Chapter 19
“So? How was meeting with her after such a long time? Is she really an alcoholic?”
Kaichen looked at Julius, who didn’t hide his excitement from the other side of the communication channel.
“Yes,” he answered indifferently.
“Ha-ha-ha!”
Dalia Alshine already was a ruined noble in the Empire. She did not even try to fix herself. She was like a bird with her wings torn, unable to make sense of her surroundings anymore. For Kaichen, though, her fall didn’t come as a surprise.
“Was it heartbreaking to see her ruined? Or was it satisfying?” Julius asked.
“I didn’t feel anything,” replied a stoic Kaichen.
“Isn’t that what you want to think?”
“Didn’t you order me to investigate forbidden magic? Your interest in Countess Alshine is verging on excessive.”
“Since you’re interested, I’m interested too. Don’t be so angry.”
Kaichen frowned at the words ‘angry’ and ‘interested’. He had half a mind to turn off the communication tool, but Julius was a prince, he could hardly disrespect him in that manner.
“How are you feeling? Aren’t you overdoing it?”
“I’m fine.”
“You tend to endure too much. Don’t overdo it. You don’t want to faint in front of her, do you?”
Kaichen furrowed his brows and scowled. He let out a short sigh. Breaking down the time magic in Acrab had taken too much of his mana. It had almost turned out to be fatal. Julius was right. He needed to rest. He had tried to ignore it and stay in Acrab to continue his research but…
“I am not sure, but I think there is something wrong with her since she had been stuck in the time magic for such a long time.”
“Did she go crazy?” asked Julius.
“It’s not like that exactly but…”
It would have been better if she was completely mad, then he wouldn’t have to go through all this. This work was too tiresome. Kaichen frowned and pressed tiredly at his temples.
It’s been three days since he left Acrab. His body was somehow recovering, but it was impossible to use long-distance travel magic. If he went to the magic tower in this physical condition, old wizards aiming for his spot would bother him. In the end, he was forced to go to his home which no one had ever been to before. It seemed as good an idea as any.
“If she is not crazy, isn’t that a relief? And it’s best for you to recover your body too.”
“It would have been better to stay in Acrab for the research while recovering.”
“Didn’t she say she didn’t want to be there, though?”
“She seemed a little… afraid.”
“That is indeed strange… unless something happened in those hundred years trapped inside the time magic. It might have made her afraid of the people in that territory or the place itself.”
Kaichen nodded. That made sense.
Kaichen was familiar with her but Dalia seemed different when he met her in Acrab. She seemed most unlike her. She had been trembling that day, and her face had been white as a sheet with fear. It had left a bad taste in his mouth. It was so strange to see those cold, black eyes, which had always been proud and arrogant, shaking with fear.
Dalia, a drunkard. A fallen noble. He would have laughed at her state but seeing her so broken, it felt uncomfortable and disturbing to laugh at someone like that.
“Truly… we can’t be sure that hundred years have truly passed,” he said.
“She doesn’t have a reason to lie, does she?” asked Julius.
“I don’t know. She is a noble who decided to abandon her people and run away.”
“She probably had a reason. Don’t push her too much, Kaichen. You can’t be sure if your personal feelings are negatively affecting your view of her.”
“I have never done that.”
Julius laughed as though he had told a clever joke. Kaichen was annoyed and restrained the urge to hit him at the back of his head when they met.
At that moment, Dalia appeared from afar. Kaichen cut off communication with Julius, who was eagerly arguing about the said “personal feelings.” He had held back once on cutting him off. That was enough. The golden light surrounding the ring disappeared and Kaichen looked at the notebook in his hand as though nothing was amiss. Dalia approaching him with a hum and light footsteps was opposite to the woman that he knew as her.
Kaichen looked at the notebook with heavy and sunken eyes. The words ‘Dalia Alshine’, ‘100 Years’, and ‘Personality Change’ swam in front of his eyes.
“You don’t look good. Are you sick?” A little girl spoke to him from the still vivid memories that he wanted to forget forever.
“Traitor! You tricked me! Noble…. Why didn’t you say you weren’t a noble? Dirty! Go away! Go away!’
Funnily enough, it was her that had initiated a conversation with him. She had reached out first then shunned him when she realized he was not of noble blood. The time they had spent together was shattered just because of his status. Kaichen never forgot her eyes, filled with such contempt and hate.
When he had heard about how she had become a wreck, he had felt satisfied as Julius had said. But he was still bothered. When he had run to Acrab after getting the news of the forbidden magic, Dalia had uttered unexpected words when she saw him.
Her eyes had sparkled in the night and she had said, “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you?” It was as though she had forgotten all about her past with him.