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1.

Siwoo was worried.

The amount of fine that Amelia had to prepare to avoid imprisonment and exilement wasn’t small no matter how he looked at it.

Witches were generally really wealthy.

Even the witches whom one could see walking around the streets often threw gold coins around and were all living a life that would be envied by everyone in the Modern World.

In fact, even Sharon was a multi-billionaire before she got stripped off her entire fortune in a class-action lawsuit.

Fortunately, in Amelia’s case, the City Hall settled the case by coordinating with the witches who had suffered damages by letting her pay a certain amount of compensation.

Still, the amount of debt wasn’t so easy to pay off.

In the first place, only witches who had amassed their wealth from doing business in the Modern World like Countess Yesod and Countess Gemini could ever get that much money.

After the hearing. Siwoo was on his way to meet with Amelia, but he ran into Sophia along the way.

“Ms. Sophia, were you seeing Ms. Amelia?”

“Ah, Mr. Siwoo... Yeah, I was...”

Siwoo wanted to see Amelia right after the hearing was over, but...

Unfortunately, Amelia was busy with various administrative procedures, including checking over the inheritance that her master left her.

“Has she gone already?”

“Yeah. I told her to show her face for a minute at least before she goes, but... She’s adamant in taking care of everything today.”

“Did she tell you when she’ll be free?”

“She said she’ll finish everything by tonight and meet you in the morning.”

“Alright, got it.”

That was when he realized that it had been a while since he had seen Sophia.

The last time she saw her, he was still a slave.

Meeting an old acquaintance like this, he really felt like time had flown.

“It’s nice meeting you again after such a long time. I won’t bother you anymore, I’ll get going.”

Siwoo bowed politely as he said that and was about to leave, but...

Sophia stopped him.

“Do you not hate me?”

When he turned around to see her, she was meekly folding her hands, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

Essentially, what she had done was using him for Amelia’s sake without his consent.

While she often helped him when Amelia’s torment became too much, she never stopped Amelia from doing what she did to begin with.

He could say that she was sacrificing him for Amelia’s emotional education and she’d have nothing to say to that.

But then Amelia went berserk, and she couldn’t do anything about it while Siwoo went ahead, risked his life, and saved her.

“I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done. I’ll do anything to repay you. Even if you tell me to live the rest of my life naked, I’ll do it.”

“That’s too much, I won’t tell you to do that...”

Though her tone was light, her sincerity was clear. Hence why Siwoo replied with a smile.

While yes, the cause of his involvement with Amelia and miserable life as a slave was ultimately due to Sophia’s antics...

He didn’t mind at all.

After all, Sophia was the first one to offer a helping hand to Amelia, who was struggling all alone. She had also helped him tremendously back during the incident in Border Town, so he didn’t really want to blame her too much.

“If you need my help, please let me know. I’ll help you the best I can.”

“Yes, I will ask for your help if something comes up.”

After that, Siwoo left Sophia—who was bowing her head in apology until the end—behind and went back to Countess Gemini’s mansion.

2.

Siwoo belatedly came to understand Amelia’s feelings.

If he could, he’d love to embrace the reasons behind her actions, her clumsiness, and even her weaknesses.

Of course, if she still harbored the feelings of ‘love’ towards him, he’d also love to respond to it.

Although, to do the latter, he had to deal with something else first.

There was a reason why a harem was only really possible in fiction these days; one had to jump through complicated hoops to build one in reality.

Before proceeding, he had to ask for Sharon, the twins’, and his master’s permission first.

Sadly, he didn’t have any proper explanation he could give to Sharon and the twins.

So, he made them sit down and told them everything that happened between him and Amelia instead of giving out excuses.

Of course, he didn’t go through the details when it came to Amelia’s painful past—he just grazed the topic a little.

Just enough to give some context behind her past actions and such.

“...That’s about it.”

“...”

He ended up giving a rather long explanation, but it was surprisingly shorter than he expected.

Last time, when he tried to come clean about his affair with Countess Yesod, the twins were the ones who got angry the most.

So, he checked on their expressions first.

But, to his surprise...

Their eyes were all red due to tears.

“Sniff... Odette, you aren’t crying, are you? What are you, a child?”

“Sniff... Look in the mirror, Sis...! I’m not the one rubbing my eyes with my sleeves!”

“My eyelashes got into my eyes! You know my eyes are long and pretty, just like a butterfly’s antenna!”

“Mine too! Mine’s as long as yours! It got into my eyes that it hurts so much!”

They tried to not be emotional about it, but unfortunately for them, that didn’t work out as well as they expected.

The twins tried to hide it by starting to bicker among each other like usual again, but the tears in their eyes were clearly visible to everyone.

“A-Ahem... I see, so that’s what happened to the Associate Professor.”

“And here I thought she was a bad teacher who always gave us homework every day...”

Next, he turned his gaze on Sharon.

She was staring wide-eyed at him, drops of tears were falling down on her cleavage.

Siwoo’s original plan was to come clean, get scolded by the three as much as they liked, and get them to have a conversation with Amelia, but...

He never expected them to be so emotional after hearing his story...

It caught him completely off guard.

Maybe I have a talent for storytelling.

Such a thought arose when he saw their reactions.

At that moment, Sharon walked over and gave Siwoo a tight embrace.

“It must’ve been hard... But, you’re okay now, right...?”

“Honestly, it happened a long time ago, so I don’t even remember much of it anymore... I’m fine now.”

Whenever Sharon asked him about his life in Gehenna, Siwoo always found a way to avoid the topic.

Hence why this was the first time she had ever heard about his life as a slave in such detail.

She had assumed that since he was a former slave he used to live a harsh life, but it was only after he told his experience in detail that it hit home to her of how harsh of a life he had lived.

Since she was also someone who shed tears easily, it was only natural that she started to cry after hearing all that.

He got paid less than minimum wage, got assigned to the worst possible accommodation, and on top of that, Amelia had assigned various odd jobs to him without a care in the world.

While she could understand that Amelia had her own circumstances, it was just hard for her to see her in a positive light now.

“I-I feel guilty for what I’ve done now...”

“M-Me too...”

As for the twins, while their relationship had changed drastically after they came back from the Latifundium, before that, they used to approach Siwoo and made Siwoo do their biddings.

Though they had helped him a lot since then...

They still thought that they didn’t have the right to come forward and comfort him like Sharon, since they used to carry out their whole ‘sex education’ agenda without even caring about his consent.

“In any case, if you, Ms. Odile, and Ms. Odette are okay with it, can you spend time together with her for a bit? I’ll talk with Master separately later.”

To that, Sharon nodded, wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

While she couldn’t see Amelia in a positive light after hearing how much she used to torment Siwoo, if the person himself forgave her, what else could she do?

Besides, Amelia also suffered as much, if not more than Siwoo, so she decided to just keep her thoughts to herself in this case.

“Sure, I can do that if you want me to. It’s great that you’re loved by many, Siwoo.”

“Thank you.”

Next, the twins’ response.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette.”

“Well, I knew that this would happen sooner or later.”

“Associate Professor Amelia used to monopolize Mr. Assistant when he regressed to his youth, after all!”

“What’s one or two more women, no one will beat us in the end anyway!”

Of course, those weren’t the only reason the twins were so accepting of Amelia.

They knew that when Siwoo was lying in a coma for months, Amelia was the one who worked the hardest to find a cure for him, more than anyone else.

Then there was also the matter with the Kill List; something that she had done in order to save him.

In a way, it was thanks to her that the twins were able to continue their relationship with Siwoo.

Considering all that, there was no way they could just throw a tantrum and reject Amelia.

But, it made them feel awkward if they were to tell Siwoo all this.

Hence why they just showed him their fighting spirit instead.

“Tell the associate professor to come and visit the council after you’re done! Even if it’s her, we won’t let her skip our meetings!”

“Sis is right!”

3.

Time passed, and the night had deepened.

Siwoo, who had been tossing and turning, unable to sleep, decided to go on a walk.

He didn’t have a specific goal in mind.

Instead, he just went wherever his feet took him. Before long, he somehow arrived at the Trinity Academy.

He had come here countless times to look for Amelia before.

Maybe because he was significantly more relaxed from back then, he could take in the scenery where his five years of joy and sorrow had been buried more closely.

“Haa...”

First, the long, winding drainage ditch along the wall of the building.

It was one of the reasons why he used to really hate rainy days.

Since the Trinity Academy was built a long time ago, the drainage looked like a dungeon where crocodiles might live.

Then, he looked at the barn that used to be his accommodation for five years.

It was an abandoned building to begin with, so of course when Siwoo, the only person who took the minimum amount of care on it left, the building became even more rundown than before.

They said that one couldn’t help but be nostalgic about the past no matter how bad it was.

Looking at this place, he remembered the time when he was trying the damn hardest to escape from Gehenna.

As he recalled the days of his struggles as he tried to study magic to escape, he felt a sense of longing...

“No, I don’t miss that time at all.”

Or not. If anything, those memories made him feel liberated, as if he could do anything he wanted in this world as long as he put his mind into it.

Then, he looked around the library—which was officially his workplace—the hallways, and the academy building, all decorated so lavishly that one would think they’d need to pay an admission fee to visit.

As expected of an academy with a long tradition.

Siwoo had changed a lot ever since then, and yet this building—which remained shining even under the silence of the night—stood unchanged, as if telling the world that it would stay like this for a thousand years.

Then, at that moment...

“...”

He hadn’t made any promises with anyone.

His visit to the Trinity Academy was nothing more than a whim.

But, as if ordained by fate, behind the swaying candlelight, a witch appeared.

Amelia Marigold, holding a book as big as her torso, wearing the cape that her master left her as a heirloom.

The two people who were walking from different ends of the hallway, eventually stopped in the middle.

Don’t think too much about this.

We’ve been apart from each other for so long, there are things we haven’t been able to do for each other.

From now on, we just need to do our best to make up for that.

But, that’s only if the ‘love’ is still in her heart...

No, what am I saying? We almost kissed back then, I don’t need to worry about that, surely.

As he was thinking about various things, Siwoo realized.

He was nervous.

This reunion was completely unexpected and accidental.

The fact that his mind was filled with various things the moment he laid his gaze on Amelia was clearly a reflexive reaction of his cluelessness on how to deal with her.

He didn’t know what he should do. Hell, he didn’t even know if he should greet her first or straight up ask her opinion about the hearing.

“Siwoo.”

In the end, it was Amelia who was the first to speak.

Maybe due to the place, it felt like he had gone back in time.

Back when Amelia was still an associate professor and Siwoo was her private slave.

“Yes, Ms. Amelia?”

“If you don’t mind... Would you like to go on a trip together...?”

The sudden offer to go on a trip surprised Siwoo.

Go on a trip? All of a sudden?

He racked his brain, trying to connect the dots between what happened today, the debt that she now had to pay, and the offer she was currently making.

Is she asking me to go on a midnight escape with her?

Seeing him staring blankly at her, Amelia quickly added.

With a voice that was way too calm and composed for someone who was presumed to be trying to do a midnight escape.

“I want to go on a trip with you.”

From what Sophia told him, Amelia was busy dealing with various administrative works and checking her own balance.

Her trembling eyes made Siwoo think that she was in despair over the fact that she was unable to pay her debt.

“If you’re okay with it, of course...”

But then, he realized.

Her face that looked stiffer than usual.

And her trembling eyes and fingers, unable to hide what she was really thinking.

The way her eyes moistened and her hands trembled as they were grabbing the hem of her skirt...

Made it clear that she really was struggling trying to get those words out.

Siwoo realized once again that Amelia wasn’t the kind of person who’d attempt a midnight escape.

He let out a light laugh, making fun of himself for even thinking about that.

“I was about to ask you the same.”

With that, it was decided that the two of them would go on a trip together.