Chapter 823 – #172_보라색 장미(3)
#817
1.
A chill permeated the air.
Sleet covered the lavender fields.
Each time the purple waves rippled in the wind, it was as if rough breaths were striking my ears.
The red lotus, placed neatly on the shelf, suggested two clues to understanding this world.
First, Lapi had died once.
Second, Lapi was resurrected with the red lotus.
Adding the surrounding scenery and Eloa’s behavior today, I could form additional hypotheses.
First, Eloa Tiphereth offered a sacrifice for Lapi’s resurrection.
Second, she became a public enemy and turned her back on Gehenna.
Perhaps Siwoo had also abandoned Gehenna, following Eloa.
It was plausible enough.
My teacher had cut off the chance to save Lapi with her own hands.
If time could be turned back to that point, even someone as righteous as her might have made such a choice once in tens of thousands of times.
This world wasn’t a nonsensical delusion but was built on sufficient plausibility.
“…But why?”
That’s why it didn’t make sense.
According to Gretel’s explanation, the dreams that Happy Pig painted were utopias.
A space that was perfect in itself, ideal, and impossible in reality.
Humans dream of complete desires.
All the more so because they are unrealistic.
Lapi never died.
Eloa didn’t need to use the red lotus either.
If the three of them, Siwoo, Eloa, and Lapi, lived happily ever after, that would be ideal enough.
Just like how Malika, who died after passing on her mark, was replaced with a distant journey in Amelia’s dream.
I’d rather give up plausibility than have such a distortion.
I didn’t know the cause, but the conclusion was simple.
This wasn’t a utopia.
At least, it was different from the cases of Siwoo, Rinne, and Amelia.
-Woooong!
Suddenly, the red lotus trembled.
It seemed to be saying that it was the core of this distortion.
The lotus, adorned in crimson red, was both seductive and mysterious.
“Siwoo.”
I must have been too lost in thought.
I hadn’t even noticed the voice that came from right behind me.
“Teacher.”
There stood Eloa in her white pajamas.
For some reason, my chest felt cold.
Her gaze, alternating between Siwoo’s face and the red lotus, was too complex to read.
She seemed to be submerged in deep sorrow, or perhaps lost in uncontrollable confusion.
But there was a light resolve and resignation.
“Will you step away?”
“Ah, yes.”
I stepped away from the red lotus.
Outside the window, the rain and wind began to blow even harder.
The window rattled, and the sound of the lavender fields grew louder.
“……”
Eloa remained silent before approaching Siwoo and linking her arm with his.
Her fingertips, as if searching for something to hold onto, gripped his arm tightly.
“I only feel sorry for you.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I know. You are a kind person. Even if you forgive me, you can’t forgive my decision.”
“……”
If this were reality, how would Siwoo have acted?
Eloa was right.
I wouldn’t be able to condone what she had done.
But it would be even harder to hate my teacher.
Even if I tried to correct her wrong path, I would hesitate every time I saw Eloa looking so happy.
I would cover up the sin, cover up the past, and cover up the regret.
I would turn a blind eye to the problems I didn’t want to think about and focus only on the peace in front of me.
And so, a shoddy, gilded peace would be completed.
All three of us would feel the same way.
“Let’s go.”
“Understood.”
Siwoo and Eloa left the workshop without any meaningful conversation.
“……”
Siwoo’s role was to transition Eloa’s dream, which had become overly immersive and attached, into a lucid dream.
The reason I hesitated to tell her the truth was that I didn’t want to trample on her desires.
But if this was a dream filled with such darkness.
If it wasn’t a happy fairy tale but a nightmare that had plausibly depicted an ideal world.
Then it was better to tell her the truth.
“Teacher, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
I took a breath and opened my mouth.
“I know it will sound strange. But this is a dream. It’s not reality.”
“…What do you mean?”
Eloa’s expression showed that she had no idea.
As expected, even with the contact she had with Siwoo this afternoon, she hadn’t gained any awareness.
Perhaps it was because she was too immersed.
“We were looking for the Soul Witch. When we entered the larch forest in the national park, we met a homunculus named Happy Pig. A homunculus that makes you have happy dreams.”
Was this how a doctor felt when informing a terminally ill patient of the truth?
No.
This was much more of a responsibility.
It was because I had to directly deliver the tragedy to Eloa, whom I loved.
“……”
“Didn’t you vaguely notice it too, Teacher? That something was strange.”
It was difficult for the person in the dream to notice the incongruity.
They would naturally accept the discontinuous progression of events and the cause and effect that didn’t make sense.
Siwoo tried to indirectly awaken her to the contradiction.
I decided to comfort Eloa very slowly, giving her time so that she wouldn’t be too shocked, and then tell her the truth.
“For example….”
“Siwoo.”
It felt as if a sharp blade had pierced my heart.
It was that resolute, a sharp spirit that left no room to resist.
“Shut your mouth.”
“Teacher….”
“Even if it’s you, there are blasphemies I can’t listen to in silence. So, what is it that you want to say?”
The atmosphere had changed.
It was the same as when she found the brooch.
Not a calm, rational thought process, but a paranoid rejection.
Rather than being displeased by the words coming from Siwoo’s mouth, I could see a fear that she didn’t want to hear them.
It was as if a wounded animal was baring its teeth when someone reached out a hand.
“Siwoo, just blame me. I will kneel before you and beg for your forgiveness countless times.”
“……”
“If you just stay by my side…. You can do anything to me. I will accept anything you ask. I mean it.”
Where had the fiercely burning eyes from a moment ago gone?
Eloa was sobbing, her shoulders slumped.
For my teacher, who couldn’t forgive herself, this world was the limit of her happiness.
Seeing her clinging to a distorted ideal world, Siwoo couldn’t say anything.
2.
Eloa returned to her bedroom with reddened eyes.
It wasn’t the bed that Eloa and Siwoo shared, but Lapi’s room.
Lapi, curled up, was snoring softly, fast asleep, so deeply that she wouldn’t notice if someone carried her away.
The apprentice witch was already asleep at this hour.
“……”
Eloa sat at her bedside and stroked Lapi’s hair.
She was really sound asleep.
A wistful smile hung on Eloa’s lips.
She recalled the events right after she had stolen the lotus from the Cowardly Witch and resurrected Lapi.
Lapi, upon learning the truth of her resurrection, had been angry, asking what she had done, and why she had brought her back to life.
She had cried, raged, hit, and screamed, resenting Eloa.
It was only natural.
Lapi wouldn’t have wanted her beloved teacher to commit a sin for her sake.
But Lapi had forgiven Eloa.
She had hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.
She understood that even if it was something that had been done out of Eloa’s self-righteousness and selfishness, it was rooted in love.
Siwoo had been the same.
At least until today.
Eloa quietly left the room, lost in thought.
Why had Siwoo suddenly entered the research building, which he had never been close to before?
What was he thinking, standing alone in front of the red lotus?
Why had he suddenly spouted such a ridiculous delusion that all of this was a dream?
If the small peace she had obtained by turning her back on everything was nothing more than a fleeting dream, what was reality?
Eloa felt a chill, as if her stomach had frozen.
Her subconscious was telling her.
That she shouldn’t be more aware.
That she shouldn’t look at the truth.
That the truth would destroy Eloa Tiphereth.
“Even I’m wavering….”
Eloa stopped thinking.
Soon, she even forgot that she had come up with such an idea.
Only a piercing migraine pierced through her temples.
Eloa suddenly remembered.
The black brooch that Siwoo had been wearing today.
That object, which had triggered Eloa’s instinctive sense of danger, wasn’t just a piece of jewelry but an artifact.
Also, it wasn’t originally Siwoo’s.
Siwoo’s sudden change in behavior and the appearance of the brooch coincided coincidentally.
“Could it be….”
Eloa swallowed a groan.
A name that flashed through her mind was the ‘Whispering Witch.’
Unlike Keter, who had worked to correct the order of the witch society, she was a mastermind who caused chaos.
Eloa had also been chasing her for a long time, but she had never met her directly.
Lilis, who was shrouded in mystery, would whisper insidious temptations to wavering humans.
She would cloud their judgment and make them succumb to their desires, leading them to ruin.
The Soul Witch was a name she was hearing for the first time.
Lilis could manipulate perceptions at any time and transform into the appearance of any other witch.
What if Lilis had approached Siwoo, who had been agonizing and tormented?
What if that brooch was Lilis’s venomous fang?
It was indeed plausible.
Siwoo had said that he understood Eloa and that he would forgive her.
He had said that he would turn a blind eye to the purple peace that she had barely managed to protect with her bloodied hands.
That it was a dream, not reality, that there was something strange.
There was no way he would suddenly say such things.
The vast mansion.
Eloa’s steps quickened as she instinctively realized where Siwoo was.
Eloa, who had been running up the spiral staircase leading to the spire, stopped abruptly.
Siwoo looked at Eloa with a surprised expression.
His feet and movements were in the process of going up the stairs toward the red lotus.
It was as expected.
“Siwoo, hand over that brooch.”
The current Siwoo wasn’t normal.
He was clearly bewitched by the whispers.
Eloa was certain.
Neither of her two disciples were at fault.
The only sinner here was Eloa Tiphereth.
