"Magna, did you see my sun..." Faye started to talk with a proud, big smile until her eyes fell on the half-eaten berry in his hands.
Her face suddenly showed her shock, her eyes going wide. "Why did you eat it? You were just supposed to look at it and praise me!"
Magna looked first at her face, frowning for no reason he could see, then at the sunberry in his hand, then tossed the rest into his mouth and chewed it down quickly.
It was such a pleasure feeling his mana filling back up inside his body.
The freezing feeling faded too, his whole body returning to how it used to function.
"What sunberry?" He asked nonchalantly as he kept eating.
"The sunberry you just ate. We had a bet, and I won." She started to feel cheated.
Magna played dumb, continuing to eat. "What bet?"
"The bet to find the roundest, biggest sunberry. I found it, I won." She stomped her foot on the ground, now looked completely angry.
Seeing Magna keep eating without even looking at her, her eye twitched, her frown deepened, but then it all vanished as she let out a sigh. "Fine, I won’t play this childish game with you."
Magna paused for a moment, watching her try to act mature, arms crossed over her chest. ’Who are you calling childish?’
He felt insulted for a second, which somehow only made him hungrier as he stuffed more food into his mouth and kept eating.
At that moment, a maid appeared at the door, knocking lightly on the doorframe before calling in.
"Young Lord, forgive the interruption."
Magna finally lifted his head from his food and looked at the door, swallowing the bite in his mouth. "It’s fine. What happened?"
"Two visitors from the Cinder family are here. They’re waiting in the guest hall with Lady Celeste. They asked to see you and Lady Faye."
Magna guessed the visitors were probably Morrigan’s family, and answered while wiping his mouth. "Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes."
Then he looked at Faye. "You can go ahead first, I need to shower and change clothes."
Still pouting, Faye said with feigned coldness, "Yeah, just don’t be late," then left the room, walking slowly.
’What’s wrong with her today?’ Magna thought, getting up himself to head to the bathroom and start his morning routine.
—
In the large guest room, sunlight poured in through the windows lining the walls from end to end.
Its bright rays fell directly on a skeleton lying on a wide bed set in the middle of the room.
Since Celeste hadn’t wanted to display the body to the Cinder family on a table or a chair like some kind of product on display, she’d arranged the bed instead, making her look as if she were lying with her hands folded over her chest, sleeping.
Even so, she looked far from asleep, being nothing but a skeleton, but it was still the best arrangement she could manage.
At the head of the bed, besides Celeste and Titus, stood two people.
One wore an all red robe and a red hat, the current head of the Cinder family, Rowena, and her granddaughter, Renna Cinder.
"It’s only been a few months." Rowena couldn’t believe her eyes at what had become of her daughter’s body.
Walking closer, she rested her hand on the skeleton’s head, staring for a long moment at her skinless face, as if trying to recognize her all over again.
Celeste had already explained everything she knew about what had happened to her. Even hearing it had been painful enough.
Living for decades tied to a tree, feeling her whole body slowly rot away, all while remaining fully conscious through it, was a torment most people couldn’t even imagine.
The longer Rowena stared, the more the anger on her face began to show, until finally her eyes seemed to burn like flame.
Then, lifting her head to look at Celeste, that anger slowly softened into gratitude. "My words can’t describe how much I owe you."
Celeste shook her head. "There’s nothing you owe us. If anyone owes a debt here, it’s us."
She was still feeling that same gratitude after what Magna had told her about the skeleton saving Faye.
"Where are Faye and that boy?" Rowena glanced around the room, wanting to meet the people who had shared her daughter’s final moments.
She especially wanted to meet the boy, since from what she’d heard, he was the one who had saved Morrigan and carried her body outside.
Right on cue, the guest room’s double doors opened, a maid pushing them wide as Faye’s small figure stepped inside with slow steps.
Her usual smile and mischievous expression were nowhere to be seen. Instead she was quite quiet, greeting the guests politely with a small bow of her head.
"Lady Rowena. Sister Renna."
She seemed to be putting in extra effort, trying to sound mature as she said Renna’s name.
While Rowena gave her a warm, genuine smile, Renna only looked at her with an intense stare beneath her wide hat, making Faye feel a little stressed.
"Please tell me, my child. Can you describe every detail of what you saw there?" Rowena asked, her gentle, kind manner never wavering.
Faye looked first at Celeste’s face, and after seeing her nod, she looked over at the skeleton lying on the bed.
Her lips trembled for a moment at the sight of her lying so still, but she held her tears back, not wanting to be called a crybaby, and began recounting everything that had happened.
She started from the moment she lost her way, the screams that echoed through the forest, all the way to when Morrigan suddenly appeared and saved her from the Faceless Witch using a fire spell.
She went on to describe the part where Magna showed up and saved them, right up until the moment she lost consciousness.
While talking about Magna, her whole demeanor shifted slightly, and her usual bright, smiling energy started to return.
Even Renna, while listening, could be seen lifting her head slightly, as if something about the story had caught her interest.
"What brave children." Rowena couldn’t help but praise Faye and Magna once again, her words making Faye’s face turn slightly red as she stood up a little straighter with pride.
Having already heard the details from Celeste, and now hearing them again from Faye, the pieces were falling into place even more clearly.
First, there was Faye, and how she had spent hours running steadily through the forest, refusing to give up.
Even though it was clear the Faceless Witch had only been toying with her, she had still managed to stay calm and hold on for that long.
Standing her ground against something like that was definitely something that deserved real praise.
Then there was the part where Magna had appeared suddenly, taking hold of not just Faye but Morrigan too, and gotten them all away from a powerful enemy like that.
That was more bravery than most people could ever hope to have.
"Where exactly did you find him?" she asked, turning the question directly to Celeste.
Celeste only smiled at the question without answering.
Rowena wasn’t the type to press either. Understanding the question was out of place, she let it go without pushing further.
Then, into that brief silence, the room’s door opened again, a maid pushing it wide as a young boy walked in casually.
Magna, suddenly seeing the crowded room and all the attention turning toward him, could only manage an awkward smile as he greeted them. "Hello?"
Though he had been practicing socializing with the maids all this time, for some reason the air he felt from these two Witches was enough to make him uncomfortable.
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