City ​​of Witches 286

Chapter 286 – #63_Interlude(8)

#284

1.
Amelia Merrygold was gazing at a scene from her dream.
It was blurry, like an old, dusty photo album, but it was a truly precious memory.

In fact, considering her long life, it might not be a memory that feels so distant simply in terms of time.
However, the reason why a series of harmonious scenes felt so far away, even in her dreams, was because they were precious moments that Amelia could never return to.

One day, when young Siwoo said he wanted to eat kimchi stew, Amelia rolled up her sleeves and took on the challenge of a new dish.
Cabbage, ginger, chili powder, salted seafood…
In Gehenna, where Western cuisine was preferred, these were all unfamiliar ingredients, so Amelia had to go all the way to the contact point in the border town to shop for them.

However, she didn’t feel annoyed or reluctant.
Amelia already had a history of holding Siwoo back from returning to his hometown.
If he missed the food from his hometown, she wanted to at least make that for him properly.

She had prepared a lot of ingredients, but Siwoo himself didn’t know the exact recipe.
In the end, when she threw all the prepared ingredients into a huge pot and boiled them, it turned into something of an unidentifiable nature with a taste that was hard to describe.

‘I’m sorry. I wanted to make it more delicious.’

Amelia, who had taken the first spoonful, immediately put down her utensils and apologized to Siwoo.
The bizarre soup, which was sickeningly sweet and spicy, yet had a subtle fishy smell of salted seafood, was something she could not consider a success.

‘No, it’s really delicious? It tastes just like what I used to eat at home.’

However, Siwoo kept praising it as delicious and finished the food, which was enough for at least three servings, completely.
Including Amelia’s portion.

‘Is that… so…?’

At that moment, Amelia felt relieved.
Siwoo’s actions, attitude, and expression seemed to indicate that the kimchi stew was surprisingly successful.
She thought it was just that the strong, earthy flavor didn’t suit her taste.

But now she could tell.
Through his eyes, gaze, and expression in the memories she had looked back on countless times.

That bizarre taste was not something that would be a matter of preference due to cultural differences.
It probably didn’t suit Siwoo’s taste either.

Nevertheless, Siwoo had finished the terrible dish cleanly for Amelia, who had worked hard to prepare it.
And he even complimented it as very delicious.

2.
The wind blew.
The desert night was cold.
The heat of the desert, which had been as hot as a furnace during the day, cooled down when the sun set.
Fine grains of sand mixed with the wind and brushed against Amelia’s cheeks as she closed her eyes and curled up.

“Umm… umm…”

Her long eyelashes fluttered, and her piercingly beautiful sky-blue eyes gently appeared.
Her dazed gaze regained its focus after a few blinks.

Amelia looked around in vain.
But as always, a dream was just a dream.
What she saw around her was not the harmonious cabin, but the desolate desert.
The fine white sand reflecting the moonlight shone fleetingly in the dry darkness, as if it had embraced the night sky.

Amelia wandered through the remote areas of the present world, carrying the Keter Duke’s hit list.
After hunting down four homunculi, traveling all over the Arctic.
She had moved to the desolate desert in Africa and continued her subjugation at a terrifying pace.

Without eating or drinking anything.
Without resting.
As if she couldn’t bear it unless she was engrossed in something, she only looked at hunting and went straight ahead.
Then, when she was exhausted and collapsed, she would often fall asleep on the road, repeating this kind of life.

It was no longer in the realm of what could be called ‘hunting.’
Like a monk who chose to suffer to atone for his original sin, Amelia was also walking on a thorny path herself.
It was a re-experience of when she had tried to bury her grief by burying herself in thick magical research materials when her teacher had passed away.

This time was the same.
Amelia, who had just finished off a homunculus that was said to live in the Sahara Desert, fell asleep as soon as the battle was over.
The durability and efficiency of her spirit body were very high, but not infinite.

Burden and fatigue were steadily accumulating in Amelia’s body, and this time it acted as a major setback.
The giant scorpion-shaped homunculus had also left a clear injury on Amelia’s body.

“Ugh…!”

Amelia frowned at the pain she felt in her left arm as she tried to get up.
Her reason, awakened from a vain dream, slowly reflected on the current situation.

“……”

Amelia looked down at her left arm, where she felt the pain.
Her white skin was torn as if it had been scratched with a box cutter.
It wasn’t the first time she had been injured.
But it was the first time she had suffered such a big wound since she was born.

There was no additional bleeding due to the hemostasis caused by autonomous defense.
However, the wound was so deep that the skin, as well as the muscles and white bones that had been cut away, were visible.

“It hurts…”

Amelia muttered quietly, staring blankly at the wound that seemed like it belonged to someone else.
Her voice was rougher than the desert wind.

At the same time, a meaningless fantasy, like the dream she had just had, came to mind.

What would Siwoo think if he saw this?
If he saw her struggling and suffering like this, wouldn’t he think she was a little pitiful?
Wouldn’t he look at her with eyes of pity and sympathy?

Amelia stopped thinking.
It would only be more painful to think about it any further.
Instead, she calmly submerged her mind, which had become as chaotic as muddy water.

For Amelia now, complex thoughts were a luxury.
There was still a lot of work left to do.
Amelia, who had unconsciously repeated another escape as a habit, raised her magic power.

A moment ago, she was in a state of exhaustion and could not heal her wounds, but she could not leave them as they were.
As if slowly rewinding, the terrible wound healed, and she took out the hit list.

A book as thick as Amelia’s duty.
She mechanically postponed her thoughts and prepared for the ‘next’ one.

-Flap!

Each of the homunculi she had faced so far had been a formidable and difficult opponent.
Practical experience was something that could never be ignored, so it was even more difficult for Amelia, who had devoted her entire life to research.
It was common to get injured, and there were even close calls where she could have lost her life if she had made a slight mistake.

However, she had never felt her heart drop as much as she did now when she opened the hit list.
Because what was written on it was not a homunculus, but a ‘witch’.

3.
“Stop! I give up…!”

After killing the ‘black scorpion’ that roamed the desert.
Amelia was able to easily find her first target.

If she deployed too much magic power, the opponent would hide.
Therefore, she maintained a wavelength of about 16 to 17 levels and disguised herself as ‘easy prey’ to lure out the enemy.
It was the wisdom as a hunter that Amelia had accumulated through her recent hunting experiences.

The effect was excellent.

As she was wandering around in the middle of the desert, disguising the concentration of her magic power, her prey readily launched a preemptive attack.

A target of the 20th level.
The ‘Witch of the Scorching Sands’ who used sand to cast tricky magic.

Her resistance was not easy.
She used sand like her limbs within a few kilometers in all directions, and she tried to swallow Amelia using an amount of sand that was meaningless to count.

The sand, compressed to the highest hardness, rushed towards Amelia like tentacles.
The huge pile of earth and sand, floating like a legendary island in the sky, tried to crush her with murderous intent.

Amelia was not in perfect condition.
Due to various injuries and overwork, fatigue was still accumulating in her body, and the magic power in her brand was not fully charged due to excessive consecutive battles.

However, the difference of 3 levels was powerful enough to nullify all those handicaps.
Even though Amelia had broken through the wall of the 23rd level, she had not completely internalized it.
It only took 3 minutes to start the battle in earnest and neutralize the Witch of the Scorching Sands.

The result was a target rolling on the sand pile with serious injuries and Amelia looking down at her.

Magic particles that responded to Amelia’s will were shining around her.
The particles encompassed Amelia and the Witch of the Scorching Sands, as well as a radius of several hundred meters.

“I’ll surrender! Please, just let me go once. I didn’t recognize you!”
“……”

The Witch of the Scorching Sands, who had finally realized her complete defeat, declared her surrender.
The hit list stated all the evil deeds of this target.
She was an evildoer who had a history of killing apprentice witches in the past, as well as attacking humans and killing other witches.

“Please… I’ll live quietly and kindly from now on. I’ll never cause any trouble. I’ll properly compensate for the attacks!”

Even though she had launched a preemptive attack.
If Amelia had been a weak witch as she had judged, she would have brazenly devoured her.
But when death was right in front of her, the Witch of the Scorching Sands begged for her life.

If she flicked her finger once, that mouth, which was begging for her life while bleeding, would never move again.
The light would disappear from the eyes that were glancing around, showing the whites of her eyes.
That body, which was trying to cling to Amelia’s skirt if given the chance, would also return to sand.

The opponent was not an innocent life.
She was a ‘target’ that was more evil and full of madness than anything else.

However, it was difficult not to feel any stress when harming another intelligent being.
The burden of fratricide and the moral and ethical aversion existed even for most arrogant witches.
Amelia was the same.

“Please… just save me once. If I die, the brand will disappear… At least let me take in an apprentice witch to complete the magic… Then I’ll die willingly…”

The Witch of the Scorching Sands, noticing that the terrifying witch who had suddenly appeared was hesitating, began to beg even more desperately.
Amelia bit her lip, unable to do anything.

Amelia had already experienced killing before.
It was when she had turned Ea Sadalmelik into a pile of wildflowers.

However, at that time, her emotions were at their peak because she had lost Siwoo in front of her eyes.
Her hostility towards the Witch of Aquarius was overflowing.
She had neither the time nor the energy to leisurely discuss her conscience.

But…
This witch was different.

An opponent who realized that resistance was futile and was begging.
Killing an opponent who could not harm Amelia was more like an execution than the execution of justice.

Was that really the case?
If she lived quietly in the future, would there be any need to kill her?
If she passed on the brand to an apprentice witch, wouldn’t it be the same as killing her?
A simpler and softer middle ground was shimmering in front of her, before a difficult decision.

She didn’t want to kill her.
If killing a target was justice, she wanted to leave such execution of justice to someone else.

Conflict and agony led to carelessness.
The Witch of the Scorching Sands’ hand wrapped around Amelia’s ankle, who had never intended to allow any distance.

-Thwack!

Amelia, who had been blankly frozen, was startled and flicked her fingertips.
It was because she had accepted the sudden contact as an attack or a counterattack.

“Pleas…”

That was the end of the situation.
The seeds of magic power that had already penetrated every corner of her body resonated with the waves that Amelia emitted and bloomed all at once.
The seeds that sprouted in an instant devoured all of the spirit body and magic power, using it as nourishment.
Without even having time to leave a final cry, the Witch of the Scorching Sands lost her life.

“Ah…”

Amelia looked at the hand that was wrapped around her ankle.
Perhaps because it was far from the center of her body, the wrist was relatively intact compared to the other parts that had turned into flowers.
Although the flowers that had risen through her skin were plentiful, it seemed like they would fall apart if she turned her eyes away for a moment.

Only after seeing that did she realize.

She had killed her.

She was an opponent that she had to kill.
The Keter Duke had demanded the proxy execution of the hit list in exchange for saving Siwoo.
If the contract was not properly fulfilled, she would take Siwoo’s life again.
The Keter Duke’s actions so far had been cold, fair, and absolute, showing no mercy to anyone.
From the beginning, there was no room for ambiguous compromise.

“Ugh… ugh…! Ugh…!”

Even so.
Tears that she thought she had forgotten a long time ago hit her body along with nausea.

Amelia grabbed the hand that was holding her ankle.
She forcibly tore off the hand that was still not letting go of her.

The sensation remaining on her ankle felt like it was pulling her into an abyss with no bottom.
Amelia vomited on the sand for a while.