, huh…."
…….
"Even though I asked, judging by that answer, Eve and Erzel must have spoiled you rotten all this time. Right?"
"…Pardon?"
Just then, Lady Rin whispered.
With a smile that seemed to say she found me ridiculous.
"Damn. I’m suddenly getting really annoyed even though it’s nothing…."
…….
"Hey. Answer me."
"…Yes, Witch."
"If I asked, 'Why did you come here?' shouldn’t the reason naturally follow?"
"I suppose… that’s true."
"Hmm. Is this ‘personal reason’ some kind of contract that makes you explode and die if you say it aloud? If so, I’ll apologize. Sorry, human."
"…No such contract exists. I’m sorry."
"Really? Then I guess you just got too bold over nothing, huh?"
I followed Team Leader here after she lured me with a promise that she’d let me use her pussy to my heart’s content.
I couldn’t exactly say that, so I tried to back out once—but then, wouldn’t you know it.
When Lady Rin flicked her left hand, something resembling a vivid-blue fist appeared in midair and aimed itself at my head.
Even if she was only half-joking, she had drawn back a finger as if she meant to flick my forehead rather than actually crush me.
Judging by the wavering, blazing flames, it looked like fire magic… perhaps. Even so, I couldn’t be sure what it was made of.
If it really had been fire, I would have felt the heat first.
To be honest, it felt more like a hologram.
"Will getting hit a few times make it less personal?"
…In any case, I put off worrying about what kind of magic that was for the moment.
Compared to the witches I’d met so far, Lady Rin seemed to have a slightly eccentric personality.
Perhaps that’s why she’d kidnapped me herself on the subway before and wrested my phone number from me.
As I jotted a few words into the witch wiki in my head and backed away, she extinguished the blue fist and spoke again.
"Well, this is a joke."
…….
"If you make a commotion in the hallway, it could become troublesome, so keep going straight back. Straight. Until you see the last front door."
You’ll be working some proper overtime today.
Pushed along by sullen Lady Rin, I was kidnapped without even managing a scream.
*****
A home heavy with the scent of coffee.
That was roughly my first impression.
Lady Rin’s home was cozily wrapped in an aroma as though she used coffee beans as air freshener.
I couldn’t say for sure, but she seemed to like coffee.
Next came what I saw.
As soon as I passed the entrance, my eyes were drawn to the bookshelf covering the wall from end to end.
Where titles should have been, strange languages were scrawled in winding letters, and there were even books that were nothing more than several pages roughly bound together, without titles at all.
As if that weren’t enough, all sorts of books and papers lay scattered messily across the desk in the distance.
Come to think of it, Lady Erzel had briefly summed up Lady Rin as a ‘research addict.’
As I nodded, feeling like I understood why, Lady Rin let out a light yawn and asked again.
"So what did Eve come to see me about? I’d like you to tell me honestly instead of getting annoyed over something trivial."
In one hand she held a mug still steaming—who knew when she’d prepared it.
Naturally, its contents were coffee.
And to state the obvious one more time, there was none for me.
In the end, feeling awkward empty-handed, I answered while standing at attention as though in a military drill.
"Um…, I met her to help Team Leader replenish her mana."
"Sex?"
"That’s right."
"Hmm…. That really is the most obvious reason. Mana recharge."
…….
…….
Rin’s reaction ended there.
After that, only the sound of her slurping coffee filled the silence.
Team Leader had replenished her mana. It was the sort of story that could have graced the front page of the Witch News, yet it was ending this uneventfully.
If this story had reached Lady Erzel’s ears instead of Lady Rin’s, along with that sickly-looking smile of hers……, …well, anyway.
"…Why? What are you staring at?"
…….
Naturally, I couldn’t help but let a question mark appear in my mind.
For some reason, Lady Rin seemed not even to know that Team Leader had been a virgin….
It really did seem that, being less close to Team Leader than Lady Erzel, Lady Rin had been pushed back in the order.
Just as I was already half convinced, Lady Rin’s violet gaze swept over my appearance from head to toe.
I thought I’d grown fairly accustomed to witches’ beauty by now, but I tensed up all over from nervousness in the end.
"Don’t tell me you’re trying to have sex with me too? Sorry, but I have one regularly supplied battery. I don’t need enough for two people."
"Ah, no. I just wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do next."
As expected, no matter how I looked at it, she seemed unaware of Team Leader’s secret.
I updated the witch wiki in my head once more and bowed my head.
Relationships.
Eve Rikaon and Erzel Heka are practically childhood friends.
Eve Rikaon and Rin Kihased are in a relationship where only Rin unilaterally considers them friends.
+ Rin Kihased has a boyfriend.
That was when it happened.
"As for what you should do, in a little while I’ll hysterically mutter, 'She kept putting off taking care of Dorothy, but I guess she is too busy fucking her handsome subordinate.' Just bow at the waist like they taught you in kindergarten and go home."
…….
"I said go, didn’t I? Do you not know how to unlock a door?"
"No. I was wondering if I could ask you one question before I leave…."
"What question?"
Dorothy—that was the first time I’d heard the name today.
I cautiously asked because I wondered if it might be the name of Rin’s apprentice witch.
"Is Dorothy the name of the apprentice witch you asked me to look after last time?"
"Yeah. Didn’t I tell you? Dorothy Kihased. I’m Rin Kihased."
"Ah-ha…."
You had personally saved only the surname Kihased in my smartphone.
A venomous resentment seethed deep in my heart, but fortunately, being in front of a witch, it didn’t show on my face.
If I’d failed to hold it in, the nagging like earlier would have continued for another thirty minutes.
What showed along the corners of my mouth now was merely my usual business smile.
After confirming that Rin’s irritation from the hallway had subsided to a reasonable degree, I continued a little further now that the apprentice witch had come up.
"I can’t promise for certain, but I think I’ll have the time to take care of Dorothy soon."
"Really? You must’ve done it a lot with Erzel’s girl?"
"Yes…. ‘A lot’ may be a little premature, but I think I’m almost over my reluctance now."
"Erzel must be happy. Seems like only yesterday she was complaining to me about what to do, but now I look set to be the one whining."
"Did that happen?"
"After I’d taught her everything, she said she was afraid to have sex and just played games. Something like that. The drinks I bought to comfort her cost me…, ugh…."
"…Then what about someone like Dorothy…."
"Dorothy?"
After taking a sip from her mug, Rin stared into empty space.
"She doesn’t want to have sex either. Says it’s gross. At first she planned to grit her teeth and try it, but the more she thinks about it, the more nauseated she gets, so she can’t do it, or something."
"…A similar case, then. Not exactly the same."
"I thought at least a handsome man might be less gross, so I looked around, but she says there isn’t a single man who catches her eye, no matter how hard she searches. She says grinding wetly against squid, tomatoes, and pumpkins is too disgusting to do."
"Ah, so that’s why…."
Dorothy was an apprentice witch whose standards were so high that she couldn’t even bring herself to try it.
Hearing that story reminded me what career Dorothy had escaped into.
"So Dorothy dreaming of becoming an idol isn’t because she has any particular passion for singing or dancing…."
"She can make a living off her face. And while she was at it, she became a trainee in the entertainment industry to look for a man she might actually like. As you know, the result is still nothing."
…….
"That’s why I commented on your looks when we first met, remember? Don’t you?"
I couldn’t remember exactly what she’d said, since it had been so long ago.
But I did remember her staring intently at my face and making some sort of evaluation.
…I’d thought she was simply checking whether the apprentice witch would find me attractive, but apparently there had been another meaning.
Now that I finally understood, another worry slowly surfaced.
"Um, Witch, may I offer my opinion?"
"Go ahead."
"…If she doesn’t even like the looks of idols or actors, doesn’t that mean I don’t stand a chance either?"
Fortunately, I was on the better-looking side among ordinary people, but I couldn’t help being inferior to people who made a living solely from their looks.
When I asked, Rin stole a glance at my face.
After scrutinizing me like that for a moment, she answered simply.
"From that point on, that’s for you to handle, right?"
…….
"To begin with, you were selected as Eve’s type—in other words, a 'witch type.'"
*****
"How can I do that disgusting stuff with ugly bastards?"
"If I absolutely have to, I’ll just quit being a witch."
"…Ah, quitting altogether would be a bit much, so I guess I’ll look around for a boy I like."
To sum up everything I’d heard about the apprentice witch named Dorothy, it seemed something like this.
A witch whose standards were so high that, in the end, she chose the path of an idol instead of the unpleasant business of mana recharging.
What on earth was going on….
"Ugh…."
Could such a witch really be satisfied with me?
Team Leader had indeed chosen me herself, but if even the faces of idols and actors couldn’t satisfy her, wouldn’t an ordinary man like me make her wrinkle her nose the moment she saw him?
Neria was kind-hearted, and I managed to clear up her misunderstanding about sex, but if my looks got me rejected at the outset, there’d be no hope at all.
…….
No matter how hard I thought about it, the only thing that increased was the number of sighs I let out.
As I lay in bed thinking up one countermeasure after another, I heard a small beeping sound beside me.
"…No wonder I felt so weak."
The source of the noise was the thermometer I’d been pressing into my ear.
I pulled it out and checked the screen, which displayed the number 38.4°C.
"Haaah……."
I must have come down with the flu.