Chapter 821 – #172_Purple Rose
#815
1.
A refreshing and gentle spring breeze brushed against my cheek.
Everywhere I looked, purple buds billowed like clouds.
The velvety, sensual scent of lavender tickled my nose.
As colorful butterflies fluttered their wings in the gentle breeze, a single petal that had fallen danced in circles on the water’s surface.
Standing there blankly, Siwoo soon realized.
This was the Tiferet Duke’s mansion in Ars Magna Town.
Siwoo had never been here himself.
It had been sold off by his master to establish a location point, and now it belonged to Count Adonai.
“It’s beautiful.”
Indeed, it was truly beautiful.
Having lived in Gehenna, he had become indifferent to most buildings.
The exotic and dreamy garden was as vibrant as a noblewoman’s spring outing dress.
If he made a lot of money later, he wanted to buy this mansion back and gift it to his master.
“I definitely will.”
That was for later; right now, the priority was to get his master out of this dream.
Even looking at the beautiful scenery, his heart wasn’t entirely at ease.
The despair Amelia felt when she lost her predecessor and the despair his master felt when she lost Lapi couldn’t be compared quantitatively.
Could there be a hierarchy in the sorrow of losing a loved one?
However, he knew that ‘how they were lost’ was an important factor in overcoming that pain.
Amelia had accepted the separation.
She felt Malika’s love in that inevitable parting and chose to move forward.
It might sound a bit cold, but the fact that Amelia was an apprentice witch and Malika was her predecessor had a significant impact.
It was something that was bound to happen sooner or later.
His master’s case was a bit different.
The grief of parents who have lost a child is called chamcheok.
It means a terrible sorrow that cannot be put into words.
His master believed that she was responsible for that terrible sorrow.
She had been agonizing over the regret that she could have prevented the tragedy if she had been a little more careful, until her intestines were about to break.
She had to live as a sinner for over 100 years.
For his master, Siwoo’s existence must have been a great comfort.
But it hadn’t washed away all the pain.
Even if he offered the head of the root of all evil, Ea, on Lapi’s tombstone, it wouldn’t change.
She, who had decided to move forward with the tragedy buried in her heart, had eventually been captured.
In a purple utopia that smelled of sweet lavender.
“Siwoo, Oppa!”
As he was bowing his head with a heavy heart, a girl came running from afar.
Full of vibrant energy and lively cheeks.
She ran along the stepping stones over the pond with the agility of a flying squirrel.
It was the first time he had seen her in person, but it wasn’t hard to recognize who she was.
Her black and white photo was hanging in a frame that was placed alone on one side of the tombstone.
“Hug me!”
Lapi, who had been running at full speed, stepped on the stone railing of the stepping stones, kicked off, and flew over.
Lapi, who had landed lightly like a feather, gave a sweet smile and pretended to kiss him on both cheeks.
It was a cheek kiss instead of a greeting.
She was very friendly.
“M-me too….”
“Hey, why are you reacting like that? Your cute junior is hugging you.”
His heart ached.
This Lapi was also just an illusion, like Malika.
But for now, it seemed best to play along.
He didn’t know how it happened in the setting, but he wanted to spend happy times with her so that she could have good memories before waking his master.
Wouldn’t that be a better memory for his master as well?
“Lapi.”
Then, a solemn voice was heard.
It was his master.
However, his master’s appearance in his memory was a little different from what Siwoo knew.
First of all, her clothes were not comfortable to move in.
A silk dress and a shawl with small jewels densely embedded in it.
And she, who preferred to tie her hair up roughly, was wearing a hair ornament that seemed to have been meticulously styled.
In short, she was dressed in a way that one could easily associate with a ‘noble’ of Gehenna.
The atmosphere surrounding her was also quite different.
The arrogance and confidence of a great witch, and the authority and experience that wrapped it up naturally.
According to her, before losing Lapi, she was not much different from other orthodox nobles.
She had no interest in what was happening in the present world, and she did not take any action to save the humans who were dying because of homunculi and public works.
It meant that she was not much different from Duke Erelim.
Through this, it was possible to infer the worldview.
His master had not lost Lapi yet.
Then, how did Siwoo become her disciple?
“Don’t make it too difficult for Siwoo.”
“I want to make it difficult for my master, you know? Siwoo, Oppa, do you know? When I hug you tightly, my master gets very flustered.”
“Really?”
“Of course, do you want to see?”
“Lapi!”
But even if she was an unfamiliar master, her essence didn’t seem to change.
As soon as Lapi hugged Siwoo tightly, her authority and experience disappeared somewhere, and she was stomping her feet.
“Master, are you going out somewhere?”
“Have you forgotten? I told you we were going on a picnic in the garden today.”
“We’ll spread a mat on the grass, have tea time, and draw watercolors! Oh, I’ll bring embroidery too!”
“That sounds nice.”
It was an unfamiliar appearance of his master, but one thing was clear.
Eloa was smiling more happily than Siwoo had ever seen her.
2.
For Eloa, a picnic with her two disciples was always a happy time.
Especially on a beautiful spring day like this.
Eloa, who was sitting on a wooden chair, watched her disciples’ backs as they competed in landscape painting with a warm smile.
She embroidered flowers and butterflies on a handkerchief with French embroidery and occasionally quenched her thirst with black tea.
To think she would find such joy in her later years.
She had gained an apprentice witch and a beloved disciple who she wouldn’t trade for the world.
Here, the disciple was Shin Siwoo, the first male witch in the history of witches.
Eloa and Siwoo had first met in the present world, overcome hardships together, and formed a master-disciple relationship.
She hadn’t told Lapi yet, but they had become lovers, going beyond the typical master-disciple relationship.
“……”
It might be a scandalous relationship that would draw criticism from the world.
In the witch society, the master-disciple relationship was so important.
Even if the professors of Trinity Academy were in a romantic relationship with their disciples, wouldn’t all sorts of rumors flow out of the red-roofed mansion?
It could even tarnish the reputation of the Tiferet Duke family.
But Eloa loved Siwoo more than those worries.
One thing that bothered her was how Lapi would accept this.
Lapi, who had been faithfully capturing the beautiful scenery of the garden on her canvas, approached with quick steps.
Siwoo was still far behind.
He was not as good at painting as Lapi, so it couldn’t be helped.
“Master.”
Lapi acted cute towards Eloa like a well-behaved puppy.
Eloa hugged her and tidied up her beloved disciple’s stray hairs.
“What is it?”
“I forgot something.”
“Something you forgot?”
“Yes, so I think I need to go to my room for a bit.”
It was an unlike Lapi, who was always meticulous and sharp.
Eloa blinked for a moment.
“Are you lonely going alone?”
“No, it will take about an hour… or maybe three hours.”
“What did you forget that would take so long?”
Eloa tilted her head.
It didn’t take more than 15 minutes to get from here to Lapi’s room.
But three hours?
Eloa put down the circular embroidery frame she was working on and got up from her seat.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but this master should help. Together….”
“Oh, Master!”
Lapi pressed down on Eloa’s shoulder, making her sit back down.
“Don’t you still understand? Lapi is supporting your love, isn’t she admirable?”
“L-l-love? What are you talking about?”
The kind and benevolent master’s image was stripped away, and the shyness of a girl who had been caught in a one-sided love was revealed.
Lapi was just putting her hands on her hips and feeling proud.
“I already know everything.”
“Did… Siwoo tell you?”
“Oh my, you thought it was a secret… Every time you and my senior look at each other, honey drips from your eyes? It’s so scary that bees might come flying.”
She was saying that she already knew.
Eloa didn’t know what kind of face to make.
“Master, you didn’t think, ‘A master and a disciple shouldn’t be in love… If Lapi finds out, she might be jealous, or she might not look at it kindly’… did you?”
Eloa had been having the exact same worries, without missing a single word.
Lapi sighed deeply.
“Lapi likes Master. I like Siwoo, Senior, too. I’ll leave you two alone, so you can have a sweet romance.”
“Lapi, are you okay with that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? My master, who only did magic research every day, is meeting a good man, so there’s nothing happier than this. I’ll give you my full support from now on.”
The way she thumped her chest was so cute and reliable that she wanted to bite her without realizing it.
But somehow, she was embarrassed.
It was like she was a mother who didn’t know what to do with her daughter’s urging to remarry.
“Master, actually, I’ve read a lot of romance novels, you know?”
“I didn’t know that.”
Actually, she knew.
She knew that Lapi secretly hid romance novels under her pillow.
She also knew that the reason why the lamp was turned off late at night was because she was glancing at those books.
Lapi was mature for her age, but she was also a dreamy girl who couldn’t hide her age.
“A surprise kiss. That’s important. Whether it’s a man or a woman, if you go like this, bam! And put a lip stamp on them… Hehehe….”
Lapi, who was gesturing and giving advice as if it were her own romance, patted Eloa on the shoulder.
“A lip stamp, bam!…”
Did such explicit expressions also appear in romance novels?
“I understand for now.”
“Oh my, Siwoo, Oppa, will have a hard time meeting our shy master.”
“L-Lapi…!”
“Master. Good luck. You know you have to be brave, right?”
Lapi gave a thumbs up and disappeared with light steps as if she was flying away.
