City of Witches

1.

Three days had passed since their class first started.

To keep their rival in love, Sharon Evergreen, in check, the twins had successfully implemented the following policies.

1) Be sure to make Sharon feel discouraged by showing her their mature appearance.

2) Be sure to trouble Sharon every time by exchanging places.

3) Be sure to make Sharon feel burdenful by staring at her during classes.

They praised themselves for being able to consistently implement such policies, but…

While they were talking just before going to bed last night, they suddenly realized something.

A certain remark from Odette started it all.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean, we’re trying to keep Sharon unnie in check, no? But, showing off our mature appearance won’t make her stop seeing Mr. Assistant. Staring at her during class will only make her think that we’re paying attention to her class!”

“What?”

Up until this moment, the twins had been excited over the fact they had been ‘doing things’ and were completely side-tracked from what they actually were meant to do.

This revelation made them unable to sleep for the night.

In the end, they decided to spend the whole night discussing their future plans with half-opened eyes.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, it’s time to wake up.”

As usual, when it was time for them to wake up, Head Maid Galina came in with a sharp gait.

Behind her, the four maids followed, immediately doing their set duties, such as opening the windows for ventilation, fixing the two young ladies’ hair that had turned messy, and putting their slippers on their feet.

“Haam…!”

“Hoaaahm…!”

“I will read through today’s schedule for you.”

Due to their all-night long discussion, the twins were unable to open their eyes properly. As the maids were giving a briefing on their schedule for the day and combing their hair, they let out a loud yawn.

After they were done washing their bodies, they’d need to dress up and attend Mr. Kelvin’s piano lesson in the morning.

Next, they’d have to attend their reading session that lasted until lunch.

After lunch, Sharon’s terrifying five hours class would start.

“I’ll be going to Tarot Town to repair some of our fireplaces and chimneys, so please follow Lena’s instructions and abide by the rest of your schedule, Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette.”

“Hoaam… Safe trip, Galina!”

“Hoaahm… See you…”

Once they heard that the Head Maid would be leaving the mansion, the eyes of Pecha, Lena, Vera and Masha, who was busy tidying up the room at this point, immediately lit up.

Since their only supervisor would be away, this would be the perfect opportunity for them to talk with the twins and spoil them to their heart’s content.

“Lena! Make sure to follow the schedule properly!”

“Yes, understood!”

Seeing how Lena was already about to burst into laughter, Galina could only let out a deep sigh.

2.

The twins’ bath time was part of their routine in the morning.

Originally, they only needed an hour for it, but Lena boldly ignored the schedule, skipped breakfast time and extended the bath time to two hours.

The reason for this was obviously to play around with the twins.

Even if Galina wasn’t there, there were still too many eyes and ears in the mansion, they couldn’t just play around wherever they pleased.

The twins also needed to consult the maids for their problems, so the extended bath time was a good thing for them too.

“Lena, I have a question.”

“Yes, please ask me anything, our dashing and beautiful Ms. Odile!”

“Me too, Pecha.”

“Yes, what is it, our sweet and cute Ms. Odette?”

Lena and Pecha were both diligently applying some shampoo to the twins’ hair, which were sitting on their bath chairs.

With red faces, due to the comfortable message they were given, the twins recounted the problem that had been keeping them awake last night to the maids.

Starting from the sudden appearance of Sharon as their rival and the things they had done to keep her in check.

As they recounted everything, the four maids listened to them while diligently washing their bodies.

“I think that’s all, right?”

“Yeah. Anyway, we’ve been working hard to keep her in check!”

“But, the more we think about it, the more we find out that we didn’t really do anything.”

“Since you all are more experienced in relationships, we want to consult you all about this.”

“I have a plan though. Firstly, I want you to make Sharon unnie’s black tea taste more bland than usual! Add a little bit more water in it!”

They were young girls who were at the age where their interest in relationships was at all-time high.

Romance between fellow employees of the mansion was prohibited, but of course, just like any other workplace, that didn’t stop some people from dating each other. So, coupled up with some romance books they’ve read, some of the employees became quite proficient in the matter.

“...”

After the twins finished telling them everything, the maids still didn’t say anything.

“W-What? W-Why aren’t you all saying anything?”

“D-Did we make some kind of mistake?”

Odile and Odette were puzzled by their silence. It wasn’t like they could turn around to see because of all the bubbles on their head either…

“Kyaaa! Ms. Odile, you’re so cute!”

“As expected, Ms. Odile is so cute, it’s just too much!”

“Ms. Odette! I knew it, they need to designate you as a cultural asset of Gehenna! It’s unfair for us to monopolize your cuteness to ourselves!”

“Can I tell this to the other maids, Ms. Odette? Can I?”

They genuinely found their passionate way of fighting cute.

Not to mention that they even said it as if they were trying to brag about it.

Then there was also the matter of them saying that they had been trying to come up with something all night long. Just thinking about it already made the maids squeeze the twins tightly in a hug.

“Aaah! I-I can’t breathe! W-Who’s hugging me?!”

“T-The shampoo! T-The shampoo got into my eyes…!”

Odile was unable to breathe properly since she received a sudden hug from all sides, meanwhile Odette started to tear up due to shampoo that got into her eyes.

After the commotion died down, the maids sat the twins down to give them a serious lecture about how to win a fight of love.

“What you did couldn’t be called keeping her in check at all!”

“Yes! You should fight the battle with the power of love!”

“Hmm… But, shouldn’t we find out first what kind of relationship does that witch has with Mr. Assistant?”

The first one who got into the matter was Vera.

Actually, from the way the twins told their story, it was already clear that the witch called Sharon and the Assistant the twins were obsessed with shared a close relationship.

However, since the twins were completely inexperienced in this, there was still a possibility that they were just misunderstanding things, so she asked that question, just to be sure.

“One thing for sure is that they aren’t just friends, Vera. I heard you told Odette that there’s no way a man and a woman who lives together are just friends.”

“Oh my God, so that’s what that question was about?”

Vera never expected that there was this kind of backstory behind Odette asking that question to her.

“Hm, then, I can’t just sit back and let this happen. Come here, I’ll give you two a special course about love, Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette!”

“Right! With the combination of your cuteness and our strategies, you will definitely win this fight of love, Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette!”

Masha clenched her fists tightly, as if she was the one who was going to march to the battlefield.

“Okay! We’ll listen to you!”

And so, the twins listened to what their maids had to say properly until the bathing time finally ended.

3.

When Amelia was overwhelmed by her negative thoughts, a witch threw her body into her to save her.

The witch, with dark blue eyes and auburn hair, was called ‘The Witch of the Dragons, Clara Scorpia’.

She was someone that was so famous that Amelia herself knew of her tales.

“...Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I just did what anyone else would do in that situation.”

She was known for intervening in various wars in the Modern World, though she stopped doing those things after Duchess Keter came to her and sent her back to her workshop.

Of course, she wasn’t the only witch that the Duchess personally ‘visited’.

But, even among them, the ‘Witch of the Dragons’ was someone who was extremely well-known, all because she was the only witch who got to keep her life after facing the Duchess directly.

Then again, it completely made sense for her to keep her life. Clara wasn’t an Exile, let alone a Criminal Exile. Her intervening in wars also wasn’t because of her personal greed or anything of that sort.

Her workshop, which she had called ‘nest’, was a cave located somewhere on a towering sandstone cliff in the middle of the desert.

The place was large, but the interiors couldn’t be called nice, even as a flattery.

There were miscellaneous items scattered around, including various magic papers. Since the owner of the place barely even decorated it, there was sand all over the wall and floor.

Even so, there was still something that managed to capture Amelia’s eyes; The pile of gold bars that were lying around in the corner of the cave. Maybe they would weigh around a ton.

At first, she actually dismissed the pile of gold, thinking that they were just some materials for alchemy or something.

When Clara saw Amelia’s eyes were drawn into the gold bars, Clara puffed out her chest.

She looked so proud of herself.

“What do you think? I got a lot of those! These babies are the fruit of my hard work!”

“...”

Too bad for her that the other person was Amelia.

The door to her heart was closed due to her fatigue and disillusionment.

She only nodded her head without showing much interest toward the pile of gold.

“You can sit over there, take a rest for a bit.”

“...Thank you.”

“Save your thanks! I’m just happy that I found another witch after a long time!”

Seeing that Amelia refused to respond to the joke she threw to ease the atmosphere, Clara left her at the table to make some tea.

Meanwhile Amelia, who was half-dragged here, finally got a chance to cool her head down.

Well, that didn’t clear the problem that was ailing her heart, of course.

Dark shadow still clung to her face, giving her a gloomy look.

Not long after, Clara came back with a teapot, some cups and some madeleines to go with the tea.

The tablewares she brought out were quite clean, which meant she had been storing them properly.

She casually plopped down in front of Amelia.

“Go ahead, drink.”

“Thank you.”

Amelia was in a daze.

The aftermath of the torrent of emotions that she had experienced before coming here seemed to have paralyzed some of her brain functions.

After she came here, she didn’t say anything except three thank yous.

“You’re really pretty, you know that?”

As Amelia lifted her cup and moistened her lips for the first time in months, Clara said those words to her.

She really was just saying what she had in mind.

Beautiful blond hair, as if coated with gold, elegant sky blue sky that could steal one’s breath away just by looking at them.

Even among the witches who were known for their beauties, Amelia’s appearance was unparalleled.

Though she looked quite unkempt due to her lifestyle, it still didn’t diminish her beauty.

“I’d give out all my gold if I could be reborn with this kind of beauty.”

“...”

Amelia didn’t know how to react to those words.

Besides, she was so tired that she only wanted to rest for now.

Clara stared at her.

She noticed that the witch in front of her was too tired to even hold a proper conversation.

Then again, this was normal, considering that she was about to kill herself just a few minutes ago. It would be strange, or even dangerous if she actually became talkative in this situation.

As she stared at Amelia, who was sipping her tea quietly, Clara quickly made a suggestion.

“If you go there, there’s a bathroom. I drew the water from an oasis, you can wash your body there. Over there is a bed, you can use it and rest there if you want. You seem to be too tired to talk anyway, so let’s do it later after you’ve rested up.”

“...Okay.”

“But! I want you to promise me one thing! Stop thinking about bad things! You can tell me what’s going on with you later, until then, just think of this place as your home and relax!”

Amelia looked at Clara with a surprised look.

Feeling a warm welcome she hadn’t felt in a long time, she nodded her head a little.

***

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