Chapter 294 Volume V - Chapter 12: Just Like Half a Year Ago
I may have been stunned for a brief moment... but I recovered quickly, my eyes widening involuntarily at Celine's confirmation.
"Wait... was it really you in the rumors?"
Celine finally let go of the wrist she was rubbing. Sighing again, she stood up, this time with her hood completely undone.
Her brown hair was longer than before, past her shoulder blades, though it didn't reach her waist. Whereas she used to have a fit body, now... she seemed a little thinner. But what really surprised me was the strange glint in her eyes.
Before, when I used to talk to Aiden, he would occasionally mention Celine. And from what I heard from him... she was literally exhausted, broken. Aiden often said that Celine's eyes lacked the color they should normally have. He said she looked soulless, had lost her sparkle.
The sight before me now... was the exact opposite. If I ignored the slight differences in her appearance, she was just like the old 'Celine'.
"Ah, yes. Someone somehow managed to notice my eye color... I guess. And then there was this weird rumor..."
There was a brief silence between us. No words were spoken as we looked at each other.
It was normal, of course. Because Celine... like Lucia and Sue, was one of the people in the group with whom I didn't have much contact. So... we didn't have much to say to each other.
But that didn't mean I didn't have questions to ask her.
"If you recovered... even if a little, why didn't you reach out to us?"
That was my first question, because it was one that I really wanted to know the answer to. Why was she hiding herself in the first place? Even that was strange...
Celine hesitated for a moment, then sighed.
"It's about hiding myself. If I show up to even just one of the meetings, it's instantly obvious who I am. Imagine, someone in a hoodie and rumored to be me meeting with a group that almost everyone knows I'm in... It's too easy to connect the dots."
"But why are you hiding yourself?"
"Because I'm really weak right now."
She narrowed her eyes, fixed them on the floor, then continued with a hint of... irritation in her voice.
"It's been almost half a year, Adrian. Half a year of me doing almost nothing. That's why I'm so far behind you guys, or others, the 'strong' people of my age. That shouldn't normally be much of a problem, but in my case it is. Because I am a noble, a noble with the last name Potenbea. I am too lazy to tell you how many enemies my family has."
My brow furrowed as the connections quickly formed in my mind.
"Basically, you're going to hide yourself until you reach a certain level of strength, I get it... But you could have told us you were okay now. You could have at least let us know... Even though we don't know each other well enough to say we're 'friends', there's Sue and Lucia. I can understand not trusting me and Julian too much, but at least you were close to them."
She finally averted her eyes and took a deep breath.
"That's... a bit my fault. Well... I still have a bit of trouble with how to approach people socially."
Ah, so she can't exactly say she's 'recovered'... is that it? That's a more understandable answer.
"Well, then, if you want, I can let them know. At least you don't seem to have much trouble talking to me."
"Is that how I look from the outside?"
I waited meaninglessly for a moment in response to her question.
What do you mean, 'is that how I look'?
I thought about this question briefly, it only took a few seconds. But... then I paused, realizing something I had been missing for a few minutes.
Celine never looked me in the eye the whole time I was talking to her. Not even once.
Yes, she looked at my face, but... we never made eye contact. Even when we looked at each other, it was my face that she focused on, not my eyes.
"Whatever. I mean, I'll be happy if you tell them. I'll give you my new phone number too, I had to change it because the old one was a bit of a pain, invite me back to the group chat."
"I can't... the only administrator in the group is Aiden himself."
Celine paused at the mention of Aiden's name. It was such a sudden pause that I couldn't miss it. But... I couldn't say anything.
Because Celine was definitely among the people most affected by Aiden's situation. Maybe even the most affected one. Because she had spent the last half a year only communicating with him. In a way, it was Aiden himself who started to heal her.
That's why his disappearance, perhaps entering a state where he would never open his eyes again, must have shaken her more than anyone else.
But these thoughts brought with them another contradiction and I frowned involuntarily.
Now that I think about it... If the rumors came out recently, she couldn't have been going back and forth to the training building for too long. So she must have started 'getting stronger' again after Aiden's news.
She's so prone to depression... but instead she's trying to get stronger?
That's... weird. Is she having thoughts of waking him up like me or something else...?
"I- I forgot... right-"
She paused again after realizing she had stuttered. But... then she shook her head slightly from side to side and sighed deeply. When she turned her head toward me, her lips curled up slightly.
"If you think I have thoughts of waking Aiden... No, I'm not crazy. I'm not going to pursue something I know I can't do anything about, when it's impossible for me to even reach him, when even dwarves with such advanced technology aren't sure if they can wake him up. I just... believe that he will wake up. I trust him, as he trusts me. At least... that's how I feel."
I found myself widening my eyes slightly at her words, my face taking on an expression of meaninglessness.
Depressed, going crazy?
I... how wrong I had been. Aside from her condition worsening, she seems to have taken the biggest step toward recovery with Aiden's coma...
On top of that... she trusts him. She believes that Aiden will wake up, so instead of dedicating herself to waking him up, she prepares herself entirely for after he wakes up.
It's... I certainly didn't expect it, it never crossed my mind in the slightest, let alone expected it.
Celine didn't talk about it anymore. Although we talked about a few other things, this conversation didn't last long either. After giving me her new number, she said she didn't have time and put her hood back on, then smiled at me for the last time.
"See you later."
"See you..."
Then she left the wooded area, leaving me alone in the middle.
A few minutes after her departure, I also headed toward my room, but... I couldn't stop thinking.
I thought about it along the way, I thought about it as I entered my room, I thought about it even as I let myself sink into my comfortable armchair.
I... unlike Celine, from the second I found out that Aiden was in a coma, I... never believed him.
I wanted to help him as soon as I found out, I was completely dedicated to it. I didn't even think about how I could reach him when the dwarves were probably hiding him in one of the safest places in the world, I just... believed that he needed my help.
I clenched my fist and closed my eyes, my face grimacing.
Yes, unlike the others, I could really heal him. Lithoa told me it is possible, that's why I keep transferring mana to the disk in my bracelet every day, so there's no reason for me to stop.
But... why didn't I ever trust him? Until now, he has always been surrounded by success. Even though his every move sometimes hurt him too, it always worked out in his favor in the end. He always got what he wanted, even if he faced difficulties and some consequences he didn't want...
Why did I think he needed help this time?
Was it because the thought of helping people, of 'changing', overrode my logic? Because in the end I had a better chance of helping him than he had of helping me?
Hah... I'm changing, yes, but... I'm still always standing still, not so much taking a step, but taking a half step back while pretending to take a step.
I opened my eyes, did nothing as I stared at the white ceiling of my room and just... waited. Finally I raised my hand, spread my fingers and looked at them.
I'm really so naive, stupid... right?
But... I won't... I won't stop. I'll just... believe in him now, like Celine did.
Waking him will still be my goal, but from now on... I will trust him.
I thought about it for a few more seconds, and then a smile appeared on my face, and after I put an end to that, since Aiden was the only admin in the old group, I opened a new group with the same name and invited Celine to join it, along with everyone else.
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6 people have been invited to "Study Group 2"!
Olivia Sue Gemma accepted the invitation!
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Sue was the first to write to the new group.
<<------------------------------
Sue: Adrian? Why did you open a new group?
Julian: ????
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But instead of answering their questions, I just waited. Lucia also went online and joined Julian and Sue, but I kept waiting. And in the end... what I was waiting for happened.
<<------------------------------
Celine Potenbea has accepted the invitation!
Sue: ...?
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For a few seconds, nothing was written in the group. However... this silence was broken with Celine's 'writing' status.
<<------------------------------
Celine: Uh... hello?
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Julian, Lucia, and Sue didn't write anything after they saw Celine writing something.
However, after only a few seconds... the conversation started to flow so fast, so many questions were being asked that everything turned into chaos. But... despite all this chaos, and despite feeling a bit sorry for Celine as I watched her struggle to deal with three people, I couldn't keep the smile off my face.
Because... even though everyone seemed curious, they seemed happy again... after finally getting their answers and finding out that Celine was getting better, that she could even talk to them. It was like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders to finally know that something was going well after Aiden's incident.
The group chat looked just like it did half a year ago.
The only thing missing now... was Aiden himself.
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