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1.

Even though the first light of dawn already crept in, Diana still hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.

Overwhelming frustration filled her heart.

Her heart was consumed by sorrow for her mother.

The betrayal by the man she trusted left her without enough time to even tremble with anger.

“How dare he…! How dare he…! How dare he…!”

Diana bit into the corner of her pillow, gnashing her teeth, trying to release the resentment burning inside her.

Even though her introduction to sex had been through her mother’s sensual novels, she had been hammered with the proper conduct of a noble lady her whole life. Her stance on chastity hadn’t changed even until now.

A man and a woman, once they had done that intimate act, they should be married.

In her eyes, that was just common sense.

Even in the Devil’s Delivery Service, the delivery man who initially treated the witch as his plaything eventually got engaged with her.

“Poor mom…”

And yet, her mother was left cruelly abandoned, even though she had given herself to that man.

She even had to endure humiliating things like being spanked by him.

Not to mention how she entertained his perverse and degrading desires.

In the erotic novels she read, such shameless, irrational, and cruel acts were described as:

Being discarded after being used up.

Her poor mother had been toyed with by that man, defiled, and discarded like a half-eaten apple.

That pity for her mother soon morphed into hatred and disgust for Siwoo.

“He took my first kiss… Made me believe he was special…”

What hurt more wasn’t just that her mother had been treated this way.

It was the fact that the man who had done all this was Shin Siwoo, the first man Diana had ever truly acknowledged and felt something for.

On top of that, he had even saved her from danger once.

Harboring resentment towards someone she was emotionally indebted to was simply infuriating.

In fact, that was what frustrated her the most.

This was the reason why she had only been grinding her teeth all night long, not getting even a wink of sleep until dawn.

At that moment, the door opened. Her mother, Lucy Yesod, walked in, holding a candle.

“Oh my, did Mommy wake you up, Sweetie?”

“M-Mom…”

The moment she saw her mother, all of the bottled-up sorrow and regret that she had been suppressing just burst out like a broken dam.

She couldn’t say a word, only shedding tears like they were raindrops.

Seeing this, Lucy rushed towards her in alarm.

“Oh my! Did you have a nightmare? Come here, Sweetie. Why are you crying?”

“N-No, that’s not it…”

Lucy ran to her bed, hugged her tight, and gently stroked her hair over and over.

Even so, Diana couldn’t bring herself to tell her mother the truth.

The mother she wanted to respect more than anyone had shown a side that she couldn’t bear to see.

And above all, she could imagine how upset her mother would be if she were to learn about her neglectful behavior in delaying her succession.

Knowing her mother’s personality, there was no way that she’d just feel upset if she were to find out.

Though parting was inevitable, the saddest thing for a witch and her apprentice was the fact that they had to choose the moment for it themselves.

“Mom…”

“What’s wrong, Sweetie? Do you want to sleep together? Maybe a bath first before you sleep? Mommy could sing you a lullaby after.”

Unable to answer, Diana just rubbed her cheek against her mother’s warm chest and said…

“Mom, I love you so much.”

It was rare for Diana to express her affection.

Diana was an awkward apprentice witch when it came to showing her feelings, especially her love for her mother.

But today, she felt like she had to say something.

“Oh my…”

Countess Yesod was a little surprised at Diana’s sudden show of affection.

She pulled her daughter into a tight embrace and said…

“What’s going on? Did you have a nightmare? Don’t worry, Mommy’s here. Sleep well. Mommy loves you so much, my sweet girl.”

“Yes…please…stay… Stay with me…”

“Okay then, mommy’s not going anywhere.”

After a sleepless night of brooding in anger, Diana was utterly exhausted.

When she nestled into the warmth of her mother’s arms, she realized she was about to fall asleep.

It only took her a minute of clutching her mother’s waist that she drifted off to sleep, her breaths stabilized as she escaped into the dreamland.

2.

“Yo, this is still the crack of dawn. What the hell are you bugging me for?”

It was 1 pm. After eating just a piece of sandwich for lunch, Siwoo dropped by Rose Glass, the host bar Takasho ran.

As a host, working late nights and sometimes into the early morning was the norm.

Takasho, who greeted him, was scratching his head with half-asleep eyes.

He looked like he’d just crawled out of bed.

“Came by to grab a drink.”

“Dude, I’m not like you. I’m not a superman who can stay up for days without crashing.”

“I brought some good stuff. Let’s go in.”

“My stomach’s still messed up from last night’s drinking, and you’re giving me more alcohol?”

“Ever heard of a hangover cure drink?”

“What the hell are you even on about?”

Siwoo nudged Takasho’s back, who was grimacing at the mention of the unfamiliar Korean remedy.

He had come to see Takasho today for advice.

After all, Takasho was an indispensable expert in women’s psychology.

He had experienced it more than once—Takasho’s nonsensical remarks that he casually threw out in passing helped his ass off.

“Hoaahm…”

Takasho flopped onto the couch, yawning and rubbing his eyes lazily.

Instead of booze, Siwoo had brought some spicy ramen he cooked as a hangover remedy.

After slurping up the noodles, Takasho’s eyes regained a bit of their original wits.

“So, what’s up?”

“What do you think love is?”

“Do you want me to confess my love for you or what?”

At first he answered slyly, but a grin appeared in his face when he saw Siwoo’s serious face.

“Oh, you came for a love consultation, huh?”

“Things are too complicated for me right now. I’m literally grabbing at straws here.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll start by answering that cheesy question of yours.”

Seeing Siwoo nodding, Takasho thought for a moment before answering casually.

“Well, love is simple. It’s just wanting to share your happiness with someone.”

Slightly embarrassed by what he said, he rubbed his nose.

Naturally, Siwoo was surprised. This wasn’t the typical response that Takasho would say.

“Hey, Josenjin, why are you making that face?”

“No, I just didn’t expect that kind of answer would come out. I thought you’d say something more out there, like ‘love means you want to get a woman pregnant’ or whatever.”

“You don’t need to love someone to think that way about them.”

“Ah, makes sense.”

His answer was surprisingly reasonable.

“When you have fun doing something, you want to share it. When you eat something good, you want to give it to them. That’s love, right?”

But for Siwoo, that answer didn’t solve much of his problem.

He understood what he was trying to say, but that answer wasn’t a roadmap that he could follow to deal with his situation.

“Takasho, listen. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?”

“Elaborate.”

“Alright.”

Siwoo began to spill all the things that had been weighing on him for a while.

He began sharing his complicated situation with the twins, Sharon, his master, Periwinkle, and Countess Yesod.

He had been flaunting his dick without restraint, and as a result, his womanizing had spun wildly out of control, creating a mess he didn’t know how to clean up.

This time, he didn’t hold anything back and spilled it all.

As the conversation continued, Takasho’s indifferent expression turned into one of disbelief.

By the time Siwoo finished talking about the twins, Takasho’s face was practically twisted in disgust, and by the time Siwoo finished speaking, there was a subtle anger brewing.

“So you came here this early in the morning just to mess with my head? Do you want me to stab you or what?”

“I’m being serious, damn it.”

From that answer, Takasho clearly wasn’t taking it seriously.

He sneered at Siwoo, his expression was one of disdain, as if he were looking at a fraud.

“You crazy bastard. You’ve got apprentice witches from a Countess Family, a busty girlfriend, a literal duchess, one of the only three in Gehenna, a rich hotel-owning mommy, and an equally rich countess, and you’re asking what I would do in your shoes? First, you need to tell me how the fuck am I supposed to handle all that?”

“Wait….”

“Do you really have to put me through this? Have you totally forgotten about our friendship? Is this some kind of twisted game where you want to watch me going crazy?”

Takasho spat his words with frustration.

“You wanna know how I feel? Imagine if one of your friends just won the damn lottery, and then came to you, someone who’s just scraping by, and said, ‘Ugh, man… How am I supposed to spend all this money?’ That’s how you’re making me feel, you fucking Korean kimchi bastard.”

“Hold on, that’s not…”

“How the hell did those witches even fall for a lame-ass guy like you… When Mr. Mimaya Takasho, the passionate young man from Hokkaido, is right here.”

After slurping up the ramen broth, Takasho continued with a slouched posture.

“Anyway, what am I gonna do in that situation? Well, first, I’d build a castle. Then, inside that castle, I’d bang them like I’m gonna die tomorrow, 17 times a day! Just thinking about it makes me so damn happy!”

Despite his jealousy flaring up for a moment, Takasho knew Siwoo well enough.

He understood exactly why Siwoo came to him for advice.

After all, they’d been through those rough 5 years together.

Knowing Siwoo’s timid personality, Takasho figured he must be feeling guilty about all of his four women.

And it was clear that he was also stressing about having sex with Countess Yesod under the guise of ‘research’.

“That’s what I’d really do. Now, let’s get to the point. It doesn’t matter what I’m gonna say, you’re going to continue to sleep with Countess Yesod anyway, no?”

“Why did you think of that?”

“The Shin Siwoo that I know won’t just sit still while there are people dying around him. Plus, you’ve already had your fun with that mommy. You can’t just pretend not to care.”

Takasho pulled out a cigarette and lit it up as he continued.

“You’re basically fucked. Just tell your woman, bow down, and beg like crazy. You know you’ll have to do it anyway.”

“Yeah…”

“Just tell them that you’re doing this to save lives. Those women won’t kill you for it. They’ll probably slap you a few times, but that’s all.”

In the midst of his hesitation, Takasho’s bluntness struck Siwoo right where it hurt.

He recalled Periwinkle’s advice, finally feeling ready to stop dancing around the issue and take action.

“I’ll do it right away. Thanks for the advice.”

“Oh, also, Siwoo.”

Takasho had one last thing to add.

“I only said all that because I was jealous, but honestly, I think you deserve this. Really, just go for it. You can start with a fivesome.”

That last bit of advice was so typical of /genesisforsaken