༺ Those Who Almost Lost a Loved One (4) ༻
1.
Eloa Tiphereth, the Duchess Tiphereth.
A hundred years ago, she had lost her apprentice witch to the Witch of Aquarius.
At one point, she created the Witch Point.
Siwoo had heard quite a bit about her from Sharon, but this was the first time he and the Duchess herself had a proper conversation.
They interacted at the mall before, but it was too one-sided to be called a conversation.
So, he took this chance to observe Eloa more closely.
Her hair was in a shade of pink that he had never seen before, even in Gehenna, where witches with plethora of hair colors were wandering around.
He’d occasionally spot people with the exact shade of pink hair in Sinchon or Hongdae, though…
But none of them looked as good with it as the Duchess.
Her lips were small, and tightly shut, her eyebrows looked stiff, giving off a serious vibe, but it looked neatly groomed.
Overall, she gave off a serious, mature impression, but he noticed that she was smaller in build than expected.
Roughly, she was taller than the twins, but a little bit shorter than Amelia.
She also looked younger than he expected, but that was because of her eye and hair color.
He made such an evaluation that didn’t match the situation at all, but his point was, Eloa was undeniably beautiful.
Her beauty was out of this world.
At that moment, her petal-like lips were opened. Siwoo eagerly waited for the question that would come out of her mouth, but more time passed in silence.
“Oh, wait, am I supposed to ask first?”
“Yeah. My apologies, I didn’t explain everything properly…”
Since that was the case, Siwoo decided to not waste any more time and spoke up.
‘Yeah, she’s pretty and all, but…’
‘I still have something to ask, even if it risked upsetting her…’
“There was a misunderstanding between us, and I understand that, but was it necessary to suddenly attack me like that? And it wasn’t just me, you even brought harm to others too… Sure, I get it, there’s a chance that I’m connected with the incident and all, but why did you attack the other witch? For what reason?”
The initial shock of meeting her wore off, and he finally had the time to think calmly. A surge of resentment toward her burst forward.
Back then, he was using the ribbons, and his face was hidden by his helmet, so it was a given that she’d mistook the situation.
However, Sharon had to bear the consequences because of her mistake.
“…Whether it was a misunderstanding or not, we’ll find out now, but it was true that I suspected you as Ea Sadalmelik herself…or at least is associated with her. Meanwhile, I suspected the witch in question as a third party posing as an obstruction or collaborator. That’s why I restrained her.”
“So, are you trying to say that you’re planning to harm Sharon— No, the green-haired witch earlier too?”
The Duchess, trying to seek her revenge in the modern world for her loved one to the point of almost losing her sanity.
Siwoo could understand that much.
Besides, he only experienced a brief moment of pain back then. Now, his body was fully healed, and he received no significant psychological shock either.
But Sharon looked pretty traumatized by it.
So, he had no intention of forgiving Eloa easily for what she had done.
“One question at a time.”
“Feel free to ask me anything.”
“…”
In response to his decisive words, the Duchess only stayed silent. After a while, she finally spoke up.
By this time, Siwoo had also cooled his head down and crossed his arms.
He knew that letting his emotions take over wouldn’t lead to anything good.
“What is your relationship with Ea Sadalmelik?”
“I hate that bitch. She barged in, gouged my eyes and even left me in a coma with a head injury.”
His response was straightforward.
He really hated Ea.
Not only was she a murderer, she was also the one who gouged his left eye.
The mere thought of her face was enough to bring back the excruciating pain he had endured.
When he finished uttering his sharp response, one of the three gleaming letters suddenly faded away.
Eloa watched the letter with trembling eyes.
The exchange of questions and answers was meant to establish trust and prove that there were no lies between them.
Now that she found out the truth, she felt perplexed, and disoriented.
Siwoo then posed another question.
“The same question as before. Did you plan on hurting Sharon back then?”
“I…wasn’t that ruthless…I just wanted to scare her a little and make her confess the truth, but—”
“But you ended up hurting her badly. Do you know how much she cried when she came back home?”
“…”
“Anyway, I don’t have anything else to ask. Just ask me the rest of your questions.”
Eloa felt pressured, as if she was being backed into a corner.
Her confident demeanor had disappeared, and she seemed visibly shaken.
“…Then, why are you using Ea Sadalmelik’s self-essence magic? And you also used my apprentice witch’s—”
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. When I woke up after being in a coma for a few months, I already had that magic in my brand. Honestly, I didn’t even know that the other magic was your apprentice’s magic. Hell, before today, I couldn’t even identify what kind of magic it was.”
“…”
Siwoo spilled out a lot of details, even including things that Eloa hadn’t asked.
Even if he didn’t appreciate the Duchess’ attitude and behavior, he didn’t want them to have any bad bloods remaining.
That was why he was dead set to clear up all possible misunderstandings while he had the chance.
Eloa quickly turned her head to look at the letters that were floating around.
Once again, one of the shining letters disappeared.
‘His words…are true…’
Her covenant created a space where it was impossible for someone to lie.
It also had a strong control over people.
One could say that it had a robust mechanism that cut through sly and deceitful maneuvers to bypass through the covenant.
In other words, Siwoo really was hostile against Ea, and he himself didn’t know why he could control the aforementioned self-essence magics.
The issue here was that his explanation wasn’t very clear.
If he had just explained how he got the magic, it might have made more sense, but he only said, ‘I don’t remember’.
Depending on one’s perspective, it was an ambiguous response that hovered between the lines of innocence and guilt.
“I’ll ask one final question…are you still suspicious of me?”
Siwoo gulped nervously and asked.
When he was answering her previous question, he realized that there was a chance that the Duchess would take his answer the wrong way.
There was a visible perplexion in her face as she began to answer him.
“I don’t know…seriously, I don’t know…”
Eloa had encountered all kinds of people in her life.
Some were purely evil.
While some possessed a kind-hearted nature, always looking out for others.
There were also people who adapted and made compromises based on the situation that they faced.
With just a brief conversation, she could easily gauge someone’s character.
And based on her assessment, Siwoo was definitely a virtuous person.
The reason why he was angry at her was not because he was hurt, but because his friend was almost hurt.
Everyone around him also said that he was someone who would never do something heinous.
When she considered his confession, she really felt that he was merely an innocent victim who was caught up in a series of unfortunate things rather than someone with ulterior motives.
“One last question—”
“Siwoo? Why are you taking so long?”
When Eloa was about to ask her last question, the rooftop door swung open, and someone came in.
It was the witch that she met on the mall’s rooftop, the same one who pleaded for Siwoo’s life while handing over a card.
“H-Huh?! W-Why are you here again—?!”
The moment the witch saw Eloa, her expression turned serious.
She quickly summoned her wand and positioned herself in front of Siwoo, trying to protect him.
Though she already knew that even with both of them there was no chance that they were winning this fight, she still threw her body to defend him from any harm and bared her fangs at Eloa.
“Siwoo, get out of here! I’ll handle this—!”
““…””
When Sharon saw Eloa, she thought the latter had returned to kill Siwoo again.
But, seeing no reaction from either of them, she quickly looked back and forth between the pair.
Then, she discreetly put her wand away.
“H-Hey, what’s going on? A-Am I misunderstanding something…?”
“Uh…yeah…I guess…?”
Eloa looked at Siwoo with determined eyes.
The covenant letters floating around her were absorbed into the sword and disappeared.
She had no more questions for him.
“I’m sorry.”
Suddenly, she kneeled in front of the two, catching them off guard.
They said that someone’s behavior and actions could be understood through the evaluations of those around them, rather than the person themselves.
If Siwoo’s words were the only thing that she considered, there were still a lot of suspicious points that she could point out.
However, when there wasn’t just one, but four people fervently defended him, everything became clear.
‘This man really has nothing to do with Ea…’
‘Even if there is, he is just one of her victims…’
“Please forgive me for jumping to conclusions without knowing the full story. But…I’m unsure on how to make amends for my unjust actions…to the person next to you…”
She didn’t only kneel, she also bowed her head all the way to the floor.
Her hair spread out like a fan on the floor.
“It’s shameful…and inexcusable…please tell me how I can make it up for you…”
“T-There’s no need to go to such lengths…”
“Y-Yeah! I-I’m already over it by now!”
Both Siwoo and Sharon were in a panic, not knowing what to do.
Siwoo didn’t have any negative feelings towards Eloa in the first place.
Yes, he got hurt, and yes he was angry at her because she hurted Sharon, but her actions had been far more humane than most of the witches he had ever met.
And Sharon felt the same way as him.
Anyone would grieve the loss of a loved one.
However, not anyone could just spend their entire fortune and risk their life to capture all the Homunculi and the criminal Exiles so that no one would go through the same pain as them.
Even when considering that there was a misunderstanding between them, the Duchess had already humbled herself by kneeling down and apologizing.
So, there was no reason to resent her anymore.
“Please stand up, Ma’am… The misunderstanding has been resolved, and I accept your apology… I’m already over it too by now…”
“Forgive me, but please, let me stay like this…”
Siwoo bent down to lift her up, but she refused to budge.
‘She’s strong.’
He gestured to Sharon with his eyes, and she hurriedly ran over and joined him.
“Duchess Tiphereth, please raise your head… I’m sure what happened today was very, very upsetting to you… And I forgive you…”
Sharon lifted her up, and she finally raised her head.
Seeing her face, both of them were taken aback.
Because in her serious, and strong eyes, her tears were welling up.
They didn’t expect her to be crying, as the voice that she let out was clear without even a hint of a sob.
“It’s my fault…it’s all because of my incompetence and foolishness… No matter how much I apologize, there’s no way I can make up for my actions…for using the person that you love as a shield to satisfy my selfishness…”
“T-The person that I love—?!”
Sharon repeated her words, clearly flustered.
Then, after a brief hesitation, she kneeled in front of her.
She reached out her arms and pulled the Duchess into a hug.
The latter’s body trembled as she accepted Sharon’s embrace.
‘Is it okay if I were to do this…?’
As someone who knew of her sad past, Sharon wished to provide a small comfort for her.
“It’s okay, please don’t cry… Everyone makes mistakes sometimes…”
“I’m sorry…sorry…I did things that should have never been done…”
“No, no, it’s really okay…”
Before Sharon knew it, her own tears started to well up too.
The interrogation that had started abruptly came to an end with a scene that was similar to a reunion of separated families.
