City of Witches

༺ Silence (1) ༻

1.

Autumn had passed, replaced by winter.

It seemed like a lot of snow would decorate this year’s winter, accommodating Amelia’s fondness for quietness.

The garden had been covered in thick snow, almost reaching one’s thighs, yet one could still see snowflakes fluttering down through the half-covered glass window.

Perhaps the snow would heavily fall throughout the night.

“Sigh…”

A sigh escaped Amelia’s lips.

Even though she was indoors, her breath was visible.

She gazed at her misty breath for a moment before adjusting the shawl draped over her shoulder.

-Knock, knock.

Out of habit, she knocked on Siwoo’s door, but just as she expected, no response came out.

She twisted the cold doorknob and stepped into the room.

Inside, it was densely adorned with magic circles, stretching from the ceiling to the floor.

The purpose of these magic circles was to sustain one’s life.

Each day, numerous vials of high-grade mana water were being consumed to maintain them.

On the shelf, piles of cigarettes, Amelia’s presents for him, were stacked. In the center of the room, Siwoo’s body, looking disheveled, was laid down on the bed, covered by a thin blanket.

As if he was frozen in time during the eighty-nine cycles of the sunrise and sunset, his appearance remained unchanged.

Ea’s ribbon that penetrated his eye socket, damaged his frontal lobe.

Though he luckily escaped instant death as his brainstem remained intact, the fact remained that the wounds he bore were irreparable.

And so, he slipped into a deep slumber.

In his comatose state, he could only breathe, unresponsive to any external stimuli.

Even so, he could only achieve this because of Amelia’s emergency treatment.

The moment she held him in her embrace, she commanded the particles around her to ‘halt’ all the activities occurring within his body.

However, completely stopping a human’s biological activities was a nearly impossible task.

Though the magic circles that enveloped his body and the ones placed all over the room were drawn to delay his death, he was still inching closer to death, ever so slowly.

Like a living corpse.

A pain akin to being pierced by a searing awl gnawed at Amelia’s heart.

Today alone, she came to see his face more than a hundred times.

Everytime, countless regrets spread across her heart like stains on a white cloth.

That night.

She recalled the tragic autumn evening when everything took place.

‘What if I hadn’t made him my exclusive slave?’

‘What if I had agreed to hand him over to the Countess when they came to me with their proposal?’

‘What if I had given him a genuine apology from the very start?’

‘What if I hadn’t run away when he approached me and faced him properly instead?’

‘What if I hadn’t run to my master’s cabin?’

‘What if I had calmed down my heart a little sooner and returned to the mansion a little earlier?’

‘What if I had put all my strength when I was running to meet him?’

‘What if I had prepared for battle the moment I saw that barrier so I could protect him?’

Countless ‘what ifs’ came to her mind.

The tragedy wouldn’t have occurred had Amelia done just a single one of them.

Despite knowing that what had been done was irreversible, she clung and gripped onto the past, unable to let it go.

She pulled a chair beside the bed and sat down.

“How are you feeling?”

It almost felt like she was talking to herself.

He was unconscious and due to her magic, their times flew at a different pace.

Even by some miracle her voice were to reach his ears, he would only hear obscure noises as if she had been talking in slow motion.

“My day went on just like any other day.”

Amelia had aimlessly wandered between the library and the salon¹‘Salon’ here refers to a professional gathering or meeting where experts in a particular field come together to exchange ideas and information..

For the sake of researching ways to restore his body and to look for any witches who could fix him.

After her awakening, she reached the 23rd rank, but the field of recovery magic was an entirely different field of magic compared to the one she studied.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that her recovery magic was only comparable to the 10th rank of the hierarchy.

However, no matter how many hundreds of years it would take, Amelia was determined to bring him back to life.

Because there were words she hadn’t yet conveyed to him.

“Today, I had the same dream again. A dream where you woke up and poured all your resentment on me.”

‘This is all because of you.’

‘If it weren’t for you, something like this wouldn’t have happened.’

Merging with the last image she saw of him, he lashed out on her.

But, in that dream, she didn’t back away.

Instead, she approached him, shedding her tears while apologizing and begging for forgiveness. She embraced him as she admitted her mistakes.

“It was a sad dream, but it was a good dream. Because I could hear your voice again.”

She carefully brushed aside his disheveled bangs.

“I’ll look over you for a while longer.”

She gently pressed her lips to his cheek before retreating to continue her research.

Throughout the day, she visited him frequently and told him about various things, but there were many more things she wanted to say.

She spoke to the point she couldn’t bring herself to speak any longer because of her heartbroken state.

Her heart urged her to burst into tears and to throw everything away.

Because she knew.

In reality, she was nothing but a mere sinner before Siwoo.

When tracing the causes of all these events, it all ultimately led down to one thing: her karma.

It also became apparent that she had only been putting on effort for her own self-satisfaction, not for him.

Transparent tears flowed down her cheeks.

God knows how many times she had wiped her tears with her handkerchief today.

But, the world went on as the snowflakes peacefully accumulated on the pure white garden.

2.

After their classes ended, Odile and Odette visited Amelia’s mansion.

It was part of their new routine.

Due to his condition, Siwoo could only receive visitors once a week and today was the day when they could visit him.

They went to the mansion together with Amelia, who went straight to the research building for her research. Meanwhile, the twins went straight to Siwoo’s room with a bouquet of flowers in their hands.

Half of the cost to maintain the magic circles in his room was provided by Countess Gemini.

“Heya, Mr. Assistant!”

“Hello, Mr. Assistant!”

Odile entered the door energetically, followed by Odette.

Naturally, Siwoo didn’t respond.

Miracles didn’t occur that easily, after all.

“We brought you blue hydrangeas today. According to the flower language, they represent arrogance, coldness and pride, but honestly, I bought them because they’re pretty.”

“Yeah, who cares about the flower language anyway?”

Odette took out the withered flowers inside the vase sitting on the table and replaced them with fresh ones.

The twins grabbed the chairs and sat on his sides, snuggly pressing their buttocks against him.

They gazed at his sleeping face for quite some time.

That night, he risked his own life to save them.

Even when they were on the verge of giving up everything and were about to kneel down to the wicked witch, he encouraged them and confronted that witch until the very end.

They couldn’t forget his broad back as he boldly taunted the formidable witch.

But, when they had called their master and returned, his appearance became utterly miserable.

His injuries looked so painful to look at, each of them looked so severe that he could die just from those wounds.

He knew that this outcome was inevitable, yet he still decided to protect them.

Though he had the option to run away by himself, he didn’t even consider it.

“Thanks to you, Mr. Assistant, I was able to study hard today too.”

With her tears welling up uncontrollably, Odette tightly grasped his hand.

It felt rough.

Though all the fractures that barely held his bones together were fully healed, crooked scars still remained.

“Let me tell you what happened this week, Mr. Assistant. You might be bored from lying around all day, after all.”

The twins had taken turns sitting in Amelia’s residence, weeping and wailing, but as time passed, they were able to come to terms with this reality.

Their powerlessness and inability to do anything back then. They could only sit around waiting for their lives to be saved by him.

That same feeling became a driving force for them.

After all, they couldn’t just sink into sadness forever.

That was why they started to study magic more diligently than ever.

So that when he woke up, if another incident like this were to happen, they’d be able to protect him instead.

The twins started to recount everything that happened in the past week to Siwoo.

“Something that will make you proud happened this week, Mr. Assistant!”

“Yes. We received compliments from Ms. Professor today!”

“It was the first time we received less than ten corrections in our assignments!”

They had been studying magic passionately recently.

“Somewhat disappointing incident also happened, though. Pecha caught a squirrel on Wednesday…”

“When Odette opened the cage to feed it, it ended up running away.”

“Yeah, but it was partly your fault that it ran away, Sis! Your fawning over how cute it was startled the poor thing! That’s why it ran in fear!”

“Oh, really? But, when I touched it, it was pretty well-behaved. Are you sure it didn’t run away because your aura was too hostile?”

From casual everyday talk to their usual bickering.

However, since there was no one listening, their bickering quickly died down.

Siwoo, who was supposed to intervene between them with a bitter smile, remained silent, making the mood around them quickly grew gloomy.

In an attempt to clear that sullen mood, Odile spoke up.

“Why don’t we tell him a slightly more intriguing story?”

“An intriguing story?”

“You know what I mean.”

Odile lowered her upper body then extended her arm beside Siwoo’s pillow.

She climbed up onto the spacious bed, gently placed her hand on his chest before whispering her words softly.

“Mr. Assistant, I told you that if we meet again, I’ll let you cum on my face, right?”

Sadness was mixed in her sweet, cutesy voice.

“I changed my mind, I’ll let you cum not just on my face, but anywhere you want. Actually, we’ve been practicing lately.”

Seeing Odile’s proactive approach, Odette also stuck closely to Siwoo with the same posture.

Their hearts raced with anticipation.

Odette glanced towards the direction of the door from time to time.

Because if Amelia were to see them in this rather intimate position, she’d give them a bunch of assignments on their next lecture.

“Yeah! So, what we’ve been practicing is…”

Just like Odile, Odette leaned in close to Siwoo’s ear.

“…A spell to create a thin barrier to prevent mana from seeping into the womb.”

It was a magic to block the release of mana from a male’s genitalia by spreading a thin wavelength of mana like what a tokamak²A tokamak is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. was for plasma confinement.

The twins were diligently researching this magic, which was something that nobody had ever created due to the risk it carried and how useless it was.

They intended to give it to him as a present as it was something that might like when he woke up.

“After you wake up… Our other hole will be ready to take your thing…”

“Exactly. The book says that one should offer their chastity to someone really precious to them. Since you’re our savior, Mr. Assistant… I’ll give mine to you wholeheartedly.”

“Me too! I’ll offer my first time to you too, Mr. Assistant!”

The twins secretly observed his reaction while holding their breath.

‘What if Countess Gemini found out? She’ll cut me to pieces either way, it’s too dangerous.’

They anticipated that answer to come out of his mouth.

But, Siwoo’s condition was that of one where his heart would only beat once every three minutes. They couldn’t even hear the sound of his breathing.

‘Will he ever open those eyes again?’

‘Will our promises stay as promises forever?’

None of the twins voiced the anxiety that came to their mind.

“Anyway, wake up soon, Mr. Assistant! We’ve even got a nice eye-patch for you.”

“We’ll come back again later, so stay well until then, okay?”

The twins got off the bed, packed their things and left the room.

They pretended to close the door, but quickly opened it wide again.

There was no dramatic moment where Siwoo opened his eyes upon them closing the door.

“…Let’s go.”

“…Yes, Sister.”

Exchanging their words in a somber manner, the twins held back their tears.

After all, they had promised not to show their tears to their dear assistant anymore.

Damn those ninjas cutting onions..

Footnotes:

• 1‘Salon’ here refers to a professional gathering or meeting where experts in a particular field come together to exchange ideas and information.
• 2A tokamak is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus.