City ​​of Witches 642

Chapter 642 – #129_City Of Night (5)

#642

1.
The conversation with Yebin yielded considerable gains.

I even found out that the reason why the prosthetic arm, made by Count Kohab, a loyal servant of Duke Erelim, didn’t have proper sensory linkage was because of a fundamental issue with Siwoo’s body.

However, Yebin was still a captive.

She said that it was difficult to identify the cause with the equipment in Hyangwolru.
For a precise diagnosis, I needed to have a thorough examination at her workshop in Gehenna.

“It’s not serious right now, is it?”
“No, but if the symptoms worsen to the point where they’re obvious, you might have already missed the golden time.”
“I’ll be careful.”

As the important discussions ended, a wave of fatigue washed over me.
It was 4 a.m. now, after all.

In the past 24 hours, I had entered the labyrinth, fought the Mercury Witch, been thoroughly defeated by the Sword Witch, been captured and treated by Yebin in Hexennacht, met the Sword Witch again, and then been detained in Hyangwolru.
It was a hectic schedule that was hard to even summarize in one breath, so even as a spirit body, I was completely drained.

“Yebin, I want to get some sleep, what should I do?”
“Ah, that would be good. You must be very tired.”

Come to think of it, I was told not to go outside, but I wasn’t told where I could find a room.
Yebin’s eyes glanced towards the bedding.

“Would you like to sleep here today?”
“Huh? Then what about you…”
“Oh, it’s nothing like that. I have to make medicine all night tonight. So the bedding will be empty anyway.”

Come to think of it, she seemed to have a weak presence except for her chest, but when we spent the night together, it was because of her seduction.

That’s why I keep looking at her.

Her hair was tied up in a comfortable updo.
Her ample hips and large breasts were visible even through her loose dress.
Unlike Dorothy, the lazy, indulgent, fallen saint, her eyes had a gentle look as if she prayed to God every day.
Even her flawless, fair skin was hard to believe for someone who was also Korean.

Knowing what she looked like under that thin cloth, and the sound of her voice when she cried, made it even more so.

Of course, the situation was different now.

We couldn’t do that in a room with no soundproofing, especially not in enemy territory.
So Yebin probably didn’t mean anything by it either.

Still, the fact that we were both conscious of each other was probably because we had been intimately involved.
Neither Yebin nor Siwoo were the type of outgoing people who could just have a one-night stand and coolly forget about it.

The two of us, who had briefly made awkward eye contact, subtly averted our gazes.

“I’ll wake you up on time. Get some rest.”

Yebin sat at the table and lit the lamp.
Siwoo buried himself in the soft bedding.

The coziness of the bedding, which relieved the fatigue of the day, was mixed with Yebin’s faint scent, tickling my nose.
I was sensitive to scents, but the amount on the pillow was well within my tolerance.

“Haa…”

I hid my sigh so she wouldn’t feel uneasy.

I was putting on a brave face, but I was very worried.
Moreover, my master must be anxiously looking for me, and if this news reached Gehenna, there would be more than one person worried.
It was a huge nuisance to cause the same worry after having gone missing just a few months ago.

Let’s get good information and escape as soon as possible.
Thinking that, Siwoo closed his eyes.

2.
Yebin, who had been busy making elixirs because she had meddled in the Sword Witch’s affairs and treated her.
She stopped pretending to concentrate only after hearing the regular breathing sounds from behind.

“……”

Glancing back, Siwoo’s sleeping face was illuminated by the dim light of the stand lamp.

“When was the last time I felt this sense of security…”

A prisoner’s life where I had to live alone without anyone to rely on.

During that time, there was no one to rely on, let alone talk to.
The Sword Witch treated Yebin like a weed, and even if she didn’t, she was definitely not someone I could confide in.

Wasn’t she the one who kidnapped me?

I couldn’t even go for a short walk, and the future was uncertain.
The despair that I might have to live here forever was piling up.

In the midst of all that, Shin Siwoo appeared like a prince on a white horse.
Strictly speaking, he was captured, but does that matter now?

Moreover, within half a day of arriving here, he presented a new option: ‘escape’.

That alone made me feel like I could breathe a couple of times more.

“Siwoo.”
“……”

I knew he was sound asleep, but I still whispered his name.

“Siwoo.”
“……”

This time, I raised my voice a little louder, but Siwoo was still in dreamland.

I felt relieved that I didn’t wake him up, but I also felt a little disappointed, which made me realize how lonely I had been.
I had lived alone in the polar regions for 10 years.

“Well, back then, I had Netflix and other video media friends…”

This place was like a hermitage.
And Yebin’s ‘loneliness’ was clearly not limited to the mental aspect.

“Moon Yebin, you’ve gone crazy.”

I felt the urge to slip into the slightly open gap in the blanket.
I wanted to be led by his firm body and rough, yet rugged lead after a long time.

The forced abstinence caused by the crisis situation, combined with a moment of carelessness, caused the sticky desires that had been building up to flow out.

Yebin slapped her cheeks to shake off the temptation.

There was a limit to carelessness.
Yebin knew better than anyone that now was not the time.

3.
It was the hour of the rabbit (卯時), when rabbits seem to be visible in the moon.
It was early dawn, but the surroundings were still dark.

Only the oil lamps and granite lanterns placed here and there were dimly lit.

When I opened the door to the training ground, I saw Rinne dancing with her sword as she had yesterday.
Could she have been doing that since yesterday?

“……”

It seemed so.
Her clothes were the same as yesterday, and her location hadn’t changed much.

If she wasn’t interrupted, she would probably be swaying in that spot until the end of the world.

She stopped moving when she saw Siwoo entering.

“Follow me.”

She roughly wiped the sweat that had gathered on her chin with a towel, used a magic of cleanliness, and led the way, and Siwoo silently followed behind.

The back of the training ground was connected to a garden.
A secluded path that seemed cut off from the outside world.
Winter cherry blossoms were scattered between the rough stone slabs.

At the end of the quiet path, there was a thatched house that exuded simplicity and detachment, in contrast to the splendor of Hyangwolru.
By now, Siwoo could roughly guess the purpose of this building.

It was a tea room.

When I bent down and entered through the low door, I saw a tatami room where the lamps flickered, neither too dark nor too bright.
As I could tell from the outside, it was small enough to feel crowded if about five people sat down.

“Sit.”

Rinne, who had taken out the tea utensils, gestured, and a fire started in the sunken hearth in the middle of the room.

It seemed like she was going to serve tea.
I knelt down and waited quietly, observing her figure through the steam rising from the bubbling water.

The first person Siwoo thought of when he saw her was the head of the Gwanghwamun branch of the Witch Point, Sua.

I didn’t know about the old-fashioned way of speaking, but she had the atmosphere of a beauty from that era.
Just looking at her beautiful appearance, I couldn’t help but admire her as ‘indeed a witch’.

Her hair was silky and flowing, her bangs were neatly trimmed.
Her skin was like a snowy field, contrasting with the overall black color scheme.
Unlike her lips, which had a faint line, her cat-like eyes made her look like a maiden from a noble family.

The reality was quite different, though.

Rinne, who brewed the tea with a careful and unwavering posture, handed Siwoo a teacup.

“Drink it gratefully.”

Siwoo received the teacup, trying to be faithful to the concept but not too arrogant.
The matcha with bubbling foam was less bitter than expected and fragrant.

“Did you learn the spear from Duke Tiferet?”

That was how the conversation suddenly began.
At the same time, I braced myself.
Building a relationship with the Sword Witch was not over yet.

I was being served tea in a tea room that Yebin had never been to, so I had gained some points, but if something went wrong during the conversation, there was a chance that she would change her attitude.

“Yes.”
“How long did you learn?”
“About a year.”

She was drinking tea leisurely, as if she didn’t care much, but my senses were focused on Rinne.

“How is Tiferet’s teaching?”

It was a question that I knew would come, and I had roughly prepared an answer.

My master was not on good terms with the enemy.
Rinne in front of me was also an enemy.

If I were to tell the truth, it would be ‘I really respect her, she’s wonderful and lovely,’ but for the sake of gaining favor, I needed a little lie.

But even if there were circumstances, I felt guilty about insulting my master, who had only given me great favors.
This guilt would also hinder my acting.

So, I mixed in a little truth.

“She’s sloppy.”

In bed.

“She’s weak in other areas, even if it’s combat or magic.”

Especially her erogenous zones.

“There are limits to her teachings.”

Why did Rinne kidnap Siwoo here?
Why did she call me to the training ground and even serve me tea?
Combining various circumstances, I came up with one hypothesis.

Rinne was trying to make him her sparring partner, and maybe even more than that.
She might be trying to make him her disciple.

Therefore, I subtly hinted that I was not satisfied with Tiferet’s teachings.

To Rinne, Siwoo would appear to be a ruthless man who would quickly change his master if it meant getting stronger, so it wouldn’t hurt my concept.

If I could secure the position of the Sword Witch’s disciple, my future plans would be bright.
Of course, I would have to betray her later, but in this situation, I wasn’t the kind of person who was so full of humanity that I would feel sorry for the enemy.

“……”

Rinne was lost in thought after hearing those words.
No, was that really a look of being lost in thought?
Anyway, after a long silence, Rinne finally opened her mouth.

“I ask you. What is a spear to you?”

I sensed it.
This was a kind of test where the answer would determine the outcome.

However, I was not expecting to receive such a Zen-like question, so I was at a loss for words.
Moreover, her sharp gaze, which seemed to see through my inner thoughts, had been mercilessly piercing my heart since earlier, adding to the pressure.

I was worried about what kind of answer would get me a passing grade, and whether I could give a plausible answer like a martial arts master, and too much time had passed.

In the end, the answer I had no choice but to give was.

“A spear is just a spear.”

A stupid answer.
As I was hiding my miserable feelings like a job applicant who had messed up an interview, Rinne looked at Siwoo with an unexpected gaze, having stopped abruptly.

Could it be that this worked?

“Then what is martial arts?”
“Martial arts is just martial arts.”

As I continued with the momentum, Rinne put down her teacup.

“You’re an arrogant brat who has the right to be arrogant.”

A second smile, which I had seen before, was etched on her lips.
It was similar in shape to the smile she had when she directly responded to Siwoo’s provocation.

“Yes, there’s no need to listen to the swindlers who spout nonsense about what a sword is and what martial arts is. If you get caught up in plausible words, you won’t be able to see the essence.”

I never thought Rinne could speak so much and so quickly.
She seemed impatient, leaving her teacup behind and getting up abruptly.

“We’re going to the training ground.”

Rinne left without waiting for Siwoo, walking quickly outside.

“Whew.”

I didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed to have worked out well.