The tavern owner brought out one exquisite side dish after another.
The terribly unfortunate truth was that Siwoo had no mind left to savor them.
Odile had only taken a bite or two from each plate, leaving most of the food untouched, so by the end of the meal, the table was piled high with dishes.
"Assistant, shall we get going now?"
"...Yes."
There was no way to refuse.
He had already handed her a massive weakness.
Even if he generously conceded that simply using magic might not be a big issue as Odile said, the fact that he was planning an escape through it was a secret he had to guard no matter what.
All because of the magic that had been cast so naturally he hadn't even noticed.
Even after spilling all his secrets to Odile against his will, Siwoo kept babbling nonsense for a while longer.
"No way, even these thoughts are coming out of my mouth? No, fuck! They are!"
"I thought I'd gotten through it smoothly for once... this cunning bitch!"
"Amelia too—why are all witches like this?"
No matter how hard he tried to clamp his mouth shut, his true feelings kept pouring out effortlessly.
Odile watched his one-man monologue show for a full fifteen minutes, laughing until her face turned red.
Should he take solace in the fact that she hadn't burned him alive on the spot for blasphemy?
Siwoo pondered it seriously.
"Odile."
When Odile didn't respond, he called again.
"Odile."
"Hm? Oh, sorry. Were you calling me? Weren't you just calling me a pretty-faced rude twin bitch?"
Odile giggled, but Siwoo's face instantly turned ashen.
He hadn't realized how dangerous it was to have his inner thoughts exposed like this.
Or that magic existed to manipulate human behavior in this way.
"That's because you cast some nasty spell on me, isn't it? Mind control or something..."
"But you monologued, 'Why are my true feelings spilling out verbatim?' didn't you?"
"That was, that was..."
Siwoo let out a deep sigh and gave up.
"I don't know. Do whatever you want—roast me, boil me, I don't care."
"Oh? If you end up on the dinner menu, Assistant, would you prefer medium or well-done?"
Odile spat out the savage joke and laughed for another good while.
"You want to know what spell I cast, right?"
"Yes."
He definitely hadn't sensed any mana fluctuations or magic circles.
Though he hadn't formally learned magic, so his attainment was meager, he hadn't expected to miss even the slightest precursor.
It was only natural for curiosity and academic passion to spark toward a spell he'd never heard or seen before.
"♪ ♫ ~"
Odile opened her mouth and began to sing.
It was a timbre closer to the melody of a beautiful string instrument than a human voice.
Before Siwoo could dazedly marvel at it, he detected a faint wriggling of mana in sync with her tune—subtle enough to miss without focus.
"Got it?"
"No way..."
Siwoo recalled the earlier scene.
The humming Odile had done while poking at her food.
What if it hadn't just been humming along to some tune?
"Correct. This is the Gemernai witches' Self-Generating Magic. It manifests naturally through variations in pitch, rhythm, intensity, and breathing. What I cast on you was the 'Song of Confession'."
"Couldn't sing it perfectly without Odette, but it wasn't bad, right?"
"...I fell into a trap."
"Yep, you did."
Right now, Odile was navigating Tarot Town's labyrinthine alleys without any guidance, moving purposefully toward a destination.
Not wandering footsteps, but straight to the goal.
That meant...
"Tarot Town being your first time was a lie too."
"Yeah, it's true my master is strict, so I only sneak out once a week."
He felt an inexplicable sense of betrayal.
He regretted pitying Odile and Odette, thinking they were a bit pathetic, seeing her as a bird in a cage.
"So why go this far? I'm just a lowly slave—you could command me with a flick of your chin for most things."
"Shall I save that explanation for a bit later as a treat? Asking a lady's shoe size is bad manners."
Lady, my ass.
After trudging through the dark alleys for a while, Odile came to an abrupt halt.
Amid shabby buildings huddled together stood a five-story mansion that looked newly built.
It felt as out of place as a skyscraper in a slum.
Odile grinned as she opened the door.
"Let me introduce you. This is Odette's and my villa. An outpost we made to learn all the world's curiosities."
"Sure it is."
Siwoo followed Odile inside, closing the door behind him with the expression of a man who'd given up on everything.
2.
No butler or maid greeted them upon entering the mansion.
Instead, ornate gold-leaf candelabras flared to life all at once, their flames flickering welcomingly.
He'd already thought the mansion's exterior didn't fit the rundown alley.
The interior decor took it several notches further.
He seriously wondered if he should step on the gleaming marble floor—polished enough to see his face—with his shoes on.
"Odette!"
Odile's triumphant voice, announcing victory, echoed, followed by the slap of slippers on the floor.
Soon, Odette poked her head out from the second-floor railing.
Unlike at the academy, their hairstyles, accessories, and even clothes were all different.
"Don't you ever do a switcheroo outside?"
"Huh?"
"Why not mess with Professor Amelia sometimes? You pretending to be Odette, her pretending to be you."
Odile pursed her lips into an O.
She looked like a culprit right after her perfect crime—thought undetectable—was exposed.
"Wait, how did you know? We even match mana waveforms perfectly."
"Who wouldn't? Professor Amelia just doesn't say anything, but she's onto you."
While Odile stiffened at Siwoo's nonchalant response, Odette came bounding down the stairs.
"Hello, Assistant Siwoo! Meeting you outside the academy feels so fresh!"
Odette skidded to a stop at the foot of the stairs, fanning out her voluminous dress skirts slightly as she bowed politely.
At least Odette seemed a tad less tomboyish than her sister Odile.
Her beaming smile and courteous speech even to a slave suggested as much.
That thought vanished in one second.
"How'd you capture him? You actually brought him!"
Was 'capture' even a word to use for a person?
Odette circled Siwoo like a scholar eyeing a rare specimen, her eyes sparkling.
"What did I tell you? Just trust your big sis, and everything goes according to plan. And that's not all—we secured a solid weakness to make him cooperate with our experiments."
"A weakness?"
"Well, actually..."
*Whisper whisper whisper.*
Siwoo's hackles rose at the word 'experiments'.
Meanwhile, Odette's eyes doubled in sparkle as Odile filled her in on the details.
"You broke through big sis's barrier? You're researching door-opening magic? And you're a slave?"
"Doesn't matter, right? It's intriguing, but not related to us."
"True."
Odette nodded readily.
"Anyway, follow us. You know you don't have a choice."
"Sorry, Assistant. But we're just too curious to hold back."
"Hold on."
One thing he had to clarify, at least.
"If I survive this 'experiment' unharmed... what then?"
The twins burst into harmonious laughter midway through his question, irking Siwoo.
This could be life-or-death for him, for fuck's sake.
"As if we'd harm you, Assistant?"
"As if we'd harm you, Assistant?"
"If not, I'm grateful."
"We'd never!"
"We'd never!"
"Of course, only if you're cooperative."
"Of course, only if you're cooperative!"
Odile and Odette's fantastic synergy.
Hearing their eerie twin speech—starting and ending in perfect unison, minus the final 'yo' from Odette—strangely reassured him.
If it wasn't harmful and he just cooperated, they'd guarantee his safety.
"Then my using magic and preparing to escape..."
"We'll keep it secret!"
"...I'll trust you."
The tension drained a bit.
It felt less dire than he'd feared.
Under the twins' guidance, they arrived at a cozy-looking bedroom.
With two pillows and nothing but a huge bed, it was probably where they slept together.
Siwoo panicked.
He'd expected a workshop full of magic reagents from all the experiment talk, not a bedroom out of nowhere.
His back tingled coldly.
"Strip."
"Pardon?"
"You're helping with the experiment, right? Gotta strip."
Siwoo finally intuited it.
During the 'situational mana generation induction via ejaculation' humiliation play under the guise of assistant duties, Odile and Odette had shown intense focus.
It wasn't purely curiosity about magic.
Nine-tenths of that focus was curiosity about the male body.
"The reference book for today's experiment you'll help with, Siwoo, is this."
Odette brought a thin book, her cheeks delicately flushed.
The title: Guidelines for a Lady's First Night.
"Stole it from the maids reading it together. They say true ladies must read it."
Odette smiled brightly.
"Hurry and strip!"
"W-Wait a sec."
"If you don't strip now, I'll tell Professor Amelia right away."
"You promised to cooperate, right? Pretty please."
The twins lunged from both sides, tugging at Siwoo's collar.
They looked ready to rip it off any second, so he clutched his clothes tight.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Siwoo wasn't a eunuch either.
Sampling the sister rice bowl—more stunning than any Earth supermodels—was a temptation any man would waver at.
But no one! Absolutely no one! could have sex with an Apprentice Witch.
The Stigma was imprinted on the lower abdomen, where the womb resides.
That imprinted Stigma is what holds a woman's mana in her womb.
The ultimate reason men can't become witches.
If an immature-wombed Apprentice Witch absorbs mana generated by a man's ejaculation (or erection), she can never bear a Stigma eternally.
Your precious Apprentice Witch locks eyes with some random guy and can't inherit the Stigma?
What reaction would a witch have?
Just hearing they were together in a bedroom would probably make their master, Gemernai, incinerate Siwoo.
"Won't work. Odette."
"Got it! Sis."
The twins began singing in unison.
A tangled melody.
Though each twin had inherited only about 10% of the Stigma, it was more than enough.
For Siwoo, it was magic of an unfathomably profound realm he couldn't comprehend or resist.
"Ah, I said really no! It's not just me—you'll be fucked too, for real!"
"Think we're that clueless?"
His clothes peeled off on their own, leaving him in his underwear as he flopped onto the bed.
No matter how he struggled, he couldn't budge.
Unreasonably powerful magic.
"Just satisfying a little curiosity. Be good, okay?"
"----! -----!"
Some trick had sealed even his voice.
"Odette, hop on."
"...Huh? Oh, sis."
His sturdy build, honed by manual labor and forced dieting.
Odette, who could only observe the male form from afar in Amelia's classes, covered her mouth demurely as she sat on the bed.
"We'll go chapter by chapter, nice and slow."
Siwoo caught sight of Odile slyly licking her lips.