City ​​of Witches 580

Chapter 580 – #119_Comedy (2)

#580

1.
Dorothy adapted to the witch society surprisingly quickly.

Money was essential, even for magical research.
She expanded the military business she had inherited from her master.

As humanity progressed, the scale of wars grew, and the unit price of weapons used skyrocketed.
The military business also grew to dozens of times its original size.
Her consistent magical research elevated Dorothy to the lofty rank of 22nd level.

She had the leisure to enjoy a relaxed comfort, free from the feeling of being chased.
Even as the establishment of the Position Points and the pressure and regulations regarding achievements increased, she flexibly navigated the gaps by building some achievements and factions.

Of course, her life was not always smooth.
Sometimes, she was betrayed by witches from the same faction, receiving a stinging blow to the back of her head, and there were times when she had to flee during large-scale purges.

It was only after she realized that the life she had lived was abnormal and, when judged by the standards of good and evil, clearly leaned towards evil.
After rolling around in a world as dark as ink, Dorothy’s body was also covered in black ashes.

She had no regrets or self-pity about it.
She didn’t feel the need to rationalize it either.
If she hadn’t lived this way, she would have died.

That’s right.
Dorothy suddenly realized.

A life covered in ashes.

There was no reason to live.
There was also no reason to die.

2.
“An apprentice witch? You?”
“Yes, this child.”

Dorothy hadn’t lived her entire life as a loner.
There were colleagues she met while calculating gains and losses, but there was also a witch who was quite a decent friend.

Shalitt Nukellavi, an old witch who had lived for 1,000 years and was known as the ‘Unbanished Exile,’ the witch of the deep sea.
There was quite a long and dramatic story behind how they became friends, but there’s no need to explain it in detail.

In the end, it was a cliché story of how their values and personalities matched well.

Dorothy looked at the baby wrapped in a bundle, blinking its eyes.
Was it only five months old?
It was so small that it didn’t even feel like a human.

“Isn’t she cute? She cries so energetically all day long. She’s definitely going to be a strong child.”

She knew that Shalitt had gone deep into the abyss after being attacked by Keter, but she didn’t expect her to bring back an apprentice witch.

Had her heart weakened along with her body?
The usually aloof Shalitt was smiling happily, looking at the baby with loving eyes.

Moreover, she showed no minimum of caution towards Dorothy.

An easy weakness to exploit.

It was truly defenseless.
If Dorothy were to attack now, she could kill Shalitt without any difficulty and seize her mark.

Even though she had no intention of doing so, making such a judgment was like putting on her left shoe first when putting on shoes.
It was a habit she did without any particular thought.

Harmless, innocent, and pure eyes.
The large, navy blue eyes blinked and then smiled at Dorothy.

“I think she likes you.”

Why was it?
Dorothy felt her heart flutter.
Feeling a nervousness she had never experienced before, she quickly turned her gaze to Shalitt.

The place she looked away to wasn’t a comfortable place either.
She saw her friend.
The figure of a friend she thought she would be with for at least hundreds of years to come.

Shalitt, who had become more cynical than Dorothy due to the long years, was smiling as if she was the happiest she had ever been at this moment.

If it were her friend’s happiness, she would have honestly congratulated her.
Was it because her friend, whom she thought would be forever stuck in the same mire, had suddenly left?

Dorothy had no intention of creating an apprentice witch, even if her magical achievements were blocked.

It wasn’t that she had decided ‘I must do this!’ on a specific day or due to a specific event.
It was just a callus that had naturally formed over hundreds of years of living.

Other witches gave meaning to their lives with the five words ‘for the sake of magic,’ but Dorothy was not like that.
She had simply lived, and she knew that it was not easy.

She didn’t want to pass on a life as an achievement to an apprentice witch.

On the other hand, Shalitt, whom she had only thought of as her kin, had found a ‘reason to die.’
And paradoxically, she looked the happiest she had ever seen.

Shalitt had found it, and Dorothy had not.
Wanting to know what that was, Dorothy stayed in Shalitt’s kingdom for quite a while.

The newborn baby grew rapidly day by day.
Dorothy held her in her arms and fed her formula, and she even changed Lelyue’s diapers, who hadn’t yet received her vessel.

Looking back, it was a mess.
The baby was a very troublesome being that wanted 24-hour care.

Even though she was such a strong spirit, she spent her days completely exhausted.
Every time she saw the priestess looking happy.

A warm warmth filled one side of her heart, and an unfillable emptiness filled the other.

In Dorothy’s eyes, Shalitt was only becoming weaker day by day.
She was walking towards death one step at a time, and she was only eating away at her own strength.

Nevertheless, she felt curiosity.
Like a moth drawn to a bonfire, she approached Shalitt and Lelyue, knowing that she would burn if she got too close.

What Dorothy felt as she watched Lelyue, who grew cuter day by day, and Shalitt, who seemed happier day by day, was.

A longing for something she couldn’t have.
A base jealousy and inferiority towards her friend.
And a warmth that she thought she no longer needed.

She felt the deepening swamp of emptiness day by day.
In the end, she couldn’t bear it and ran away, only occasionally visiting the mother and daughter.

3.
One day, Shalitt suddenly disappeared.
She vaguely knew that she would have passed it on.

It was the time when Lelyue had grown enough to receive the inheritance.
She felt a kind of disappointment towards her friend, who hadn’t told her about it and had even changed the location of her workshop, but she understood.

Then, after 10 years, she accidentally reunited with Lelyue.

“Dorothy!!!!”

Lelyue, who had become even more beautiful, welcomed Dorothy and hugged her.
Seeing her cute appearance after a long time, Dorothy naturally smiled and hugged her back.

Afterwards, they sat at the Malt Bar and caught up on their missed conversations.
Many emotions filled her heart.

This must be what it’s like to be a witch who has received proper love.

Lelyue was innocent, cheerful, friendly, and very affectionate.
Her personality, which didn’t know how to doubt others, and her kind nature hadn’t gone anywhere.
She even took a male witch who had killed her familiar into her womb.

For better or for worse.
Everything about her was so different from when Dorothy had first become a witch.
Behind the emotion, worry followed.

Shalitt had left arrangements for her disciple, but the important thing was not ‘trials’ or anything like that.
Even if Lelyue had overcome the trials, with that kind of mindset, she would easily lose her life to an achievement or an exile.

But Lelyue was a full-fledged witch, not an apprentice witch.
It wasn’t Dorothy’s place to interfere.
In the first place, Dorothy didn’t have that kind of cheerful personality.

Therefore, the part that Dorothy was paying close attention to was the male witch that Lelyue had taken as her national consort.
Unless she knew the purpose of him being by Lelyue’s side, he was a clear danger factor.

Like most people who had encountered an achievement, he openly revealed his sharp hostility.

But Dorothy was rather observing Siwoo.
While engaging in his conversation, which was no different from an interrogation, she was indirectly observing his purpose, personality, and nature.

There was no need to observe for long.
He was a stupid man who couldn’t even pretend to hide his true feelings.
He was seriously contemplating things like, ‘Is it right to hate him just because he’s an achievement?’

She became curious.
She found it amusing how he got confused even with the slightest suspicious behavior, so she kept teasing him.

After that, she spent a peaceful vacation without any particular trouble.

Lelyue, who treated Dorothy as a friend without a shred of doubt.
Shin Siwoo, who didn’t hate Dorothy even while being suspicious.

Was it because of the loose flow created by the harmless, innocent, and foolish two people?
Dorothy entrusted herself to a comfort she had never felt before without thinking.

Until she heard these words from Lelyue.

“Isn’t it obvious that you, an achievement, are much more trustworthy than the cowards of Gehenna?”

She didn’t remember exactly how the words came out.
Lelyue, for her part, probably said it with the intention of expressing her unwavering trust in Dorothy.
And it was a switch that awakened Dorothy, who had momentarily forgotten reality and was caught up in the atmosphere.

Lelyue was different from Dorothy.
She trusted others without any precautions, was unbelievably careless, and was also kind.

The problem was that Lelyue felt hostility towards the witches of Gehenna and even a faint sense of kinship towards the exiles and achievements.
Through their conversations, she confirmed that this thought was quite firm and deeply rooted.

She understood that Shalitt had suffered in her later years because of Keter.

But that was as far as she could sympathize.
In Dorothy’s eyes, Lelyue was like a lamb that wanted to be close to wolves.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine that Lelyue, who was born different, would not have a good outcome if she stepped into this world with such a naive mindset.

Dorothy thought.

If Lelyue were to come out into the world as she was.
Could she survive if she lived the rest of her life as an exile?

Dorothy thought.

Lelyue was a full-fledged witch, not an apprentice witch.
It was natural for her to deal with the sparks that fell on her own cloak.
There was no obligation for Dorothy to worry about her future.

Even while thinking that, the reason why she had lingering feelings at the edge of her heart was not because Lelyue was her friend’s disciple.
It was probably because the affection she had honestly shown was too thick to ignore.

Dorothy made a decision.

After all, Lelyue didn’t belong in the achievement society.
She was even more precarious among the exiles.
If it was going to be black, it had to be thoroughly black, down to the last feather.

Just like Dorothy had done in the past, she had no doubt that one bitter experience would make her grow more than a hundred words spoken by her side.