Chapter 43
“You do know the me from before.”
Faced with this completely certain tone, Nelly could only remain silent. Her gaze shifted toward Kal, and she said ambiguously, “Is that so?”
Kal didn’t seem to mind her attitude. He had come to his own conclusion based on his observations, and whether she denied or admitted it was irrelevant.
Nelly nonchalantly brushed past the previous digression and pushed the conversation forward. “By the way, why did you leave… Melissa’s party? And why did you decide to come here?”
A sly glint appeared in Kal’s eyes. He coughed lightly, adopting the leisurely attitude of a Naxier mage, and asked softly, “Do you really want to know?”
Nelly was choked by his words. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know the answer either.
But Kal had already begun to narrate in a flat, emotionless tone again. “I don’t exist in the files, and I happen to have lost my previous memories. It’s not hard to draw a conclusion from this.” He paused and looked at Nelly, as if waiting for her to complete the second half of his sentence for him again.
The rhythm of the conversation was completely in Kal’s hands.
Nelly did indeed follow Kal’s train of thought without any effort, but this clarity only made her feel uncomfortable. She hesitated for a moment, then continued, “You suspect that the past the Sage told you is not credible.”
The white-haired young man gave an expected smile, his lashes lowering, his gaze looking melancholic. “Yes. I suspect that my past is also a fabrication.” He spread his long, almost slender fingers and stretched them upward, as if trying to read the path of his fate from the veins visible beneath his pale skin. He turned his head and said gently to Nelly, “If I was a very terrible, very hateful person before, then everything can be explained.”
His hand fell limply to his side, and he clutched the folds of the thin blanket unwillingly. “If I could so easily forge a new identity for myself, erase my own memories, and even make the Sage of Siena mistakenly believe that he had such a mage under him, why did I still leave myself with the desire for revenge?”
“What is in the Demon’s Lair that I must get my hands on, even if I have to start over?” Kal spoke a little anxiously and began to cough.
Nelly stood up and poured him a bowl of warm water. She calmly bent down to help him sit up and brought the bowl to his lips.
This was the first time they had consciously been so close.
Nelly could even feel the warmth of the young man’s body, just inches away. Her fingers, holding the wooden bowl, tensed slightly, and she tried to continue the previous conversation as calmly as possible. “You deduced that your identity is very dangerous and might harm Melissa, so you left?”
Her tone was a little unnatural.
Kal raised his eyes, and a hint of a smile appeared in his never-smiling eyes, which actually made Nelly feel a sense of tenderness. But it was more like an illusion. He was as coy and self-restrained as ever, and he let out a sigh-like sentence, “I guess so.”
There was a hidden meaning in his words. Nelly was a little surprised and took another look at him.
The young man’s long, somewhat feminine lashes were a pale silver-white, and when they were slightly lowered, they created the illusion of the first snow on his lashes. The fiery color of his eyes was covered by a layer of aloof coldness, making him seem distant and unapproachable. Nelly took the opportunity to retreat to her original position, and as she turned to put the bowl down, Kal suddenly spoke.
“You still haven’t given me an answer.”
They both knew what answer he wanted.
Nelly stiffened and subconsciously wanted to lower her head, but then she felt that she was being too cowardly. She simply turned to face Kal, boldly sized him up for a moment, and then said softly, “I did know someone who looked a lot like you.” She shook her head and said bitterly, “But I can’t be sure if you’re related to him.”
“It seems… you hate him very much.” A faint mockery couldn’t help but creep into Kal’s voice.
Nelly closed her eyes and once again skated lightly over the edge of the question, changing the subject. “What was your reason for coming to the Misty Tower? For that thing you thought was in the tower?”
This question clearly made Kal uncomfortable. He was silent for a long time before he reluctantly squeezed a word from between his teeth. “No.”
Nelly raised an eyebrow in surprise, but found that silence was not enough to make him continue. But she didn’t want to ask any more questions.
She grumbled in her heart about why Melissa hadn’t come back yet. Of course, she knew this anger was unreasonable, but now it seemed that every bit of progress in this conversation had to be pushed by her. If the final answer was the one she was most unwilling to face, she would have to admit that she had brought it on herself and would regret the effort she had put in.
The two of them looked at each other in silence for a while, and both understood each other’s attitude.
Kal once again made a gesture of compromise and took the initiative to speak. “I followed you to the Misty Coast.”
Nelly was stunned by this out-of-the-blue sentence and repeated numbly, “You followed us?”
“I didn’t originally plan to.” Kal pulled the blanket up to his chin, his face, still pale from blood loss, almost blending in with the gray-white stone wall behind him. He fluttered his lashes a few times and said slowly, “After I met you in the west city of Halga’s Keep, I took a merchant ship to Mez in the evening.”
“Although I didn’t have much hope, I still went to the mages’ guild and the black market in Mez to ask for information.” He let out a light, mocking sneer, the result self-evident. “At that time, I heard that you had also arrived in Mez and were planning to go to the Misty Coast next. I had no other path before me, so…”
The white-haired mage stopped, and he licked his upper lip at a loss.
Kal had left Halga’s Keep in the evening, so the eye that had appeared in the sky above the Norn Palace that night… Nelly shook her head and temporarily pushed the thought aside, and instead asked, “Are you planning to go all the way to the Demon’s Lair?”
“I have no other choice.” Kal gazed at her quietly for a moment, then lowered his eyes. “Since the only clue left for me is to go north, no matter what lies ahead, I have to see it with my own eyes.”
“Your identity, your past… are they so important to you?” Nelly’s voice trembled, and she couldn’t help but sound pained. She couldn’t say the subtext, but she was sure he had caught the deeper meaning.
Since you have such great power, why don’t you just start a new life? A mage from Naxier could thrive in any domain.
Kal gazed at her calmly, his voice very gentle, but every word had the force of a blade falling, with no room for maneuver. “Very important.”
Nelly was silent.
Sensing Nelly’s attitude, Kal also slowly closed his eyes, as if intending to end the conversation there.
The door suddenly opened, and Melissa rushed in, holding a large bundle of herbs, followed by an old man with a white beard. Melissa deftly patted the dust from her hands and said, “This is the great scholar from the main city of Renis. Her Highness asked him to come and see Kal.”
The white-haired scholar’s steps were as nimble as a young man’s. He walked to the bedside and sat down, and began to check Kal’s condition.
Nelly felt as if she had been granted a pardon. She turned and made a gesture to Melissa, indicating that she was going out for some air.
There was too much information to think about in the conversation just now… Nelly rubbed her brow and glanced at the ajar door, which opened and closed with the breeze. The voices came intermittently. The great scholar seemed to be saying, “It’s nothing serious… too much consumption… you must be careful in the future…”
Before long, Melissa saw the great scholar out. The old man waved his hand gently. “You don’t have to see me back. I’m going to find an old friend to catch up with.”
Nelly and Melissa thanked him and still saw him out of the inn before going upstairs again.
Melissa immediately set up a crucible to brew the herbs. “The healing potions in the main city are also in short supply, so we have to make our own.” The Lord Hero seemed to be very experienced with herbs as well. She unhesitatingly added the various herbs, which all looked similar, to the pot in proportion, and stirred them in a circle with a long-handled spoon. Before long, the room was filled with a medicinal smell that was hard to say whether it was refreshing or strange.
Nelly watched the whole process, and there was nothing she could do to help. Seeing that Melissa was a little tired after she was done, she gritted her teeth, let Melissa go downstairs for dinner, and took on the job of feeding the patient the medicine.
The smell of the medicine was overwhelming, and Nelly was a little dizzy from it. She placed the medicine bowl on the windowsill, sat down by the bed, and coughed lightly. “It’s time to take your medicine.”
The white-haired young man, who had been facing the wall, slowly turned over, took a breath, and tried to sit up.
Seeing that he was struggling, Nelly supported his shoulder and helped him up, letting him lean against the propped-up pillow. The brief contact was strangely scorching. Nelly subconsciously pulled her hand back, feeling awkward, and changed her movement to get the medicine bowl.
The medicine had cooled down a bit. Kal drank it down in one go, without even frowning, his gaze always lowered.
Nelly secretly let out a sigh of relief. As she took the medicine bowl away, she was careless, and the back of her hand brushed against Kal’s lips. The young man’s lips were slightly moist from the medicine, and the damp touch lingered for a long time, faintly scorching. She stiffened, then turned around as if nothing had happened. She rinsed the medicine bowl with the clean water in the pot, and carefully glanced behind her. Kal had already pulled the blanket over himself and turned his back to lie down.
Before long, Melissa came upstairs and complained in a low voice, “There’s nothing to eat here. Even the chowder can be made so bland…”
Nelly chatted with her for a few words, and seeing the hero yawn a few times, she simply pushed her toward the bed at the other end of the room. “Melissa, you’re tired today too. Get some rest early.”
“Mhm… goodnight, Nelly.”
Nelly blew out the candle and took another look at the other end where Kal was. In the dim light, the bulge of the blanket was like a gentle mountain range. He was facing the corner of the wall, and there was nothing unusual.
It was night.
Nelly was suddenly startled awake.
She subconsciously looked toward Kal’s bed and felt that something was not right in the haze. Her body reacted faster than her mind. She turned her head and saw the frail mage dragging his feet and silently moving toward the door.
Nelly quietly got out of bed and blocked his path with her bare feet.
“What are you doing now?” she tried to keep her voice down, but her tone was somewhat unfriendly.
Kal stood against the light, his face blending ambiguously with the night. Only his snow-white hair was stained by the darkness, presenting a hazy, light gray, which made one think of the snow in the shadows out of season, cold and pure. He seemed to frown and didn’t answer, trying to bypass Nelly and continue to open the door.
He was, after all, seriously injured and had not yet recovered. His steps were a little too hasty, and he was a little unsteady on his feet. He stumbled slightly and fell forward.
Nelly subconsciously reached out her arms.
The young man’s chin rested on her shoulder, and the warmth seeped through the thin fabric and into her heart, making the summer night even hotter. In her haste, Nelly wrapped her arms around Kal’s waist to steady him, and it actually became an embrace.