Chapter 145 – #31_City Life (5)
#143
1.
My aimless stroll through the night streets suddenly had a purpose.
It was none other than to identify the existence of a homunculus.
I was aware that this was a presumptuous and dangerous act.
There was no guarantee that Siwoo could handle all the homunculi that had killed so many witches.
But isn’t this better than sitting around doing nothing?
Thinking negatively won’t make anything better.
“Let’s think positive, think positive.”
Homunculi drop new magical knowledge at a certain rate.
For Siwoo, who had reached his limit in breaking through walls alone, this could be a new breakthrough.
Siwoo forced himself to calm down and adjusted his sunglasses.
You might think it’s crazy to wear sunglasses while taking a walk at night, but to pinpoint the location of a homunculus, it was crucial to first read the flow of magic.
However, I couldn’t just walk around with my eyes exposed, advertising, ‘I have a mark on my left eye,’ so I was wearing them as a temporary measure.
“Damn, I can’t see a thing.”
Do celebrities endure this kind of discomfort when they go out?
I put aside my silly thoughts and started walking wherever my feet took me.
Actually, there wasn’t much to gain.
I had searched every nook and cranny for about two hours a day, but all I had learned was that even in this bustling, crowded neighborhood, there were plenty of secluded places.
Secluded alleys in the studio apartment district, a rarely visited public park, abandoned underground parking lots and parking towers.
In the rotary in front of the university, there were three large buildings under lien for a long time, and there was also a shopping center that had been completely emptied of stores and was just waiting to be demolished.
“Is this it?”
I searched every corner of Sinchon and Hongdae as if I were a member of a citizen patrol, but I didn’t see any signs of anything unusual.
It was a relief, but also a very unsettling feeling.
I was relieved that I didn’t have to risk my life to fight for the lives of complete strangers.
But I was also uneasy, wondering if I was searching in the wrong way and missing something.
The two feelings mixed together, making me feel very uneasy.
Siwoo sat down on a nearby bench.
It was as if he had developed a disease in Gehenna where he would die if he didn’t drink cola, and he was now inhaling 5 liters of it a day instead of water.
He flapped the collar of his sweat-soaked shirt and put a cigarette in his mouth.
Before his eyes, the modern landscape was ablaze with lights.
He saw office workers who had just finished their night shifts rushing to catch the last train, and female college students heading from the library to their nearby studio apartments after finishing their studies.
“I wonder how the twins are doing?”
It was a little disappointing that I hadn’t been able to spend enough time with them before being separated by Count Jemena’s interference.
About four months had passed since I came here, so I would have to repeat this about 15 times to see the twins again.
At first, they were nothing but fierce rascals, but I had grown quite fond of them.
They were basically kind-hearted, and above all, they had a cute, bubbly charm.
Even compared to the present world, there were only a handful of people I had become so close to.
I had also made a detailed list of restaurants to take the twins to when they officially inherited their marks and left the game.
There were plenty of dessert shops near here that they would like.
It was a little ironic.
I used to look out at the vast meadows and imagine this scene, but now I was sitting in that landscape, longing for the relationships I had made in Gehenna.
“Again…”
When I thought about various things, many things came to mind.
I also thought of Yebin, who had given me a sticky sexual encounter with her sexy body and aggressive appeal right before I returned to the present world…
Now that I thought about it, she seemed like a really good woman.
She was going to open a clinic for the citizens of Gehenna.
What witch would think of such a thing?
I also kind of missed Takasho.
If Takasho’s adaptability was anything like a cockroach, he would be doing well no matter where he was.
I didn’t know what the time difference was, but if the time was the same as here, he would probably be having a good time in a witch’s bedchamber right now.
Siwoo, who had thrown the empty cola can into the trash can far away, suddenly faced the memory of one person he had been suppressing.
Amelia Marigold.
Even thinking about her now, she was a real head-scratcher.
When I was captured by a slave trader and became the caretaker of Trinity Academy, she came to me out of the blue and told me to serve her at night.
When a flustered Siwoo refused, she threw a tantrum and harassed me.
The most ridiculous thing was when she ordered me to catch a deer in the deer forest south of the academy.
I couldn’t openly use magic, and all I had was a shovel.
In the end, I spent the whole day chasing after the deer that were leisurely running away, grinding my teeth.
If Sophia hadn’t heard about the situation and caught a deer for me, I probably would have been further harassed by Amelia.
After that, I went through various things for five years, and Amelia gradually changed.
The most dramatic change was when Siwoo was half-dead by Ea Sadalmelik and returned to his childhood.
She treated Siwoo, who had no memory, kindly, as if he were her apprentice witch.
They watched the stars together, drew pictures, and swam.
They spent their days together, making happy memories in the cabin in the Gulpina tree forest.
And the moment Siwoo’s memories fully returned.
Those memories shattered into sharp fragments.
Fragments of betrayal and a love-hate relationship.
There was one thing that Siwoo could not forgive.
Her audacity in asking if I could not forgive her even after regaining my memories.
Of course, I knew.
From Siwoo’s sense of time, it was natural since they had been together since childhood.
That Amelia, who had seemed so aloof and picky, was actually a very clumsy person.
That she didn’t say those things to play with Siwoo, who didn’t know anything.
But there was a gap between what I understood with my reason and my emotions.
Hesitating, not knowing how to face her, I left a note and said goodbye.
She probably read it by now.
I thought it was up to her how she would take that note.
“That’s why I hate it.”
Siwoo stopped thinking.
Whenever I thought of Amelia, my mind became restless.
Seeing all sorts of thoughts running through my head, I guess I really missed people.
-Tap tap tap
I felt a moist sensation on my head and looked up to see raindrops falling on my cheek.
“Ah, I didn’t bring an umbrella.”
I thought the wind was unusual, and it seemed like it was starting to rain.
The gray sky, which had initially sprinkled a few thick drops, soon began to pour down rain as if it were crying.
“So emotional.”
How long has it been since I had a conversation with someone other than myself when I was calculating or ordering?
I felt a little lonely.
People hurriedly taking out their umbrellas, people waiting for the rain to pass under the eaves of stores.
They all had places to go.
Siwoo was in an awkward position right now.
The awkwardness of not belonging anywhere began to be perceived as discomfort.
“Huh?”
Siwoo’s eyes, which had been looking at the sky, caught a distortion.
The Sinchon Gyeongui Line train station, located across the rotary.
Next to it was a five-story station building connected to the train station.
It seemed like a prime location, but the vacancy rate was so high that it had become like an abandoned building, except for the movie theater on the top floor.
It was a building that I had visited several times because it felt like a homunculus would be lurking there.
I saw a black shadow crawling up the outer wall of the station and going over to the roof.
Siwoo jumped up from his seat.
I found it.
I immediately started running.
It was a place with many eyes, so I didn’t use magic, but I sprinted towards the station.
I passed through the containers placed at the entrance for demonstrations and quickly ran up the emergency stairs.
From here, I didn’t need to worry about other people’s eyes.
I actively used the water lizard’s gait to almost fly up to the roof.
As I got closer, I entered a semi-transparent barrier, and the noise of the city that had been coming through the open stairwell window disappeared.
From here on, it was the area of the otherworld barrier that the homunculus naturally generated.
“Bloom.”
At the same time as Siwoo’s incantation, the shadow armor that extended from his back wrapped around his body like a snake.
I had done it a few times, so it was much more natural than before.
I grabbed the roof handle with my clanking gauntlet.
It seemed to be locked, judging by the fact that it wouldn’t turn, but that wasn’t a problem.
If Siwoo borrowed a little of the armor’s power, he could tear through a steel door of this thickness like cardboard and go out to the roof.
The real problem was something else.
Was this homunculus powerful enough for Siwoo to catch and kill?
I had volunteered to be a vigilante because I didn’t want innocent citizens to lose their lives, but had I been prepared to die? I wasn’t sure.
-Click!
“If things get hairy, I can just run.”
Nevertheless, Siwoo twisted open the locked door.
The door opened with the satisfying sound of the lock being smashed.
The structure of the roof wasn’t anything special.
I could see a circle that wrapped around the entire station.
The circle was spreading out from the homunculus that was making a fuss on the roof.
“Krr…grr…grr…”
The homunculus, groaning like a dog that needed to poop and licking its body repeatedly, looked very familiar.
It was the same monster I had seen on the promenade in the public park last time.
It had the appearance of a large hunting dog.
It was so black that even the texture of its skin, which looked like it was made of sticky mud, was exactly the same.
I had definitely killed that one last time?
I had even confirmed that it had disappeared, leaving only a core behind.
I had thought that all homunculi had different forms, but was that wrong?
Siwoo was flustered, but he firmly equipped himself.
It was the same combination as before: full body armor, helmet, shield, and longsword.
If it was a similar opponent to last time, there was no need for me to run away first.
I just needed to stay calm and deal with it.
Siwoo slowly approached.
But even after walking for a while, the homunculus didn’t attack him. It was just busy licking its body.
When the distance between Siwoo and the homunculus narrowed to about 5 meters, Siwoo finally saw it.
The homunculus’s side was split open.
A tar-like fluid was gushing out of the gap, making the floor sticky.
Moreover, it was just growling and staying still even when I got closer, so it seemed like it was already half-dead.
Of course, I didn’t feel any pity.
I was just wondering if this was a trap.
Then, a sharp voice came from behind.
“Hey! I don’t know where you crawled out from, but that’s mine!”
It was a very high-pitched and irritable woman’s voice.
