{"id":3723,"date":"2025-10-16T17:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:22:27","slug":"v11c1p2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"v11c1p2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just that right now I\u2019m struggling with some very important stuff<\/em>, so… I\u2019ll focus on all this once I\u2019m done with that,\u201d I promised, and he started giggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand. Thank you. And if you ever need some help with that \u2018very important stuff<\/em>\u2019 of yours, let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course. Thank you, Keith. You\u2019re always such a huge help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He looked very, very happy. This was the Keith I knew. He was always by my side, smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s one last thing I still need to tell him…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m still very confused and scared about love. But I was happy to hear that you love me. I could only be happy hearing something like that coming from a person as wonderful as you are,\u201d I said for the second time in a day, feeling my face getting hot once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it. Good night!\u201d I concluded, rushing out of Keith\u2019s room before he even had time to reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ran into my room, where my bright red face ended up making Anne worry for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m fine, I was just sprinting through the hallways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know that you should not do that, or your mother will be angry at you again,\u201d she calmly responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right… I\u2019ll be more careful,\u201d I replied, grateful that mother hadn\u2019t seen me run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I drank some water and waited for my face to cool off before going to bed. I didn\u2019t know that just telling someone that you were happy about their confession could be so painfully embarrassing. I was obviously still a rookie when it came to romance. However, I didn\u2019t want to see Keith and Jeord making those sad faces anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s one more reason to fight the game\u2019s doom! I can\u2019t just go and disappear after I\u2019ve told those things to those two. I\u2019ll survive <\/em>FL2 and I\u2019ll face my feelings. I\u2019m not going to run away anymore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I needed to think about my plans regarding the game and the doom it threatened me with, but today I\u2019d done and said things that I\u2019d never done and said ever before. I was exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fell asleep within seconds and had a beautiful dream where I saw Keith and Jeord smiling happily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to do my best.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I heard that my sister Katarina had come back home, I left my room to greet her and see how she was doing. I found her in the hallway and noticed that she seemed to be worried about something. I asked her what was wrong, but she nervously replied that she was fine and that she wanted to talk to me after dinner. She often asked me to listen to her troubles, and I imagined that something had recently happened to preoccupy her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course. You can come in anytime,\u201d I replied, making sure to smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katarina wasn\u2019t her usual self during dinner\u2014whatever was on her mind must have been rather serious. I prepared myself to lend her a shoulder to cry on and possibly make her feel better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After dinner, as promised, she visited my room. She was wearing a serious expression on her face, and she didn\u2019t even notice the tea and sweet treats I had prepared for her. Knowing her, this last part was most concerning, and it showed just how distressed she was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a better look at her to assess her situation, I noticed that she was spacing out. Worried about her, I asked if she was okay, and she looked back at me as if she\u2019d just woken up. She then revealed the topic that she had come here to discuss: my confession of love to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was honestly surprised to know that she even remembered that at all. It happened as I had been kidnapped by a Wielder of Darkness and I was left in a barely conscious state. I had revealed my feelings to Katarina, making it clear beyond any doubt that I loved her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, something<\/em>\u2014be it her shyness, be it her dullness when it came to romance\u2014made her forget about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t forget it, but I pushed the memory back into a corner of my mind,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understood this to mean that my love was nothing but a nuisance for her. After all, I knew that she saw me only as a brother, and as I disclosed my feelings, I was well aware that they were unlikely to be welcome. Nevertheless, having this truth relayed to me by Katarina in person was extremely painful…until she explained herself further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost screaming, she explained that she was simply scared of love itself. I was once again surprised and confused by her words. She then said that she feared that love would lead her to doom, a notion that made absolutely no sense to me. Then again, since most other things that came out of my sister\u2019s mouth made absolutely no sense either, I just silently kept listening. Katarina went on to elaborate, saying that her avoidance of love stemmed from a subconscious fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I blamed myself for not noticing that despite always being so close to her. To me she had been an always-smiling girl who didn\u2019t have a fear in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lowered her head apologetically, and I patted it, thanking her for having honestly spoken to me and asking for forgiveness for how I never noticed how scared she was. She looked up at me, and I tried to smile at her, but maybe my expression wasn\u2019t as reassuring as I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a moment of silence, she spoke again. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize this myself either. Not until now at least. But now that I do, I want to change that. I want to take my feelings, and yours too, in my own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could I think that she\u2019s a weak girl that I need to protect? Her honesty is commendable…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t in pain anymore\u2014I felt my chest fill up with warmth as my love for Katarina grew even stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she awkwardly informed me that she had some pressing matters keeping her busy at the moment. I knew that she could only focus on one task at a time, and I could imagine that whatever was keeping her preoccupied had to do with her work at the Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She didn\u2019t have to go so far as to mention that, but this hapless honesty was part of her charm, and I couldn\u2019t help but smile at her. I told her that I understood and that she could rely on me if she needed help, and she seemed very happy about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always such a huge help,\u201d she responded, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Once again, I found myself smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wants to take my feelings into her own hands… After all those years of fearing that my love would forever be unrequited, that she would never look at me as a man, and that she would always forget my feelings as soon as I confessed to her, I never even dreamed that I would hear words like these coming from her.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katarina quickly followed her tug at my heartstrings with another, even stronger one. \u201cI was happy to hear that you love me. I could only be happy hearing something like that coming from a person as wonderful as you are,\u201d she told me, blushing, before saying good night and literally running out of my room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stood there, dumbfounded, trying to process what I had just heard. I repeated what she had just said to myself, starting to wonder whether I was dreaming. I even tried pinching myself on the cheek just to be sure. It hurt. This was no dream\u2014but it had to be. This could never happen in reality. I pinched my other cheek too. It also hurt. It was safe to assume that this was all real and that Katarina had told me that she was happy to hear me confess to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhaaat?!\u201d I screamed, unable to contain myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI-Is anything the matter, young master?\u201d a servant, who was standing right outside my room, asked in surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I nervously put a hand over my mouth to stop my excited shouting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI-I\u2019m fine… I\u2019m going to sleep now. Good night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to bed and pushed my face onto a pillow, trying to calm down…but to no avail. I was now rolling from side to side, unrestrained, as I had never done even as a child. I was so happy that I feared my heart could explode from the sheer joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was happy to hear it… A person as wonderful as I am… And the way she blushed as she said those things…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kept thinking back to that, still rolling in my bed almost until dawn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s just that right now I\u2019m struggling with some very important stuff, so… I\u2019ll focus on all this once I\u2019m done with that,\u201d I promised, and he started giggling. \u201cI understand. Thank you. And if you ever need some help with that \u2018very important stuff\u2019 of yours, let me know.\u201d \u201cOf course. Thank you, Keith. You\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tak-berkategori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}