City of Witches

1.

Gehena, the City of Witches.

It was a place created to serve the privileged witches, so it wasn’t surprising that the place was often described as ‘prosperous’.

The city was free from pollution caused by chemical fuels and piles of trash, leaving its natural beauty untouched.

Its buildings, preserved for generations, untouched by war and conflicts. Even the simple inns possessed a unique charm and resonance.

Both the witches and the citizens who served those witches enjoyed the peace that Gehenna offered.

And this had been going on for centuries.

However, all affluence came at a price, and Gehenna was no exception.

Underneath its warm and prosperous surface, a massive dark shadow loomed.

In this city, where everything was brimmed with elegance, there were those who were exploited and forced to atone for their sins. They lived in the shadows, unnoticed and ignored.

The slaves who didn’t belong to City Hall.

They were death row convicts, sent here by the governments back in the Modern World who had made deals with the noble witches.

Most of them were bought by Border Town smugglers to work themselves to death in the docks.

In most cases, they’d die before finishing their ten years of labor of working twelve hours a day, whipped, fed poorly, with no guaranteed days off, all while pushed beyond their limits.

But this was something that everyone in Gehenna accepted as normal.

After all, those people were criminals who had committed very serious crimes, and they were here to atone for their sins.

They didn’t even question whether this kind of atonement was right or wrong. If anything, barely anyone would even speak out against how unfair this kind of thing was.

Except for the victims themselves, of course.

Inside a dilapidated warehouse in the Border Town’s harbor.

The warehouse itself had been left to rot for decades ever since a new one was built. It was nothing more than an abandoned building.

With the constant drizzle in Border Town, the originally damp, dark and shabby warehouse felt even more like a sewer.

Naturally, the voices that came from inside it could be considered as nothing more than the squeaks of rats.

“Move away, it’s my turn now.”

“Fucking asshole, stop rushing me already. Get the fuck away, you pig bastard.”

On a pile of straw, a woman was lying there with her legs spread and her body limp.

Meanwhile, the two men started arguing while five other men lined up nearby.

In the middle of the warehouse, a fire made from broken wooden crates flickered as empty alcohol bottles rolled around.

There were around twenty men here in total, and they were all slaves; death row prisoners who were bought by the smugglers.

“Pig bastard? What did you just call me?”

The fat man, who had been arguing over who would get to have fun with the female slave before she got sold to the brothel, trembled with anger as he said that, his double chin quivering.

When he heard that, the muscular man who had been pinning the woman down adjusted his pants before moving forward.

The fat man might’ve been heavier, but the muscular man exuded a menacing atmosphere that was impossible for anyone to ignore.

“What? Got a problem, you pedo pig bastard? I used to beat fuckers like you to death back in prison. Be thankful that this isn’t a fucking jail cell.”

“You fucking prick, you think you’re hot shit, huh? So you killed a few guys and thought you’re the shit, huh? Do you think you’re the only one here who has killed anyone, you fucker?”

The fat man had been quietly putting up with this kind of disrespect for a while, but tonight, under the influence of alcohol, his arrogance got the better of him.

He grabbed a beer bottle from nearby with his pudgy hand and smashed it.

Everyone’s eyes were focused on him at once, and in the next second, the whole place was filled with mocking laughter.

Though the tension in the air was thick, no one thought that the fight would amount to much.

“Kahaha! Look at that idiot, he actually broke the bottle.”

“Dude, you wanna stab someone with that?”

The muscular guy chuckled as he pulled a knife from his waistband.

“Good, good. I’ve been wanting to kill you, you pig! Guess we’re having pork intestine soup tonight!”

“Muscle-bound freak, acting all tough now, huh?”

Normally, slaves weren’t allowed to do anything on their own, let alone touching women or drinking alcohol.

But these guys were the ’Ten Foremen,’ a slightly different kind of slave.

Slaves usually consisted of social outcasts, such as the mentally ill, criminals, murderers, or rapists.

It was too much to ask for the smugglers to keep a handle on these dregs of society that were thrown away by their own nations.

So, how did they get these bunch of lazy, disorganized rats to work?

It was simple, they put the most violent and ruthless ones among them in charge.

In exchange, they promised them slightly better treatment and a few perks to these guys.

Of course, at the end of the day, these perks amounted to almost nothing.

But humans, when pushed to the brink, would gladly turn on each other for something even as small as a piece of bread. This was something that those smugglers knew all too well.

And so, the Ten Foremen were assigned to keep the other slaves in line, handling the areas that even the middlemen couldn’t reach.

“Enough.”

Just as things were about to turn into a knife fight…

A man stepped in between them.

This whole time, he had been quietly watching them near the fire.

“Come on, Boss! You saw what happened! This fucker called me a pig bastard…!”

The man had a bald head and a dangerous look in his eyes.

There was a long scar running across his face.

He was Jack the Cutter, the leader of the gang.

“Kwak!”

Jack grabbed the fat guy by the scruff of his neck and slammed his knee into his nose without hesitation.

He didn’t stop after the first hit.

Instead, he rammed his knee into the fat man’s face over and over, making sickening sounds of bones crunching echoed through the place.

.

The fat man, who had been squealing in pain, eventually crumpled to the ground. Jack nonchalantly brushed off the shattered teeth stuck to his knee and took a swig from a bottle.

“If you don’t like being called a pig, then try to lose some weight! Seriously, how much crap did you eat to turn into a fat pig like this, huh?”

“Ugh… I-I’m sorry… I-I was wrong…”

“What’s the point of us fighting each other anyway? Didn’t we agree to get along with each other? Alright, go now, finish what you started.”

“U-Uh…”

Jack patted the bleeding pig of a man on his shoulder, before sitting down. Meanwhile, the pig was still apologizing after causing a pointless fight.

The rowdy guys had gone quiet at this point.

Bunch of motherfucking morons.

Thinking that I have to stick with these morons for the rest of my life made me sick.

How long do I have to keep up this life?

In the beginning, during his first year in Gehenna, Jack had fantasized about raping some arrogant witch and escaping this damned city.

But, after finding out how powerful those witches really were, he couldn’t do anything but play as the boss among these idiots.

Any hope for revenge or dream of a better future had vanished.

All that was left for him was to endure this miserable life until he died.

He told himself repeatedly that this wasn’t the right life for him, but with no way out of it, all he could do was to keep his head down.

“Had enough of this?”

Jack, who was sipping his beer, suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice.

A soft, lazy voice whispered from right next to him.

Startled, he turned and saw a witch standing beside him.

The witch had elegantly curled platinum hair and jade-green eyes.

She sat down on a worn-out box without any trace of aversion on her face, making herself home in this dreaded place.

As if she had always been living here.

“W-What the…?”

“Why the hell is there a witch here…?”

They thought they hadn’t been doing anything wrong.

Lusting over women, drinking alcohol occasionally—even according to the Ten Commandments, these were just minor sins at most.

And yet, a witch suddenly appeared in this dingy hideout. The fact was more than enough to terrify all of them.

A wave of unease spread quickly through the group.

“What brings you here? To such a humble place?”

“To explain that, I’ll need to introduce myself first.”

The witch, who had appeared out of nowhere, let out a bright smile before crossing her legs.

“I’m a good fairy who seeks to make people’s desires come true. My name is Bianca Belleli, but they also call me the Witch of Desire. You can just call me Ms. Bianca.”

Her overly cheerful introduction left everyone stunned for a moment.

One of the Ten Foremen, who had been hanging around nearby, suddenly dropped to his knees at her feet.

“Greetings, noble witch! My name is Harvey! If you take me with you, I’ll serve you with all my heart! Please, take me as your slave!”

Being sold as a witch’s slave…

Was a gamble with an unpredictable outcome.

While some witches might just use them as mere servants or sex slaves, others could just subject them to legal, yet cruel magical experiments.

Despite that risk, Harvey was willing to bet his life.

Meanwhile the others regretted that they didn’t make a move first.

After all, they were all fed up with their lives as slaves.

So much so that they envied Harvey, who dared to risk his neck by being bold enough to speak up.

Everyone held their breath, watching how Bianca would react.

They all quietly watched to see how this witch, who had suddenly appeared, would deal with a slave who had rudely interrupted her conversation.

“You said your name’s Harvey?”

“Huh? Y-Yes, t-that’s right! My body is healthy and I can do whatever it is that you ask me!”

“Oh really? Hmm~ you do seem pretty spirited.”

Bianca reached out and gently stroked Harvey’s cheek.

The soft smile on her lips showed no trace of anger or irritation.

“Although, I don’t think I can afford to buy you… Instead, why don’t I fulfill your desire? Can you take a look into my eyes?”

She lifted Harvey’s chin, making him meet her gaze.

Her thin tongue licked her upper lip in a seductive way.

Fulfilling his desires.

Such sweet words entered his ears, tempting him.

Maybe the witch is all hot and bothered, and is currently searching for a slave to warm her bed for the night?

With eyes full of anticipation, Harvey met that stunningly beautiful emerald gaze.

“Hmm… It seems that you’re hungry?”

“Y-Yes I am…”

Harvey stared at Bianca in a daze.

It was his first time seeing a witch so up close.

She was breathtakingly beautiful.

It was as if he had lost the ability to look anywhere else, as his eyes locked on those stunning jade-green orbs.

“Well, this is all I have right now. Will you be satisfied with this for now?”

Bianca pulled out a barbecue from her bosom. It was so large that it made Harvey wonder how she even carried it around like that.

The meat was thick, with a cross-hatched skin; crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside.

It was on a whole different level in size and quality compared to the regular meat one could find in Border Town.

“Can I really… eat this?”

“Of course, you can. I told you that I’d fulfill your desire, didn’t I?”

Seeing the meat dripping with juice, Harvey opened his mouth wide and bit into it.

This meat…

Is incredible…!

He felt the subtle flavor of butter and rosemary from the crispy surface.

The meat itself tasted perfect, the best pork he had ever eaten in his whole life.

Harvey tore into the meat without hesitation, savoring the heavenly taste he hadn’t had in years.

“Gulp…! Gulp…! T-Thank you…! I’ve never had such delicious meat before… It’s the best… the best…”

As Harvey devoured the meat greedily, Bianca patted his head before turning around to face Jack again.

“That should wrap up my introduction, don’t you think? Or is there anything else?”

-Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

“C-Crazy…”

“H-Hey, s-someone, stop him…”

“How the fuck do we even stop that…?! Why don’t you go instead?!”

“Urp…!”

All of them heard it…

The sound of someone chewing through tough flesh and crunching bones…

And the sound of someone swallowing warm sticky blood.

Everyone’s faces went pale.

Some even started to gag.

Since the moment the witch had spoken, Harvey had been grinning while eating his own left arm.

Even when his teeth cracked against his own bone, even when he had to chew through the rubber-like sensation of his own tendons, he didn’t care.

He kept on continuing his gruesome meal until he collapsed into the pool of blood he had created.

Said blood flowed to Bianca’s feet, staining the white tips of her shoes.

“You should understand who I am now, no?”

Even a witch wouldn’t kill someone so senselessly without a reason.

But, there was one type of witch who would act this way.

“…An Exile… .”

“Mhm. A special kind of Exile, a Criminal Exile, in fact. I hold a deep grudge against those who live comfortably in Gehenna, just like you do.”

Bianca put a cigarette in her mouth and whispered to Jack.

“Aren’t you frustrated? You’ve been pushed around by them all this time. Are you going to keep living like a worm until you die just because of some petty crime?”

Jack looked at the witch.

Though his body was trembling with fear, he felt it clearly.

The person right in front of him was the key to changing his monotonous and powerless life.

“What do I have to do?”

“It’s simple. I’ll give you power. The power to take revenge on the witches who have looked down on you and treated you like dirt. Just hear my offer out first… You’ll definitely like it~”

Staring at the trembling slave, a smile bloomed on Bianca’s face.