Chapter 40
“Please allow me to touch your cheeks just once, my lady.”
“Eek! Pervert!”
Aveline cupped her small hands over her cheeks and moved away from Theron, heightening her guard even more.
What kind of crazy person is this?
Suddenly asking to touch her cheeks.
Unaware of how plump her cheeks had become in Chloe’s form, Aveline narrowed her eyes and took a step or two away from Theron.
Watching this, Theron pretended to sigh.
“It seems you’re not interested in the information I could provide.”
“…!”
Reading Aveline’s expression, a wicked smile spread across Theron’s lips.
It was clear from his face that he had made this proposal deliberately, knowing Aveline would be flustered.
“What will you do?”
Aveline, covering her cheeks with both hands, fell into contemplation.
But the deliberation didn’t last long.
After all, she needed to know what was going on.
Finally, Aveline hesitantly approached Theron.
“One second!”
Aveline shouted with her eyes tightly shut.
It was a big decision on her part.
“Hmm.”
However, no matter how long she waited, Theron didn’t move.
‘What’s going on?’
Just as Aveline, confused by the unexpected development, opened her eyes slightly,
Pinch.
“Ow!”
Theron’s hand gently pinched Aveline’s plump cheek without hurting her.
As soon as Theron’s hand left, Aveline grabbed her face and ran back to the wall.
However, perhaps due to her shortened legs, it took longer than expected to reach the corner.
Safely arriving at the corner, Aveline covered the cheek that Theron had lightly touched and glared at him fiercely.
“Now tell me!”
“Before that.”
Theron, who had been watching Aveline’s behavior with interest, snapped his fingers once.
“Huh?”
At the same time, Aveline’s hair color changed to pink.
Realizing her hair color had changed, Aveline rushed to the mirror.
“What?!”
It wasn’t just her hair color that had changed.
Her eye color had also shifted from Chloe’s to a slightly lighter shade, closer to Aveline’s original color.
As Chloe’s features faded away, the unmistakable appearance of little Aveline emerged.
Shocked to see her original hair and eye color return, Aveline turned to look at Theron.
“What if someone finds out about this…!”
She suddenly worried that Klein might come and discover her in this state.
“So this is what you looked like as a child, my lady.”
However, Theron remained calm.
“Don’t worry, I’ll return you to your original form soon.”
“Then answer my question first.”
“By all means.”
Theron responded leisurely with a subtle smile.
Aveline asked what she was most curious about.
“How did you get in here?”
Theron hadn’t been able to enter her dreams for a while due to the barrier she had set up.
So how was he able to enter now?
And as a new character that wasn’t in the novel, no less.
“There was a gap in the barrier,” Theron answered.
“A gap?”
As Aveline tilted her head in confusion, Theron continued his explanation.
“It means that the barrier crumbled without you realizing it. For example, you might have wanted to dream again, forgetting that you had put up a barrier.”
“…”
Theron’s guess was spot on.
Indeed, Aveline had briefly had such thoughts before falling asleep.
“And above all,” Theron continued, crossing his legs with his usual arrogant expression.
“Did you think I couldn’t break through a barrier made with my own magic?”
“…”
“But it wasn’t bad for something you did alone. Even I had to fumble around at first. Let me ask you something too. How exactly did you do it? Did someone help you?”
Now it was Theron’s turn to ask a question.
“I did it alone.”
“Alone?”
Theron’s eyebrow twitched in disbelief at Aveline’s answer.
“Yes. I just closed my eyes and concentrated.”
Theron’s expression turned to one of surprise at Aveline’s words.
“This is far more impressive than I expected.”
His tone was like that of an overly proud guardian, as if saying, “I can’t believe my child was such a genius.”
“What?”
As Aveline tilted her head, not quite understanding, Theron spoke again.
“For you, who have lived your whole life without ever feeling magic, to suddenly absorb a large amount of magical power and even manage to use it…”
Theron’s expression suddenly turned serious as he finished speaking.
“It’s good that you learn quickly, but there’s a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Do you remember when I mentioned earlier that Chloe was having difficulty controlling her magic?”
“Of course.”
Aveline nodded.
She had been quite surprised by this content that differed from the original story.
In the original work, Chloe had never struggled with controlling her magic.
“Have you entered Chloe’s body before?”
“Yes.”
Theron nodded once at Aveline’s answer, as if he had expected it.
“That’s why.”
Theron removed his monocle and put it in the upper pocket of his outer garment.
As his handsome face was fully revealed without any obstruction, it seemed for a moment as if light was pouring out, and Aveline almost frowned without realizing it.
“The problem arose when new magic synchronized with a body that already possessed magic.”
“So…”
This meant that all of this had happened because she had entered Chloe’s body.
“But this is just a dream…”
Wasn’t it just a dream about the novel’s content that she would wake up from?
As Aveline became confused, Theron shook his head.
“A dream created by magic wouldn’t be that simple.”
“…”
“The reason I’ve been following you around was because I was worried about this kind of situation.”
Theron seemed to be aware that he had been following Aveline.
“So you’re saying this is all real?”
That it wasn’t just a dream, but that she had really entered the world of the novel?
“To be more precise,” Theron paused for a moment.
“It would be more accurate to say that your magic has opened a new space.”
A new space?
‘Do I have such an ability?’
“It seems you’ve already forgotten that I mentioned my skills are quite substantial.”
Theron pointed out, reading Aveline’s thoughts.
‘Right. He did say before that his skills were quite good and even offered to cut open my stomach.’
It seems that wasn’t just empty boasting.
Come to think of it, the magic in her body belonged to Theron, so perhaps with his magic, opening a new space wasn’t too difficult.
“We’ll explain the details later. For now, there’s a more pressing issue.”
To think there was an even more important problem than this.
As Aveline looked at him with a dejected expression, a fleeting smile of sympathy crossed Theron’s lips.
“Because the amount of magic you suddenly have to handle has increased, Chloe’s body, still that of a young child, won’t be able to withstand it for long. Soon, it will lead to a magical outburst.”
“An outburst?”
That can’t happen.
Aveline’s face turned serious.
If something were to happen to Chloe…
-Who could possibly hate you?
Suddenly, Klein’s voice echoed in her mind.
Along with the bright smile on his face as he looked at his sister with adoration.
‘Klein would be devastated.’
That sister-complex might not be able to handle it.
‘I have to stop it.’
Aveline clenched her small fists and exclaimed,
“Tell me what I need to do!”
“Your determination is quite impressive.”
However, despite Aveline’s enthusiasm, Theron’s response seemed somewhat indifferent.
* * *
While Aveline was taken aback by Theron’s suddenly lukewarm attitude, Theron was recalling the face of Klein he had encountered earlier.
The man with brown hair and green eyes, who appeared normal only on the surface.
It was clear at a glance that while he pretended to be extremely kind to his sister, his true nature was not so.
Judging by Aveline’s expression with her small fists clenched, it was obvious she was worried about Klein being sad.
Though he didn’t want to admit it, Klein was a handsome man with an appealing appearance – glossy brown hair and quite masculine features.
His sharp eyes, which directly revealed his unyielding personality, were fierce, but when looking at his sister, they softened as if they had never been so.
It was a different exterior from that Edward-whatever guy who looked exactly like the crown prince from before.
Tsk.
Theron clicked his tongue once as he looked down at Aveline with her small fists clenched.
He couldn’t understand why his own mood kept souring.
