City of Witches Chapter 140

The thick paper envelope Albireo handed over also contained a slip of paper with the address of the house where Siwoo would be staying.

He wasn't sure what its original purpose was, but there seemed to be a total of 10 locations in Korea, with three clustered in Seoul, and the rest likely one in each metropolitan city across the provinces.

Looking at it this way, it felt like becoming a National Intelligence Service agent and being guided to a safe house.

The place Siwoo hailed a taxi to was Sinchon, specifically a newly built two-room officetel near Ewha Womans University Station.

How did he know so well? Because, as if a briefing had been planned, even photos were included along with detailed explanations.

For reference, the monthly rent including maintenance fees was 1.4 million won.

During the ride, he gazed at the scenery flowing past outside the taxi, observing the world that had been turned upside down.

Even though he hadn't visited Sinchon often before, except when on vacation to meet friends, there were many changes in the streetscape.

True to its reputation as a street of youth and trends, the changes in trend-sensitive Sinchon were easily noticeable.

There were more buskers than before, and people wore wireless earbuds snugly in their ears instead of wired ones.

Before coming, he had also gotten a smartphone at a mobile phone store—the design had changed a lot.

Four more series had been released since the last smartphone he used.

"The phone is a Samsung."

Fiddling with the phone, he stared mesmerized at the familiar cityscape he had missed, and before he knew it, he had arrived at his destination.

Siwoo's home was on the top floor of a mixed-use residential and commercial officetel.

It wasn't particularly a penthouse or anything, but as a new building, it was clean, tidy, and comfortable to live in.

He was a bit surprised to find not only various pieces of furniture but also kitchenware and utensils.

"Wow, they even stocked beer."

Siwoo took two cans of beer from the refrigerator.

Standing in front of the living room window, he briefly looked down at the city.

It was close to both the Gyeongui Line and Line 2, making transportation incredibly convenient.

However, the view outside the window looked desolate and barren, as if traded for convenience and the view.

Of course, having just returned home, Siwoo's heart swelled with grandeur just seeing cars spinning around the rotary, so it didn't matter much.

After casually enjoying the view, Siwoo threw his bag of belongings onto the sofa and took out the smartphone he had activated today.

"Home really is the best."

It was activated under his alias, and he wasn't sure if it would remain "uninitialized" and keep working properly.

But he didn't worry much about it.

If it came to that, he could just get it reactivated.

"What does it matter? It's not even my money."

Hadn't Countess Albireo said it?

Buy everything except the private jet.

Nothing beats the news for finding out what has changed.

Fully savoring the feeling of being a released prisoner, he searched for things he was curious about while drinking beer.

"Wow, this game really flopped."

The game he enjoyed five years ago, which was rumored to be a flop, had actually flopped.

"My name really isn't here."

All the interview articles boasting about him as a math prodigy or genius, as if he were their own child, had completely disappeared.

Additionally, he searched for the plane crash that occurred on the day he was kidnapped to Gehenna, but nothing came up.

A plane crash would have been a significant incident, but even scouring foreign media yielded the same result—it seemed as if it had never happened.

"Damn, I should've bought this before leaving."

The cryptocurrency he only knew existed back then had skyrocketed hundreds of times in price, sparking what seemed like a cyber gold rush.

If he had bought just 500,000 won worth back then, how much would it be now?

Siwoo lost track of time, staring intently at the screen as he browsed through various things.

Lying leisurely on the sofa, drinking beer, and watching the news.

Even this simple act felt incredibly happy.

There was so much to do.

He had to catch up on movies he missed, dramas he couldn't finish, check what groundbreaking papers had been published in the meantime, and there were many places he wanted to visit.

But right now, the most important thing among them.

"Let's eat."

Food.

The food in Gehenna was excellent, of course, but it lacked the salty, spicy, and stimulating flavors of Korean cuisine.

Siwoo immediately installed a food delivery app and added every dish he craved to his cart.

Pork belly, kimchi stew, kimchi jjigae, bossam, jokbal, fried chicken, pizza, gopchang and makchang, yukhoe, tuna sashimi, jjimdak, sushi.

He added anything and everything that looked appetizing.

Ringing the doorbell over a dozen times, he laid out all the delivered food on the floor, turned on the TV to watch the news, and voraciously devoured the hometown flavors he had missed so much.

The uniquely sour and spicy taste of aged kimchi danced in his mouth, harmonizing with the savory pork ribs.

Placing five pieces of jokbal, filled with the pungent scent of medicinal herbs, on a lettuce leaf along with raw garlic, and taking a big bite.

Stuffing his mouth with delivery pork belly stir-fried with mushrooms until his cheeks were about to burst.

Pouring chives and gopchang and makchang onto a plate, taking a big mouthful with chopsticks, and washing it down with a shot of soju as a palate cleanser.

He usually disliked soju, but today it went down so smoothly.

"Ahhh...! Good, good."

A Spirit Body doesn't require food sustenance.

Moreover, it doesn't age or die.

That wasn't something he could feel immediately, but there was one advantage he could notice right at this moment.

No matter how full he was, food kept going down his throat.

"Damn, this is so delicious."

Siwoo's feast continued for a full five hours.

Inside the hut in the oak forest.

On the bed where Siwoo often fell asleep with her.

Siwoo, gazing at Amelia with blazing eyes, pressed his lips against hers.

As his soft, much thicker tongue than a woman's pushed between her lips, Amelia clung to him and embraced him as if she had been waiting.

No matter how much it was an expression of affection and love, it was an act of exchanging each other's saliva.

An extremely unsanitary and filthy act.

Yet, despite her rapidly beating heart, no sense of rejection arose.

The thick arms wrapping around her waist and gripping the back of her neck.

The thick palms squeezing her chest.

Since the two were wearing not a single thread, she could feel his presence from every point of contact.

"Siwoo.... Siwoo...."

When she called his name like this, gentle eyes returned to her.

His affectionate touch coiled around her body like a snake, and the fingers that had been squeezing her chest lightly tapped her nipple.Each time, the electricity generated inside her abdomen tingled sharply.

The swollen heat like a balloon and the slight fever mixed with her hot sighs as they escaped.

“Haa... ha...”

Siwoo pinched Amelia’s erect nipple with the sharp tip of her fingernail.

“Ah, it hurts...”

The sharp pain digging into her chest, as if punishing her, soon transformed into an intense stimulation. Amelia writhed on the bed, pinned beneath his body.

Amelia did not refuse his touch.

Instead, she pushed out her chest as if asking for more, forcibly suppressing her floating waist.

“Still... more, more please... Siwoo...”

Amelia was blocking her mouth and nose with the shirt Siwoo used to wear, like someone evacuating from a fire.

Smell is the sense most closely linked to memory among the five senses.

Now that Siwoo was gone, his body scent, which she could no longer smell directly, was deeply embedded in this fabric.

If she inhaled it deeply, the happy days would come to mind, allowing her to delude herself into feeling as if she were in his embrace.

“Siwoo... sob... sob...”

Amelia’s body, massaging her own chest with her other hand and teasing her nipple with a fingernail, began to tremble slowly.

Clad only in a flimsy nightgown, her smooth legs exposed under the moonlight flailed as if enduring agony, and her tightly pressed knees squirmed in resistance to the unfamiliar sensation.

Each time, the silky, soft fabric rubbed together, making a rustling sound.

“Hng... Hiiiiiiip...!”

Amelia stifled her moan by forcefully blocking her mouth with his shirt.

Along with the sensation of something spurting from her nipple, a pleasure that made her head and womb throb faintly swept over her body like a wave.

“Haa... ugh...”

Amelia’s tightly closed eyelids fluttered open, revealing her sky-blue, hazy pupils.

Even without being touched, a thick, sticky fluid, as if splitting open a ripe fruit, trickled from Amelia’s petals.

Because of this, the sheet supporting her hips was completely soaked, but she had no time to mind it now.

‘Fragrance of Dreams,’ one of Amelia’s special fragrances placed by the bedside.

A fragrance that blurs the boundary between imagination and reality, inducing a kind of trance state.

Thanks to it, Amelia could feel as if she were truly in Siwoo’s embrace with just a little imagination and concentration.

Even Amelia, who had been immersed solely in Magic Research, would invariably use the Fragrance of Dreams when the dark night rose with the moon.

Because only in that moment could she temporarily set aside all her anguish.

“........”

But once the hot air that had made her burn alone cooled down, as always, a void and helplessness akin to an abyss reclaimed their place.

After Siwoo left, Amelia shut herself in the cottage again.

Just as she had after losing her Master, she curled up in her room and devoted herself solely to Magic Research.

If there was any change, it was only that she occasionally massaged her chest alone like this.

Otherwise, it wasn’t much different from Amelia’s routine that had persisted until now.

It was the most familiar thing to Amelia.

It was what Amelia was most confident in.

Hadn’t she lived like this for over a hundred years?

Amelia used Magic to clean her body and sat curled up on the bed.

Across from her gaze, on the cabinet where teacups were usually kept, there was a neatly folded white piece of paper.

It was a letter Sophia, who had visited the cottage a week ago, delivered, saying it was left behind by Siwoo.

Like her Master’s will that she still couldn’t bring herself to read, Amelia simply couldn’t bring herself to unfold that letter.

The moment she reads that letter, everything will be decided.

The conclusion will be set without leaving any room for imagination or lingering hope.

What kind of letter could Siwoo, who left with such resentful eyes, have left...

Though it wandered in her mind enough to think about it all day long, the anxiety that it might truly be the end paralyzed Amelia like the venom of a viper burrowing into her veins.

Frankly, it was because she thought there was no way he had forgiven her.

Because the scales tipped toward the thought that it was a notice announcing the end of their relationship rather than a final, desperate hope.

“I am a coward...”

She understood that Siwoo’s anger was justified.

It was only natural, as she spent days filled with regret, repeatedly dwelling on the image of Siwoo holding back tears and saying, “You are truly, terribly selfish.”

To use Amelia’s perspective as an analogy, it was like realizing that the Master she had followed and loved more than anyone had actually tormented her persistently for many long years.

That sense of betrayal and loss could be understood without needing elaborate explanation.

She had no right to package it as clumsy love, at least not to herself, so she could only flee, and flee again.

Amelia reached out and grabbed the fragrance bottle again.

She dabbed a few drops on her wrist, applied it to her neck and behind her ears, and lay down on the bed.

Closing her eyes and leaning her back against the pillow, Siwoo visited her again.

His hands massaged Amelia’s exposed body as if it were his own, and he sweetly claimed her lips.

“Siwoo...”

Her anguish and torment deepened with the night.

Afterward, Amelia’s sorrowful breath, as if boiling with anguish, quietly resonated along with the sound of insects.

Author’s Note (Afterword)

Whew

After living lazily for a while, I feel very good.

I want to continue living lazily from now on too.