Chapter 869 – #190_불효도
#863
1.
Even though Odile and Odette were still apprentice witches, they knew that the world wasn’t simple.
They knew that living meant facing countless crossroads, and that sometimes, there would be moments when it was difficult to choose a path.
“…Odile, Odette….”
The twins, who had come to see Deneb early in the morning, were surprised.
It was the first time they had seen their little teacher wearing such shabby clothes, and it was also the first time they had seen the isolated attic room in the tower, so different from the magnificent Geminae mansion.
Even the twins, who had wandered around various places since childhood, didn’t know that such a place existed.
It was a gloomy room that truly deserved the name ‘punishment room’.
“I’m really sorry….”
Deneb, suppressing her tears as if she didn’t even have the face to show her crying, bowed her head.
Behind her bowed head, there was a deep wound that looked very painful.
Odile, who had planned to vent her dissatisfaction as soon as she met her little teacher, and Odette, who was about to chime in and say it was okay, both closed their mouths.
“I did something terrible to you. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“Of course… you shouldn’t.”
“That’s right… but you shouldn’t have kept it a secret from us either….”
Still, they didn’t forget their original purpose.
Shouldn’t they properly address what needed to be addressed?
“Yes, it’s all my fault, my lack of virtue. I can’t make any excuses, no matter what you say.”
“……”
“……”
Odile and Odette made eye contact.
The anger they had forced themselves to build up until they came to see their little teacher had vanished, leaving only bewilderment.
“I, I think I’ll talk about it later.”
“M-me too!”
Without even waiting for a reply, the twins slammed the door shut and ran down the stairs as if fleeing.
“What is this! What is this…!”
Reaching the first floor, Odile stomped her feet as if bursting with frustration.
She had planned to say a few harsh words.
Even if the other person was their little teacher, wasn’t it okay to complain a little after all the heartache they had gone through?
But when they actually met their little teacher, she looked even worse than the twins.
They had vaguely heard that she had entered a period of penance from their big teacher, but they never imagined she would look this pitiful.
The complaints they had painstakingly prepared couldn’t even be voiced, and they ended up running away.
“It’s like we’re the ones who did something wrong!”
“Calm down, sis, our teacher didn’t say anything…”
“It’s frustrating! It’s stupid! What is this, really…”
“Sis…”
Odile wasn’t truly angry.
She was just so bewildered and didn’t know how to handle this situation, so she was just taking it out on the floor.
“Sis, do you remember?”
“Remember what!”
Then, Odette grabbed Odile’s sleeve and said.
“When we were little, we went to our teacher’s workshop and made a huge mess.”
It was something that happened when Odile and Odette were around 10 years old.
Odile and Odette, who were always boisterous and full of energy, had an activity level that was incomparable to their current selves when they were younger.
They had been strictly told not to enter their teacher’s workshop, but Odile and Odette managed to sneak in.
It was the first time they had set foot in a witch’s workshop.
Enchanted by its mystery, Odile and Odette pretended to be great witches and played with the experimental equipment.
-Bang!
The experimental equipment, which required delicate control, responded to the twins’ rampage with an explosion.
Fortunately, Odile and Odette only suffered minor burns on their hands, but the research materials were not so lucky.
The results of Deneb’s artifact research, which she had been independently preparing for several years, were swept away by a moment’s explosion.
Odile with her exploded hair and Odette with her exploded hair stared blankly at the wreckage.
Even though they were young, and even though they lacked magical knowledge, they were intelligent apprentice witches who were capable of reasoning.
They could easily understand that this accident was incomparable to breaking a vase.
‘Odette, you’re in big trouble.’
‘W-why is it my fault! It’s your fault! You’re in big trouble! I clearly told you not to do it!’
‘Odette, let’s calm down. We have to somehow restore it, right?’
‘Of course! Sis, put out that fire first!’
However, no matter how much they fussed, a ten-year-old apprentice witch didn’t have the ability to restore the research materials and specimens that had been completely destroyed.
‘We’re dead.’
‘We’re really dead….’
The twins, with pale faces, imagined their little teacher rushing in with a terrifying expression.
Back then, she was five times stricter than she was now, wasn’t she?
The workshop door was roughly opened, and the person who rushed in was their little teacher.
‘Teacher! We’re sorry!’
‘We didn’t mean to do this!’
Odile and Odette, who had closed their eyes tightly, expecting to hear a shout with the volume of a singer, were instead met with a hug full of concern and worry.
‘Kids, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?’
Although the relationship between a witch and an apprentice witch was similar to that of a mother and daughter, Odile and Odette still found their two teachers difficult at this time.
‘Oh dear…. Come here. Does it hurt a lot? What were you doing doing such a dangerous thing, you might get a scar.’
But seeing their little teacher not even glancing at the devastated workshop and only caring about the burns on the twins’ hands, the twins burst into tears.
‘Waaaaah!’
‘We’re sorry…!’
‘It’s okay. You little troublemakers…. It’s enough that you’re safe.’
From that day on, the twins realized that their teacher, who had only seemed scary, was their real family.
“…Why are you suddenly talking about that?”
“When we did something wrong, our teacher forgave us, right?”
“So?”
“What if, sis, the order was reversed, and our little teacher was in a relationship with the assistant first, and then we found out that we liked the assistant later, would our teacher have been angry?”
It was a question that didn’t need any thought.
“Of course she would have been angry.”
“Then wouldn’t she have been able to forgive us?”
“…That’s not it, we wouldn’t be able to not forgive her either, right?”
“I think that if she had seen us struggling like our teacher is now, she would have done more than just forgive us.”
Odile knew it too.
That’s why she felt so uncomfortable.
“Our little teacher doesn’t have enough time to be happy.”
“…Odette!”
“Don’t get angry, it’s the truth.”
“……”
It was a rare sight to see Odette win an argument with Odile.
Odile sighed deeply and said.
“Okay, so what do you want to do?”
“Probably what you want to do, sis.”
2.
Even as the day deepened, Deneb writhed in an even deeper sense of guilt.
Her sister had offered to help solve this problem, but she had refused.
No matter how great her sister was, could she forgive this deep guilt, this act of succumbing to desire and betraying the natural order?
The twins’ visit early in the morning was enough to make Deneb even more ashamed.
Wouldn’t even the act of kneeling in penance in the tower seem pathetic?
Wouldn’t it look like a showy apology?
Wasn’t her choice of this method of atonement just self-satisfaction, and wasn’t it because she unconsciously wanted to show the twins that she was reflecting?
-Slap! Slap!
Deneb chose whipping as a way to clear her mind.
When the hot pain bloomed over the red and swollen wounds, she could at least temporarily turn away from the guilt that filled her heart.
-Knock knock
Then, she heard a knock.
Deneb got up and opened the shabby wooden door.
A note, folded twice and stuck in the gap, fell at her feet.
“This is….”
Deneb picked up the note and headed to Tarot Town.
The note was from Odile and Odette.
It said that they wanted to have a serious talk, so they asked her to come to their villa in Tarot Town.
It was a somewhat incomprehensible summons, but she didn’t have the energy to wonder about the reason.
The question of whether it was really okay to go remained.
But if it could be of any comfort, Deneb was willing to kneel before the twins.
Wearing only the bare minimum of clothing, she opened the door to the twins’ outpost, the villa in Tarot Town, with the steps of a sinner opening the door to a courthouse.
Candles flickering on the candelabra.
The warm air heated by the fireplace welcomed Deneb.
But unlike what she had expected, there was no sign of anyone.
If they were in the lounge, she would have heard them, so maybe they were in the upstairs bedroom?
Deneb hesitated as she was about to step in.
Because red rose petals were scattered here and there on the floor.
At first, she thought they had fallen from a nearby vase and didn’t think much of it, but as she passed the entrance, the number of petals increased as she went further inside.
“This is…?”
Like in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, the petals that gradually continued led Deneb to the first-floor bathroom.
Deneb, unable to hide her confusion, quietly twisted open the bathroom door, and steam billowed out.
Hot water, shimmering in a portable bathtub that looked just right for two people, was filled with blooming roses, creating a romantic atmosphere.
It was quite spacious, so it seemed like two people could bathe comfortably.
“Kids?”
What on earth was going on?
Did she get the wrong location?
Just in case, she unfolded the note again, but there was no mistake.
-Clunk!
The sound of a door came from the entrance.
Deneb turned around and was startled.
“Huh….”
Deneb had expected it to be the twins, who were naturally a little late.
But the person who opened the door was Deneb’s son-in-law, with a gloomy expression.
“Deneb-nim?”
It was Shin Siwoo.
