City of Witches Chapter 88

The season of autumn leaves passed, and winter arrived.

This winter seems to be one with heavy snowfall overall.

Amelia's quiet residence, as always.

The garden was already buried under a blizzard reaching up to the thighs, and through the half-snow-covered glass window, snowflakes could still be seen fluttering down.

It looks like it will snow steadily throughout the night.

"Hoo..."

A sigh.

Even indoors, her breath was visible.

Amelia absentmindedly watched the hazy breath before adjusting the shawl draped over her shoulders.

-Knock knock

Out of habit, she knocked, but as expected, no answer came.

Amelia twisted the cold doorknob and stepped into the room.

Siwoo's room was densely covered with Magic Circles from the wallpaper to the floor.

The Magic Circles for sustaining life were in operation.

Several bottles of high-grade Magical Power were being consumed daily to maintain this Magic.

On the shelves, several cartons of cigarettes Amelia had brought as gifts for him were piled up, and in the bed at the center of the room, Siwoo lay covered with a blanket, looking pale.

For ninety moons rising and setting, always in the same state.

Ea's Ribbon, which had pierced his eye socket, had torn through Siwoo's frontal lobe.

Fortunately, his brainstem was undamaged, sparing him from instant death, but the fact remained that he had sustained irreparable injuries.

He had fallen into a deep slumber.

A comatose state, unresponsive to any external stimuli, merely breathing.

Even this was an achievement made possible by Amelia's emergency treatment.

The moment she took him over, she used particles to 'freeze' all bodily functions occurring within him.

However, completely halting a human's biological time is nearly impossible.

Though the Magic Circles covering his body and the Magic Formula drawn in the room were delaying death as much as possible, Siwoo was slowly, very slowly, dying at this very moment.

He was a living corpse.

A pain like being stabbed with a heated awl tore through Amelia's heart.

Today alone, she had already visited over a hundred times just to see Siwoo's face.

Each time, countless regrets spread like stains across her heart.

That night.

She recalls the autumn night when the tragedy unfolded.

What if she hadn't taken him as her exclusive?

What if she had agreed when Count Gemernai proposed handing Siwoo over?

What if she had properly apologized to him from the start?

What if she hadn't run away from Siwoo, who was rebuking and berating her, but had faced him squarely and stayed?

What if she hadn't fled to the Master's house?

What if she had composed herself a little earlier and returned to the mansion?

What if she had squeezed out all her strength and run faster to meet him again?

What if, the moment she saw the barrier, she had prepared for battle and protected Siwoo?

The endless possibilities of 'what if.'

The tragedy that wouldn't have occurred if Amelia had acted on even one of them.

Even though she knows what has passed cannot be undone, she keeps clinging to the past.

Amelia pulled a chair beside the bed and sat next to him.

"How are you doing?"

It was practically a soliloquy.

He was unconscious, and due to the Magic, the flow of time for Siwoo, who was frozen, and Amelia was different.

Even if miraculously, Amelia's voice reached Siwoo's ears, it would arrive as an indistinct noise, like a stretched-out tape.

"I was just like this today. A day no different from any other."

Amelia had been busily going back and forth between the library and the salon.

It was to research restoring Siwoo's body or to seek out a Witch who could heal him.

Although she had achieved the 23rd hierarchy after awakening that night, Recovery Magic was a field completely different from the Magic Amelia had previously studied.

It was no exaggeration to say she was starting from the 10th hierarchy, having regressed.

But Amelia was determined to revive him, even if it took hundreds of years.

Because there were still words she hadn't conveyed.

"I had a dream again today. A dream where you woke up and poured resentment upon me."

That this is all because of you.

That if it weren't for you, none of this would have happened.

Overlapping with the last image she had of him, he fiercely condemned her.

In that dream, Amelia no longer retreated.

She approached him, shed tears, begged for forgiveness saying she was sorry, that she was wrong, and embraced him.

"It was sad, but it was still good. Because I could hear your voice again."

Amelia carefully brushed back the disheveled hair from Siwoo's forehead.

"Just rest a little longer."

She quietly kissed his cheek and returned for her research.

Even though she had visited frequently throughout the day, saying this and that, there were clearly many things she wanted to say.

But her chest felt heavy, and she couldn't bring herself to speak anymore.

It felt like she would break down and sob uncontrollably, abandoning everything.

She knew.

The fact that Amelia could only be a sinner before Siwoo.

That if one traced the cause of all these events, it ultimately boiled down to Amelia's own karma.

That all these actions were nothing but self-gratification for masturbation.

Transparent tears streamed down Amelia's cheeks.

She wiped away the tears with a handkerchief, having lost count of how many times it had been today.

In the white garden, snowflakes quietly piled up.

After classes ended, Odil and Odette stopped by Amelia's residence.

A newly established routine.

The once-a-week visiting hours for Siwoo.

After returning together following classes, Amelia immediately headed to the research building for her studies, while the Twins, holding a bouquet of flowers, made their way to the room where Siwoo lay.

Incidentally, half the cost of maintaining the Magic Circles was covered by Count Gemernai.

"Hello, Assistant!"

"Hello, Assistant."

Odil energetically opened the door and entered, followed by Odette.

Naturally, there was no response.

It seems Miracles aren't things that happen so easily.

"Today, it's blue hydrangeas. Their meanings are arrogance, coldness, and pride. But I just brought them because they're pretty."

"Right, what does the flower meaning matter?"

Odette removed the wilted flowers from the vase on the table and replaced them with fresh blooms.

Pulling up chairs, the Twins sat side by side next to Siwoo.

They gazed at his face for a long time, as if he were in a deep sleep.

That night.

Siwoo had risked his life to save Odil and Odette.

Even when the Twins were about to give up everything and kneel, he took the lead, encouraged them, and stood against the Witch until the very end.

His back, defiantly provoking the terrifying Witch until the final moment, remained unforgettable.

When they called the Master and returned.Siwoo's appearance was a picture of utter devastation.

Wounds so severe they looked painful just to see, injuries that had him teetering on the threshold of death.

He had evacuated only the Twins, knowing full well this would be his fate.

Even though the option to flee himself existed, he absolutely refused to compromise.

"Thanks to you, Assistant, I was able to study hard again today."

Odette, unnecessarily wiping away welling tears, tightly grasped Siwoo's hand.

It was rough.

The complex fractures that had barely held his bones together were all healed, but crooked, uneven scars still remained.

"I'll tell you about what happened this week too. You'd get bored lying in bed all day, right?"

The Twins, who had camped out at Amelia's lodging all week taking turns wailing inconsolably, had come to accept reality as time passed.

The helplessness of being unable to do anything, and a life saved one-sidedly.

That helplessness became a new driving force for the Twins.

They couldn't just wallow in sorrow and collapse.

They were studying Magic harder than ever before.

So that when he wakes up someday, when something like this happens again, this time they can protect him.

The Twins began chattering away, pouring out everything that had happened over the week to Siwoo.

"There was something this week that you'd be really proud of, Assistant."

"That's right, Assistant. We got praised by the professor today."

"For the first time, the parts we got corrected were less than ten."

Starting with their Magic studies, which they were currently very enthusiastic about.

"There was something a bit upsetting too. On Wednesday, Pecha caught a squirrel..."

"And Odette opened the cage to feed it, and it ran away, didn't it?"

"Eek! Honestly, unnie's fault is big too. It got scared and scurried away because unnie was making a fuss saying it was cute, wasn't it?"

"Oh my, it was being very quiet and well-behaved on my hand, though? Maybe it ran away because your heart looked too wicked?"

Even the bickering that started as they brought up daily life topics.

But with no one actually listening, the Twins' fight quickly fizzled out.

With Siwoo, who should be offering an awkward, bitter smile and an equally awkward mediation, lying silent, they soon grew gloomy.

As if to overcome that gloom, Odil was the first to speak up.

"What if we try telling our Assistant a slightly more enticing story?"

"An enticing story?"

"You know, that thing."

Odil lowered her upper body sharply, then propped her arm next to Siwoo's pillow.

She slightly climbed onto the spacious bed, placed her hand gently on his chest as if handling a soap bubble, and whispered.

"Assistant... I said I'd let you do it on my face when we meet again, right?"

It couldn't just be an illusion that a hint of tears was mixed into the sweet, coquettish voice.

"I'll let you do it anywhere you want, not just my face. Actually, we've been practicing something lately."

Seeing Odil's proactive approach, Odette also stuck herself closely to Siwoo in the same posture.

A thumping heart resounds.

Odette kept glancing furtively towards the door.

For no other reason than that if Amelia saw them clinging to Siwoo like this, she'd give them a homework bomb in the next class.

"R-right! What we've been practicing is..."

Odette, clinging tightly to Siwoo's ear just like Odil.

"...making a thin membrane so magic power doesn't seep into the baby room."

A Magic that spreads a thin Wavelength of Magical Power, like a tokamak containing plasma, to block the magic power generated from the male member.

A Magic no one had ever created because the risk was too great if it failed, and it was utterly useless otherwise. The Twins were diligently researching it.

To give him something he'd like as a gift when he woke up.

"If you wait just a little after waking up... we could even put it in... the baby-making hole..."

"That's right, that's right. The book says purity is something you give to a truly precious person, but since you're our life's benefactor... I'll make up my mind and give it to you."

"I'll give you my first time too, Assistant!"

The Twins held their breath, peeking at Siwoo's reaction.

"Wouldn't Count Gemernai cut me to pieces if he found out? Even so, it's no good. It's too dangerous."

The same answer should have come.

But from Siwoo, whose metabolic activity was suppressed to the point his heart beat once every three minutes, not even the tiniest breath escaped.

Would the day ever come when those eyes would open?

Might they be left only with promises that could never be kept?

Neither Twin gave voice first to the anxiety that rose in them simultaneously.

"Well, anyway, know that and get up strong. We even bought a cool eyepatch."

"Assistant, we'll come again next time. You have to get well by then, okay?"

Odil and Odette got down from the bed, gathered their things, and left the room.

And after pretending to close the door, they opened it wide again.

There was no movie-like event of turning around after closing the door to find Siwoo with his eyes open.

"......Let's go."

"....Yeah, unnie."

Odil and Odette, exchanging a lonely conversation, stifled their tears.

They had promised not to show their crying faces to the Assistant anymore.

A Word from the Author (Author's Note)

Thank you for visiting again today~

When I was serializing that utterly depraved, wicked teacher in 'Hakko-jakin', this kind of thing didn't happen...

To those readers who... don't even have a previous work history visible in the comments and leave strange comments again...

Please don't use language that's too strong.

You're making me look weak.

Well then, keep writing well!