City Of Witches 286

Chapter 286 – #63_Interlude (8)

#284

One.
Amelia Marigold was looking at the landscape of her dreams.
It was blurry like an old album with dust on it, but it was a really precious memory.

In fact, given her long life, she may not be a memory that would seem far away simply in terms of time.
However, a series of harmonious scenery can be felt far away even in a dream.
It must be because it is a precious moment for Amelia that she will never get back.

One day, when her young Siu said she wanted to eat steamed kimchi, Amelia rolled up her sleeves and tried a new dish.
Cabbage, ginger, red pepper powder, salted fish….
Since it was an unfamiliar ingredient in Gehenna, where Western diets are preferred, Amelia had to go to Border Town’s junction to see her intestines.

But she didn’t feel bothered or unwilling.
Even so, Amelia has a history of holding Siu from returning to her hometown.
If he missed the food of his hometown, I wanted to make it right at least.

Although he had prepared a lot of ingredients, Siwoo did not know the exact recipe.
In the end, when the prepared ingredients were put in a huge pot and boiled thoroughly, the taste became something unknown that is difficult to describe.

‘Sorry. I wanted to make it even more delicious.’

After her first drink, Amelia immediately put down her tableware and apologized to Siu.
It was because the strange soup, which was unpleasantly sweet and spicy, and yet had a subtle fishy smell of salted fish, could not be considered a success.

‘No, it’s very delicious, isn’t it? It’s just like the one I ate at home.’

However, Siwoo emptied the food, which was good enough for three people, with a series of compliments saying that it was delicious.
Everything, even Amelia’s share.

‘Then… Go… ?’

Then Amelia was relieved.
Siwoo’s behavior, attitude, and facial expression seemed to imply that the kimchi stew was a success.
I thought it was just that it didn’t suit my taste because it had such a strong indigenous scent.

But now I knew.
Through his eyes, gaze, expression, etc. In the memory of looking into it over and over again.

The bizarre taste was not at the level of liking or disliking due to cultural differences.
It probably wasn’t even to Siwoo’s taste.

Nevertheless, Siwoo cleanly emptied the poor dishes for Amelia, who prepared diligently.
It goes without saying that it is also very delicious.

2.
The wind rose.
The desert night is cold.
Even the heat of the desert, which was heated like a furnace during the day, cools down when the sun goes down.
Fine grains of sand mingled in the wind and brushed Amelia’s cheeks as she curled up with her eyes closed.

“Um… Well….”

The long eyelashes trembled, and then the beautiful sky-blue eyes suddenly appeared.
The dazed eyes regained their wits for a few blinks.

Amelia looked around in vain.
But, as always, dreams are just dreams.
What you see around you is not a cozy cabin, but a desolate stretch of desert.
The fine white sand reflecting the moonlight shined fleetingly in the dry darkness as if it were embracing the night sky.

Amelia wandered the remote hinterland of her world with Duke Kether’s killing club.
After she roamed the North Pole without missing a beat and hunted 4 homunculus.
She moved to the vast desert of the African continent and continued her subjugation at a terrifying speed.

Without eating or drinking anything.
Without rest.
As if he was a person who could not survive unless he was immersed in something, he went straight ahead, looking at only one hunt.
Then, when it was time to collapse from exhaustion, he collapsed on the road, repeating his usual life of asking for a nap.

It was no longer an area to be called ‘hunting’.
Like the monk who volunteered to undergo penance to wash away her original sin, Amelia herself is walking on her thorny path.
It was a reenactment of the time when I tried to bury my sadness by being buried in the thick magic research materials when my master passed away.

The same is true this time.
Amelia, who had just defeated the homunculus that lived in the Sahara Desert, fell asleep as soon as her victory was over.
The durability and efficiency of her spirit body are extremely good, but not infinite.

Amelia’s body was steadily accumulating burden and fatigue, and this time it worked as a big bad factor.
The homunculus in the form of a giant scorpion left a definite wound on Amelia’s body.

“Wook… !”

Amelia raised herself up, frowning at the pain she felt in her left arm.
Reason waking up from a futile dream slowly reflected on the current situation.

“…….”

Amelia looked down at her painful left arm.
Her white skin was torn as if it had been slashed with a box knife.
It’s not the first time I’ve been hurt.
It’s the first time in my life that I’ve suffered such a big wound.

She had no additional bleeding due to hemostasis due to self-defense.
But she was so badly wounded that I could barely see her skin, her sex organ, and her muscles and white bones that had been cut off.

“Sick….”

Staring at her scars, which only seemed to belong to her, Amelia murmured in her low voice,
It was a voice that rustled more than the desert wind.

At the same time, a meaningless imagination comes to mind like a dream from before.

What would Siwoo think if he saw this?
Wouldn’t she feel a bit pitiful if she saw her struggling and suffering like this?
Won’t you look at me with compassion and sympathy?

Amelia stopped thinking about her.
It’s just painful to think of her anymore.
She calmed her mind, which had turned into muddy water instead.

For Amelia now, complicated thoughts are a luxury.
There is still a lot of work to be done.
Like her habit, Amelia subconsciously repeated another evasion and raised her magic power.

She reached a state of exhaustion a little while ago and couldn’t heal her wounds, but she can’t be left unattended.
As the terrible wound healed, as if it had been slowly reversed, I took out her killing part.

A book as thick as Amelia’s duty.
Prepare for the ‘next’ while mechanically postponing the accident.

– Flutter!

Each of the homunculus he had dealt with so far was a formidable and tricky foe.
Since her practical experience was never to be ignored, it came as a bigger difficulty for Amelia, who had been devoted to research all her life.
It was okay to injure her, but there was also a close-knit moment where her life could have been blown away if the slightest mistake was made.

But when she opened her killing club, she had never felt her heart drop as much as she does now.
Because what was written on it was not a homunculus, but a ‘witch’.

3.
“Stop! I lost… !”

After killing the ‘black scorpion’ wandering in the desert.
Amelia was able to find her first feat without difficulty.

If you deploy too much magic power, the opponent will hide.
Therefore, it maintains a wavelength of about 16 to 17 degrees and lures enemies by disguising itself as an ‘easy prey’.
It was the wisdom as a hunter that Amelia had accumulated over the past few 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 willingly took the lead.

Achievement of the 20th hierarchy.
A ‘witch of heat death’ who uses sand to perform tricky magic.

Her resistance was not easy.
Using her sand like limbs within kilometers in all directions, she tried to devour Amelia, using sand to the point that counting her units was pointless.

The sand, impregnated with the highest hardness, rushed toward Amelia like tentacle strands.
Like the islands of her legend floating in her heavens, the huge mounds of silt that floated up from her floated and tried to crush her with her murderous intent.

Amelia was not in perfect condition.
Fatigue was still accumulating in her body from various injuries and overwork, and the magical power in her brand was not fully buffered due to excessive fighting.

However, the difference in third place was strong enough to overcome all such handicaps.
Even after Amelia broke the wall of the 23rd hierarchy, she did not fully embody it.
It only took 3 minutes to start the game in earnest and neutralize the witch of heat stroke.

The result that remains after that is the feat of rolling over a pile of sand with a serious wound, and Amelia looking down at it.

Magical particles that responded to Amelia’s will shone around them.
The particle covered not only Amelia and the witch of heat death, but also a radius of several hundred meters.

“I will surrender! Please take a look I didn’t know!”
“…….”

Finally realizing her complete defeat, the Witch of Heat has declared her surrender.
All kinds of misdeeds of this feat are specified in the killing department.
Not only has a history of killing apprentice witches in the past, but she is also a villain who has attacked humans and even killed witches.

“Please… From now on, I will live quietly and kindly. I will never cause a fuss. I’ll properly compensate for the attack!”

On a subject that has walked ahead.
If, as Amelia judged, she had been a weak witch, she would have shamelessly devoured it.
As her death came before her own eyes, the Witch of Heat begged for her life.

One snap of her fingers and that mouth that begged for her life while the blood was flowing would never move again.
The light will disappear from the eyes that reveal the whites of the eyes.
If given the chance, that body that was trying to hang onto Amelia’s skirt would return to the sand.

The opponent is not an innocent life.
It is a ‘feat’ that is extremely evil and united with madness.

But it’s hard not to get stressed about harming another intelligent life form.
The burden of fratricidal violence and moral and ethical aversions were present even in most arrogant witches.
So was Amelia.

“Please… Save me just once If I die, the stigma will disappear… At least bring in an apprentice witch to perfect her magic… At that time, I will die very peacefully… “

Noticing the hesitation of the suddenly appearing terrifying witch, the witch of martyrdom began to beg even more desperately.
Amelia, unable to do anything, bit her lip.

Amelia has already experienced murder.
It turned Ea Sadalmelik into a pile of wildflowers.

But at that time, her emotions were at their peak as she had lost Siwoo right in front of her eyes.
Aquarius’s hostility towards the witch was more than enough.
She had neither the time nor the energy to leisurely discuss remorse.

However…
This witch is different.

The opponent who realizes that resistance is fleeting and begs.
Killing someone who could do no harm to Amelia was considered more like an execution than an execution of justice.

Really?
If she lives quietly from now on, why would she need to be killed?
If she passed on her stigma to an apprentice witch, wouldn’t she be the same as killing her?
Before a difficult decision, an easier and softer middle way flickers in front of you.

She didn’t want to kill her.
If killing a public figure is justice, he wanted to leave the execution of such justice in the hands of others.

Conflict and anguish gave birth to carelessness.
The hand of the Witch of the Heat is wrapped around the ankle of Amelia, who never intended to allow her distance.

-Widely!

Amelia, who had been staring blankly, snapped her fingertips in shock.
This is because she accepted the sudden contact as part of an attack or a counterattack.

“Please….”

With that, everything ended.
The seeds of magical power that had already dug into every corner of her body resonated with the waves Amelia radiated and bloomed all at once.
The seeds that germinated in an instant consumed all of the spiritual body and mana and used it as nourishment.
Thus, not even having time to leave her deathbed, the witch of heat death lost her life.

“Ah….”

Amelia saw her hand wrapped around her ankle.
Compared to the other parts of her body that had all turned into flowers, perhaps because they were far from the center of her body, her wrists remained relatively shapeless.
Even though it was so full of flowers that pierced the skin, it seemed like it would be disorganized if I looked away for a moment.

Only after seeing it do you understand.

Killed.

It was an opponent that had to be killed.
Duke Keter demanded that the killing department be executed by proxy in exchange for Siu’s life.
If the contract doesn’t work out, she will take Siwoo’s life again.
Duke Keter’s actions shown so far are cold, fair, and absolute, showing no mercy to anyone.
In the first place, there was no room for ambiguous compromise.

“Right… Woo-wook… ! Ug… !”

Even so.
Tears that I thought I had forgotten a long time ago hit my body with nausea.

Amelia put her hand on her ankle.
She forcibly yanked her hand, which still wouldn’t let go of her.

Her lingering sensations in her ankles seem to be pulling her into her bottomless abyss.
Amelia vomited her stomach over her sand for a while.