Novel Full Chapter 1397: "Can we talk, Del?"
Chapter 1397: “Can we talk, Del?”
Aether sat before Delphine as he awkwardly looked at her, trying to read the quiet storm brewing behind her eyes.
Delphine didn’t say anything, just stared at him with a slightly frowning expression that carried both confusion and a hint of judgment.
Aether gulped inwardly. He was freaking out inwardly, wondering if Delphine saw something she shouldn’t have… and considering their current relationship, he didn’t want anything reckless to ruin the fragile ground they stood on.
And also, his thing wasn’t out of his pants, so he wasn’t sure if she did, or if that sly fox had set him up and left him without informing him.
He noticed her desk was filled with paperwork, scattered in a way that showed just how long she had been wrestling with it. He asked curiously, “It sure is a hell of work, huh? Ahaha…” His tone slipped into awkwardness the moment he noticed her expression turn deadpan.
Delphine didn’t answer. Instead, she asked with a calm, measured tone, “How are you?”
Aether blinked before sitting correctly, straightening his posture as he said with a calm tone, “I am fine… What about you?”
Delphine shrugged, “Well…” Her voice carried a weight that made the single word feel heavier than a full sentence.
Aether nodded as he muttered, “Where is Dora? Did she leave me in her office like that?”
Delphine shrugged, “I don’t know. When I came to see her, she wasn’t in the office… just you. What were you doing here?” Her eyes narrowed slightly, not accusing but clearly curious.
“I… was investigating the Origin Pillars and how difficult it is to walk on those newly appeared steps.” His voice softened as he recalled the pressure on those steps, the invisible force weighing on each movement.
“Did you walk on it? How many steps?” Delphine turned curiously as she leaned forward.
Aether shook his head with a weak smile, “Well, around 4 steps.”
“4… huh?” Delphine raised her eyebrows with small surprise before turning silent, processing the number and what it meant.
Both of them turned silent… unable to move forward with the talk for a second.
Aether shook his head inwardly. He had given her enough time. It was time to face the reality. No matter what she chose, he was going to acknowledge it, as he took a breath before,
“I have something to tell you.”
“I have something to tell you.”
Aether and Delphine were surprised when their voices overlapped at the same time. They blinked before chuckling with small smiles.
“Go ahead.” Aether waved his hand, but Delphine shook her head, “No… You go first.” Her voice trembled slightly despite her composed face.
Aether shook his head, “I don’t mind. Tell me first… I mean, I am pretty sure we are going to have the same talk anyway,” as he shrugged his shoulder with a small smile, “And as always, ladies first~”
Delphine stared at Aether for a second before taking a deep breath… Aether’s heart started to beat faster as if her confession was going to change everything in his life… this was what he had been waiting for all this time, the moment that could break or repair everything.
Her face turned slightly gloomy and worried… Aether’s heart beat even faster… his face turned pale as if he was going to get the fucking rejection he wanted to avoid all this time… but still… whatever it was, he was going to act like a mature man and deal with it.
Delphine’s lips parted as she said with a slightly gloomy tone,
“Aether…”
Ba-dump!
Aether clenched his chest, the heart beating rising and rising again and again… so much that it felt painful. It hammered through his entire being… Wait, he didn’t even have a heart, yet he could feel the pain? So fucked up, man!
“You—”
“Wait!”
Aether raised his hand urgently as he stopped her.
Delphine blinked, caught off guard, her breath pausing for a moment. Aether took a deeper breath as he said with an urgent tone,
“Maybe I should talk first… I mean, I need you to understand it’s not like I wanted all this to happen… I just needed you to know before answering that I didn’t mean for all this to happen, I was just desperate, and I didn’t have any choice….”
His dry throat tightened as he gulped. His voice cracked slightly as he continued, “I didn’t want things to spiral like this. I didn’t want to push you into something unfair.”
He started to panic, he didn’t know why, but the image of Delphine leaving him kept coming to his mind again and again like a nightmare clawing at him right now!
Those images of her getting pregnant and leaving him alone with his child… his mind started to tremble in fear… did he make the right choice?
Should he have manipulated even more?
Should he have left her the day he knew he wasn’t loyal to her?
Should he have… told her the truth from the very beginning?
So many possibilities… yet there would be only two answers: either stay with him for eternity or… leave him for eternity.
His eyes started to shake a bit… it wasn’t just that he gave her time, but he had given himself time to avoid the fear of losing her… even though he knew he needed to face it somewhere along the line.
This was not simple after all.
According to the visuals he saw in the game, he was pretty sure that, unlike others who chose to kill or die or… suicide together… he didn’t care for any of that except this one… this one who leaves him!
That hurt more than dying together.
Aether clenched his fist. He needed to talk to her… he needed to speak to her… that it was not his choice to begin with!
“That it wasn’t something I controlled,” he whispered, the words trembling. “That it hurt me too… every damn bit of it.”
That it was nothing but pain for him, too!
He loved her!
Truly!!
Delphine stared at his emotional imbalance. She could literally see in his eyes that he was losing it, that he feared what her answer would be… still, her expression remained cold and indifferent as she stared at him, who finally took a breath and clenched his jaw, ready to say,
“I… It’s not my fault—”
But before he could finish his words, Delphine interrupted, saying,
“You are going to die!”
Her voice didn’t shake.
Aether froze, his open lips trembling before he managed to whisper, “What… what do you mean by die? Delphine… what are you saying?”
Delphine didn’t blink. “I mean every word. If things continue the way they are… You are going to die.”
Aether blinked, “… Pardon?”
He was utterly flabbergasted… what were they even talking about? His mind stalled, refusing to connect her words with any reality he understood.
Delphine bit her lips as her eyes lowered down a bit before looking up again and said to the confused Aether,
“I had a vision, Aether… No, more like visions that kept happening to me ever since the barriers erupted,” she said, her hands slightly trembling, “Every night… the same vision kept coming to my mind again and again… I initially thought it was just a nightmare, but the visions just kept happening at the same time, same place and… the same person.”
Her voice faltered as she pointed to Aether, throat tightening,
“You’re getting killed.”
Aether processed her words slowly. Confusion clouded his expression before he frowned and leaned forward, “I am being killed… by who?”
Delphine shook her head, frustration and fear mixing in her eyes, “I don’t know. I could never see their face, as if they were shrouded in darkness. Except… the place was surrounded by dark walls… You are cornered… You don’t have anything. You just lay there waiting to be killed by her or him.”
Aether’s frown deepened, “But this wasn’t your first time to have those visions, right? I mean… it happened before, right?”
Delphine shook her head, “Before it was… death of everyone, Aether. It was never about you and you alone! But now… I don’t know, it just feels different now… this time it felt like something happened to you alone…”
She clenched her fist tightly, biting her lips as she looked into Aether’s eyes, voice trembling, “T-There is no one to help you… You’re just there alone… in pain. I can’t reach you. I can’t do anything.”
Aether stared at her trembling eyes… he raised his hand to comfort her, but held back.
Delphine continued, “The visions kept happening. Same thing again and again… initially it was just a blur, but as time passed, I could see… I… I don’t know, this feels different… something about this. I never had a vision that kept coming at the same moment, but this does… why? Why is it happening to me? I… I just don’t know.”
Aether forcibly smiled even though he wasn’t sure why she was saying this one felt different and unique, but this was indeed her first time having a vision of his death… alone!
“I tried to stop the visions, but they kept coming to my mind… like nightmares. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop it, I… I just—”
“Hey, hey… stop!” Aether said as he caught her hand gently, leaning forward.
“There is no need to work yourself up so much… I will handle it. I will be fine… Look at me, I’m still here, didn’t I? I proved your visions wrong before… I can do the same, too.”
He squeezed her hand, voice soft but firm, “Delphine… I’m not going anywhere. I don’t break that easily. You know that. I’m right here.”
Delphine stared into his eyes. His eyes pulsed with confidence… but somewhere in her heart, something whispered that he would die.
That this vision shall come true.
Her voice trembled as she whispered under her breath, almost afraid of her own certainty, “Aether… you don’t understand… this one felt real.”
This was… TRUE.
A TRUE FATE!!
Still, Delphine gulped her wet throat, her eyes slightly teary, before nodding her head with a small sigh…Her breath dragged in her chest, shaky and exhausted, as if admitting the vision aloud drained something far deeper than she expected.
Aether smiled, “In fact, I cheated death many times, so much that I don’t think death can have me,” his tone slightly hinted with pride and a haughty tone.
He puffed his chest just a little, trying to lighten the atmosphere, trying to pull her away from fear with the only weapon he trusted… his reckless bravado.
Delphine shook her head at his tone, he hasn’t changed at all… has he?
A tiny exhale escaped her, half disbelief, half frustration.
“You’re impossible…” she whispered under her breath, barely audible.
Aether stared at her eyes…. Deeply!
He didn’t look away. His gaze held rawness, vulnerability, and something pleading beneath the surface that made her throat tighten.
Delphine flinched as she averted her eyes and noticed her hand was held by him. She tried to take her hands back, “T-That’s all… I have to say. I will be leaving now,” she said, voice shaky, as she stood up and turned to leave the place as if she’d done what she came for.
She wanted to escape the room, escape the weight of her own emotions before they betrayed her in front of him.
However,
Aether held her hand tightly.
His grip tightened with sudden urgency, fingers trembling as if letting her go meant losing something he couldn’t replace.
She turned back, startled, and Aether muttered with a calm and fearful tone,
“Can we talk, Del?”
“…”
Delphine’s heart skipped a beat. The name he used — Del — echoed inside her chest like a hidden confession.