City of Witches

1.

As soon as Diana left the host club, she bought a new Witch Board at a nearby store.

Then, she bought some ice cream at a cafe that she had been eyeing from yesterday before she started reviewing today’s games.

Since she memorized all the turns they had taken, she reenacted them on the board slowly.

“Huu…”

She recreated the moments when Siwoo effortlessly blocked all of her attacks.

And all the disorganized moves that managed to shake her up.

After doing that for a while, one single thing popped into her mind.

“If I just kept on following the standard strategy, I would have won…”

Looking back, both games somehow could be simplified into a single pattern.

Siwoo would make an erratic move, then Diana would try to stop him.

Then, she’d get impatient, tried to do something and ended up getting caught in his tricks.

But, the most frustrating thing about it was…

“Why Dispel Pin…?”

Even in Witch Board, Dispel Pin was considered an ineffective strategy.

Generally speaking, it was a difficult strategy to pull off and even if one managed to pull it off, there wouldn't be a high reward to be reaped.

It was a high-risk, low-reward strategy that would leave both the one using the strategy and the one falling for it at a loss.

In other words, it was the kind of strategy that one would only use for fun.

But today, she was hit by more Dispel Pin than she had ever been in her entire life playing the Witch Board.

It was only natural that she reacted this way.

“Still…”

Though, looking back, her losses were still losses.

No matter how strange his strategy was, it was a fact that he managed to figure out her intentions and gained victory through his strategic maneuvers.

But still…

“Urrgg…!”

No matter how much she tried to think about it, it still angered her so much.

“How dare…”

A fool who doesn’t understand the basics properly…!

“Using such trickeries…!”

In this state, it was hard for her to make a calm and collected evaluation of the game.

After all, her pride had been hurt from all the losses.

“Just wait…! Tomorrow…!”

His strategy was nothing short of a wild card.

Which meant, there was no way he’d be able to utilize it multiple times in succession.

Twice was the limit for such a strategy to succeed.

Diana firmly believed that the reason why she lost twice today was due to bad luck and she had been letting her guard down.

And so, she made preparations for tomorrow.

2.

“Welcome, Ms. Diana.”

“Prepare the Witch Board. And the drinks.”

The next morning, 6 am.

Diana didn’t even bother to eat breakfast today and went straight to the host club, telling herself that she’d win for sure this time.

She believed that all the strategies and countermeasures she had come up with were perfect.

And so, with fiery spirit, she entered the club, fully prepared to repay all the humiliations from yesterday.

“You seem to be in a hurry today. Do you have another plan for the day?”

Diana felt her heart starting to palpitate when she heard Siwoo say such words, as if he didn’t know what was going on.

Of course, her heart’s palpitation came from her anger.

She detested the expression on his face, his sly attitude, his unconventional playstyle, and the fact that he was a male witch.

“Huu…”

But, as a noble, it was inappropriate for her to express her feelings directly like that.

Even if her dissatisfaction was so great that she could barely prevent it from showing, she still had to treat him politely and made it so that he’d notice it instead.

But, she still felt that at the very least, she had to get some words in.

“I dislike you.”

“Is that so? Then, why are you coming to visit me so early in the morning every day?”

Unknowingly, Diana was pouting her lips as she spouted those words that were filled with discontent.

Since Siwoo was in his host mode, he took her words without batting an eye.

“That flippant attitude of yours. I dislike it.”

“Understood. I’ll do my best to fix it from now on.”

“Hmph…!”

Towards his attitude that refused to give in to her words until the very end (at least in her view), Diana let out a snort before plopping on the sofa rather rudely.

Their current score was 2 to 2.

If Diana were to lose the next match, that meant a beginner succeeded in reverse sweeping her.

Before the game began, Diana got another word in.

“I assume that Dispel Pin is your specialty or something?”

Siwoo hesitated a little before answering that question.

“Well, I don’t know much about magic, but I have some experience in interpreting and destroying magic formulas.”

“That won’t happen this time.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

Diana raised her eyebrows, glaring fiercely at him.

Then, they proceeded to start the game, arranging their pieces in the same way as their previous games.

Diana, who followed the standard way of playing…

And Siwoo, who went on doing whatever he wanted.

But this time, there was a difference.

Diana, who previously would lay the groundwork and slowly build up her strength, went on the aggressive from the very beginning.

The way Siwoo deployed his Dispel Pin was like ‘setting up landmines’.

Since he had planted it all over the board, it made it seem like a surprise attack.

Previously, Diana had been too occupied with building her strength, that was why she ended up not doing anything to prevent him from setting up those landmines.

As a result of that, she was beaten down the moment she thought that she had won.

“Heh…”

Since she knew the problem with her previous strategy…

She promptly changed it.

As long as she kept on pushing the offensive, forcing him to respond to all her smaller-scale fights…

He definitely wouldn’t be able to utilize complicated strategies like the Dispel Pins.

Slowly, the corners of her mouth were twisted into a sly smile.

She’d always do this whenever things went her way.

Seeing the way Siwoo tried to respond to all her moves in a fluster made her smile grow deeper.

“Hmph…”

Thanks to this, Siwoo’s turn took longer due to him needing to put more effort in thinking.

Which was understandable, since he couldn’t utilize his greatest strength, the Dispel Pins anymore.

Hmph, this is the difference between someone who could only use underhanded tactics and a distinguished apprentice witch who has been practicing the basics from the grounds up.

There’s no way someone like you could beat me, who has mastered all the basics!

“What sharp moves… Are you having a bad day? You are more aggressive than usual today.”

Ha! Look at you!

You’re so cornered that you’d say something like that!

In Witch Board, there was an unwritten rule where one shouldn’t talk about anything that was related to the game. But, since she was being so proud of herself, Diana just lifted her chin high.

“You look pretty frustrated. What? You can’t use anything else other than Dispel Pins?”

“True, Dispel Pin is a little hard to use in this situation. Alright, I’ll do that instead.”

“Do your worst. I’ll show you what proper magic looks like.”

After that exchange of words, their battle continued.

Siwoo, who had been frantically trying to defend from her attack, suddenly took a different stance.

He started starting his own small-scale fights, doing exactly what Diana had been doing.

“Fighting fire with fire, I see. Are you confident that you can beat me that way?”

Up until this point, Diana didn’t give it much thought.

Since he wanted to fight fire with fire, she figured that she’d entertain him for a while.

Since it wasn’t like he’d last long anyway.

Just like that, an endless battle between the two of them started.

Reckless skirmishes where they’d plunder runes and passes from each other repeatedly.

“...”

After a while Diana could feel her head getting hotter and hotter.

All those small-scale fights had started to give her a terrible headache.

Since the fights were small-scaled, she didn’t really need to think much about them, but she couldn’t afford to be careless in this situation.

Because if she did, there was a great chance that it’d cost her the whole game.

“U-Ugh…”

In Witch Board, the players would start five to six different fights at once normally.

But that wasn’t the case with Siwoo. He didn’t even bother to stop at ten or fifteen, he went ahead to start twenty different fights at once.

He decided that he might as well start an aggressive mud fight so that she’d have trouble handling it.

That was his countermeasure against her aggressive moves.

“What on earth are you thinking…?”

This was another strategy that Diana wasn’t familiar with.

As this was the equivalent of a dogfight where they’d grab each other’s hair and drag each other’s face to the ground.

She inwardly complained, ‘What’s with this uncouth game!’ as she tried to respond to his onslaught.

But, the dogfight had already started, so she couldn’t just back down. Since the first one to back down would definitely be the one who ended up losing.

“Ah…”

The erratic fights all over the board made Diana having troubles keeping up with things.

Only after Siwoo loosened up his offensive was she finally able to take a breather.

That was also when she finally had the lenience to look at the board at a wider perspective instead of her narrow field of vision.

“Huh?”

At first, she thought that she had seen it wrong.

But, even after she rubbed her eyes to take a closer look, she still arrived at the same conclusion.

Her loss was already decided.

All this time, she thought that they were having back and forth fights.

Whenever she got hit once, she’d hit him back and vice versa.

Though this wasn’t an orthodox way of playing, she thought that she should give him credits for being able to go this far against her.

But, after she took a look at the board again, she realized that the odds were completely against her.

The number of runes they had were close to each other’s, but all the runes that she needed were occupied by him.

Compared to her, whose formation was in disarray after that dogfight, Siwoo was ready to finish her off at any time.

This difference was quite massive.

It was like her going to the ring with only bandages and freshly applied salve against him wearing a full-plate of armor.

She didn’t even know how to get away from this situation.

I’m gonna lose…?

While her mana orbs were still intact, she had a strong feeling that she’d lost the game soon enough.

She really thought that he’d be out of breath too after that messy dogfight, but…

He had been preparing for this…? While doing all that…?

How…?

If he really did this intentionally…

That means he isn’t even a human.

He’s a monster…

As Diana was dumbstruck by this unimaginable result…

-Tak!

Suddenly, a way out presented itself.

If Siwoo were to hold his formation and come at her like that, it would only be a matter of time before she got defeated.

But, for some reason, he decided to recklessly continue their dogfight instead.

Even though it was clear that the fight was for nothing.

And so she took this opportunity.

She quickly countered his attack and stole the momentum.

This was something that happened often.

Sometimes, one’s field of view just narrowed significantly and they became unable to see the flow of things, just like what happened to Diana just now.

Unable to tell whether one was in a favorable spot or not.

She assumed that this was exactly what happened to Siwoo.

Instead of trying to strengthen his formation and solidify his position, he wasted his moves on places that wouldn’t affect the overall flow of the game instead.

So, she desperately fought back.

She perfectly utilized the opening that her opponent foolishly made.

The possibility that he had only been winning because of ‘luck’ instead of skill put her mind at ease.

“There. I won.”

It didn’t take long for her to turn the previously unfavorable situation into a victory.

Grabbing the sweet fruit at the last minute.

She timidly clenched her trembling fists, relishing on this pleasure that victory had brought her.

“That was an amazing game. I can’t beat you at all.”

“That’s what happens when you start an erratic fight like that. It’s just hard to make any follow ups after that.”

“The current score is 3 to 2. I lost.”

Hearing that made Diana feel extremely excited.

Of course she didn’t say it out loud, it was easy to tell how she felt by seeing her twitching lips and flaring nostrils.

Well, I’ll admit it.

Even though you kept using those bizarre strategies, you do have some skills.

“You’re also quite amazing yourself. If it was another apprentice witch and not me, they’d definitely have lost without being able to put up a fight. For a man, you are quite remarkable.”

“Is that so?”

“If you didn’t do this move, I would have lost.”

Feeling generous over her victory, she gave him advice and even praised him.

“Anyway, good job. I almost lost to you because I let my guard down.”

“Please, you’re too kind. I’m the one who has learned a lot from you, Ms. Diana.”

Diana stood up from her seat.

“Alright, I’ll come again when I have free time.”

“Hm? You won’t be coming back tomorrow?”

“Why should I? I’ve already won.”

They hadn’t actually decided on a best of five, Diana was the one who did on her own.

Seeing Siwoo’s flustered expression, she let out a mischievous smile.

She didn’t even bother to hide it anymore, as she even went out of her way to show her teeth to him.

“Sorry, but I don’t like bullying someone who’s clearly worse than me at the game. Anyway, that was quite fun. I’ll take my leave now.”

Feeling refreshed after saying that last line, Diana left the host club.

For some reason, the sun shone especially brightly today.

3.

Siwoo stared blankly at the Witch Board.

Then, he turned his gaze to the door, where Diana had just left without even letting him escort her out.

“Did I mess up somewhere?”

Somehow, things derailed from his plan.

His goal was to grow closer to Diana and get some help for his magic research.

In order to do that, he figured that the best course of action was to meet her as often as possible.

“I should’ve just gone for it instead of going easy on her like that…”

Siwoo noticed that Diana was the type of person who hated to lose, even though she pretended otherwise.

That was why he was worried if he were to thoroughly defeat her in that game, he’d end up hurting her pride too much and she wouldn’t come back ever again, so he decided to give the win to her.

He never expected that she’d feel satisfied with just that and left the club immediately.

Seriously though, didn’t she get one of her wins when I barely even know how to play?

Siwoo complained that if it was the twins who played with him, they would never count that game as legit and would proceed to demand a rematch.

Now, he understood the saying that apprentice witches were like a ball that you’d never know where it would bounce to.

Well, fully grown witches also fit that saying, but it fitted apprentice witches even more.

In Siwoo’s view, the difference in their skills was already obvious.

After his first victory against Diana, he believed that he could win no matter what she tried to do.

Ultimately, this game was all about interpreting and building up spells, something that Siwoo was extremely good at.

All this while, he hadn’t even removed his eyepatch, but if he did, the gap between their skills would be even more insurmountable.

But…

“Playing it like this is fun.”

He was actually enjoying this game quite a lot.

Siwoo stretched his body a little before going to the dressing room to prepare for his job today.

Well…

Let’s just hope that she’ll visit me again soon.

He thought silently.