City of Witches

༺ Friendship?? (1) ༻

1.

Despite its monstrous appearance, the monster’s head was quite vulnerable.

Using his spear, Siwoo plunged it into the center of the creature’s forehead (or somewhere close to it). It didn’t even shriek, rather it twitched once before dying.

As light vanished from its eight eyeballs, its flesh began to melt.

The tar-like, dark body almost liquified, slipping through the crevices amidst the debris.

Among the swirling black liquid, Siwoo’s and Sharon’s gazes were drawn to a certain glimmering object.

Eyeballs— No, they were crystals that were embedded in the body of the Mother Homunculus.

“Ah… Ah! Ah!”

“Sharon, quick! Pick them up!”

Having stood by Siwoo’s side the whole time, fearing that the Mother Homunculus might cause one final round of chaos, Sharon suddenly cried out.

In her panic, she swiftly gathered the crystals, while Siwoo rushed over to help her.

He didn’t want these valuable crystals, even more valuable than gold, to vanish into the building’s cracks.

This reminded him of a certain scene in Spirited Away.

For a while, they were occupied with collecting the crystals.

Because of Siwoo’s clumsy use of his telekinesis, they ended up spending a full two hours to collect everything.

In total, they managed to gather around 4,091 crystals.

According to Sharon, they weighed around 5,4 kilograms.

Which meant, they could get 5,4 billion won if they were to exchange it at the Witch Point.

“F-Five… B-Billion…”

After confirming the final count, Sharon staggered with her mouth agape.

Siwoo expected she’d be jumping for joy, but it seemed like the huge amount of money just left her dumbfounded instead.

When her body started to wobble, Siwoo lent support by holding her in the waist.

“Earning five billion… Is like… Working 600,000 hours at the convenience store…”

“H-Hey, snap out of it!”

“I’m going crazy… Oh, I’m so happy… What do I do…?”

The huge amount of money, equivalent to winning the lottery, wasn’t the only thing that they got. Siwoo actually stumbled upon something else.

A heart-shaped piece near the Homunculus’ heart.

Every part of the Homunculus, save for the crystals and this piece had melted already at this point.

As he watched Sharon’s half-ecstatic, half-fainting state, he also gazed at the heart in his hand. There was a complicated emotion in his face.

Its size barely matched his fist, but it looked incredibly eerie.

If he were to place it in a glass case, it’d resemble a preserved heart specimen.

“What do you think this is, Sharon?”

“I don’t know… Ehe… Ehehe… Five billion…”

Laughing joyously, she clung to Siwoo as if she was high on morphine.

Their skinship wasn’t excessive, but he could feel her soft chest pressing against his arms as she embraced him tightly.

“Haah…”

Seeing her so happy made him chuckle involuntarily.

In his opinion, she did deserve this kind of reward in her life.

While he was thinking as such, Sharon, who had been giggling uncontrollably, suddenly stiffened up.

“Oh…!”

She remembered something.

Della.

Because of her loss to Della, she had lost her hunting ground.

Which meant, if they lingered here any longer, she might silently swoop in and snatch away all their spoils.

“I-I can’t let that happen…”

Noticing her suddenly trembling like a squirrel, Siwoo looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Let’s go back. Quickly.”

“Why? Is something wrong?”

Sharon instantly regretted her words.

If she were to mention Della’s name here, it’d blow her cover of having seen through his lies to her.

Therefore, she quickly straightened up and acted nonchalant.

“Ah, well… I’m just tired. Let’s go home, watch a movie and get some late-night snacks.”

“But you told me you’d be treating me to dinner tonight.”

“Then, tell me what you want to eat! I’ll treat you! I want to take a shower first though.”

She spread her arms, as if to showcase her appearance.

Her body was covered in soot and dust.

Similarly, Siwoo also looked as disheveled as she was. They both chuckled heartily at each other’s messy state.

In any case, their hardship ended here.

They went back home together, leaving behind the Interdimensional Barrier that was gradually shrinking and vanishing.

2.

On their way back home, they decided to prepare a feast.

They chose a famous jokbal¹Korean dish consisting of pig’s trotters cooked with soy sauce and spices. restaurant known for its delicious food, and ordered half-half jokbal²Jokbal, but they divided it to half smeared with soy sauce and the other half with spices. and mak-guksu³Korean buckwheat noodle, because they didn’t want to eat exclusively heavy food. Not only that, they also ordered a full plate of spicy tteokbokki⁴Spicy rice cakes for some heat. And since they thought that they’d need something refreshing after the hot dishes, they added a serving of tuna sashimi.

Finally, they ordered ice cream for dessert.

As they sat at the table, enjoying their meal, they began discussing the issue of the crystal distribution.

“No, I can’t possibly take all of them for myself…”

“Yes, you can. I already told you, I’m happy enough to see my magic improve.”

Naturally, Siwoo stated that he’d hand over everything to Sharon.

Since he had Countess Gemini’s black card in his possession, he didn’t need to fret over money.

Besides, he also didn’t care much about money.

“I’m not pressed for money, so it’s only fair that you, someone who needs it more than me, gets all of them. Besides, I really don’t see the point in having more money when I’m already living so comfortably.”

“B-But… You did all the hard work… It just doesn’t seem right for me to take everything like this… Siwoo, can you reconsider…?”

“If you hadn’t taught me Elemental Magic, I’d end up as a dog food today.”

He was telling her the truth.

The reason why he could come up with adding weight to his Law of Shadow was because of Sharon’s teaching.

“Still… this is way too burdensome for me…”

She already felt apologetic when he offered her a hundred million won worth of crystals back in the department store. But, she could still make-do with that amount.

However, the number suddenly spiked to 5,4 billion won.

This much alone could cover a tenth of her total debt.

It wasn’t strange for her to feel uncomfortable over receiving this much favor out of his goodwill.

That was why she expressed her concern over this matter, multiple times, but Siwoo kept reassuring her that it was okay, and encouraged her to accept it.

In the end, their bickering ended with Sharon’s tears.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. I mean what I said… Wait, why are you crying?!”

“…Sniff… Y-You really are a nice person… T-Thank you… Thank you so much…”

“Okay, okay, if you’re so thankful, what about making me a sandwich in return?”

“…S-Sure… I-I’ll make you one…”

With her tears still streaming down her face, she skillfully prepared an exquisite sandwich for him, layering sliced pork trotters on lettuce and perilla leaves, topping it with noodles and fresh garlic.

‘This is…’

Meanwhile, Siwoo was experiencing a mix of emotions; Embarrassment, pride, and a sense of contentment as he watched Sharon’s overwhelming joy and tearful gratitude.

“Ah… Sniff…”

When he took a big bite of the Sandwich she handed him…

Suddenly, Sharon hugged his head gently from behind.

Her soft breasts supported the back of his head like a cushion. When he looked up, tears fell onto his forehead.

“T-Thank you… Siwoo…”

The beaming smile on her face was truly a sight to behold.

3.

After the meal, Siwoo swiftly cleared the table and placed the heart-shaped object he had found on it.

Though it glowed with a faint red hue and appeared like a living heart, it didn’t seem to move, nor did it emit any scent.

“What could this be?”

Initially, he assumed that it was a legacy, but he didn’t know for sure.

Even Sharon couldn’t figure out what it really was after examining it for a while.

“This doesn’t seem to be an Egg of Gnosis… But it doesn’t seem like a legacy either…”

Legacies that dropped from a Homunculus usually had distinct appearances that could reveal their purpose.

For example, if it was a rare potion, it’d look like a potion, if it was an artifact, it’d look like an artifact, Egg of Gnosis would look like an act, and research papers would be research papers.

Even after more meticulous examination, they still couldn’t find out its purpose.

“Should we just cut it open?”

“Is that even okay to do?”

“I mean, it isn’t like we can find its purpose like this.”

Both of them shared their opinions.

And finally they decided to split the heart-shaped object open.

Siwoo extracted a bit of his shadow and created a scalpel out of it to cut the heart.

Contrary to its appearance, it had more of a stony texture than flesh, so he needed a considerable force to split it open.

“Hmm…”

When they managed to slice it open, something appeared out of it.

“Is this… A crystal?”

A Homunculus crystal.

Quite a big one, about 5 cm in diameter.

They expected something amazing to come out of it, but it turned out to be just a crystal.

“Well, I was excited for nothing.”

“…”

However, Sharon examined the crystal even further. She held it up to the light and saw it from different angles.

Suddenly, her expression turned serious.

“Hm? Did you notice something strange?”

“Yeah. This thing is a little weird.”

“What about it is weird?”

“Normally, when a Homunculus dies, the body slowly disappears except for the legacy it possesses and its crystal, just like what we saw today.”

“Okay…”

Sharon set the crystal aside and inspected the split heart on the table.

“But for some reason, this thing remains intact. It isn’t a crystal or a legacy.”

As Siwoo lacked a broad understanding of magic, he struggled to comprehend Sharon’s words.

With a serious expression, she continued to talk.

“Someone must be behind this.”

“…Someone?”

“Yeah. I don’t know who it is, but they did something to this crystal. Due to interference from the outside, even if the Homunculus dies, it won’t disappear.”

“Are you trying to say that they were using the heart to control that Homunculus?”

“Could be, but we can’t be too sure of that. It could be there to enhance its power, there are endless possibilities… But, judging from the crystal wrapped inside its heart… It involves some ritualistic enhancement through human sacrifice…”

Then, she began to dissect the heart bit by bit.

Hearing such a serious matter coming out of her mouth, Siwoo opened his eyes wide.

“Human sacrifice?”

“Yeah, most likely… A ‘Criminal’ must be behind this. Anyone can tell that this is a human’s heart.”

“…Well, not me, apparently.”

The split heart suddenly appeared grotesque to him.

‘I knew it seemed too small as the heart of that enormous monster. But, fucking hell, it’s actually a human’s heart?’

“Well we don’t need to overthink about it. I just need to report it to the Witch Point tomorrow while exchanging the crystals.”

“Really…?”

“Yes. I’ll take care of the matter from now on. You should take a good rest, you’ve been through quite a lot.”

Sharon was correct.

Siwoo was completely drained, both mentally and physically. He didn’t even have the energy left to think about anything else.

Considering the day’s hustle, taking a night off without overthinking things would be ideal for him.

Rather, it was a much needed reward for him.

“Still up for a movie night?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, I’ll take a warm shower first.”

“What do you want to watch, though?”

“It’s been a hectic day today, so let’s watch something calming. What do you think?”

“Sure, I’m down.”

Having decided what they wanted to watch, Sharon headed to the bathroom for a shower while Siwoo sprawled on the sofa while sipping a chilled beer.

Footnotes:

• 1Korean dish consisting of pig’s trotters cooked with soy sauce and spices.
• 2Jokbal, but they divided it to half smeared with soy sauce and the other half with spices.
• 3Korean buckwheat noodle
• 4Spicy rice cakes