City ​​of Witches 109

Chapter 109 – #24_Regression(2)

#107
1.
Siwoo was deep in thought, in the pose of Rodin’s The Thinker.
Newly acquired knowledge and power.
The process of dissecting and reinterpreting them piece by piece was more fun than any game or amusement.
So much so that it made him forget the headache that felt like his brain vessels were about to burst and the phantom pain in his left prosthetic eye, where there shouldn’t even be any pain receptors.

-Swoosh

Siwoo, who had been immersed in his own world for quite some time, raised his head.
He had felt a sense of incongruity as the space around him wavered and distorted.

Looking around, the giant old tree of Latifundium was nowhere to be seen.
There was no mana reflection light that naturally occurred due to the dense mana in the atmosphere, nor the moss that covered the ground like a carpet.

Instead, the space, which looked like a hall made of cleanly polished marble, was illuminated by light streaming through large stained-glass windows, making it solemn and dignified even without any special lighting.
Siwoo was sitting on a comfortable sofa in the middle of it.

-Click-clack

Someone approached him with the sound of heels clicking.
Siwoo slowly raised his gaze and looked at her.
Her face was blurred and indistinct, not clearly visible.
It was as if colorful hues, like light passing through a prism, were scattered around her.

Nevertheless, Siwoo felt a deep sense of intimacy with the figure before him.
It felt very similar to the fractal tree he had been touching and dissecting.

Siwoo rose from his seat.
He strode forward and stood before the witch.
He reached out, grabbed her hair, and began to smell her scent.

“Sniff, sniff.”
“You’re amusing.”

With a light chuckle, a white hand reached out and supported Siwoo’s chin.
It was a touch as if handling a puppy.
Siwoo, as if intoxicated by the soft scent of her hand, gently bit her fingertip.

How good would this woman’s body feel?
How interesting would the knowledge within this woman’s body be?
His instincts were screaming.

The magic he had consumed so far was nothing compared to this witch’s.
His eyes were bloodshot with unprecedented excitement.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him as if he were going to devour her.

“Are you trying to violate my body as well?”

As she had felt earlier, seeing him was like looking at a beast in heat.
Keter had been watching everything that had happened today.
From Siwoo fighting an exile to him violating her and taking her magic.
It was an amusing sight that had temporarily relieved the ennui and monotony of her long life.

It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t intrigued by the way he used magic, which she had never seen before.
However, his method was one that depleted his own body.

A talent that was too overwhelming for a mere human body to handle, almost a disability.
It was a reckless overclocking that pushed his fragile brain to the point of abuse.
If he continued like this, he would probably die within three years.

Just as Siwoo’s hand was about to wrap around Keter’s waist, her finger poked Siwoo’s forehead.
At the same time, Siwoo’s body froze.
It was as if time had stopped.

After all, everything in the world is born and returns to dust in a fleeting moment.
She wouldn’t have felt any pity for a human man with whom she had no real connection.

The reason she was being kind to him and Baron Marigold was that both of them had their own value… but in truth, more than half of it was for her own amusement.
In the history and events that repeated themselves so boringly, ‘seeing something new’ was a very valuable thing.

“Whether your existence is a prelude to a banal repetition that pretends to be novel, or a clue that will show something truly new… I shall look forward to it.”

A magic circle began to spread from beneath Keter’s feet.
The large tree that began to grow from behind her, like a shadow, resembled the fractal that Siwoo had been drawing on the wall all night.

As the tree, swaying as if in the wind, enveloped Siwoo’s body, it began to shine with a brilliant light.

2.
Duchess Keter added a suitable explanation about Siwoo’s current condition.

His transcendent ability, which had bloomed due to this accident, was ultimately something that was mortgaging his lifespan.
The overload on his brain would soon take his life.
From the moment she heard those words, Amelia didn’t consider whether returning him to his original state was respecting his wishes.

[I agree.]

Keter’s handwriting flowed smoothly across the paper, as if she had expected it.

[Is that so?]

When she didn’t reply, the sentence continued.

[What I want from you is one thing: to grant me a simple favor in the future.]

She expected that her favor wouldn’t be simple, but she had no intention of arguing with her, as she was her only lifeline.
What was most important now was finding a way to return him to his original state.

Other things, including the things that had gone wrong and the tangled relationships, could be undone at any time.
But death was different.
Those who disappeared could not return.

[I want to know how you will treat him.]
[I will turn back his time.]

Amelia was momentarily stunned.
Turning back time.
A magic she had never heard of.
Could Duchess Keter even do something that defied the laws of nature?
That was already too close to a ‘miracle’ rather than the realm of magic.

[It won’t be a perfect return. I will only return him to before he suffered irreparable damage. His memory will be hazy for a while. There will be confusion, and it will take a lot of care.]
[The exact meaning…]

She still had many questions, but Duchess Keter unilaterally cut her off as if the matter was over.

[It would be faster to see it with your own eyes. One thing is certain, it will guarantee his humanity. It will be a bit of a struggle, but I assure you it won’t take long. And who knows? You might even like his new form.]

With those cryptic last words, the letter crumbled and disappeared.
There was no further explanation about the treatment.
In fact, this was more of a notification than an explanation.

The pieces of the torn letter formed a certain pattern on her desk.
To Amelia, it was neither a magic formula nor anything else, but the pattern shone and disappeared, and a small glass bottle appeared in its place.

Inside was a white, milky liquid, and a tag was attached to the bottle’s opening.
It was a crude tag that read, [Give him five drops a day.]

She felt dazed.
Even though she had been writing letters to Duchess Keter with a desperate heart, she hadn’t really expected a reply.
But she had received not only a reply but also a confirmation that she would treat him.

Could it be that her desperate heart was so great that she was hallucinating?
That thought felt more realistic.

Should she be happy or sad?
No, she didn’t even know what kind of feeling she should have, and she just stood there blankly.
She looked down again at the glass bottle, which proved that all of this was not a dream.

-Flap

The tag flipped over, revealing the words on the back.

[Go to his room.]

There was no need to think any deeper.
Amelia began to run at the fastest speed she had ever run in her life.
She was like a cheetah.

3.
She opened the mansion door as if she were going to break it and ran up the stairs.
No one could accurately predict the extent of Duchess Keter’s abilities.
However, they only believed that she was the witch closest to the realm of the ‘Witch of Creation’ and that she could easily perform incomprehensible miracles.

Could she have finished the treatment in such a short time?
Would they be able to talk to each other again like before?

Amelia, who was about to burst into the room, froze as soon as she grabbed the doorknob of Siwoo’s room.

She was afraid.
She was as scared as she wanted to see him.
She had not received any confirmation of what he would say when he regained his senses, or how their relationship would continue afterward.
The sudden progress of the situation had given Amelia a speed that she could not keep up with.

“Hoo… ha… hoo…”

Amelia took a deep breath.
She straightened her disheveled hair and clothes from running and quietly twisted the door open.

What came into view was the wall covered with his magic formulas.
The bed that had been left out so that his condition could be quickly checked at any time.
And on it was Siwoo, covered with a blanket.
Amelia stood close to the bed with a pounding heart.

And then she felt a little strange.
Was his body under the blanket this small?
With anxiety, Amelia’s trembling hand slowly pulled back the blanket, and what appeared was…

“Ah…?”

It was a cute-looking boy.
Amelia opened her mouth blankly and watched him.

Siwoo was a healthy 28-year-old young man.
But the person lying on his side on the bed, fast asleep, was a small child who looked to be about 10 years old.

But they had been together for five years.
Looking at the bridge of his nose, the shape of his eyes on the opposite side of the eyepatch, his mouth, everywhere she looked.
If she looked at him closely, she could tell that this boy was Siwoo.
However, it was Siwoo from his childhood.

She had thought that ‘turning back time’ meant returning him to before he was injured.
But hadn’t she turned it back too much?

“Uu… uung…”

In front of the dumbfounded Amelia, the boy Siwoo tossed and turned.
His brow furrowed as if he was dissatisfied with the blanket being gone.
Siwoo, wearing light blue polka-dotted pajamas, opened his eyes and looked around.

And as soon as he saw Amelia, he froze.
Even the expression that showed he couldn’t hide his fear and felt a sense of distance.
It was unmistakably Siwoo.

The eyes that had always stared into the void were now filled with a bright light.
His face, which had been expressionless in any situation, now showed clear emotions.
Amelia felt her heart ache.

He had returned.
Siwoo had returned.
It didn’t matter what form it was in.

“Siwoo…”

Amelia unconsciously reached out and stroked Siwoo’s cheek.
His soft, squishy cheek felt warm.

“You’re awake.”
“Yes…”

Even his voice was childish.
It was a thin voice that sounded like it wouldn’t even be distinguishable from a girl’s voice, let alone having gone through puberty.

“Do you know who I am?”

Siwoo, who seemed uncomfortable, glanced back and forth between Amelia’s hand stroking his cheek and her face, which was too close, and stammered.

“Amelia… nim.”

Tears that had gathered in Amelia’s eyes trickled down.
She shouldn’t do this.
She shouldn’t turn it into a melodrama to confess her wrongdoings to him and force him to forgive her.

But Amelia hugged Siwoo tightly without realizing it.
There were so many things she had wanted to say.
She had promised herself not to make a mistake this time, and she had organized her thoughts over and over again, but there were words that she couldn’t summarize.
It was as if all sorts of words and phrases were tangled in her throat, and she couldn’t say a single one properly.

Amelia barely managed to utter a word of atonement.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

Her vision blurred with tears.
She hugged him tightly, as if he would disappear, as if he would leave, and she just sobbed.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

She kept smiling.
Even though she was so sad, happy, and guilty.
Even though tears were flowing so much, she was smiling.

“Thank you… for coming back… thank you so much…”

Siwoo, who had been held tightly in Amelia’s arms for a while, carefully opened his mouth.
It was a word that left a dark line in Amelia’s heart in a different way.

“Amelia nim, is there something I might have done wrong…?”

Siwoo asked with an innocent voice.
As if he was terrified.