Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Six: Dividing Wall (Julius’s POV)
Immediately after leaving the dungeon, Karen had collapsed into bed. His daily visits were refused so that Karen could rest, and after she was able to get up, he had been visiting the alchemy workshop every two or three days, but today she had declined his visit, saying she had business to attend to.
Instead, he went to Sara, who supervised Karen’s guards, to hear what they knew, and learned that Karen had gone to a reunion at the commoners’ school.
When Julius learned that Karen was attending a party called a reunion—something that was normally attended with a partner—a sense of unease ran through his chest.
He opened the bottle of sachets he had received from Karen, grabbed some from inside, and had the servants help him hurriedly prepare his appearance. He bathed in hot water into which he had dumped the contents of a sachet, dressed in the knight’s uniform that also served as formal wear that Karen seemed to favor most, and arranged his hair.
The figure reflected in the mirror was one that many women endlessly desired. The version of himself that Karen desired. After confirming there was not a single flaw, he headed to the commoners’ school.
It was the place where Karen had spent the majority of her life thus far. Children of the same age gathered as their parents wished, learning, honing their skills, fostering friendships—it seemed like a place far too removed from Julius’s own life.
“U-Um, do you have an invitation…?”
Grateful that the person handling the guest reception was female, Julius gave a sweet smile to the woman who was asking in a flustered manner with a red face.
“I apologize, but my partner has already entered, and I don’t have the invitation on me. Might I be allowed inside?”
“Um, there’s no message either, and basically you need an invitation, but—”
As Julius deepened his smile, the words of refusal that the woman was about to utter disappeared in her mouth.
“If you could tell me whose partner you are…! May I ask for the partner’s name and graduation year, as well as your own name?”
“I am Julius Ehlertt, partner of Karen, who graduated in Kingdom Year 3361. Would presenting my crest suffice as proof of identity?”
“Yes! I’ll confirm it! Please enjoy yourself!”
“Thank you.”
Julius felt relieved inwardly that his appearance had resolved the matter. He didn’t want to flaunt his noble status. This was Karen’s domain.
When Julius entered the hall, gazes gathered on him. Perhaps because he was recognizably a noble at a glance, no one made a fuss.
However, even Julius, unaccustomed to this place, could understand that the attention was gathering in a clearly unusual way.
If he went straight to Karen like this, he would probably interfere with her—it was just as he had come this far and stopped his feet in hesitation.
“Karen looked super beautiful, didn’t she?”
Julius checked the face of the man who had spoken those words. He was an utterly ordinary commoner—and seemingly someone who knew Karen. He might be a friend, and it wouldn’t be strange if they had an even closer relationship.
Julius knew nothing of Karen’s past. He knew her background on paper, but not the life she had lived. Therefore, he couldn’t dismiss any possibility.
Julius was made to realize anew what kind of emotions Karen must have felt when she saw Julius and Therese together.
“And get this—Karen the alchemist made it to C-rank. A buddy of mine sent her a wedding invitation and got a reply from her apprentice saying she was away on business.”
“Having an apprentice means she’s really C-rank?”
“Didn’t Karen get dumped by Lyos? That means she doesn’t have a partner now, right?”
“Lyos did something stupid, didn’t he?”
“Karen doesn’t choose people based on magical power or rank or upbringing. Even I could totally date her, couldn’t I?”
“No way, a C-rank alchemist is probably impossible.”
“Asking costs nothing, right?”
“But someone’s already beaten us to it.”
Before he knew it, Julius had taken a step forward. To keep in check all those who harbored hopes for Karen.
Finding Karen wasn’t difficult. Rather than Karen herself, it was because the man with her was attracting attention.
As he proceeded toward where people’s eyes and ears were directed, their attention shifted to Julius one after another.
Right in front of the man named Ahim, who was about to invite Karen to dance, Julius took Karen into his arms.
He saw Ahim’s expression in that moment. The emotion that showed on that man’s face was decidedly not one born from friendship.
“C-Congratulations…! Wait, what!? No, I had no idea you two were in that kind of relationship…!?”
Julius watched from a step back as Karen talked animatedly with her friends.
She was clearly at ease, genuinely enjoying herself. Just as she was with her younger brother Thor and Sepl, there was no reserve there. This was the face Karen showed to those she had opened her heart to.
Why did that face make his chest burn, despite the fact that her friends were a married couple?
“A lot happened starting around last fall.”
“Why wasn’t I invited to the wedding!?”
“I did send an invitation. But Karen, I got a very polite reply from your apprentice saying you were away on work?”
“Ah! Sorry! Right now I have a mountain of letters at home, and I haven’t been able to read through them all yet…!”
Karen held her head in her hands.
The invitation must have been sent during the period when Karen was delving into the dungeon.
Now that it was clear she was an alchemist who could make panaceas, even though information was being controlled, Karen was already famous among the nobility. Letters were probably arriving in droves.
Karen, while apologizing, gazed at her ordinarily married childhood friends, at friends who had been blessed with a child, with a somewhat envious, longing look.
Several of the things Karen gazed at with longing were things that Julius, as a noble, could never give her. They might have been things that the man named Ahim, who had been about to invite Karen to dance, could have given her.
“It can’t be helped. If you’re a C-rank alchemist, you must be getting letters from nobles too, right? You have to respond to those first, or it’ll be scary later.”
“Fiene! You’re in front of a noble!”
“Ah, I-I’m sorry.”
Linus spoke as if flustered, and Fiene voiced an apology.
It was clear it had been casual banter for them, and Julius himself did not mind. However, in the eyes of Karen’s friends looking up at him, there was fear. Because Julius was a noble and they were commoners.
It felt as though he were experiencing the distance from the world Karen lived in, and Julius tasted bitterness in his mouth.
However, without showing any sign of it, he smiled.
“Feel free to interact casually. I’ll tell you this—as long as you don’t anger Karen, you won’t anger me either. Everything I am belongs to Karen.”
Karen looked at her friends with an embarrassed, bashful smile.
“Hehe. That’s how it is, so it’s okay.”
When Karen said this with a smile, even the two whose tension hadn’t eased with Julius’s words alone relaxed their shoulders in relief.
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