City of Witches Chapter 103

A carriage came to a halt before the fountain in the garden in front of Amelia's residence, as if it were about to crash right into it.

The carriage door, engraved with two birds, swung wide open.

"Odette! Get out quickly!"

"W-wait a moment! My shoe came off!"

Who could have imagined that these two girls, chirping noisily like birds, were the apprentice witches who would inherit the prestigious Jemernai Count Family?

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!!"

"Ah! Be quiet, unnie!"

Odil, who burst out of the carriage door as if running, stomped her feet impatiently on the spot, urging Odette on.

Odette hopped out on one foot, her finger hooked into the back of her shoe.

"I told you not to rush! Unnie, your impatient temper is always the problem!"

"What? Have you already forgotten that you messed up your violin lesson and made us thirty minutes late?"

"Ugh, that's because unnie told me to stop practicing and go to sleep last night because you were being too noisy!"

"You should've practiced on the weekend like I did!"

Odette and Odil straightened their shoes.

Though bickering nonstop, they hurriedly dashed off with quick steps.

So hastily that Head Maid Galina would have scolded them thoroughly if she had seen.

During lunchtime today.

The news they heard from their Master, whom they hadn't seen in a long time.

Two days ago, Assistant Shin Siwoo had awakened.

Ever since hearing those words, the twins had been filled with nothing but the thought of rushing to Amelia's mansion as soon as their duties ended.

He, who hadn't opened his eyes during sixteen visits over the course of a week, had regained consciousness.

How could they not run straight to him?

He had splendidly saved the twins' lives twice.

Moreover, even sacrificing himself in the process.

They had received a debt of gratitude they would have to repay for a lifetime.

"Unnie, how do I look?"

"Odette, how do I look?"

Pausing before opening the mansion door, the twins simultaneously turned to look at each other and spoke.

Before arriving, they had been adorned with flowers by the attendants.

Pecha had even applied lovely makeup, looking quite excited.

"Your bonnet is crooked."

"Unnie, your brooch looks like it's about to fall off."

The sisters tidied each other's disheveled attire, messed up from running breathlessly together.

Their hearts were already pounding.

With solemn expressions, the twins nodded and slowly walked toward Amelia's room.

Though their hearts were set on rushing to Siwoo in one breath, it was proper etiquette to greet her first.

There had been no change in the relationship between the twins and Amelia, which had seemed a bit awkward due to the love potion incident.

Because Amelia had stood at the lectern and lectured as calmly as ever.

It seemed she had no intention of interrogating them about that matter.

Of course, as a sort of retaliation or something... a tactical nuclear bombardment of assignments equivalent to their usual workload had fallen, but they accepted it willingly, thinking it was their own fault.

-Knock knock

After knocking, the door opened by itself a moment later.

"Hello, Professor."

"We heard that Assistant Siwoo has awakened and came to see him."

Inside the room, Yebin, Siwoo's attending physician, and Amelia were engaged in conversation.

They seemed to have been discussing something serious, as both their expressions were grim.

"...Is something... wrong?"

Amelia, who had been sipping from her wine glass, set it down and hesitated for a while before speaking.

She thought the twins would find out soon anyway.

So she only gave them a warning.

"Assistant Shin Siwoo hasn't fully recovered yet. Please be careful."

"Yes, Professor."

"We'll go now. Professor."

As Amelia gestured for them to go, the twins quietly closed the door and went out in the blink of an eye.

Amelia stared at the closed door for a while with mixed feelings, then took out a cigarette.

"Hoo...."

Hazy smoke spread, and Amelia furrowed her brow as she breathed heavily.

Yebin, who had been bowing her head like a sinner before her, also drank from her wine glass with trembling hands.

"So, further healing is impossible."

"Yes... I tried two more times... I really, really tried my best... But..."

"It's not your fault."

Yebin hung her head as if feeling ashamed.

Seeing her trembling with guilt as if she had committed a mortal sin, Amelia lost even the desire to reprimand her further.

What good would scolding Yebin out of frustration do here?

Yebin had made two more attempts to enter the palace of Siwoo's unconscious.

Both results were failures.

From the second attempt onward, she couldn't even set foot into the space.

This meant Siwoo's complete recovery had become impossible.

Only 70% of what Yebin had aimed for was her limit.

"Is there no possibility of self-recovery? Given the circumstances, it seems he absorbed some of your innate magic."

"Probably... I don't think so. Because he won't feel the need..."

From a purely magical perspective, Siwoo's body was now perfect.

It was literally self-enclosed.

Cutting off communication with the outside world, free from distracting thoughts, and solely immersed in his own world.

Through that power, he was displaying a level of concentration and computation so astonishing that even Yebin couldn't comprehend it.

Moreover, he seemed quite satisfied with it.

This was proven by his repeated refusal of Yebin's treatment.

The Siwoo who had emotions might have been different, but the current Siwoo didn't feel the need for treatment.

Because once treatment was complete, he would emerge from his 'high-functioning autistic state' and become magically 'incomplete.'

To the current Siwoo, this state was recognized as the optimal condition requiring no further intervention.

In exchange for abandoning humanity, emotions, and interaction with the outside world, he had gained demonic magical talent.

From a distant horizon, he had no intention of returning to his original daily life.

This was Yebin's conclusion.

Amelia closed her eyes tightly for a moment, then stubbed out her cigarette.

"You've worked hard. Baron Avenuga will give you appropriate compensation. And here."

Amelia handed over a silver ticket that had been tucked in a book.

It looked incredibly simple, but in reality, it was not.

This was 'Gnosis's Egg,' artificially created by Duke Keter's hand.

It was citizenship and a pass for Gehenna.

"Really, really, I'm sorry... Baron... If only I had been a little more capable..."

Amelia shook her head.No further apology is necessary.

Yebin did her best, and the trouble arose purely due to Siwoo's bizarre and unpredictable talent.

"If there's any progress, I'll seek your help again."

"Yes..."

Amelia steadied her heart, which felt on the verge of breaking, and barely managed to see Yebin off.

Clutching her dizzy head, she slumped back into her chair at the desk.

Despite all that effort, everything was over.

Now, there was truly nothing left but to rely on fortune.

"Siwoo..."

Another Witch might have jumped for joy at such a thing.

No, even Amelia herself would have secretly rejoiced if she had obtained such a mysterious slave.

But her chest felt unbearably hollow.

Because that slave was Siwoo.

Because he was the only person with whom she had shared her heart, the man she thought she loved.

His clueless expressions.

His unexpectedly tender moments.

His angry outbursts.

She could no longer see any of them.

Expressionlessly, Amelia pulled out the bundle of documents from the top drawer.

It was the healing magic research she had been conducting for Siwoo before inviting Yebin Smirna.

She probably wouldn't make it in time.

Even if Amelia achieved a genius-level proficiency capable of healing Siwoo, he would likely already be dead and gone from this world.

For he was a mortal, not an immortal Witch.

Yet, the reason Amelia took out these documents was because the helplessness of being unable to do anything was too difficult to bear.

Scritch scratch.

The pen nib scraping across the paper felt unusually weak today.

"Unnie, should we go in through the window?"

"I said let's just go, why are you making such a fuss?"

"But that would be more impressive."

Finishing their mental preparations with a brief, excited conversation in front of Siwoo's door, the Twins were ready.

A splendid bouquet of flowers, a dramatic 'Ta-da!' entrance, and that would be it.

They kicked the door open with flair, jumped in energetically at the same time, and landed simultaneously.

"Ta-da! Ta-da! Ta-da!"

"Assistant! Congratulations on your discharge!"

A performance where they stood back-to-back, each stretching their arms out wide in opposite directions.

Their lovely dresses remained perfectly undisturbed as they made a dynamic entrance, but something felt off.

"Assistant, we're here, you know?"

"Assistant...?"

There was no way he hadn't heard that loud noise.

He still had his back to the Twins, scraping at the wallpaper with his fingertips, drawing something.

"Oh..."

It was a fractal pattern in the shape of a tree.

Starting from the roots, repeated forms of branches were added to create one large tree.

Thinking the Assistant was concentrating, the Twins quietly walked up behind him.

It was a bit disappointing that there was no touching reunion, but still, this was something, wasn't it?

It felt like just yesterday he was lying in bed, looking half-dead.

To see him up and about, drawing like this...

The Twins were grateful for that alone.

Scritch scratch.

".........."

Without a moment's hesitation, his magic power-infused fingertips dug into the wall.

"What on earth are you drawing..."

"Shh, Odette, stay still for a moment."

Odette was the first to realize the strangeness of the drawing.

It wasn't just a geometrically beautiful pattern.

She strongly felt that every single line of the extending branches, every single hanging leaf, held 'meaning.'

But that was as far as her understanding went.

No matter how she tried to change its form in her mind or visualize it in three dimensions, she couldn't figure out what this was.

This drawing was a system unique to Siwoo, not matching any form of Magic Formula that Odil knew.

Of course, that was assuming it was a Magic Formula.

Siwoo finished the mural by tapping the last leaf into place with his fingertip.

"Assistant, we're here."

Unable to hold back any longer, Odette tugged insistently at Siwoo's sleeve to assert her presence.

Finally, Siwoo turned around.

The Twins, who had planned to rush over and hang onto his neck the moment they saw his face, froze on the spot.

"........."

Siwoo looked perfectly fine, except for the black eyepatch covering his left eye.

However.

The moment he looked back at the Twins with an expression devoid of any warmth, joy, embarrassment, or surprise—any emotion at all—

They couldn't help but feel a little scared.

"Wh-what's wrong? We're here. Aren't you glad to see us?"

"We even prepared a bouquet for you, Assistant..."

Odil fumbled, completely unprepared for this reaction, while Odette thrust forward a bouquet wrapped with colorful baby's breath.

But Siwoo didn't even glance at the bouquet, merely looking back and forth between the Twins.

Slowly, he reached out and stroked Odil's cheek.

"What! All of a sudden! Assistant, I don't like this kind of thing."

Thinking it was a pointless prank, Odil pouted.

Though she didn't shake off his hand touching her cheek.

"What about me, Assistant?"

Seeing Siwoo show interest only in Odil, Odette, feeling oddly left out, pulled at Siwoo's hand.

Sniff sniff.

"I-Is this a new illusion technique?"

Siwoo leaned in close to Odil and sniffed the scent of her hair.

Odil froze stiff, bewildered by the inexplicable act, while Odette watched the scene with a dissatisfied look.

Sniff sniff.

"Assistant, my hair smells nice, right?"

This time, he moved and sniffed Odette's scent instead of Odil's.

Thinking it was some expression of affection after all, Odette's beaming expression soon hardened stiffly.

After sniffing the Twins' body scents for a while, he suddenly turned away.

He then began focusing intently again on the fractal tree drawing he had thought was complete.

The Twins tried several more times to initiate conversation with Siwoo afterwards, but he didn't even give them a glance.

Author's Note (Afterword)

The Twins have appeared!