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1.

Throughout the hearing, Amelia was feeling light-headed.

Not because it was a big event that would become a stumbling rock in her life, though.

If anything, she didn’t care much about it.

Having to pay a fine and compensation that amounted way bigger than all the gold she had ever held in her life?

Imprisonment and exilement if she were to fail to comply in 10 years?

Looking at the situation, it wasn’t a matter that even her, someone who didn’t care much about most things, could take lightly.

Her master’s inheritance was more than enough to fund her magic research, but it was far from enough to pay for both the fine and the compensation.

That wasn’t all.

For her, who had been living a secluded life in Gehenna, exilement could be considered an extreme sentence.

Imprisonment wasn’t any better—they’d only let her stare at the walls, barring her from doing any magic research.

Yet, despite all that, her heart was calm, and the reason was none other than.

He forgave me...

We even almost kissed back then... I thought we’d never be able to reconcile again, but...

He was about to kiss me, wasn’t he?

In a corner of her heart, there was still a remnant of guilt remained, but there was also gratitude.

She knew that she had a mountain of things she had to do to atone for her sins.

But, even though she knew that it was pathetic of her to feel this way...

It was unmistakable that an unshakeable pillar had been erected tall in her heart.

“Please leave your sign here and here.”

In the waiting room. Countess Kohav, the witch in charge of the interrogation, placed a stack of paper in front of Amelia.

She received it, carefully checked its content and signed whenever necessary.

After that was done, the countess took all the paper from her silently and left after saying her farewell.

“Thank you for your cooperation. I hope that we won’t meet in this circumstance ever again.”

“Likewise, Countess Kohav. Thank you for your hard work.”

Almost immediately after, Sophia walked in.

As soon as she saw Amelia, she caressed her cheek before hugging her tightly.

“Look at you... You’ve become so thin...”

“Sophia, our bodies are spirit bodies, that isn’t possible.”

“Yeah, but that’s how I feel when I look at you.”

Being buried in Sophia’s motherhood, Amelia teared up, a faint smile appeared on her face.

She never knew that the embrace of a precious friend could feel so warm.

The pair then briefly enjoyed their blissful second reunion.

“Amelia.”

Sophia, whose expression darkened before long, called out.

“I’ll help you out, I’ll pay some of the fines. It’ll be hard to cover even half of the fine, but I have some money saved up, it’ll be fine.”

Sophia felt responsible for things to turn out this way.

Despite being her best friend, she didn’t know that Amelia had been out there fighting, cleaning up the Kill List for Siwoo’s sake.

She also wasn’t anywhere near Amelia’s side when the Witch of Whispers was manipulating her to do her biddings.

Moreover, it was all because of her teasing that Amelia’s and Siwoo’s relationship went downhill.

The first two things that she couldn’t help much about, but the last one was a different story.

If only she could take better care of Amelia, and ensure that she and Siwoo had a proper talk before their fallout, things probably wouldn’t have turned out this way.

Sophia felt genuinely guilty about this.

Even more so considering that Siwoo was the one who stepped in and stopped Amelia in the most crucial moment, while she, the cause of all this problem, was nowhere in sight.

“Sophia.”

Amelia called out in a small voice.

Just the other day, when they had that long conversation, she had said everything she wanted to say about Sophia’s self-reproach.

At the end of the day, it was Sophia’s meddling that got Amelia to know Siwoo.

Without her, Amelia probably wouldn’t have met him at all.

In that case, while she probably wouldn’t end up suffering as much, she wouldn’t get to know what was love either.

This was why she didn’t blame Sophia at all.

“You don’t have to do all that.”

“But, Amelia...”

It was also why she rejected Sophia’s offer for support.

But, Sophia took it as Amelia not knowing how much money was involved here.

Even after excluding the smaller digits, the amount she had to pay was 210,000 gold pounds.

The fine that she had to pay to the City Hall was still manageable, but the problem here was the compensation she had to pay for the witches whose research she had ruined.

Even if Sophia were to sell all of her assets, she still wouldn’t be able to cover half of it.

The other possibility that Sophia assumed was that Amelia was refusing her help so that she knew that she really was ‘okay’ and that she didn’t need to worry.

Then again, that was only natural.

No matter how much trouble Amelia got herself into, she wouldn’t just ask for others’ help, thanks to her stubborn pride.

And so, Sophia racked her brain, trying to find a way to help her that wouldn’t make her feel burdened.

At that moment, Amelia looked straight into her eyes.

“Everything’s my fault. I’ll take responsibility for it myself.”

The moment she met her clear eyes, without even a hint of hesitation...

Sophia found herself feeling embarrassed.

She called herself her best friend, but somehow, she failed to understand her best friend’s heart.

“Thank you, Sophia. Your offer meant a lot to me.”

Looking at Amelia, who was bowing her head in gratitude, she became certain.

Her assumptions were all wrong.

The reason why Amelia refused her offer wasn’t because of some petty pride or stubbornness.

It was a deeper, more firmly rooted belief that had successfully replaced her narrow-mindedness of the past.

“...Come here, lemme hug you.”

“You’re already hugging me.”

“When did you become so mature...?”

“If you don’t have money, it’ll be hard for you to do your own magic research... Besides, it isn’t like you’re the one at fault here...”

If it was someone else, they might have responded differently, saying, ‘What’s the big deal?’.

However, Sophia had been watching Amelia since her old, stubborn, stuffy days.

She couldn’t help but feel happy for her small, yet definite growth.

“Okay, I understand. But, if it gets too hard for you, ask me for help, okay? I know that you’d help me the same way if I ever got into trouble, so don’t hesitate, okay?”

“Yes, I will.”

Like a pair of sisters, the two then held each other for a long time.

2.

“Haa...”

On the bed where the heat of the passion hadn’t cooled down yet.

Dry cigarette smoke added a layer of haze to the already hazy window—courtesy of the moist air.

Countess Kohav—without a layer of clothing, beads of sweat glistened like crystals on her pure white skin—wordlessly stared at the window.

As she filled her lightened body with nicotine while resting her chin on her hand, she glanced over her shoulder.

At the end of her gaze was Duchess Erelim, sitting on the bed, leaning her back on the wall with a grimoire in her hands.

Her silky black hair was combed neatly without a single strand standing where they shouldn’t.

Refusing to lose when it came to beauty, her silver eyes moved gracefully, scanning over the letters that she was reading.

Her appearance looked so clean and neat that it was hard to believe that they had just finished a passionate love-making session.

She was a woman that Countess Kohav always loved and admired, but sometimes, the countess couldn’t help but think that she was a little too distant.

As if she was a doll, not a witch, or even a human.

And strictly speaking, that assessment wasn’t entirely wrong at all.

After all, the reason why Yvonne Kohav was feeling this way wasn’t just due to her current neat appearance.

It was because of something that had happened a while ago.

“...”

On the day when Baroness Marigold caused that big incident, Countess Gemini and Evergreen came to the duchess to ask for a favor.

To delay her ‘Judgment’ just for around 15 minutes.

All the preparations to execute Baroness Marigold right there and then were complete, and the other witches had also asked for her mercy.

So, after weighing the interest of everyone, the duchess accepted their request.

Then, after the promised 15 minutes had passed.

As planned, the duchess cast her ‘Spear of Judgment’.

With that, the spear of light that could bypass all sorts of defenses and ignore magical affinities rushed from the sky to the ground.

In an instant, the spatial randomization that Baroness Marigold had created disappeared, and the imprisoned citizens were freed.

To describe the event in chronological order, it was as follows.

(1) The duchess enacted her Judgment.

(2) The spatial randomization that Baroness Marigold had created ceased.

(3) The baroness stopped the duchess’ Judgment.

Although the Judgment was something the duchess—a 24th ranked witch—had released, she still reined in the power to minimize the damage to the surroundings.

So, it wasn’t a far-fetched idea that the 23rd-rank Baroness Marigold was able to stop it.

Of course, the thing that Countess Kohav was confused about the most wasn’t that, but rather, ‘Why didn’t the duchess cancel her magic after (2) had happened?’.

A normal answer to that question was because she couldn’t. Cancelling one’s magic after releasing it wasn’t exactly an easy endeavor.

That was why neither Countess Gemini nor Evergreen made any fuss about it.

But Kohav knew.

The duchess was in total control of her magic, and she could easily do things that defy common sense.

If Blanche wanted to, she could easily stop her Judgment at any time.

But she didn’t.

Moreover, after her magic was stopped by Baroness Marigold, she stared down at the male witch and the baroness embracing each other with scary eyes.

Why didn’t Blanche stop her attack?

And why did she stare at them with such eyes?

“Yvonne.”

Hearing that call, Kohav finally realized that she had been so lost in her thoughts, and that Blanche had put down her grimoire, and was now staring at her.

“Do you have something you want to say to me?”

Blanche closed her book before running her fingertips on Kohav’s smooth waist.

In fact, there were a lot of things she wanted to say.

A lot of things she wanted to ask.

However, those things were ultimately ‘suspicions’, and saying them out loud implied that she was suspecting the duchess of having impure motives.

After gathering her thoughts for a bit, Kohav finally opened her mouth.

“Not really, but do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Of course not.”

Blanche’s nightgown loosened due to her movement, and she gently placed her naked body on top of Countess Kohav’s.

After wrapping her body around Kohav’s like a snake, she caressed her earlobe gently before grabbing her buttocks.

“B-Back then... Why...didn’t you...cancel your magic...?”

Her lust surged, burning strong as if someone had just poured oil onto a dying ember..

Amidst that, Kohav still managed to stammer out her words.

“When?”

“Back when...you used Judgment on...Baroness Marigold... I knew...you could do that... A-Ah, that doesn’t mean I’m questioning your decision–ngh...”

“Is that so?”

As Blanche’s long fingers stirred her still-wet petals, Kohav’s body stiffened.

The cigarette that she was holding trembled—it could probably fall off at any given moment.

“I probably didn’t notice because I was too focused. Controlling such a magic isn’t exactly an easy thing to do.”

“I-Is...that...so...?”

“Regardless, why did you wait until now to ask me that?”

Her thick, sticky voice that Blanche wouldn’t let others hear entered Kohav’s ears.

And that was enough to make Kohav put her doubts aside for a moment.

“T-That’s...”

She began to think that she had made a mistake, or misunderstood something somehow.

While yes, Duchess Erelim had reached great heights, that didn’t mean she was perfect and couldn’t commit mistakes.

Furthermore, she had devoted her life for the witch’s society more than anyone else. There was no way that she’d do something that would harm her fellow witches.

“I see. You doubted me, hm, Yvonne?”

“N-No... I-I wasn’t...”

With her weak spots being attacked relentlessly, Countess Kohav couldn’t even make a coherent sentence anymore.

It had been decades since she started this kind of physical relationship with the duchess, and she had never beaten her even once.

Soon, Countess Kohav lowered her head, burying her face in the sheet as her whole body trembled.

Her regret of ever feeling doubtful towards the duchess and uttering it in words were quickly swept away by the pleasure she felt.

Behind her, who was swallowing her moans, Duchess Erelim’s eyes shone meaningfully.