City of Witches

1.

Amelia Marigold was looking through the scenery etched deeply in her memory.

It was a blurry scene, like a photo inside a dusty old album, but it was undoubtedly precious to her.

Actually, considering how long she had been living for, it was a quite recent memory.

However, the series of peaceful scenes she was reminiscing felt like a distant dream.

Because for her, these scenes were something she would never get back.

Once upon a time, the young Siwoo said that he was craving for kimchi, so Amelia took it upon herself to challenge the new dish.

Cabbage, ginger, red pepper, salted fish and so on…

She was unfamiliar with most of the ingredients because Gehenna favored western-styled dishes more, and she also had to go all the way to Border Town just to buy all the ingredients needed.

She once held Siwoo back from returning to his hometown.

Since he said that he missed the food from his hometown, she thought that she’d take responsibility for that and make the food properly.

She managed to buy a bunch of ingredients at once, but the problem was even Siwoo didn’t know the exact ingredients needed to make the dish either.

They ended up putting all of them inside a huge pot and boiled them. The result was an unidentified dish which taste couldn’t even be described by even the most eloquent of poets.

‘I’m sorry, I thought I’d make something tasty for you…’

After sipping her drink, the first thing that she said to him was to apologize.

Because the strange soup thing that she made, with the unpleasantly sweet and spicy flavor, and had the smell of salted fish, couldn’t even be considered a proper food.

‘No, it’s really good. It tastes the same as what I used to eat back at home.’

However, Siwoo kept on complementing the food, eating it heartily, to the point that he ate three people’s worth of servings.

Including Amelia’s portion.

‘Is…that…so…?’

Back then, hearing him saying that made her feel relieved.

His actions, attitude and expressions, all suggested that she had succeeded in making the kimchi stew.

She thought that the reason why it didn’t taste good to her was due to the differences in their taste buds.

But now she knew it wasn’t the case at all.

After reminiscing through the memory over and over again, seeing his eyes and observing his expression properly…

It wasn’t due to the differences in taste buds at all.

In fact, it was clear that the dish didn’t suit his taste at all.

Yet, he still gulped through the poor excuse of a dish that she had painstakingly made.

Even praising it, saying that it was tasty.

2.

A gust of wind blew.

The night in the desert was cold.

When the sun was up, the sand would heat up like a furnace, but as soon as it went down, the heat would dissipate as if it was a lie.

Fine grains of sand, mixed with the gust of wind, brushed through Amelia’s cheeks as she curled up with her eyes closed.

“Ugh…”

Her long eyelashes trembled, revealing her beautiful sky blue-colored eyes.

For a brief period, they looked unfocused, but after a few blinks, they regained their usual clarity.

She looked around to find there was nothing around her.

As always, dreams were just dreams.

She wasn’t inside that wooden cabin, but in the middle of a desert.

The fine white sand reflecting the moonlight, as the moon shone fleetingly in the dry night sky.

Carrying the kill list she received from Duchess Keter, Amelia was wandering around the most remote place in the Modern World.

She had traveled through the North Pole without rest, killing four Homunculi in the process.

Then, she continued her travel to a certain desert in Africa, looking for more targets.

Not even once she stopped to eat or drink.

In fact, she barely even rested.

It was as if she was someone who couldn’t survive unless she focused her mind on something, charging straight ahead without thinking about anything but to hunt her targets.

When she got so tired that she couldn’t move on, she’d let herself collapse somewhere, take a nap, then continue the routine.

At this point, what she was doing couldn’t be considered as merely ‘hunting’ anymore.

What she was doing was the equivalent of a monk, purposely walking in a thorny path to wash away their past sins.

It was a reenactment of the time when her Master passed away, back when she was burying herself in magic research due to her grief.

This time, it was no different.

The reason why Amelia had passed out in the middle of the desert was because she was exhausted after triumphing over the Homunculus that lived there.

Her spirit body was extremely durable, but it didn’t grant her endless endurance or anything.

The fatigue and stress had already piled up considerably and it affected her badly this time around.

Because of her fatigue, the giant scorpion Homunculus that she faced managed to land a hit on her.

“Ugh…!”

Feeling the pain in her left arm, Amelia’s brows furrowed.

That jolted her consciousness awake from the futile dream she just had.

“...”

She looked down at her left arm, the source of her pain.

Part of her skin was torn, as if it was cut by a box knife.

Though it wasn’t her first time getting hurt…

It was the first time that he had received this kind of injury

Thanks to her autonomous self-defense, she didn’t end up bleeding out to death.

Still, the wound was so deep to the point that she could see her severed muscles and white bone just from a glance.

“It hurts…”

She muttered quietly as she stared at the wound. Despite her words, her general attitude made it seem like she was seeing someone else’s wounds.

The voice that she let out was so quiet that it was completely overpowered by the desert wind.

Then, she began to think about some dumb things, as dumb as the dream she just had prior to this.

If Siwoo were to see this, what would he think?

Would he pity me a little, seeing me suffer like this?

At least, will he treat me a little bit more kindly?

Before that train of thoughts continued on for long, Amelia stopped it.

Because thinking about it would only hurt her more.

Instead, she began to calm her nerves down, as she had started to feel wobbly and dizzy due to how much of a mess her mind was.

For the current Amelia, being able to think about complicated thoughts was a luxury she couldn’t afford.

Because there was a lot of work that needed to be done.

And so, put the problem that was ailing her mind ahead, something that had turned into her habit at this point, and raised her magic.

The reason why she had left her wound be before was because she was too exhausted to heal it, but now that she had rested enough, she promptly decided to fix it.

While the terrible wound was slowly healed, she took out the kill list.

The thick book could be called her responsibility now.

She stopped thinking about anything else except her ‘next’ target.

-Flap, flap!

All the Homunculi she faced so far were strong and difficult to subdue.

It was even more so for her, since she had zero experience in combat whatsoever due to her spending all her life solely for the sake of magic research.

While the previous battle was the first time she had ever got injured, there were plenty of times where one wrong move could end in her death.

Despite that, her heart never dropped as much as this time, when she found out the identity of her next target.

Because what was written on the list was not a Homunculus, but a ‘witch’.

3.

“Stop! I lost, I lost…!”

After killing the ‘Black Scorpion’ that was wandering around the desert…

Amelia was able to find her next target, the first Criminal Exile in the list, rather easily.

Letting out too much mana would only make the target hide.

So, she let out only enough to be perceived as a 16th or 17th ranked witch, so her target would think that she was an ‘easy prey’.

This was one thing that she learned during her past few hunting experiences.

And the strategy worked tremendously.

As she walked around the desert while disguising her rank, her target walked up to her on her own.

She was a 20th ranked witch.

‘Witch of Scorched Sand’, a witch who could utilize some tricky magic.

Her resistance wasn’t really something that was easy to deal with.

The amount of sand she could manipulate was practically uncountable, as she could control kilometers square worth of sand with ease, as if those sand were the extension of her body.

She used those sand, which hardness had been raised to the maximum, like tentacles, to bury Amelia deep underneath.

Like those legends depicting floating islands, a huge mound of sand came crashing down on Amelia, trying to crush her without even hiding their murderous intent.

Amelia herself wasn’t in the perfect condition.

Due to her injuries and fatigue, her body was in an immense amount of stress. Not only that, the mana in her brand was also unstable due to her getting to fight after fight without resting.

However, even with such a handicap, it still couldn’t make up the three ranks differences between the two of them.

While Amelia had broken to the 23rd rank, she was still unable to show power worthy of her rank.

But it still only took her three minutes to subdue the Witch of Scorched Sand.

That short fight left the Witch of Scorched Sand with a heavy injury while Amelia was staring down at her.

Particles of mana were floating around under Amelia’s command.

Those particles covered hundreds of meters of radius around them.

“I surrender! Please let me off just this once! I didn’t mean to offend you!”

“...”

After realizing her complete defeat, the Witch of Scorched Sand threw her hands in surrender.

The kill list in Amelia’s hands also listed all her targets’ evil deeds.

Not only was the witch in front of her a vile criminal who’d target apprentice witches and civilians, she’d also go out of her way to kill fellow witches.

“P-Please…! From now on, I’ll live quietly! I’ll never make trouble for anyone again, so please spare me! I promise I’ll compensate you!”

There was one thing that Amelia had to consider here.

If Amelia was actually as weak as her disguise was, the witch in front of her would definitely just kill her without even thinking twice.

It was only after she was facing certain death that the Witch of Scorched Sand said all those words.

Killing her wasn’t difficult for Amelia either; Just a single flick of finger would shut her bloody mouth forever.

Life would disappear from the witch’s eyes and she wouldn’t see her reflection on those pitiful eyes anymore.

She could even turn the hand that was holding onto her hem, along with the rest of her body, into the sand that she was so proud of.

It wasn’t like the witch in front of her was an innocent witch anyway.

She was a ‘Criminal Exile’, known for her madness and vile acts.

However, it was still hard for Amelia to just emotionlessly kill someone of the same kind as her.

Of course, this was a normal thing, as even the most arrogant witch would feel burdened morally if she were to commit fratricide like this.

Let alone someone like Amelia.

“P-Please… L-Let me go just this once…! I-If I die, my brand will also disappear, s-so, let me bring up an apprentice witch at least…! A-After that, I-I’ll quietly die by myself…”

Seeing that the terrifying witch in front of her seemingly hesitating, the Witch of Scorched Sand begged even more pitifully.

Meanwhile, Amelia could only bite her lips, unsure of what to do.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t murdered anyone before.

After all, she was the one who had turned Ea Sadalmelik into a pile of wildflowers.

However, that was only because she was unable to control her emotion after seeing Siwoo’s demise right in front of her.

Her hostility towards the Witch of Aquarius was also at its highest back then.

And she never gave any opportunity for the other witch to discuss about her remorse or whatnot, nor did she have the leisure or energy to.

But…

It wasn’t the case this time.

The witch in front of her realized that further resistance was futile, so she surrendered to her.

Killing someone who couldn’t harm her in the slightest would be a murder, not an enactment of justice.

Is she telling the truth?

If she really won’t do any more vile acts, then couldn’t I just let her live?

Besides, she was right, letting her pass on her brand to an apprentice witch wouldn’t be no different than killing her.

She began contemplating. Rather than picking the hard answer to just kill her, she could just take the easy one and let her live.

It wasn’t like she wanted to kill her in the first place.

Amelia truly believed that if killing Criminal Exile could truly be considered as justice, then someone else should just enact that kind of justice instead of her.

But, this conflict in her heart gave birth to negligence.

The witch had already gotten closer to her, wrapping her hands around her ankle.

-Snap!

Since she was in a daze, Amelia snapped her fingers in reflex.

She thought the sudden touch was an attack from the other witch.

“Plea…”

Just like that, the whole situation had ended.

The seeds of mana that had already penetrated every nook and cranny of the witch’s body, resonated with Amelia’s mana.

Using all the witch’s mana and life force, they bloomed into pretty-looking flowers all at once.

The Witch of Scorched Sand left the world without even being able to leave out a final message.

“Ah…”

Amelia stared at the hands that were wrapped around her ankle.

Compared to the rest of the witch’s body, her hands were a distance away from the center of her body, so they remained intact, up to her wrists.

Though, the rest of her body was filled with so much flower that Amelia felt if she were to remove the hands away, they’d immediately be devoured by those flowers.

It was only when she saw this that she realized.

I killed her?

The witch was someone she had to kill.

In exchange for Siwoo’s live, Duchess Keter demanded her to kill everyone in the kill list, including the Criminal Exile in front of her.

She knew that if she didn’t fulfill that deal, the Duchess might have just taken Siwoo’s life again in retaliation.

After all, she was Duchess Keter, someone who was fair and unrelenting, cold and merciless.

She had no lenience to let anyone in the list off in the first place.

“Aaa…u…urgk—!”

But, despite all that…

Her tears, that she thought she could no longer let out again, came rushing out of her eyes, accompanied by a nauseous feeling.

Amelia held the hands holding her ankle.

Then, she forcefully ripped them away from her.

Still, the lingering sensation she felt in her ankle felt as if it would drag her down into the abyss.

For a good while after that, she let out the content of the stomach onto the sand.

***

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