Chapter 336
Chapter 336
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 336
Chapter Title: Witch of Sloth
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"I want to go home..."
Diana Yesod was feeling down.
It had been a full week since Countess Yesod punished her by making her leave in the morning and return only in the evening.
Her energy, which had been draining away like mad, had finally hit rock bottom.
"Sigh..."
Diana wasn't an undutiful daughter.
If her mother was that worried.
If tears were welling up in her eyes, how could she, as a daughter, fail to meet even the smallest expectation?
At first, Diana had done her best in her own way.
For that first week, she'd poked around Tarot Town and wandered through Ars Magna Town, making the most of her time as diligently as she could.
In other words, she hadn't just camped out at a café sipping coffee or napping under a sunny tree the whole time.
Instead, she'd filled her days with walks, theater visits, and studying magic at the library.
When she returned home in the evening for dinner and shared her day's experiences, the countess's beaming, proud expression as she looked at Diana had been motivation in its own right.
But even that had its limits now.
Diana wasn't the type to force herself into something she didn't want to do and suddenly find it interesting.
It was the limitation of her innate energy deficiency.
The inherent flaw of someone born to be a shut-in loner without passion or perseverance.
"I want to go home..."
With a sigh that heaved from deep within—mumbled who knew how many times, hundreds if you counted by the week—Diana let out a long breath.
"What am I supposed to do to kill time today..."
Yesterday, she'd wandered the Tarot Town market, browsing commoners' daily necessities.
The day before, she'd sat through a dull, boring play in the theater district.
Speaking of plays, Gehenna's theater scene was honestly all dull and uninteresting.
There were no fresh attempts—just recombinations of renowned scripts handed down from hundreds of years ago.
Diana felt the parasol slung over her shoulder weighing especially heavy.
The terrifying truth that she had to wander outside for a full six hours from now pressed down on her chest.
If worst came to worst, she could find a secluded spot out of people's sight and just nap until it was time to go home.
Besides, Countess Yesod had given her an unlimited credit certificate despite kicking her daughter out so harshly.
Booking a room and lounging around until evening was an option too.
But that would only make her mother sad.
Just as Lucy Yesod loved Diana, Diana loved her mother too.
If she'd resolved to live up to her mother's expectations for once, only to revert to square one like this...
"Just for today...? Sigh..."
She steadied her weakening resolve.
The internal conflict trailed after her like a tail.
Wasn't there anything fun to do?
Something stimulating, something tempting—anything to make time fly by.
As she wandered with those thoughts, Diana stepped into Malkuth Gallery, her destination for the day's exploration.
As Gehenna's largest shopping district, it had plenty of good cafés and all sorts of items that could pique a witch's interest.
"Alright..."
To avoid disappointing her mother.
Today, she'd rack up a ton of varied experiences before heading home!
With renewed determination, Diana's gaze was captured by a particularly appealing café.
She usually tried not to sit down anywhere.
If she carelessly settled into a comfy spot, she knew she'd never overcome her laziness and end up glued there all day.
Enter café, rest deeply.
Or.
Wander diligently to please Mother.
The inner tug-of-war between those two choices.
But Diana's scarlet eyes, rolling around restlessly, locked onto the menu being enjoyed by a nearby witch.
"Hmm, should I get that one?"
Diana took a seat and swept her lovely ash-gray hair behind her ear.
Her ears perked up happily during this sweet recharge time.
2.
Time had passed faster than expected.
This seat was really great.
She could watch the passing people and witches, and especially, the ice cream topped with liqueur sorbet was exquisite.
It felt like a reward for all her hard wandering.
Still, that didn't make home any less missed.
Diana's mentor, Lucy Yesod, was a noblewoman and witch who seemed drawn straight from a painting.
A strict witch who tolerated no breaches of dignity or decorum.
Growing up under such a mother, Diana valued etiquette and grace as well.
As the lady of House Yesod, she couldn't afford to appear disheveled, even in a quiet café where few eyes would reach.
To maintain that, she had to sit ramrod straight, eat with precise posture, and mind her every movement.
That in itself was exhausting—one of the reasons Diana hated going out.
At home, she could strip naked and drift around like a leaf on water without a care.
As she pondered just giving up entirely, the conversation of two witches at the next table drifted over.
"Hey, did you hear about that?"
"What happened?"
"The male witch thing."
"Male witch?"
Diana's ears perked up.
Her attention zeroed in on the intriguing topic.
A male witch, huh.
The phrasing felt oddly off, but Diana had heard whispers about it.
Rumors of a man who actually bore a Stigma.
Most witches dismissed it as nonsense when they first heard.
Even if not, they didn't pay much mind.
Nature Magic took generations, sometimes dozens, to develop.
It might be special coming from a man, but the level was obviously nothing impressive.
Plus, the man at the center of the hot topic had vanished into the mortal world, so few witches had seen him firsthand.
Naturally, interest had faded, and Diana hadn't given it much thought either.
But things changed soon after.
Gehenna issued its first-ever official pass and citizenship to a man.
And the guarantors? Three heavyweights.
Sua Agatha, Wizpoint's Gwanghwamun branch manager.
Countess Jemernai, a prominent Gehenna noble.
Tiphereth Duke, the revered Public Enemy hunter.
None of them were lightweights.
If witches of that stature were vouching for him, didn't that prove his worth?
And with that, rumors snowballed.
They said Countess Jemernai created him as her ultimate anti-witch hunting weapon.
You couldn't make a male witch without that level of funding.
No, he's Tiphereth Duke's lover.
Someone saw them booking the same room at an inn in Border Town.
No, he's Kether Duke's personal experiment, backed by her.
They say she took him as her disciple herself.
No, no, no.
A parade of speculative "no's."
Diana didn't know what to believe or how far, but the key point was that the witches' conversation next to her had sparked her deep interest.
"Really? He has Nature Magic? At least 10th circle?"
"That's what I heard~ My friend met him just recently."
"Where can you meet him?"
"~At the host bar that opened at the end of Malkuth Gallery. He's working there."
Host bar?
What was a host bar?
The conversation continued without waiting for puzzled Diana.
"Order drinks and use the bar, and you get 15 minutes per person. Wanna go?"
"I'm interested now."
"It's just a few gold coins anyway. Let's go. When else would we get a chance like this? Reservations are already backing up, so we gotta hurry."
"Let's go now."
The chatting witches stood up.
Diana hurriedly finished her remaining ice cream—without losing her poise.
"A male witch, huh..."
Men who wielded magic had appeared in history a few times.
Fraudulent scammers claiming Nature Magic were shocking enough, and there'd been three of them.
They got caught lying before rigorous verification and paid the price.
But if the rumors were true.
If he was the first true male witch.
Just meeting him would be worthwhile.
There were tales of a horned horse thought to be a fantasy species nearby in the gallery— no reason not to go see that either.
"Hmm..."
Diana furrowed her brow.
Not out of laziness.
The moment she pictured this unknown witch's face, an inexplicable revulsion prickled in her chest.
To sum up the source of that revulsion in one phrase:
A man wielding magic?
Magic was a sacred, noble realm.
Diana understood its beauty and profound mysteries.
She'd glimpsed how delving into the discipline of magic revealed ever-deeper, grander unknowns.
And a man was doing that?
Her mother had always said it, ever since she was little.
At bedtime, by her pillow.
"Men are all inferior, half-baked creatures, so don't let them anywhere near you! The moment they open their mouths, they'll lie to sweet-talk you!"
At dinner together.
"Men are all wolves! They'll only see your pretty face and think to use you! You're so beautiful and lovely, after all!"
Bathing together.
"Good men might exist in the world! But the second one approaches you, he won't be good anymore! If a man talks to you, tell Mommy right away!"
And on and on: marriage should be with fellow witches, not lovers; men were inferior beings who couldn't handle magic.
Even though Diana knew her mother had once had a human male lover in her youth.
Thanks to that biased upbringing, Diana believed until age 11 that men turned into wolves at night to devour women.
And even after realizing it stemmed from maternal worry, subtle prejudices lingered.
The idea of such sleazy, rotten-hearted men wielding sacred magic...
It violated long-ingrained stereotypes.
So Diana couldn't quite accept a male witch's existence deep down.
She didn't want to.
She knew such discriminatory thoughts were wrong, so she never voiced them.
That only made it more uncomfortable.
"I'll know once I check it out."
Even Diana, whose laziness had reached new heights, possessed the basic curiosity expected of an apprentice witch.
The drive to question and verify.
Without that, no amount of talent would have let her advance her succession preparations by three years.
Diana left the café and headed straight for the host bar's door.