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1.

Countess Lucy lived a whole different life compared to Diana.

While she was effortlessly handling the mountain of business affairs in the Modern World, she never neglected her duties as a witch; to immerse herself in magical research.

She also had hobbies to enjoy, going everywhere to build friendly connections with other witches, all while diligently exploring every corner of Gehenna whenever she got the chance.

From the moment she woke up at 6 am to the time she went to bed at 2 am…

She’d keep herself busy in every single moment.

Recently, she even got rid of her regular sleep schedule.

To mentor Diana’s tutor, Shin Siwoo.

“I wonder if he’ll be on time today~”

She propped her chin in her hand, waiting for the sound of a knock at her door.

The first male witch in Gehenna…

When Lucy first heard about him, she wasn’t particularly excited.

Sure, the word ‘first’ had a certain allure to it.

Unobserved.

Unknown.

Full of untapped potential.

Those were the implications of that particular word.

However, being the first male witch also meant his accomplishment was merely confined to the level of the ‘first generation.’

She thought that there was no way his existence would benefit the ancient and well-established self-essence magic of the Yesod Family that had been developed over thousands of years.

That was also probably why all those Grand Witches didn’t pay much attention to his ‘magical value’.

And she too, thought of it that way until just recently.

“Hmm, quite impressive indeed…”

These days, the countess found herself drowning in her thoughts whenever the neatly arranged stack of papers on her table entered her line of sight.

Said stack of papers was a study journal, served to document everything that they had studied together over the past four days.

Of course, even after all that, her answer to the question, ‘Magically speaking, is he worth studying?’ hadn’t really changed.

In her eyes, even if she were to run various experiments on him, it wouldn’t contribute to the advancement of her self-essence magic.

Because Yesod Family’s magic had advanced well beyond that point.

The thing that caught her attention, however, was his ability to learn.

‘If you don’t mind, may I ask how long you’ve been studying?’

‘I started studying it earnestly…at around one or two months ago…’

‘A month or two…?’

Not too long ago, he mentioned that he had only been seriously studying barrier magic for about a month or two.

And he wasn’t just shutting himself away to focus on his research like most witches during that time, as he was also helping out his friends while having some fun along the way.

At first, she thought that he was probably exaggerating it.

Even if he was smart and was great at calculations… Even if his test answers were impressive…

Everything had its limits.

Even child prodigies in music that would be praised as geniuses everywhere, often pale in comparison to seasoned maestros.

But, after teaching him for these three days, the countess realized…

That a talent that could surpass experience existed.

The man swiftly and skillfully solved all the problems she presented at an alarming rate.

If he were to get stuck at something, she’d only need to give him a small hint for him to immediately find his way and push forward with relentless momentum.

He’d navigate the complex maze of barrier magic skillfully, sometimes he’d even find ways to break through it wales.

And as a result, he managed to develop an ‘add-on’ to control the Red Branch.

He completely grasped all the theories he deemed necessary.

But not only that, he also colored it with his own color and embraced it.

Watching him doing all that sparked a thought in the countess’ mind.

“If Siwoo were to create his own barrier magic… I wonder what it would look like?”

When one were to fuse two different self-essence magic together, there bound to be some kind of transformation occurred.

It goes without saying that the result would be quite different from the Yesod’s traditional barrier magic.

During that process, there was a big chance that he might even provide some inspiration for her.

This was why the countess secretly looked forward to her private tutoring sessions with him.

“And besides that…”

“Excuse me. May I come in?”

“Yes, please come in.”

When she heard Siwoo’s voice, the countess quickly checked her appearance in the mirror on the table and let him in.

It didn’t take long for Siwoo, dressed in a way that she found extremely appealing, walked into the study.

Back during the first day, she could clearly see him being all nervous, when she got here, but now he seemed considerably more comfortable being here. His expression was much brighter than back then.

Seeing that expression on his face brought a slight smile to the countess’ face.

This was the second reason why the countess looked forward to their tutoring sessions.

It’s never a dull moment when a handsome man is round.

Seeing him brought a tingling sensation….

And emotions that she hadn’t felt in a really long time.

“I’ve been waiting for you. How was Diana today?”

“Starting tomorrow, we’re finally going to have more activities outside. Things have finally fallen into place.”

“Already? That’s quite a quick progression.”

“…I’m not quite sure if I can call this ‘progression’…”

A wry smile appeared on his face as he sat down. After that, the countess continued their lesson.

Their schedule for today was to do some practical lessons after reviewing his theoretical knowledge.

“I think we’ve pretty much covered all the necessary theories. After all, what you’re trying to do here, Mr. Siwoo, is not trying to build a pyramid from the ground up, but picking the right blocks to create your ‘add-on’.”

After around an hour passed…

For the first time during the whole lesson, Siwoo had an unsure look on his face.

“I still can’t quite get the hang of this…”

Theory and practice were worlds apart, this was something that everyone knew.

Even Siwoo, who usually could handle things with ease, found himself stuck in a rut.

“There’s no need to rush, after all it’s only the fourth day. If anything, you’re already doing great enough, Mr. Siwoo.”

Barrier magic was a conceptual and abstract kind of magic.

To create a force field, one needed to imagine it in one’s mind, all while calculating the spell in reality.

But to do that, one had to deal with a rather big hurdle; the discrepancies between the two actions.

“The hardest part in learning barrier magic is to put what you’ve learned into practice.”

As she said that, the countess gave Siwoo an intense stare.

She had gone through this process herself, so she could completely relate with his struggles.

And of course, she also knew the quickest way to overcome such struggles.

“Instead of doing that… Hmm…”

The issue here was whether or not she’d help him with it.

Long time ago, after she lost her beloved, the countess threw herself into her magic research and business.

She thought that rather than dwelling on a loss that she couldn’t change the outcome of, she should just focus on living the rest of her life happily.

After all, what good would it do if she were to spend the rest of her life sitting and crying?

Instead of doing that, she decided that it would be better if she were to just carry on while holding onto the cherished memories.

However she kept a small space in her heart as a memorial for that man, and never let another man get close to her.

From then on, she focused on her life, even completing a thesis that caused quite a stir in the academic world.

She raised Diana, who was a baby at the time, into a fine apprentice witch.

And now, she felt like she had fulfilled her duty.

Her life, which she had raced through without looking back, was coming to its end.

What surfaced in her heart was a small feeling of loneliness.

She knew what it felt to be loved, and yet she had been suppressing her desire, coping with it by writing erotic novels all by herself.

And she had been doing this for more than a decade.

Maybe, just maybe…

…It’ll be fine if I give in to my selfishness a little, right…?

…Just a little selfishness…

“Mr. Shin Siwoo.”

2.

Countess Lucy Yesod told Siwoo…

That visualizing barrier magic was inherently difficult.

“Then what should I do?”

“There’s one good way to do it. Sharing the vision of one’s mind with another’s.”

“Ah…”

This was something he had experienced before.

The first time he learned about elemental magic from Sharon, they held each other’s hands, and Sharon shared the scenery she was seeing.

After that, his skill in elemental magic improved by leaps and bounds.

“Alright, would you mind standing up?”

“Huh? I need to stand up?”

“Yes. Just standing up, no need to do anything else.”

I thought only holding hands would do? Why do I need to stand up?

Though puzzled, Siwoo still stood up obediently. Meanwhile, the countess began unbuttoning his shirt, one button at a time.

The front buttons of his shirt came undone just as quickly as when they first met.

He could feel a cold breeze touching his chest through the open shirt.

“Countess?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything bad.”

Slightly flustered, he stared at her face, but he couldn’t sense any change in her expression.

It was still the same business-like expression she usually wore.

Which meant that this was indeed, part of their magic study.

Thinking that maybe there were different ways to vision sharing, Siwoo decided to just follow along.

“Can you come over here for a second?”

After undoing all his buttons, the countess guided him to stand beside the couch.

Then, like a graceful swan, she walked forward with light steps before turning around.

Siwoo had to hold back the gasp that almost slipped out of his mouth.

He hadn’t noticed this when he walked in, since he only saw her face, but Countess Yesod was wearing a bareback dress that revealed much more of her skin than he expected.

It wasn’t just some dress that was hinting at exposure slightly.

But rather a daring and revealing dress that, if the shoulder straps were to be loosened even a little, one could see her entire buttocks.

Her neatly tied-up hair exposed her slender nape, while her back and waist proudly showcased their perfect proportions.

The fabric of her skirt, clinging to her feminine hips, only served to pronounce their presence.

But, even though her outfit looked extremely revealing, there was no sense of vulgarity in her figure, perhaps, thanks to the mature beauty that she naturally exuded.

If anything, she looked like a work of art.

“To share our vision, close physical contact is important.”

She had unbuttoned the front of his shirt and revealed her snow-white back…

The implication behind her actions was more than clear.

She wanted him to hug her from behind.

“Are you feeling shy? This is for the sake of magic study, you know?”

The countess glanced back at the hesitant Siwoo as she asked that.

Meanwhile, for Siwoo, putting aside how sudden this was, this was still a lot to take in.

They were here alone, late at night, and she was asking him for a skin-to-skin back hug…

A whole bunch of innuendos are being thrown around, isn’t it?

“…Since the only necessity is contact… Can’t we just hold hands instead…?”

Before anything, he asked that question first.

Because he was worried that if he were to hug her all of a sudden, something unpleasant might happen.

Also, he wasn’t sure if she was doing this because this was really necessary, or if she was actually trying to seduce him like what other witches did.

“…This is how we do it in our family.”

“Ah, I see…”

But, that decisive answer she gave out erased the last of his doubt.

As he was about to go along with it, the countess sealed the deal even further.

“Are you trying to embarrass me here? And here I thought I’m offering you a favor.”

“That isn’t my intention…”

Dude, get a grip of yourself!

This isn’t the host club!

Countess Yesod isn’t one of those shameless witches who’d ask me to sleep with them just because they’re curious about me!

She’s one of the highest-ranking witches!

One of the only seven countesses in Gehenna!

There’s no way someone of her stature would use vision sharing as an excuse to touch me!

Guess after being harassed by those witches made me develop this kind of delusional tendency, huh?

“Then, please excuse me…”

“My, you should be saying thank you instead.”

Siwoo then awkwardly extended his arms to hug the countess.

Since she was still wearing her heels, their height difference was only around half a head.

He breathed through his mouth, trying to avoid inhaling the scent of her hair as he carefully embraced her.

“Ah…”

Surprisingly, the parts of her body that he touched with his hands were warm, especially compared to the cold air that slipped through his open shirt.

He could feel her soft skin, softer than a shawl made of a mink’s fur.

Not only that, he could also feel her body temperature slightly rising and her vivid heartbeat as he pressed his chest against her back.

In the middle of this unexpectedly erotic moment, the countess gently pulled his stiff arms closer.

“You need to get closer.”

“W-Whoa!”

Now, his body that had only been lightly pressed against her curvy upper back was fully pressed against it.

He could clearly feel the bra-less curves of her breasts in his arms.

This was a unique problem that arose from touching a woman’s body in this position; unlike a man’s, the curves in both their front and back were extremely pronounced.

As Siwoo’s abdomen pressed against her lower back like that, his manhood ended up nestled between her buttocks.

“…”

Considering its massive size, there was no way that the countess wouldn’t notice it tightly pressing against her soft, unsuspecting buttocks.

“Ohh…”

At that moment…

The countess’ surprised gasp entered his ears.

“I-I’m so sorry.”

So, he quickly tried to pull his hips back and distance himself from her, but…

Lucy tightened her grip on his wrists, holding him in place.

“It’s fine. Just focus.”

In a somewhat undignified manner, Siwoo managed to shift his hips back to create some distance between them as Lucy began sharing the vision with him.