“But I think something is not right.”
I enjoyed drinking in my previous life, but I had no idea alcoholism would be this difficult and painful. It felt somewhat unsettling, but I couldn’t even discuss it with anyone, so I just sighed. I thought I should set aside my complicated thoughts and express my gratitude to Kaichen first.
I went down to the kitchen and made French toast, his favorite, to express my gratitude for taking care of me. It tasted even better when I added the jam made from ground green apples, which I bought from Sharatan village the other day. It was better than using sugar. Even though he made me eat some repulsive food, I was alive, thanks to him. Perhaps because of the sweet aroma wafting up from the kitchen, Kaichen came down from the second floor looking drowsy.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve gotten a lot better! It’s all thanks to you.”
“Then I’ll have to examine your body from today.”
“What?”
Kaichen sat down at the table and took a bite of toast that I made. His eyes widened. Perhaps the toast was delicious.
“Like I said I will study your body.”
I wondered if it only sounded strange to me. I laughed awkwardly. I place a freshly bakes toast on his plate. “Umm, is it because of the time magic?’
“Yes, but also because of your addiction.”
“Alcohol addiction?”
Kaichen nodded and ate another toast. Did my withdrawal symptoms surprise him so much that I have now become the subject of his new study? It did seem to me that my symptoms weren’t natural. There was something amiss with the symptoms I experienced.
“Are you trying to say that my symptoms aren’t caused by alcoholism?”
“That’s right.”
“Are you saying that someone was after me?”
“Yes.”
“Who?” In response to the question, Kaichen licked the jam off his lips and looked at me. My heart suddenly pounded when he looked at me.
“It’s just a guess, but I think we will know for sure after taking look at your body.”
“Ohh. Then what do I have to do?”
Kaichen looked at me and said softly, “You just have to cooperate.”
The word ‘cooperate’ always sounded so sinister to me. It sounded as though when you agreed to it you had to do anything and everything no matter how much you might not want to. But I was captivated by his golden eyes at that moment and gave a nod. He sat there, even after finishing his toasts.
“Teacher, would you like another toast?”
“Is there… more?”
Because his skin had a bronze tint, I wasn’t able to see in the beginning if his face or earlobes were red, but Kaichen asking me reluctantly for more food was new. Cute…. I tried not to smile. I put the toast that I had made for myself on his plate. He ate seven toasts! After being satisfied with his breakfast, he called me straight to the lab.
“First, I will check to see if there is any drug in your body.”
I realized it was the first time I felt like a real test subject. The first thing Kaichen did was to draw my blood. I thought I was finally going to be a real test subject, but the first thing Kaichen did to me was to draw blood. After drawing enough blood to fill five glass vials, he handed me a pink, liquid-like medicine.
“Drinking this will make you less tired.”
It felt like I received a reward for donating blood. The medicine was curiously sweet, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. Kaichen closed the vials and wrapped it in ice magic.
“Teacher, if my alcohol addiction is due to other’s intervention, wouldn’t it be better to detoxify it than to treat it?”
“That is only possible after we know what ingredients were used.”
Then there was still hope. I had never really entertained the thought that someone could be after Dalia. I had only begun reading after the beginning of Part 3 of the novel. It seemed there were many things I didn’t know. Until the middle part, the novel predominantly focused on growing period of the protagonist, Julius, so not much was revealed for the other characters. I don’t even know the identity of the mastermind behind all of it.
If only I knew who the villain was, then the novel would be over if we could just get rid of them.
“Who the hell wanted to kill me in such an annoying way?”
“They probably didn’t mean to kill you.”
“Then why?”
“Your mind…… It’s highly likely that they tried to shake up it.”
“But I thought I was going to die. In fact, I would have died if I hadn’t taken the medicine you made for me.”
My memory was hazy from that day, but I vaguely remembered wanting to die. I had even grabbed Kaichen and begged him to kill me. The bruises and scars from that day still throbbed all over my skin even if I didn’t remember it in great detail.
I was manic. I threw things around and struggled when Kaichen’s magic held me down. My memories, as a result, weren’t clear from the day I had collapsed until I had regained consciousness.
“That’s probably because you’ve been stuck in time magic for a hundred years.” Kaichen spread the scroll down on his desk and wrote down a complicated formula with a white quill, paused and murmured while looking into the air.
“I think it’s a kind of a drug that brings out painful memories that you don’t want to remember and induces hallucinations, but seeing that you got angry, self-harmed and complained about the pain, it must mean that it is poisonous. You had seizures, itching and said that bugs were crawling on your skin…. It looks like side effects from components in your body which doesn’t mix well.”
