Chapter 776
Chapter 776
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 776
Chapter Title: Chapter 776 - #163_서울과 마녀(3)
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 776
Chapter Title: Seoul and the Witch (3)
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1.
After a minor commotion, Si-woo and Eloa returned to Gehenna without further incident.
While waiting for the immigration procedures, Si-woo asked his master, who was clutching the gifted brandy tightly to her chest.
"Master."
"Hm?"
"When I was captured at Hexennacht, I had a strange dream."
"A dream?"
To be precise, it was the dream he'd had after killing Logi and being kidnapped by Lydia, left alone on her bed.
The lake, the tower, and even the girl dancing under the moonlight.
With so many major events piling up lately, the memory had grown hazy, but after some time passed, curiosity suddenly struck him.
Eloa nodded after hearing his explanation.
"It sounds like a prophetic dream. It's rare, but it does happen from time to time."
"A prophetic dream?"
Eloa nodded and continued her explanation.
"Have I told you about the Prophetic Lake before?"
"Yes, I heard. If you immerse yourself in the lake, you can glimpse the future, but not everything—only the permitted prophecies can be understood."
"That's right. I don't know the exact criteria myself, but prophetic dreams are hints from the Witch of Silence, signaling you to visit the Prophetic Lake when she deems that 'this information must absolutely be conveyed'."
"...Is that even possible?"
He had no idea exactly where the Prophetic Lake was located, but at the time of the dream, Lydia had hidden Si-woo away as securely as possible.
So how could anyone manipulate the dreams of Si-woo, tucked away in a Hexennacht workshop?
"She's always been that kind of existence."
"Well, I don't fully get it, but it's not urgent right now anyway."
Si-woo roughly likened it to sending a text notification before a package arrived.
Yet it filled him with unease all the same.
With his constitution that dragged him into trouble just by breathing, instinct told him this prophecy wasn't pure good news.
"What kind of prophecies absolutely must be conveyed?"
"Don't worry too much."
His expression must have given him away, for his master reassured him with a gentle smile.
"The Witch of Silence's sense of importance is... well, utterly different from normal standards. Most of the time, she'll convey futures in dreams that leave you baffled as to why she's sharing them at all."
"For example?"
"I heard she once showed someone the cheapest apples available in Tarot Town a week later. It's not always that trivial... but ninety-nine out of a hundred are."
If his master was saying this much, it should have eased his mind completely.
But Si-woo still felt a nagging doubt.
"I hope it's something that simple..."
"Don't worry too much."
"Truth be told, that wasn't all of it. She said something downright ominous. Looking right at me, she declared, 'My obeisance to the king hanging upside down'... I have no idea what it means."
"...What?"
His master's reaction was far more intense this time.
Glancing over, he saw her eyes wide open, trembling faintly.
"The Witch of Silence spoke to you?"
The part that had Si-woo suspicious was the message's content itself.
But his master was shocked that the Witch of Silence had spoken at all.
"Isn't that allowed?"
"As I said, the Witch of Silence is an existence apart from us. She perceives reality from a wholly different dimension."
"A different dimension...?"
"Ordinary beings like us live along a continuous timeline, don't we? From a fixed past, through the unfolding present, toward an uncertain future. But not the Witch of Silence.
She observes simultaneously: tens of thousands of mutable pasts, hundreds of millions of branching presents, and trillions of divergent futures."
Only then did Si-woo grasp what Eloa meant by 'different'.
The past is something remembered, the future something imagined—but both are ultimately experienced in the present.
In other words, the only thing humans can truly experience is the now. That's our common conception of time.
But what if a being could observe past, present, and future all at once?
It would be akin to ascending an omniscient god's vantage point.
To the Witch of Silence, anyone lacking her unique perspective would seem utterly irrelevant.
"That's why she's a pure observer. Interfering in nothing, she silently beholds all."
"So why would she speak to me?"
"...I haven't the foggiest. Shall we go together? There's still a bit of time until the lunar eclipse, so let's ask Teacher Sua first."
"Yes, sounds good."
Just then, the immigration officer arrived with fresh news.
"Tiferet Duke, how long do you plan to stay in Gehenna this time?"
"About a day."
"Oh my... Starting at midnight tonight, we'll have a two-day gate inspection. Is that alright with you?"
"Two whole days? That's unusual."
"Lately, minor glitches have been cropping up more often, so we're launching a major overhaul. If you have urgent business, Duke, we can delay the start."
"Thank you, but there's no need to go that far."
"We owe you a great debt as it is."
The officer bowed and withdrew, but Eloa was secretly thrilled by the unexpected windfall.
Sorry to her lover waiting outside, but it meant legitimate extra alone time with Si-woo.
"Acting all excited like a kid..."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing."
Yet her elation quickly faded.
Strangely, anything involving him turned her into a child.
The battle-seasoned Tiferet Duke vanished, replaced by the reckless, carefree apprentice witch of old.
There were mountains of issues still to resolve, loose ends untied—yet the mere prospect of having him to herself lightened her steps on the spot.
They had come here to extract Rinne and Dorothy.
And to do that, she needed to confront Duke Erelim, whose motives remained opaque.
She also had to grill her thoroughly on secretly dealing with the Hexennacht side to spirit Si-woo away.
Of course, without hard evidence, she couldn't press charges too harshly.
Whether Erelim had truly schemed to claim Si-woo for herself in secret was anyone's guess.
After all, hadn't Erelim openly admitted pursuing a non-aggression pact with Hexennacht?
She might have played her own hand simply to forestall open conflict between Hexennacht and Gehenna.
Whatever the case, no one wanted Tiferet as an enemy right now.
In that light, freeing Rinne and Dorothy made for perfect equivalent bargaining chips.
"I'll head straight to see Erelim. You wait at my Gemernai mansion."
"Is it really okay if I don't come along?"
"I don't want to parade you before her unnecessarily. Whatever her game was."
"Got it."
And so Si-woo went to the mansion, while Eloa headed for Duke Erelim.
2.
"Blanche, are you really okay conceding so easily?"
Right after Tiferet Duke departed.
Countess Cohab, sharing the bed with Erelim, asked in disbelief.
She simply couldn't fathom her beloved and revered lover's decision.
To acknowledge the blunder so readily and yield like that.
"What do you mean?"
"Tiferet Duke's unauthorized stunt threw our plans into disarray. Hexennacht's gone full anti-Gehenna now, and you could've lodged a formal protest against her instead."
"If we're judging purely by outcomes, sure."
The vast majority of Gehenna's witches wanted no all-out war with Hexennacht.
For witches, magic's advancement was paramount; whether outlaws or malicious exiles harmed humans was barely a blip on their radar.
They despised outlaws, sure—but not enough to risk war over it.
More like: punish them if they threatened Gehenna itself.
From that angle, the Si-woo rescue op was a blunder of epic proportions.
It had preemptively struck a fractious Hexennacht—split between moderates and hardliners—and handed them unity on a platter.
Tiferet might balance power, but protesting this could've netted a sweeter deal.
Yet Erelim had bowed, apologized, and accepted Tiferet Duke's terms without fuss.
"All Tiferet demanded was releasing those two captured outlaws—Hexennacht traitors."
"True, but..."
"Tiferet can pry Hexennacht intel from them. And soon enough, we'll get a share too. Hardly a raw deal."
"......"
"Above all, I trust Tiferet Duke. She's just, upright. Even token cooperation will pay dividends long-term. Cheap price for big gains."
As she spoke, Erelim's gaze seemed fixed on some distant point Cohab couldn't reach.
"Keter's apprentice witch... So you're just letting Si-woo go like this?"
Erelim said nothing, instead lighting a cigarette.
Then she launched into a topic utterly unrelated.
"What do you think of humans?"
Recognizing the silent cue that she wanted no more on this, Cohab played along.
"Huh? Oh, nothing special. Humans are humans. If I had to add anything, maybe a touch of pity?"
Most witches would echo Countess Cohab's view.
Humans were a distinct species from witches: intelligent yet inferior, their limits crystal clear.
Inferiority wasn't some biased slur—it was objective fact.
"I'm afraid of humans."
So Cohab could scarcely believe her ears.
Even sans Keter Duke, Erelim stood at Gehenna's pinnacle—yet she feared humans?
Absurd.
"That's an odd thing to say."
"Is it?"
Assuming it was a jest or metaphor, she chuckled lightly.
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