City ​​of Witches 233

Chapter 233 – #52_Training(3)

#231

1.
Eloa, having closed the rooftop door, hurried home.
Like a patient with an asthma attack searching for their medication, she frantically pulled a bottle of liquor from the cabinet.
With a gulping sound, the 52-proof liquor went down like water.

“Phew…”

It didn’t calm her down, so she splashed cold water on her face in the bathroom.
She washed her face so vigorously that her bangs were soaked, but she still felt dazed.

“What is going on…”

Her head was spinning with bewilderment.
It wasn’t for any other reason.
It was because of the mishap during the last sparring session.

The training and sparring sessions, which lasted 12 hours every day, followed a rather monotonous pattern.
1) Siwoo tries something.
2) Eloa blocks it.
3) She gives feedback on the problems and improvements.
4) She returns to 2) until the pointed-out areas are improved.

The fastest and best way to improve skills was, of course, sparring.
Even if it wasn’t as intense as a real battle, it was still the same in terms of ‘learning how to move the body.’
Moreover, Siwoo didn’t settle for one method and prepared various strategies for each session, making it efficient.

Yesterday, Siwoo, having seen something new, repeatedly attempted takedowns during today’s sparring.
His effort and spirit of challenge were commendable, but they were clumsy attacks that were hard for Eloa to intentionally allow, and she shouldn’t intentionally allow them either.
Giving him the experience of succeeding with such immature attacks could have a negative impact in the future.

Still, if he had prepared so diligently.
She thought it wouldn’t be bad to let him show what he had prepared in the last sparring session.
Seeing his admirable persistence despite falling repeatedly, she decided to let him indulge a little.
Of course, she would have told him afterward that using a submission on a spirit body enhanced with magic was a bad choice.

So, she gave him her back, and the moment Siwoo stuck to her.
Thinking back, she recalled that moment, which wasn’t very long.
It was coincidentally a position like a back hug.

Because of the height difference between the two, Siwoo was able to rest his chin on top of Eloa’s head.
At that time, the hard and stiff part she felt on her back, the part of his body that felt hot even through his clothes, was…

“That was…”

Needless to say, it was a man’s penis.
A man’s penis that was hard with blood rushing to it, just like when she had sex with Sharon.
Moreover, the breathing that tickled her ear felt different from when it was just rough from sparring.
It was more primal, more instinctive, perhaps?
In any case, it was a breathing sound she had never heard or felt before.

“I’m completely out of it…”

Eloa rubbed her back for no reason and shook her head.
Even if Eloa didn’t know much about male-female relationships, she knew ‘when a man gets an erection.’
Wasn’t it an important lesson that couldn’t be missed at Trinity Academy?

It was when they felt sexual excitement.

Of course, erections sometimes occur naturally, and sometimes they suddenly get bigger when you need to pee.
But unfortunately for Siwoo, such precise knowledge was not in Eloa’s head.

“This won’t do.”

Eloa jumped up and took off her clothes.
She couldn’t calm her confused mind like this.
She thought it would be better to take a bath and cleanse her body and mind, so she filled the tub with water and took the liquor in with her.
With a towel wrapped around her head to keep it from getting wet, she pondered in the warm water.

“…Haa…”

A sigh, heavy with the heat of the liquor, rippled the surface of the water.

The time she had spent with him these past few days had brought Eloa an uncharacteristic peace.
She still tossed and turned in nightmares, and sometimes she would clutch her chest and collapse, thinking of Lapi…
But she was changing little by little.

Her daily life, which had been stained only with regret and lamentation, was gradually changing.
Like the frozen ground thawing in the warm spring sun, causing a silent green revolution.

She cried alone less often.
Instead, she smiled more.
She cooked in the kitchen, which she hadn’t stepped into since Lapi left, and she had days where she sat at the table and enjoyed meals together.
Instead of pouring alcohol to forget the pain, she had the leisure to savor the flavor and aroma of the liquor.

She knew why.
Tiferet was projecting Lapi onto Siwoo.
She could return to the days when just thinking about it brought a smile to her face, through him.

When she trained with him, when they ate together, when they shared a drink.
Eloa could forget her suffering.
She felt a great deal of gratitude to Siwoo for that.

They weren’t officially master and disciple yet, but she still thought of him as just a cute disciple.
Conversely, she thought Siwoo would also see Eloa as his master.
But…

“He was thinking of me as a woman…?”

That was something she had never imagined, something that was incredibly surprising.
In the first place, Eloa had no contact with men.
Naturally, she had never seriously considered male-female relationships, nor had she had any other experiences.

Therefore, she felt only bewilderment, not joy, displeasure, or contempt, at the fact that Siwoo was looking at her in that way.
To put it in a metaphor, it was like a strangely shaped golden beetle sticking to her clothes, something she couldn’t shake off, but couldn’t catch either?

No.
The more she tried to use metaphors, the more confused she became.
Eloa took a sip of her drink and continued her thoughts.

“But…”

She knew that Siwoo was sincere, kind, and had a gentle nature.
Therefore, she cared for Siwoo very much, but she had never thought of him as anything more than a disciple.
If Siwoo had feelings of affection for her… she would be grateful for his feelings, but she would have to refuse.

“Wait… come to think of it…”

How to reject him without hurting him.
While Eloa was wondering if it would be better to let it pass naturally as if she hadn’t noticed, just like today, one fact flashed through her mind.

That’s right.
Siwoo was already in a relationship with Sharon!
An advanced problem that suddenly dropped in front of Eloa, who didn’t even have basic knowledge of ‘dating.’
She wasn’t even drunk, but it felt like her vision was spinning.

Eloa counted her fingers one by one and tried to organize her thoughts.

He was already in a relationship with Sharon, and he had such feelings for Eloa?

That wasn’t just a problem that made Eloa feel awkward.
When she took classes from Teacher Sua during her apprenticeship as a witch, she also learned about the proper behavior of men and women.
Even considering that Teacher Sua’s teachings were a bit behind the times, so-called ‘two-timing’ was morally and ethically wrong.

If it was just that, it would be something to scold him sternly and move on, but…
Considering Siwoo’s usual behavior, he wasn’t the kind of frivolous man who would go around flirting with every woman, which made her even more confused.

“This won’t do.”

She couldn’t organize her thoughts on her own.
It wasn’t a problem she could confide in anyone else.

Thus, the conclusion was: let’s just bury it.

Siwoo, who had looked at Eloa with a bewildered expression.
He had an expression that showed he hadn’t expected this situation himself.
Then, it could be interpreted as an impulsive urge…

There was no need to make an issue out of it.
Didn’t they say that men often get caught up in such urges?
Eloa already cared for Siwoo too much to distance herself from him because of such a small incident.

Eloa got out of the tub, dried herself, and changed into her pajamas.
She used magic to clean her hair, which was sure to be covered in dust.
She went to the living room with a full glass of liquor, and things she usually passed by without noticing began to catch her eye.

It must have been because he was worried about Eloa, who was struggling alone.
Siwoo visited Eloa’s house after training, or whenever he thought of her.
He always had something in his hands.
That’s why his traces began to remain throughout the house.
The desolate room had changed to look a bit more like a place where people lived.

The refrigerator was filled with various ingredients for Siwoo to cook for her.
The cabinet, which had been full of only liquor, now had bottles of soy sauce, vinegar, and olive oil.
The bedroom had a fluffy cushion and a stylish mood lamp.
Even the pajamas she was wearing were bought by Siwoo.
She had no intention of hating him for such a small flaw when she was being so well taken care of and worried about.

“It’ll work out.”

Eloa flopped onto the bed.
Let’s pretend nothing happened.
Tomorrow, let’s train as usual and invite Siwoo to cook a meal.
After that, they could have a nice drink and discuss the results of their training.
As soon as that thought was settled, her confused mind calmed down a bit.

“Haaam…”

Eloa yawned softly as she lay on the bed.
The mandatory four hours of sleep per day.
The drowsiness after the bath, the alcohol, and the fluffy cushion that Siwoo had bought made her feel sleepy.

No matter how much she had relieved her mind, this time was a time of fear and dread for her.
It was the moment when she had to forcibly look through the memoir that recorded Tiferet’s mistakes.

Her consciousness, as if being sucked into a quagmire, was cut off…
And then it continued again.

Eloa carefully, very carefully, opened her eyes.
She trembled with fear, wondering what kind of past she would be looking back on today.

“……?”

Eloa blinked her eyes.
The place was Eloa’s room.
It was obvious, but this was not a place filled with memories of Lapi.
Therefore, it was not a place that would appear in her dreams.
It felt like she had only closed her eyes for a moment, but the sky outside the window was already a clear blue.

“No dream at all…”

She hadn’t had one.
The nightmare that had tormented Eloa every day, the one that made her fear the moment night came, hadn’t appeared.
Eloa sat up and looked around with dazed eyes.

-Click!

At that moment, the door opened.
A person emerged from the dark shadows.
It was Siwoo.

“You? What brings you here?”

Siwoo always visited Eloa around lunchtime.
It was the early hours of the morning, before the sun had even risen.
Eloa looked at Siwoo with puzzled eyes and adjusted the collar of her pajamas, which had been disheveled in her sleep.

“I came because I wanted to see my master.”
“Master…?”

Siwoo had never called Eloa master.
Instead, he called her Duchess.
Eloa hadn’t instructed him to do so, but it was probably because he understood her grief over losing Lapi.
Therefore, the sudden change in title was questionable, along with his visit in the middle of the night.

“You’re here, and I’ve already slept, so there’s no reason you can’t be. Would you like a drink?”
“That sounds good.”

Siwoo said, staring intently at Eloa’s face.
It was a very resonant, relaxed voice.
Eloa, feeling hesitant at the atmosphere, which was different from usual, watched as Siwoo slowly approached the bed where she was sitting.

“It feels different seeing you like this. You always wear workout clothes.”
“Isn’t this what you bought me? It’s very comfortable, so I’m using it often. Would you wait outside for a moment? I’d like to change my clothes.”

No matter what, she couldn’t greet a guest in her pajamas.
Eloa was about to get up to tidy her clothes when Siwoo’s next words stopped her in her tracks.

“You are beautiful.”
“Wh-what?”
“You are beautiful. More than any other witch I have ever met in my life.”

Eloa’s pupils began to shake uncontrollably.