City of Witches Chapter 311

Siwoo welcomed Eloa with a beaming, genuinely delighted smile the moment he saw her.

As if he had truly been waiting for her.

Even if he didn't know about the naughty things Eloa had done in secret, it was still Siwoo who had involved Sharon and let her hear those sounds.

"I'm glad you came, Master. It would have been even more fun if you'd arrived a bit earlier."

How could he act so naturally after doing something like that?

Eloa couldn't help but be bewildered by Siwoo's seemingly two-faced behavior.

The Siwoo she remembered was more consistent than anyone.

Could there have been some kind of mistake or misunderstanding?

Such thoughts began to creep into her heart.

At Siwoo's suggestion, the two set out for a walk.

There was no designated path on the sandy beach.

But simply strolling leisurely along the night sea, with waves crashing rhythmically, made for a splendid walking course.

"The moon is really beautiful."

"Indeed... it is."

"It seems even more beautiful with you, Master."

"......"

She didn't know what to say.

She didn't know what expression to make or how to face him.

That's why she had holed up in her room for two whole days, avoiding him.

She had something to say, she needed to say it.

Yet, while thinking this, Eloa could only trail behind Siwoo, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.

No matter how hot the Hyeophae region was compared to other parts of Gehenna, once the sun set, a seasonally chilly wind began to blow.

Should she not say it?

Should she just bury it like this?

Just as she was agonizing over this dilemma, repeated hundreds of times.

Something suddenly draped over Eloa's shoulders.

"The wind is cold. You're still recovering."

"...Th-thank you."

Siwoo had taken off his cardigan and offered it to her.

Eloa unnecessarily fidgeted with the cardigan Siwoo had placed over her.

And she made a firm decision.

She would say it after all.

Say everything and return to their original relationship.

Wrongdoings should be righted.

She steeled her resolve like that.

"Siwoo, there's something I'd like you to hear."

"What is it?"

Siwoo, who had been walking ahead leisurely as if nothing had ever happened between them, turned to look at Eloa with a gentle smile.

His handsome features shining under the clear full moon.

Eloa didn't judge people by appearance, but she couldn't deny that Siwoo was good-looking.

No.

This wasn't the time to be admiring his looks anew.

If she didn't start speaking soon, she felt she might never say it today.

"I..."

Just as Eloa was stumblingly trying to broach the subject.

Siwoo suddenly closed the distance between them.

Eloa, who had been slowly building up her words, felt the speech that had risen to her throat sink right back down into her stomach.

It was from surprise.

Until now, aside from sparring, Siwoo had subtly maintained a physical distance from Eloa.

"Before that."

Today, Siwoo seemed different somehow.

The slightly timid, subtly awkward attitude he'd had around Eloa was gone.

He seemed utterly composed and calm.

"Master, I also have something to say to you. Will you listen?"

"What is it?"

Was Siwoo going to apologize before she could bring up what had happened?

Since broaching the topic first was incredibly difficult, Eloa's attention was drawn to his words.

If Siwoo opened the floodgates, it seemed it would be much easier to resolve.

"I've been thinking for a long time. About how I should treat you, Master."

It was as expected.

The worry of 'how to treat' someone—this was something Eloa had always pondered regarding Siwoo as well.

It was also what had made her vacillate amidst her deepening anguish.

"I, I was just about to bring up a similar topic myself..."

"Then it seems our conversation might be long. Shall we walk a bit more? There's a good place to sit and talk."

With truly exquisite timing, Siwoo cut off the conversation.

Eloa gave a small nod.

The place Siwoo led Eloa to was the Twins' carriage parked by the beach.

The carriage, large enough to be called a camping trailer with spatial distortion applied to make it mobile.

Politely extending his hand to escort Eloa, Siwoo soon fetched a bottle of alcohol from the minibar.

"Have a drink."

"Thank you."

Since they always had drinks during their conversations, it wasn't particularly strange.

Eloa took the drink Siwoo poured and gulped it down in large swallows.

As the alcohol wet her inexplicably parched throat, it felt like she could breathe a little easier.

"Shall we continue?"

"Since I've also been organizing my thoughts, the conversation should proceed quickly. That's good."

Eloa could strangely intuit it.

That the topic Siwoo wanted to discuss overlapped with her own.

She thought it was fortunate.

If she'd had to bring up the embarrassing subject alone, it would have been completely daunting.

"Then shall we say it simultaneously?"

Eloa responded to Siwoo's playful smile with an awkward smile of her own.

No matter how she looked at it, Siwoo seemed a little different today.

Was the trip today that enjoyable? Or was he just relaxed and loosened up from having just the right amount of alcohol?

Either way, the atmosphere was quite soft.

"Alright."

Eloa straightened her seated posture and stiffened her back.

In contrast, Siwoo smiled faintly in a relaxed pose and swirled the ice in his glass.

"Siwoo, I understand that your walls are unique..."

Eloa tightly closed her eyes and began to recite the notes she had prepared in advance.

Or rather, tried to recite.

That was, until she heard Siwoo's words, which struck like a bolt from the blue.

"I want you, Master."

At first, she thought she'd misheard.

When Eloa jerked her head up and met Siwoo's eyes, what she saw was Siwoo's gaze, fixed on her with unwavering honesty, not a shred of falsehood.

Reflected in those pupils was her own image, eyes widened as far as they could go.

Moreover, Siwoo didn't stop.

"Since the day I held you, Master, I haven't been able to forget you for a single moment."

Siwoo rose and naturally approached Eloa.

He cupped the stunned Eloa's chin and lifted her face.

"I want your body, your heart, even your soul."

Eloa felt her mind go completely blank.

She had run hundreds, thousands of simulations to reach this point, but she had never once considered this possibility.

A firm palm burrowed into the nape of her neck, stiff with shock.

Siwoo pulled Eloa up and carefully embraced her.It was like handling a soap bubble that would burst if handled carelessly.

Though Eloa could split even a vast ocean, the moment Siwoo held her in his arms, the strength in her legs gave way unsteadily.

Siwoo's hand digging into Eloa's waist as she nearly stumbled.

Holding her firmly, their eyes meet at a distance where their noses almost touch.

"Si... Siwoo...."

At that moment, her heart begins to race madly.

A panic so intense it could make her dizzy enough to faint encroaches upon Eloa.

Now Eloa knows everything she needs to know.

She can grasp in an instant what Siwoo's words and this atmosphere imply.

What threw Eloa into shock wasn't just his unprecedented action.

The change in her own feelings caused by his actions was far different from what Eloa had anticipated.

Siwoo's words, stepping beyond the duty and established rules of the Master-Disciple Relationship—'I want to have Master'—and the pure, genuine heart behind them.

She's happy.

Deep down, she's happy.

But she shouldn't be.

That Siwoo told her he wants her.

That he's expressing his feelings so honestly like this makes her happy.

Being held in his embrace.

Their bodies touching.

It's truly, sinfully, unbearably happy.

"This shouldn't be happening...."

But it mustn't.

This isn't why she came.

This is merely stepping into a deeper mire.

It's just repeating a mistake.

"For someone saying that, you're not pushing me away at all."

"Hah...!"

But even after hearing Eloa's refusal, Siwoo reached out even more boldly.

His hand, lifting the hem of Eloa's dress and slithering in like a snake, touched her bare skin.

Eloa's shoulders trembled as she held her breath.

As he said, Eloa couldn't push him away.

In fact, from the moment she was embraced, the strength had been draining from her body.

A hot warmth rose from the bare skin his hand touched, and even her breath grew ragged.

"Master must feel the same way I do, right?"

Eloa summoned superhuman willpower, clenched her teeth, and pushed Siwoo away.

"Stop this!"

She deliberately scowled as she shouted.

She wasn't actually angry.

Apart from bewilderment, she felt no rage whatsoever.

She was merely flailing, afraid of being consumed by an inexplicable pounding in her chest.

"Si, Siwoo... this... this shouldn't be.... I, I... I vowed to become your Master...."

As proof, the moment she separated from Siwoo, Eloa felt a hollowness as if a part of her had been torn away.

She felt a sense of loss.

Struggling to ignore it, she voiced a righteous argument.

"You... although you haven't received succession of my Brand... aren't you my disciple? Don't you also call me Master?"

"......"

"Master and parent are no different. Just as a child serves their parent, serving one's Master means the Master also loves their disciple as they would their own child! It's a realm of heavenly bonds where carnal desire between man and woman must not intrude!"

Eloa continued speaking rapidly, as if making excuses.

"Master."

Siwoo took a step forward.

Eloa stepped back.

With each step Siwoo took, Eloa retreated a little.

The stark realization that getting entangled here would be irreversible made Eloa simply back away.

Yet she couldn't use her power.

The other is Siwoo.

Her disciple, whom Eloa loves and cherishes more than anyone.

-Thud!

Even if it was a carriage with spatial distortion, it was still an enclosed space.

She couldn't retreat endlessly.

Eloa's back touched the wall, and Siwoo gradually closed the distance.

Unconsciously rising on her tiptoes and pressing tightly against the wall, Eloa.

What should she do?

How can she navigate this situation well?

As Eloa frantically thought of various things, one person popped into her mind.

The name of someone who could stop Siwoo and stop Eloa herself came to mind.

"Moreover... moreover... don't you have Sharon Evergreen by your side?"

That's right.

Beside Siwoo, there is already a lover.

A woman exists with whom he maintains such a solid relationship one wouldn't doubt they were betrothed.

Surely Siwoo would restrain himself with this.

-Tap!

But Siwoo's actions defied expectations.

Having cornered Eloa against the wall, Siwoo, as if to block any space for her to escape,

Planted his arm against the space beside her head.

Swallowed by his shadow, Eloa looked up at Siwoo with trembling eyes.

"Right now, only Master is before me, isn't that so?"

Eloa held her breath.

Siwoo reached out, stroked through Eloa's pink hair, then gently took hold of her ear, now burning crimson.

Her small fingertips pushed against Siwoo's chest.

But the force was far too weak to create any distance.

She had already repeated to herself a thousand times that this shouldn't happen, yet she couldn't possibly push him away.

Why?

Why can't she push him away?

Is it because she feels she might be devoured by his unwavering, direct gaze?

Or is it because, in truth, Eloa herself also desired this situation?

"Stop... this...."

"I won't stop."

Siwoo's lips slowly approach.

He firmly holds Eloa in place, making escape impossible, and gradually closes the distance.

"I won't hide it anymore."

Eloa's body pressed flat against the wall.

She's trying to escape so much she might as well become one with the wall.

Just before their lips meet, Eloa sharply turns her head away.

Because if they kiss here,

She felt a sense of crisis that they truly wouldn't be able to stop.

With pitifully drooping eyes, Eloa haltingly continued her words.

"No matter how I think about it... this doesn't seem right... Siwoo. Let's calm down a bit... and have a calm, calm conversation...."

Feeling Siwoo's presence recede, Eloa peeked at him with one eye slightly open.

It's not that she lacks the desire to give him what he wants.

Nor can she definitively say that she herself doesn't want what he desires at all.

Is that why?

Seeing his face filled with disappointment, Eloa felt an inexplicable ache in her chest.

"Is it because we're in a Master-Disciple Relationship?"

"Haven't I said it repeatedly? You and I are..."

"Eloa."

Siwoo's low voice pierces her ear from very close.

It wasn't the title 'Master'.

It was a sweet, alluring title that crossed the line of taboo and betrayal.

Siwoo's knee forcibly pushes between Eloa's legs.

With a soft yet strong force, he firmly supports the nape of her neck.

Once again, his lips draw near.

"Stop lying."

Siwoo's lips met Eloa's.A soft tongue pushed its way between Eloa's tightly pressed lips.