DOTD Chapter 7

🦋

 

I’ve had a dream. Dreams of a time when we were happy.

 

Back then, Louis had trouble sleeping at night. So I would often cast a sleep-inducing spell on him. Sometimes I would sing him lullabies.

 

“Louis, what are you doing up?”

 

He turns slowly at my call. His light pink hair sways slightly, and I see his blue eyes like a summer sea.

 

He smiles happily as soon as he lays eyes on me. 

 

His laugh was different from Sion’s cheeky laugh. It resembled a calm lake.

 

“What are you smiling about?”

 

“Because I like it.”

 

“About what?”

 

“Life now, and you guys.”

 

He was quite good at saying strange things. 

 

It was just the way he was, and when he said it, Sion immediately made a face, and Adrian just ignored it.

 

“Does that include Sion and Adrian, fighting every chance you get, using dueling as an excuse?”

 

He laughed out loud.

 

“I put them in there specifically.”

 

It’s a little embarrassing to tell just the two of them, I added. It sounded strangely like a confession, so I changed the subject.

 

“Can’t sleep?”

 

“Just, the night sky is beautiful.”

 

“I’ve seen you, you’ve been sitting out here almost every night.”

 

“Sitting…”

 

“Did it look like that?” he asked, puzzled. I didn’t answer, just sat down next to him.

 

He casually turned himself around and put his arm around my side, as if to trap me. I pulled my head back slightly, but Louis’s eyes remained fixed on mine.

 

“Sing me a lullaby, Bella.”

 

“Louis, are you a child?”

 

I said, teasingly, but he just laughed casually. To which I turned the other way.

 

“Don’t laugh, when you laugh, it makes me want to do everything for you in a weird way.”

“Then do it all.”

 

He leaned forward, hunching his broad, sword-trained shoulders and locking eyes with mine.

 

Up close, he’s frighteningly handsome, with a straight bridge of his nose and lashes that flutter slightly downward to reveal his eyes.

 

I gulped quietly and said, “…Just a little distance away, please.”

 

He slowly moved away from me, and I stared into space, running my hand over my slightly heated face to cool it.

 

“You said you’d grant me a wish the other day.”

 

“Did I…?”

 

“Yes. I want you to use it now. Sing me a song.”

 

“Why are you making a wish for this? Wish for something bigger later.”

 

“I was going to say something else.”

 

He paused. There was a moment of hesitation in his eyes as he looked down at me.

 

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

 

“…”

 

For some reason, I was weak before him. Not even Sion, who was like a brother to me, or Adrian, who was blunt but always had my back, had ever made me feel this way.

 

Strangely, his request was hard to refuse, and in the end, I had no choice but to sing him a song.

 

It was a simple song. It was short, and gentle. 

 

Likewise, it was a song my mom used to sing to me when I was younger.

 

As a child, it was also the song I used to sing to Sion when he would take the edge off my anger after one of my many arguments with him.

 

Louis closed his eyes and leaned back languidly, appreciating my song as if for the first time every time he heard it.

 

When he finished the song and seemed to be enjoying the afterglow, he spoke up.

 

“I missed you. I didn’t sleep well without this song.”

 

“Huh?”

 

That’s weird. Was that what Louis had just said?

 

As soon as I questioned it, a sense of strangeness hit me and the dreamscape became dizzyingly distorted.

“Louis?”

 

The fading background disappeared completely, leaving only black space around Louis and me.

 

“I missed you, Bella.”

 

“What?”

 

The Louis of old was overlaid with the Louis who had awakened his demonic powers. 

 

A chill pooled in the warm embrace that had been summer.

 

He stepped closer to me so we stood face to face.

 

“You’ve been asleep for a long time because of me, and now you’re awake, and you’ve been hurt by my experiments.”

 

Louis cupped my face with the touch of someone handling something precious, his fingers slowly stroking my cheek.

 

“The children, with my power, must have instinctively sought you out.”

 

A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

 

I frowned. His words brought back memories of the monster’s behavior. 

 

Was that why it attacked me first, why it kept turning toward me?

 

Taking my hand, stiff with shock, he lifted it and kissed the back of my hand, imprinting it with his own.

 

“Take care of yourself.”

 

His gaze was so deep and intense, almost indecent, as he looked up at me with his eyes.

 

“I’ll be back to pick you up soon.”

 

🦋

 

“Humph!”

 

I woke up, breathing hard, as if I’d been lifted from the water. 

 

The remnants of my dream were pressing in on my brain, making me dizzy.

 

“Louis…”

 

He knew I was alive. How did he know?

 

It was too vivid to be just a nightmare. His voice, his gestures, his eyes. It was Louis.

 

With his magic, controlling dreams should be easy.

 

“Aah! Whoa!”

 

Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and came face to face with a pair of clear auburn eyes staring right at me.

 

Two round, curious eyes rolled back and forth, scanning me as if observing me.

 

Pulling back to avoid the face that was getting uncomfortably close, I asked.

 

“Who…?”

 

The long red hair that fell to either side of his face reminded me vaguely of Adrian, but he looked to be in his mid-teens.

 

“You’re recovering quickly after what that monster did to you.”

 

But his tone and expression were harsh for his age. He flicked open one side of the robe-like garment he was wearing and ran his hand up to my bandaged shoulder.

 

The roughness of his touch made me flinch.

 

“What, what are you doing…”

 

A ball of light formed from his hand and seeped into the bandage. A spell with a very steady flow of mana for such a young age.

 

Wizard, red hair, boy. I think I recognize him. He must be one of the characters in the novel.

 

“I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

 

“Huh?”

 

He mumbled meaningfully after he healed me.

 

“I’ve never seen a magical constitution that can regenerate non-living things.”

 

He squinted at me, his eyes unusually serious for his age.

 

I didn’t know of any magic that could regenerate non-living things. Perhaps he didn’t recognize me as a living thing because my heart was disguised as dead.

 

“Also, why do your earrings contain the mana of the Master of the Mage Tower?”

 

“The Master?”

 

Where his fingertip was pointing was the small emerald earring Adrian had made for me.

 

“Adrian, the owner of the Southern Continent, the owner of the Golden Tower, the Master of the Golden Tower. You can’t tell me you don’t know someone so famous, can you?”

 

‘Ah, Adrian.’ 

 

It was the first time I heard him referred to as the Master, I felt a moment of disbelief.

 

Adrian must have been a Master for quite some time, since it was around the time of the war, maybe five years?

 

“If you’re a wizard, you should know our master.”

 

“Our master…?”

 

My master? That’s a very possessive way to put it.

 

Come to think of it. I remember one of Adrian’s mages had a student who was very loyal to him.

 

What was his name? I couldn’t remember.

 

“Bella!”

 

Evan burst through the doorway with a loud bang and ran straight to my bed.

 

“You’re awake!”

 

He sighed with relief and patted his chest. His eyes were a little moist, but he hadn’t been crying, had he? Oh, no.

 

“I was so worried, I thought something was seriously gone wrong…”

 

Evan took the boy’s hands in his own, sitting quietly beside me.

 

“Thank you so much, we wouldn’t have done anything without you.”

 

“Yzmel?”

 

That’s right, Yzmel. That was his name. I remembered that there was a young wizard who had been called a genius after Adrian.

 

“Oh, and have you told him yet? He healed Bella, and this is a town close to Avantha, and what would have happened if I hadn’t stumbled upon Yzmel and come here…”

 

Yzmel, who had been watching the whole thing from the sidelines, bluntly answered Evan’s question.

 

“I don’t usually bother with strangers, but this time I’m just intrigued.”

 

Evan just smiled and said, “Thank you.” 

 

It was such a cold answer that I felt sorry for him.

 

He’s a hero, after all.

 

Evan’s gaze shifted to my clothes, which were slightly open from the treatment. His eyes widened slightly, then he covered his mouth with his hand and turned his head away.

 

Oh, my shoulder was bare.

 

Evan apologized hastily, “I, I’m sorry.”

 

“No, it’s okay.”

 

I pulled up the lowered garment and watched Evan as he turned his head. His ears flared red as he stared at the ceiling or the wall.

 

“It’s okay.”