City ​​of Witches 201

Chapter 201 – #44_무신(3)

#199

1.
As soon as Elroa subdued Sharon, she stepped on her wrist, causing her to drop her wand.
She then kicked the fallen wand far away.
Witches who use elemental magic generally cannot use proper magic without a wand.
This was knowledge gained from experience in subduing countless enemies.

“My judgment is this. This man is somehow connected to Eah, and you are a wicked exile who appeared to assist him. What do you say?”

Sharon saw Elroa’s sword, which looked as if it would cut Siwoo’s throat at any moment.
Her mind went blank.
In such a defenseless state, his life would be over with just a downward slash of the sword.
She didn’t even have time to wonder, ‘Would a duchess kill a commoner without any certainty?’
Only the single-minded determination to stop it, to save Siwoo, filled her head.

“No! No! Please stop! Siwoo would never do anything bad… Ugh… sob…!”

Elroa heavily pressed down on Sharon’s neck as she screamed and struggled.
However, simple struggling was not enough to escape the situation where her vital point was seized.
There had to be an overwhelming difference in power or skill, but Sharon was far too weak compared to Elroa.
Even trying to pull off a single finger with both hands, she couldn’t budge it.

“Cough… Keheuk… sob… Don’t… Don’t do it… I’m telling you… I won’t let this go… Siwoo… he almost died because of that Aquarius witch… How can he be an accomplice…”

Sharon, her neck pressed down like a puppy in training, desperately tried to speak.
However, Elroa’s expression was emotionless.
Such words were not enough to break her suspicion.

“Almost died? Someone who almost died at Eah’s hands is using her magic and my apprentice witch’s magic?”
“Absolutely, really not…”
“Have you seen it with your own eyes? Or can you explain what happened at that time?”

With that, Elroa pressed down even harder with her sword.
At that, Sharon reacted almost convulsively, trying to stop Elroa by any means.

“Don’t… Keheuk… Don’t do it…! It’s really not true, you’re misunderstanding something! Please… please don’t kill him…”

Apart from the pain of her unnatural breathing, tears welled up at the thought that Siwoo might die in front of her.
Seeing Sharon’s tears pouring down like a waterfall, Elroa’s grip loosened slightly.
Genuine tears shed for others without any ulterior motive.
Those clear tears, which could not be imagined from an evil person, shook her heart, which had been consumed by poison.

“Please don’t… You’re really misunderstanding… Please… here, take this… Inside… there’s 5.4 billion… It’s all my savings… Please save him… Please listen to me…”

Sharon took her hand off her neck and fumbled in her pocket, pulling out a card.
Elroa recognized it as soon as she saw it.
It was a Witch Bank card used to receive large sums of bounty money from Witch Point.
It contained the account information.
Sharon, crying so hard she could barely see, stammered out disjointed words.

“It’s not… it’s not much… but I’ll give it all to you… Siwoo would never do anything bad… I thought you were a good person, Duchess… You’re thinking wrong right now… You’ll regret it later…”

Sharon’s actions were not rational.
The mere fact that Siwoo was in danger of dying in front of her prevented her from thinking straight.
She had forgotten all better ways of persuasion and rational conversation, and was just saying and doing whatever came to mind.

She had reached the somewhat absurd conclusion that if she offered the most important thing in her life, perhaps it would save Siwoo, so she had to give money.

It was a foolish act.
The very idea that a hundred-year grudge could be stopped with a few coins was irrational.
That made her even more disheartened.

Could someone who had a friend who desperately begged for his life, even in such a state of confusion, really be evil?
Could someone who threw everything away without any calculation to save another’s life really be evil?
Who was the evil one here, right now?

The grip of Tiferet’s hand, which had been holding Sharon in place, loosened.
Everything was confusing.

“……..”
“Tiferet!”

A sharp voice called out to Elroa.
It was a familiar voice.
The person who landed on the rooftop, her black dress fluttering, was Deneb Geminai, and her apprentice witches.

“What are you doing!”

She rarely raised her voice, but she strode towards Elroa.
Her reproachful gaze was sharp.
Elroa did not back down and replied.

“I was interrogating a suspicious person. He is clearly connected to Eah Sadalmelik. He must be involved in this incident.”
“What… Oh my goodness… What is going on?”

Deneb knocked away Elroa’s sword and, as if wedging herself between them, picked up Siwoo, whose face was pale, and held him in her arms.
Outwardly, there were no major injuries, but she could tell from her examination that his insides were a mess.
At the same time, she could tell that this injury was caused by Elroa’s hand.
Deneb immediately used recovery magic and shouted.

“He is a guest of our family! Of course, he has nothing to do with this! He is not the kind of person who would do such a thing!”
“I…”

As Elroa tried to speak with a hesitant voice.

“Assistant!”
“Assistant!”

The twins, who had been clinging to Deneb’s back, quickly jumped down and approached Siwoo.

“Master, is, is the assistant dead? Again… again…”
“Assistant, please open your eyes! Assistant…!”

The twins, not caring that their clothes were getting dirty, ran to Siwoo, crying.
Siwoo, who had collapsed unconscious, covered in blood, with a pale face.
It was a scene that triggered trauma for the twins.
When they had faced Eah, Siwoo had evacuated the twins, and now when they met him again, he was like a half-corpse.
Deneb calmly soothed the twins, who were trembling and anxious as if the sky had fallen.

“It’s okay, kids. Stay still, it’s not a big problem.”
“Are you sure he’s okay? You’re not lying to reassure us, are you?”
“Yes, it’s okay. Trust me.”

Deneb focused on treatment first.
Looking at the affected area, it seemed that Elroa’s palm strike had hit him directly.
She could only say that it was a miracle he was alive.
Odile, who had been anxiously touching Siwoo’s cheek, glared at Elroa with a fierce look.

“Did you do this to him?”
“Odile!”

Before Deneb could stop her, Odile strode towards Elroa.
Since Elroa and the Geminai family had frequent exchanges, Odile also knew that Tiferet was a duchess.
However, as soon as she realized that Elroa was the cause of Siwoo’s condition, she had no time to care about rank or anything else.

“If anything happens to the assistant, I won’t let you get away with it! I’ll make you the same!”

Seeing Odile protesting with tears welling up in her eyes, Elroa froze, dumbfounded.
That momentum and unreserved anger were not just bravado because Deneb was there.
Perhaps this apprentice witch would have reacted the same way even if her master was not by her side.

Elroa herself knew better than anyone what the reaction of someone who had lost, or almost lost, a loved one was like.

“The assistant is involved in this incident? Of course he is! He was trying to handle it alone because he was worried about us!”
“……..”
“He’s also related to the Aquarius witch! Back then, he almost died fighting that bad witch to save us…”
‘……..”
“Who are you, who are you to hurt the assistant… huh? Hic… Hwaaaah…”

Finally, Odile slumped down and burst into tears.
She hadn’t been able to help back then either.
Now, she had arrived late again and saw Siwoo in such a battered state.
She was overflowing with helplessness, resentment, and bitterness.

Watching the crying Odile, Elroa let her sword droop, despondent.

2.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar ceiling.

“What the hell.”

The soft bed and the blanket covering up to his chest were familiar sensations.
Siwoo quickly searched his memory.

Three white knights suddenly appeared, and a witch was chopping them up.
The witch had said something incomprehensible and then thrust a palm strike into Siwoo’s chest.
If the face of Paul Phoenix flashing in his mind before he lost consciousness was anything to go by, his memory was not distorted.

But when he opened his eyes, he was in bed.
What kind of strange turn of events was this?

“Assistant!”
“Brother!”
“Eek!”

The twins suddenly appeared in Siwoo’s bewildered vision.
Odile and Odette, who had almost thrown themselves at Siwoo, rubbed their cheeks against his like puppies welcoming their owner.
Their smooth, soft cheeks rubbed against his, and a pleasant fragrance wafted over him.

“Brother?”

Meanwhile, Odile questioned Odette’s sudden change in address, and Odette answered naturally.

“Yeah, I decided to call him brother.”
“What? Why?”
“Actually, I went for a night walk with the assistant yesterday. While you were sleeping soundly, sis. It was so much fun?”
“What…?”

Odile, who had not noticed anything, opened her mouth wide, and Odette smiled smugly, as if she had scored a point.
Siwoo immediately realized that hiding the address all day was an act of patience for a devastating blow.
Odile turned to Siwoo with a fierce look.
Behind them, Odette’s voice could be heard, saying innocently, ‘Sis, you went out without me too~’.

“Assistant, is that true?”
“Yes, yes, it’s true, but can you please tell me what happened first?”

He had just found out that the twins were occupying both sides of the bed he was lying on.
Before explaining, Odile and Odette suddenly grabbed Siwoo’s cheeks, one on each side.
It was just like when the Geminai counts scolded the twins.
Then, they started stretching his cheeks and getting angry.

“Before that! Explain!”
“That’s right! How can you take everything on yourself again like that!”
“What are we supposed to do if you get seriously hurt again!”
“It was so unfair!”
“It hurts… please let go…”

It was so painful that he almost shed tears.
For a while, the twins vehemently condemned Siwoo for fighting alone, then hugged him tightly.
It was a touch as if they were caressing something precious.

“We’ll get stronger from now on. Strong enough to protect the assistant.”
“That’s right, we’ll get so strong that the assistant will be trembling in our skirts.”
“Please, I beg you.”

To be worried about like this.
His heart was touched, but he also felt like he was being praised for something insignificant, and he wanted to rub his nose.

“Anyway, what happened was…”

The twins took turns explaining the situation.
It was Duchess Tiferet who had attacked Siwoo.
There seemed to be some misunderstanding, and she had mistaken Siwoo for Eah, or someone related to her.
Sharon had arrived first and bought time, and then Deneb had stepped in and persuaded her to correct the misunderstanding.

“I made a big fuss. I said that if anyone bothers the assistant again, I’ll teach them a lesson.”
“Odile did? To Duchess Tiferet?”
“Yeah! Although I would lose if we actually fought, was it because of my charismatic speech? She couldn’t say a word, you know?”
“…She was crying and whining…”
“Odette, shut up!”
“You’re the one who’s lying!”

Odette pouted, muttering as if she didn’t like that her sister was the only one who had been active, and Odile’s face turned red as she got angry.

“Then where are the two of them now?”
“They both went to Witch Point. This incident is such a big deal that they’re busy with the aftermath.”
“What about Sharon?”
“I think she’s in her room right now?”
“Oh, right! You should go see her. She almost got hurt, though not seriously.”
“What?”

Siwoo jumped up from his bed and ran to Sharon’s room.
When he opened the door, he saw Sharon huddled in a corner of the bed.