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Chapter 168 Chapter 37.3 - Small talk in the train

Sunlight entering the confines of the room….

"B-but….I-it is broken…."

A shaky voice of a young child.

The boy kneeling beside the broken vase, his hands gentle yet skilled. With a meticulous touch, he began the process of piecing the fragments back together.

"Don\'t worry, I will fix it," he reassured her, his voice a soothing balm to the young Irina\'s distress.

With a serene focus, the young child skillfully manipulated his mana, creating a phenomenon that was out of the norm.

Irina\'s eyes widened in awe as she witnessed the magical threads weaving through the air. The fragments of the broken vase levitated, drawn together by an unseen force.

It was a delicate symphony of mana, a manifestation of the boy\'s innate talent.

Just as the enchanting display reached its peak, the room\'s atmosphere shifted. The warm sunlight streaming through the windows seemed to waver as a woman entered, her gaze cold and piercing. Fiery red hair framed her stern face, and her eyes, a cold shade of yellow, locked onto the boy and the magically restored vase.

"What happened here?" the woman inquired, her tone cutting through the residual magic in the air.

The boy hesitated for a moment, his eyes flickering nervously. "It\'s nothing, Madam Emberheart. We were just playing."

However, the woman\'s sharp perception didn\'t miss the lingering traces of magic that had just unfolded in the room. Her cold gaze intensified as she scrutinized the scene. "Just playing, you say?" Her voice held an undertone of suspicion.

She approached the restored vase with measured steps, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized the magical reconstruction. Without uttering a word, she extended her hand toward the vase.

With a wave of her hand, the atmosphere in the room seemed to shift. A strange force enveloped the restored vase, and, to Young Irina\'s astonishment, the intricate magic that had pieced it together began to unravel.

The vase returned to its shattered state, fragments scattered once more across the room.

Fear immediately enveloped her heart as she lowered her gaze. Even as a younger child, she knew what it meant to lie to her mother.

Madam Emberheart\'s eyes bore into the shattered vase, her silence amplifying the tension in the room. The air grew heavy with an unspoken weight as she finally broke the silence, her voice cold and measured.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, her gaze shifting from the vase to the young boy.

The young boy, seemingly aware of the gravity of the situation, met Madam Emberheart\'s gaze without flinching. "I\'m sorry, Madam. It was my fault. We were playing, and I accidentally knocked the vase over."

Madam Emberheart\'s gaze remained unwavering as she heard the confession. "Is that so?" she replied, her tone betraying no emotion.

"Yes," came the simple affirmation.

"Good. Bring me your hand," Madam Emberheart commanded with an air of authority.

Without hesitation, the person extended their hand toward her.

WOOSH!

Madam Emberheart\'s palm glowed with an ominous flame, and with a swift motion, she placed her fiery hand on theirs, leaving a searing mark on their palm.

"Argh-!"

A subdued groan of pain escaped the unnamed person\'s lips as he bit them hard. Slight tears enveloped the corners of his eyes as he tried to bear the pain he felt.

Madam Emberheart then turned her attention to young Irina, her expression unyielding. "This is what happens when one doesn\'t obey."

-?- - -

At that second, a jolt shook through Irina\'s body, and her eyes snapped open.

"Haaah…"

She found herself back in the present, the gentle rocking of the train replacing the vivid yet haunting dream.

"Haaaah…"

Her breaths gradually steadied as she scanned her surroundings, the remnants of the dream still lingering in her mind.

\'It is the same dream again.\'

When she looked up, she noticed Astron\'s eyes fixed on her, his usual impassive expression not giving away any indication of what he might have observed.

"Did you have a nightmare or something?" Astron asked, his tone neutral yet with a faint hint of curiosity.

\'Was it about him?\'

As a player who played the game, of course, he knew about the things related to him since he was the most important factor in Irina\'s route.

"No, just a weird dream," Irina replied, avoiding eye contact as she tried to shake off the residual unease from the dream. "It\'s nothing to worry about."

Astron continued to regard her with an unreadable expression. "Dreams can reveal more than we think. They\'re a reflection of our subconscious thoughts."

Irina sighed, still feeling the echoes of the unsettling dream. "Well, it was just a memory. Nothing important."

"Memories…." At the mention of that word, his eyes turned slightly different, something that she couldn\'t quite point out. "I guess they shape who we are?"

Irina shot him a skeptical look. "You sound like one of those philosophers."

Astron shrugged. "Maybe I am. I just like to think a lot. If that makes me a philosopher, why should I complain?"

"I didn\'t say it, so you can complain."

"It surely sounded like you wanted, though."

Astron leaned back in his seat, his gaze shifting from the passing scenery outside to Irina. "You know, memories have a way of resurfacing when you least expect them. They\'re like fragments of our past, constantly influencing our present."

Irina raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you an expert on memories?"

Astron\'s expression remained neutral, yet Irina detected a subtle shift. "I observe. It\'s a habit of mine. People reveal more about themselves than they realize."

Irina felt a twinge of annoyance. "You observe, huh? What do you see in me?"

Astron\'s gaze locked onto hers. "Do you really want to hear the truth?"

Irina hesitated but eventually nodded. "I guess."

Astron\'s voice remained calm. "You are a spirited, strong-willed, and sometimes obnoxious woman. But beneath that exterior, there\'s a vulnerability you try to conceal. You think that by being loud and showing strength, you can escape from the things you wish to avoid."

Irina\'s irritation deepened as her eyes widened while she gritted her teeth.

\'This guy thinks he knows me? First, it is that dream, and now this guy!\'

Once again, she was pissed off, and this time she wasn\'t going to hold back as if a volcano was about to erupt.

"Oh really, Mr. Observer? Let\'s talk about you then. You act all cold and edgy, because you don\'t have a family, do you? You lost them, and now you\'re this lone wolf with a chip on his shoulder, observing everyone like you\'re some wise sage."

Astron\'s expression remained impassive. At least it tried to, but one could see his clenched hands and widened gaze as if he wasn\'t expecting such words to come out of her mouth like that.

A subtle tension lingered in the air. Irina\'s words had touched a nerve, and she continued, pressing her point without noticing the change in his expression.

"Isn\'t that why you\'re always so serious and distant? Are you trying to detach yourself from any connection so you won\'t have to feel the pain of loss again? Observing others is just a way to keep people at arm\'s length, huh, you punk?"

She continued to pour the words she held in for too long, not noticing those words were not even targeted at him.

"….."

The words hung in the air, and for a moment, a profound silence enveloped them.

Irina finally stopped, her gaze meeting Astron\'s face. It was then that she noticed the change in his expression, the vulnerability that had surfaced.

"Wait, I didn\'t mean—"

She was about to continue her words but stopped as she saw Astron raising his hand.

His eyes, usually distant and composed, now revealed a rawness that Irina hadn\'t anticipated. The weight of her words settled in the air, and she found herself at a loss for what to say.

After a moment, Astron spoke, his voice calm but carrying an undercurrent of emotions she hadn\'t seen before, as if he was reminiscing about his past actions.

"You\'re right, in a way. Loss does change people. But it doesn\'t give me the right to act as if I know others better than they know themselves."

Irina swallowed hard, the weight of her unintentional accusation sinking in. She wanted to take back her words, to rewind the conversation, but the momentary vulnerability in Astron\'s eyes held her in place.

"Apologies," Astron said, his tone slightly more distant than before as if it had returned to its normal coldness. "I shouldn\'t have intruded."

The abrupt return to his usual composure only accentuated the awkwardness in the air. Irina cleared her throat, attempting to find the right words to mend the unexpected breach in their conversation.

But she couldn\'t say anything.

Should she apologize for her words, which might have been a little hurtful?

As she saw his usual coldness returning, she understood that there was no need for any apologies, as he seemed like he wasn\'t expecting any.

\'Did he lose someone?\'

She asked herself.

\'What did he experience in the past?\'

She looked at him, looking out of the window with a distant gaze and thought.

As Astron gazed out of the window with a distant expression, the rhythmic clattering of the train on the tracks providing a backdrop to their silent contemplation, he broke the silence with a question that cut through the air.

"Was Trevor Philips the one that spread those rumors in the academy?"

Irina\'s eyes widened slightly, caught off guard by the unexpected shift in the conversation. She didn\'t anticipate Astron connecting the dots back to Trevor Philips in such a short amount of time.

She hesitated for a moment before responding, "Yes, it was Trevor. I had my men investigate, and they confirmed he was behind those rumors in the academy."

Astron\'s eyes, still fixed on the passing landscape, narrowed slightly. The revelation seemed to have stirred something within him, though his expression remained composed.

"Why did you do it?" He asked. "I didn\'t ask for such a thing from you."

Irina took a deep breath before responding, "I don\'t like being indebted to others. The money I paid you didn\'t feel like enough for what you did for me. So, I decided to help you in return. It\'s a matter of principle for me."

Astron\'s eyes flickered for a moment before he returned his gaze to the passing scenery. "I guess we don\'t have any debts, then?"

"Yeah," Irina nodded, a subtle sense of understanding passing between them.

"Good."

Just like that, the train continued to move forward under the dark sky.

---------------------A/W--------------------

In this volume, I plan to focus on the interactions between MC and the other characters a little more.

I have reread the novel and noticed that the interactions in the first volume weren\'t written well. There were a lot of forced dialogues that looked plain stupid, and even I cringed when I read them.

I need to leave a review to remind the readers of the chapters in the first volume so that they can be aware of what is to come. I might rewrite them, but with the recent changes in the Authors\' Policy, I may not be allowed to; we will see about that.

In any case, I hope you liked these chapters. I will put a lot more thought into writing the dialogues between the characters and will try to make the dialogues smoother.

You can give me feedback about them as well; I will look at the comments and try to get your opinions.