Turning-Chapter 920

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Thanks to you."

Kishiar nodded his head.

"...That’s a relief."

"But first... I need to fix the cup."

"Yes. Let me clean it up—"

Naturally, Yuder thought Kishiar meant he would clean up the broken pieces. But that wasn’t the case. Kishiar opened his hand and moved it lightly, and the scattered shards all floated up at once. Then, as if solving a puzzle, they returned to their original positions and fit together piece by piece.

‘Is that the power of pulling? And he can even fit such tiny pieces like that?’

Kishiar’s ability was initially used to cleverly pull or push people or surrounding objects and link it to physical techniques. After meeting Yuder, he had learned to apply it to invisible things too. In the most recent battles, he had even managed to interfere with others' abilities and completely turn the tide of the battlefield.

And now, he was showing a scene that looked as if he were turning back time.

The cup quickly regained its original shape, though faint cracks still remained. But when Kishiar lightly ran his fingertip along the cracks, they disappeared without a trace, as if the cup had never been broken at all. That meant he had managed to reconnect even the tiniest particles that couldn’t even be seen properly.

Yuder, staring at the flawless cup, moved the tea he had kept floating in the air back into it. Like water pouring from an invisible transparent teapot, it made a trickling sound as it filled the cup with golden waves, swaying as if nothing had happened.

It was truly a marvelous sight.

The red gaze lingered for quite a while on the restored cup before finally returning to Yuder’s face. Beautiful lips slowly parted, and a voice came out.

"To answer the question you asked earlier, I have never felt that your scent had diminished. From the first time I sensed it until now, it’s always been the same."

Just as Yuder had thought, Kishiar said he had never sensed any change. Though Yuder had feared some unknown possibility, hearing that brought him comfort.

"I expected as much... But if that's the case, it’ll be even harder to find out where ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ and why the problem began."

"...Maybe. But if you want to find the cause, shouldn’t you first check something else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Me."

Kishiar quietly said a single word.

"Other people gradually lost the ability to perceive your scent, but I didn’t. Then isn’t it more logical to guess that there might be something unusual about me, rather than about them?"

"...Ah."

It was a surprising thought, but it made perfect sense. Perhaps because he was so used to the Kishiar from his previous life, who had no apparent issues with scent, Yuder hadn’t even considered that possibility.

"You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that."

As Yuder swallowed his surprise and nodded, Kishiar faintly lifted the corners of his mouth.

"I said I didn’t notice anything odd about your scent just now. But if you had asked about other scents, I would have answered differently."

Before Yuder could ask what that meant, Kishiar posed a question first.

"Did Elre Awaken as an Omega?" ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Although he didn’t yet understand the reason for the sudden question, Yuder nodded.

"Yes."

"You would have helped him regardless if he Awakened as an Alpha, but you probably would have used a slightly different method instead of directly supporting him. When receiving Alik’s medicine, you would have been more cautious if he had a different secondary gender. Am I wrong?"

"...No, you’re right."

"Now then... Don’t you think something is strange?"

Kishiar, who had suddenly thrown out the word "strange," swept his fingers across the sofa as he continued speaking.

"Now that I think about it, I used to be pretty sensitive at picking up others’ scents. The things I just asked you could’ve been information I originally would have known as soon as I entered the room. But now..."

A chill ran down Yuder’s spine.

Kishiar hadn’t figured out Fruelle’s secondary gender by physically sensing it. Instead, he had deduced the most probable answer based on Yuder’s actions.

That could mean only one thing.

"...You couldn’t detect Elre’s scent?"

Exactly. Kishiar was sitting here, looking perfectly relaxed, without having noticed anything strange when he returned.

How had it been when Yuder had Awakened? Even while keeping a distance, Kishiar had clearly been restraining himself, and even after the Awakening was over, he had avoided direct contact for a while. That was a vivid memory.

Of course, part of that behavior had been to accommodate Yuder, who was still wary of Alpha Awakeners at the time. But even considering that, Kishiar’s current calmness was clearly different from before.

"When I came back earlier, I felt a faint sensation. I didn’t know it was the scent of someone just Awakening. It was only after hearing Kanna’s report and your follow-up explanation that I was sure."

Though Fruelle had Awakened, the amount of scent leaking from him had been extremely weak. Even Gakein and Ever had said they could hardly feel it, so it would’ve been difficult to completely sense it just from the residual scent in the room.

"Even if the scent was faint due to just Awakening, it would still seem odd for an Alpha Awakener not to notice anything, wouldn’t it?"

"Kanna must have ventilated and cleaned the area thoroughly before you returned. Maybe that affected it."

Yuder offered an alternative possibility, but Kishiar shook his head.

"If nothing had changed for me, I would have thought so too. But if something has changed, it’s worth being suspicious. Did you forget? Even in the overly large and sense-clogging Imperial Palace, I found you by scent alone."

Yuder recalled the time he had hidden in a dusty cleaning room in the palace, writhing from Awakening fever. Kishiar had found him immediately after Kiole had left to call for help.

A Second Awakener with that level of detection wasn’t just rare—it was practically unheard of. Given Kishiar’s overwhelming power and control, it was natural that his scent detection ability had been outstanding.

But now Kishiar was sitting in the very spot where Fruelle had been without any signs of discomfort.

He wasn’t forcing himself to endure. Of course, if Kishiar decided to endure something, that would be another story—but Yuder was sure he wasn’t missing something that obvious. There was no reason to endure right now.

"Come to think of it, since meeting you, I haven't had many chances to pay attention to other Awakeners' scents. The change must have happened gradually, so I didn't notice it immediately. And there haven’t been many opportunities to meet newly Awakened Omegas either. Thinking about it... this situation is a bit like what Gakein and Ever said but also the opposite."

Kishiar tilted his head and stroked his chin.

"...Then..."

"I think I should check how other Awakeners perceive my scent as well. If we can confirm that, we might be able to deduce more."

Yuder bit his lip hard.

"In the previous game, nothing like this happened. I was the only one without a scent... Commander, you were definitely..."

Definitely... how was it again?

Yuder faltered.

Until now, he had firmly believed that the Kishiar la Orr of his previous life was a normal Second Awakener. He had intertwined with him many times and felt his scent clearly—so it was natural to think so.

But had others felt the same?

He had never asked anyone else about it. Never had a proper conversation about it.

In the previous life, the Commander was hardly ever around during the day. He usually sneaked into Yuder’s room only at night. Had any other member properly interacted with him?

Likewise, after that "incident," had Kishiar ever encountered other Second Awakeners directly?

Even now, when there seemed to be a problem with scents, there was no difference between Yuder and Kishiar detecting each other's scent.

‘If that’s the case.’

Could it be that something similar had already existed in the previous life?

A thought Yuder had never dared to have before rushed into his mind, and confusion struck him hard. His head ached. The tea in the repaired cup started to tremble with tiny ripples. The hand Yuder had placed on the table also trembled.

No, to be exact, Yuder’s trembling hand was causing the cup to shake—

"Yuder."

The moment a sharp ringing almost pierced his ears, a hand reached out and grabbed Yuder’s.

Yuder stopped thinking and looked up.

"It’s alright. You don’t have to be confused. No matter what changes occur, you know there’s one thing that hasn’t changed."

Each word, each sound seemed to carve itself deep into his mind.

"I know you. And you know me."

"......."

"We both know better than anyone that we can convey what cannot be said... to each other."