Chapter 210

Chapter 210

Kaichen wanted to properly say goodbye to Dalia. However he was met with an unexpected outburst.

“Dalia,” he said.

“Go away!” she shouted.

“I’m leaving tomorrow, I want to say goodbye properly,” he replied.

“I already told you to go away!” she said, her voice furious.

Dalia was not acting like her usual self. It wasn’t like when they held hands and smiled cheerfully at the beginning. She was now furiously raising her eyes, clenched her fists, and biting her lip.

She opened her eyes so widely that he could see her pupils shaking.

“What happened? Why are you like this? Are you sick?” he asked.

“Don’t lay a finger on me! You’re dirty!” she said.

“… Huh?” he responded, confused.

“Why did you deceive me?! You liar!” she shouted.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never deceived you,” he said, trying to understand.

“You… no, you deceived me! Traitor! Why did you do that! Why!” she continued, her voice shaking.

“Dalia, calm down. It’s true, I never lied to you before.”

“Traitor! You deceived me?! You’re… not nobility, so why did you say that?! Dirty! Go away! I asked you to go!”

Kaichen couldn’t understand what was happening. How had he deceived her by not being nobility? Why did she say he was a traitor? Why did she say he was dirty?

It was all hard for him to understand. Even with his intelligence, Dalia’s words were difficult to interpret.

“You’re dirty, so go away! Non-nobles aren’t even human! You even held my… h-hands?! Terrible! I said it’s terrible! Arghh!”

She screamed, her voice breaking with sobs. She crumpled to the ground in a sobbing mess. Kaichen stood there, frozen, as people rushed to Dalia’s side and carried her away in their arms.

Her words stabbed at his chest like a sharp dagger, constantly repeating in his head. The contrast between the way she had smiled and held out her hand to him, and the way she was now, sobbing and calling him dirty and terrible, was striking.

His stomach rumbled, and everything that touched his skin felt dirty. He couldn’t shake the feeling of confusion and betrayal.

It was Dalia who had approached him first, spoken to him, and asked him to be together. So why was she now calling him a liar and a traitor?

‘Not noble? Non-nobles were not human?’

Kaichen stumbled, his head pounding with pain. Someone caught him before he fell, and he saw that it was his teacher, Hamal, with wrinkles etched into his hands.

“Master, I can’t understand what Dalia is saying. Her words are difficult to interpret,” Kaichen said, his voice trembling.

Hamal sighed. “There are some things in this world that you may never understand.”

“But non-nobles are not human? Master, am I dirty? Did my feelings mean something terrible when I saw Dalia? Master, am I a liar?”

“You are not someone who tells lies, Kaichen. So, calm down,” Hamal said, trying to soothe him.

Kaichen cried in Hamal’s arms before returning to his room. He threw his memory book, which he had planned to show Julius, into the blazing fireplace. Even if he got rid of it, he could write it all down again if he had to. The memories were that vivid.

For the first time, he cursed his own brilliance. He scratched his arm and gritted his teeth.

He was dirty? This world that divided people by their status was dirtier. He never wanted to touch her again. Kaichen held back his tears and scratched his arm until it bled.

The next day, Kaichen’s gaze was cold. Dalia was nowhere to be seen, only the Count and his wife were there to see them off.

“Kaichen, the world outside the Mage Tower is full of things that can’t be explained by magical formulas. Research is good, but you need to learn about the world a little more.”

“Master, if something can’t be explained by magical formulas, then I don’t want to know about it. If it’s something I can’t understand, I’ll ignore it. I don’t want to learn about the world.”

“Children grow up, Kaichen. Some things can’t be explained right now, but you’ll understand with time. Dalia is only six, so…”

“Master, I don’t want to hear about that child anymore.”

After returning to the Mage Tower, Kaichen shut himself in the laboratory and devoted himself to magic more than ever before. He was a boy who had never left the Mage Tower and the bitter taste of his first outing gave him a lifetime of trauma.

As Hamal had said, Dalia was young, and so was Kaichen. Kaichen, who had only lived in the Mage Tower until he was thirteen, had no idea about the world or people.

It was his first love from his innocent childhood.

As he thought back on the past, Kaichen remembered Dalia as his first love, and not as the person who had hurt him with her cruel words. His heart, once filled with hatred and anger, now feared being hurt again.

‘Master was right. With time, you’ll understand,’ he reflected.

It had taken a long time, but six-year-old Dalia had grown into a mature woman of twenty-four.

“Master,” Dalia called out, interrupting his memories.

Kaichen responded as usual, “Yes.”

Dalia, my Dalia. I’ll understand whatever it is, so don’t hesitate to tell me. Even if I struggle to understand you now, I’ll take the time to accept you, no matter what.

This promise was vastly different from the one he had made while burning their ten-day memories.

As if in response to this new promise, Dalia spoke the words that Kaichen had been longing to hear for a long time, “I have something to say.”