City of Witches Chapter 294

Come to think of it, we ended up staying in the same room as if it were the most natural thing.

It must have become a habit from living together in the same officetel recently.

The first floor seemed too crowded anyway, so I requested that our meals be brought up to the room.

I figured I'd get indigestion eating under the burdensome gazes of those Witches from earlier.

The room was a twin special room with two single-sized beds.

To be honest, it was a bit of a stretch to call it a "special" room.

The buildings in Border Town were generally shabbier than those in Taro Town.

Just looking at this guest room, it felt like an old pension or something?

It had a fireplace of sorts and a simple shower stall and toilet created using Magic in the corner, but it couldn't shake off an overall shabby impression.

"It's much better than I expected."

However, our Master Eloa didn't seem to mind it much.

"What about you?"

"I'm just grateful for this much."

Having lived well in a hamster cage for five years, I can sleep anywhere as long as there's a clean bed without bugs.

Siwoo and Eloa, having pulled over a table, finished a simple dinner using the facing beds as chairs.

With the alcohol brought up alongside dinner placed between them, a time for natural conversation arose.

"Staying in a place like this occasionally isn't bad for memories, is it?"

"Of course, you're right, Master. It's nice, like a unique pension."

Perhaps because it was already chilly weather and a light drizzle was falling, it was quite cool.

Eloa, comfortably seated before the fireplace, received the glass of alcohol Siwoo offered with a drowsy expression.

After a while, she asked something she hadn't been able to properly inquire about while solely focused on her research on controlling the Red Branch.

"Master... what do you plan to do from now on?"

"Hmm, since I haven't fully paid the price of the contract yet, I should rest thoroughly until I recover."

Eloa had consumed too many Contracts simultaneously during the previous fierce battle.

She would need to rest deeply for a month or two.

"After that... I must continue what I was doing."

Raphi's last words that weren't last words.

A promise that wasn't a promise.

She intends to keep it.

To protect people who die without knowing anything.

To cleanse the impurities that disturb the world.

She will wander the world and continue hunting Homunculi and public enemies.

However, it's different from before.

It's distinctly different from the time when she sank down, burdened with guilt, repeating meaningless atonement.

For that alone, Eloa felt immense gratitude towards Siwoo.

"Please don't overexert yourself."

Knowing Eloa's circumstances, Siwoo felt he had no right to stop her, nor did he think he could.

But no matter how strong Eloa was, Siwoo had witnessed her in a crisis right beside her.

A dangerous moment when she might have lost her life if Siwoo hadn't intervened then.

Eloa looked at Siwoo, who was gazing at her with worried eyes, and smiled faintly.

Her pinkish eyes flickered following the flames of the fireplace.

The gaze of a disciple worried about their master, and the master looking affectionately at such a disciple.

"You really worry too..."

A sound came that cleanly severed that tender moment.

Namely.

From the very next room.

'Hahng~ I told you that spot is sensitive~'

'Hehe, what are you talking about, you feisty alley cat, after getting it this wet!'

It wasn't that Eloa and Siwoo's senses were exceptionally sharp to hear the sound.

As mentioned, the Lying Snake Shelter was a wooden building constructed following old architectural styles.

Soundproofing was essentially just logs erected as walls between rooms.

"You really worry too muc..."

Eloa's effort to ignore it and continue the conversation was rendered futile as another well-timed local broadcast was heard.

'Hmm~ Yes! There... haa... there....'

'You like it here? Open up more.'

'How can I open up more than this.... Hahng..."

Even Eloa, who had barely managed to open up to defuse the situation, clamped shut like a clam.

Eloa, unable to meet Siwoo's gaze and unconsciously averting her eyes, displayed a remarkably high vibration frequency in her pupils.

It wasn't just Eloa who was flustered.

Siwoo was also frozen stiff by this awkward incident.

He had thought they were a friendly couple since laughter had been heard since mealtime.

Who would have expected such stimulating conversation to suddenly be heard?

But Siwoo was no longer the loner he used to be.

What good would it do to just sit quietly listening to the sounds of love from the next room? It would only worsen the situation.

Siwoo tried to put on his most nonchalant smile and move past it.

In the style of Takasho.

"Haha, they seem close."

"......"

However, jokes of this sort only work if the other person plays along.

Eloa herself was hugging her knees tightly, maintaining silence, seemingly at a loss for what to do.

"Kuh, kuh-leuk!"

She grabbed her glass with a trembling hand, took a drink, and immediately started choking.

-Slap! Slap!

'Hahng! Hahng! Ahng! Ahng! Harder!'

'You damn bitch...!'

Whether aware of this situation or not, the couple next door began accelerating in earnest.

So rough was it that the sound of flesh colliding—the so-called sound of pounding rice cakes—was transmitted.

It would be embarrassing enough to face this situation with a female friend with zero chance of becoming a couple, but the other party was Eloa, no less.

Even if it was an unavoidable situation, this was someone he had been physically intimate with.

And Siwoo knew that Master was extremely conscious and bothered by that fact.

The fact that she never brought up that incident was proof enough...

"...Lately, perhaps because of the price of the contract... my ears aren't working well. I, I'm going to wash up."

"Yes, understood."

Eloa, who had unfolded the blanket on her knees and stood up.

And perhaps thinking her words might sound a bit strange, she quickly made an excuse.

"I, I'm just washing! It has no meaning whatsoever..."

Of course, it wasn't the reaction of someone who couldn't hear anything.

She had just ended up babbling nonsense out of sheer panic.

Siwoo stifled a laugh at Eloa's display, the very picture of someone with a guilty conscience, regardless of her embarrassment.

"......"

However, the shower facilities in the corner of the room weren't particularly good.

While plumbing was installed, there was no separate door, just a tent-like curtain providing rough coverage.

At this rate, it was obvious all the water sounds and everything else would be heard.

Siwoo also tactfully got up from his seat.

"Well then, I'll go get some air too."

"O, oh... alright."

Leaving behind Eloa, who had turned as red as a persimmon, Siwoo stepped out of the room.

"Haa..."

Only after Siwoo left did Eloa exhale the breath she had been holding.From the next room, the drunken cries and beast-like groans of a man could still be heard.

Eloa felt a sudden dizziness, wondering how she had been listening to such sounds alongside Siwoo.

"Ugh..."

Shaking her head vigorously, Eloa undressed and stepped under the falling water.

Nothing beats a shower for shaking off distracting thoughts...

'I'm... I'm coming!'

The intermittent noise from the wall, which seemed to start up whenever things got too quiet, made Eloa feel suffocated.

"I already said I couldn't hear anything..."

Fortunately, Siwoo seemed to believe her, but after offering such a clumsy excuse, suddenly suggesting they leave would seem unnatural.

Besides, according to her Contract, it was time for Eloa to sleep.

If there was any consolation, it was that it would probably stop soon, right?

She had learned that typical sexual intercourse, unlike special cases like Siwoo, doesn't last all day.

At this point, when things were heating up, maybe it was for the best that they were temporarily apart.

"Why does this only happen to me..."

First, she ends up peeking at Sharon's passionate night.

Then, due to the Guardian's Contract, she witnesses Periwinkle and Siwoo's intercourse.

And now, her pajamas suddenly get disheveled, exposing her chest.

Suddenly, the whole world felt absurd to Eloa.

"Phew, that was almost seriously awkward."

Siwoo stepped outside the inn, partly to smoke a cigarette and partly to get some fresh air.

Earlier, when he looked downstairs, it seemed like only men were around, but given the time, as soon as he opened the door, he found entangled couples sucking and licking each other all along the corridor.

"Excuse me. Excuse me."

Siwoo had to skillfully disrupt no less than three couples before he could finally make it outside.

Since the Lying Serpent Rest occupied a fairly high vantage point, the night view of Border Town was laid out before him.

Being a hub for Gehenna's material distribution, the distant docks were still brightly lit with work lights.

"Inhale... Haa..."

He lit his cigarette, inhaled the smoke, and exhaled it along with his troubles.

He had left the room because Eloa seemed too flustered, but that didn't mean Siwoo was completely unaffected.

"My head's spinning..."

His extroverted friends could go to a motel with their opposite-sex friends while drunk and then carry on as if nothing happened.

But there was no way Siwoo could do that.

For one, the memory from that time in the rainwater tunnel was too deeply etched in his mind.

He remembered every detail of Eloa's body.

So vividly that even when she was clothed, he could picture her naked form underneath.

Siwoo had been trying to maintain distance, consciously avoiding certain thoughts to prevent Eloa from feeling awkward.

But after this latest incident, he couldn't help but recall it all again.

If Eloa had been the type to casually mix bodies with him...

Couldn't he have playfully started kissing her in that situation earlier, listening once more to her gasping voice?

Couldn't he have grabbed her ample breasts from behind and ejaculated deep inside her?

"Stuck in the same filthy thoughts again. Damn it! Have I finally lost it?"

Just as he was about to sink into self-loathing, tearing at his hair amidst the sticky turmoil...

"Hey, what are you doing out here alone?"

"Yikes!"

Siwoo jumped, startled by the voice that suddenly called out from behind.

Turning around, he saw a woman wearing a pointed witch's hat poking his shoulder with her finger.

"Oh my, I had a feeling, and I was right. It is you, isn't it? The one who came with Duke Tiferet earlier... um... the male witch? Cool eyepatch. Is it a fashion thing?"

Perhaps because she possessed the kind of beauty not commonly seen on the streets, typical of Witches, he quickly remembered where he'd seen her.

She was the Witch who had been sipping alcohol alone downstairs earlier.

"Can I help you?"

Siwoo immediately showed wariness.

It was a habit ingrained during his time living in the Mortal Realm.

While there were many good Witches, there were certainly also those who might become fixated on his uniqueness.

"Do I need a specific reason to talk to you? I just wanted to chat, so I came over."

"I'm sorry. I need to head back inside soon."

He sensed something ominous in her brightly sparkling eyes.

It wasn't that he disliked attention from a pretty woman.

But the moment the reason might be a Witch's peculiar curiosity, it was a deal-breaker.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait a minute, why the rush?"

The Witch, who had firmly grabbed Siwoo's wrist, smiled a sweet, ingratiating smile.

Siwoo saw a curiosity bordering on madness hidden in her eyes, curved like pretty crescent moons.

"I'm not trying to do anything bad. How about just having a drink with me?"

"No, I've already had enough."

"You're being pretty prickly, aren't you?"

He tried to pull away, but the Witch's hand, which had tightened its grip, held his wrist like a handcuff.

"I have a lot of things I want to ask. What's your relationship with Duke Tiferet? Is it this and that?"

"Look..."

"If it's nothing, then there's no harm in having fun with me, right? Hmm?"

She's incredibly clingy.

He felt like a college girl being hit on outside a club bathroom.

Back off a little, would you?

"I'm sorry, but I really need to get back. My Master is waiting."

"Master?"

"Duke Eloa."

"Calling her by name? So you are close, aren't you?"

Most Witches possess their own unique My Pace.

You could even call them self-righteous and self-centered.

Just like in dramas where the precious, golden-spoon daughters are portrayed as picky, having been pampered from birth and after becoming Witches, they naturally carry around a sense of privilege like a wallet.

"That's not it."

As Siwoo spoke in a low, firm voice and tried to pull his arm free, the Witch made a face that clearly showed she was offended.

Her expression said, without words, 'Who does this mere man think he is, playing hard to get?'

"You mutation, crudely made, have no manners! You think you're something special..."

The situation was unfolding along the predictable route.

If it came to a fight, could he win?

Siwoo instinctively assessed his chances.

Then.

"He is something."

A strangely familiar voice was heard.

"Because he's the man who killed that Cowardly Witch."

A supermodel-like tall stature and perfect proportions.

Flowing navy-blue hair and a beautiful dress.

It was Kibele Periwinkle, wrapped in an aura of leisurely composure like a shawl, with the night view behind her.