City ​​of Witches 93

Chapter 93 – #21_Treatment(3)

#91

1.
The promised three days had passed.
Yebin met with Amelia, her eyes hollow.
She had spent the days and nights agonizing, searching for a detour, but concluded that there was no other way.

It seemed difficult to postpone Siwoo’s surgery any longer, and she needed to get permission from Amelia, who was his guardian and (presumably) lover, before performing the procedure.

“…So, most of his conditions are very good.”

Yebin rattled off Siwoo’s recent test results before mentioning the crucial fact.
However, Amelia’s vacant eyes were piercing through Yebin.
To be precise, she was staring blankly without focus.

“Baroness…?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“Ah, I’ll tell you again.”

Yebin, repeating what she had just said like a parrot, felt puzzled.
Amelia was someone who would listen attentively to even the smallest things related to Siwoo.

Perhaps because she didn’t want to burden her, she didn’t usually grab Yebin to ask questions, but conversely, if she sensed that Yebin was about to speak, she would come running from afar.
It was such a flattering expression, but Yebin even thought it was cute.

For such an Amelia to be spacing out while receiving a progress report before Siwoo’s final surgery.
Could something bad have happened?
Yebin tilted her head without realizing it.
But there was no way to pry, and more than anything, the weight of what she had to say next prevented her from dwelling on it for long.

“I see, you’ve worked really hard, Smirna. I won’t forget your efforts and will repay you.”
“Yes, yes, of course! I was also happy and felt rewarded to be saving a life. But, regarding the final procedure for… Siwoo, there’s something I’d like to tell you…”

Yebin glanced at Amelia.
Her enigmatic sky-blue eyes urged Yebin to speak.

“I’m listening properly this time.”
“Ah, yes… well…”

Amelia wasn’t rushing her at all, but somehow Yebin found herself at a loss for words.
She closed her eyes tightly and continued her explanation step by step.

“For a complete recovery, we need not only to regenerate his brain but also a separate treatment.”
“Yes, you explained that before.”

Yebin stammered, responding to Amelia’s question of why she was asking about that again.

“What we’re… trying to do… is a kind of reversing entropy, right? Like restoring a burnt piece of paper to its original state… Um, but for that, we need a kind of ritual…”
“What kind of ritual?”
“I, I’ve never attempted such a detailed restoration before… but according to my research, it’s like….”
“You can speak comfortably without being nervous.”

How was she supposed to speak comfortably without being nervous?
It was probably because Amelia didn’t know anything that she could respond so calmly.

“We need a ‘marker’ for the restoration.”
“And?”

Just as a frame is needed to complete a complex and intricate puzzle, information about Siwoo’s original state is needed.

“So… what I’m trying to say is about the methodology of collecting that marker.
It’s divided into two methods. One is… to awaken his consciousness in his current state and use a magic called ‘memory regression.’
By merging with the other person’s mental image, we observe what kind of life they have lived, what memories they have, and rebuild them one by one based on the results.
Of course! Since we’re looking into all of their memories, there’s a possibility of privacy invasion.”
“……….”

To have all his memories read without permission.
It was unsettling.

“But there’s a problem with using this method.”
“What is it?”
“This is about breaking down the boundaries between the consciousness of the caster and the subject. In this process, the subject’s magic circuit is a huge obstacle… Therefore, all magic circuits must be removed before memory regression.”
“That means…”

Did that mean Siwoo would no longer be able to use magic?
The first thing that came to Amelia’s mind upon hearing that was.
‘Wouldn’t that prevent him from using dimensional magic to escape as he pleases?’ It was a very selfish and petty thought.

“Ugh…”

Suddenly realizing her own ugliness, Amelia shook her head in dismay.
She felt ashamed.
Both of Siwoo and herself.

“No.”

Amelia firmly denied it.
Although his achievements were not at an extraordinary level, it was not something that should be done without asking his opinion.

“What’s the second method?”

When Amelia, having shaken off her hesitation, asked, Yebin hesitated even more than before.
She glanced at Amelia and cautiously spoke.
In fact, Yebin wasn’t sure if this method was really the right one, putting everything else aside, morally speaking.

“It’s… intercourse.”
“……..?”
“The reason for intercourse is, first, to stimulate the limbic system, which is asleep, by stimulating sexual desire, one of the most basic physiological functions. If this process goes naturally, it will also greatly alleviate the emotional loss expected as a side effect after recovery.”

Yebin rattled on.
She was afraid to look at Amelia’s expression.
After all, it was about having intercourse with her man.

Yebin didn’t want to be misunderstood as a loose woman who was taking another woman’s man by making excuses, so she first declared her purity and innocence.

“But… I actually, um, don’t have any experience…”
“…Neither do I.”
“Ah… yes…”
“……….”

They hadn’t had a physical relationship yet?
While Yebin felt that the situation was becoming more complicated with this unexpected revelation, it was Amelia who spoke first in the suffocating awkwardness.

“I will cooperate on that part.”

Amelia had learned from literature how physical relationships between men and women were formed and what kind of resolve and mindset were needed in the process.
Even though she was in an ambiguous state about how to treat Siwoo after hearing from the twins, she had that much resolve.

“Ah, no… no, I didn’t finish my explanation… I have to… do the intercourse.”
“Yes…?”
“Um, I… have to… heal Siwoo by having intercourse with him. Because the magic wave that occurs during the moment of erection and ejaculation contains fragments of various information.
In the process of connecting the imprint and the male organ at the moment of emotion and instinct, we need to trace and build a neural circuit system that matches his original mental state…”

Yebin continued her explanation, which sounded like an excuse, for 10 minutes, but Amelia’s brain was already half-tuned out.

To save him, she had to let him sleep with another woman?
In fact, according to the common sense Amelia had held until now, it wasn’t something to be particularly concerned about.

She had never considered him as an object of physical relationship, and rather, she had questioned the reason for linking spiritual love and physical love.
Wasn’t it just a physical union for reproduction?
Moreover, it was not for any other reason but to save his life, so why was she so shocked?

“I’m sorry…”

Yebin felt unnecessarily sorry and bowed her head in apology.

“It can’t be… helped…”

While wondering why she was feeling this way, and whether this feeling was really her own, Amelia asked one more question.

“How long will it take?”
“At least three times… I think.”

Feeling as if the floor beneath her feet was becoming soft, Amelia nodded.

“Please proceed.”
“Yes, then… I also have things to prepare, so I’ll go in right after dinner.”
“Okay.”

Yebin left Amelia standing there blankly and headed to her room with strangely hurried steps.

2.
“Haa… I said it…”

All the strength drained from her body.
After finally saying what she had been agonizing over for three days, she felt a sense of relief and deep exhaustion at the same time.

Was she angry?
Except for the passionate time when they first met, the Baroness of Marigold had such subtle changes in expression that it was even more difficult to gauge her reaction.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of the aftermath.
She already knew that Amelia wasn’t a bad person.
Unlike what her teacher had said about the nobles of Gehenna having nasty personalities, Yebin had been treated like a VIP while staying here.

“But is this right…”

Yebin sprawled on the bed and twisted her hair.
Even if it was for treatment, she had to have intercourse with a man.
And with a man who already had a partner!

“It’s a soap opera…”

She remembered the weekend dramas she had diligently watched during her exam days.
All sorts of outrageous things had happened.
Half-siblings, kimchi slaps, a female lead with an incurable disease, surrogacy…

Back then, she had watched with excitement, saying “Oh my,” but now that she was in this situation, she was at a loss.
It seemed that there was a saying that comedy is tragedy seen from afar, and tragedy is comedy seen up close.

“Ugh…”

This was strictly part of medical treatment and a life-saving act.
She had tried to reassure herself several times, but Yebin had lived longer as an ordinary human than as a witch.
Of course, she also had the sweet and bittersweet fantasies about her first experience that virgins of that age would have.

Someday, she would meet a man she liked, flirt, date, go out, get confessed to, and then have a hot night in a fancy hotel after about 300 days.
She had never thought about it concretely because she was stuck in a faraway place without a suitable partner, but that was roughly the plan.

From what she had heard from those around her, Shin Siwoo didn’t seem like a bad guy, and he was quite handsome, but she had never even had a conversation with him.
In fact, she occasionally wondered if she really had to go this far.

“Ugh, I’m trash.”

Yebin changed her mind.
Her teacher, the previous Smirna, had killed 12 citizens for research.

She always said.
There has always been sacrifice in the development of medicine.
The giant pharmaceutical companies that exist today are legally conducting biological experiments on tens of times more people (even with extremely poor efficiency).
If they save tens or hundreds of times more people with the results of this development, it’s fine.

And in fact, the previous Smirna had traveled around the devastated areas of South Africa due to the civil war and saved more than thousands of lives.
Of course, she knew that it was just a rationalization and that her teacher’s life-saving acts were also part of her research.
No matter how good the intention, it was wrong to ignore the will of others and instrumentalize their dignity.

And the results of the biological experiments based on her teacher’s radical ideology were clearly present in the stigma that Yebin had inherited, and Yebin had a sense of debt for it.
The determination to save and help many people.

But now, seeing herself trying to avoid it by talking about her first experience, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

“Let’s get a grip.”

Yebin, who thought she had sorted things out quite a bit over the past three days, neatly cleared her mind, which was becoming complicated again.

“Anyway, I need to prepare…”

Yebin looked around and muttered to herself.

Living alone was quite boring.

Masturbation, which she could spend hours on, was Yebin’s main pastime.
As a subscriber to X-hub, she even downloaded videos from the nearby gas station’s Wi-Fi to use as a side dish.
Therefore, she didn’t have any particular fear or sense of crisis about intercourse itself.

It wasn’t like she was going to die, there was no worry about pregnancy, and it would feel good.
But since she had never tried masturbation through insertion, she needed some preliminary work before officially coupling with Siwoo.

The unnecessary pain from the first penetration would be a distraction…
Yebin looked at her long, slender fingers.

“Will this be enough…?”

Yebin quietly opened the bathroom door and went inside.