Chapter 156 – #33_Cohabitation (4)

#154
One.
It has already been 15 days since Sharon and Siwoo lived together.
Here’s a brief summary of the two’s schedule so far:

2PM to 6PM.
Free time during the day with no schedule.
Both of them do what is comfortable for them.

6PM to 0AM.
While Sharon went to do her part-time job, Siu was absorbed in her magic studies.

0AM to 3AM.
After Sharon’s part-time job ends, she goes straight to posting her flyers.
Of course, finding the homunculus is more important than putting up flyers, but…
Haven’t found it yet.

3AM to 6AM.
It’s time to watch a movie with a simple late-night snack.
Originally, it was just a late-night snack for an hour or two, but since Sharon loved the movie so much, she naturally settled for the screening time.
It is a bonus that discussing what movie to watch today has become a daily pleasure.

6AM to 10AM.
A little sleep time.
Sharon’s bed arrived midweek, so she no longer had to fight over a bed.

10AM~ 2PM.
In addition, Sharon’s elemental magic class is held under the pretext of covering her food + rent.
Sharon passed on her magical knowledge to Siu.

And now it was Sharon’s lecture time.

“Now, today, let’s learn about ‘water’, the second of the four elements. It progresses really fast.”
“It’s all thanks to the wise Master.”
“Is it?”

Sharon and Siu became close to the point of exchanging pranks in a friendly way.
Sharon tapped her whiteboard with a marker to lighten her mood.
Now that they are close to each other, they are exchanging light pranks, but once they enter the class, he becomes more serious than anyone else.

“If the element of soil, which we learned last time, provides the foundation, agitation, and tone, water governs the flow, movement, and re-change. In a word, it can be said that it is the second most important attribute. And….”

In fact, what Sharon was teaching Siu was not a very high level class.
In addition to being the basic of the basics that apprentice witches must teach, Siwoo is already well versed enough to complete magnetic magic in one field.
It is a state of awareness that learning is bound to be fast.

Even so, Sharon was amazed at Siwoo’s ability to learn.
This is because Siwoo acquired all the information at an amazing speed, as if he were reviewing what he knew from the beginning.

“…Just as the element of earth was instrumental in understanding the foundations of all elemental magic, the element of water will be the beginning of embracing and understanding the elements. 70% of the human body is made up of water, right? It is the most important element that connects the outside where magic is performed and the inside where magic is performed. Okay this far?”
“Uh, roughly.”

Is it simply memorization? If not
Of course, she had a much better memory than the average person, but compared to the apprentice witches who are full of gifted geniuses and raw meat, they are mediocre, neither exceptional nor inferior.

However, magic is not a mere study of memorization.
If it was a problem where everything could be solved by calculation and memorization, the world’s strongest witch would have been a computer.
No matter how good the witch’s thought acceleration ability was, it wouldn’t reach that of a computer.

So her strength lies in her ability to find her organic connections, and her inspiration to break out of her stereotypes and find her own path.
If you teach her one, she doesn’t stop there, she expands her thinking and realizes it herself, and comes up with a shortcut that even Sharon couldn’t think of.

“I have a question.”
“Yes, ask.”

Her theoretical lectures, which had taken Sharon over a week during her apprentice witches, were completed in just an hour or two.
She didn’t need Sharon to tell her everything.
I just put dots on the drawing paper, and Siwoo connected them all together and made it into one big picture.

“Today is a bit complicated.”

Sharon was going to tell only the properties of different elements, but by the time her question was over, Siwoo had already paid attention to the mutual relationship between the elements of soil and water and was drawing his own conclusions.
However, even with such great achievements, he is not very satisfied.
It could be because she has no idea what a great job she is doing.

Sharon did not praise his greatness one by one.
She is conceited because in learning she is always a poison.

“What is complicated?”
“How to say… Magic was close to math for me. When you plug in a number into a formula, you get a value. If you run into problems in the process, you can just use new formulas and proofs, and just get in touch with new knowledge, but what you teach me, I don’t blame you, it’s just a little vague.”

In Siwoo’s opinion, Sharon’s lectures were as close to art as painting or music.

“So it doesn’t look very useful?”
“No, my head hurts thinking about how to apply this. It feels like ‘solve the given problem artistically’.”

Siu smiled bitterly.
Sharon stared at his face.
It was nice to see him make that face sometimes.
I don’t know why… If I had to give a reason, should I say that I like the effort not to show it while embarrassing?

“Come and see.”
“Should we hold hands again?”
“No?”
“It’s not that I hate it.”

Sharon stretched out his palm and held it out to Siu.
Siwoo held the pod in his hand.
It is a kind of work to share Sharon’s image.
Originally, the larger the body area in contact, the easier ‘resonance’ becomes, but since men and women are different, they compromised by holding hands.

But maybe I’ve gotten used to it, my heart doesn’t beat as frantically as before.
Siwoo and Sharon closed their eyes at the same time.

“You don’t have to be in too much of a hurry.”

But today there has been a little change.
While Sharon was holding her hand, he also pulled Siwoo’s empty hand and held it together.
Siwoo opened his eyes in embarrassment.
In front of my eyes, I saw Sharon, who was approaching so closely that Siu and I were almost glued to each other.

“If you think of everything in terms of numbers and calculations, magic quickly becomes boring. What you need to do now is to feel and accept the existence of the elements as they are.”

Sharon’s voice whispered right in front of her nose.
At the same time, Sharon and Siu’s consciousness subsides at the same time, as if the earth is extinguished.

“Close your eyes and draw a pointillism in your head. A big picture made of elements. It is not simply looking at magic with knowledge, but feeling, being moved, and assimilating.”

– Knock!

“…..Uh?”
“Can you feel it?”

It sounded like the sound of dripping water.
A single drop of water that falls clear into the darkness behind the eyelids shakes the world.
It seemed as if this world had turned into one large water surface.

Siu opened his eyes.
And saw.

The appearance of the world as if the water fairies were holding a festival.
The classification of the blue light that filled the empty universe.
The gigantic surging blue particles swirl, meander, and rotate to cover the vast world.
It was a festival-like world that changed, accepted, melted, and danced.

And Sharon stands against the dreamy background.
While holding Siwoo’s hand tightly, he looked at him in awe and smiled.

And.

“Ah….”

The short trip ended when Sharon let go of her hand.
Siu and Sharon were back in the room.

“Elements exist everywhere, but in fact they may not exist anywhere. We just believe in its existence and pray earnestly. Please give me a miracle.”

On the other hand, Siu’s heart was engulfed by the majestic scenery.
My body has returned to the real world, but my mind still feels like it’s lost there.
Should I say it’s the feeling of meeting Ajin for the first time?
It felt like another barrier to dealing with magic had been broken.

“Each witch has a different point of view. There is a view that elements must be controlled and used efficiently, and there is a view that they are just mechanical devices that make up a world where there is no good or evil. But whenever I see this kind of scenery, I automatically pray.”
“Sorry, I have something I want to try for a second.”
“Ah! Okay.”

Seeing Siwoo speak calmly, Sharon quickly vacated the seat.
The fact that he, who always agrees with Sharon’s words, comes out like a knife like that is what I expected to have learned something important.
Watching Siwoo sit down at the table and close her eyes, Sharon quietly left the room so as not to disturb him.

“Envy….”

And he sighed softly.
Unlike Sharon, who was stagnant, Siwoo, who got a new private tutor, grew up day by day.
What kind of monster would she have become if she had been born as a woman and officially inherited the witch’s stigma?
His talent was dazzling enough to make the teachers humble.
To the point of being jealous sometimes.

“Isn’t that what I learn later?”

I just started the basic lecture, but I don’t think it’s an empty word.
In fact, there have already been several times when the question Siwoo came up with gave Sharon a small realization…

“This is not the time.”

Today’s class ends a little early, so I have some time left.
Sharon glanced at Siu’s visit one last time and started her own research.

2.
The end of everyday life, no different than usual.
Siwoo and Sharon each went to bed, but Sharon kept her eyes wide open.
Because she realized a big problem.

“I’ve been playing too much lately…”

Yes.
Sharon’s recent attitude has been lax, perhaps because of the reaction she has been living so tightly.
I had a good time forgetting my debt worries for a while, watching a movie, and thinking about what to eat today.

Thanks to Siwoo’s kindness, the living environment has improved rapidly and unnecessary monthly rent has stopped going out.
But that doesn’t make Sharon’s debt go away.

Since I haven’t been able to hunt homunculus for almost three weeks, and I’ve lost money at the coin market that was making money in my spare time, I’m worried about whether I’ll be able to properly prepare the money on the due date that will come in two months.

“Ha….”

Sharon sighed and jumped out of her bed.
Originally, she struggled to save her money by doing something without sleeping, but after living together, she is sleeping as if it were natural…
The suddenly changed environment, such as a cozy bed, abundant food, and enjoyable hobbies, strangely took away the sense of reality.

Then she had a scene flash into Sharon’s mind.
It was a proposal Siwoo made to Sharon during their first meeting.
‘Because I have plenty of extra money. By paying interest instead…’

Naturally, Sharon flatly refused.
It was because it was unpleasant and made me feel bad.

Even though she had bad luck and ended up living in debt, Sharon’s core was her witch pride.
If she had the personality to accept sympathy as if it were hostile, she would have risked tracking location points and made money by abusing magic.

“Ugh…”

But then and now things are a little different.
At that time, she knew nothing about Siu, so she found his petty sympathy unpleasant, but she lived with him and found that he was a good person.
Even with her help, the relationship became close enough that the psychological rejection did not increase.

Could it be that she herself was trying to solve this ordeal by unwittingly piggybacking on his good will?
Could it be that his earnestness diminished when he got insurance that Siwoo would somehow rescue him even in the worst situation?

Sharon changed her clothes.
A robe and a wand for harnessing her elemental magic are clutched in her hand.

“…I can’t do that.”

Siu is a good friend.
I know that if Sharon is really in trouble, she will lend her helping hand without any hesitation.

Even more so, Sharon had no desire to lean on him.
She wanted to remain friends with him on an equal footing.
The moment one side receives material help, the horizontal relationship is broken.
Even if Siwoo didn’t care at all, it seemed that Sharon’s debt could not be erased.

Sharon opened her balcony and jumped out.
She was to find the homunculus.