Chapter 84

[Enria.]

 

Caldeon’s flustered voice called her through the comm crystal.

 

When the personal comm crystal he’d given to Silri suddenly rang, he thought she had woken up and called him—so he opened it without any guard up.

 

And the moment the screen lit, Enria’s face appeared. He couldn’t help being taken aback.

 

[I’ll explain what’s going on.]

 

“…….”

 

[Enria.]

 

But Enria didn’t seem to hear Silri’s voice or Caldeon’s call.

 

She was staring, dead still, at Belona clinging tightly to Caldeon’s arm.

 

[I’ll explain everything, so don’t misunderstand—]

 

Click.

 

Without meaning to, Enria hung up.

 

At her sudden action, Silri and Hayden turned to look at her, but Enria only stared blankly at the comm crystal.

 

Then it rang again. Enria’s shoulders jolted, and both Silri and Hayden’s eyes snapped toward the comm crystal.

 

Enria stared at the ringing crystal for a moment, then shoved it straight under Silri’s blankets instead of answering.

 

“Enria,” Silri called.

 

Enria looked up.

 

Her face—startled, shaken—had gone pale, almost corpse-white.

 

Silri sighed softly when their eyes met and she saw Enria’s eyes slowly filling.

 

“There has to be a reason for this, Enria.”

 

“…….”

 

“You know better than anyone that he’s not the kind of guy who’d keep another woman at his side when he has you.”

 

At that, Enria’s gaze drifted back to the comm crystal thrashing about under the blanket.

 

Of course she knew.

 

In the original storyline he only cared about Roseanne, and even then, he had a valid reason for keeping her close—to suppress mana rampage.

 

But now?

 

He had rejected Roseanne, the woman he adored in the original, and only looked at Enria.

 

She’d thought he was a stupidly loyal man—until she saw that screen just now.

 

Suddenly she wondered if all of it had been her misunderstanding.

 

The Caldeon she knew would never stand still while a woman clung to his arm like that.

 

‘Maybe sending me and Hayden to the spirit village…’

 

Her thoughts spiraled. Maybe he’d used Silri as an excuse to keep her and Hayden away from the Grand Duchy.

 

If that were true, it made sense.

 

The man who refused to let her out of his sight, even for a moment, had suddenly let her leave “for safety”? She should’ve questioned it.

 

“No one’s dying until we hear him out,” Silri said dryly, glancing at the endlessly ringing comm crystal under the blanket. “Figure out what happened first. Kill him after, if needed.”

 

“A woman…”

 

Enria’s throat closed before she could say the rest.

 

“That’s why we ask why she was hanging on him.”

 

“Light attribute!”

 

Hayden wriggled out of Silri’s arms, wobbling down from the bed.

 

Enria instinctively reached to steady him. Her eyes widened a little at his words.

 

“The light attribute tied him,” Hayden said.

 

“Tied?” Enria echoed.

 

Hayden nodded, lifting his arms toward her to be picked up.

 

“Daddy’s black mana can’t get out of light.”

 

Holding him, Enria recalled Belona’s face.

 

Right—Belona was Groen’s lover, a light-attribute mage.

 

And in the battle with Panz, Caldeon had used black mana to save her from being devoured.

 

‘Why is a light-attribute mage…?’

 

“So Hayden,” Silri said, “you’re saying the light mage wrapped your dad in light attribute magic?”

 

Hayden nodded again. “Tied.”

 

Unlike other magic, where offensive and defensive spells shared the same color, light magic was distinct—offense showed a sun-bright yellow, defense was nearly transparent like holy barriers.

 

The defensive light threads were hard to notice unless you knew to look. And through a comm screen, it was easy to miss entirely.

 

“Could she be controlled by dark magic?” Silri murmured. “If dark magic can control beasts, maybe it can control humans too.”

 

“It’s not dark magic,” Hayden interrupted, shaking his head.

 

“Black mana erases dark magic. So it’s not that.”

 

Simple words, but the reasoning was extremely precise.

 

Enria and Silri exchanged stunned looks.

 

Hayden really was a genius.

 

‘Don’t tell me Hayden’s also reincarnated…?’

 

As Enria stared at him, Hayden met her gaze with Caldeon’s deep black eyes.

 

“Daddy’s tied,” he said seriously—as if insisting Caldeon wasn’t to blame.

 

Enria looked at him once more, then at the comm crystal still buried under the blanket.

 

“If he gives you some bullshit excuse, I’ll kill him myself,” Silri muttered.

 

“Kill Daddy?” Hayden blinked round eyes.

 

Silri flinched, then straightened.

 

“If he’s cheating on your mom, he deserves death. You don’t want another woman becoming your mom, right?”

 

‘We’re going that far?’ Enria thought, eyebrows rising.

 

Immediately Hayden’s expression sharpened—exactly like Caldeon’s—before he declared: “One mommy.”

 

“Right. So if he—”

 

“Silri, that is not something you tell a child,” Enria cut in, exasperated.

 

Silri conceded with a nod.

 

“Anyway, the damn thing’s about to explode from ringing. Just talk to him,” she said, pointing her chin at the blanket.

 

Enria hesitated, then pulled out the comm crystal.

 

And just like that, the ringing stopped.

 

“……”

 

“……”

 

As if on purpose.

 

Completely, perfectly timed.

 

It didn’t ring again.

 

Enria’s expression hardened; Silri glared at the crystal as if willing it to start again.

 

It didn’t.

 

“Maybe it broke from overuse—”

 

A hum echoed—the sound of the gate to the spirit village opening.

 

Voices rose outside.

 

Then—

 

The door burst open.

 

“Enria!”

 

It was Caldeon.

 

He had panicked when she wouldn’t answer and forced Graum to take him straight to the spirit village.

 

Belona clung tight to his waist.

 

Seeing Belona—wrapped around his waist, practically hanging in his arms—Enria’s face froze over.

 

“Enria, it’s a misunderstanding. I’ll explain everything,” Caldeon said quickly.

 

“This light-attribute mage is—”

 

“Is she Enria?” Belona interrupted, looking straight at Enria.

 

When Enria stared back, Belona’s expression sharpened defensively.

 

“Groen is mine.”

 

Enria’s eyes widened.

 

“…Groen?”

 

“He’s mine,” Belona repeated, hugging Caldeon’s waist even tighter.

 

Caldeon gritted his breath, forcing more black shadow between them to keep her from fully clinging.

 

Only then did Enria fully understand the situation.

 

Belona had wrapped both herself and Caldeon in dense threads of light magic so they couldn’t separate.

 

And Caldeon was generating black mana inside the cocoon to keep their bodies from actually touching.