RE: LORD OF TIME

”Then I suppose I was mistaken for thinking that you came here searching for that Astral Rift over there.”

William’s body stiffened slightly when he heard Vivian’s words, and he couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

’For God’s sake, I have been searching for this fucking rift for such a long time and still couldn’t find it. So why the hell is it suddenly showing up now?’

Unlike William, who wasn’t even a Star Warrior yet, Vivian’s rank was extremely high, and even her Aether affinity was at the Transcendent Grade.

With her superior rank and exceptional affinity, it was only natural that her sensing range was vastly greater than William’s.

She had sensed the Astral Rift from far away while William himself had been completely unable to detect it.

”What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

Vivian smiled faintly when she saw William’s speechless expression.

William took a deep breath and slowly raised both of his hands.

’There is no point pretending anymore. If I continue lying to her, she might beat me up on a whim.’

He looked at her and spoke earnestly.

”I did indeed come here for that Astral Rift, my lady.”

Vivian wasn’t surprised in the slightest after hearing William’s words and simply waited for him to continue.

”As you know, it’s forbidden for people to enter Astral Rifts without permission, and if someone discovers a rift, they are required to immediately report it to the authorities.”

”So, you were planning to enter that Astral Rift instead of informing the officials about it?”

”Yes,” William nodded. ”I want to... no, I need to enter that Astral Rift.”

Vivian raised an eyebrow when she saw the determination in William’s eyes and asked after a moment.

”Why do you need to enter that rift? It’s a Rank One Rift, you know. There will be plenty of monsters at the Star Warrior level inside it. You may be able to deal with unranked monsters, but higher-ranked ones...” She shook her head lightly. ”It will be difficult.”

”I know,” William did not deny her words. ”But I still need to go there.”

Vivian looked at William silently for several seconds before the smile on her face gradually disappeared.

”Tell me why you want to enter it. If I am satisfied with your answer, I won’t report to the officials that you tried to secretly sneak into an Astral Rift behind their backs.”

’Why is this woman still so curious? Is she bored because she has lived for too long?’ William complained inwardly as he remembered that although Vivian looked to be around twenty years old, she was far older than her appearance suggested.

And one thing William had learned in his previous life was that almost every person who had lived for an extremely long time had at least a few screws loose in their head.

’Though she js relatively young compared to those old monsters, her mental state isn’t much better than theirs.’

”I feel like you are thinking something bad about me,” Vivian suddenly spoke with an expressionless face.

”I am not,” William denied immediately with a perfectly straight face before quickly changing the topic.

”I want to become strong, and entering that rift will allow me to become stronger.”

His answer to her previous question was somewhat messy because he was genuinely frightened after seeing Vivian’s expressionless expression.

’If she gets angry and accidentally sees my blood, her vampire instincts might go crazy again just like they did back then.’

Vivian quietly sensed the unnatural reactions within William’s body through the blood flowing inside him.

There was actually one simple reason why Vivian was so curious about William.

’He looks a lot like that blurry figure I saw in my dream.’

Vivian had come to the Kolva Mountain Range because of several strange dreams she had been having over the past few days.

Those dreams were blurry, and she could never see anything clearly within them. Most of the details would fade away after she woke up, leaving behind only vague fragments.

Most of the time, she would see herself talking to a blurry figure.

She couldn’t remember anything from their conversations, but there were two words that frequently appeared in those dreams and remained in her memory.

Rosco Barony.

For someone of her caliber, it was actually impossible for her to dream while sleeping because she already possessed nearly perfect control over her mind.

Therefore, she naturally understood that those dreams were anything but ordinary.

Having nothing better to do, Vivian decided to investigate the Rosco Barony, and to her surprise, she discovered that such a place actually existed.

Wanting to uncover more about those strange dreams, she arrived at the Rosco Barony only two days ago.

However, she had failed to find anything useful during that time, so she simply decided to take a walk through the Kolva Mountain Range, which people often claimed possessed breathtaking flower fields during the spring season.

While admiring the flowers, she wandered deeper into the mountains and encountered several monsters along the way, but she ignored them completely because they were far too weak to interest her.

It was after encountering those monsters that she suddenly sensed something strange, as though an invisible force was calling out to her.

Following that mysterious feeling eventually led her to William.

The moment she saw him, Vivian was genuinely shocked because although he looked somewhat younger, he resembled the blurry figure from her dreams to an astonishing degree.

Although she wasn’t one hundred percent certain, she was mostly convinced that he was the same person.

It was also the reason why she kept asking him so many questions despite them supposedly meeting for the first time as she wanted to confirm whether he was truly the person she believed him to be.

”To become strong, huh...” Vivian nodded slightly at William’s answer. ”Although your reason is rather simple, there is nothing wrong with it.”

William inwardly sighed in relief after hearing her response and quickly asked,

”So... can I go now?”

”Of course.” Vivian stepped slightly to the side, giving him a clear path forward. ”I promised that I wouldn’t tell anyone about it.”

”Thank you, my lady,” William quickly thanked her and immediately prepared to leave.

Although there were many things he wanted to talk about with this crazy vampire, he knew that this was not the right time.

’I will have a proper conversation with her after entering the Academy,’ He thought as he prepared to leave.

”On second thought...” Just as William was about to leave, Vivian suddenly spoke again.

William turned to look at her, and the moment he saw the sweet smile on her face, a terrible premonition rose within his heart.

”How about I accompany you? Although I can’t enter the rift with you, I can still wait outside for you.”

”No, no, my lady, there is really no need for you to trouble yourself so much. I can go there alone.”

Vivian slowly walked toward William, and out of nowhere, a handkerchief suddenly appeared in her hand.

”I am not cruel enough to leave a child alone in these mountains.”

She stopped in front of him and gently raised her hand to wipe away the beads of sweat on his forehead.

’You certainly didn’t think of me as a child when you drained me nearly dry back then.’

William screamed inwardly as he remembered the time she had almost sucked all the blood from his body.

The handkerchief in Vivian’s hand touched William’s forehead, and the instant she came into contact with him, deep within William’s soul, a small bead that had been resting silently suddenly lit up.