045. The Witch’s Man (3)

As the male protagonist confessed his love to the witch on stage, Owen realized what this elusive emotion he had been searching for was.

It was love.

The world didn’t turn pink like in a novel’s description, nor did he think about Lucia all day long, but this emotion was undoubtedly love.

The singer on stage was proving it.

What he felt was indeed love.

“But I…”

“You don’t have to answer forcibly.”

“…Are you saying you have no desires?”

“All I wish for is your happiness. Even that is considered greedy in this world.”

Every line of dialogue from the play pierced deep into his heart.

Listening to their voices, Owen looked at Lucia.

Her eyes were still filled with worry.

To reassure her, Owen faintly smiled and softened his eyes.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry.”

In truth, he wasn’t fine at all, but he needed to be, at least until the end of the play.

Lucia nodded at his response.

She didn’t seem convinced but seemed willing to let it go for now.

Owen was relieved by her reaction and turned his gaze back to the stage.

The scene depicted the male and female protagonists pouring out their emotions and running away together.

They escaped to the forest where the witch originally lived.

Thus, they found peace again.

They spent their days together, supporting each other.

But misfortune struck once more.

While the male protagonist was out buying supplies, someone set fire to the forest.

The forest and their home were ablaze.

The male protagonist fell to his knees in despair.

At that moment, the witch, the female protagonist, walked out of the flames.

“Even if you burn a witch at the stake, she doesn’t die. Didn’t you know that?”

The witch laughed.

A brilliant, cruel laugh.

“A witch doesn’t die. Even if you kill her. Trying to kill me was foolish.”

Her cackling laughter echoed.

The male protagonist embraced the witch without hesitation.

“You’re alive… Thank goodness, truly.”

The witch was taken aback by his reaction.

She asked if he wasn’t afraid, even though she was the real witch everyone spoke of, but he calmly replied.

“I told you. Even if you are the real witch, it doesn’t matter to me.”

That seemed to be the turning point where the witch began to love the male protagonist.

She seemed to gain certainty.

Thus, the two of them fell in love with each other.

However…

“I’m not dying. Witches don’t die. We just become the wind and fly away. Scattering in the wind.”

Having lived a long life, the witch died before the male protagonist.

But she closed her eyes with a smile, free of regrets.

“I love you. Very much.”

And the final song of the opera began.

*For My Beautiful and Cruel Witch.*

The male protagonist sang, remembering his beloved witch.

“My world is entirely made up of you. I can do anything for you. The world calls you a witch, but it doesn’t matter. Because I love you just the way you are.”

The male protagonist, left alone, looked desolate.

He seemed to be showing the fate of someone who had lost the person who was their entire world, wearing a lonely face with a faint smile.

He sang, remembering the person who was everything to him.

“I remember everything about you, the moments with you. I love all those memories. I love you very much.”

—

The afterglow of the play lingered.

Even at the restaurant where they went for dinner, Owen couldn’t shake off the effects of the opera.

The emotions brought about by *The Witch’s Man* were profound.

More accurately, it wasn’t that the opera *brought* the emotions, but that it made him *realize* them.

“Here is the main dish. One lamb steak and one beef steak. Who ordered the lamb steak?”

While Owen was lost in thought, the main dishes arrived.

“This way. The beef steak is for him.”

“Understood.”

Lucia answered on his behalf, noticing his distracted state.

Plates with the steaks were set before them.

Owen mechanically picked up his knife and began cutting the steak.

His perfect etiquette meant the steak was cut without a sound, but his eyes still reflected strong emotions.

His unresolved feelings seemed ready to overflow.

“Owen.”

Lucia finally called out to him.

Since the middle of the opera, Owen had been acting strangely.

She had found his deep engagement with the play surprising, but his behavior in the latter half was as if he had become one with the male protagonist.

For no apparent reason.

“Owen?”

She called him again, and he finally looked at her.

The gaze that met hers made Lucia flinch.

She had been surprised when she called him at the opera house.

In the eyes that met hers, emotions were vividly rising, as if they were uncontrollable.

She didn’t know the name of those emotions.

Because they were colors she had never seen before.

However, whatever those emotions were, they were clearly intense enough to feel like they would burn and simultaneously make her heart drop.

But…

“Lucia.”

The black eyes she faced now were even more intense.

Emotions that were so deep and dark, they felt like they would overwhelm her, surged forward.

It felt like a tidal wave was coming.

Lucia couldn’t even open her mouth to respond.

She couldn’t move an inch.

It was a sense of helplessness.

Like a frail human swept away by a huge disaster, Lucia could only gaze at Owen endlessly.

“Lucia…”

Even Owen’s voice answering her was filled with emotion.

It was completely colored with the same emotions reflected in his eyes, leaving no gaps.

It was a type of voice she had never heard from him before, and a frankness she had never seen.

He could not hide it.

The emotions surging out like waves.

Lucia found such Owen unfamiliar.

She could not predict what he would say next.

“I think I like you.”

And then, Owen confessed.

Like a flood engulfing an entire village in an instant, he said it just like that.

It was then that Lucia finally realized.

The name of the emotion he was showing so vividly and honestly.

“No, I think I love you a lot.”

It was love.

The reason Owen was so shaken by his own emotions was because he was unfamiliar with love.

And the reason she hadn’t realized that what she saw today was love, despite having received confessions multiple times…

“It’s okay.”

…was because it was a kind of love she had never seen before.

“Even if you don’t love me. So you don’t have to give any answer.”

Owen’s love was one-sided.

He was loving in a one-sided and sacrificial way.

Owen did not expect anything.

He just truly loved her.

“I have never expected anything. Not even once. Just…”

He was loving her with utmost sincerity.

His gaze, his voice.

His actions proved it.

Yet, there wasn’t even a hint of greed from him.

It was entirely different from the loves she had experienced.

“I just want to fulfill your wishes.”

“…”

“Lucia. I just wish I could do everything you want. That you get what you desire, and spend time only with people who love and cherish you.”

This was Owen’s long-awaited confession.

So, she should feel happy.

It was a moment to be joyful because Owen was now completely hers.

Certainly, it should have been.

But Lucia couldn’t just be happy and laugh.

She had never imagined Owen’s confession would be like this.

“…Why?”

She thought he would simply say he loved her.

That he liked her, that he wanted her too.

Just like everyone else had said until now.

That he wanted to be her lover, or wanted to be engaged to her.

Or that he wanted her to like him back.

She thought he would murmur to return his love.

Because ordinary people did so.

At least the ones Lucia had experienced did.

“Why do you wish for that?”

There was no such love.

She didn’t know such a selfless love.

Although she didn’t know much about love itself, she had never heard of such love.

People are inherently selfish.

So, naturally, people who love should also be selfish.

But why is he like this….

“Because I want you to be happy.”

Why is he so kind?

“That’s all I wish for.”

Owen smiled.

The desperate emotions vanished as if they were a lie.

All that remained was a clear and radiant smile.

Lucia felt a sense of distance in front of that smile.

She suddenly thought of the moon.

The soft and elegant moon she saw while walking along the night sea in Ocean overlapped with Owen.

“That’s my wish and my desire, Lucia.”

He truly was like the moon.

He did not monopolize the night sky.

He knew how to share the night sky with countless stars, and he knew how to harmonize with both the sea and the sky.

He was a person who did not know how to harm others.

Owen was, surprisingly, such a person.

“…”

He was different from her.

Unlike her, who had to grasp what she wanted by any means, he chose to protect the things precious to him.

The happiness, health, and safety of those dear to him.

He wanted to protect those hopeful, seemingly fictitious things.

“Lucia.”

Owen called her name.

His hand gently touched hers.

He carefully held her hand.

Lucia’s gaze moved from his face to his hand.

“My emotions are my responsibility.”

Owen said softly.

“…”

Lucia still couldn’t say anything.

He, who loved selflessly, was even mature.

“There is nothing for you to feel sorry about. These are my emotions.”

He was perfect to an excessive degree.

With his handsome appearance, tall stature, extraordinary martial skills as a swordsman at the level of a Sword Master, and his status as the head of one of the two duke households.

Not just his outward appearance, but even his inner self was exceedingly complete.

This made her feel more troubled.

Wasn’t Owen also someone who once couldn’t believe in love due to his emotionally barren world?

Yet he loved with maturity and consideration.

For the first time, Lucia felt sorry for him because of this.