"Dad? What happened? Where's Damien?" Ariel furrowed her brows after not seeing Damien along with her father when he returned from Damien's mansion.
"Umm…" Theodore flipped his hair with his hand and replied, "He hasn't completely recovered from his trauma yet. He said he wanted to rest for so more ti."
"Oh, is that so?" Ariel forced a bright smile on her face and said, "Then that's all right."
Ariel fidgeted her fingers for a while and pointed at the door, "I will go to the class then. I think we were going to be taught an important lesson today."
Ariel ran out of the door without waiting for her father to speak.
She stopped outside the training ground's gate and took a few deep breaths in. She waved her palm in front of her eyes a few tis and then put on a smile.
And she went to her class, only to realize that it was a holiday today. "Right! I forgot today is the weekend."
But she still went inside her classroom and sat down alone.
'He will co around, right?' she asked herself as she recalled her grandmother's words.
Likewise, several such weeks passed by.
Every ti her father would say that he would try to bring Damien along with him. But he would always co up with so kind of excuse instead of Damien.
So days he would say that Damien was still sleeping, so days he would say Damien fell ill again, and the other days he would say that Damien was busy with so important training that he couldn't miss.
Initially, Ariel believed whatever her father said. But slowly, she started to think that her father wasn't being truthful. She could see it in his eyes that he was lying to her.
However, she played along since she could sowhat guess why her father was lying to her. "Damien is really going to keep his last words to , isn't he? He ant it when he said he didn't want to see again."
And she also didn't call out her father because she could see how hard he was trying to keep his word and make her happy.
Just like that, several months passed by.
Theodore still didn't miss his visits to Lilith's mansion. However, his frequency of visits had declined from once every week to once every two or three weeks.
Theodore got ready to see if Damien would change his mind today.
"Adeline, don't tell Ariel that I'm off to Lilith's place. I don't think anything is going to change today either. I don't want to keep on making the promises that I can't keep."
Adeline gave a nod and asked, "Try to co back faster. We can't save soone who doesn't want to get saved."
Adeline also believed that today wasn't going to be any different either. All she had been hearing from Theodore for the past months was how Damien would avoid eting Theodore face-to-face at all costs.
Damien hadn't t Theodore even once after that incident in Mihir. Most of the ti he would either be locked in his room or wouldn't be in the mansion when Theodore would visit. And if he happened to stumble upon Theodore, then he would keep his head down and run away as fast as he could.
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Adeline further reminded Theodore, "Ariel was saying that she wanted to learn so illusion spells from Azriel. Maybe you can convince her to leave the Palace and take her to the Dragon Crypt. If she goes there once or twice then it might help her overco the fear of leaving the Palace boundaries."
"I will try to convince her," Theodore gave a nod and gave a kiss on Adeline's forehead before teleporting away.
Ever since that day, Ariel wouldn't leave the safety of her Palace boundaries even when the Goddess would say that she would accompany her.
That incident didn't just make Damien go through the trauma, it did the sa to Ariel as well.
Theodore had traced Joyce's involvent that day. He didn't scold her for helping Damien and Ariel from escaping the Palace. He knew that it was their mistake for having taken away Ariel's freedom from her.
He learned from Joyce that Ariel wanted to see the river. After the incident, to help her overco her fear, Theodore would offer Ariel to take her to the river. But Ariel wouldn't agree to it either.
"I will first beco as invincible as you. And then only I will leave the Palace," Ariel would say this in response. She would smile and say, "You were right, dad. First, I need to learn to protect myself. You can't always be there to protect ."
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When Theodore returned back, Adeline ca to him and asked, "He is still adamant about not coming here ever again?"
Theodore grabbed his hair and sighed. And he answered, "Well, he is Lilith's son. He is even more stubborn than her."
Adeline wrapped her arms around Theodore and gently patted his back. And she told him the hard truth, "Theo, I don't think you should hide it from Ariel anymore. At first, it was okay because honestly, I also thought Damien would recover soon and would want to smooth things out with Ariel."
"But now…" Adeline sighed in frustration and looked at her husband's tensed face. "But now, it's been six months already. I don't think we should be giving false hope to Ariel. She deserves to know the truth. The more we keep on dragging this, the more she will get hurt."
Theodore also agreed with his wife. "Yes, I think Ariel needs to get closure. And so do I. These visits are starting to drain the life out of . Even when I am not visiting, I keep on thinking about ways to persuade him. But he won't even give a chance to talk to him."
He sat down on the bed and blankly stared out of the window. "And even if Ariel agrees to travel to his mansion, I am afraid that he will say those hurtful things to her. She will get devastated if she hears the things that he spews to . I wouldn't be able to fold my arms and hear him insult–"
"Dad?" They heard Ariel's voice from outside the door.
She ca inside and stood in front of her father. And she said with a smile on her face, "Dad, I'm sorry I heard so of your conversations."
Theodore and Adeline's faces turned pale when Ariel confessed to having heard them.
Theodore had a guilty look on his face. "Ary, I'm so sor–"
Ariel held her arms behind her back and shook her head. She smiled and said, "Dad, you are right. I need to accept that he is never coming back. And I know that things won't change even if I am to go to him. He had made it as clear as ice that we were done."
Ariel resolutely glanced at Theodore and asked him, "Dad, I want you to stop visiting his mansion unless you have so business with Aunt Lilith."
Theodore furrowed his brows and asked, "Are you sure?"
Ariel had that sa smile on her face when she nodded. "People co and go in life, right? There's no such thing as a constant in life. You taught that to ."
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