After finishing a meal, there were dishes to wash.
Washing the dishes was important.
If you don’t clean up the things stuck to the plates and utensils, you’ll face troubles later.
So, Yoon Si-woo focused all his attention on dishwashing.
He scrubbed and scrubbed the bowls and dishes leftover after treating Scarlet to a feast.
He washed them so thoroughly that they sparkled more than when they were first bought.
In truth, he was long done with the dishwashing.
After all, there weren’t many dishes to wash after just one person had eaten.
Yet, Yoon Si-woo couldn’t tear himself away from the sink, as thoughts he ought to erase lingered in his mind like stains that wouldn’t go away.
“…Hah, this is driving me crazy.”
The heat hadn’t settled.
Even when he tried to calm himself, memories from earlier kept resurfacing, making him feel strange.
Lucy had taught him that a swordsman needs a calm mind, like a still lake.
However, his mind was tossed around like a boat in a storm.
At this rate, when he saw Scarlet again, it would be impossible to treat her as he did in the past, so he had to settle these feelings somehow.
Thus, he washed the dishes.
There was no better method for calming a confused mind than through simple repetitive tasks.
Just like swordsmen swing their swords in meditation or sharpen their blades when their minds are troubled, he was washing dishes to calm his heart.
The reason he was clinging to one dish for almost ten minutes was just that.
So he scrubbed away for a while longer, and after making sure there was no leftover moisture with a dry towel, the dishes sparkled clean with no more to wash.
Looking at the polished dishes, he felt his heart settle, too.
Feeling inexplicably proud, he gently ran his hand across the clean surface of a bowl.
The surface was smooth.
Scarlet’s skin had been this smooth when he wiped her sweat off earlier…
Wait, what am I even thinking…!
He quickly pulled his hand away from the dish and shook his head, trying to clear his errant thoughts, but it was already too late.
One thought led to another.
He felt the need to scold himself.
What kind of beast is he? A swordsman being swept away by his own emotions like this!
As he chastised himself, Lucy’s voice echoed in his mind.
[…Well, if anything, isn’t that normal for a guy? It did make me a little uncomfortable from my perspective, though.]
…Lucy, I’m sorry, but please leave me alone right now.
Feeling bad about her remark, Yoon Si-woo internally pouted.
Fortunately, he felt a fading connection between himself and her, as if she would respect his wishes, but the embarrassment of his antics had already played out.
Given how Lucy can be mischievous like that, he imagined she would tease him about it later.
While Yoon Si-woo sighed in shame, his face flushed, he jumped at the sound of a door opening from somewhere.
What was it? It seemed Scarlet, whom he had just sent back to her room, was opening the door again.
He thought she would immediately go back to sleep since she wasn’t feeling well, but perhaps she wanted to wash up before bed.
Either way, he didn’t have the courage to face her right now.
He was doing his best to suppress the odd thoughts that were rising up within him; looking at Scarlet now felt like a real disaster waiting to happen.
So, he forced himself to look away and pretended to focus on the dishes.
However, his keen senses betrayed him with unnecessary information.
Scarlet was approaching him, step by step.
She came closer and closer.
He desperately tried to ignore her presence.
But despite his efforts, she stood right behind him.
Unable to ignore her anymore, he asked with a trembling voice,
“…W-what’s wrong? If you’re not feeling well, you should go back and rest.”
“…”
No answer came.
Instead,
“Eep…?!”
A soft embrace wrapped around him from behind.
At the sensation of something soft pressing against his back, Yoon Si-woo let out a startled sound without realizing it.
His mind went blank for a moment, unable to comprehend what just happened.
As time passed, he finally realized.
Scarlet was hugging him from behind.
And the moment he recognized that fact, he felt the fire he had sought to suppress reigniting inside him.
The spark in his chest blazed to life, fiercer than before, as if it had been repressed too long.
However, whether she realized it or not, the girl continued to murmur into his ear.
“…Yoon Si-woo, Yoon Si-woo.”
Hearing her softly call his name, Yoon Si-woo felt his patience slipping away.
He had definitely warned himself.
He had tried to hold back.
He was doing it for her sake, but she kept acting like this without realizing his feelings…
He shut his eyes tightly.
But still, he couldn’t stop the heat in his chest from rising.
The growing heat threatened to burn through the strands of reason he was barely holding onto.
So he released her arms and turned around.
To give her one last warning.
To plead with her to just go back in and get some sleep.
The moment he opened his eyes,
Yoon Si-woo swallowed hard.
“…Hello, Yoon Si-woo.”
The girl he turned to greet him was smiling at him.
With red hair and red eyes.
The same appearance of the girl he had always known.
Yet, there was something different.
The girl he knew didn’t have that look in her eyes.
So Yoon Si-woo blurted out without thinking.
“…Who are you, exactly?”
To the girl resembling Scarlet, but whom he didn’t recognize.
The girl replied.
“Don’t you know?”
With deep sorrow embedded in her gaze.
“You said you would kill me, didn’t you?”
She smiled as she said that.
*
“You said you would kill me, didn’t you?”
With that statement, Yoon Si-woo came to a realization.
That this being was indeed the witch Scarlet had been so wary of.
As the realization struck, he recalled the plea Scarlet made him.
“If I ever become someone else, then you must kill me.”
He hadn’t felt its gravity when he accepted that request.
He had never seen what it looked like.
But now, facing something that resembled her, the thought of having to kill her did not come easily.
Did he really have to kill her?
Just a moment ago, he had been chatting normally with Scarlet.
He had certainly promised to honor her request if the time came, but he had never thought he would be thrust into a situation of having to do it so suddenly.
His breath quickened.
His hand trembled at the memory of piercing her heart with his sword that day.
He felt nauseous.
But the being resembling Scarlet approached him calmly as if oblivious to his turmoil.
“Either way, nice to meet you. It’s the first time we’re having a face-to-face chat like this.”
He couldn’t tolerate her nonchalant demeanor.
How could she be so brazen, having just stolen Scarlet away like this?
“…What happened to Scarlet? Give her back!”
He yelled, and the witch replied with a serene voice.
“Don’t worry about her. She’s just sleeping right now. She usually doesn’t let her guard down, yet here I am able to come out after she has let her mind wander a bit. She must be very tired from the fighting.”
“…Does that mean she can come back?”
“Yeah, so don’t worry. Today, I just want to chat with you.”
Given it came from a witch, he couldn’t easily take her words at face value, but the Holy Sword of Truth assured him that she was being truthful, filling him with a sense of relief.
Scarlet hadn’t disappeared forever.
Thank goodness for that.
As he began to calm down, suspicions about the identity of this being crept into Yoon Si-woo’s mind.
Could this really be the witch Scarlet had been so cautious of?
Yet, somehow, the presence before him didn’t feel that threatening.
So he cautiously asked for confirmation.
“…Are you really a witch?”
“I can’t deny it. It seems that is what I’m being called.”
The witch nodded in response to his question.
Yoon Si-woo’s curiosity deepened.
Could this witch truly be like Lucy, a good witch?
No, right now, he had one pressing question.
“…How do you know about the promise I made with Scarlet?”
At that, the witch chuckled softly.
“Well, it’s simple. I saw and heard everything.”
“…What?”
“Literally. I heard every word you shared with that girl.”
…She heard everything?
Yoon Si-woo’s face turned red.
He was aware he had said many embarrassing things that weren’t meant for anyone else to hear.
But the witch continued without caring.
“Listening to you, I can feel your sincerity. I see how much you cherish that girl. I also know you’ll always stand by her side no matter what happens.”
“…Ugh.”
“So, about that…”
Feeling bashful, he lowered his head, but the witch approached slowly.
Then she wrapped him in her arms and playfully murmured,
“Interest in me? I’m fine with it if it’s you. What do you think?”
“?! W-what are you saying?! Don’t say such things with Scarlet’s body!”
Yoon Si-woo shouted, panicking more than ever.
He recognized she was another being, but it was still Scarlet’s body.
Moreover, her suggestion made him recall what had happened earlier, pushing him to be even more flustered.
“Huh, I was being quite serious, you know? What a pity.”
As he pushed the witch back, she looked disappointed.
She appeared so much like an ordinary person in that moment.
Quietly, Yoon Si-woo said to her.
“…Right now, you really don’t look like an evil witch at all.”
When he said that, the witch paused for a moment and murmured.
“…Really?”
“…Yeah. So, in that sense, is there a way for you to get along better with Scarlet?”
“…Get along? Hehe. Get along.”
The witch, who had been smiling for a moment, suddenly wore a sad expression and asked,
“…Do you know what kind of witch I am?”
“…Yeah, the Witch of Wrath.”
Yoon Si-woo recalled the story he knew about her.
One day she appeared, burning down the elves’ forest and the World Tree, ultimately defeating Astra.
And she was the culprit who created the Fury Beast that killed his parents.
Yet, she didn’t look like someone who could commit such atrocities at all.
And as he directed his gaze at her, the witch smiled sadly.
“If only there had been one person like you by my side, perhaps I could have made a different choice.”
As the witch smiled sadly, the emotions in her gaze deepened.
In that moment, the witch’s atmosphere shifted dramatically.
“But there was no one.”
Then Yoon Si-woo finally understood.
“That’s right; I didn’t have anyone.”
The ordinary-seeming being before him was so alien.
“Peilin, Nia, Erika, Ronan, Eru, Liru—they are all gone.”
Yoon Si-woo felt the fragments of the emotions she held.
“I lost everyone who would believe in me; no one trusts me now.”
The deep and dark emotions hanging over the space suffocated him.
“Does anyone know what it feels like to be not trusted?”
It was sadness.
“Do you know the feeling of being abandoned by those you thought were family? Do you know what it feels like to be blamed for what you did for everyone else? Do you know the feeling of shouting in injustice with no one listening? Do you know how much it hurts to see the eyes of people filled with malice? Do you know the pain of being consumed when holding onto those you care about? Do you know that the greater sorrow is that not a single person believes in you rather than being burned away?”
Tears welled in her eyes.
The color of sadness that hung in her gaze was red.
The tears that flowed down her cheeks held the hue of rage.
Yoon Si-woo couldn’t comprehend her sorrow.
He couldn’t empathize with her pain.
Yet he understood there had to be reasons that led her to become this way.
“I’ve been hurt. I’ve been sad. I hated the world that made me this way. I wanted revenge. I wanted to burn everything to the ground, to incinerate the entire world and the witch that turned me into this. I wished for that. But I knew I shouldn’t.”
A glimpse of regret fleetingly crossed her sorrowful eyes.
Yoon Si-woo realized she was on an irreversible path.
There was no stopping the course she had set.
As she shed endless red tears, she eventually stopped and wiped her eyes, saying,
“…You said I don’t seem like a bad witch, right?”
As Yoon Si-woo nodded slowly, she smiled ruefully.
“That’s because I’m still incomplete. And those children are sharing my curse with me. The original me can only mutter ‘burn’ over and over. This might be the last time we can actually have a conversation.”
So murmuring that, she looked him straight in the eye.
“When you meet me next time, wield your sword instead of talking. Since I like you, I’m giving you this special advice. But I wonder if you can actually do it.”
Her command to cut her reminded him of Scarlet’s plea to kill her.
In that moment, she staggered.
As he quickly grabbed her to steady her, she smiled resignedly.
“I guess I’m reaching my limit.”
He saw her eyes slowly closing.
As her body leaned against his shoulder, she whispered what could be her last words.
“Take care, Yoon Si-woo. I’ll pray that you can keep your promise with that girl.”
With those words, her body went limp.
Rushing to catch her as she slumped, he could hear the regular sound of her breathing as if she had fallen asleep.
The warmth that had remained within her had fled.
When he woke up, would Scarlet return, just as she said?
Disconnecting himself from the Holy Sword of Truth, he felt she wasn’t lying, so he didn’t feel particularly anxious about it.
But what troubled his heart was…
As he lay Scarlet down on the bed, Yoon Si-woo looked down at her, clenching his trembling hands.
Could he really kill her with his own hands?
He couldn’t give a definite answer to his question.
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