Chapter – 65
Julius was lying in bed after finishing breakfast. His back was still recovering from a minor sprain, and Dr. Kaylon had recommended absolute rest.
As soon as we entered the room where Julius was resting, Damari cheerfully waved both hands.
<You’re here, Kiana!>
Despite its dignified tone, its appearance was unbearably cute.
<I was dealing with this idiot complaining nonstop about needing to see Kiana, completely ignoring his own condition!>
“But I really wanted to see Kiki! I’m fine!”
Julius shouted loudly while lying in bed, stomping his feet.
“We didn’t even get to talk properly yesterday! That damned Kaylon shot me with a sedative…”
“Kaylon made the appropriate decision. He may be old, but he’s an excellent doctor.”
Grandfather said coldly as he sat down and crossed his legs.
“Anyway, recover quickly and get back to the North.”
Grandfather and Julius were cousins. And like all Prelai people, they did not get along.
“There’s no need for me to use Insight anymore.”
Julius had originally come to investigate the maid who attempted assassination on Grandfather, but she had already died by suicide. So there was nothing left to do.
In the original story, Julius would arrive at the Prelai estate gate, hear that she was dead, and immediately turn his horse around saying, “What? She’s dead? Fine, I’m leaving.” with no hesitation.
This time, he was staying in the capital because of my request.
“Ahem, that’s for Kaylon to decide. Ow, my back…”
The Julius who had been shouting that he was fine suddenly grabbed his lower back.
“I should stay just a little longer and at least see Kiki… sob…”
<You can’t stay away from the North for long, Julius. Remember your duties.>
Damari sighed deeply while sitting on Julius’s chin like a tiny judge lecturing a troublesome child.
Julius ignored Damari and deliberately changed the subject.
“Kaylon is still around? Hasn’t he retired? He’s been here since I was a child.”
“That’s not something Julius Prelai, who can’t stay away from the North for long, should be concerned about. But he seems to be short on money.”
Grandfather replied grumpily.
“Probably because his wife has a rare illness, and medicine is expensive. And there’s no other doctor who understands the Prelai family as well as he does. Of course, that’s information someone like Julius Prelai, who can’t stay away from the North for long, wouldn’t know.”
“Ah.”
Julius blinked.
“I know better than anyone that Kaylon is a top-class doctor. He even figured out my nightmares when I couldn’t summon my beast until I was twelve.”
Hm?
I had been spacing out, thinking it wasn’t related to me, but the word nightmares caught my attention.
“Nightmares…?”
I asked carefully, and Julius chuckled.
“Yeah. According to Kaylon, the power meant for summoning beasts gets misdirected and appears in dreams… I don’t remember the details, haha! It was so long ago!”
<Oh, speaking of which…>
While I froze, Damari looked at me and spoke.
<I can feel that same energy from you, Kiana.>
“…Pardon?”
“What?”
Both Julius and I were shocked.
<This idiot took a long time to summon even something others do naturally. Even if it’s rare for a collateral branch to summon beasts, the process itself is the same. The Prelai power just wasn’t reaching me properly—it kept dispersing.>
Damari crossed its arms seriously.
<Eventually, that unused power would build up in the subconscious. And when I was finally about to be fully summoned, it would manifest as dreams.>
Dreams.
That word I could not ignore.
Seeing my serious expression, Damari hopped from Julius’s stomach to stand in front of me.
<But I felt that same sensation from you about ten years ago. That’s why I thought you would soon summon a beast too.>
It tilted its head.
<Kiana, hasn’t anything strange happened to you?>
My body trembled.
I looked at Julius and asked in a tense voice.
“Julius… what kind of nightmares were they? Do you remember?”
“I don’t really remember. It was too long ago. But Kaylon said it might have been something that actually happened. Not normal dreams, apparently.”
He scratched his chin, then suddenly looked at me in alarm.
“By the way, Kiana, why is your face like that? Are you sick?”
“You don’t get to act concerned now when you’re not even supposed to leave the North! Kiana’s face always looks like that anyway!”
Grandfather snapped out of habit, then looked at me more closely and became startled.
“Kiana? What’s wrong?”
My heart pounded violently.
“I’m wronged… I’m so wronged…”
Something that actually happened?
Then was my mother, weakly murmuring while collapsed in my dreams—was she truly appearing because she had been wronged?
And the dream where my parents hugged and soothed me happily… was that all real, as Kaylon suggested?
And what had Kaylon himself told me?
“Lady, dreams are not reality. They are meaningless illusions. Do not tell others. They will only think you strange.”
Why do the same doctor’s prescriptions contradict each other?
A possibility flashed through my mind.
With trembling hands, I grabbed Julius’s hand tightly.
“Julius… could you ask Damari to use Insight?”
“Huh?”
Julius blinked in confusion, then nodded lightly.
“Well, I don’t have anywhere else to use it anyway. But on whom?”
“You can only use it on commoners, right?”
“Yes. I’ll use it on a commoner.”
I said firmly.
“Dr. Kaylon.”
At that moment, shock spread across both Grandfather’s and Julius’s faces.
I swallowed hard and continued.
“When I was young, I also had similar nightmares for a long time… and Kaylon told the rest of my family not to mention it and covered it up.”
In Julius’s room, a heavy silence fell over us.
Soon after, Kaylon was brought in.
With his thick white hair, he knelt surprisingly obediently. He did not protest. He did not even ask why this was happening.
‘So there really is something.’
Seeing him like that, my chest felt strangely heavy.
Julius became so agitated he nearly suffocated from hyperventilating. Even if the details were unclear, it was obvious that something was wrong.
“Enough talk.”
Grandfather said coldly.
“Let’s begin the Insight.”
Held firmly by knights, Kaylon looked resigned.
At that moment, the door burst open.
Joshua rushed in after receiving the message.
“Ah.”
All of us widened our eyes at his appearance.
“Brother… you didn’t need to rush this much!”
“Joshua, are you alright? Are you even sane?”
His clothes were completely mismatched, as if he had dressed in a frenzy.
“…Kaylon? What?”
Joshua panted heavily.
“The doctor… was hiding something about Kiana?”
His red eyes burned with shock and anger.
“We just caught the Perves bastards who had been dealing with us for decades yesterday, and now even our forty-year doctor is like this?”
He clenched his fists.
“Why is nothing in this house normal? Huh?”
“Yes,” I quietly agreed.
“Anyway, neither of us is normal.”
<Be quiet, you all are not normal.>
Even Damari, the most composed of us, sighed deeply.
Then it hopped over and landed on Kaylon’s head.
After taking a deep breath, it spread its arms wide.
A faint glow began to form.
Kaylon’s eyes slowly closed.
The Insight had begun.
Julius looked at me urgently, gasping for breath, signaling that I should ask my questions.
During Insight, all answers must be truthful. It was said to last a little under a full day.
Grandfather and Joshua both stayed silent, watching tensely.
I took a deep breath.
And asked my first question.
