Chapter 13
From what I had learnt, Acrab was very far from the capital. Its territory was isolated because it was surrounded by mountainous terrain. Therefore, the land’s sad situation wasn’t really known in the capital. And those who did know, didn’t report her for the satisfaction to see her fail and fall from grace. That is indeed fortunate for me. It meant that Kaichen had no reason in the past to pay attention to Dalia. Kaichen didn’t point that out. He questioned me for the necessary information for a full-scale magic research.
“Are you the medium of the forbidden magic that manifested in Acrab?”
“If being a ‘medium’ means being in a conscious state of the mind while magic is present.. then that’s correct.”
After reconfirming the information that he had already gained yesterday, he asked the next question. “Can you explain what kind of time magic it is?”
There were several kinds of forbidden magic, among them, time magic was particularly difficult to learn and even more difficult to manifest it directly in this way. It was the reason Kaichen, who didn’t like interacting with people, ran here as fast as he could. Yesterday, I had told him I didn’t know anything about this but that was because I wasn’t sure about time magic at all.
“It was the kind of magic which could make the days repeat on itself.”
“Do you mean repeating time?”
“Yes, that’s right. It was a structure where everything inside the space called Acrab repeated endlessly. As long as they were inside, nothing and no one could escape this ‘one day’ time.”
“So it’s the same as when time isn’t flowing.”
“It’s similar, but a little different. Everyone except me was unaware of the fact that the day kept repeating. It was not that time had stopped. After all, time flowed in the same way outside.”
Kaichen furrowed his eyebrows at this new information, pulled out an old notebook from his pocket and began to write something down. The tip of the white quill touched the paper and glided on it. He wrote something down, then frowned, hesitated and looked up at me again.
It seemed like he was embarrassed by the fact that he was engrossed in research in front of me. I wish I could tell him that he didn’t need to be reluctant. After all, I knew he was the greatest magic nerd in the kingdom. I smiled reassuringly at him.
However, Kaichen thought otherwise. His brows furrowed even more.
“It seems more complicated than I thought.”
“It is. No one could leave or enter Acrab. Above all, it seemed to have made it impossible for anyone else to be aware that they were under the magic’s effect. I tried to tell them. Nobody believed me.”
“Isn’t that because people don’t really trust you?”
“Really? You are just going to poke me in my sorest spot right now?”
Kaichen stared at me wide-eyed and lowered his head towards his notebook. It was clear that he wanted to be done with this interaction as soon as possible. Perhaps he was wondering if I would cooperate now. That was satisfying to see. But he wasn’t wrong. My reputation wasn’t really top tier right now.
“You aren’t wrong,” I said, “They definitely didn’t entertain my words. They thought I was drunk as usual and speaking gibberish. I tried the other day from the beginning. I tried explaining it patiently. After a while, I started becoming skeptical that they didn’t believe me.” Kaichen was silent. “One day wasn’t enough to make them trust a drunkard’s words, so I kept trying.”
Without taking his eyes off the notebook, Kaichen asked, “You must have tried to escape from the time magic.”
“Obviously. I would talk with the people in the day, and they would forget we ever had a conversation the next day. It felt lonely. It is painful to live in a world where nobody ever remembers talking to you. So, naturally, as anyone would, I tried to escape as well.”
“Was there anything you could do?”
“I tried many things, but it was all in vain. It is very hard to break forbidden magic once it has been cast. It can be stopped by the death of the medium or by someone who has a strong power from outside.” Kaichen’s gaze slowly rose from his notebook and fixed on me.
The golden eyes looked straight at me for the first time, and for a moment, my body froze. I hadn’t made a mistake, but my heart trembled as though I had. I didn’t really feel anything, but this body seemed to react strangely to him.
“I am a little surprised because you know more than I thought.”
“I had plenty of time to study.”
Kaichen now closed his notebook and looked at me. It sent cold shivers down my spine. I felt restless and anxious. I knew it wasn’t possible, but I had a feeling that Kaichen could see through the fact that this body held another soul, a different soul than Dalia’s. His clear eyes were sharp and focused.
D*mn, what the hell is this feeling of not being able to control my body…? I had not felt anything like this in over a hundred years. But now, I feel uneasy with Kaichen. It was as though my body was telling me to run, it was terrified. I felt so tense that it was ridiculous.
“How… how much time has passed?” He seemed quite hesitant to ask that.
Seeing someone so cold and indifferent feeling reluctant to ask questions made me feel like laughing a little. I had only read about him as a character in a novel, and here he was, right in front of me being all awkward. Besides, he had to talk to a drunkard in a very messy place. I was sure he hated it the most.