Chapter Text
Through forests and bushes, a dark cloak hurries its way deep into the mountains not taking a moment to look back. The person internally cursing at the cloak sometimes catching amongst the branches and leaves trying to stick along, what a situation he didn’t want to be in right now. Seeing a clearing near a river, quickly jumping to it to hide and calm himself as the sounds of boots and people pass by.
A sigh comes out of the person’s lips as the relief washes over them, patiently waiting for any sign of people to vanish soon to come out from hiding. In a few minutes only the river’s streams and birds chirping were the only noises present, the cloaked figure stands up and continue his walk deep into the forest.
“Will”
A small white lizard comes out of the person’s sleeve and perches on the hand, tail wiggling aimlessly once it comes out from hiding.
“Master, that was very reckless of you, please don’t do so again…”
“I apologize, It was something out of my control sadly. We just have to stick around the forest and then go back to the town by the evening.” Honey blonde hair peeks out from the hood as he jumps across the river noticing a path nearby, out of curiosity and maybe a small hope that brewed inside the person, they follow through with the path.
Never realizing a path was present amongst these parts of the mountains beyond the Kerbeck territory, a few minutes of steps and trudging a small hut can be seen from a far. Running water and a small area of what seems to be for clothes was present but only had a sheet hung around, an indication of life and a person living it.
‘Quite deep into the mountains, away from society this far…how odd.’ Arriving at the front porch, maybe this was a nice place to find respite from trying to hide away for now and quite at the most perfect opportunity. The cloaked figure raises their hand to knock but finds it not needed when the door opens slightly ajar.
Suspicious at this, hands immediately hide behind the cloak as the figure slowly steps in the hut when the door moves slightly. Technically whatever this person was doing is obviously trespassing and illegal, intuition tells them they were walking right into a trap having the immense idea that someone was watching their every step.
‘Where are they?’ It runs through the person’s head when they enter and see the mess the hut was in, a bounteous amount of books present and strewn everywhere that you can barely make out the idea of the bed or shelves in the place. It was a complete disaster in this home that one can mistake it as storage than a home, but with the fire still kindling as the wood chips away and the hot mug of a drink on the table present clearly indicates there is someone who lives here.
“Meow…”
Head immediately turning up amongst the hut’s downtrodden wooden beams was a cat with dark fur, tail wagging and eyes looking at him, looking clearly amused at seeing him.
By that one action, the door closed and before he could turn around a second too late to see who could’ve done it, a strong wind sweeps in with such force and hits their head and the world turns black.
“NEROOOOOO!!!”
“Don’t worry, he’s clearly still alive.”
A young girl with messy braided hair cries in worry as she holds a broom with such a clutch on it for dear life, legs shaking and posture starting to look like she was about to break down any minute.
“B-b-b-but…”
“Look, he’s breathing” The spry black cat named Nero hops onto the unconscious man on the floor of the hut, paws flicking around the cloak till it flips off the hoodie.
A handsome young man with honey blonde hair with long lashes, a breath comes out of him along with the rise and fall of his chest.
“I-I-Is H-He Awake…??”
“You knocked the winds out of him, I don’t think he’ll be up after a while.”
Nero makes sure to stay near his face when the scared girl approaches the unconscious body in their home, holding the broom for anything that might happen as she finally takes a glance on his face.
“Long eyelashes…”
Long enough that makes it look like you can put matchsticks on them, pretty angled blonde hair and even his body physique, it was perfect. “Monica?” Ignoring the call of her little familiar at the side, the young girl named Monica seemed much intrigued now at the sight of the unconscious man.
“Perfect…”
“Huh”
“He’s perfect!”
Nero looked at her oddly, the excitement on Monica was a familiar sight to him, but it only happens on specific moments and is usually the involvement of numbers.
“The golden ratio! This is a rarity Nero! A person with the golden ratio, the perfect height and length even!”
Nero wears the usual perplexed look he has the moment his master talks about stuff he is not familiar with, but nonetheless pays attention to her rambles and only chiming in when he finds something he can respond to and or comment about.
“So he’s like a perfect human?”
Monica runs around to the left of her bed and picks something out of there and rushes back down, taking out the tape measure in her hands and stretching it out.
“It really is the Golden Ratio! Someone so lucky to have a perfect number is so satisfying!”
Her little giggles fill out the room the more she tries to measure the stranger on their floor, for anyone outside of their home to see this would be an odd sight to see, it's as if this young girl was going to do something completely concerning to this young man over here.
“It’s quite unfortunate I didn’t ever pick up learning on dissection…”
The cat moves away and shivers, what a scary thing to say.
“Isn’t that illegal though?”
“Magic that involves body manipulation or inflicting on oneself is illegal, so I don’t think that involves normal human dissection.”
“Either way, normal dissection is still bad!” They hear a small grunt and this has Monica immediately jumping out from fear and backed to the corner of the room.
“W-W-W-What was T-That??!!”
“Huh, is he waking up already?”
“N-N-N-No!!”
“Alright alright calm down.”
Black mist spins appears in the hut and surrounds the cat familiar and soon a shadow of a person is seen, the shadowy black mist disperse and the cheeky tall man is on his spot. Donning old robes as his clothes and striking cat-like eyes, the girl in the corner covers her eyes and is filled with much more fear than before.
“N-N-No! W-W-Why’d you tu-Turn into a H-Human N-Nero!?” Sobbing and sniffles were at her direction and Nero sighs.
“We got to tie this guy up before he wakes up, that’s what I got from a recent mystery novel I read!”
“C-Can’t we j-just le-leave hi-him o-outside??”
“In the novel they tied up this suspicious guy and int-interra- something about asking questions and making sure he doesn’t give out their spot.”
“HUAHH?!? D-Do yo-you th-think th-the pers-person would tell an-anyone ab-about this h-hut??!”
“I know so.” Hand forming a thumbs up and a mischievous grin appears on his face, this was all the reassurance Monica needed to start moving as the possibilities rolled into her mind.
Soon Nero picks up the unconscious man off the floor and asks Moncia to bring up the chair close to him, both familiar and master soon work in together to have this blonde stranger purposefully trapped in a chair.
“Hmm, usually they use rope to make sure the suspect wouldn’t move.”
“W-We don-don’t have an-any of th-that though!”
“Can’t you use your magic? You can make him tied up right?”
Her eyes shift around in a nervous tick she’s always had “I-I c-can…” In almost no time the swift movement and colors of magic appear and soon the stranger was wrapped into this mana formed into a rope that has his torso tied to the chair, alongside his wrists on the chair’s handles and each ankle to the chair’s legs.
This also made the stranger in question stir much more and has Monica immediately flailing in panic and running back to the corner of the room.
“H-He’s wa-waking u-up!!”
“Just keep him tied up, I’ll do the talking!”
Back to his cat form and perching up on a stack of books, Nero soon looks up to the wooden beams of the hut and narrows his eyes.
“Huh, this might be a little fun”
Grumbling and head swinging as eyes try to open and vision slowly turning clear, he tries to list his hand up to swipe his bangs away and found that he couldn’t move said hand. In fact his whole body right now is being restrained it seems, curiosity and caution rising when he glances around the restraints and senses mana around them.
‘It looks like…water manipulation…’ If it were a normal rope or any non-magic item breaking out from it would be easy, but magic was tricky much, even impossible when he analyzed the formula on the restraints and he didn’t know or do magic enough to be able to counteract the formula of these restraints.
‘What a detailed equation…’
This was bad and seems the odds weren't in his favor, vision finally becomes less hazy and he looks around the room to have his eyes meet with the same black cat now front of him. It swished it’s tail and licked its paw and let out a meow, but its eyes were staring at him intently. This one was definitely not a normal cat.
“Would you mind telling your master to let me go?”
“That’s funny, why’d I do that?”
So his deduction was right, the moment he made eye contact with that cat upon entering the hut it was already an odd suspicion that it had more to let on. But this one seems to be intent on keeping him tied up here and not letting him go, it seems he needs to ask some help from his ally.
“Don't go having any other ideas now.”
The cat swiftly runs up and climbs higher as it jumps on stacks of books that gathered around the house until it reaches the wooden beams. The stranger’s eyes narrows on it when he sees a white lizard grabbed by the mouth of the cat and shaking in worry. With a perfect landing on its paws, the cat sits on the table and spits out the lizard then holds it down with its paw.
“This guy is probably your little helper right? I have the best mana sensing out here, there was no way he can stay hidden near me heh”
This was more troubling by the minute with this haughty familiar and magical restraints, I guess there‘s no choice but persuasion through words now. Hopefully this cat won’t have any plans on hurting the white lizard, it shook its tail a lot and what seemed to be a sign of apologizing.
“I’ve got some questions to ask you now, so you better answer them or he gets it!”
“Ask away”
“Why did you come up here?”
“I just happened to come upon this mountain hut on my journey.”
It was faint but he hears a small thump from somewhere as he lets his eye glance for just a second to search through before the black cat asks another question, clearly his master was around here and not outside since the restraints continue to keep him tied up he just needs to find where they are.
“Really now? Sounds suspicious to me!”
“Hmm? I’m just a traveler going through the mountain area, there isn’t anything wrong with that, no?”
“I mean yeah but…” The cat groans and has his paw on its head. “How do they come up with these kinds of questions in those novels-!” Taking this time to look around the house and see anything else that indicated a sign of life, his eyes soon catch upon a broom that seems to be shaking behind a stack of books along with the end of a robe on the corner of his vision,
Perhaps she was maintaining a tool alongside this spell, either way this cat’s master seems to be quite a talented mage being able to conjure something this complicated.
“Aren’t you an afraid one” Saying it with a much louder tone, this has the person behind the books flinch and hit the surrounding books and stumble on everything. A complete mess of laid out books and dust amassed that corner until it cleared up to see a small girl with messy braids to be behind this magic.
“O-Owie…”
“So she’s your master?”
“Of course, she’s the most interesting human out there! Powerful even!”
“Is that so?”
‘This little girl? She was shaking so much the broom was sticking out from the books like it was sweeping itself.’
“A-Ah-ABABABABABA-!”
She runs back into the corner as the realization hits her that she's being watched and the stranger couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, such a fearful one this girl is.
“She’s like a little squirrel”
“S-S-Squir-rel!??”
“No way, my master is a human! Come on Monica do the cool thing you always do with your magic!”
“I-I-I Can-Can’t-!!” Clutching the broom in her hands and succumbing to a small sob, this poor girl seems to be at her limit at this point. Alongside what was happening and her attention being elsewhere, it seems to have weakened the restraints just a little bit and the stranger himself can feel like he can move just slightly now. He glances a bit to the lizard named Will on the table and nods at it.
“At this point you should just let me go for your master’s sake”
“I’m not done asking questions to you yet!”
“That’s not exactly for you to decide.” A smirk appears on his face as the restraints made from water cracks at the change it's done and turning into Ice. The formula finally overridden by his ally has the girl gasp and was too late in making more when he breaks them apart, freeing himself from the chair he was tied upon.
“Now then…”
“N-N-No-NO!!”
Not even a stop closer to her a barrier around her was formed, what impressed him more was upon further inspection it was double reinforced of all things.
‘What kind of mage is she? There has to be a tool somewhere she’s using to have these spells up in an instant’
“Don’t get any nearer!” The cat soon fully appears in front of the young witch’s barrier and hisses at him, appearing to look threatening was futile in that form, Ike thinks.
“P-Please! Pl-Please…d-d-d-don’t hi-hit me…”
‘Past Abuse…’ That has him staying in his place as his eyes narrow, the way this girl acted was all too familiar to him. The cries and pleading were sounds he’s heard far more than his own voice, a hunched figure with its head on the floor flashes in many memories in his mind.
‘Was she abandoned here? Or does she have someone else hurting her when they come back? Either way this shouldn’t be my problem…’
Being involved was far too tedious than originally planned, soon he had to go back to the capital to get back to his duties.
‘P-Please don't hit him!'
The memory rings louder in his mind and he sighs to himself, he didn’t know he could still have a small trace of sentimentality in him in all these years.
“Here you dropped your broom.” Forest green eyes look up from the arms that hides her face away, the stranger made sure he was mustering the most gentle look he can to feel approachable to this girl. He couldn’t ignore the tugging feeling that started to kick him when those memories started to flood back into his mind, as he kneels down close to her and his hand holds the broom.
“I won’t do anything, I just felt a little too uncomfortable with those restraints you used.”
“H-Huh…”
“Besides the formula you had on it was quite complex, you seem like a very talented mage. Are you someone’s apprentice perhaps?”
“M-My For-Formula..?”
“Yes, even your barrier is amazing itself, double reinforced with layers of complexities. Not even most mages has these formulas laid out quickly, dividing equations is much simpler for most cases-”
“It-It’s not a p-perfect f-formula then!”
Both stranger and cat were taken aback with such a loud response coming from her of all people as as the barrier disappeared and her eyes looked up with determination, a twinkle of interest and a fiery passion suddenly showed up from her demeanor.
“Th-those formulas ar-aren’t perfect! Magical Division completely breaks down the beauty of such a formula! In fact it shouldn’t even be a thing because it ruins the equation. Spells and formulas should be used with its full being and not divided like that! But they always tell me it’s not recommended because other people won’t be able to use it-”
“Ah, why’d you have to mention the whole dividing thing…”
The familiar sighs and the stranger is left bewildered at the ramblings of the girl in front of him, still going on with the complexities of the perfect usage of a magical formula and the blasphemous act of dividing it. At first he was able to keep up with her words but soon started to have difficulty when she started to mention much more complex mathematical structures and usage that was beyond his knowledge.
“It seems she’s completely in her own world.”
“Argh, she’s not gonna stop at all because of that. Oi Monica! We still have an intruder in our house!”
“Intruder is a bit much don’t you think? Besides both of you were the ones that trapped me”
The smile he lets out seemed to make the cat much more annoyed at him.
“You scared the winds out of my master, we had to trap you” The cat soon climbs up to his master and soon his paws reach to her cheeks.
“Oi Monicaaa, come back to us!”
“WHa- huh…”
The stranger flashes to her a sparkling smile as she is looking around her surroundings when she’s come back to reality. “I-I-I-I…” Fear takes over by the second and she soon backs away when she hits the wall, forgetting that she was already at the corner of the room and realizing she can’t escape.
“I really won’t do anything to you alright.”
“I-I’m so-sorry for t-t-trapping y-you!”
An idea conjures in his thoughts and he pairs it with a smile, an amused grin even.
“Hmm, I’d accept your apology in exchange for a little favor.”
“Hey, why do we suddenly owe you something!” The cat goes back to his master's side when the stranger moves closer to the robed girl shivering in fear at the distance closing in.
“Master…are you sure?” The Lizard peeks out on his shoulder and a smile was his only response, one that showed how he has made up his mind.
“Just let me stay here for the next 3 days and I’ll go on my own way”
“M-My hou-house is-isn’t an i-inn-!”
“Indeed, but you’ve technically knocked me out and even restrained me. I could tell you to the other villagers for such actions.”
“W-W-WAIT N-NO-!”
“Besides…” The figure steps closer.
“What would the mage association do if I reported this?”
That was all a complete bluff but he knows its enough to has the girl be struck with the fear of her life somehow flashing before her eyes when his tall figure peers down onto her, never has she seen a smile look far from what its purpose of joy and happiness to something cold and intimidating.
“...O-Okay…”
“Monica?!”
Monica slumps to her knees in defeat from the intimidation and this has the stranger wondering maybe he has gone quite far, settling on kneeling before her and taking something out of his pocket to reassure her. It was a little snack he had brought along on his excursion and he gestures in giving it to her, now flashing a much kinder face towards the girl.
“I’ll be in your care, little squirrel.”
“I-I-I’m a h-human…” This has her sobbing a little more till her mouth is covered with a biscuit.
“I know, Monica right?”
Her cheeks were busy munching on the biscuit so she simply nods in response.
“Call me Ike”
At the end of the afternoon where all the chaos has calmed down starts to dawn on the little mountain hut, Monica herself was still keeping Ike quite a distance as she still fears being around people. Ike himself didn’t seem to show any annoyance towards it and instead finds it amusing, taking off his cloak and putting it on the chair. The only space around the room that wasn’t consumed by the mountains of books was the table in the middle of the hut and it still had quite a few books on it that were sprawled around, saying this place is a mess was an understatement.
“Hey, where’s that little friend of yours I caught, you aren’t hiding him for some other trick now?”
“Oh, him?” Now left with his plain clothes of an undershirt and a brown vest and trousers, the white lizard peers its head out from the pocket of his vest and crawls up to his shoulder. “His name is Will.”
“Oh, a-a-a hi-high spirit…” Monica peers behind the other end of the table, eyes looking up in interest. Ike concludes that she definitely wasn’t an ordinary mage out in the mountains with the amount of knowledge she seems to hold, judging from her instant reaction in magic and babble about formulas.
“I’m Willdianu, master’s ally.” The voice of the high spirit has Monica slightly flinch, probably not expecting such a deep tone to come out.
“Ohh, I’m the great Nero-sama! Make sure to remember that!”
“I will do so Great Nero-sama”
“Y-You don’t ha-have to ca-call h-him that…”
“It was just a joke he made Will”
“IT’S NOT A JOKE!”
An amusing pair of those two make up that left Ike forever amused by such a duo, quite different from the relationship he has with Will.
“U-Um…W-Why a-are you ar-around th-this area, I-Ike-sama…?”
“Just Ike is fine”
“S-Sir Ike?”
A smile flashes her way and she flinches
“Well, I was simply having a journey here and got lost along the way.”
“L-Lost?”
The eyes of a feline soon gazes upon him that Ike immediately catches on, maybe this feline familiar with this little witch wasn’t completely gullible. “Yes, I was about to just give up and make up a camp place somewhere, but thankfully I found your little hut”
“I-I see…”
“It’s quite far away from the village and hidden away, you seem to be quite isolated little squirrel”
“O-Oh-! I-I…w-w-well…” Fingers fiddle and dance around that matched her anxious energy and her eyes peering around, this girl had no such confidence to speak nor be around people. It paints a sad possibility in his mind of the cause of such a personality, but then again he can’t let his guard down still even with such a shy nature.
“...I-It’s…fa-far a-a-away from…from people…”
“I see” Choosing not to push the subject any further and with the time closing in for dinner, Ike looks around for anything that resembles something edible in this little hut the two residents referred to as a home.
“On another note, what do you both usually have to eat?”
“E-Eat…?”
“It’s almost time for dinner after all, and as the host one has to make sure your guest is properly fed.”
“You were just an intruder a while ago…” Muttered the feline who stretched on the table and then proceeded to jump on the shelves.
“O-Oh w-Well..UMm…” Monica flails around where she stood, trying to peer through any of the stack of books for any sign of food. This wasn’t a good sign for their dinner, though the young man is capable of hunting down for a meal outside it was already starting to become dark to see much.
Stumbling and falling on another stack of books, the girl groans in pain from another mess made in the corner of the house. This whole cacophony of a home was starting to make his fingers itch to organize it for the sake of this girl to not be buried by books.
“H-He-HERE!”
Picking up the books that fell and stepping them aside, a box of vegetables soon rises up from the bundle of grimoires the witch fell on and thankfully it was a variety of them.
“I-I thi-think there’s enou-enough for ev-everyone…”
Ike takes the box off of her hands and holds it to his side with one hand, His free hand was about to reach towards her wrist to lift her up but caught in the surprise of almost skin contact she flinches. Falling backwards immediately and falling to another set of grimoires along papers that were stuck in it that ended up flying around, this has the girl groaning in pain yet again as her head was the only thing visible with the books being buried around her.
Quickly putting down the box on the table and deciding to take off the books around instead, stacking them up at any free space available around them.
“Oww…”
“Are you not comfortable with me holding you?”
The answer was obvious when it took her a few more seconds to say a coherent yes under a soft tone.
“Is it okay if I can hold your hand at least? We can’t let Nero’s master get buried by books so soon.”
The cat on top of the beams of the ceiling meows “She’s done this too many times already.”
“I-I’m s-sorry…”
This time he holds out his hand, patiently waiting for her decision at this moment if she opts to hold his hand or not. Monica looks up to a gentle look he holds out for her, not any sign of anger or annoyance present on his face.
Looking away and her bangs covering her eyes unable to completely see her face, he was glad nonetheless that he chose to hold his hand as he pulled her up from those books. With such well-adjusted body coordination that is nowhere near present with Monica, she completely falls again but this time his hand holds her back and she falls gently on his chest.
“Oof…”
“The little squirrel is safe.”
“I-I’m Hu-Human!”
A chuckle from Ike fills the room as he lets go of Monica who goes back to keeping a distance from him again but not as far as she did a while ago.
Now changing their attention to the box of vegetables, the blonde man looks through whatever was in their disposal at the moment. The young witch however seemed nervous where she stood and awaited his reaction, in her mind praying he doesn’t ask her to cook for him.
“Monica, do you cook?”
“GUh-!”
He takes that as an unfortunately not.
“Not to be offensive but seeing how you live here with Nero, I suppose you haven’t had any proper meals in a while?”
“W-Well…hu-humans n-n-need to onl-only live on-on the neces-necessary nutrients.”
“You’re right but if it’s not rude to ask, how old are you?”
“Si-Sixteen!”
She attempts to stand tall and not hunch her back as an act to look like a sixteen year old girl.
‘She’s heavily malnourished for her age, that’s a little odd…’ It wasn’t odd for girls to be of her height but it wasn’t just that giving away her kid-like stature, the way her skin stuck to her almost far too thin and the affinity of coffee judging from the pot around this room. ‘It seems she's far from the surviving at this point…’
A far too familiar scenario was upon him.
“I can cook up something for dinner then, but I’ll only do it if you would do something for me too”
“D-Do So-Something?”
“You have to eat more than 3 bites of the meal”
“M-More tha-than…”
“That’s usually the minimum for a girl of your age.”
Technically it was 3 proper meals a day but he can’t simply rush her to change her lifestyle so suddenly, these kinds of things took time but he’ll just have to make do with the 3 days he has.
“O-Ok…”
“Good, I hope you don’t mind waiting for a while.”
Monica watches the former intruder now house guest move his way along the few spaces in the room to cut the vegetables, she can’t help but look intently at how perfectly cut they were and how he moved swiftly through them and gathers them around a pot.
‘Is he a chef maybe…? The way he cuts the vegetables is in such perfect shape!’
Monica and Nero have had their guesses who this mysterious person was and what he might be, Nero was leaning in to a criminal who had to hide around the mountains in escape though that decision was definitely due to the influence of the novels he’s been reading lately. The witch herself was guessing maybe he truly was just an adventurer nearby hunting through the forest but his knowledge of magic suggested otherwise, she wasn’t blind to the way his eyes seemed to look less hollow at the moment when magic is mentioned in fact she could see the number move ever so differently when he saw sight of her chantless magic.
Other than that, both were quite clueless on what kind of person Ike is supposed to be. With this in mind Monica felt much more inclined to hid the fact she was the Silent Witch since he seems to be much more privy on what he knows about magic than he lets on, the last thing she would want to happen is to have the magic association know where she lives and that means the possibility of being hunted down by a certain barrier mage.
The fragrant scent of cooked vegetables filled the hut, it made Nero immediately rush down near the fireplace to take a look at the pot Ike was stirring at.
“Oh! What’s this sparkles?”
“Sparkles?”
“Yeah cause you’re so sparkly”
Leaving that conversation with a wry smile on his face, he looks back at the pot and continues stirring. “This is just a simple stew with the vegetables we have along, it’s the most we can do right now since we technically don’t have any meat”
“Then that means you can cook something delicious with meat right? Right?!”
“With the right ingredients, I can hopefully cook up something that's suitable.”
“Monica we have to find some meat tomorrow!” The twinkle of joy was evident in the eyes of her feline familiar but Monica only gives him an indifferent look, one that was too used to her companions' musings and constant whines for requests.
“Maybe by tomorrow morning I can hunt something down that is similar to it and cook something else.”
“Really?! You would make a great servant for the great Nero-sama!”
“I am honored” Ike jokingly says
And there goes Monica’s companion in this little hut being immediately convinced with the promise of food, this Ike fellow definitely has a way with his words.
As the minutes and chatting goes by, a delicious stew is soon ready and Monica hurriedly tries to find any decent dishware in her home. Luckily there were two bowls that are unused and she hands them over to Ike who was putting down the stew and tasting it from the ladle.
“Monica”
“Y-Yes?”
“Would you mind tasting this? And tell me if you want anything changed from its taste.”
For this moment, Monica moves just a little bit closer so her mouth can reach the ladle that Ike was about to feed her. Taking a small sip of the stew from the end of the ladle, silently letting the taste in her mind stay and then gulping it.
“...”
“Monica…?”
“It-It’s de-de-de-de-delicous!!”
Expression lighting up in a genuine compliment, it has taken slightly aback at the joy radiating to this gloomy and anxious girl just a second ago.
“Tha-that was delicious! Ike c-cooks amazing!”
“I wouldn’t think so, it’s just a simple stew.”
The witch disagrees more, how could he say something to such a well-made meal! It had a smooth base stew, the vegetables were soft and not hard to chew and that smell, it’s like a well-crafted formula! This kind of meal has to be studied to perfection.
“Oi Sparkles give me some!”
“Since we’re missing one more bowl for you, you’ll have to find another one yourself unless you want to wait instead.”
“What-! Just give me your bowl!”
“Would you rather I dump you in the pot itself?”
“How could you say that to a cute cat like me!!?”
“Ehe..”
The banter in the room comes to a halt when the sound of a small giggle chimes through.
“Monica, your cute familiar isn’t gonna get food and you’re thinking it’s funny?” Nero moves swiftly to climb into her arms and acts all adorable.
“Nero, you’ll get your portion.”
“Come onnnn”
This ensues another giggle from the little witch and the atmosphere feels new, something much warmer than this little mountain hut usually has. Quickly, dinner was soon served and a quiet peaceful meal was shared, mostly filled with Monica’s constant compliments and genuine enjoyment of the meal and Ike just looking at her with a smile. By the time it was Nero’s turn to eat, Monica herself hadn’t noticed she'd finished the whole bowl even though it was half of the portion Ike had, she happily went outside the hut to wash the dishes by running nearby just by the clothesline.
“Seconds!”
“That was the last one”
“WhAAT!?” The cat slumps in devastation at the words of their house guest, whittling away in sorrow at no more delicious stew.
“What kind of food did you guys eat before this?”
“It was this weird soup where Monica would put fish and any vegetables in it…” Nero’s disgust shows with the twitch of his whiskers and the look in his eyes.
“Ah, that makes sense.”
Monica comes back with the bowls and small steps soon approaches the table and puts them on the table.
“Monica…there’s no more stew…”
“You ate it all already…” She decidedly sits down on the chair with Nero who keeps complaining for more food, such was the life of being a cat owner and one with a big appetite.
“You have quite the big appetite but I don’t recall familiar needing to eat at all”
“I just find it fun to enjoy food!”
“I see…”
As the conversation flows between Nero and Ike, the witch finds herself enjoying this little new atmosphere. It was still scary since Ike was still a complete stranger to them, but the way he somehow manages to never seem angry nor look annoyed and had that kind smile puts her just at a moment of ease.
It was scary how it felt this easy to feel like this, the kind of reassurance she used to have till it came crashing down.
‘-Better off living in a mountain cabin–’
Right.
This was temporary, Ike was going to leave in 3 days either way…
It was only for 3 days.
“Aooughh…” A yawn comes out of her mouth, a little drowsy now that time has passed and she’s eaten a good meal.
“Sleepy…”
“Oi Monica-!”
“Woah-”
Ike catches her before she starts to sway and fall off the chair, eyes now fluttering to close and mind starting to doze away. It seems that his little stunt of making sure she eats has worked, hopefully this makes her sleep much more properly now. This gives him time too to go through his own plans with no one to see, alongside the little urge he had from stepping into this hut to go around and check for any clue of who this Monica girl is.
But first he has to make sure this girl is comfortable in her bed, or whatever is left for it as he remembered it’s also surrounded by various books.
“Nero-”
A snore immediately comes to make noise and well, it doesn’t seem like the familiar will be of any help of the moment.
“Will”
The white lizard from his pockets comes out and a mist of blue appears which quickly forms a figure of a man as tall as Ike, in the uniform of an attendant and striking light hair.
“Yes Master”
“Would you mind clearing out the books on Monica’s bed?”
“I’ll set them aside then”
Ike has seen Willdianu do many things weirdly but I guess this was the first he sees the high spirit climb up a ladder to a loft, somehow instead of holding by the sides and taking it step by step, the said high spirit instead opts by skipping to the 3rd step and pushing himself forward till half of his torso was already on the loft. Ike takes a mental note to tell Will some other time about the way to climb ladders where people wouldn’t bat an eye at him.
Books soon starting to be moved out and arranged, Ike adjusts and kneels down as he moves Monica behind him to land on his back in a piggy back carry. Her arms instinctively move to hold around his neck as she mutters something of what seems to be the sequence of pi in her sleep, truly what an odd thing to be dreaming about in a slumber.
Willdianu soon changes back to a lizard once Ike climbs up the loft, making sure Monica is held with his hand behind him and the other pulling himself up the ladder. It was not a problem as he reaches the loft and sees that the high spirit even pulled off the blanket of the bed.
‘His old habits are still around huh…’ Carefully putting down the sleeping girl, even tucking her in ease in the blanket, it's all done swiftly and properly as if it was 2nd nature to him. Hand reaches out to tuck away the hair that was covering her face but he stops when she moves, realizing right now what he was doing he stands up and goes down the ladder.
He stands in the middle of the hut and sighs, hand fiddling with the bangs around his right eye and contemplating his situation right now.
Maybe he was the one that had habits that still stuck around.
He lights up a nearby candle and proceeds to go around the hut to see any information he can get of this girl and her peculiar familiar, there was an itch in his mind he can’t seem to take out and one way to put it out was to simply search the answers yourself.
3 days simply wasn’t enough to make this girl talk to him truthfully, this was a girl who had lost too much and too many.
Besides this was simply a temporary stay, nothing more nothing less.
[ 3 days left ]