He refrained from imdiately calling June after taking his monthly leave, worried that he was unsure if he still felt as strongly about her as he did before coming to the frontlines.
Letting out a breath, he didn't stay indecisive for long and connected their private Longread. Soon, an illusory figure appeared in his mind, the light twisting into a form he was so familiar with. She had just co out of a fresh bath, a soft white nightgown draped over her full figure.
Just looking at her, his heart shook, and he put all his doubts to rest.
"Hey," he was the first to break the silence.
June said nothing for a long mont, examining him. "You look different," she said.
"You look beautiful," he replied.
Her ears turned red from the complint. "It's been four days since you called," she said. "So it's forty-eight days for you... Took so ti to rember, huh..."
"It's actually far longer than that," he said, doing a rough ntal calculation. "It's close to five months for . At so point, I was dying to return to you..."
"What happened?"
"A long story... Do you rember the Inheritance ground I told you about? I entered that, and it turns out it had higher ti dilation than any place around. So what felt like a day here was close to five months for ..."
June gasped. "Are you alright?" she asked. "Ti dilation usually impacts one's spirit, body, and mind if you spend a long ti there, especially at such a high rate."
"I am..." he paused, "actually in better shape than I thought I would be. Oh, you probably can't sense through the call, but I hit Silver..."
"You did? Really?" Her eyes widened. "I guess it's a pretty normal thing for you... Congratulations! Hopefully, there was no complication during your advancent?"
"The advancent was seamless," he said. "But it wasn't without complications... For one thing, my chest glows like a bulb whenever I draw in essence, and I seem to have put one foot into transcendence..."
"You did what?!"
"It's a long story to explain over a call," he said, letting out a breath. "I really wish I could talk about it all with you, sitting on the couch."
"Give a gist at least..." she urged. "You can't just stop after saying you've almost transcended... Wait, did you say your chest glows like a bulb?"
"Crazy business," he sighed. "I'll try to explain in short, to the best of my abilities... Do not interrupt in the middle... You know how much I like to go off on tangents..."
With that, he took a deep breath and began from when he entered the inheritance ground. June's expression changed when he got to the Elysian part and his whole experience with Ariha.
"Wait, you said Warden isn't your real na," she cried. "What should I call you then?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, trying to act as if it was nothing not to know his own na. "It could be Joe, for all I think..."
June shot him a look that said, "Really?"
"I an, I look like a good Joe..." Your next read awaits at m v|l-e'-
June drew in a deep breath. "What are you not telling ?" she asked.
"Like a lot," he said. "It's literally impossible for to unload it all over this call."
She shook her head. "You tell all this like it's a fun adventurous story, but I can tell that's not it." She paused and t his gaze unwaveringly. "So tell , how are you really feeling?"
"..." He closed his eyes, unsure what to say... Even if she asked for his true feelings, it was hard to explain his feelings when he himself didn't understand them.
Soone tugged on his arm, pulling him out of his reverie. "Excuse ," a feminine voice said.
"Give a mont," he told her without paying her any attention. His gaze lingered on June as he took a deep breath. "I haven't managed to fall asleep lately... The last ti was when I fell unconscious from exhaustion..."
June bit her lip. "I wish I could be there for you... Help you."
"The worst of it all is that I don't understand anything," he continued. "My whole life seems to have revolved around these matters, yet I have no clue about anything. I feel like I'm starving, swimming in a mad sea as the waves take ... Like I said, nothing makes sense."
"I really want to embrace you now," she said. "This is similar to the loneliness I felt after waking up from my coma after a couple of decades."
He nodded, biting his lip. "How did you cope..."
"Badly," she sighed. "But later I learned that..."
"Hey, can you wait a second," he cut in before she could finish. "There seems to be so ruckus going on around ."
He pulled his mind out of the crystal and found it was really an annoying sort of trouble. A group of four guys seed to have surrounded a timid girl. What was worse was that they were unable to make up their minds whether to keep hitting on her or molest her—whatever they were doing was bad enough. Not to ntion, these guys were part of so regint in the military.
The girl's face had paled, white as a sheet... She had an aura of a weak Silver rank, so it shouldn't have been a problem for her to rescue herself from them. Yet she seed to have so trouble speaking.
"S-sir Gale~" she called.
He found she was looking at him.
"Sir, I'm~"
"Lass, when the captain is talking," one of the hoodlums clutched her thin arm, "you should put your full attention on him."
"Now, now, Ben, is this how you talk to a lady?" the prodigious captain said, a smile tucked on his lips. "Let show you how to treat..."
The Warden sighed. "Alright, kids, playti is over," he said, assaulting the captain with a coercive aura, freezing him in his place. "Go on with whatever business you ca here to do..."
"And who might you be?" said another guy.
He let go of the aura pressure over the captain so that he could take away his minions and leave.
Instead, the guy fell to his knees, causing him to worry if he had pulled more of his aura than needed.
"Sir, I apologise, I did not know—" the captain rasped, bowing. "I did not intend to offend..."
"I'll take offence if you guys do not leave my sight imdiately..." he said, flaring a little of his aura, this ti on everyone but the timid-looking girl with silver hair.
They all bowed and sprinted out as if given a command by their superior officer.
He was prepared to return to the call but turned his gaze to the girl. A frown appeared on his brows... She seed familiar in an obtrusive way.
"Thank you, Sir Gale," she said, stamring a short bow before coming closer to him.
"It's nothing," he said. "But why are you calling Sir Gale? I'm no..."
"Because that's your na," the silver-haired girl said. "I'm Dawn, you don't recognize ?"
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END OF VOLU II : ALL REMBRANCE LOST
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