VIP Chapter 155: Dancing in a Minefield
“Who is she?”
“Why…”
“Why is Will looking at her like that?”
Standing on the street, Liya tightly clutched the newspaper, her fingers creasing the edges. The large photo on the front page was covered in cracks.
“Calm down, I need to be calm,” she repeated to herself.
“It’s not a big deal. It’s just a… woman I’ve never seen before with black hair! This person is just like Iaar described. It’s… it’s something I already knew!”
“It must be…”
“No! Absolutely! It’s her who kidnapped Will. I can tell just by looking, right? After all, she doesn’t look like a good person. Will is such a… such a kind person, he’s bound to be deceived by her.”
The more Liya thought about it, the less confident she felt.
“You know that’s impossible, right?”
“Will looks completely fine. The two of them even accepted an interview from a reporter.”
“How happy he’s smiling in the photo!”
“Do you really believe that? Will, who handles bullying so well at school, would be so easily fooled by a woman?”
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
Liya could hear her heartbeat accelerating. She could clearly feel her heart connected to her entire circulatory system and magic circuits beating wildly, unable to stop.
“Hoo… hoo… hoo…”
The more she thought about it, the more Liya’s breathing became ragged. In the quiet street of a small town, this was particularly strange.
“Miss, are… are you alright?”
The paperboy who had just sold her the newspaper looked a little scared.
“There’s nothing wrong with this newspaper, is there? The news today is so positive. It’s much less stressful than the news from the past few days about a dungeon being cleared, nearby housing prices plummeting, and new dungeons appearing, causing some buildings to collapse.”
“It’s the kind of news that makes you feel ‘the world is beautiful’ after reading it! Why did she become like this after just one glance?”
“I’m fine, absolutely fine, definitely… not! Leave me alone, what’s it to you?!” Liya yelled.
The paperboy saw her crimson eyes. Although he didn’t understand different races or the common “superpowers” from dungeons, just looking at her eyes sent shivers down his spine.
“Does… does she have some kind of mental illness?”
“She was… she was quite normal just now.”
The paperboy felt he shouldn’t meddle.
“S-sorry, Miss. I… I was wrong for being nosy!”
He bowed deeply and then scurried away.
After being approached by a passerby, Liya looked at the empty street, seeming to have slightly recovered from her earlier state. She covered her eyes and looked at the newspaper with one eye.
“Yeah… what… what’s wrong with me?”
For a moment, perhaps only for a second or two after seeing the headline, Liya felt an experience akin to using Blood Mint Essential Oil.
“Newspaper… oh right, I should definitely keep the newspaper. It’s Will’s newspaper, so it must have information about Will’s current situation.”
She clutched the newspaper, rolling it into a scroll, but lacked the “courage” to open it again.
“I… I’ll take it with me for now.”
Liya now looked deflated, like a balloon with its air let out.
***
“Miss, your room is ready. Here’s the key. It’s on the second floor, turn left, the first room.”
“Mm. Thank you.”
“Miss… there’s actually a clinic next door. You look… your complexion is quite bad, too pale. Would you like to have it checked out next door?”
“No!” Liya refused quickly, even sternly.
“Oh, I… I mean I’m not sick, I feel great right now…”
She staggered to her room. She lay down on the bed, placing the newspaper by her headboard and the box filled with Blood Mint Essential Oil by her footboard.
“What’s wrong with me?”
Just a few days ago, she “couldn’t muster the energy,” just like a withdrawal symptom Will had described: slowed heartbeat, slowed blood flow, and a silenced magic circuit.
But…
The moment she saw the newspaper, especially when she saw him wearing glasses in the photo again, the feelings she had once maintained with mint essential oil came crashing back.
Liya rolled over, looking at her blond hair, which had become a bit split from not being treated with conditioner for a long time. She twirled a strand of her blond hair around her finger.
“It’s so strange…”
“Will…”
“Okay, I admit… maybe… I really do… miss you a little.”
The three days weren’t the “crucial” part. She would sometimes go days without seeing Will during holidays. What mattered was that he was truly “out of contact.” It was like going to your favorite snack shop near the school gate only to find a “Temporarily Closed” sign with no reopening date. The most familiar things suddenly disappeared.
After all…
After all, Will was the one who first brought her from the “witch’s world” into the “human world,” and he was the one who silently watched over her, allowing her to truly become a good teacher at the Magic Academy. Ever since she believed his words and opened her heart to the human world, he had been by her side. The disappearance of a familiar presence in an instant was the most terrifying thing. That powerlessness and fear of what the future might hold… It was like…
Being afraid…
That one day he would no longer be solely hers, no longer be the good student who only looked at her…
This… this feeling…
Liya could only explain it as… missing him.
“Every time I come back, I don’t want to do anything. My head feels foggy and I’m not clear-headed at all.”
“My body rarely feels like this…”
Liya sat up, her gaze once again drawn to the newspaper. It was crumpled because she had squeezed it so hard.
“Perhaps… I should study more about what this kid Will has been up to.”
The moment Liya saw the front-page headline photo, she felt uneasy, so she didn’t read the content. The content… it seemed to be an interview after a dungeon victory.
She looked at the newspaper on the table, her heartbeat starting to accelerate. Liya felt that only when looking at the newspaper did she become a little more spirited, or rather…
Become a little “more like Lingmeng and less abnormal.”
She gazed at the crumpled newspaper and finally reached out.
“I want to see it again and again.”
“After all, his photo is on it.”
“It’s the only clue I have about him these past few days.”
“Interview… interview…”
“What would he say in an interview?”
Liya gently unfolded the folded newspaper, opening to the “headline” page with the photo of Will and the unknown black-haired woman. She didn’t immediately read the content but placed the newspaper on her lap, using the friction between her fingers and her knee to smooth out the crumpled photo.
Then…
She carefully read the description below—
[However… I still have to thank her. After all, my current strength is also thanks to her…]
[Her attention…]
“Oh?”
Liya, sitting on the bed, tilted her head.
She didn’t even notice how vacant her eyes became when she read that sentence, or how her tilted head looked as if it were broken.
