Chapter 82: Dinner with My Girlfriend [Part-1]

The night fell over the academy, signaling that all the exhausting classes of the day had finally wrapped up. Students eagerly rushed to the cafeteria for a late meal before heading back to their cozy dormitories for a warm, peaceful sleep.

Meanwhile, inside her own private dormitory, Alicia was busy working away in the kitchen. She wasn’t cooking alone like the last time. Alden stood just a short distance away from her, diligently chopping up vegetables.

She had sent him a quick message earlier demanding they eat dinner together. Naturally, he couldn’t reject her offer. He loved the food she made, and her cooking was a secret weapon she specifically mastered just to attract him.

‘Hmph… Why is he so focused on cutting those vegetables? It is not fair. Can’t he focus on his girlfriend a little bit too?’

She pouted internally but kept her mouth shut. If she forced him to pay attention to her, this nice, peaceful moment would be ruined. He would just feel tense and might try to run away again.

‘Sigh… He is such a shy person. If I don’t actively interact with him, he will never try to get close to me. Hehe… But that is exactly what I like about him. I do not have to worry about him suddenly acting tough and forcing himself on me.’

‘Hmm… But if I think carefully about it, that is actually not a bad idea. It would be so fun to see him act like that, actively trying to close the distance between us. Hehehe… I will surely mold you into that kind of person one day.’

Because her mind was entirely focused on her wild fantasies, she forgot all about the sizzling pan in front of her. The dish on the stove started to overcook.

Alden noticed the thick fumes emitting from the pan. He looked over and saw her staring blankly at the wall, totally lost in her own dreamy world.

“Hey, Alicia, snap out of it! The dish is burning!”

She jolted out of her daydream and blinked, looking at him as he gestured wildly toward the stove. She instantly realized she had zoned out.

She reached forward and turned off the gas, quickly pulling herself back as the thick smoke hit her face.

“Cough! Cough!”

Alden immediately walked over, grabbed a glass of water, and handed it to her while gently patting her back.

“Here, drink this.”

Alicia looked up at him through her coughing fit, noticing his worried face. She took the glass and drank the water, her coughing finally subsiding. She stared at him blankly.

‘Did he just help me like a little child?’

She quickly turned her face away, letting her silver hair fall forward to hide the rising redness on her cheeks.

“You are daydreaming too much. Get out of the kitchen, I will make the dinner tonight.”

Her eyes widened, and she spun back toward him.

“No! I am making dinner. You should get out, you are the one distracting me!”

Alden couldn’t help but feel bewildered. How could he possibly distract her when he hadn’t even spoken a single word to her this entire time?

“Are you nuts? When did I distract you?”

Alicia glared at him playfully. “Your very presence distracts me! You should go wait in the living room.”

“No way. Last time you made a ton of food, and I was barely able to finish a few dishes. I don’t want the same scenario to happen again. I will make tonight’s dinner.”

Alicia bit her lower lip at his stubborn words. She really wasn’t used to him ignoring her orders.

‘It seems he has grown a spine after staying with me for a few days. Do not worry, I will soon crush that little spine of yours.’

“No, this is my room, which means these are my rules. You just have to listen to what I say. Go sit down.”

Alden didn’t listen to her at all. He walked right behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders, and gently pushed her toward the kitchen exit.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I am saying you should go wait outside.”

“No, I will not!”

Since she refused to listen to reason, Alden had no choice but to use a cheap trick to convince her.

“Okay, look. Don’t you want me to make something special for you? Do you not want to eat food made by my own hands?”

Alicia pursed her lips at the thought. It was obvious she definitely wanted to eat a meal cooked by him, but she just didn’t expect him to offer it so suddenly. After debating it in her head for a few seconds, she finally nodded.

“Okay, fine. But if the food doesn’t suit my taste, I will eat you instead.”

Without waiting to see his flustered face, she walked out of the kitchen, entered the living room, and sat comfortably on the couch, hugging a soft pillow to her lap while she waited.

Now left alone in the kitchen, Alden stood there dumbfounded as the implications of her playful threat slowly registered in his brain. He let out a soft chuckle, a nice warmth spreading through his chest. It was moments like these, her blunt yet endearing declarations, that he couldn’t help but react to. He still found himself slightly surprised by her boldness, but a part of him genuinely cherished it.

‘Damn, she is definitely planning something fishy for tonight.’

He shook his head internally, a small smile curling on his lips as he walked back to the stove. Even though he wasn’t used to cooking in this world, he had spent years watching his mother cook in his past life. Even though those memories felt a bit blurry now, he still grasped the basic concepts and knew the difference between various spices. Whatever happened, he was going to give it his absolute best.

Without wasting any more time, he started preparing the dinner, ready to impress her with his hidden culinary skills.

…

After waiting on the living room couch for a while, Alicia couldn’t help but feel a bit bored. She peeked toward the kitchen, but she couldn’t see his figure from her current angle. She looked around her room, realizing it felt utterly boring whenever he wasn’t sitting right beside her.

Suddenly, her eyes caught sight of his academy coat resting on the nearby chair. She had dragged him here straight from the training grounds, afraid he would deliberately try to be late, so he didn’t even get the time to change into casual clothes.

She stood up, walked over to the chair, and picked up his coat. She hugged the fabric tightly against her chest. She could smell his familiar scent on it, and the coat still felt incredibly warm.

As she hugged the coat, she suddenly felt a hard object tucked inside one of the pockets.

Curiosity piqued her interest. She reached inside the pocket and pulled out an item that looked similar to a magical communication device, though the design was very strange. She turned the sleek object around in her hands.

‘Hmm… What is this thing? I feel like I have seen it somewhere before.’

She decided to check it out and tapped the dark screen. The device lit up instantly.

On the bright wallpaper, she saw a young boy standing between his parents, with their hands resting warmly on his shoulders.

Alicia looked at the image with pure confusion. ‘Who are these people on the screen? Are they Alden’s relatives?’

She didn’t know the answer, so she swiped the screen. Thanks to her amazing luck, there was no password locking the phone. She stared at the unfamiliar applications scattered across the screen. She tried to open a few of them, but because there was no internet connection in this world, nothing actually loaded.

‘It seems this is some kind of old device. That is why it is not working properly. Let me check the photo gallery.’

She opened the gallery app and found several organized albums. She tapped on the one titled ‘Family’. It took her to a collection of pictures featuring the exact same boy from the wallpaper. As she scrolled through the latest photos, she noticed the boy was much older now. She could clearly see he no longer wore the bright, happy smile from his childhood.

She checked the remaining pictures in the folder, but the boy was absent from the most recent ones. All the remaining images only showed his parents.

‘Hmmm… It seems that boy became a loner over time, just like Alden.’

She backed out of the family album and checked the remaining folders. There were some pictures of friends and random scenery. Finally, she moved her finger toward the very last album on the screen. It was titled ‘Crush’.

Her face lit up with an excited grin. She really wanted to see the kind of girl this unknown guy had a crush on. She eagerly tapped the album open.

But the moment she saw the photos, all the color drained from her face.

The images were of the exact same girl she kept seeing in her nightmares. It was the girl who caused her so many sleepless nights. The very same girl who manipulated her dreams, trying to force her to awaken ‘that’ terrifying power and let go of her control. She was the root cause of her past destruction.

‘Why is this girl’s photo on this device? Who is this guy standing next to her? Why does his face feel so familiar? And why does Alden have their photos in his pocket?!’

Her suspicion skyrocketed as she investigated further. Her lavender eyes traced through every single photo in the album. Some were pictures taken secretly from a distance, while others were cute selfies where the girl was pulling the boy closer to the camera. Alicia couldn’t help but frown deeply.

Her mind started racing, piecing together a wild, dramatic theory.

‘Alden said he likes Lia. Does that mean the guy in these images was her original lover? Yes! That must be it! Alden must have killed this boy out of pure jealousy and stolen his device just to be closer to her! But after the girl saw Alden murder her lover, she must have decided to run away from him in fear! And after she left him, Alden must have felt utterly alone. Is that why he told me she was in a distant place and he could never meet her again?’

She gasped softly, her eyes widening at her own fabricated conclusion.

‘Hmph! If that is the truth, then I should support him. I do not care if he killed someone out of jealousy. He is mine now! No one is allowed to harm him. Not his past, not his present, and certainly not his future.’