City ​​of Witches 445

Chapter 445 – #93_Your Memory(3)

#444

1.
The day Amelia inherited the brand.
My teacher was murdered by Amelia Marigold without even finishing his last words.

At least, that’s how Amelia accepted it.

In the cruel twist of fate, Amelia cried and collapsed repeatedly.
Amelia, who lonely guarded the funeral with few visitors.
By the time the funeral for her teacher, who had no remains, was over.

Amelia no longer shone.
The days of the dreamy natural scenery and the warm cottage that had shone with her light also sank into deep darkness.

In the abyss deeper than the deep sea, in the solitude darker than a swamp.
She sat at the table, hugging magic documents, and endlessly researched magic.
As if that was the only reason she existed.

Without uttering a single word, without sleeping or eating, she devoted herself endlessly, only occasionally retching.

In the dark space.
Time passed.
Spring came, summer came, autumn came, winter came, and then spring came again.
Even if it was repeated several times, Amelia just kept her place as if magic was her only mission and only escape.

“……”

Siwoo could not dare to say that he understood her despair.
Amelia silently carved away her emotions.

She was betrayed because she believed, and she resented because she loved.
Therefore, she numbed herself to the point where she was no longer sad, to the point where she was no longer in pain, and delved into her own world.

Even if he reached out his hand in pity and placed it on her shoulder, it would only blur like a phantom and then be reconstructed.

He knew.
That this place was just a trace of a memory that had already passed.
No matter how much he felt sorry, Siwoo could not do anything.

So, a very, very long time passed.
If you compare Amelia’s term as an assistant professor and her actual age, she would have been alone for more than 100 years.

Eventually, Sophia came to find her.
Led by Sophia’s hand, who hugged her and burst into tears as soon as she found Amelia, Amelia became an assistant professor at Trinity Academy.

2.
In fact, Amelia didn’t really change just because she became an assistant professor.
Sophia’s acts of coming and disturbing her research became more frequent, and her workshop was just changed to a public facility provided by the academy.

In the early days, she did not take charge of the twins’ education, so Amelia’s daily life was not much different.
She was still holed up in her own dark world.

After that, it was the things Siwoo knew.
Amelia, who called Siwoo out and grilled him, and Siwoo, who was frantically tormented by it.
In the process, he belatedly learned the behind-the-scenes story that Sophia provoked Amelia, and Amelia’s clumsy seduction was rejected by Siwoo, which caused the trouble.

At that time, Siwoo felt it was relentless harassment.
No matter what anyone said, he could not justify that behavior.

However, to Siwoo, who learned about Amelia’s past and imperfections, the same memory looked different.

Amelia was just clumsy.
She had never approached anyone, so she didn’t know how, and she instinctively suppressed giving her heart to others.

Because she was afraid of being hurt again.
Because she was afraid of being left alone again.
Is it an excessive delusion that her actions, which only revolved meaninglessly, felt like a pathetic gesture?

Amelia, who ordered meaningless errands as usual.
Siwoo only knew that she was always immersed in magic research.
However, from about three years later, her gaze was constantly glancing at his trail whenever Siwoo turned his back.

A space filled only with darkness where surrounding objects were not visible.
As her relationship with Siwoo grew longer, faint lights like fireflies began to appear around Amelia.

But whenever such a light tried to appear, Amelia always suppressed it with her own will.
By shaking her head or quietly turning her gaze to her magic research papers.

She must have been afraid.
She was more confused by her own clumsy behavior, not knowing how to handle the emotions she possessed.

Again, the memory fades and crosses a long time.
It was not something that he could look into as much as he wanted just because he wanted to see more.

“……”

The scenery changed again.
Siwoo felt his legs give way at the sight of the scenery that began to look bright, as if it were when Amelia was a child.

A low hill densely covered with wild barley and an unknown tree.
Fragments of memories that had been broken sharply like shards of glass but forcibly crumpled and stuffed back out again.
It was also the moment that Siwoo regretted the most.

On this day, Siwoo regained his memory.
Amelia was also very intimidated by Siwoo’s appearance, which was different from usual.
In front of Siwoo, who mechanically repeated only short answers, she quickly picked up the words that came to mind as if she were a sinner.

In the memory, Shin Siwoo slapped Amelia’s hand, which approached with an anxious expression as if she was about to burst into tears, with the back of his hand.
He threw it away.

In the memory, Shin Siwoo shouts.
He screams so loudly that his ears go numb, and ridiculously tears at his hair, scolding and blaming Amelia.

Amelia could only cry and beg.
The scenery of the two people moves away as if looking from a distance.

After that, Siwoo coldly left Amelia.
Amelia, who was left blankly without being able to hold on properly, was once again deprived of the world that had shone for the first time in a long time.

She was abandoned even by Shin Siwoo, the first person she had opened her heart to since her teacher had left.

Amelia went on a journey.
Keter demanded the execution of the death list in exchange for saving Siwoo’s life.

Amelia, who was left in the lonely darkness again like an empty doll, just carried out everything.
Just like when her teacher had left, she was immersed only in magic.
When Siwoo left, she was only madly immersed in hunting.

She risked her life to hunt for the person she had so coldly abandoned and left, and then suffered from guilt alone while killing her achievements.

“……”

Siwoo couldn’t say anything.
He had no right to find her frustrating.

Why was she so foolish, repeating a path close to torture without even unfolding the note properly?
Why was she acting so foolishly?

Didn’t he already know?

Amelia, who was clumsy with all other emotions because she had been holed up alone for too long after her teacher passed away,
But there was an emotion that she knew better than anyone else.

Love and hate.

Amelia had already savored the pain caused by the lies of the person she had trusted and loved the most in her own solitude.
For several times longer than Siwoo’s life, she resented her teacher, loved him, and therefore suffered.

She knew that believing that actions stemming from good will and love would always be accepted was nothing more than self-righteousness.
She knew that a one-sided heart could be a lifelong wound for someone.
Amelia understood Siwoo better than anyone else.

That’s why, like a fool, she waited for Siwoo to look back at her someday, and continued to atone, suffering alone, hidden in a place that could not even be seen.

Until the very last moment.
Until the moment she was tricked by the whispering witch and unfolded a great magic in Tarot Town.

She never resented Siwoo in the end.
She only resented and hated herself.

“……”

Siwoo wiped away the tears that were flowing.
At the end of Amelia’s memories and the path he had passed, there was a door.
A black, black door.
Siwoo twisted the doorknob with trembling hands and opened it.

Amelia was holed up in a narrow space where only two or three people could enter.
She was wearing the flower crown that Siwoo had made for her when she was a child on her head.
She was curled up like a fetus, hugging her knees.

He intuitively felt it.
This was not the Amelia in his memories, whom he could not hug or apologize to.
This was her own inner image.

She, who had only felt difficult, she, who had looked like a subject taken with a blurry focus, was now clearly visible.
A helpless, fragile, and timid little girl who wanted love but didn’t have the courage to approach.

That’s you.
Amelia.

Is it okay to approach her?
Does Siwoo, who had been living a peaceful life without even knowing her pain, now have the right to hold her hand?

“Amelia-nim.”

As Siwoo reached out his hand.
A very unpleasant sound began to be heard.

A purple snake.
From a corner of the darkness that he had not noticed because he was so focused on Amelia’s appearance.
A long snake with a flicking tongue appeared and wrapped around Amelia’s body.

“Stop it!”

He didn’t know what the identity of that snake was.
However, he intuitively felt that he had to stop it right away.

Although it was close, as if it was right in front of him, but in fact, there was a vast gap between the two.
The spear that Siwoo swung cut through the air in vain.

He looked around with wide eyes, and Amelia’s inner landscape, all of her memories, were collapsing.
Instead of the roar of a building collapsing, what he heard was….

It’s hateful. It’s actually painful. Let’s give up. Let’s fall further together with me.

Whispering.
He could only hear a few of the incomprehensible voices that he heard when he was having a nightmare.
Someone’s sweet voice that left an echo in the surroundings and was crushed.

Siwoo looked at Amelia with trembling eyes.

In the collapsing darkness.
In the fragments of collapsing memories, Amelia and Siwoo looked at each other for a very brief moment.
Her eyes were surprisingly transparent and cold, as if she had no emotions.

And finally.
Amelia’s inner image disappeared, like a stage where all the lights had gone out after the play was over.
With the sensation of an endless gravitational pull grabbing at his feet, Siwoo’s consciousness was sucked down endlessly.