City of Witches Chapter 139

My vision sways lightly.

The ‘Gate’ Magic created by Duke Keter is a spell with a fairly deep connection to Siwoo.

Perhaps because of that, I could feel the familiar flow of magic power enveloping my body.

Before I could even focus, wondering if there was something to salvage, the world had already transformed.

My vision brightened sharply, as if a flash had gone off in front of me.

A vast, bright sky along with an intense, dizzying sensation.

I could see skyscrapers with glass-covered facades lined up like a tidal wave.

-Vroooom!

The horns and car sounds, reflected off the building exteriors and echoing like a reverberation, were so loud I thought, ‘Was it always this noisy?’

Compared to Gehenna, where most places were quiet and serene, the city's unique cacophony was so fatiguing to the ears that you'd believe a war was raging even if it weren't.

“Ah....”

Siwoo, who had been standing dazed for a while, took a breath.

Deeply, deeply, even deeper.

He inhaled until his lungs felt full to bursting.

The sharp, bitter taste piercing the alveoli.

The acrid smog, stinging his throat, scraped through his nasal passages, leaving a tingling sensation.

Siwoo looked around.

The river dividing the two cities.

The wide bridge crossing it vertically and the cars speeding across.

The building once famous as Korea's tallest, the vast Han River stretching into the distance, and the surrounding walking paths—all entered his view.

Streetlights looked like that, buildings were this tall, asphalt turned this color when wet.

Scenes he had only seen in imagination, or in dreams, became reality and passed before his eyes.

“I’ve... returned.”

He had returned.

To the Mortal Realm he thought he might never set foot on again, to Korea, to Seoul, to Han River Park.

He had come back.

“I’m back... I’m back...”

His legs gave way.

Slumping to his knees, Siwoo wept, tears falling drop by drop.

This isn’t a dream, is it?

He couldn’t just stay like this.

Siwoo wanted a powerful confirmation.

He reached out randomly, scraping up nearby weeds and soil, and shoved them greedily into his mouth.

The gritty sand and weed roots scratched his mouth, releasing the rich taste of earth and the bitter, grassy flavor.

Shintoburi—the land and the body are one.

This was the taste of Korean soil he had missed.

“Mommy! That man is eating dirt!”

“Shh! Don’t make eye contact!”

Ignoring the surrounding stares pouring in, Siwoo remained crouched for a while, his mouth stuffed full of soil and weeds, pouring out tears without restraint.

Siwoo stopped by a convenience store near the walking path and bought a 1.5L Coca-Cola and an Africa LuLu cigarette.

In Gehenna, cola strangely never arrived, and cigarettes were limited (only very old brands), so the chance to try a domestic cigarette he’d been craving for a while was long overdue.

Poking around the convenience store, which had changed quite a bit, the chicken looked so delicious he bought one too.

At checkout, the part-time worker tilted his head as if trying to figure out the rare-looking card, but seeing Siwoo drooling, he hurriedly finished the transaction and packed the chicken, probably not wanting to deal with a crazy person for long.

“Convenience stores fry chicken these days.”

He’d expected frozen chicken at best, but the rustling fried coating and the faint aroma of oil rising from it made his heart flutter.

Walking on the bright polyurethane jogging path, which felt unfamiliar after so long, Siwoo sat on a bench by the path and gulped down the cola.

The thrilling carbonation passing down his esophagus.

The ultimate drink to refreshingly wash away the gritty feeling left by the soil—something carbonated water could never imitate.

Moreover, it was stored so well on the display that it was chillingly cold, enough to make his head tingle.

“Gahhh!”

After chugging almost half the bottle, his throat stung so much his eyes watered a little.

Without hesitation, he grabbed a drumstick from the paper box and tore into it.

The moment it entered his mouth, the crumbling fried coating and the oil soaked within burst like droplets.

Though convenience store chicken wasn’t exactly top quality, Siwoo didn’t have the energy to distinguish that.

By the time he came to his senses, he had practically inhaled one drumstick and was reaching for the next.

If he’d been slightly less careful, he might have chewed the bone whole.

If the chicken he used to order once a week as a late-night snack was that delicious, how would chicken tasted after five years?

Siwoo stuffed his cheeks with chicken, chewing vigorously, and when his throat felt too clogged, he washed it down with cola, repeating the process.

After about five minutes of that, the packaging that had been full of chicken was completely empty.

“Wow... Fuck, this is sex.”

All the sex he’d had until now wasn’t sex.

Sitting on a bench in the riverside park, with the city achieved by scientific civilization as the backdrop, watching the river flow leisurely while eating chicken and cola together.

This is the true meaning of sex.

Siwoo lamented his own ignorance for misunderstanding the meaning of sex until now.

Though the direct sunlight was hot due to the early summer season, a pleasantly cool breeze blew from under the shaded bridge nearby.

Having finished the cola too, he held his bulging stomach and leaned back, and for a moment, he felt an illusion.

What if everything that happened in Gehenna was a fleeting dream, and he had actually been living this life all along?

It felt like the day after being discharged from the military.

Those five years had felt so long, but the moment he emerged, it seemed like a distant past, even a fleeting moment.

With a smoker’s instinct, Siwoo wandered off to find a smoking area and cleared the greasiness in his throat with the acrid cigarette smoke.

If I could just smoke one cigarette here...

“Fuck, sex... It’s so damn good...”

Still, not everything was completely unchanged.

First, people’s clothing had changed a bit.

Fashion is sensitive to trends, and especially for Koreans, there are trendy fashions that change every year.

Everyone strolled along the riverside in slightly altered outfits, as if they’d coordinated.

Somehow, men’s hairstyles were naturally either pomade or baby perms.

Women were all running along the walking paths in tennis skirts.

“What the hell is that now.”

People were zipping around on strange electric kickboards.

Seeing not just one or two, but many people riding kickboards of the same design, it seemed they’d rented them as a group.

When I first arrived in Gehenna, Magic felt so wondrous.Now, it's the skyscrapers piled dozens of stories high and the cars sluggishly passing by, spewing exhaust, that feel more wondrous.

Seeing such a sight, the saying that sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from Magic doesn't seem entirely wrong either.

Siwoo stubbed out his cigarette and stepped out of the smoking booth.

Yeah.

This is what he wanted.

Ordinary daily life and ordinary scenery.

A place where no one stares strangely because of different skin colors or races, where you can pop into a convenience store to buy a cola and other snacks, where there's no ruling class lording over others while wielding bizarre Magic as if it were natural—an utterly mundane, longed-for sight.

This was the paradise Siwoo had wanted to experience once more.

He could feel the Fragrance sickness that had parched his heart being cured in the blink of an eye.

"Now, should I go see Mom and Dad?"

Siwoo adjusted his crooked eyepatch, climbed the riverbank slope, and hailed a taxi.

He had some money now, after all.

Regardless of the distance, he boldly got into a model taxi.

"Where to, sir?"

Telling the driver, who wore the courteous smile befitting a model taxi, his destination, Siwoo closed his eyes for a moment and rested his head against the seat.

Visiting his parents after a long time.

Feeling it would be awkward to go empty-handed, he bought a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of soju.

For reference, the bouquet was for Mom, the soju for Dad.

If Gehenna's buildings are antique and elegant, modern buildings, while having a slightly nouveau riche feel, are much cleaner and more familiar.

He pushed through the revolving door, went up to the second floor, and filled out the register.

"Mom, Dad, I'm back."

No matter how busy he was, he had visited at least once every six months, or at least once a year, so this was the first time he'd come after such a long absence.

"Did you miss your son a lot? Surprised I suddenly stopped visiting without a word? Here, these are the mist flowers Mom likes, and this is the red soju Dad likes."

Siwoo plopped down on the spot.

Only then did his gaze meet his parents'.

A photo of his parents, beaming brightly, wearing cheap hiking clothes with their arms around each other's shoulders.

"Don't scold me for not coming for so long. It's been five years, no, almost six years now. I really tried incredibly hard to see Mom's face again."

Siwoo stared intently at the photo.

The faces of his parents, whom he had missed, had also faded somewhat.

Was it because they'd been exposed to a lot of light?

"Do you know what happened? It's not even funny, I tell you. Honestly, even if I told you, you probably wouldn't believe it. I was kidnapped into a fantasy world and reincarnated as a Witch."

Siwoo covered his face and gave a bitter smile, as if even he thought it was absurd.

A Witch, a fantasy world.

Things he had accepted so naturally, yet simply changing the backdrop to the modern world made it feel this dissonant.

"Some crazy woman was desperate to get her hands on me... Well, later I found out she wasn't entirely a bad person... And I also hung out with some cute twin girls. Oh, Dad! And you know, there are good Japanese people too. I went and made a Japanese friend, and I educated him that Dokdo is Korean territory. Did a good job, right?"

Siwoo opened the columbarium cabinet and took out the photo.

It was originally a family photo.

But Siwoo's figure, which should have been between his parents, was gone as if edited out with Photoshop.

"Can I take this? Your photo, Mom and Dad. I thought I was forgetting your faces because I didn't have this."

Suddenly, a hot, choking feeling surged in his chest.

It was strange.

"Mom, Dad, do you remember me? You haven't forgotten, right?"

It was a ridiculous thing to ask.

He had never truly believed in an afterlife, but seeing with his own eyes that the connection was severed and all memories erased, a pointless question rose to his mind.

"Ah, right. Would it be good if I explained in a bit more detail?"

Clutching the photo, Siwoo brought out all sorts of trivial stories.

He figured if he only talked about the hardships, they'd obviously worry, so he focused on reasonably good experiences.

For example, the appearance of Border Town, how beautiful Trinity Academy was, Gehenna's natural scenery changing with each season, and the Latifundium of Yeongsang, famous for cultivating magical plants.

"Honestly, I don't need to travel anywhere from now on, right? Any ordinary travel destination would pale in comparison now. Europe is just annoyingly crowded with tourists, you have to watch out for pickpockets..."

Things like defeating monsters that wielded Magic, evacuating two people while facing a terrifying Exile, and so on.

"Honestly, that scene should be made into an AMV and played at my funeral, I'm telling you."

He chattered on, unaware of time passing, until his throat hurt.

"...I'm just telling you not to worry too much. I really, really was okay. Now I don't have to worry about money for the rest of my life..."

Siwoo brushed off his pants and stood up.

He carefully placed the small frame containing his parents' photo inside his coat, close to his heart.

He wiped away tears that threatened to fall.

"Anyway, it was good to see you after so long. I'll be going now."

Siwoo glanced back one last time.

"I'll visit more often from now on. Even if you're a bit bored, you two take care of yourselves."

2,025 days after leaving his hometown.

Siwoo had returned to Korea.

Author's Note (Afterword)

Ugh, good night.

I'm going to sleep in tomorrow.