City of Witches Chapter 10

The tavern owner brought out splendid side dishes time and again.

The extremely unfortunate fact was that Siwoo had no mental capacity left to savor them.

Since Odil only took a bite or two from each plate to taste, leaving most of the food untouched, even after the meal ended, the table was still piled high with dishes.

"Assistant, shall we get going now?"

"...Yes."

There was no way to refuse.

He had already handed Odil a major weakness.

Even conceding a hundred times, simply using Magic might not be a big issue as Odil said, but the fact that he was planning an escape through it was a secret he had to protect at all costs.

All of this was due to the Magic cast so naturally that Siwoo hadn’t even noticed.

Even after unwillingly spilling all his secrets to Odil, Siwoo continued babbling nonsense for a while.

"Surely these thoughts won’t come out as words, right? Oh shit! They’re coming out!"

"I thought I’d managed to get past it... that cunning bitch!"

"Amelia’s like that too, why are all Witches like this?"

No matter how hard he tried to clamp his mouth shut, all his true feelings spilled out effortlessly.

Odil laughed until her face turned red, watching Siwoo’s monologue show for a full 15 minutes.

Should he take comfort in the fact that she hadn’t burned him on the spot for blasphemy?

Siwoo pondered seriously.

"Lady Odil."

When Odil didn’t respond, he called again.

"Lady Odil."

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Were you calling me? Earlier, you called me ‘that shiny-faced, rude twin bitch’?"

Odil giggled, but Siwoo’s face instantly turned ashen.

He had never realized how dangerous it was to have one’s inner thoughts exposed like this.

Nor that Magic capable of manipulating human behavior in this way existed.

"That’s... because Lady Odil cast some wicked Magic on me, right? Like mind control or..."

"But Assistant, you said in your monologue, ‘Why are my inner thoughts spilling out exactly as they are?’"

"At that time, at that time..."

Siwoo took a deep sigh and gave up.

"I don’t know. Do whatever you want with me now, roast me or boil me."

"Oh? If Assistant were to be served at a banquet, would you prefer medium-rare or well-done?"

Odil spat out a chilling joke and laughed for another long while.

"You want to know what kind of Magic I cast, right?"

"Yes."

He definitely hadn’t sensed any unusual Wave of Magical Power or Magic Formula.

Although his achievements were humble since he hadn’t formally learned Magic, he never expected to feel no precursor at all.

It was only natural for curiosity and academic fervor to arise about Magic he had never heard or seen before.

"♪ ♫ ~"

Odil opened her mouth and began to sing.

Her tone was closer to the beautiful melody of a string instrument than a human voice.

Before Siwoo could blankly marvel at it, he detected a faint, writhing magical power that one would miss if not concentrating, Simultaneously with her tune.

"Got it?"

"Could it be..."

Siwoo recalled the situation from earlier.

The humming Odil had been doing while poking at the food.

What if that wasn’t just singing out of excitement?

"That’s right, this is the innate magic of the Gemernai Witch. Magic manifests naturally through pitch, rhythm, intensity, and breath. What I cast on you was the ‘Poem of Confession’.

I couldn’t sing it perfectly without Odette, but it wasn’t unpleasant to listen to, was it?"

"...I fell into a trap."

"Yeah, right."

Now, Odil was effortlessly navigating Taro Town’s complex alleys without any guidance.

Moreover, not with wandering footsteps but with a demeanor heading straight for a destination.

That meant...

"‘It’s my first time in Taro Town’ was also a lie, wasn’t it?"

"Yeah, it’s true that Master is strict, so I only sneak out once a week, but that’s it."

He felt an unwarranted sense of betrayal.

He deeply regretted thinking Odil and Odette were a bit pitiful, pitying Odil as a bird in a cage.

"So why go this far? I’m just a slave, and you could order me around for most things with just a nod."

"Shall I save telling you that for the fun later? Asking a lady’s shoe size is against etiquette."

Lady, my foot.

After walking through dark alleys for a while, Odil suddenly stopped.

Amid shabby buildings crammed together stood a five-story mansion that seemed newly built.

It felt as out of place as a skyscraper in a slum.

Odil opened the door with a smirk.

"Let me introduce it in advance. This is Odette’s and my villa. An Outpost Base created to learn all the world’s curiosities."

"I’m sure."

With an expression of having given up on everything, Siwoo closed the door and followed Odil.

As soon as they entered the mansion, there were no butlers or maids to greet guests.

Instead, candlesticks adorned with dazzling gold leaf simultaneously ignited and flickered.

He already thought the mansion’s exterior didn’t match the shabby alleyway.

Seeing the interior decor, it was even more over the top.

He genuinely wondered if it was okay to step on the marble floor, shiny enough to reflect one’s face, with shoes on.

"Odette!"

At Odil’s triumphant voice announcing her return, the sound of slippers scraping the floor was heard.

Shortly after, Odette poked her head out from the second-floor staircase railing.

Unlike inside the Academy, their hairstyles, accessories, and even clothes were different.

"You don’t play the swap game outside?"

"Huh?"

"Why not occasionally prank the professors? Lady Odil pretending to be Odette, and Lady Odette pretending to be Odil."

Odil rounded her lips.

She looked like a culprit right after a perfect crime they thought would never be discovered was exposed.

"Wait, how did you know that? Our magical waveforms are perfectly identical?"

"Who wouldn’t know? Professor Amelia probably noticed too, just didn’t say anything."

While Odil stiffened at Siwoo’s indifferent response, Odette rushed down the stairs as if running.

"Hello, Assistant Siwoo! Seeing you outside the Academy like this feels refreshingly new!"

Stopping abruptly at the foot of the stairs, Odette slightly spread the hem of her lavish dress and bowed politely.

Still, Odette was slightly less mischievous than her older sister Odil.Her smile was bright and cheerful, and she didn’t forget to use honorifics even with a slave.

That thought vanished in a second.

"How did you capture him? You really brought him?"

Is it even appropriate to use the word "capture" for a person?

Odette circled around Siwoo like a scholar who had discovered a rare animal, her eyes sparkling.

"What did I tell you? I said if you just trust me, everything will go according to plan. And that’s not all—I’ve also secured a sure weakness to make him cooperate with our experiment."

"Weakness?"

"Actually..."

Whisper whisper whisper.

At the word "experiment," Siwoo’s hair stood on end.

Meanwhile, after hearing the whole story from Odil, Odette’s eyes began to sparkle twice as brightly.

"You broke through my sister’s barrier? You’re researching Magic to open a Gate? And you’re a slave?"

"What does that matter? It’s interesting, but it’s not related to us anyway."

"That’s true."

Odette nodded obediently.

"Anyway, make him follow us. You know he has no right to refuse, right?"

"I’m sorry, Assistant. But I was so, so curious I couldn’t help it."

"Wait a moment."

No matter what else, this had to be clarified.

"If I survive this so-called experiment safely... what then?"

Midway through his question, Siwoo felt annoyed as the Twins began to laugh in unison.

He might be risking his life here, trembling with fear, and yet...

"As if we’d harm the Assistant?"

"As if we’d harm the Assistant?"

"If not, I’d be nothing but grateful."

"Absolutely no such thing!"

"Absolutely no such thing!"

"Of course, that’s assuming you cooperate willingly."

"Of course, that’s assuming you cooperate willingly!"

Odil and Odette’s fantastic teamwork.

Listening to their eerie twin speech, which started and ended at almost the same timing except for the final particle, Siwoo felt oddly reassured.

It meant that as long as he cooperated, they would guarantee his safety, and the experiment wouldn’t be harmful to his body.

"Then, about me using Magic and preparing to escape..."

""We’ll keep it a secret!"!"

"...I’ll trust you."

Somehow, the tension dissipated.

It felt more like a trivial matter than something to worry about.

The place they arrived at under the Twins’ guidance was a cozy-looking bedroom.

With two pillows and only one large bed, it seemed like a bed the two of them shared.

Siwoo was taken aback.

They’d been talking about an experiment, so he’d expected a workshop filled with magical reagents, but a bedroom out of nowhere?

Why did his back feel chilly?

"Take it off."

"Huh?"

"You said you’d help with the experiment, right? Then take it off."

Only then did Siwoo realize.

When he was subjected to humiliating things like magic power induction through ejaculation under the guise of being an assistant, Odil and Odette had shown incredible focus.

That definitely wasn’t purely curiosity about Magic.

Probably 90% of that focus was curiosity about the male body.

"Today, the reference book for the experiment Assistant Siwoo will help with is this."

Odette brought over a thin book, her face tinged with a faint blush.

The title of the book was A Guide to the First Night for Ladies.

"I snatched it from the maids who were reading it together. They say it’s a must-read for becoming a true lady."

Odette smiled brightly.

"Take it off quickly!"

"W-w-wait a moment."

"If you don’t take it off now, I’ll tell Professor Amelia right away."

"You agreed to cooperate, right? Please."

The Twins, popping out from both sides, grabbed Siwoo’s collar and tugged.

They seemed eager to strip him off immediately, so Siwoo tightly wrapped his clothes around himself.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Siwoo wasn’t a eunuch either.

Being able to "sample" the Odette and Odil combo, sisters more beautiful than any model he’d ever seen on Earth, was a temptation any man would naturally be drawn to.

But no one! Absolutely no one! should have sexual relations with an apprentice witch.

The place where the Witch’s Brand is engraved is the lower abdomen, where the Womb is located.

The engraved Brand becomes the vessel for magic power in a woman’s Womb.

This is the ultimate reason why men cannot become Witches.

If an apprentice witch, whose Womb is not yet mature, receives the magic power generated when a man ejaculates (or becomes erect), she will forever be unable to bear a Brand.

What would a Witch’s reaction be if her carefully nurtured apprentice witch couldn’t inherit a Brand because she fell for some random guy?

Just hearing that they were together in a bedroom like this would probably make Gemernai, the Twins’ mentor, burn Siwoo to death.

"This won’t do. Odette."

"Got it! Sis."

The Twins began to sing simultaneously.

An intricate melody.

Although they were Twins who had each inherited only about 10% of a Brand, that was enough.

Magic of an unfathomable level unfolded, something Siwoo couldn’t possibly understand or resist.

"Ah, I said it’s really not okay! It’s not about me, you’ll really get in trouble too!"

""Do you think we don’t know that?"?"

Siwoo’s clothes stripped off on their own, leaving him in his underwear as he fell onto the bed.

No matter how much he tried to move, he couldn’t budge an inch.

It was absurdly powerful Magic.

"We’re just satisfying a little curiosity. Behave, okay?"

"----! -----!"

He couldn’t even make a sound, no matter what trick he tried.

"Odette, come up."

"...Huh? Okay, Sis."

A sturdy physique honed by manual labor and forced diet control.

Seeing the male body up close, which she could only watch from afar during Amelia’s classes, Odette covered her mouth and sat demurely on the bed.

"Let’s take it step by step from Chapter 1."

Odil was seen licking her lips subtly.

Author’s Note (Afterword)

This won’t be a gender-reversal story.

Nor will it be a femdom story.