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Chapter 3: “What Do You Mean My Ex-Boyfriend Had My Child?”
Leon Voltane was my first love.
The problem was that he was also the first love of almost every female trainee at the Magic Tower.
Back then, Leon Voltane was unbelievably beautiful.
His black hair was so dark that it almost looked blue. It was soft and silky, and it moved beautifully whenever he walked. His long, black eyelashes reached almost to his lower eyelids, and beneath them were shining blue eyes that looked like precious jewels.
His skin was as white as marble.
Whenever I watched that beautiful boy silently walking around on his long legs, I felt like it was a waste for someone like him to be at the Magic Tower.
That face is practically magic by itself.
Why does he even need to learn magic?
Unfortunately…
A beautiful face didn’t mean a good personality.
Leon Voltane was incredibly beautiful, but he was also an extremely annoying person.
I should have realized that from the beginning.
After all, what kind of normal person who already had everything would voluntarily choose to become a mage?
Being a mage was difficult, dirty, exhausting, and stressful.
Almost no heir from a proper noble family would choose to become a mage.
So a man who was already the heir to a duchy but still wanted to study magic couldn’t possibly be completely normal.
Our first meeting went something like this.
“Shorty.”
“Yes?”
“You’re so small I didn’t even realize you were blocking the way. Move.”
While looking at that unbelievably beautiful boy who smiled sweetly while saying such rude things, I had only one thought.
Is he crazy?
On the way to the living room, Mother kept praising the Duke of Voltane so much that I wondered if she was really the same woman who had introduced me to Pascal.
“Oh, Irina!”
Schle spotted me through the doorway and raised his hand without caring about appearances.
Wow.
I was embarrassed enough to wonder if I still had feelings of shame left after everything that had happened.
“Hic! You finally came. She’s a little foolish, but she’s a very good girl. We raised her very well, you see…”
His bloodshot eyes were shining with happiness.
He had apparently found another person he could sell me to.
What a shameless man.
Whether he knew what I was thinking or not, the black-haired man slowly stood up from his seat.
He seemed to have become even more well-built since the last time I had seen him.
His broad shoulders rose above me.
He was wearing a black coat woven with silver thread, a dark gray shirt, and a cloak with subtle blue vine patterns embroidered on it.
The clothes moved slowly as he stood up, and every detail was burned into my eyes.
“…”
I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out.
The Duke of Voltane looked different from the last time I had seen him.
His face was pale, and his blue eyes kept moving restlessly.
He looked like someone who had just experienced a terrible nightmare.
His unnatural beauty mixed with his sickly appearance, creating a sad, serious, and strangely dark atmosphere that was difficult to describe.
“Irina.”
But the moment our eyes met…
Leon Voltane smiled.
It was like a flower finally blooming after spending all winter closed.
He called my name in his low voice.
It was an ordinary name, but somehow it sounded completely different when he said it.
A shiver started at my toes, traveled up my spine, passed my neck, and finally disappeared.
His beauty now felt almost threatening.
It felt as if something invisible was squeezing my throat.
I had to force myself not to run away.
Leon stood up, walked around the sofa, and slowly approached me.
His eyes looked down at me heavily.
I could barely breathe.
The silence grew longer.
When I didn’t say anything, he slightly turned his head toward Mother and Schle.
Then he spoke.
“Baron Otreha. Baroness Otreha.”
“Yes?”
His next words were cold and short.
“Leave.”
“Hic! Of course!”
“Of course!”
Neither of them even thought for a second before leaving the room.
Mother even mouthed the words “Do your best!” to me before leaving.
Do what?
Then—
Bang.
The door closed.
We were alone.
I walked over to the seat where Schle had been sitting and sat down.
There were two half-empty glasses of alcohol and a bottle sitting on the small table.
Serving alcohol instead of tea in the middle of the day.
How embarrassing.
But what could I do?
This was my reality.
At least there was one good thing.
Leon Voltane was also a man who didn’t care much about manners or social rules.
As soon as Mother and Schle left, he sat back down on the long sofa where he had originally been sitting.
Then he practically lay down.
His long legs stretched casually over the shabby armrest of our sofa.
The sight was almost surreal.
The Duke of Voltane rested his chin on one hand and stared at me lazily.
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing. I was just wondering if you were really you.”
Was Leon Voltane always like this?
As far as I remembered, he wasn’t.
He had been carefree, arrogant, and annoying, but he also had a cute side.
But this version of him felt different.
Why do I feel like prey standing in front of a wild animal?
He gave a small scoff and spoke casually.
“Why didn’t you ever send me a letter?”
“Why would I?”
“Why? I thought we were dating.”
“We did date for a while.”
It had only lasted one year.
It wasn’t some deep, passionate love story either.
To put it simply, Leon had been getting tired of all the new female students constantly confessing their feelings to him.
So he used me as a shield.
I became his fake girlfriend so other girls would stop bothering him.
Our breakup was just as unremarkable.
I failed the final selection at the Magic Tower.
Leon stayed at the Tower, while I returned home.
Of course, I never sent him any letters.
That would make me look like I still had feelings for him.
Just like our relationship, our breakup happened without either of us officially talking about it.
We simply disappeared from each other’s lives.
That was how things remained…
Until he suddenly appeared at my house today.
“Are you going to break off your engagement with Pascal Oker?”
His low voice seemed to press down on the top of my head.
I quickly answered because I felt like my head might actually be crushed.
“You get information awfully quickly.”
“I guessed it because I thought something like this might happen.”
“Oh…”
“It was something that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Just like his visit to the Otreha mansion.
Leon didn’t seem interested in dragging out this strange situation where things that had never happened in the past were now happening.
His bright blue eyes stared deeply into mine.
It felt like he was trying to pull the truth directly out of my eyes.
“…You were the one who turned back time, weren’t you?”
“You don’t seem surprised.”
“Well, I thought you were the only person who could possibly use such an impossible kind of magic.”
“I see.”
“How did you succeed with magic that existed only as a theory? And…”
I paused.
“If you were the one who used the magic, then why did I return too?”
Leon stared at me.
It was as if he were trying to figure out whether I was hiding something.
After tilting his head slightly, he finally spoke.
“You don’t remember? You look far too fine.”
“Do I really look fine to you?”
“I thought you’d obviously be crying.”
“What?”
“Lea Bestin’s illegitimate child. That ungrateful bastard killed you.”
“What?”
It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me.
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open.
Leon raised one eyebrow as he looked down at me.
“You raised that bastard like your own son until he was twenty. Have you forgotten all of it?”
A gasp escaped me.
Until he was twenty?
He was ten years old right now.
So that meant…
Ten more years?
There was a future I didn’t know about?
