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 . It ant that Kaichen had no reason in the past to pay attention to Dalia. Kaichen didn’t point that out. He questioned for the necessary information for a full-scale magic research.
“Are you the dium of the forbidden magic that manifested in Acrab?”
“If being a ‘dium’ ans 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 ti magic it is?”
There were several kinds of forbidden magic, among them, ti 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 ti magic at all.
“It was the kind of magic which could make the days repeat on itself.”
“Do you an repeating ti?”
“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’ ti.”
“So it’s the sa as when ti isn’t flowing.”
“It’s similar, but a little different. Everyone except was unaware of the fact that the day kept repeating. It was not that ti had stopped. After all, ti flowed in the sa way outside.”
Kaichen furrowed his eyebrows at this new information, pulled out an old notebook from his pocket and began to write sothing down. The tip of the white quill touched the paper and glided on it. He wrote sothing down, then frowned, hesitated and looked up at again.
It seed like he was embarrassed by the fact that he was engrossed in research in front of . 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 seed 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 .”
“Isn’t that because people don’t really trust you?”
“Really? You are just going to poke in my sorest spot right now?”
Kaichen stared at 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 .” 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 ti 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 rembers 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 dium or by soone who has a strong power from outside.” Kaichen’s gaze slowly rose from his notebook and fixed on .
The golden eyes looked straight at for the first ti, and for a mont, 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 seed to react strangely to him.
“I am a little surprised because you know more than I thought.”
“I had plenty of ti to study.”
Kaichen now closed his notebook and looked at . 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 to run, it was terrified. I felt so tense that it was ridiculous.
“How… how much ti has passed?” He seed quite hesitant to ask that.
Seeing soone so cold and indifferent feeling reluctant to ask questions made 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 being all awkward. Besides, he had to talk to a drunkard in a very ssy place. I was sure he hated it the most.
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