City of Witches Chapter 174

It seems that no matter how monstrous a creature's form may be, the head remains its weak point.

When I created a lance as long as a jousting spear and drove it deep into the center of its forehead (if you could call it that), the monster twitched without even letting out a scream and died.

The flesh began to melt as soon as the light faded from the eight remaining eyeballs.

The body, which had been glistening black like tar, almost turned into liquid and seeped into the crevices of the building debris.

Then, I saw something sparkling here and there in the black liquid.

They were none other than the eyeballs, or rather, the crystals, that had been embedded in the mother Homunculus's body.

"Uh...! Uh! Uh!"

"Sharon! Pick them up quickly!"

Sharon, who had been clinging tightly to Siwoo's side in case the Homunculus went on a final rampage, suddenly cried out.

Startled, Sharon began picking up the crystals one by one with her hands, and Siwoo also rushed over to help collect them quickly.

Siwoo didn't want these crystals, as precious as gold dust—no, more expensive than gold—to disappear into the building cracks and become lost.

It reminded him of a scene from that Spirited Away movie or something.

Siwoo and Sharon spent quite a while frantically gathering the crystals.

Though it sounds simple, even with Siwoo's clumsy telekinesis, it took two hours of collecting. The harvest was as follows:

A total of 4,091 Homunculus crystals.

Total weight, according to Sharon: 5.4 kg.

The bounty they could receive if taken to the Witch Point: 5.4 billion won.

"Fi...fifty-four billion...."

After confirming the final count, Sharon staggered with her mouth agape.

He expected her to jump for joy, but perhaps the amount was so staggering that she seemed to stiffen instead.

As she wobbled and nearly collapsed, Siwoo supported her waist to steady her.

"To earn 5.4 billion... I'd have to work 600,000 hours at a convenience store..."

"Hey, hey, snap out of it."

"This is insane, I'm so happy I don't know what to do..."

Even this alone could be considered hitting the jackpot, but Siwoo discovered something else.

There was a heart-shaped fragment near the Homunculus's heart.

While everything else had melted away except for the crystals, this alone retained its form.

While watching Sharon, who seemed about to faint from joy, Siwoo looked at the heart in his hand with a mixed expression.

It was only about the size of Siwoo's fist, but it looked incredibly grotesque.

It was so eerie that if you put it in a glass jar for display right now, it would look like a heart specimen preserved in formalin.

"Sharon, what do you think this is?"

"I, I don't know either... Hehe...hehehe... 5.4 billion... 5.4 billion..."

Sharon, now giggling as if intoxicated by morphine, clung to Siwoo.

It wasn't exactly excessive skin-ship, but as she hugged him tightly, her soft chest pressed against his arm.

"Phew."

Seeing her like this, Siwoo couldn't help but smile.

Honestly, Sharon seemed like someone who deserved a little reward in life.

While lost in such thoughts, Sharon's body, which had gone limp like a mollusk, suddenly stiffened.

"Ah...!"

Sharon had just remembered something she'd forgotten until now.

It was Della.

Sharon had lost to Della and had her hunting ground taken away.

In other words, if they lingered here, Della might come strolling over and take all of today's spoils.

"Th-that can't happen..."

Siwoo watched Sharon, who began trembling like a squirrel facing the risk of losing all the acorns it had gathered for winter, with a puzzled look.

"Let's go back. As fast as possible."

"Why? Is something wrong?"

Sharon realized her mistake.

If she mentioned Della here, it would reveal that she had seen through Siwoo's lie earlier.

So, Sharon immediately straightened her back and put on an innocent act.

"Ah, I'm just really tired. Let's go home today, watch a movie, and have a late-night snack."

"You're treating today, right?"

"Tell me whatever you want to eat! Today, your unnie is treating! And I kind of want to wash up too."

As if to show her own state, Sharon spread her arms wide.

Covered in soot from being singed by fire and dust from head to toe, she looked grayish.

Siwoo was in the same state, so the two chuckled at each other's messy appearances.

Anyway, today's hardships ended here.

Leaving behind the Hidden Boundary as it gradually shrank and disappeared, Siwoo and Sharon returned home together.

On the way home, they prepared a feast.

From a famous pig's trotters restaurant, they got half-and-half pig's trotters and makguksu (buckwheat noodles). Since eating only greasy food would get boring, they added a full serving of tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes). And since eating only hot and spicy food required something refreshing, they included a bowl of tuna sashimi. With such thoughts, they kept adding to the menu one by one.

Finally, they even prepared ice cream for dessert.

Sitting cozily across from each other at the table and sharing the food, Siwoo began discussing the issue of distribution.

"No, how can I take all of this by myself...?"

"What's the big deal? I told you. For me, improving my Magic skills is enough."

Naturally, Siwoo said he would transfer ownership of all the crystals to Sharon.

After all, as long as he had the black card Count Gemernai gave him, Siwoo wouldn't be struggling for lack of money.

And Siwoo's life philosophy itself wasn't overly greedy for money.

"If it's money that makes no difference to me whether I have it or not, I think it's right for someone who needs it more to have it. What would I even do with more money? I'm already living comfortably as it is."

"But you did all the hard work... It doesn't feel right for me to just take it all like this, Siwoo... Let's think about it again."

"Ah, come on, I said it's fine. If it weren't for the Elemental Magic you taught me, I'd have been dog food and died today."

This was true.

Without Sharon, granting mass to the Law of Shadows through grafting would have been impossible from the start.

"It's just too burdensome..."

When he offered her the crystals worth just over 100 million won from the department store hunt, she felt grateful and sorry but thought it was acceptable.

But this was 5.4 billion.

5.4 billion.

A lump sum that could pay off one-tenth of Sharon's total debt.

Sharon wasn't shameless enough to casually accept such a favor.

Sharon repeatedly expressed how burdensome it was, and Siwoo kept insisting it was fine and she should just put it in her pocket.

In the end, the harmonious dispute of "You first, no you first" concluded with Sharon's tears."It's fine, don't worry about it. No, really, it's okay. Hey, hey, don't cry. Why are you crying?"

"...You're really a good person... sniff... Thank you... Thank you so much..."

"Yeah, yeah, if you're thankful, make me a lettuce wrap."

"Okay... I'll make you one..."

While sniffling and shedding tears of joy, Sharon prepared an impressive lettuce wrap, placing pork trotters on top of lettuce and perilla leaves, along with buckwheat noodles and raw garlic.

This is really...

It's a bit embarrassing, but seeing Sharon so happy that she's crying also makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

"Ah... ah... ha... sniff..."

Siwoo, who had stuffed the wrap Sharon handed him into his mouth, was startled.

Sharon, who had gotten up from her seat, hugged Siwoo's head tightly from behind.

Sharon's soft chest cushioned the back of his head like a pillow, and when he glanced up, Sharon's teary eyes were welling up, and her tears plopped down onto Siwoo's forehead.

"Thank you, Siwoo... Really."

It was truly nice to see her smiling brightly.

After finishing the meal, Siwoo roughly cleared the table and placed the heart from earlier on it.

The flesh glowing with a faint red light looked as vivid as a freshly extracted living heart, but it had no smell or movement.

"What could this be?"

At first, Siwoo naturally thought it would be a legacy.

Sharon fiddled with the heart for a long time but couldn't easily determine its identity.

"It definitely doesn't seem like Gnosis's Egg... Actually, it might not even be a legacy."

Usually, a Homunculus's legacy is something whose purpose is recognizable at a glance.

If it's a rare potion, it's a potion; if it's an Artifact, it's an Artifact; if it's Gnosis's Egg, it's an egg; if it's research literature, it's literature.

But this, even when examined piece by piece, gave no hint of its purpose.

"Should we try dissecting it?"

"Is it okay to just cut it open like that?"

"Anyway, this thing itself is useless."

The two of them put their heads together, pondering.

After discussing, they decided to cut open the heart.

Siwoo extracted just a tiny bit of shadow, shaping it into a scalpel, and cut the heart.

Contrary to its appearance, it was incredibly hard, feeling more like a rock than flesh, so it took considerable force to split it open.

"Uh..."

And when the heart was cut in half, something appeared.

"It's a crystal, isn't it?"

It was a Homunculus crystal.

And quite large at about 5cm in diameter.

Unlike what they expected—something amazing—it was just a crystal.

"Thought it'd be something grand, but it's nothing special."

"........."

But Sharon, resting her chin on her hand, held the Homunculus crystal extracted from the heart up to the light, examining it from various angles.

Her expression was serious.

"Why? Did you find something strange?"

"Yeah, totally weird."

"What is it?"

"Normally, after a Homunculus dies, aside from its legacy and crystal, its body slowly disappears. We saw that today too, right?"

"That's right?"

Sharon put down the crystal and picked up the split heart.

"But this remains. This isn't a crystal or anything."

Siwoo, lacking comprehensive knowledge about Magic, couldn't easily understand what Sharon was getting at.

Sharon opened her mouth with a serious expression.

"Someone intervened."

"Intervened?"

"Yeah, I don't know who, but someone took magical measures on this Homunculus's crystal. Because external interference was applied, the Homunculus didn't disappear even after dying."

"So, that heart was controlling the Homunculus or something?"

"I'm not sure about that. Whether it was enhanced, controlled, or something else we don't know... Looking at how the crystal was encased in the heart... It's probably a sacrificial ritual for magical enhancement..."

Sharon began dissecting the heart piece by piece.

In the midst of this, Siwoo, who had heard a term not to be taken lightly, widened his eyes.

"Sacrificial ritual?"

"Yeah, so anyway... It's likely the work of a public enemy. Anyone can see this is a human heart."

"I didn't expect that at all."

Suddenly, the heart split in half looks grotesque.

No wonder it seemed too small for that huge monster—damn, it was a human heart?

"But there's no need to overthink it. Anyway, tomorrow we just need to report it when we hand over the crystal at the Witch Point."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, so leave everything after this to me and get a good rest today. You've had a tough time."

Actually, Sharon's right.

Both mentally and physically exhausted, I don't have the energy to think about miscellaneous things.

Considering today's efforts, it should be okay to rest deeply for one night without complicated thoughts.

It's a necessary reward.

"Are we watching a movie together again today?"

"Yeah."

"Then, I'll go wash up. I want to relax with some warm water."

"Okay, what movie did you pick?"

"Since today was a busy day, I want to watch something calm. How about you?"

"I'm fine with that too."

Having roughly decided on a movie to watch together, Sharon went into the bathroom to shower, and Siwoo lay on the sofa, sipping cool beer.

Author's Note (Author's Afterword)

Thank you for your support!

• Thank you, fly2sky, for 100 coins! I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

• Thank you, Joyjang, for your 50-coin support! Please come read again next time!!

• Thank you, Kichi, for 1000 coins! Whenever I receive a lump sum like this, I struggle with how to react ㅜㅜ I'm inherently not a fun person...

Thank you so, so much! I'll work hard on the next installment!

• Thank you, likenovel, for your support and collecting all volumes! I feel your deep love for the Witch's city... ㅜㅜ Thank you.

• Thank you, North Pole Bear Soup Flavored Bubble Tea, for your support! That's an obscure ID... Amelia will probably be happy, right?

• Thank you, Squid Octopus Cuttlefish, for 100 coins! Both Amelia and Siwoo have their own reasons! I also hope they reconcile well!

• Thank you, Byeolmyeong, for your consistent support! You really don't miss a single day! ㅋㅋ

• Thank you, Kim Kyung-ho_245, for 100 coins! Sharon's "mama view" doesn't quite hit the mark... Is there a better expression?