Chapter 339: The Lazy Witch (4)1.

The two members of the Yesod Household always ate dinner together.

No matter how busy Countess Lucy was, she’d always spare some time to eat with her daughter.

Especially now when she was forcing Diana to stay outside all day long; She had been rescheduling her appointments just so that she could eat together with her.

“You have done a great job today too, Sweetie. Mommy’s so proud of you.”

The Countess said so with a bright expression on her face.

In fact, she never expected Diana to obediently do what she told her.

She thought that her daughter would only idle around outside and come back when it was time to come home.

Not to mention that she’d be doing this for a whole week straight.

Also, every single day, her dear daughter would experience a lot of things outside and recounted all her experience to her.

I’ll have no regrets even if I were to pass on now...

“We’re having lamb chops today, your favorite, Sweetie! Eat a lot! Ohoho!”

“...”

But, even though the Countess had offered Diana her favorite meal, she was only staring at it blankly, as if lost in thought.

This unusual reaction from her turned the Countess’ expression into that of a bewilderment.

Normally, her dear daughter would come running the moment she heard the ‘L’ in lamb chops.

She’d earnestly move her knife and fork just to eat the lamb chops despite her tendencies to avoid doing something that would even slightly inconvenience her.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen outside?”

“No, nothing happened, Mom. Let’s eat.”

“Alright, alright! Earlier today, I went to the Border Town to buy a lot of snacks from the Modern World! Anyway, what were you up to today, Sweetie?”

The Countess asked that question, marking the start of her dear daughter’s daily report.

Preparing to hear what her daughter was about to say, a giddy smile appeared on her face.

“Today, I went to a host club.”

But, hearing those words come out of her mouth, that smile instantly crumbled down.

She unknowingly put too much force into the knife she was using to cut the lamb chops and that knife helplessly slipped out of her hand before falling down to the floor.

“W-W-W-What club...?”

“Host club.”

“No, Sweetie! You can’t go to a place like that! Mommy won’t allow it! Didn’t mommy tell you that all men are just perverts who’d only approach you for your pretty face?! Why did you go to that place anyway? Is this the start of your rebellious phase?! Oh, my heart...!”

Apprentice witches had to stay away from men.

This was common knowledge to witches as it was a way to prevent unsavory accidents.

However, Countess Lucy’s speech, or rather, indoctrination about men, clearly wasn’t in line with what was considered as common sense for the witches.

‘There’s no way that I’ll let those bastards take the apple of my eyes away!’

This was something that Countess Lucy told herself over and over.

Because, with how much she doted on her dear daughter, it wouldn’t be strange if she were to fall into depression just from thinking that Diana would bed another man later in the future.

Especially when she imagined how much tears her dear daughter would shed the moment she had to separate with the man that she came to fall in love with...

But then again, she just didn’t want Diana to experience the pain and sorrow of watching her loved one grow old, sick and die...

Just imagining that scenario already made her heart ache.

“No, of course not, I’m not in my rebellious phase or anything. I just heard about a male witch working at that place, so I went there to take a look.”

“Oh.”

Though, Diana’s calm reaction made the Countess realize that she had overreacted a little.

As a businesswoman, the Countess reacted very quickly to the ongoing rumors.

That was why even before Diana told her about it, she already knew that there was a newly opened host club in Gehenna and the rumored male witch was working there.

And she knew that it was worth visiting him, even if it was just out of curiosity.

“Sorry, Mommy overreacted a little. I’m sorry, Sweetie...”

“It’s fine.”

“So, what did you do in the host club? How did you feel after seeing him in person?”

“...Well, I didn’t feel anything special.”

She reenacted how the magic he had shown wasn’t anything special.

Although he indeed possessed a self-essence magic, it wasn’t to the level that it was worth giving him a visit to see it.

She stated that even if she were an apprentice witch, if she were to engage in a battle with him, she’d win against him effortlessly.

Then again, he was the first generation of his witch’s line, so this much was to be expected.

“Is that so? You can’t really trust the rumors after all, hm? Then again, no man in this world is worthy to catch my dear daughter’s eyes!”

But even so, there was still something that bothered Diana so much that she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The thing that happened during their second Witch Board game.

When he pulled off a completely unexpected move that almost drove her into a corner.

Did he really aim for that from the beginning?

If that was the case, that meant he had been responding to all my movements while building his own way to counterattack at the same time...

“Mom.”

“Yes, Sweetie?”

“Do you think I’m good at Witch Board?”

After they finished setting up the game, Diana felt like crying out loud in satisfaction.

She had been waiting for this moment since last night.

That was why, as soon as she finished her breakfast, she immediately went straight to the club.

“I’ll concede another nine turns this time as well. Go, start your turn.”

She stated that she’d be conceding nine turns, as if it was a given.

Even though she ended up being surprised by yesterday''s match''s outcome, this was still a reasonable handicap. Because in the end, even though she had conceded nine turns, she was the one who ended up winning.

“Ah, you don’t need to do that anymore. I’ve studied about the game all night.”

But, for some reason, he said that to her.

He boldly proclaimed that he didn’t need any kind of handicap against her.

Diana struggled to control her expression that was slowly becoming distorted.

I see, he let the fluke from yesterday go over his head, huh?

In this game, where every single move could decide whether you’ll win or not... I willingly gave him nine turns as a handicap, yet he said he doesn’t need it?

He became this arrogant only after a single night of studying?

What a detestable and arrogant guy...

“...Fine.”

But she knew that lashing out at him for his attitude would be distasteful of her.

So, she decided that she’d teach him a lesson by showing him how wide the gap between their skills was.

She made a vow to herself that she’d teach this fool in front of him the true meaning of despair.

With that, their game started.

Diana and Siwoo both took turns to place their mana orbs.

She followed a standard move, placing her three orbs a few spaces apart.

Meanwhile, Siwoo used the same strategy as the other day, clumping his three orbs together.

“...”

The moment she saw this, Diana could feel her expression twitched.

Of course, she wasn’t worried about the possibility of her losing or anything.

She just found what he was doing so ridiculous that she was having trouble trying to keep her mouth shut.

In the end, she decided to give him a piece of her mind after much deliberation.

Of course, she wasn’t trying to be nice about it at all.

“I thought you said you studied the game.”

“Yes. I’ve been reading various notations all night long.”

“Were there any notations with this kind of opening?”

“No. I just think this opening suits me better.”

Is he trying to thin my patience or what?

Of course, Diana knew that such an opening did exist.

But such an opening would only be used as a surprise strategy, similar to what he had done yesterday.

The strategy had a major flaw that it wouldn’t be able to put on much momentum mid-game and it would be virtually impossible to win if the game were to be dragged out to late-game.

Does he think that the fact that he almost got me yesterday meant that this flawed strategy would work on me again?

Diana could feel her blood boil.

Even though his very existence had already made her mad, he doubled down on that and did things that made her even more mad.

No matter how lenient her attitude toward everything was, her patience had started to run thin.

“You’ll regret it.”

She thought about overwhelming him with force from the very start, but in the end, she decided to just fortify her defense and take it slow.

Even though the bottom of her stomach was boiling, her head was cold and she was still able to make rational decisions.

Meanwhile, Siwoo was making one strange move after another.

Rather than focusing his play in one place, he spread it all over the board.

It was hard for Diana to guess what it was that he was trying to do.

No, I shouldn’t mind him.

He’s just an insufferable narcissist who’s drowning in his futile fame of being the first male witch.

Yesterday’s game was also a fluke anyway.

I’ll end this stupid game quickly and go to watch a play or something.

After she decided to do that, Diana continued to dish out her moves to complete her magic cannon.

And then...

“...”

Siwoo made a move that fully utilized all of his randomly placed runes.

The move successfully penetrated through the pyramid-shaped fortress that Diana had been building, as if it was his goal from the very beginning.

With just one move, he destabilized her formation and destroyed the connection between her mana orbs and the rest of her runes.

It seemed like Siwoo had been preparing to do this all along, to destroy her connections in one go.

This was the kind of move that could only be utilized by someone who completely understood the principles and structures of the magic in question.

Dispel Pin.