City of Witches

Sharon vividly remembered the last day she spent peacefully in Gehenna.

Evergreen’s self-essence magic was a unique type of magic that encompassed the five elements of Tattva¹According to the tradition of yoga, the whole creation consists of and is governed by five elements – earth (prithvi), water (apas), fire (agni), air (vayu) και aether (akasha). Each element is the manifestation of primal cosmic energy (Shakti)..

On that particular day, she was doing research involving a magical formula using elemental magic circles to accelerate the growth of her imperfect brand.

It was important research for her as the brand she inherited was incomplete. This was the last task she needed to undergo to prove herself and reach the 20th rank like her master.

“Phew… That should be enough.”

Over the course of several days, she had been sprinkling salt and purified water on the ground, attempting to firm it up.

This process continued until five minutes before midnight, when the mana in the air reached its peak.

After months of meticulous effort, the offerings she had collected were now perfect.

With a tense expression, Sharon tightly held onto her wand, looking down at the magic circle she had set up.

Its shape resembled a diamond with its corners pointing in four directions. To draw it, she used a mixture of her own blood and saliva.

At each corner, circular altars were formed to hold the aforementioned offerings.

While magic was fundamentally a study of computations and formulas, symbols and rituals were also part of it.

It was especially the case for the Evergreen’s elemental magic, as it placed a significant emphasis on rituals and sacrifices due to its old-fashioned nature. The importance of offerings specifically, was very high.

The outcome of the rituals she would be holding depended not only on the precise calculations of the magic formula but also on the offerings she presented.

And so, she made a final inspection on the offerings she had arranged on the altar.

At a glance, they might seem randomly placed, but each of them were placed in the most optimal location which, at the same time, carried the deepest symbolic meaning.

“Alright, shall we have a look?”

On the eastern altar of the diamond-shaped magic circle was Apas (water).

This element decided the ritual’s flow and order.

She placed a precious lapis lazuli that she purchased at an expensive price from the Red Roof Salon and high quality clean corals as offerings.

On the western altar of the diamond-shaped magic circle was Agni (fire).

This element served as a bridge to connect the different parts of the ritual and to carry mana from one place to another.

She placed topaz, otherwise known as the stone of fire, and black gunpowder made of charcoal and sulfur as offerings.

On the southern altar was Prithvi (earth).

It served as the balance and foundation for the ritual.

Here, she served a handful of soil mixed with wheat grains, as well as small jade stones in the size of rice as offerings.

And on the northern altar, there was Vayu (wind).

It brought changes and helped her manifest the desired outcomes during the ritual.

On this altar, there was a white mane from a young female horse that had never mated before, as well as a crystal that had been exposed to moonlight and wind for a long time.

With those altars and offerings set up, the preparation for the ritual was completed.

Sharon couldn’t imagine a more perfect magic circle than the one she had set up.

“It’ll all be okay… Stay calm… I can do this…”

As she glanced at the clock, she saw there were only two minutes left until midnight.

The ritual was scheduled to begin when midnight had arrived.

Part of her mind, the rational part, to be exact, acknowledged that she needed to study more before attempting it.

But, another part of her mind couldn’t accept the fact that she couldn’t fully manifest the brand she had inherited from her predecessor.

And in order to correct that imperfection, she believed that she had to take certain risks.

For the central altar of the diamond-shaped magic circle, the element Akasha (space), would be placed there.

It was the space where all the rituals and manifestations would occur.

Sharon stepped into the altar.

The offering for this particular altar was herself. It would allow her to ultimately be reborn.

She didn’t believe in God.

But, under the calm night sky, where there wasn’t even any trace of the wind…

Sharon offered a prayer for the first time in her life. But even she herself didn’t know who she was praying to.

“Once this is over… I will…”

She was determined to prove herself, so that the words ‘premature baby’ wouldn’t be thrown at her anymore.

So that she wouldn’t hear any mocking remarks anymore.

After this, she’d be reborn as a complete witch, someone who had perfectly inherited her brand.

‘Finally, it’s time.’

With emerald embedded in it, her wand glowed brightly.

At the same time, she chanted the spell she had practiced so many times before.

“Balance!”

But…

‘What went wrong?’

‘Was it because the offerings weren’t in good condition?’

‘Or maybe it was because I used my mana rashly?’

‘It could also be because I couldn’t control the ritual well. The offerings were too perfect and they overweight my lack of experience.’

Disastrous. That was the perfect word to describe how the ritual went.

The waves of the ritual spread through the Cloud Mushroom Village, greatly accelerating the growth of the nearby oak trees instead of herself.

After witnessing the astonishing sight of thousands of acorns sprouting all at once, growing into towering trees and demolishing her mansion, she lost consciousness.

2.

Witches tend to be wealthy.

The process of brand inheritance naturally included wealth inheritance as well, since most things in the world increased in value over time.

Sharon wasn’t an exception to the rule, she also inherited a substantial fortune from her predecessor.

There was a vineyard near Paris that belonged to her predecessor. It had been developed for 120 years and it was making huge profits.

That was why, the day after the incident happened, she wasn’t too concerned about it.

What if she broke her mansion? She could just repair it.

And so, instead of beating herself over that, she was plagued by self-disgust over the fact that she couldn’t fully inherit her brand.

However, she failed to realize a rather big problem.

If her failure had only resulted in her mansion being destroyed, it wouldn’t have been a big issue.

Unfortunately for her, the Cloud Mushroom Village was the place where the witches of Border Town lived. The uncontrollably growing oak trees hadn’t only demolished a few houses, it also destroyed several witches’ workshops.

One of the witches had her potion, the result of her painstaking research, shattered. Another one had her carefully drawn magic circles destroyed into unrecognizable shapes.

In total, seventeen witches claimed that Sharon disrupted their research and sued her for damage.

Even though she had sold all of her riches and tried to raise money, she ultimately was unable to gather enough to cover for everything.

In no time at all, she became penniless. The only thing she had with her was a document from the City Hall that demanded her to pay 90,000 gold coins to cover all the damages.

When she first saw the number written on that document, she was in a daze. She couldn’t even fathom how much money that was.

Back then, she had two options to choose from.

One, to run away from Gehenna and start a new life in the modern world. Two, to borrow some money to pay for everything and repay the debt afterwards.

After much consideration, she chose the latter. She went to several nobles, humbly requesting their help, bowing her heads to them while writing various debt agreements.

In total, she borrowed a total of 90,213 gold from Countess Yesod, the owner of Levana Grand Bath, Duchess Erelim, the Chairwoman of the Jinri Jinmyeong Academinc Society and the filthy rich noble, Countess Gemini, all using her citizenship and brand as collateral.

Since there was no way for her to repay this amount if she were to live in Gehenna, she accepted a temporary exilement order and headed to the modern world.

This was what happened ten years ago.

“Elon Musk, you traitorous bastard!”

And now, she was standing at the cash register of a certain convenience store.

The witch gritted her teeth as she looked at the value of a certain coin that had fallen due to a certain someone’s actions.

Anger surged within her.

“They said I could buy a car with this… Or go to Mars… It’s supposed to be the currency of dreams…”

‘They never said the market could crash so dramatically overnight! Now those promises are null!’

‘That son of a bitch… Is he really a human?!’

Shaking with anger, she clenched her fists.

Tears started welling up in her eyes.

Of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to pour all her money into cryptocurrency.

What she did was hold onto a glimmer of hope and gradually invested the money she earned from her part-time job, which amounted to around 5 million won.

However, every penny of hope she had gathered quickly diminished to 3.5 million won when she was busy working.

Considering the current trend, it was obvious that it would only go downhill from there.

In the blink of an eye, her 1.5 million disappeared without a trace.

“My head…”

Feeling a sudden headache, she put her hand on her forehead.

‘Should I sell my stocks now? Or should I hold on and wait for them to go up again?’

She had planned to stop when it hit 7 million won, but unfortunately for her, fate was merciless.

“My fried chicken… My tteokbokki… My kimbap… Sundae… Give them back…”

The dream of the delicious food she wanted to enjoy became blurry before completely disappearing into the sky.

As she sighed at the empty cash register, she realized that it was almost time for her shift to be over.

“Guess he won’t be buying any cigarettes today…”

The person she was thinking about was Siwoo.

Her shift went from 6 pm to midnight.

Perhaps it was a coincidence or a play of fate, but he always came to the store when she was on the clock.

They had only found out about each other yesterday, but she had been aware of him for a while.

His good looks aside, it was hard to forget a remarkable customer who wore an eyepatch and came to buy cigarettes and cola every single day.

Based on their conversation yesterday, she surmised that he was just as unlucky as herself.

The fact that he turned out to be a witch had actually shocked her, but what caught her off guard even more was the fact that he was able to hunt the Homunculi with his magic.

Not to mention that he didn’t do it solely because of his self-interest, but he was also doing it to help others.

‘I don’t know him that well, but he bought me King Crabs, so he must be a good guy~’

However, his words during their parting, where he offered to take care of her debts…

They were too far.

While she was in a huge debt, she still took pride in her identity as a witch, and she still had a sense of dignity.

She didn’t want to be in a one-sided relationship where she’d receive his help without giving him anything in return.

“I told him he shouldn’t worry about me.”

But, she knew that he didn’t say it with any ill intentions. He also immediately apologized afterwards, so she didn’t hold it against him.

Also, he didn’t seem to be the type to meddle in other people’s affairs.

She had to admit that she felt a little perplexed by his somber demeanor and kind-heartedness though, as it contradicted her expectations a little.

“Did I overreact yesterday?”

After ending her shift and passing it over to her colleague, she stepped out of the convenience store. There, she noticed a familiar face, smoking in the nearby alley.

With a smile on her face, she quickly made her way toward him.

“What are you doing here?”

She lightly tapped his shoulder, calling out to him, which surprised him.

Seeing how awkward he was even compared to their first meeting, she realized that he was still bothered by what had happened yesterday.

“Ms. Sharon…”

“Just call me Sharon. Don’t be so stiff with me~”

“Um…”

“C’mon, are we not partners walking the path of magic together? Loosen up~”

“I don’t know…”

“Oh, are you being polite because I’m older than you?”

“N-No, it’s not that…”

Seeing him all flustered like this after she teased him a little, she found him to be quite cute.

“If that’s the case, just loosen up then~”

“…Fine.”

Sharon let out a smirk as she watched him scratching his head, sensing that he still felt a little awkward even after seeing her acting like usual.

‘He’s either shy or a little submissive.’

‘Either way, it’s cute.’

“Anyway, I want to apologize for my thoughtless remark yesterday.”

“C’mon, I already said that it’s okay!”

“Still… I feel like I should apologize… Sorry…”

“Jeez, what did I just say to you?”

Despite her messing around, Siwoo didn’t smile, and instead bowed his head to apologize, which surprised her even more.

Since there was no need to make a big deal out of the small issue, she quickly urged him to lift his head up.

“I don’t think this will make up for it, but can I help you distribute the flyers today? We can also look for the Homunculi while we’re at it…”

Hearing his suggestion, Sharon let out a bright smile and readily nodded her head.

“Of course!”

Footnotes:

• 1According to the tradition of yoga, the whole creation consists of and is governed by five elements – earth (prithvi), water (apas), fire (agni), air (vayu) και aether (akasha). Each element is the manifestation of primal cosmic energy (Shakti).