City of Witches Chapter 146

"Hey! I don't know where you crawled out from, but that's mine!"

A sharp, irritable voice came from behind Siwoo, who was looking at the dying Homunculus with puzzlement, even though he hadn't laid a hand on it.

Siwoo hastily turned around.

This place was still surrounded by the Hidden Boundary.

A woman's voice coming from within it could only belong to a Witch.

When he turned his head, a woman stood there, wearing an outfit that didn't betray expectations.

And there she was, perched precariously like an acrobat on the fence installed for suicide prevention, with the dazzling nightscape as her backdrop.

Raindrops pattered off the pointed conical hat, practically a conquest item for European Witches.

At the tip of her long wand, decorated with fresh flowers, a green sapphire glowed, brimming with magic power.

Beyond that, there was the robe draped over her shoulders, and the black underskirt covering her exposed inner thighs.

Up to this point, it was the traditional Witch attire commonly seen in Gehenna, but her shoes were a bit different.

Whether for mobility or to add her own fashion sense, she wore riding boots that came up to her calves.

It felt slightly incongruous, yet somehow it suited her well enough that it seemed like a decent choice.

Anyway, a Witch on the rooftop of Sinchon Station.

In Gehenna, he'd probably seen them without much thought, but now it somehow felt like a cosplay photoshoot had arrived.

Though, Siwoo, bundled up head-to-toe in Plate Armor, wasn't really in a position to say anything...

"Hup!"

The Witch jumped down from the fence with a plop, stepping into a puddle and slightly furrowing her brow.

It seemed water had gotten into her boots.

"See there? The wound on its side. I made that. So, either fight me here or go your own way. Your choice."

The Witch pointed her wand at him with a voice full of hostility, then jerked her chin.

When the Witch's face, previously hidden by backlight and the shadow of her hat, was revealed, Siwoo was startled.

No wonder the silhouette felt familiar.

Hair of two colors, a proper mix of deep green and turquoise.

Just seeing that was enough to guess her identity.

It was the pretty mixed-race part-timer from the convenience store on the first floor of the mixed-use officetel, who'd rung him up with little enthusiasm.

The world really is disgustingly, unnecessarily small.

Remembering how he'd paid in front of the Witch all this time without any defenses gave him a pointless shiver.

But seriously, who could have predicted this?

What Witch would work part-time at a convenience store?

If she'd been the store manager, it would have been a bit more understandable.

"Huh? Not moving?"

The Witch flicked her wand at Siwoo, who was frozen in shock, as if shooing away a bothersome insect.

Siwoo quickly stepped back.

But he didn't lower his Longsword and shield.

This was his first time facing a Witch in the Mortal Realm.

Even though he'd been told repeatedly, the fact that Siwoo was a 'male' who could use Magic was an element that drew excessive attention from other Witches.

Under the pretext of securing a valuable specimen, they could attack at any moment.

"Please... come on, something good, something good, something good..."

However, the Witch who passed by Siwoo crouched down like a neighborhood punk, a pose completely at odds with her neatly dressed Witch attire, finished off the Homunculus with a final blow, and rummaged through the corpse.

Huh?

Come to think of it, her reaction is a bit ordinary?

Both the Twins and Sophia had been quite surprised when they first saw Siwoo using Magic.

But this Witch, meeting him for the first time, seemed utterly indifferent, as if she didn't care about such things at all.

Could it be...

Siwoo unconsciously touched the helmet covering his face down to his nose.

Well, of course, his figure couldn't be discerned through the Plate Armor, and he hadn't spoken.

His face was also half-covered.

In other words, right now, that Witch was mistaking Siwoo for just another Witch who had been hunting the Homunculus.

Actually, thinking within common sense, it was an extremely reasonable conclusion.

The probability of a male having built up enough Hierarchy to pick a fight with a Homunculus was far lower than the probability of him being a slightly tall fellow Witch.

"Haah~ Another bust this time. What to do..."

Watching the Witch sigh like an uncle at the racetrack who'd just lost his last betting ticket, he thought.

So, if he kept this helmet on and quietly slipped away, wouldn't he be able to hide without any trouble?

He didn't want unnecessary conflict.

"Hey."

"........"

The Witch's voice called out to Siwoo, who was trying to quietly sneak away towards the rooftop exit with a crab-like gait.

Honestly, he debated for a moment whether to just bolt.

Unlike during his slave days, which were nothing but a series of performances, Siwoo had undergone Bone Transformation and reached a high realm unattainable by the first generation.

If he were a character from a shonen manga, he might have thought, 'Let's see how much stronger I've become!' but Siwoo wasn't like that.

The encounter with a Witch, arriving much earlier than expected, was not welcome at all.

He sighed quietly inside, couldn't bring himself to answer, and just bowed his head deeply, turning his body towards the Witch.

Then, the Witch approached Siwoo, stepping through the puddles with a splash-splash.

"Why are you so scared? Who's gonna eat you? I'm not that kind of Witch."

Feeling the Witch tap his shoulder familiarly, tap tap, Siwoo felt an indescribably complex emotion.

Through Yebin, he knew not all Exiles were bad Witches, but he wasn't naive enough to trust someone based on just that one sentence.

Right now, she was maintaining this friendly attitude because she thought Siwoo was a Witch, but if she found out he was a rare specimen, there was no telling when she might turn on him.

"........"

"Judging by your appearance, you don't seem to be a Witch from around here... You haven't been exiled to the Mortal Realm for long, right?"

"........"

This is bad.

A prolonged conversation is not a good sign.

When he saw her at the convenience store, she seemed utterly worn out, exuding a vibe of 'I have zero interest in any of you.'

Even though his silence was blatantly signaling 'I don't want to talk to you!', this Witch's sociability was relentless.

Wait, can approaching someone this defenseless even be called sociability?

Seeing her act like this in the Mortal Realm, not Gehenna, she must be pretty confident in her own abilities.

"You're catching Homunculi to turn them in for the bounty at the Witch Point, right? Am I wrong?"

"......."

Witch Point? Bounty? This was the first he'd heard of it.

The Witch chattered away, prancing about in front of him.

Even through this heavy downpour, a fragrant scent reached him.The scent matched exactly what I had noticed when paying at the convenience store, making me realize anew that it was that part-time worker...

"Sorry, but the Shinchon-Hongdae area is my hunting ground. It's not good to trespass carelessly. Since it seems you didn't know this time, I'll let it slide, but if you try to intercept my prey again, I'll respond with force."

"........."

For now, I nodded.

My decision was slow, but my regret was swift.

I should have just run away earlier without looking back.

"I get it. I felt lost too when I first came out. No status, no money, no information. Compared to Gehenna, it's a completely wretched place."

"........"

"So, speaking of which, want me to tell you about a good way to make money? You'll need money one way or another to settle here."

And bringing up money upon first meeting at that.

I realized even more that this was someone I shouldn't associate with.

"Have you heard of blockchain technolo...gy?"

At that moment, the witch who had been chattering away trailed off strangely, her voice rising peculiarly.

Before Siwoo's eyes, half-hidden by his helmet, appeared trembling mint-colored pupils.

Even in such a tense moment, seeing eyes of that color for the first time felt somewhat intriguing.

"You're that guy with the eyepatch who comes to buy cigarettes every day? But this is Magic... isn't it? No, what is this? You are a man, right?"

The witch retreated in confusion, stepping back, and Siwoo was no different.

The priorities were securing safety through dialogue, escape, and then combat.

Siwoo dispelled the shadow gauntlet and immediately showed the ring of the Gemernai Family.

It was the ring Albireo had given him, guaranteeing he was a guest of the Count Gemernai family.

"You see this? I am of the House of Gemernai..."

"W-wait a minute!"

And the effect was immediate.

As soon as the witch saw the ring on Siwoo's raised index finger, her face turned pale.

"I-I'll get the money soon. I wasn't trying to skip out on it... If you could just postpone this quarter's payment for a week... no, two weeks..."

All traces of her earlier confidence vanished as she immediately became flustered and began to stammer.

What in the world is this now?

Siwoo looked at the newly-met witch with a bewildered expression.

Somehow, the witch's rain-soaked figure, which had seemed quite charming until a moment ago, now looked rather pitiful.

"So you weren't here to collect money. I thought you were a servant sent by Count Gemernai to get the payment."

"That's not the case."

"Phew... Really, my life..."

The witch he had met by chance introduced herself as Sharon Evergreen.

Now changed from her damp witch attire into casual clothes—jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt—she was engaged in a hushed conversation with Siwoo at a bus terminal where the last bus had already departed.

To get straight to the point, she was not a 'dangerous type of Exile.'

Moreover, she was a witch whose story Siwoo had heard about before.

The major incident known as the 'Sprout Rebellion,' which turned Cloud Mushroom Village in Border Town into Oak Tree Forest.

It was the incident where a witch lost control during an experiment, causing acorns scattered across the ground to grow explosively, resulting in the destruction of nearby workshops and residences.

When I first heard that story, I thought, 'There really are such airheaded witches...'

I never dreamed I would actually meet the very person who caused the accident in the Mortal Realm.

"So, you're repaying a debt to get your citizenship back?"

This was the final reason Siwoo judged Sharon to be a relatively safe witch.

To analogize the meaning citizenship holds for witches of Gehenna, it's no different from one's homeland nationality.

Those curious witches research Magic while precariously toeing the line precisely to avoid exile. Conversely, he reasoned that if she was struggling to regain her citizenship, she wouldn't cross that line.

Especially since the place guaranteeing Siwoo's status was the Count Gemernai family, which holds significant influence even within the Tree of Sephirot.

"That's about right..."

The fact that her reason for exile wasn't something like reckless Magic Research or civilian murder also played a part.

"How much is the debt roughly?"

"...About 58,088,420,000 won in Korean currency?"

It was a debt that truly made one exclaim in disbelief.

"Wait, you just destroyed a residential area, and it amounts to that much?"

Even if it were Taro Town, one might understand, but Border Town isn't particularly expensive in terms of property prices.

Even if an entire village block was destroyed, could a debt of such astronomical amount really arise?

Isn't this taking on someone else's burden?

"The witches whose research materials were lost when their workshops were destroyed filed a class-action lawsuit... Let's stop talking about the debt now; I feel my stomach twisting."

Sharon's shoulders slumped as if weighed down by snow.

The downpour that had shrouded the Sleepless City like a curtain passed.

Before they knew it, the night sky was shining cleanly.

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I'm finally posting the fan art I couldn't check earlier because I've been so busy ㅜㅜ

This is Ea Sadalmelik, drawn by Mentalshatteredwanzheng-ee!

The full-body shot is too large in file size, so I'll upload it to the fan art gallery!!!

This is Amelia, the Door Knocker, drawn by Tokki Mannak!

It seems to have turned out so cute, hehe.

A Word from the Author (Author's Note)

I've been so out of it lately, and it seems many people have sponsored! Thank you!

• Thank you zero\\_920-nim for 1000 coins!!!

When writing the protagonist for this chapter, I found myself particularly immersed. Scenes like missing one's hometown, or feeling ennui upon actually returning, seem to have my own experiences infused into them.

Just as I overcame that through writing, I hope Zero-nim also finds a good method! Thank you!

• Thank you Biteum-nim for 500 coins!

Thank you for your kind words! It's truly comforting. I firmly believe this measure is one step back for two steps forward!

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I really like dark beer too, hehe. Any more continuous references, and I think my back will give out, so it's too much for me ㅜㅜ

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I always go for walks and exercise after putting on my knee band! Haha

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