Chapter 118 – #26_A Cozy Day (3)
#116
1.
When Siwoo woke up, Amelia was busily packing.
Three large travel trunks.
Amelia was filling them with necessary items.
Enough supplies to last about a week per trunk, meaning there were enough daily necessities to live outside for a good three weeks.
Siwoo rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked,
“What’s all this?”
“There’s a place I want to go with you, Siwoo. Shall we pack your things?”
“Yes.”
Siwoo didn’t know what was going on, but he took the small travel bag Amelia handed him and went into his room.
He packed a few sets of clothes (that Amelia had bought him), pajamas, and some paper and pens.
When he came down the stairs to the second floor, Amelia was waiting in the lobby with her bags.
“Did you pack everything? What about your toothbrush?”
“I put it in.”
“You don’t need towels or anything. I packed them.”
“Yes, yes, you told me.”
Siwoo quickly went down the stairs and stood next to Amelia.
Based on what Siwoo had experienced so far, the city of Gehenna was incredibly beautiful.
Whether it was going for a short walk with Amelia, or occasionally looking around Lenomond Town or Ars Magna Town.
There were only places that were so pretty they made your eyes widen.
Therefore, Amelia’s preparations, which looked like they were for an immediate trip, excited Siwoo.
Wherever they were going, it meant they were going to a pretty place, right?
“Where are we going?”
“To the cabin I used to live in.”
“Is it camping?”
“You could say it’s similar.”
Amelia naturally stroked Siwoo’s head, and Siwoo accepted her hand.
Siwoo had never seen Amelia smile before.
However, he already knew that she was a warm person inside, despite her bluntness, so he didn’t feel any resistance to it.
“Let’s go.”
Amelia and Siwoo put their luggage in the back of the carriage waiting in the garden and got into the carriage together.
As Amelia waved her hand from the carriage with its plush cushions and beautiful interior decorations, the carriage began to rumble.
“It feels like riding an airplane. With luggage and all.”
Siwoo smiled brightly and said to Amelia.
“Airplane? Ah, an airplane.”
Amelia tilted her head at the unfamiliar word, then nodded.
The fastest means of transportation among the common carriages that existed in the modern world.
She had heard it was a metal thing that flew in the sky.
“Have you ever ridden one?”
“Yes, I was so scared the first time I rode one. That was probably when I was seventeen… wait?”
Siwoo was talking while searching his memories, but then he stopped.
No matter how you looked at it, Siwoo’s current appearance was that of a young boy.
Seventeen wasn’t that old, but his appearance was that of someone who hadn’t even reached puberty.
Amelia’s expression darkened for a moment.
Every single one of his small actions.
Every time a clue that seemed like he was regaining his memories popped up, Amelia couldn’t help but be reminded.
That all this happiness and peace was a lie.
Amelia opened her tightly closed lips and barely managed to comfort Siwoo.
“Your memories must be getting confused.”
“I guess so. My head feels a little sore too.”
“Do you want to lie down for a bit?”
“Yes, I think I should…”
Amelia’s carriage, provided by Sophia, didn’t have any space-bending magic on it.
That was a luxury only a Count Jemina, who could live comfortably for 30 years even if he went bankrupt, could afford.
Still, there was enough space for Siwoo to stretch out and lie down.
Then Amelia got up from her seat and came over to Siwoo.
“Huh?”
“Put your head here.”
Amelia smoothed out the skirt of her water-colored dress and then patted her thigh.
Siwoo was flustered.
“Ah, no! It’s okay. I’m fine like this.”
“Your head must be uncomfortable.”
“You’ll be uncomfortable, Amelia…”
“It’s okay.”
After a few back-and-forths, Siwoo eventually followed Amelia’s words.
It was also true that her soft thigh was more appealing than lying his head on the bumpy seat.
“Thank you. I feel kind of sorry.”
“You don’t have to be.”
Amelia’s soft yet firm thigh could be felt on the back of his head.
As he looked up, he could see Amelia’s beauty, which didn’t fade even when viewed from below, from under her chin.
He could also see her plump breasts.
“It’ll take a while, so it’s okay to close your eyes for a bit.”
Amelia said as she calmly stroked Siwoo’s hair.
The gentle vibrations, the comfortable thigh pillow, and the slender hand stroking his hair were more effective than any sleeping pill.
While the carriage diligently traveled along the quiet path winding through the blue barley fields, Siwoo fell asleep before he knew it.
2.
Even though they had left early in the morning, it was well past lunchtime when Amelia and Siwoo arrived at the birch forest.
Amelia, who had woken Siwoo by tapping his shoulder, took her luggage and stepped onto the forest path.
“Wow… it’s pretty.”
As there was no indiscriminate development, Gehenna had well-preserved nature.
Moreover, this birch forest was an uninhabited area between Lenomond Town and Taro Town, not belonging to any town.
The birch trees, which had hardly been touched by human hands, were all tall.
“Right?”
At Siwoo’s exclamation, Amelia shrugged her shoulders as if she had been praised for a precious treasure, and then moved her steps between the gray-brown tree trunks.
Whenever a breeze blew, the pointed, round leaves fluttered as if they were breathing.
Walking along the untrodden mountain path, you would come across an open space about 30 meters in diameter.
The inside of the birch forest was shaded by lush leaves, so it didn’t get much sunlight, but this place was different.
Perhaps because it always received a lot of sunlight, the grassy ground was covered with beautiful wildflowers and field flowers.
A cluster of nameless wildflowers, and in the middle of that modest and beautiful carpet, a small log cabin floated.
A cute little cabin standing under the refreshing sunlight, and a small annex next to it.
In Amelia’s life, happiness meant the days in this small cabin.
If the time she had left with him was limited anyway, she had a small desire to spend it here.
“Let’s unpack.”
“Yes!”
In fact, compared to Amelia’s mansion, which was so luxurious it was almost shameful to call it a lodging, or the buildings he had seen so far, it was a very shabby and unremarkable building.
Still, the log cabin in the middle of the forest had something that stimulated the boy’s romanticism.
Perhaps that was why Siwoo was also excited and went inside the house.
It was cozy.
It was small and cute enough that if two people lived there, they wouldn’t be out of each other’s sight.
“Is it okay?”
“Yes! It’s really nice!”
Siwoo looked around here and there, examining the house.
There was a small cupboard, and a rocking chair in front of the fireplace.
Despite the fact that no one had been there for a long time, it was very neat and clean.
“There’s a bedroom on the second floor. Do you want to take a look?”
“There’s a second floor too?”
“Follow me.”
Seeing Siwoo happy made Amelia feel good too.
Perhaps it was because he seemed to like the place she cherished.
Amelia took Siwoo’s hand and went up the stairs.
Due to the nature of a cabin, it was difficult to build it large and wide.
So, there were only two very small rooms on the second floor.
“This was my teacher’s room, and this was my room.”
Amelia entered the room she had used during her apprenticeship as a witch.
Because it was right under the roof, the ceiling was slanted.
A beautiful birch forest was framed like a picture in the small south-facing window, and below it was a small bed that seemed like it could barely fit one person.
A small desk and chair with nothing on them filled the corner of the room, and other miscellaneous items were piled under the bed in small boxes.
“Siwoo can use this room. It’s a bit small, but it’ll be clean.”
“Do you clean it regularly?”
“Yes.”
Siwoo, looking as excited as a child who had discovered a secret base, unpacked his things in the room.
He hung his clothes in the closet and put his paper and books on the table, and that was the end of unpacking.
“My room is right across from yours. Will you help me unpack?”
“Yes! I’ll help you!”
Siwoo, who had answered energetically, carried the suitcase from the first floor and returned to the second floor room with Amelia.
Amelia’s room and the room of the previous Merrygold were symmetrical, but this one was a bit larger and the bed was bigger.
Siwoo and Amelia opened the suitcase and took out the items one by one.
It was a really trivial and uneventful thing, but Amelia felt a sense of peace.
Until she found her underwear in Siwoo’s hands.
“Ah…”
“Uh…”
And the unfortunate fact.
Sophia’s advice, which had started sometime ago.
According to Sophia’s almost brainwashing education that a true adult should wear adult underwear, most of Amelia’s panties and bras were lingerie.
Underwear that half-exposed her breasts, or where her buttocks were completely visible, or where the straps were almost non-existent.
Amelia, who had temporarily forgotten that fact in her joy and excitement, realized it with a start.
Siwoo’s uneasy gaze and Amelia watching it.
Amelia, realizing that his glancing gaze was going back and forth between her chest, lower body, and underwear, felt a strange sense of embarrassment.
She felt her face heat up a little.
But she had to act calmly.
Showing signs of panic in this situation would only make both Siwoo and Amelia uncomfortable.
Besides, what was she embarrassed about with Siwoo in that state?
Even if other witches saw her in her underwear, Amelia was confident that she wouldn’t care at all.
So, she had to be calm and composed this time too…
“Th-that…! I’ll organize that separately.”
…Amelia, who was about to speak, bit her tongue.
And she didn’t realize it at all, but she was acting very flustered.
“Yes…”
Siwoo, his face also red, quietly handed the lingerie to Amelia.
-Rustle rustle
For a while, only a very awkward atmosphere flowed between the two.
3.
After finishing a short lunch with sandwiches, the two went out to the open space in front of the cabin together.
It was Siwoo who had first suggested it, as he had noticed the wildflowers blooming around them.
“My mom taught me a long time ago. You gather clover like this and then make a headband…”
Amelia sat on the clover and watched Siwoo diligently making something.
He gathered the long stems of the clover and tied knots.
When you tied and tied the stems, which were about a span and a half long, you would get something like a round headband about the thickness of a pinky finger, and Siwoo would pluck and insert a wildflower into each gap.
“If you decorate it with flowers like this, it becomes a pretty flower crown. Isn’t it cool?”
Pink, green, purple, orange, navy, red.
A simple crown was completed, with colorful flowers tucked in between the white clover flowers.
“Originally, I could make it bigger… but it’s been a while, so it’s not working out well. And there aren’t many long flower stems…”
“It’s really pretty. You’re good with your hands, Siwoo.”
In fact, it was hard to say that he had made it well.
The headband was crooked, and some of the flower stems were broken here and there because he had tied the knots too tightly.
If Amelia, who had watched from the side and learned the method, were to follow, she would be able to make a much more elaborate and aesthetic flower crown.
Still, she praised him.
Because it was cute.
Siwoo, who had hesitated for a moment, then held it out.
“I’ll give it to you, Amelia.”
“To me?”
Amelia’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit.
It was the first time she had received something from Siwoo.
Siwoo, as if embarrassed, avoided Amelia’s gaze and said,
“Thank you for always taking care of me and treating me so well. I wanted to give you something like this.”
“……….”
Amelia felt tears welling up in her eyes.
Why?
It was an emotion too complex to list in a single word or sentence.
Amelia deferred the answer to that question.
“Siwoo… will you put it on me?”
“Yes!”
Amelia lowered her head slightly.
When she felt something gently placed on her head, Amelia raised her head.
“Ah…”
And what Siwoo saw was.
Amelia, wearing a flower crown, with tears welling up in her eyes,
Smiling more brightly than the wildflowers.
“Thank you, Siwoo.”
The expression on Amelia’s face that Siwoo was facing,
Was the first smile she had regained since her teacher had passed away.
