Chapter 418
Chapter 418
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 418
Chapter Title: Happy Days (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1.
After finishing dinner, Sharon, Eloa, Odil, and Odet gathered in one room at Siwoo's signal.
This quartet coming together wasn't anything special.
They had met up just a few days ago for the council meeting, and they often shared meals, so there was no awkwardness.
The key point was that Siwoo had arranged this gathering.
The four women huddled together on the sofa, each with a drink in front of them, gauging Siwoo's intentions.
Given the unusual situation, Sharon turned to Eloa.
"What's this about? Have you heard anything, Duchess?"
"I have no idea either..."
"It's about the Harvest Festival, right?"
"Probably."
Sharon and Eloa were utterly baffled, with no clue whatsoever.
"Odet, it looks like the main wife battle is finally about to unfold."
"Yeah, sis. Let's not drop our guard."
The twins whispered to each other, sensing something was about to go down.
As they chatted away—later than expected—the man who enjoyed all their love made his entrance.
"Sorry I'm late."
"Assistant!"
"I've missed you! Hug me!"
The twins came rushing over the moment Siwoo appeared, throwing themselves into his arms.
Even though they'd just eaten together, they grinned like they hadn't seen him in a year.
"Uh..."
Sharon and Eloa missed their chance to greet him amid the twins' enthusiastic welcome.
Eloa watched the twins' cuteness with the fond gaze reserved for apprentice witches, but Sharon knew better.
She knew just how cunning the twins could be.
By choosing the simple option of running over for a hug, they snatched up the conversation and skinship shares.
As 'apprentice witches,' they could act boldly without issue and easily out-cute Sharon and Eloa.
They were exploiting the perfect position for coquetry.
Siwoo, with the twins dangling from his waist like ornaments, gave a wry smile as he greeted Sharon and Eloa too.
Once the chaos settled, Siwoo got to the point of the meeting.
"Actually, I have a confession to make."
"A confession?"
Gathering them all out of the blue just to confess?
As four pairs of eyes fixed on him, the pressure weighed heavily.
After consulting with Periwinkle and then Takasho, Siwoo had solidified his path.
He would cooperate with the Yesod Count's research.
No matter how casually their relationship had started, the Yesod Count had treated him with clear goodwill, and he'd grown fond of Diana too.
He couldn't just turn a blind eye in that situation.
But this absolutely required the consent of these four.
No matter the circumstances, he couldn't proceed in secret.
"The truth is, I've... entered a relationship with Countess Lucy Yesod."
"What?"
The twins' eyes went wide while still clinging to him.
Sharon's mouth hung open from the bombshell, and her mentor froze stiff.
"A relationship? Assistant? You don't mean sex, right?"
"Come on, sis, no way. Even if the assistant acts like a playboy, he wouldn't go that far."
"Siwoo, I heard you were visiting the Yesod estate under the pretext of tutoring..."
"For real? With the Countess?"
Siwoo nodded heavily, bearing the mounting pressure from their shocked reactions in silence.
"Yes... we had sex."
"Haa..."
At Siwoo's confirmation, the twins peeled away from him like cicadas doused in insecticide.
Eloa wore a dark expression, and Sharon let out a deep sigh.
"Assistant! That's too much!"
"We weren't enough, so you seduced Sharon sis too! And the Duchess! Now even the Countess? What's wrong with you?!"
"Repent! Repent right now!"
The twins stomped their feet furiously, kicking Siwoo's shins until he knelt.
Then they grabbed his lowered head by the hair and shook it around.
"Philanderer!"
"Casanova!"
"Adulterer!"
"We're suing for damages!"
Sharon and Eloa usually reined in the twins, but today their gazes were icy cold.
Especially Eloa's.
"Let's talk."
The twins froze on either side as Eloa stood.
Her voice was chillingly cold.
"Siwoo, I don't expect you to look only at me."
"I have no excuses."
"There are many women who love you, who can't help but love you, beyond just me. Human hearts are hard to divide neatly, so I can fully understand your feelings and decisions."
Eloa's solemn tone carried heavy reproach.
It felt like disappointment.
If it were just her and Siwoo, she wouldn't have scolded him at all.
But this was no longer just their issue.
"I'd stand by you even if you became a public enemy. However, acting recklessly just because you think you'll be understood is an insult not only to me but to Sharon, Odil, and Odet here. Do you take their trust in you lightly?"
The twins' whining had been cute, but Eloa's low-voiced scolding was pure terror.
Fortunately, Sharon intervened to hold Eloa back.
"Duchess, let's hear his side first. Even Siwoo must have his reasons."
"Explain every detail without omission."
"Yes, I'll tell you everything."
Siwoo laid out the full truth he'd prepared.
First, the whole story of how he'd ended up in a relationship with the Countess.
His intense reaction to witches' scents and why, who seduced whom, and how it continued.
Even the research they'd done through sex.
Eloa's sternly arched brows gradually relaxed as she listened.
It wasn't full acceptance.
She'd long known Siwoo lost his mind when inhaling a witch's scent, and she'd even used it herself once.
But continuing the relationship under the guise of research without telling them clearly was still his fault.
"If that was the case, you should've said something sooner..."
Even Sharon, who truly meant not to bind Siwoo, felt stung by that point.
The twins, who'd been grilling him first, now just stole glances at the gravely serious Tiphereth Duchess.
"Yes. From now on, I promise no more secrets like this, but there's one thing I'd like your permission for."
"Permission?"
"I'd like to continue the research with Countess Yesod."
Eloa and Sharon stared blankly at Siwoo's bold and brazen statement.
The twins started rampaging again.
"Assistant! You haven't repented at all!"
"What kind of repentance is this? You're just saying you'll legally have sex!"
The twins reached out from both sides of the kneeling Siwoo, throttling his neck.
Even Sharon couldn't defend him this time; she made no move to stop them.
"So, you're saying you'll keep your relationship with the Yesod Countess going forward? For research?"
"You could research with someone else! Sharon sis is here!"
"Philanderer! Philanderer!"
"Guh... ack...! N-no, it's not just for research."
Siwoo then revealed the rest of the circumstances.
He explained researching a new method of hierarchy succession using the unique magical effects during his climax.
"That works?"
"It's just a hypothesis for now, but she said multiple verifications might yield progress."
"......"
For that moment, all four wore identical expressions.
Mouths shut tight in straight lines, eyes wide like pine cones.
Interpreted plainly, Siwoo's words boiled down to:
1) I'll keep having sex with the Yesod Countess.
2) This is to understand the phenomena in my body.
3) It's also to research a succession where the previous witch doesn't die.
But with three key points, each took it differently.
Sharon focused on point 2.
"Well... we can't just stay in the dark forever."
Siwoo was the first male witch.
His body was a black box of unknown happenings.
Sharon had overcome her incomplete succession with his help, but she didn't fully understand how it worked.
Unexplained reciprocity was an unstable bomb, ready to go off unpredictably.
Like ancient people slathering lead, arsenic, and mercury on their faces, thinking it good.
Assisting the Yesod Countess's research would surely help.
Even if it meant Siwoo sleeping with another woman, which she hated.
Eloa focused on point 3.
"I fully understand the Countess's feelings, and your desire to help her. I seem to have misunderstood you a bit."
Eloa knew the pain of loss.
She understood the desperate wish to help a beloved apprentice witch, even ripping out one's heart.
And given Siwoo's character, she didn't think he was lying out of lust alone, so she had ample reason to nod.
But the twins fixated on point 1.
"So, either way, you're saying you'll keep doing it."
"It used to be just us at first... You're awful, Assistant."
The twins were Siwoo's first companions.
They'd accepted Sharon sis, who'd supported him alone in the present world.
They'd even accepted the Tiphereth Duchess with her complicated circumstances.
But adding the Yesod Countess?
No matter how plausible or understandable, they couldn't accept it.
"You're awful, Assistant! Every time I close my eyes and open them, you're with a new girl!"
"You barely spend time with us! Too mean!"
Odil and Odet wailed, tears welling up as anger turned to sorrow.
"I'm sorry. From now on..."
"Forget it! Odet! Let's go!"
Odet brushed off Siwoo's apology coldly, grabbed Odet's hand, and stormed out.