City ​​of Witches 139

Chapter 139 – #30_귀향(2)

#137

1.
My vision wavers slightly.
The magic of the ‘gate’ created by Duke Keter is a magic that has quite a deep connection with Siwoo.
Perhaps that’s why I could feel the familiar flow of mana enveloping my body.
Before I could even focus on whether there was anything to gain, the world had already changed.

My vision brightens intensely, as if a flash of light had gone off in front of me.
Along with a strong surge, I see a clear, bright sky.
High-rise buildings covered in glass stretch out as if a tsunami were approaching.

-Bbaaaang!

The honking and car sounds, echoing off the building walls, are so loud that I wonder, ‘Was it always this noisy?’
Compared to the mostly secluded and quiet Gehenna, the noise of the city is so overwhelming that it feels like being in the middle of a war.

“Ah…..”

Siwoo, who had been standing blankly for a while, took a breath.
Deeply, deeply, even deeper.
He inhaled until his lungs were full.
The tingling, bitter taste that pierced his alveoli.
The scratchy smog that stung his throat, leaving a burning sensation in his nasal cavity.

Siwoo looked around.
The river that bisects the two cities.
The wide bridge that crosses it vertically, and the cars speeding along it.
The building that was once famous as the tallest in Korea, the vast Han River stretching far into the distance, and even the surrounding walking paths all came into view.

The streetlights looked like that, the buildings were this tall, the asphalt changed to this color when wet.
The landscapes that I had only seen in my imagination or in dreams became reality and passed before my eyes.

“I’m, back.”

I’m back.
Back to the mortal world that I thought I might never set foot in again, to Korea, to Seoul, to Han River Park.
I’ve returned.

“I’m back… I’m back…”

My legs gave way.
Siwoo, who had fallen to his knees, sobbed, tears streaming down his face.

This isn’t a dream, is it?
I can’t stay like this.
Siwoo wanted a strong confirmation.

He reached out haphazardly, gathering the weeds and soil around him, and shoved them into his mouth.
The gritty sand and weed roots scratched his mouth, leaving a strong taste of soil and a bitter taste of grass.
It was the taste of home.
This was the taste of Korean soil that he had missed.

“Mom! That guy’s eating dirt!”
“Shhh! Don’t make eye contact!”

Siwoo, unconcerned with the stares around him, remained crouched for a while, his mouth full of dirt and weeds, shedding tears without restraint.

2.
Siwoo stopped by a convenience store near the walking path and bought a 1.5L bottle of Coca-Cola and an African Rulu.
For some reason, they didn’t have Coke in Gehenna, and only a limited number of cigarettes (very old brands) were available, so the opportunity to get his hands on domestic cigarettes, which he had been craving, was rare.

He wandered around the convenience store, which had changed quite a bit, and bought a whole chicken because it looked so delicious.
When he was paying, the convenience store clerk tilted his head as if he was going to examine the rare-looking card, but seeing Siwoo drooling, he quickly finished the transaction and packed the chicken, as if he didn’t want to deal with a crazy person for long.

“They fry chicken at convenience stores these days.”

I was expecting frozen chicken at best, but seeing the crispy batter and smelling the fragrant oil, my heart was pounding.
Siwoo, who had been walking along the polyurethane jogging path, which he hadn’t seen in a long time, sat down on a bench next to the bridge and gulped down the cola.

The tingling carbonation that went down my esophagus.
The best drink that could wash away the lingering dryness in my mouth left by the dirt, something that carbonated water could never imitate.
And it was so well-preserved on the shelf that it was cold enough to make my head tingle.

“Kkeueoeoeok!”

After gulping down almost half the bottle, my throat hurt so much that tears welled up in my eyes.
Without hesitation, I picked up a chicken leg from the paper box and tore into it.

The moment it entered my mouth, the batter crumbled, and the oil that had seeped in burst like water droplets.
The convenience store chicken wasn’t of great quality, but Siwoo didn’t have the capacity to distinguish that.
Before he knew it, he had devoured one chicken leg almost as if he were drinking it, and was reaching for the next one.
If he had been a little careless, he would have chewed the bone whole.

The chicken I used to order for late-night snacks once a week was so delicious, so how would the chicken taste after five years?
Siwoo stuffed the chicken into his mouth until his cheeks were bursting, and when his throat became too dry, he poured cola into his mouth and swallowed it.
After doing that for about five minutes, the packaging that had been full of chicken was empty.

“Wow… fuck, this is sex.”

The sex I’ve had so far wasn’t sex.
Sitting on a bench in the riverside park, with the city built by scientific civilization as a backdrop, watching the river flow serenely while eating chicken and drinking cola.
This is the true meaning of sex.
Siwoo lamented his ignorance of the true meaning of sex.

Because it was early summer, the direct sunlight was hot, but under the shaded bridge, a pleasant breeze was blowing.
Perhaps because I had finished all the cola, I grabbed my bulging belly and leaned back, and for a moment, I had a delusion.

Was everything that happened in Gehenna just a fleeting dream, and was I actually living this life all along?
It was like the day after I was discharged from the military.
Five years felt so long, but as soon as I came out, it felt like something that happened a long time ago, like a fleeting moment.

Siwoo, with the instincts of a smoker, wandered around looking for a smoking area and washed away the oiliness in his throat with the harsh smoke of a cigarette.
If I just smoke one cigarette here….

“Fuck, sex… I love it so much…”

But not everything was the same.
First of all, people’s clothes had changed a little.
Fashion is sensitive to trends, and especially for Koreans, there are trendy fashions that are popular every year.
Everyone was strolling along the riverside, wearing clothes that had changed slightly, as if they were all matching.

And for some reason, the men’s hair was either pompadour or baby perm, as if it was the norm.
The women were all wearing tennis skirts and running along the walking path.

“What the hell is that?”

People were speeding by on strange electric kickboards.
It wasn’t just one or two, but many people were riding the same design of kickboard, so it seemed like they had rented them as a group.

When I first arrived in Gehenna, magic was so amazing.
Now, the buildings stacked dozens of stories high and the cars that slowly passed by, spewing out exhaust fumes, were more amazing.
Seeing this scene, the saying that sufficiently developed science is no different from magic doesn’t seem so wrong.
Siwoo put out his cigarette and came out of the smoking booth.

Yeah.
This is what I wanted.
Ordinary daily life and ordinary scenery.

There were no strange stares because of different skin colors or races, I could just pop into a convenience store and buy cola and other things, and there was no ruling class that wielded bizarre magic and reigned as if it were natural.
It was an extremely ordinary and missed scene.

This was the paradise that Siwoo wanted to experience once again.
I could feel the homesickness that had been drying up my heart being cured in the blink of an eye.

“Now, should I go see Mom and Dad?”

Siwoo adjusted his crooked eyepatch and went up the slope of the riverside to hail a taxi.
Now that I have some money.
I got into a deluxe taxi without worrying about the distance.

“Where to, sir?”

Siwoo, who told the driver his destination to the driver who had a kind smile, as befitting a deluxe taxi, closed his eyes for a moment and rested his head on the seat.

2.
My parents, whom I haven’t seen in a long time.
I felt bad going empty-handed, so I bought a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of soju.
For reference, the bouquet is for Mom, and the soju is for Dad.

If the buildings in Gehenna were antique and luxurious, the modern buildings had a bit of a nouveau riche feel, but they were much cleaner and more familiar.
I opened the revolving door, went up to the second floor, and wrote my name in the register.

“Mom, Dad, I’m back.”

No matter how busy I was, I visited them once every six months, or at least once a year, so this was the first time I had visited after such a long time.

“Did you miss your son a lot? Were you surprised that I suddenly stopped visiting without saying anything? Here, this is the baby’s breath that Mom likes, and this is the red soju that Dad likes.”

Siwoo plopped down in his seat.
Only then did his eyes meet his parents’.
A photo of his parents, smiling brightly, wearing cheap hiking clothes, with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

“Don’t scold me for not coming for so long. It’s been five years, no, almost six years now. I really tried so hard to see Mom’s face.”

Siwoo stared intently at the photo.
His parents’ faces, which he had missed so much, had also faded a little.
Is it because they were exposed to a lot of light?

“Do you know what happened? It’s ridiculous. I don’t think you’d believe me even if I told you. I was kidnapped into a fantasy world and became a witch.”

Siwoo covered his face and gave a bitter laugh, as if he couldn’t believe it himself.
A witch, a fantasy world.
It was something I had taken for granted, but just the fact that the background had changed to the modern world made me feel so out of place.

“I also met a crazy woman who was dying to get her hands on me… well, it turned out she wasn’t such a bad person after all… and I also hung out with cute twin girls. Oh, Dad! And there were good people among the Japanese too. I made a Japanese friend there, and I taught him that Dokdo is Korean territory, did I do well?”

Siwoo opened the cabinet in the charnel house and took out the photo.
It was originally a family photo.
Siwoo’s figure, which should have been between his parents, had disappeared as if it had been photoshopped out.

“Can I take this? Mom and Dad’s picture, I thought I was going to forget your faces without this.”

Suddenly, something hot welled up in his chest.
It was strange.

“Mom and Dad, you remember me, right? You haven’t forgotten me, have you?”

It was ridiculous.
I had never truly believed in the afterlife, but when I saw with my own eyes that all my memories had been erased when the connection was severed, a foolish question popped into my head.

“Oh, right. Would it be better if I explained in a little more detail?”

Siwoo held the photo and began to tell trivial stories.
He knew that if he only talked about how hard he had worked, they would worry, so he mostly talked about the good experiences.

For example, the appearance of Border Town, how beautiful Trinity Academy was, the natural scenery of Gehenna that changed with each season, and the Latifundium of the Image, famous for its magical plant cultivation.

“You really don’t need to go on any trips in the future, you know? Will any ordinary tourist destination catch your eye now? Europe is just crowded with too many tourists, and you have to be careful of pickpockets….”

The time he beat up a monster that used magic, the time he evacuated two people against a terrifying exile, and so on.

“Honestly, I should make a mad movie of that scene and play it at my funeral, right?”

I talked until my throat hurt, without realizing how much time had passed.

“….I’m just telling you not to worry too much. I’m really, doing well. I don’t have to worry about money for the rest of my life now…”

Siwoo dusted off his butt and got up from his seat.
He carefully put the small frame containing his parents’ photo in his arms.
He wiped away the tears that were about to flow.

“Anyway, it was nice to see you after a long time. I’ll go now.”

Siwoo glanced back one last time.

“I’ll come more often from now on. Even if it’s a little boring, you two take care of yourselves.”

2025 days after leaving his hometown.
Siwoo had returned to Korea.