Chapter 318
Chapter 318
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 318
Chapter Title: Erasing the Traces
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1.
Eloa gazed at Siu's peacefully sleeping face and downed the remaining half bottle of whiskey in big gulps.
The lovely crimson liquor poured down her throat, carrying a fiery heat with it.
"......"
With a flick of her wrist and a light spell from Eloa, all traces of their passion vanished.
The fluids on the sheets, the ones smeared on their bodies.
All the gathered filth burned away cleanly under purifying flames.
Finally, she dressed Siu back in his clothes.
Now every trace was gone.
As if nothing had happened at all.
"And in reality, it wasn't so different."
No matter how happy a moment, it inevitably gets buried in the past once it's over.
If the warm memory belongs to both of them, it lingers in their hearts.
If that's what they call a memory, then tonight's happiness would be only half a memory.
Eloa would never forget it.
And Siu would never recall it.
Eloa wondered for a moment if she could even call it a "shared memory."
But she quickly realized it was pointless thinking and dismissed it outright.
She had resolved herself the moment she allowed him to have her body.
Regretting or feeling down about it now would be utterly pathetic.
"Siu...."
She sat by the head of his bed and stroked his hair.
Eloa used the Contract's three strokes to erase Siu's memories.
Her body, already craving ample rest, had cast Nature Magic on top of it all, so it was far from normal.
The sensation had fled her fingertips like after an electric shock, and her heart protested with arrhythmia.
Yet his body heat still felt tenderly real to her.
"It was all predestined, all fated...."
In truth, Eloa's not-so-skilled memory manipulation would easily be blocked by any decent "autonomous defense."
Mind manipulation spells didn't work on witches with advanced mental faculties to begin with.
But despite possessing Nature Magic around the 16th to 17th rank, Siu had no autonomous defense.
Eloa had targeted that weakness, and as you can see, it worked flawlessly.
She erased the entire hot memory of getting drunk and entangling their bodies tonight, all the way back to their first overlap in the rainwater tunnel.
To prevent him from sensing the causal disconnect and recovering the memories, she filled the gaps with other ones.
For Siu, the very memory of "having an affair with Master Eloa" was gone.
It was unauthorized and arbitrary, but correcting a wayward disciple was a master's duty.
She shouldn't have let things escalate this far in the first place.
With Eloa taking responsibility, everything returned to normal.
The incident that had tested Siu and left Eloa endlessly compromising was erased.
The first experience in the rainwater tunnel, where the master-disciple boundary had collapsed.
Everything's hard the first time, but easier after.
In fact, after that, Eloa had started seeing Siu as a man, ultimately leading her to betray propriety.
"...Hic."
Eloa felt a sharp sting at the tip of her nose.
The master unable to strictly discipline a disciple who adored her.
And the master who had fallen for her disciple and offered her body—both were now undone.
She should have been glad.
But Eloa felt pressure building behind her eyes, wiped her blurring vision with her sleeve.
Tears were threatening to flow hot and unbidden.
"Siu...."
She knew she shouldn't have done it.
But he had guided her when she wandered lost after losing Rafi, given her a reason to live.
He had shown her a world she never knew.
She couldn't bear it without loving him.
"I'm sorry. For acting on my own again. I only ever cause you trouble."
That's why she had spoiled him freely today, to wrap everything up.
Let him do whatever he wanted, did everything she wanted to do.
He wouldn't remember, but she never would forget.
"......"
Eloa leaned down toward the lips of soundly sleeping Siu, who gave no reply, and gave him a light kiss.
This was truly the end.
She straightened her disheveled collar, stroked his hair one last time, and quietly left the carriage.
2.
Early morning.
The refreshed twins woke to an anomaly.
"......"
"......"
The picnic basket stacked amid the living room clutter.
The "sweet potion" that should have been safely inside was half gone.
"Odet, did you drink it in your sleep?"
"Sis, did you?"
"I didn't wake up once all night."
"Me neither."
The Odil-Odet sisters reflexively interrogated the prime suspect.
But their reactions quickly ruled that out.
That left another question.
""Then who drank it?""
The top priority was figuring out what variable occurred while they slept.
The mansion's occupants: the twins, Assistant, Sharon sis.
The twins, who slept soundly all night, were off the suspect list.
That meant Sharon sis or the Assistant drank about half.
"Th-this is bad?"
"If Sharon sis drank it, we're fine."
Odil felt cold sweat beading.
If Sharon drank it, no effect.
The potion only worked on "men," after all.
"But what if the Assistant did?"
If Siu had, things changed.
The first face he'd see upon waking—the object of the "love" effect—was obvious: Sharon.
In other words, beyond handing her victory on a platter...
"We'd be offering her the world on a silver platter!"
"Odet! Disaster! Disaster!"
"Sis! What do we do! What do we do!"
The twins fell into chaos like they'd kicked a hornet's nest.
They had vowed fair competition ahead, but not to aid their already advantaged rival.
"Yaaawn.... What's with the racket this early?"
Sharon appeared then, hair a mess, in pajamas, shuffling in.
The flustered twins' eyes locked on her.
"Wh-what?"
"......"
"......"
Odil and Odet scanned Sharon blatantly; Sharon panicked.
Clues.
Disheveled pajamas and hair, squeaky slippers, drawn-out yawn.
No visible intense lovemaking traces—at least externally.
No kiss marks on the neck, no handprints on wrists.
But that wasn't conclusive.
"Good morning."
"Sleep well?"
"Yeah, slept great. Huh? Where you going?"
The twins brushed past Sharon left and right, bolting off.
"Pardon the intrusion!"
"Just a quick check!"
-Bang!
They flung open Sharon's bedroom door and inspected the bed.
"Bed, no anomalies."
"No Assistant scent, no anomalies."
Odil scurried to check the bed; Odet buried her nose like a tracking dog, sniffing.
"Wh-what are you two doing?!"
Sharon flushed beet red and jumped at their odd behavior.
Even if she provided lodging, barging in uninvited was rude.
Quite offended, she strode over and flicked their foreheads hard.
"Kyaa!"
"Ow...."
"Jeez! Why start the day so scatterbrained?!"
Odil and Odet humbly accepted the flick punishment, sighing in relief.
If the Assistant drank it, the room wouldn't be this tidy.
Still, they asked to confirm.
"Sharon sis, did you drink any of this last night?"
"It's tea, right?"
"Huh? No?"
The twins, oddly relieved, stiffened again.
Then it had to be the Assistant.
"What's up? Something happen?"
"Oh, nothing."
At the jingle of the doorbell, the twins dashed out.
Sharon, sighing at their piercing morning energy, turned to see Siu too.
3.
"Where the heck is this now?"
Siu opened his eyes to find himself in the twins' carriage.
Wondering what happened, he looked around—no one else.
Seemed he'd chugged booze alone and crawled in here.
"Finishing a whole bottle solo really blacks you out."
Siu grimaced at the empty whiskey bottle.
Memory gone but hangover mild—probably thanks to his spirit body.
Anyway, he tidied roughly and headed back to the villa, where the twins greeted him.
Odet's eyes wide as she asked.
"Assistant! Assistant! Did you drink this?"
Seeing the pretty tea in the pretty bottle, he admitted it readily.
Throat parched during last night's cleaning, right?
"Yes, I had some while cleaning last night."
"......"
The sudden silence from the twins made him uneasy for no reason.
"Were you saving it to share? Sorry."
"Oh, no.... It was a failed batch we were gonna toss."
"Right! But... um, were you with anyone last night?"
With anyone?
Their sudden question felt off, but Siu pondered.
He remembered drinking alone and crawling into the carriage...
After that? Blank, cut off.
"Sharon..."
The twins' faces fell like the sky was crashing.
"With Odil and Odet. Why? Something happen?"
They sighed in relief at the follow-up.
"Nothing!"
"Nope, nothing."
After settling the boisterous twins and finishing breakfast, the four prepared to leave.
Twins leading, Sharon helping Siu with luggage.
"With Odil and Odet.... Weird, right?"
"Is it? What happened last night?"
"Nothing happened—that's why it's weird. I just slept soundly."
Siu tilted his head; Sharon sensed something off.
Siu suddenly sleeping in the carriage was suspicious; twins prying who he was with, too.
Women's intuition screamed anomaly last night.
Who he was with didn't matter, really.
Hadn't she resolved?
As long as he came back, ignore whoever he met.
But....
"You really just drank alone and slept in the carriage?"
"Yeah."
Sharon's eyes were on the sand.
Beyond the twins' two sets of prints, large ones like Siu's from last night remained.
"Not lying?"
"Why would I? I was alone."
"...Okay."
And beside them—some washed by waves, some blown by wind, but definitely there.
Footprints neither twins' nor Siu's—someone else's.
As if they'd walked side by side to the carriage with Siu.
Suddenly.
Her chest tightened.
Because Siu had lied.