Chapter 169: Chance

"You’re joking...?"

"Not at a time like this."

Warren stared into Qiu Nuoya’s face with a complicated expression, apparently unable to process what he had just been told. His eyes had gradually adjusted to the darkness, making his bewildered expression much easier to see.

The person he fell for turned out not to be some beautiful young boy, but an unremarkable middle-aged man. This is definitely going to become one of the darkest Chapters of his life. I feel so bad for him that I don’t even know where to look.

"Do those two know?"

"Viktor knows. I never told Igor, but he has probably figured it out."

"I see... So I really was the only one who didn’t know anything."

"I’m sorry."

Once again, silence fell between them. The only sound in the darkness was the loud sigh Warren let out.

"I told you not to apologize... And wait, you’re older than me? Come to think of it, you did seem strangely mature when we first met. Now that I think about it, Viktor always treated you like an equal adult. So that’s what it was..." Warren sounded as though he had finally figured something out, but Qiu Nuoya had a slight objection to that conclusion.

Does Viktor really treat me like an adult?

It was true that Viktor never treated him like a child, but he was so overprotective that, in its own way, it was hardly any different from treating him like a child.

"Nuoya and Viktor, you two..."

"Hm?"

"Are you actually already dating?"

"What!? No, no way! Absolutely not!"

"But you kissed before...?"

!?

Qiu Nuoya frantically searched his memories, trying to figure out when he could possibly have kissed Viktor, but he could not remember anything of the sort. He could not hide his confusion.

"I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about!?"

"That was back when we were still in Coalora. When Viktor collapsed after getting hit by his own magic. You kissed Viktor then, didn’t you?"

"Ah! Right, there was something like that!"

Qiu Nuoya suddenly remembered. It was when Viktor had gotten himself into serious trouble after being hit by his own spell because it had been blocked by the Slime Barrier. That had been artificial respiration, not a kiss! It had simply been part of an attempt to save his life. There had been absolutely nothing romantic about it!

"Viktor wasn’t breathing at the time, so I was just blowing air into his lungs! There wasn’t any other reason behind it!?"

"Really? When I saw that, I thought you was in love with Viktor. Viktor had said that the age difference was too great and that he wouldn’t make a move on a child, but if you’re actually older than me, then I guess it wouldn’t be strange if the two of you were in a relationship..."

"It’s true that Viktor has been trying to court me, but we’re not dating yet!"

"Yet..."

Ah. I shouldn’t have said that.

Qiu Nuoya immediately fell silent, realizing he had let slip something he did not need to say.

"If you say ’yet,’ does that mean you’re planning to date him?"

"Ah... No, well, um..."

"You’re not denying it."

Guh... Why does Warren keep picking apart every little thing I say?

Still, Qiu Nuoya had to admit that he had brought this upon himself by failing to deny it immediately.

"I’m not going to date Viktor. The person Viktor truly loves isn’t me."

"What? He shows such obvious obsession with you, and you expect me to believe he doesn’t love you? If that isn’t affection, then what kind of feelings would make him try so hard to keep you tied to him?"

Keep me tied to him...

Qiu Nuoya could not deny that Viktor’s treatment of him amounted to excessive obsession and possessiveness. However, that behavior stemmed from having once lost someone he loved to another person. If it was really because Viktor cared about him, then he had to admit that he found that highly doubtful.

After all, if Viktor could not even trust Qiu Nuoya without keeping him under such strict control, then Viktor clearly did not truly trust him. It was also evidence that Viktor was projecting the person he had apparently lost to someone else onto Qiu Nuoya.

Warren asked what kind of feelings Viktor had toward him, but Qiu Nuoya remembered the time he had secretly checked Viktor’s affection toward him with his Appraisal Skill. The color of the heart representing Viktor’s feelings had been strangely unsettling.

If it were simply affection toward someone he loved, Qiu Nuoya assumed the heart would probably be a bright red.

But Viktor’s had been a murky reddish purple, tinged with something darker.

Qiu Nuoya still had no idea what kind of emotion that color represented.

"The person Viktor used to love apparently looked a lot like me. But that person didn’t choose Viktor and married someone else instead. That’s why Viktor is even more obsessed with me. He’s seeing that person in me."

Viktor’s first love had been Qiu Tailang, the man who was known as the First Saint. Qiu Tailang had eventually married the First King, whose name was Warrington de Velikorya and whose nickname was Warren.

Viktor had said that someone named Warren had taken something precious away from him. In other words, that could only mean one thing.

And now there was a Warren named after that very same King standing beside Qiu Nuoya. Qiu Nuoya could not help concluding that having someone with the same name constantly by Viktor’s side had probably made his complicated feelings even worse.

"If I’m going to date someone, I want it to be someone who genuinely loves me for who I am. So either way, I can’t date Viktor as he is now."

"Does that mean I can still think I have a chance?"

"Huh?" Qiu Nuoya raised his head in surprise, only to meet Warren’s gaze directly in the dim light.