Flustered, I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket and tapped his cheeks dry. I felt a sudden surge of guilt wringing in my heart as I tried looking for the reason why this kid was crying.

"Can you tell me what's wrong, at least?" I softened my voice, my brows knitting.

He harrumphed and turned his back to me, sniffing. It seemed like this was his way of telling me, 'You didn't even know what you did wrong!' or something.

Helpless, I sighed. A sudden headache pounded in my temples and I leaned back thoughtfully as I filed through my memory about my fault.

I thought back to when he was last upset and remembered that I promised to talk with him last night but...forgot about it in its entirety and fell asleep.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I don't know how to make it up to you. Why don't you tell me so I know what to do, at least? I'll be better."

He turned around to face me and raised his hands, probably about to start talking. However, just as he threw in the first sign, somebody barged out to the living room. A silhouette I recognized jumped in front of me and pierced the delicate tension in the room with a loud declaration of arrival.

"Evy! Finally 'ere?"

I looked up quizzically. Eren's red hair had been dyed a dull black, the only thing similar would be her green eyes. Her hair had been cut short already so I didn't have trouble recognizing her, but if I was seeing her in this form for the first time, I'd be sure to wonder if I was meeting the same person.

"Eren?" I whispered. "You look...different."

"'Twas Mistriss Kora 'o did et," she said.

"Tha—where'd that accent come from?" I asked.

"'Tis part of meh idintity. My name is Lorin. I'm a farmir boy who grew up down south! 'Ave to get in charactir. Only way to do thit is to be hem all da teym."

"Not the most intelligible accent, but I think I get what you're saying," I said, nodding my head, impressed. "You say your name now is Lorin?"

"Now it's Lorin. With an e."

"Loren, okay. I'm cool with that."

I chuckled at Eren's antics. I then remembered that I was supposed to be talking sincerely with Maun. Sweat dropped down my spine and the smile on my face was frozen. I looked back and found that Maun's expression got eerily cold. However, contrary to my expectations, the previous indignation was replaced by unsettling calmness.

Eren seemed to feel it too. That aura...was menacing.

"Rayt. Em goin' to da kitchin."

Eren was gone as fast as she came.

Once she was gone, some tense silence fell over the room. I didn't know what was going on inside Maun's head, but I had a feeling it wasn't good.

"I'm sorry for that rude interruption," I said, clapping my hand. "This can't be about last night, right? I'm sorry for breaking my promises. We can make up for it another time, but you have to tell me honestly how you feel and we can work out the knots."

Maun hung his head. "It's okay," he signed tiredly. "I know I'm unreasonable...I'm not the only friend you have. You have Eren and...that guy."

"You have to reach out to other people too," I said, signing as I spoke. "So that you can have friends yourself. Maun, you should know I won't always be reliable. It won't just be me and Eren all the time, and we may not be around all the time too."

"I don't want anyone else," he told me. "They're not all good people. What if they're bad?"

"And what if they're good?" I asked. "Some people can give you different things, Maun. It may be that one person to introduce you to your next favorite meal, or your next favorite game. Maybe give you the best memory you ever had. Those people may not stay in your life, and they can hurt you too. But they help you grow into the person you're going to be. The trickiest thing will be to let them in to do that, and in case you do, you should always be prepared to have your heart broken. Trusting another person is always a risk." I ruffled his silver-violet hair.

I would suppose I knew what was going on with Maun. When I first found him, he'd been beaten black and blue. He must've gone through regular abuse, which would explain his sensitivity and tendency to overly rely on me. However, if he ought to recover and become a better, more independent individual, I had to make it so that he wouldn't be tied to me alone.

"So will you hurt me too?" he asked.

"Haven't I already?" I pointed out to him. "Didn't I break my promise to you? Didn't that hurt?"

His cheeks reddened and tears welled up in his eyes. He then nodded. "But you didn't mean it. I know you were tired."

"That's going to be how it is with everyone else," I said. "The biggest courage will be to open your heart again after you've been hurt. Trust in your capability to heal, and forgive, and be happy. You're a very strong person, so I'm pretty sure you'll get it down in no time."

I doubted whether he could understand everything I was saying, but it was worth it trying to tell him.

After giving comforting pats to Maun, I sensed a bit of commotion. Looking up, I caught my three other family members looking on with curiosity. When our eyes met, they scrambled to hide back into dining room.

I sighed wearily.

"Why don't we have lunch? I think the food's ready." I stood up after a quick pat on his shoulder and left him there to wipe his tears away.

I paused at the doorframe to wait for Maun and watched as he scrambled clumsily to follow after. I gave him a satisfied nod and he entered the room after me.

The table had been set up—exactly five plates. Everyone tried to set up a natural scene with passing some glasses around to pour in some water. Maun and I found our places around the table, saying nothing of the obviousness about these people, and we began our meal soon after.

Mistress Kora cleared his throat. "Well, isn't it nice to have everyone together again after a while?" he began softly.

"Yes, actually, I came by to ask some questions," I said, smoothing palms over my knee to increase the blood flow to my folded legs.

"Is it related to the harp you brought in?"

"Yes," I replied with a nod. I lifted a spoonful of food into my mouth, chewed for a while, swallowed, washed the food down my throat with some water and opened my mouth to speak once more. "I came upon some discoveries while studying at the Temple, and I encountered something interesting—death relics."

There was no pause on anyone's pace when I mentioned it. It seemed like it was something everyone had already encountered before. Everyone except me.

"I need death relics," I said.

"That's plural," Mistress Veronika clarified.

"Yes. Something that I'll need to control my...element," I said. "So I came to an agreement with Kaiser. You know..." I paused. "The son of the Mercenary Guild's leader."

It was then that I saw their utensils pausing in the air—particularly the mistresses.

"His mother's sick, did you know that?" I asked.

My question seemed to be the play button to that sudden pause. Mistresses Kora and Veronika resumed their meal.

"No. We don't particularly check on the conditions of their family. They aren't people to be wary of," Kora replied. "What of it? How and why did you come to this situation, Evyionne? And how exactly does everything tie up?"

"The Mercenary Guild should have the resources I'll need to make an expedition to gather some relics," I said. "Of course, I won't be going on that anytime soon. However, I just decided it would be the favor to ask in return for lending Mistress Marian's harp to him. I would have played it myself but I feared invoking the Veils and killing Kaiser's mother instead of helping heal her."

"What exactly is she sick from that she would need the harp?" Mistress Veronika wiped her lips and shot me several glances as she pushed the food into her spoon.

"Poison," I replied, slicing the meat on my plate. I didn't know what type of meat this was, but it tasted vaguely like chicken. "Apparently something that only the song from the Angel's strings could cure. I just wanted to ask whether I made the right decision, and if I can really trust Kaiser. Since in our previous conversation, you have mentioned his father and...our appointment within the next six something years."

"That's right," Mistress Veronika said. "Well...Pier is a trustworthy man. And knowing him, his son must be too. I don't see anything wrong with this deal. You're clearly weighing everything well, Evy."

"Well, I'm glad." I nodded, sighing in relief.

"By the way..." Mistress Kora interjected. "Erenol, enrollment begins next week. Are you ready?"

"'Ow cin't I be?" she replied enthusiastically. "I' been werking my ass off this past few weeks."

"It's good that you're keen on practice. Keep that up. As long as you internalize that character well, we'll have no problem with properly covering up your identity. The only thing left is to procure your documents—for your new identity, of course. I think we'll be able to get that within the next few days."

"No worries. I'll do me best!"

For a couple of minutes, we ate in silence.

"If you don't mind me asking," I began, slightly lowering my spoon and fork to gaze sincerely at my mistresses. "Are there any news from the other mistresses? I'm really worried. Are you still in contact with them? Can you at least tell me if they're okay?"

"You don't have to think too much, Evyionne. They're all well and safe."

"What about Mistress Lamia? She never left Venerya, last thing I heard her say."

"Venerya right now is in a lot of chaos. In order to make sure we maintain control of things inside, someone has to remain behind to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Lamia is a very capable woman—shrewd and cunning. She will not put herself in the kind of situation where she won't be able to survive."

"You're probably expecting some letters. If you're concerned about it so much, I'll make sure to inform you next time when they've already replied to my concerns. They are not always in a safe place, and it's hard to send out letters that cannot be tracked by the enemy. At most, it'll probably be a couple of months. If things are hard, we may not be able to hear from them longer than that."

"Okay. I understand."

After lunch, I finally had some time to rest and relax. The feeling of fullness as well as the satisfaction from having good food made me feel somewhat sleepy. I decided to doze off on the sofa for a while. Anyway, there was still some time before the meeting set with Kaiser. I wished to take advantage of this opportunity to bond with everyone and have some fun like before—before we ended up in this situation, rather.

The hours flew by quickly while we were having fun. Pretty soon, the set time for meeting Kaiser had arrived. I stood from the floor thirty minutes before the agreed time, preparing to set out early so that I would arrive on time for our meeting.

Maun insisted on coming along. Erenol had to hold back from going out too often before the start of enrollment period, so she had to stay back. Although it was unlikely that these people would check extensively on the background of an insignificant farmer boy from south, who knew? There were eyes everywhere.

"Sorry, Eren—Loren," I coughed and corrected.

"It's okay, Evy," Eren broke her accent for the first time today. "I think I'll be bored with that kind of thing anyway. Best of luck to you!"

"Thanks. Let's go, Maun."