Warlock Ch 349. A Long Way To Go
Damian closed his system nu, letting out a slow breath. His fingers tapped idly against the armrest of his chair, his mind lingering on mories that weren't quite whole—scattered fragnts of a past life, blurred at the edges but refusing to disappear completely.
"Still…" he muttered. "I still have a long way to go."
Cassius arched a brow. "What about that Demon King's soul inside you?"
Damian sighed, rolling his shoulders. "He's been behaving lately." He smirked slightly. "We talk a lot. Well—he still bullies sotis, but I think he's realized he can't keep pushing around now that I have my mories back."
Evelyn crossed her arms, tilting her head slightly. "And what about Selena?" Her violet eyes flickered with curiosity. "Do you rember anything else about her?"
Damian hesitated. "It's… blurry. Not as vivid as usual. But yeah—I t her once in the past." His voice dropped slightly. "Just one mont."
Victoria leaned in, interest sparking in her crimson gaze. "Then tell us the story."
Damian's fingers curled slightly against his knee. "It was when I was on the run."
The words settled into the air, heavy.
Evelyn, Cassius, and Victoria didn't speak. They didn't need to. They all knew what that ant—what that ti in his life had been like.
Damian exhaled slowly. "After I sealed the Demon King's power inside my soul, I was… unstable." His voice was even, but there was an undercurrent of sothing unspoken beneath it. "I wore a mask wherever I went. I traveled alone, away from you guys. I had no place to stay. No destination. I just… walked. Wherever my feet took ."
He let out a humorless chuckle.
"That night, I decided to sleep in a tree."
Victoria's lips curled. "How romantic."
Damian shot her a dry look. "It was near the fae territory. I was looking for sothing—anything—that could help contain the Demon King's power." He rubbed the back of his neck. "But I couldn't risk staying in an inn. Too dangerous. So I went deep into a forest and just… laid there."
He rembered the way the sky had looked that night. The glow of the moon, the rustling of the leaves as the wind carried distant laughter from the fae's grand halls.
It had been a celebration night—he could hear the faint hum of music, the flickering of golden lanterns floating between the trees.
Yet he had stayed in the shadows.
Away from the light.
Evelyn's gaze softened, but she didn't say anything. Neither did Cassius.
Because they knew.
They knew how lonely he had been back then.
Damian exhaled, voice quieter now.
"Selena…" he murmured. "She must have been from there. From the party. But sohow, she wandered into the forest." He hesitated. "Her wings were torn."
Evelyn's brows furrowed. "Torn?"
Damian nodded. "She looked… out of place. Like she didn't belong there." His fingers twitched. "I used [Telekinesis] to lift her, and [Healing] to patch her up. She stayed with for a while. Said she was bored."
Victoria humd. "Sounds about right."
Damian smiled slightly, but the expression faded as his thoughts drifted back.
"She said sothing to that night."
He rembered it now.
The way her eyes had searched his, the quiet certainty in her voice.
"You're hurt," he said, echoing her voice that night.
Not from battle.
Not from wounds.
But because he was carrying sothing he wasn't ant to carry alone.
Because the world saw him as a public enemy.
Because everywhere he went, people whispered his na like a curse.
And at the ti, he had thought. 'How could she see that?'
Victoria swirled the remnants of her drink. "So. What did you do?"
Damian exhaled, rubbing his temple. "Nothing."
Evelyn's brows lifted. "Nothing?"
Damian shook his head. "I just… sat there." He chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "I didn't know what to say. What was there to say? She wasn't wrong."
The room was silent for a beat.
Then Cassius finally spoke. "She rembers you." His gaze sharpened.
Damian huffed. "Yeah. She went to the exam to find . To find Kaelan."
Evelyn tapped a finger against her arm. "It might explain why she's so fixated on warlocks."
Victoria smirked. "And why she's been staring at you like a lost puppy ever since the exam."
Damian groaned. "Don't start."
Cassius ignored them, frowning slightly. "Either way, it ans she's been involved in all of this a lot longer than we thought."
Damian leaned back in his chair, exhaling slowly. "Maybe." His voice was quiet. "But that doesn't an they know she has any connection to ."
Cassius gave him a look. "You sure about that?"
Damian hesitated for just a second before shaking his head. "Yeah." He folded his arms across his chest, his fingers gripping the fabric of his sleeve for a brief mont. "I left before she woke up. I never gave her my na. I wore a mask the entire ti—she never saw my face."
The words ca out steady, factual, but there was sothing else beneath them. Sothing tight.
"So…" His jaw tensed. "I guess they targeted her purely because of her bloodline and mana core. Not because she has a past with ."
He let out a breath through his nose, looking away. "I an…"
And that was the part that made his chest feel too tight.
He hated saying that.
Hated thinking about it.
Because the truth was— He didn't want to be a source of trouble for anyone.
For anyone who had ever known him.
For anyone who had ever been kind to him.
Evelyn, Cassius, and Victoria caught that.
His shoulders were a little too stiff. His voice—usually so sharp, so filled with wry amusent—was quieter than usual.
They didn't press him.
Cassius huffed, leaning back against the chair, rubbing his temple. "Well, whatever the case, there's no point thinking about it now."
He glanced toward the shadow servants standing at the edges of the room, silent and unmoving, waiting for orders.
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