Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Amelia Merrygold (2)
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Amelia trudged back to her dormitory.
The entire way from the library to the dorm, Sophia had been cawing noisily, and now she followed her inside.
Normally, Amelia would have silenced her with magic for being so loud, but right now, she didn't have the energy for it.
What?
Why?
How come?
These three questions spun relentlessly through her mind in a fierce rotation, appearing and vanishing.
Amelia headed straight for the bathroom and turned on the magically conjured shower, dousing herself from the head down.
Sophia's crow used its beak to fill the sink with water, then flapped its wings happily as it bathed.
"Amelia, are you mad?"
Amelia had no experience with men.
She'd never even thought about having sex.
She barely understood what sexual desire even was.
She had no intention of doing anything strange when inviting the slave to her dorm.
She'd just planned to offer him some tea since it was late, and maybe give him some advice on how to survive going forward.
She never imagined he wouldn't even accept the invitation.
Amelia was a witch, and the man was a slave.
Wasn't it because of the vast gap in their status that she couldn't tempt him?
"I'm not mad."
"Your voice sounds really mad."
"Avenuga, I'm telling you, I'm not mad. And how long do you plan on staying here?"
"Okay, okay. I'll just wash up a bit and go. You know crows like to stay clean, right?"
Seeing the crow splashing around so casually only made Amelia even angrier.
The fact that Sophia of all people had witnessed her earlier disgrace burned her up inside.
Sophia tried to comfort her with nonsense.
"Maybe he was just intimidated because you're so beautiful?"
"Can't you shut your mouth for once?"
"Sure."
Amelia trembled with rage at Sophia annoyingly clamping her beak shut.
If Sophia hadn't come nagging her at the research building, she wouldn't have gone through this, would she?
Amelia clenched her fists tight.
She wanted to grab that crow by the neck and squeeze, but she couldn't bring herself to do something so undignified.
"Why..."
Amelia bit the inside of her lip in confusion.
The crow, who had been splashing around for a while, stared intently at Amelia.
Sophia had become a witch about twenty years before Amelia.
The previous Avenuga and Merrygold had been close, and after inheriting the witch's stigma, Sophia had quickly absorbed the previous generation's knowledge. She'd even taught the little apprentice witch Amelia various spells.
Because of all that, Amelia, who had been entangled with her in so many ways, was like a little sister to Sophia.
Not that Amelia appreciated the treatment.
Sophia watched Amelia, who devoted herself to magic research as if her life depended on it every single day, never indulging in anything fun.
The various escapades Sophia suggested all stemmed from a well-meaning desire to show Amelia joys beyond magic.
"Ugh..."
Seeing Amelia clawing at her hair, Sophia figured today was a lost cause.
She never dreamed that slave would reject a witch's—Amelia's, no less—offer to attend her at night.
Sophia didn't know the slave's exact intentions, but Amelia seemed utterly shocked by the refusal.
"Amelia."
"What!"
"Don't take it too hard."
Amelia, who had been groaning, glared at Sophia with a huff.
"This is all your fault!"
Amelia pointed accusingly, unable to contain her frustration like a child.
It was the first time Sophia had seen her like this since she became a witch.
"Why did you have to goad me into..."
To Sophia, Amelia was still like a flower in a greenhouse that hadn't even gone through puberty.
She mimicked her elegant, refined, chaste mentor perfectly on the surface, but she hadn't developed a mature sense of self yet.
There was a good reason for that.
After the previous Merrygold died and Amelia inherited the stigma, Sophia—who had been playing the role of babysitter—left for the mortal world.
It was a very long journey.
Escaping Gehenna's cage-like confines, she spent long years accumulating experiences, witnessing history unfold in the wide world, and slaying the homunculi monsters born from the Creation Witch.
Though she hadn't advanced her magical hierarchy even a single step, it had been truly happy and fulfilling days.
After that long journey.
Returning to Gehenna after 140 years, Sophia went straight to find Amelia.
'Long time no see, Avenuga.'
The Amelia she reunited with wore a much stiffer expression and rarely smiled anymore.
Yes.
She was like a doll.
The place where Sophia reunited with Amelia was the cabin in the woods where Amelia had lived with the previous Merrygold.
The unchanged cabin reeked of Amelia's longing for her mentor.
There, Amelia researched magic.
Of course, it wasn't strange for a witch to research magic.
But Amelia was excessively devoted to magic alone.
She formed no relationships with anyone, spoke to no one.
For over a century, she had shut herself in a small room, burning everything she had for magic.
Sophia realized Amelia's obsession with magic wasn't born from mere curiosity.
Amelia had always been awkward at making friends.
Her mentor, who was like a parent, had suddenly vanished, and even Sophia, the one person she'd opened her heart to, had left for the mortal world.
Alone, Amelia had chosen magic—the thing she'd always been insecure about as an apprentice witch—as the way to sublimate her grief and loneliness.
Endlessly whipping herself.
Amelia, who had been deemed utterly talentless as a witch, drove herself relentlessly until she raised two hierarchies in just 140 years.
How lonely must she have been?
How painful?
How hard?
'Why are you crying?'
Sophia tightly hugged Amelia, who was buried in a pile of papers while wearing the witch's robes her mentor had left her.
Amelia pushed her away as if the contact was unpleasant, but Sophia refused to let go.
What if she'd taken Amelia to the mortal world instead?
What if she'd returned to Gehenna for Amelia's sake at least once, instead of getting lost in the mystical new world?
The regret was immense.
'Don't just stay here—come to the academy with me.'
'Why? I like it here.'
Sophia suppressed her guilt and spoke to her as she rejected the offer.
It was Sophia who had forcibly dragged Amelia out and recommended her as an associate professor at Trinity Academy.
'You might gain a new perspective on magic there.'
'Not interested.'
Of course, Amelia refused at first.
There was no way she'd easily leave the nest she'd devoted her life to, especially a place filled with memories of her mentor.
'Amelia, this is cake I bought in Cipusi.'
'This is a dress tailored at Flora's boutique. What do you think? Doesn't it suit you perfectly?'
'This is something called cigarettes. They're great for headaches sometimes.'
To lure Amelia out of her seclusion in Gehenna's nameless forest, Sophia tempted her with all sorts of modern wonders.
Sweet desserts, pretty clothes, even cigarettes.
Of course, Amelia didn't follow Sophia for such superficial reasons, but after persistent courtship-like persuasion, she reluctantly took the position as associate professor at the academy.
'Amelia, want to go to the Abundance Festival together?'
'Not interested.'
'Ever thought about visiting the mortal world? You'd be amazed.'
'My mentor spent her whole life in Gehenna. No need for me to go out.'
Having stared only at magic her entire life, her lifestyle wouldn't change overnight just because the location did.
'I'm busy, so go away.'
Even after leaving the cabin, Amelia tried to devote herself solely to magic.
If Sophia hadn't constantly interfered and dragged her everywhere, she probably would have kept at it until it was time to pass on the stigma.
Only five years had passed since then.
It was far too short a time for Amelia, who had lived in a world of memories and longing all alone, to fully mature.
She put on an act of being a lofty witch like her revered mentor, but it was just thin gilding.
Amelia sulked easily, threw childish tantrums sometimes, and floundered in unexpected situations like this.
"How dare... a mere slave..."
To Sophia, it was still remarkable progress.
Compared to her lifeless, paper-doll appearance back then, seeing her vent her anger now was much more appealing.
People grow through the processes of joy, anger, love, and pleasure, after all.
Sophia had already learned that out in the world.
"I can't forgive this. To give me such humiliation."
Sophia snapped back to attention upon hearing Amelia's monologue, having secretly smiled to herself.
For the usually tight-lipped Amelia to mutter so passionately, the shock must have been huge.
Time to soothe her now.
Just as Sophia thought that.
"A mere slave, a mere slave, a mere slave..."
"Amelia?"
"This is an unforgivable insult."
"Huh? That's not it?"
Amelia was radiating a dark aura, consumed by vengeful thoughts.
To say it again, Amelia was still immature.
She had no idea how to handle emotions beyond a certain level of bewilderment.
Right now, she was projecting the shocking fact of being rejected by a slave onto the rigid class hierarchy of Gehenna's status-obsessed society that she knew so well.
And the conclusion she reached was terrifying.
"I'll make that ignorant slave recognize his place."
Birds don't have sweat glands, but Sophia felt sweat pouring from the crow's body she was possessing.
She could clearly see the slave's path to suffering opening wide.
He was already pitiful enough as a captured slave, and now this trouble too.
"Sorry about this."
Sophia slipped out of the bathroom without a word.
Amelia wasn't the ruthless type to directly harm the slave, so it probably wouldn't be too bad.
"I'll show him what happens!"
With that furious mutter from Amelia, the bathroom door quietly closed.