“Now, now, there’s no need to look at me like that. I’m not going to do anything to that child anymore.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused. Didn’t she just say she had business with him?
“There’s no more darkness in his eyes.” That made even less sense to me.
“Say what?”
“How can I put this? It’s as if he was relieved of the dark burden he was carrying. And it’s your fault. Again.”
“My fault?!”
What is this girl trying to say?!
“Why are you always in my way? You even stole the Dark Covenant…” she complained, raising her eyebrows slightly but otherwise still smiling as usual.
“I didn’t steal it! I didn’t even want it in the first…”I started, but then the shock registered. “How do you know about the Dark Covenant?!”
Only the Ministry higher-ups and some of the people closest to me were supposed to know about that.
“I know everything. I even know how hard you are training in Dark Magic right now.”
“Huh?!”
Only a handful of people know about that, and I’ve only been taking Dark Magic lessons for a few days… I don’t understand. How can she know that? Who is she?
I felt fear overtake me, and I took another step backwards. Her expression, again, didn’t change one bit. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
Can I make a run for it? I have no choice either way. I quickly made up my mind, turned around, and started running toward the orphanage.
“I wasn’t done talking. If you’re going to hinder me so much, you could at least show some manners. Maybe I will punish you a little bit,” I heard her call from behind.
I could tell that something was chasing after me—something bad. I didn’t have time to look back to see what it was, but somehow I felt that getting caught wouldn’t be good news. I started running even faster, as fast as I could, and then I noticed someone running toward me. Two people I knew well.
I just need to reach them, and I’ll be safe, I thought, mustering all the strength I had left in my legs, but…
“Got you,” the hooded girl somehow whispered directly into my ear. Moments later, a black fog had enveloped me.
“Katarina!”
“Big Sister!”
The two’s screams sounded distant and muffled.
The darkness surrounding me was so scary that I instinctively closed my eyes. Soon after, everything went silent. I couldn’t even hear the birds and bugs in the trees all around me. It was so silent that it made my ears hurt.
I opened my eyes back up, still scared, but everything was so dark that it didn’t make a difference. There was nothing there, no matter how much I looked around. Or maybe there was, but I couldn’t see it because it was so dark. I couldn’t even see my own arms and legs after all. I tried touching my face, and I realized that I could still move my hands and feel things. But, blinded like that, moving around would be too dangerous.
Where am I? It must be that girl’s doing. What did she do to me? Was I sent to another dimension, like when I accidentally got the Dark Covenant? I don’t know. Maybe it’s something else.
I couldn’t hear or see anything. I was surrounded in terrifyingly silent darkness. Not knowing what was going on was scary, but what was even scarier was not knowing when it would be over.
“I’m scared…” I mumbled to myself.
“Katarina!”
“Big Sister!”
I heard two voices calling out to me.
“Jeord? Keith? Are you two there?”
“Yes. I cannot see my surroundings, but I can tell that I am close to you,” Jeord responded.
“Judging by your voice, we can’t be that far away,” Keith concurred.
“So you two are trapped in darkness too?” I asked. For a second I had thought that it was just me who couldn’t see, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“I definitely am.”
“I can’t see anything either.”
So all three of us were stuck in this dark thing. “But why would you two be here too?” I asked them. I remembered them running toward me, but they still hadn’t reached me when all went black.
“I saw a dark fog engulf you from behind, and I jumped toward you to pull you out of it. A moment later, I found myself here.”
“The same happened to me.”
I knew that they couldn’t see me, but I bowed apologetically as I told them that I was sorry to have got them into trouble.
“I am the one who should apologize for not being able to protect you, Katarina.”
“He’s right. And we were so close too… Sorry, Big Sister.”
“Thank you both,” I replied to their kind words.
“Anyway,” Jeord spoke again, “I believe it would be better to concentrate on how to get out of here now.”
Keith and I immediately agreed with him.
“First of all, what is here? I can feel my own body, so it’s not just our consciousness being transported to a different place,” Keith said.
“Indeed. It is likely that we were physically transported into this dark place,” Jeord answered.
“I wonder if we can touch each other.”
“If we could, that would prove that we really are in the same place. We should try,” Keith replied.
“I’ll try getting closer to you and touching you then. Keep talking, Keith.”
“What?! Closer?! Is that safe?! And touch me where, anyway?!” Keith kept speaking, just as I had asked him to.
I trod through the darkness to find him. Now that I knew that those two were there with me, moving around wasn’t so scary anymore. After taking a few steps, I felt something make contact with my hand.
“Keith?”
“Big Sister?”
Keith’s voice was coming from really close by.
“Oh! I managed to touch you, Keith!” I exclaimed, patting him all over his body.
“Wh-What are you touching?!” he asked me.
“Hmm? What did I touch?”
“Never mind! Just stop it! Give me your hand now,” he demanded curtly, taking my hand before I could even reply.
His hand was larger and stronger than I remembered, but I could tell that it was Keith’s, and that made me feel safe and relieved.
“You two sound like you are having the best of times. May I ask what exactly you are up to?” Jeord asked. I was surprised by hearing his voice, since it sounded like it was very close to us.
“Wait! You’re not that far away!” I called.
“I walked toward you while hearing your banter. Feel free to touch me as well, Katarina.”
“But I can’t see you, so I don’t know where you are…” I replied.
“Oh, of course. So, give me your ha— No, Keith, not you. Why would you take my hand? Let it go.”
I didn’t know what was more impressive: that Keith had managed to take Jeord’s hand, or that Jeord had immediately realized who it was.
“I can’t trust that you wouldn’t take advantage of this darkness to touch my sister in inappropriate ways.”
“The only one behaving inappropriately here is you, Keith. Where did you have her touch you?”
“I did not ask her to do it. She just did it of her own accord…”
“Interesting. And where did you make her touch you then?”
“I just said that I didn’t make her…”
These two are always like this, huh. Not even being trapped in this absurd situation can stop them from bickering, I thought, and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud.
“What is wrong, Katarina?”
“Why are you laughing, Big Sister?”
“It’s just so funny that you two would act like this even now!” I explained, continuing to laugh for quite some time. I couldn’t see them, but I was sure that they must have looked pretty annoyed.
After the laughter subsided, I realized that, suddenly, I wasn’t scared at all anymore.
“Okay. Let’s think of how to get out of here,” I said, feeling that I had gotten my cool back. I also took Jeord’s hand in my left hand, and Keith’s in my right.
“Since we can touch each other, I think it’s safe to assume that we are all together, physically, in an actual dark place,” Keith reasoned.
“Yes. We are not just mentally connected while being physically apart,” Jeord agreed.
“That girl must have sent us here with her Dark Magic!”
After all, a pitch-black space just screamed “Dark Magic,” didn’t it?
“The kid that told us about you explained that there was a hooded girl with you. Is that who you are talking about?” Jeord asked.
“The kid? That must be Liam! I’m glad he got to the orphanage safely!”
“Yes,” Keith explained, “he rushed into the building, telling us that you had run into a scary hooded girl and were probably in danger. He asked us to go and help you out.”
“He did all that? What a good boy!”
Thank you, Liam.
“We came for you as soon as we heard that, and we saw you being chased by a dark fog.”
“I see… And that girl wasn’t behind me then?”
“Not at all. There was nothing there except for you, Big Sister.”
“That’s weird. I heard her whisper into my ear just before the fog surrounded me.”
“Maybe that was part of her Dark Magic spell. Dark Magic is still a mystery to us for the most part.”
“I guess so, yeah…”
Which is why the bigwigs at the Ministry want me to study Dark Magic and learn more about the covenant… Unfortunately, all I’ve been able to do so far was conjure a teeny tiny bubble of darkness and make it disappear. I have nothing on that hooded girl. She completely surrounded us with darkness! Hmm… Now that I think of it, could this darkness be made of the same stuff that I learned to make? Raphael told me that he was able to make a whole room go dark. If that’s true, then maybe I could make it disappear, even if I’m not good enough to conjure it up myself.
“Actually… There’s this Dark Magic spell I’ve been practicing that makes darkness appear and disappear, so…I want to try using it,” I announced, letting go of their hands.
“Be careful, Katarina.”
“Stop as soon as you feel it’s getting dangerous, Big Sister.”
“Thank you. I will.”
I thought back to my lessons with Raphael. First of all, I need to visualize the skull wand…
I was scared that not being able to see anything would make it impossible, but thankfully, I soon felt the wand appear in my hand.
Okay. Now I just need to make the darkness disappear like I do while practicing…
“Haaah!” I flicked the wand and saw a tiny white dot appear in front of me. It was just the opposite of when I’d summoned darkness.
This is a good start! I need it to make all of it disappear though!
“Haaah!” I flicked the wand again, and the tiny white dot started sucking up the darkness like some kind of super powerful vacuum cleaner. It was so intense that I was scared we’d end up being sucked in too, but thankfully that didn’t happen. The dot kept absorbing the darkness until our surroundings got so bright that I had to squeeze my eyes closed. At the same time, I started hearing the cries of bugs and birds again.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Jeord and Keith standing in front of me where the dark fog had been.
“We made it back,” I rejoiced, feeling so exhausted that the two boys had to keep me from falling over.
As I thanked them, I heard a voice call my name from behind me. I turned around and saw two familiar faces.
“Oh, Mister Cyrus. And Liam too.” Before I was even done finishing my sentence, Liam had already sprinted toward me, hugging me.
“Huh? Liam…?” I asked him, surprised.
“This boy warned us that you were in danger,” Cyrus explained. “Prince Jeord and Master Keith immediately started running here, and I followed them. I told him to remain at the orphanage to avoid any danger, but I guess he tagged along without my notice. He saw all of you get surrounded by darkness from afar, and he wouldn’t listen no matter how much I told him to escape.”
I put my hand on Liam’s head and noticed that he was shaking.
“I’m sorry I made you worry,” I told him.
“I thought you were going to die too…” he feebly answered between sobs.
That’s right… He lost his whole family.
“I’m sorry. That must have been scary. But thanks to you, I’m safe. It’s because you ran back to warn everybody.”
If he hadn’t warned them, Jeord and Keith wouldn’t have reached me here, and they wouldn’t have been able to comfort me, making my fear go away and allowing me to think of a solution.
“Thank you so much, Liam,” I comforted him, stroking his hair. He started crying even harder, so I rushed to pat his back too.
“How did it look from outside, Mister Cyrus?” Jeord asked.
“I saw the three of you being engulfed by a dark fog which then lingered in place. I did not know whether it would be safe to touch it, so I asked for help from the Ministry. I was waiting for this help to arrive when you made it out.”
“The fog lingered? How wide would you say that area—” Keith was going to ask another question, but Cyrus gestured for him to stop.
“We have a lot to talk about, but let us go back to the orphanage first. The orphanage employees helped me rid this area of other civilians for the moment, but people are eventually going to return, and we would stand out too much. What happened here today is not for the public to know about.”
He had a point—we didn’t want people to know that Dark Magic, which was supposed to be forbidden, had been used here, so we all hurried back to the orphanage.
We left Liam with one of the employees, so that he would be brought to his room to rest, while we went to the director’s office. Maggie was there, and she told us to sit down.
“You probably have Ministry secrets to discuss, so I will excuse myself,” she remarked before leaving the room. She had just wanted to give us a safe place to talk.
Once Maggie had left and we were all sitting down, Cyrus started talking.
“I heard part of it, but I want to know about what happened in more detail. First, I will tell you what I saw, and then you three will tell me what you experienced. Does that sound reasonable?”
We all obviously agreed, as we were also mostly clueless about what had happened.
Cyrus’s recounting went more or less like this:
Jeord and Keith were stretching out their hands toward me, and all three of us were surrounded by the dark fog. The dark fog kept increasing in size until it reached a size close to that of the office that we were currently inside of. It was only slightly taller than Cyrus, but he couldn’t see anything that was happening inside.
He assumed that we were inside the fog, but he considered the possibility that touching it might trap him inside too, and calling out to us wasn’t working. He asked some of the orphanage employees to make sure that nobody walked in on what was happening and contacted the Ministry to get help.
He then noticed that Liam had followed him and tried to persuade him to go back to the orphanage, because staying there would be too dangerous. It was then that the fog started shrinking and the three of us came out of it. That kind of explained how surprised he looked when he saw us jumping out of the fog. He was probably working as hard as he could to come up with a solution, and then we just up and escaped ourselves.
Now it was our turn to explain the events.
When the fog surrounded us, at first we couldn’t see or hear anything. After I started talking, we realized that we could hear each other, and after that we found that we could also touch each other. We all moved close together, and then I used the Dark Magic spell I’d been practicing to make the fog go away.
After hearing all of this, Cyrus remained quiet for a while, looking as if he was thinking very hard. Then, he spoke again.
“There is something that does not add up. You talk of walking around and looking for each other, but when seen from outside, the fog was, at most, as large as this room here. There should not have been enough space. Also, the fact that you could not hear anything is weird as well. We could hear just fine even after the fog appeared, and it would be weird for the fog to be enough to block all sound.”
Cyrus can sure come up with all kinds of theories just from hearing our short explanation. That’s impressive. Had it been me, I could have only come up with a “Dark fog? Wow, that sounds cool,” or something.
“It is possible that you were not simply surrounded by the fog, but transported to a different dimension, just as happened to Miss Maria and Lady Katarina when they found the covenants. We will probably need to question you all further about this once we are back at the Ministry. Would you two be able to follow me there right now?” Cyrus then asked Jeord and Keith.
“I had freed up my schedule for the rest of the day to spend all of it with my Katarina, so I would be able to, yes,” Jeord replied.
“You didn’t even ask her about her schedule… Anyway, I would also be able to come,” Keith added.
“Perfect. Now, let’s go to the Min—”
The office door slammed open, and we all turned to see who was behind it.
“Lady Katarina!”
Maria, who was clearly out of breath, ran toward me, then grabbed my shoulders and started looking at me from top to bottom as if to check for something.
“Maria?! Why are you here?!” I gaped, confused, while she was still examining my whole body.
“I assume that they sent you here because I told the Ministry that Dark Magic was involved,” Cyrus clarified.
“Exactly,” she replied after a long pause. “I was actually on a mission nearby when the Ministry contacted me to say that there had been an incident involving Dark Magic. When they told me that Lady Katarina had been on the receiving end of this magic, I came as fast as I could to make sure that she was fine… You do not seem to be hurt anywhere. Are you all right?”
She was looking at me with worried eyes as she asked that. She had probably been inspecting me for wounds.
“I am not hurt, and I feel great. Thank you, Maria,” I responded. I instantly saw relief spread across her face. Simultaneously, her legs gave way and she squatted on the ground.
“M-Maria?! Are you okay?!” I asked her while giving her my hand.
“I may have run a bit too fast… The moment that the fear left my body, my legs just started shaking…” she murmured, blushing. Indeed, her legs were still trembling.
She came here so fast just for me…
“Thank you, Maria.”
Seeing her like that, I wished I were a man, strong enough to coolly pick her up into my arms and lift her off the ground. I was a girl though.
But hey, all that work in the fields has made me strong enough to handle a hoe without any problem, right?
“No, Big Sister, stop it. Don’t even try it.”
“He is right, Katarina. Leave that kind of thing to men. Mister Cyrus, would you?”
They know me well enough that they guessed what I was thinking of doing just by the way I was looking at my arms and comparing them to Maria’s…
“O-Oh, sure…” Cyrus replied uncomfortably. “W-well, Maria, here…”
His face was bright red as he picked her up, but he was also probably enjoying himself.
Eh eh, good for you, I thought, but I was also a bit sad that I wasn’t strong enough to do that myself.
We decided that we would return to the Magical Ministry immediately. The carriage, probably called by Cyrus, was already waiting for us. Maggie and Liam were standing by its side.
“Liam? But I told you to go to your room and rest!” Between the scary incident that he was involved in and the sprint he had to make back to the orphanage, I thought he had to be too exhausted to even stay awake.
He pouted, and Maggie explained with a smile. “I also told him to rest, but he heard that you people were going to leave soon, and he really wanted to tell you goodbye.”
Hearing this, his cheeks puffed up a bit. So cute.
“Thank you, Liam. Something came up and we have to go back, but I’ll come back to visit soon,” I vowed, and he anxiously looked up at me.
“For real?”
He really got cute the second he stopped being so angry at everything… But, yeah, just telling him that I will isn’t enough, I guess. That gives me an idea.
I took out the handkerchief that I had in my pocket and I placed it inside Liam’s little hand. His eyes widened up as he looked at it.
“This is my favorite handkerchief. Can you keep it for me until the next time I come here?”
There was silence.
“I promise I’ll come soon,” I said, patting his head, and he grabbed at my dress with his free hand. Seeing him torn between wanting to rely on me and being too shy to do it activated my maternal instincts. I hugged him, and he hugged me back.
“You promised…” he mumbled, blushing even harder than he already was.
“Wait for me,” I told him while looking him straight in the eye.
We got some parting gifts from the orphanage’s children, and then told Liam and Maggie goodbye and boarded the carriage.
“I swear, Katarina, I wish you would at least refrain from seducing children,” Jeord griped.
“I must agree with him, Big Sister. I did not think that you had the brass face to do something so inappropriate,” Keith piled on.
“Huh?” I was only half listening to them. What did he say? Something about grass on my face?
“Maria, do I have something on my face?!” I asked her after wiping my face with the first piece of cloth I found.
“You do not, Lady Katarina. Do not worry,” she answered, to my relief.
Oh, okay. Must have gotten it, then.
Keith and Jeord both let out a loud sigh. After all we’d been through today, I wish they’d be able to forgive some grass on my face, or at the very least tell me about it earlier.
Cyrus, by the way, was riding with the coachman once again. Even though he’d managed to lift Maria off the ground minutes earlier, sitting beside her was apparently too much. I didn’t really get it, but the carriage started moving anyway, taking us to the Magical Ministry.
When I walked through the Magical Ministry’s gates, I was met by several familiar faces.
“Mary, Sophia, Alan, Nicol! Why are you all here?” I exclaimed, surprised.
Mary, worriedly looking at me with a hand on her mouth, explained, “My spy… I mean, Prince Alan told me that Prince Jeord had left the castle despite not having to do so for any official matters. Worried for you, we rushed to the Ministry, but we heard that you were not working today, and we were just talking about what to do next when we heard that you were involved in a terrible incident…”
It turned out that they already knew that I’d been hit with a Dark Magic spell, and they were all worried sick about me. Mary must have mistakenly said “spy” instead of “Prince Alan” because of how tense she was. Prince Alan himself walked right next to her, holding her as if to keep her from falling.
“We heard that you were safe in the end, but we wanted to make sure, so we were waiting for you,” he continued.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Are you wounded?” Sophia asked me, leaning toward me.
“I’m fine, I’m not hurt at all. I’m sorry I made all of you worry,” I said, jumping up and down in place to bring home the point of just how fine I was, and my friends seemed to be relieved by seeing that.
Cyrus, who had been talking with one of the gate guards, reached us and spoke to everyone. “I know that you are all worried about Lady Katarina, but we need to question her about what happened. Can I ask you to leave?”
“I will wait here until you are done. I have a lot to ask her too,” Mary replied, and Alan and Sophia both agreed.
“It could take a while,” Cyrus warned.
“I will take responsibility and contact our respective homes,” Nicol spoke without hesitation. “Because I imagined things would play out like this, I have already asked the Ministry to provide a room in which we may wait without standing in anyone’s way.”
Hearing this, Cyrus allowed everyone to stay. Nicol is always prepared for everything.
I promised my friends that I’d see them as soon as I was done, and then, together with Jeord, Keith, and Maria, I followed Cyrus into the room where we would be questioned about the incident. Even though Maria hadn’t been involved directly, Cyrus thought that the opinion of a Wielder of Light could be useful to understand the Dark Magic we’d run into.
Larna and Raphael were already waiting for us inside the room.
“Good to see you all in one piece,” Larna greeted us, taking a good look at me before turning around to look at Raphael. “He’s here because Lady Katarina was able to defeat the Dark Magic spell cast against her with the one that Raphael taught her, so I also want his opinion.”
Raphael nodded understandingly, then looked at me and smiled. He didn’t say anything, but his face told me that he was glad to see that I was safe.
I smiled back, knowing that I owed it to him and his lessons that I’d been able to come back unscathed.
We all sat down, and Larna started talking again. “Okay. Let’s hear the details.”
“Yes. We should start with what these three and I witnessed,” Cyrus began, and he went on to recount what we’d already told each other at the orphanage.
“Oh, that sounds very interesting… I mean dangerous. I’m really glad you’re all safe,” Larna corrected herself, but was unable to completely hide what she was really thinking, and then she looked at me again. “I had heard that your Dark Magic spells weren’t exactly the most powerful yet, but you must have improved, since you were able to absorb so much darkness,” she commented curiously.
“I’m not sure. I think I’m just better at absorbing darkness than I am at creating it.”
“Could you try it out for me then?” she asked.
I agreed and produced my wand, surprising Jeord and Keith, who had never seen it. Larna’s eyes were already brimming with anticipation. I tried shouting and waving my wand, but, as usual, I only got a tiny speck of darkness to appear.
I bet I’m just better at absorbing it. I didn’t feel like I’d become more powerful or anything back then either.
Jeord and Keith, who had only seen the tiny white dot, were now shocked at seeing the black one, making me feel a bit embarrassed about it.
“It’s just as she said. What do you think, Raphael?” Larna sounded disappointed.
“I’m afraid that we don’t know enough about Dark Magic to fully understand this event. We don’t even know what kind of spell that woman used against them in the first place.”
“You’re right. Trapping them inside a dark fog… What kind of spell is that? I wish I could have seen it myself…”
As usual, Larna was greatly interested in any kind of weird or rare magic. If Dark Magic didn’t require human sacrifice and wasn’t forbidden, she probably would have started wielding it immediately, even if it was dangerous. She now seemed to have remembered something, and she spoke again.
“Oh, right. Lady Katarina. It seems that only you and that kid from the orphanage saw the woman who attacked you. Can you describe what she looked like?”
“Of course,” I replied. Liam and I had seen our attacker, but Jeord and Keith had not. Cyrus hadn’t asked me about her either, probably because he had already heard all that he wanted to hear from Liam.
I tried thinking back to when we ran into her.
“I couldn’t tell what she was thinking at any point, and I couldn’t even read her facial expression,” I explained. “Are you sure that she is the dangerous individual that you have been talking about?”
“She’s a black-haired girl who looks to be around your age and can use Dark Magic. I doubt there’s more than one person who fits that description,” she replied.
Good point. At least I hope that there’s not more than one.
“By the way, she goes by Sarah,” Larna told me.
“We know her name?”
“It could be a fake name. We don’t know if she even has a ‘real’ name.”
“What? How could that be?” I asked, confused, and I felt the atmosphere in the room getting gloomier.
“Larna… Shall we tell them?” Cyrus asked with a serious look on his face.
“They’re already too deep in this business, and they’re probably going to get involved even further. I think we should.”
“I see. Your decision then,” Cyrus assented and then went silent.
Their brief exchange was enough to understand that whatever they were discussing wasn’t anything good.
“I’m going to tell you of our theories about this Sarah girl. Consider all of this top secret,” Larna instructed, and then she started explaining.
She talked of the children held by the Dieke family, of the Dark Magic experiments performed on them, and of how their captors disposed of them to avoid being found out. Hearing this was painful, and the expressions on the faces of those sitting around me showed that it was painful for them as well.
“We still don’t know what she has been through, where she lives, or what she is up to right now. All we know is that there’s somebody very powerful giving her orders. You’d better be careful if you run into her again,” Larna finished.
According to her theory, Sarah had been used to perform Dark Magic experiments as a child, and was now being used by someone else for unknown purposes. She was supposed to be scary and threatening, but after hearing all this I couldn’t help but think of her as a poor lost child.
★★★★★★
“Katarina Claes has returned to the Magical Ministry, Sarah,” he informed me.
I was surprised. I did not expect her to be back so soon. The rumors said that her magic powers were really weak, but maybe that did not apply for her Dark Magic ones.
“I didn’t think you would do something as uncouth as using Dark Magic in such a public place,” he added. His voice didn’t have any emotion in it, but his choice of words made me feel that he was scolding me.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, and he looked at me in surprise.
“I wasn’t trying to scold you. I was honestly just surprised, and I wanted to know why someone as coolheaded as you would act in that way.”
After all, he didn’t mean to reprimand me, but, regardless, he was right—I’d lost my cool.
“After all this interference from her, I may have felt slightly frustrated,” I explained.
“I see. She meddled with you once again after all. But there’s no use crying over spilt milk. You must be tired, so you can go and rest while I take care of things.” He gestured toward the room’s exit.
I lowered my head and left. He was the most important person in the world to me, and before now, I had never lied to him. This wasn’t exactly a lie, but I hadn’t told him the whole truth either. I was frustrated because of Katarina Claes interfering with my mission, that much was true…but there was more.
“You’re right, I wouldn’t know. I’ve always lived here, in this peaceful place. I don’t know anything about violence and hardship…but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be on your side. Both me and all the people in the orphanage. We’re on your side, Liam. Even if we don’t know about your past, we can try to understand. If you just reach out your hand, we’ll take it.”
When I heard her speak those words, I felt my heart throb uncomfortably—even though she wasn’t saying those things to me.
“Liam, parting with the happiness that you’ve grown accustomed to is dreadful, but the memory of that happiness will give you the strength to fight through anything. So, I want you to be happy at the orphanage. I’m sure that happiness will make you stronger.”
She went on to say this, and her words brought back memories which I thought I had forgotten forever.
Even before being trapped in that dark place, I was never that happy.
My father, who was so busy with work that he rarely came back home, disappeared altogether, and I was left alone with my mother. She closed herself up, and my words stopped reaching her.
We often had nothing to eat, and when this happened I had to walk around the whole neighborhood looking for anything edible just so as not to starve. It was at one such time that I met him. He was a boy around my age, crouching in the tall grass as if to hide himself.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“I’m hiding.”
His eyes were full of sadness, and they reminded me of my own.
“Can I sit with you?”
He looked at me with surprise, but eventually told me, “Sure,” and I walked over to him.
We didn’t even talk to each other, but just being there, with him, made me feel at peace.
“I have to go back home,” the boy spoke once more as the sun was starting to set.
“Will you come here again?”
“I don’t know,” he responded, sadly looking at me as he shook his head.
Even though he had told me that, the next day I went to the same place. He wasn’t hiding in the same spot where we’d been sitting the day before, but I kept looking for him and I eventually found him not far away.
“Can I sit with you?” I asked again, and he stared at me, just as surprised as on the day before, and gave me the same answer. This is how we got to know each other.
I started visiting that place every day. The boy wasn’t always there, but whenever he was I would sit by his side. Little by little he started talking and even eating some of the fruit that I’d found. I loved the time that we spent together.
He became more and more emaciated, until at one point, looking very sick, he told me that he didn’t know if he’d be able to come there anymore. On the last day we met, he gave me a small pressed flower. Even when I was surrounded by darkness, the flower, which I kept in my pocket, always kept me company.
I had taken the memories of all these events and sealed them away in the dark, where I wouldn’t have to think about them—until now. My heart was throbbing and I couldn’t calm down.
Why am I remembering all of this? I have to forget all of it again, or I won’t be able to get a hold of myself, I thought, but the memories wouldn’t go away.
I bit my lip so hard that it started bleeding.
★★★★★★
“Okay. I’ve heard enough. If you remember anything else, let me know,” Larna said, and our questioning was over.
Between all that happened and having to go to the Ministry on an off day, I’d ended up really tired.
“Cyrus and I have to report to the higher-ups, so we’ll get going. Raphael, Maria, go back to your departments. You can go back home now if you want, Lady Katarina,” she added.
As Raphael was leaving, I called out to him to say thank you.
“Who knows what would have happened if it weren’t for the spell you taught me! And what you thought about Liam was spot on too. Thanks to you I found the words I needed to help him. You’re amazing, Raphael. Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me. You were the one who used the spell, and you were the one who saved Liam. You are the amazing one,” he responded with a kind smile on his face.
Just like Maria and Cyrus, Raphael was also the very humble type. He’d probably answer in the same way no matter how much I praised him.
“At least let me give you this to show you my gratitude,” I said, handing him a paper bag.
“What is this?” he asked, surprised.
“They’re the cookies that the orphanage children gave us. They gave us so many! Please take some. Thank you for everything, Raphael,” I told him, lowering my voice, and he blushed.
We parted ways with Raphael and Maria. Afterward, Jeord, Keith, and I headed for the room where the others were waiting for me.
“You and Raphael seem to have become very close to each other,” Jeord commented along the way.
“Hmm? What are you trying to say?”
“Big Sister,” Keith joined in, “I was also surprised. Those magic lessons you are taking… Are you two alone when he’s teaching you?”
I found myself being questioned from both sides.
“Of course. It is forbidden magic after all, so very few people can know about it. Is that so weird?” I asked, and both of them sighed.
“Of course, she is missing the point entirely. That being said, I doubt that Raphael Wolt would act uncouthly… I hope.”
“I believe that he can be trusted…probably. And, Big Sister, I’ve told you so many times already, but you should be more self-aware as a lady.”
Jeord and Keith ended up warning me in a slightly offensive way.
I thought that Raphael was the last person in the Ministry that one should need to be warned against, but I also realized that contradicting them would be a waste of time.
“Okay, I’ll be careful. Oh, here we are,” I said and then knocked on the door of the room where Mary and the others were.
“I was waiting for you!” Mary came to hug me as soon as I entered the room.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” I apologized, but she shook her head.
“There is no need to apologize. Waiting for you was our decision,” she affirmed, and the others nodded along.
“So, may we know what happened today? I heard that you ended up in quite the dangerous situation,” Nicol asked me with a dead serious look in his eyes.
“Well…” I started explaining all the events of the day, except for the details about Sarah that we’d heard from Larna. Jeord and Keith helped me out too.
“This must have been very taxing on you,” Sophia commented at the end, and I couldn’t help but agree.
“You managed to come back unscathed after having a Dark Magic spell cast on you… That is impressive,” Nicol remarked, surprised.
“I am so glad to see that she is okay,” his little sister added with a smile.
“Who knew that a spell like that even existed though? I have to give you credit for keeping your cool and using the magic at your disposal to get out of trouble, Katarina,” Alan told me, sounding genuinely impressed.
“Not at all. I was very scared at first, until I found out that Prince Jeord and Keith were with me. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have managed it.”
Had I been trapped inside that dark fog alone, I don’t think I’d have made it out safely. I was really grateful for their presence.
“So, that is to say… You were trapped along with these two, and in a dark place no less. Did…anything happen to you?” Mary asked in an uncharacteristically awkward way.
“Not at all. I’m not hurt anywhere. Not even a scratch,” I comforted my worried friend.
“Hmm, no, that is not what I am referring to. I mean…did those two do anything to you?”
“Huh?” I cocked my head to one side, unsure of what she meant.
Jeord and Keith both spoke at the same time.
“Mary, please. The place was too dark to do anything anyway. Of course, a gentleman such as myself would never dream of doing anything unbecoming to her regardless.”
“Of course not, Mary! I would never do such a thing!”
Mary’s eyes seemed to go slightly dark.
“We shall discuss the definition of ‘gentleman’ at another time,” she snapped, “but for the moment, I cannot help but remember certain high-society rumors of how you, in fact, often act unbecomingly regardless of the location or situation.”
“Where’d you even hear rumors like those?” Alan mumbled, scratching his head.
“Katarina, do not be misled by such unfounded rumors. I am a gentleman and would never do anything to you. You are safe with me.”
“Oh, um, sure,” I replied despite having absolutely no clue what they were even talking about.
Jeord offered me his hand, and I instinctively went to take it, but Keith quickly jumped in between us.
“I would say she is most certainly not safe with Prince Jeord.”
“Rich words, Keith, coming from one who says ‘I would never do such a thing’ and yet took advantage of the darkness to have Katarina touch him heaven-knows-where.”
“Th-That was just her moving her hands around, and I had no…”
“Master Keith?! Were you lying? Is that shyness of yours just a facade to hide your misdeeds?!”
“No, Mary, please, listen!”
“Master Keith… I was not expecting such behavior…”
“I feel betrayed, Keith.”
“Sophia! Master Nicol! I swear this is a misunderstanding!”
“I feel for you.”
“Prince Alan! What is that look supposed to mean?! You are all misunderstanding this!”
Seeing all of them chatting in their usual friendly way brought a smile to my face. Thinking that I was all alone in that dark place, under a Dark Magic spell, had been terrifying. Knowing about FL2’s secret character and the potential doom that was waiting for me made it even scarier…but having Jeord and Keith by my side made everything better, and now having my friends surround me like this increased the good vibes even more.
“I want all of you to always stay by my side,” I muttered to myself, but they somehow all heard.
“Of course. I, Mary Hunt, shall be by your side forever. Next time, I’ll come with you into the dark fog too.”
“I guess I can be there too if you really want.”
“Of course, I will be with you too.”
“That goes without saying for me too.”
“I shall be by your side forever, as long as you wish for it.”
“I’d never leave you, Big Sister.”
“I would follow you anywhere, Katarina.”
“Thank you, everyone.”
I didn’t know what was waiting for me…but I knew that I’d be fine.