1.
"Haah…! Haah…!"
A breeze bruised past Amelia's ear.
Her rushing footsteps, without any particular destination in mind, eventually stumbled upon a rock.
In that moment, her autonomous defense magic kicked in, shattered the rock and turned it into dust. But, because she was running at high speed, she fell down.
Amelia's body rolled down the steep path.
She wasn't injured, but her whole body became covered in dirt.
From her elegant and silky hair to the delicate hem of her dress.
She lifted herself up from the ground.
Siwoo's terrifying expression still lingered inside her mind like a ghost.
'Are you relieved now that you've crushed even my last hope? Well, if your goal is to make me suffer then, congratulations.'
'What the hell do you want from me?'
'If it's about me hurting your pathetic pride five years ago, then I'm sorry. But, if you're going to keep tormenting me with nonsensical excuses like this, I'd rather you kill me right now instead.'
He expressed his anger without holding anything back.
In an expression she had never seen before, in a tone and voice she had never heard before.
His gaze was filled with resentment and hatred.
Amelia was so overwhelmed by it and ended up fleeing the scene.
"Ugh…"
She felt a sharp pain in her chest.
Before she realized it, her hand was clutching her clothes tightly.
It was like a heavy weight had fallen upon her.
No words came out of her mouth. Her thoughts filled with her desire to escape and hide.
Siwoo's actions were a clear act of disrespect.
Not only did he raise his voice in front of the witch, he also swore and showed signs of violence.
It was absolutely unforgivable behavior.
"How dare… A mere slave…"
If only by spitting out such words she could untie the tangled emotions at the bottom of her heart.
She quickly realized the truth after pondering the meaning of the words she just uttered with such difficulty.
Those words were meaningless.
Despite how much she wanted to snap back at him, venting her frustration over his rudeness…
She couldn't bear to do it.
Each time, his gaze came to her mind.
His eyes, filled with anger and moistened with tears.
He was crying.
Even Amelia could understand that his tears were born from his anger, resentment and sorrow.
Normally, she wouldn't be bothered much even if someone were to show her their resentment.
She wasn't one to care about what others think about her.
But, Siwoo was different.
'Were you that angry at me?'
'Did you really hate me that much?'
It was too difficult for her to accept the fact that she herself was the cause of his anger and the target of his deep resentment.
"Master…"
Amelia brushed off the dirt from her clothes as she stood up.
White particles began to swirl around her and enveloped her surroundings.
She missed her master.
She wanted to leave everything behind and run.
Then, her body disappeared in an instant, leaving behind the autumn wind.
2.
"Hey, I'm not done talking yet!"
When Amelia started to run away, Siwoo chased after her.
However, her mana enhanced footsteps were so fast that she disappeared from his sight in less than 10 seconds.
With his final flicker of hope extinguished, Siwoo's eyes were filled with despair as he entered Amelia's room.
"Fuck! I endured everything for five years, but the moment I spoke a little about my grudge, she threw a fucking fit!"
In her room was a display of expensive-looking whiskey bottles.
He took one of them and poured the content into his mouth as he tried to release his frustration.
This was no different than him ransacking a witch's belongings, but he was already at the point of no return.
Since he had already lashed out at her, the possibility of Amelia forgiving him was infinitely slim.
There was no way someone as prideful as Amelia would forgive a slave who insulted her right to her face.
The probability of it happening was lower than Takasho turning into a girl to suck his dick.
Nevertheless, he felt somewhat relieved.
'If there's one thing that I regret, it's that I couldn't curse at her more before she ran away.'
After all the torments he had to go through because of her, she had the audacity to run away as soon as she heard him insulting her. Such cowardice was something that Siwoo couldn't appreciate.
Nevertheless, she'd return eventually.
'Maybe I'll be demoted to a slave under the City Hall again to pay the price for my rudeness to her.'
'Then, I'll end up being sold to a wicked witch and die.'
"Fucking bitch."
Siwoo poured almost half of the whiskey down his throat, but not before he gagged twice or thrice.
The alcohol was strong.
His anger fused with the alcohol that entered his system, making it practically impossible for him to return to sobriety.
As he pondered how to give Amelia a taste of her own medicine since he was going to die anyway, he found some of her research materials on her table.
'It isn't much compared to what she had done, but she'll definitely be pissed off if I were to throw those papers away, won't she?'
"Fuck off, you bitch, let me bless your precious research materials with my glorious urine."
Siwoo, who was pulling down his pants so that he could pee on the stack of papers, barely managed to stop himself with his dick still sticking out.
"…Let's just stop."
Still, as a scholar himself, there was a moral code that he didn't want to cross.
After all that happened, that wicked witch Amelia still refrained from confiscating Siwoo's research paper.
If she had planned to do so, she would have disposed it white Siwoo was still sleeping.
There was no need for her to spread the paper around his bed.
However, that didn't mean he would forgive her.
He made an oath to God.
When Amelia returned, he would smash her head with the whiskey bottle, no matter what the consequences were.
"Amelia, you fucking bitch… Stupid blonde-haired cunt…! I bet even the hair on your pussy is as thorny as your heart is!"
Siwoo plopped down on the table as he unleashed a torrent of curses at Amelia.
Even after he downed half a bottle of whiskey, somehow his mind was still clear.
It was then that he realized his anger had overcome the effect of the alcohol.
"Fuck, I don't need that kind of realization…"
As Siwoo let out a deep sigh, his attention was caught by a piece of paper.
It wasn't a part of Amelia's research material.
The paper was filled with dense lines of texts, its corner was peeking out from under the pile of other papers.
"…"
He pulled on that corner to see its contents.
On it, there were various traces of words being erased and changed.
Some parts of the words were crossed out with two lines while others were so scribbled that it was impossible to read them.
"She did the same damn thing again…"
At the end of his venomous words, there was a hint of shock in his voice.
The reason was because of the words written on the paper.
Although it seemed to be hastily written, their purpose was clear.
It was to rehearse the words that she wanted to say to Siwoo.
Everything was written in great detail from her plan to compensate him to her plan for the future. She even wrote down some responses if he were to reject her offer.
The responses she wrote were based on his possible reactions.
Moreover, there were several sentences at the top of the paper that were crossed with a big X.
'I sincerely apologize for all the torment I've put you through.'
Along with several strokes crossing out the other lines, underneath those words were…
'It was an administrative mistake that arranged you to live at the barn. I didn't mean to make you live there. I'm truly sorry for that as well. I'll compensate you…'
More strokes crossed out the words next to that line…
After numerous revisions, a single sentence was firmly written on the paper.
'I deeply apologize.'
This time, there were no strokes or cross marks on the sentence.
Siwoo put the paper back to its original place, as if he hadn't seen anything.
"Fuck, I hate this kind of thing."
His mind suddenly became complicated.
It felt like he was watching a superhero movie that tried too hard to include adults as its target.
After the hero defeated the villain, it turned out that the villain wasn't a bad guy, he was just forced to be one because of the circumstances…
Exactly the kind of movie that pissed off viewers because they forcibly inserted those inexplicable reasons.
Of course, that didn't mean his anger toward her had subsided.
He was just surprised.
In his mind, Amelia was like a knife, sharp and edgy.
To others, they always thought that she was a perfect being.
To Siwoo, she was cold-blooded, shameless and above all, she seemed like someone who wouldn't flinch even if you stabbed her with a needle.
'Looking at the note, she seems like an extremely introverted girl who wrote down all the things she wanted to say before going outside to talk to other people. She even wrote down specific instructions on how to handle certain situations during her talk.'
However, that alone didn't mean that all Amelia's sins were absolved.
The torment she inflicted on Siwoo was deliberate and a piece of paper wasn't enough to make him forgive her.
And, even if she genuinely regretted her actions, it didn't matter in the end.
After all, Siwoo still ended up suffering as the victim in this case.
"If that's the case, wouldn't it make sense for her to apologize first?"
'It would have been easier for her if she were to apologize first instead of spouting nonsense about taking me on as her disciple.'
After some contemplation, Siwoo realized something.
Since Amelia couldn't be stupid enough to not understand that.
'It means there's another issue, that damn pathetic pride of hers.'
Unable to overcome her own pride, she hesitated and tried to beat around the bush until Siwoo ended up exploding in anger.
"That means it isn't my fault."
Even saying those words left him a bitter taste.
Siwoo tidied up Amelia's table, which he had previously messed up, and walked out of the room.
He decided to meet up with Takasho first.
'I don't know what will happen next, but I should at least bid my only friend goodbye first.'
Since he didn't want to come empty-handed, he twisted open another bottle of whiskey from Amelia's stash and walked down to the dimly lit hallway.
The hallway felt eerie for some reason.
Suddenly, he noticed a small table tucked away in a corner.
It was the place where Amelia offered him cakes and cigarettes out of nowhere.
Even until now, he didn't understand why she did that.
'Maybe she wanted to apologize to me?'
"No way."
Amelia really was someone whose actions were unpredictable to him.
-Knock, knock, knock.
Suddenly there was a knocking sound.
It wasn't a sound of someone twisting the doorknob, but someone lightly tapping on the door with their hand.
'Who?'
Confused, Siwoo contemplated whether he should open the door or not.
Since the person came to look for Amelia at this hour, they should be most likely either a witch or one of her guests.
After everything that happened, Siwoo's position became ambiguous. He didn't even know whether it was okay or not for him to receive her guests.
But, he didn't have to contemplate for long.
The door wasn't locked in the first place, so the person who knocked had opened it without waiting for permission.
Moonlight seeped through the gap in the now-open door.
As expected, the person who stepped into the mansion under the dazzling light was a woman.
"Hello."
The slender, short-haired woman took off her gloves and greeted him with an elegant and noble gesture.
Her black hair was neatly styled.
The slit in her blood red eyes made them look like a pair of cat eyes.
Despite that, it didn't blemish their beauty. It glimmered like a ruby, albeit a cursed ruby would be a more appropriate expression.
A curse that would bring destruction to the unlucky person who held it in their hands.
Siwoo felt a shiver running down his spine.
He didn't know why.
But, his instincts were screaming at him that the person in front of him was dangerous.
"Is Baroness Marigold home?"
The witch's voice, accompanied with a soft giggle, echoed through the hallway.