episode_0061

#9

After reading Dorothy’s letter, I learned the whole story.

She was not a cruel mother who abandoned her family, but was actually absorbed in her studies.

She was not a woman who abandoned her duties as a wife.

She was just a witch struggling to save her husband and beloved child from an incurable disease called the nine-syllable disease.

Clara, how will she feel when she finds out all this?

I wonder if it won’t be a huge shock.

I’m worried that I’ll get a big emotional wound.

Even though we had only known each other for a short time, I couldn’t help but be worried when I thought about the shock she would receive.

“By the way, there really is a syllable… .”

Isn’t this a special constitution that you would only see in martial arts novels?

These are people with an incredible constitution that allows them to master any martial arts to the extreme, but ironically, they are destined to die young.

It is true that it is a unique world where there are awakened beings and mana, but I have never heard of a world where there are martial arts…

Could it be that they belong to the other world just like our witches?

The branches of thought branched out in many directions, but eventually they could not help but converge in one direction.

What should I do now?

Anyway, Dorothy died.

It would be impossible to get any healing from her.

Her help was absolutely necessary to treat Soojin’s illness… .

I bit my lip and sighed.

Since there was nothing more to harvest in the bedroom, I folded the letter carefully and walked out of the room.

I looked for Clara, but she was nowhere to be found.

I told you to just wait, but where did you go in the meantime?

I looked around for her and found a staircase leading down to the basement.

Obviously, there was nothing like that when I first came in… .

Clara probably went there.

As I descended the stairs, a room presumed to be a workshop greeted me, and in it, a woman presumed to be Dorothy was floating in a transparent crystal tube filled with blue liquid.

I handed Clara a letter containing the truth about what had happened, leaving her mother frozen in place with her eyes closed. As expected, Clara, who had learned the truth, cried and grieved even more desperately than expected.

The sight of one human being falling apart… .

I still don’t want to see it.

I gave Clara enough time to suffer, and then reached out to her while she was still struggling in the swamp of pain and self-destruction.

“Wake up, Clara.”

“But, but. Sister… . Mother… .”

“Dorothy said she left you a magic spell that could cure your syllables. You must collect your mother’s legacy.”

“… … .”

She still looked at the ground with a pained face and did not move.

Maybe I was too hasty.

Maybe I should have given her a little more time.

After some hesitation, I approached Clara, who was lying face down, and slowly hugged her slightly trembling body.

After all… a heart that has been wounded by a person must be healed by a person.

Although I could not replace the great pillar that was in her heart, her mother, I consoled Clara, wanting to remain as a stake that could keep her centered, even though it was a very short relationship that lasted only a few days.

Without saying a word, he just held her close to him with his small body and comforted her.

#10

“Hmph… . Thank you, Unnie.”

“Hahaha… .”

Fortunately, Clara, who had regained her spirits, began to search the workshop with enthusiasm to collect her mother’s legacy.

Of course, she was not even half a witch, so she had many shortcomings in carrying out the witch’s legacy, and I helped her with that part.

As if her reputation of being well-versed in healing arts was not a lie, her workshop was truly stocked with a mountain of medicinal herbs.

And inside the workshop, research journals and drug recipes were neatly organized.

However, nowhere was there a method to treat the palsy.

If it was written in a letter, then there must be a way, but where on earth is it?

Clara and I put our heads together and thought about it over and over again.

“Isn’t there some kind of secret promise or password between you and your mother?”

“There’s no way that could happen… . I told you I hated my mother… .”

“Um… .”

Where on earth could it be hidden? I looked through every book in the workshop, but found nothing related to it.

No. To be more precise, it did exist, but it was only a diagram of the idea and a record of the trial and error in the research process.

As I continued to think like that, I suddenly felt a strong sense of discomfort about Dorothy’s body itself.

It is true that she died.

But, why? Why? Why did he leave this world with his body in a crystal coffin like that?

Could it be that her greatest secret is hidden in that crystal?

I approached the spleen and stared at her, submerged in the blue liquid.

Her eyes were closed as if she was asleep, and she looked utterly peaceful.

The vas deferens was sealed so that not a single gap could be seen.

Although it wasn’t connected to any mechanical device or anything, I could feel a subtle, very subtle, mysterious aura coming from inside the thick bulkhead of the vas deferens.

I took out the artifact ‘Alchemist’s Eye’, which allows me to dissect and observe the structure of objects, and carefully examined the crystal tube, but I could not see any way to break through the complex double and triple layer firewall.

But… surprisingly, decrypting the password on the royal seal didn’t seem that difficult.

Because the designated genetic trait itself was a password.

Perhaps… , the target is the party and their direct blood relatives… .

After finishing my analysis up to that point, I called Clara, who was looking through her research journal at her desk.

“Clara, come here for a second.”

“Yes?”

“Want to come to the correction center?”

“Yes, Sister.”

“Clara. Put your hand on this crystal.”

Clara carefully placed her hand on the crystal.

Her slender fingers touched the transparent glass wall, and immediately, as I had expected, a soft light began to emit from the blue liquid contained in the crystal tube, which then instantly annihilated Dorothy’s floating body.

“!?!?”

“Huh, Sister!?”

I expected the vas deferens to work, but never. I never dreamed it would work like this, so I quickly sorted out what had happened while sweating profusely.

I called Clara and asked her to touch the crystal sac, and when she did so, Dorothy’s body disappeared without a trace.

Anyone can see that I’m suspicious!

He’s the villain himself!

I felt my eyes getting darker and started to watch Clara’s expression.

Clara’s demeanor changed. She started to growl like a ferocious beast and started to show her hostility towards me.

“Please explain… What the heck is this…!”

Fortunately… Clara’s angry punch didn’t send me flying or knock me out.

Because the liquid in the crystal tube that had been emitting a soft light completely digested Dorothy’s body, it changed into a dazzlingly bright light, then solidified into a round jewel and rolled out of the crystal tube.

“What is this…?”

With the appearance of the blue jewel, which also quelled Clara’s anger, I could understand the immense strangeness I felt from it without even needing to explain what its purpose was, and why it was created only after Clara touched the crystal.

“This is your mother, Dorothy’s legacy.”

“… … !”

I may have forgotten because I act like a normal person, but witches are monsters.

Of course, monsters would have a core, which is called their essence, and it was no different for witches.

The essence of the witch.

The Witch’s Core.

A crystallization of mystery created by condensing and concentrating the history and skills of magic that he has polished himself.

It is said that witches embrace their core and disappear until the moment they die.

The essence of the witch was so important.

Perhaps, Dorothy anticipated that her daughter would suffer because of the paralysis of the syllables, and wanted to save her own body until the end and hand it over to Clara.

Clara, who still didn’t know much about how the witch’s ecology worked, seemed to have no idea what this was, so I calmly explained to her what this round crystal was and how important it was to the witches.

“Is this, is this that precious…?”

“Yes. Clara. You… can inherit Dorothy’s legacy and continue your mother’s legacy.”

Clara is only given one choice anyway.

Because of her special constitution called Gu-eum-jeol-maek, she had to live with a limited time to live, and because of that, she had to live as a witch.

Above all… Clara won’t hate Dorothy anymore.

“… Yes. I understand. I may be lacking, but…, Mom, no. I will do it for you.”

Clara clutched the blue crystals tightly with both hands, her eyes bloodshot.

As if it were really precious.

And then, I helped her absorb the essence of mystery, and thus Clara’s witch succession ceremony began.

The witch of healing arts.

It was the moment Clara was born.

#11

So the story with Clara came to a brief end.

Since she had just taken her first steps as a full-fledged witch, she had to focus all her efforts on recovering her mother’s legacy.

Therefore, it was difficult to help treat Soojin’s illness.

But Clara promised me this.

“Thank you, Sister. I will definitely. Definitely! cure your friend. After receiving my mother’s inheritance, I can see that pancreatic cancer is a disease I can cure.”

Clara was very grateful that Soojin had found her mother and restored their relationship, and she offered to treat Soojin without any cost.

“Thank you, Clara.”

“I am the one who should be thankful… . I am so glad that the witch I met like this is a kind person like my sister.”

“Hahaha… . Okay. Then, I’ll go now… . If you need any help, feel free to contact me anytime.”

“Yes… . I will stay here. Sister, come visit me anytime… .”

“Yeah.”

I waved my hand towards the pink pot witch who was smiling brightly and said my final goodbyes.

So I headed back to Gaeseong where my workshop was located.

No, before that, should we stop by Seoul for a bit?

I think Suho will be really happy to hear this news.

Hehehe.