It was strange. Having sought magic for just a few years, he felt like an old man who had wasted his entire life.

“Why didn’t you appear and tell me sooner?”

Frustration kept welling up. Learning dragon language would enable him to use magic? He wasn’t pleased at all.

The past years felt unjust. He was only 14, and for a 14-year-old, it felt excessively hollow.

Siod kept offering apologies.

“I’m sorry. Honestly, I didn’t know a half-blood between a dragon and a human could be born. I…”

“Did Mother know too?”

“Guinevere found out about me being a dragon just recently. Maybe she tried to find me during her pregnancy. Vera did nothing wrong. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry.”

Siod quickly grabbed William’s shoulders, who was struggling to hold back tears, and rambled on with apologies.

“If she found someone else, I thought it was right for me to leave. I never thought a half-blood of a dragon and a human would be born. It wasn’t until I saw you in person that I realized it might be possible. You have the magic of a dragon. That’s why…”

“I didn’t know any of that, and all this time, I’ve been clinging to magic… all my life…”

Siod stopped what he was about to say and embraced the crying William. William wasn’t crying because he was shocked by the revelation about his father being a dragon.
It was resentment towards the years of suffering due to the inferiority complex of not becoming a wizard.

William doesn’t remember the missing 50 years. Nevertheless, the pain from that time unquestionably lingered in his subconscious. Siod apologized again.

“It’s all my fault.”

William only cried without saying a word.

“…Vera cried a lot too. After learning why you couldn’t use magic, I regretted poking you a lot.”

“What about Mother?”

“Yeah.”

William burst into tears. Pushing Siod away, he wiped tears away with one arm.

“William, are you okay?”

William checked his wristwatch with an expressionless face. Then, casually, he said to Siod,

“Instant teleportation to the Hall of the Sun. Quickly.”

It was already curfew time. Siod grabbed William’s arm as he wished, and they teleported instantly.

As soon as they arrived at the Hall of the Sun, William headed straight to the dormitory without looking back.

“William, will you come home this weekend?”

“No.”

The dormitory door closed. Siod sighed and turned around. A gust of wind brushed by, circling Siod. Waving his hand, Siod said,

“Follow quickly. If anything happens, talk to me.”

It was a wind spirit, a sylph. The sylph tousled Siod’s hair irritably, then followed William.
Sylph informed William that he doesn’t plan to come home for the weekend. Although I hurriedly went after him, there was no time to persuade.

“I should come again tomorrow.”

Both Grenavir and Larisa were worried. If William is not there on the weekend, they were concerned about how the two would cope.

That night, William had a dream.

The reason he realized this was a dream was simple. William usually doesn’t dream, and the version of himself in the dream was already an adult.

William awkwardly looked down at his grown palm and examined it. For a dream, it was an overly vivid sensation.

“What is this…”

The heavily cluttered room was familiar to William. It was Grenavir’s lab. However, Grenavir was not in sight.

William slowly looked around the room, and suddenly, he found a large glass container placed in the middle of the room.

A ominous feeling crept in. As he cautiously approached step by step, inside the glass container, he saw a woman lying with a pale face, resembling a corpse.

He was certain it wasn’t a corpse because her violet lips were slightly moving, saying something.

“What did you say? I can’t hear well.”

William lowered his head to hear more clearly. Then, a small voice reached him.

“…want to.”

“What?”

“I want to go out. Take me out, William.”
William’s heart seemed to drop suddenly. Only then did he notice the woman’s pink hair.

“Larisa?”

“I… miss the wildflowers.”

When William tried to touch the glass to open it, a blue magical circle began to shine above the glass container.

William quickly withdrew his hand, feeling an anxiety that something might go wrong.

“It’s Mother’s magic.”

“William, you can do it. You…”

“I can’t break Mother’s magic.”

“You can, William.”

Larisa said with great effort. William, feeling unsure, approached the glass container again.

“Why did this happen? Why is she inside…”

Then, red tears began to flow down Larisa’s pale face.

“…Because of you.”

“What did you say?”

“It’s because of you!”

With a gasp, William woke up at that moment. After suppressing his emotions, he felt a chill all over his body. Wiping the cold sweat on his forehead, he checked the clock, realizing it was still dawn.

William grabbed his pounding chest, lay back on the bed, but couldn’t fall asleep at all.

In the morning, James, who yawned and got up, looked at William’s face and asked in surprise.

“Why does your face look so awful from the morning?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Why?”

“I had a nightmare.”