"I see him in a new light now!" Mirra said excitedly. "He always reminded me of a stray cat, whenever I approached him he would run away or glared at me. But actually, he is a tiger!"
Although Mirra was enthusiastically praising Senka, inside Rena's mind she only noted that cat and tiger also exist in this world. Perhaps their relationship would improve from now on, that's what Rena thought while her hand was busy stirring the red liquid in the pot.
Mirra moved her head around, watching the surrounding. Then after some time, she asked, "How's the potion?"
"Almost done," Rena answered her.
They were crouching behind the dovecote tower when they met Luna, secretly brewing the red potion. After went back to the mansion, Rena decided to make the red potion. And thanks to Mirra's skill, they successfully 'borrowed' a pot and a ladle from the kitchen.
"Purple sis, you'll get rich in no time if you sell this," Mirra said, watching curiously at the bubbling red liquid, looking very impressed.
"The matter I learned magic is a secret. I can't sell this." Rena said.
"You could leave it to me." Mirra winked and made a thumb up gesture.
"No," Rena said sternly, shaking her head. "I don't want you to get into trouble."
She thought that even if she could sell it, she probably wouldn't. After seeing Baudric getting so excited over the potion she made, she had a feeling it shouldn't be distributed in the market.
"Oh, by the way," Rena said again. "I met Baudric today."
"Hmm? The Bull Oldman?" Mirra stared above her head, recalling the memory where they met Baudric.
"Yeah, I saw him when I went out of the Colosseum with Frei."
"Oh..." Mirra uttered the sound quietly.
"What's up, Mirra?" Rena glanced at Mirra, noticing that she went quiet.
Mirra was staring at the rose candy inside the paper bag Rena brought before she turned to look at Rena and said, "What do you think of him, Purple sis?"
"Who?" Rena frowned, hearing the unusual question from Mirra.
"Frei," Mirra said without batting eyelashes.
"Eh?! Why are you asking something like that?!" The shock made her almost dropped her ladle.
"Sssh! Be quiet!" Mirra covered Rena's mouth quickly.
When she lowered her hand, Mirra said again, "Well, I think he likes you."
"...What makes you think so?" Rena asked. She was skeptical. In her eyes, Frei always treated everyone nicely, although he was way too 'friendly' with her.
Her stirring became too fast as her heart rate increased. Rena knitted her eyebrows, maintaining her focus on the liquid. She didn't want to mess up the potion and redo the work.
"Because whenever he is with you he keeps smiling," Mirra said.
"Those fake smiles?" Rena said, unconvinced.
"Mmmm... He becomes soft and kind if it's involved you."
It wasn't once or twice that Mirra had seen Frei being overly kind to Rena. It really was an unusual treatment for someone bought as a slave.
"Isn't he kind to you as well?" Rena said.
Mirra quietly glanced at Rena, whose gaze was fixed on the red liquid in front of her. Rena didn't know that Mirra had seen another face of Frei that night in the burning village. He was definitely not always soft and kind. In her heart, Mirra partially blamed Frei. He was the cause of her village was burned to ash, Lord Sennan and those bandits fell into his scheme.
"Yeah... I guess..." Mirra replied weakly.
Soon, the red liquid glow and the bubbling stopped, disrupting their conversation.
"It's done now!" Rena said loudly, happily. She poured the liquid into three separate bottles, one for Mirra, one for herself, and one for Senka.
Mirra took a sip as soon as Rena gave the bottle to her.
"Oowww, yess! I'm overflowing with energy!!" Mirra exclaimed excitedly, hopping happily like an Easter bunny.
"Hopefully, this will help him," Rena said, looking at the bottle she held in her hand.
"It will! Definitely! If he doesn't want it, he is a fool!" Mirra said.
They made sure to clean the place after that. Rena cast Water, to extinguish the fire she cast earlier, and Wind, to remove all the traces of ashes and cinders. Then Mirra returned the cooking utensils she took from the kitchen.
Unfortunately, through the rest of the day, nobody saw Senka. Even after another amusing dinner with the Jaunice family, there was no trace of Senka. At first, Rena was concerned if something might have happened, Neel said to her that he didn't feel Senka's presence in the estate. However, Frei and Sebastian were behaving as usual. As a result, not until late that she started to become concern about his whereabouts. Senka just won a brilliant match, and nobody seemed to care that his presence was absent. It was odd. So, rather than guessing, it was better confirming with the other party. She decided to ask Frei or Sebastian.
There was only one little problem...
After dinner, everyone went into their room.
"Ask him, ask him not, ask him, ask him not, ask... Arghh!!"
She randomly used the flower in the vase, trying to decide whether to ask Frei or not.
She'd rather go to Sebastian, but when she asked the maid who just came from the east wing, the maid said he was still in Frei's room. She couldn't erase the memory from the early afternoon that Frei said he was going to tell her the truth... with one condition.
"Really! What should I do?!" She shouted, holding her head, conflicted at the thought of entering that man's room at night. She knew Frei must be enjoying her suffering like this.
[Just to remind you, if you go there, you're by yourself.]
"Thanks, Neel, you are very helpful!" She spouted her irritation verbally.
"It will be alright if Sebastian is there," Rena said, convincing herself. "It isn't that late and people haven't slept yet."
She walked through the corridor that was done in every shade of pink. The skirt of her dress flapped when she walked, going to the east wing, the opposite direction of her room.
When Rena arrived, she saw the door was slightly opened. One centimeter gap was enough for the light inside the room to seep through between the space, giving a contrasting silhouette of the door in the dim corridor.
Her footsteps stopped when she heard Frei and Sebastian was talking. Their voice wasn't that clear from this distance, but judging from their tone, it sounded like a serious matter. She crept slowly, approaching the door, curious about what they were talking.
"To think he would attend this event..." Frei talked to Sebastian.
"Yes. And this just proves that he has moved." This time it was Sebastian's voice.
"I'm afraid so. We must be careful, we can't make any careless move anymore." Frei sounded troubled. After a few seconds of silence, he talked again, "I also met Beornoth today. He... recognized me."
"Beornoth? Oh, he's still up with his antics. What did he say?" Sebastian said, his tone wasn't as formal as he usually was.
Before Frei could answer, Sebastian had opened the door where Rena was trying to eavesdrop. She flinched when the door was opened. Then she stared up at Sebastian's face and was attacked by a sudden chill across her body. That was not the expression of Sebastian she knew. His gaze was as cold as ice and an intimidating aura emanated from his body. The image that flashed on her mind was Hannibal wanted to eat her.
When he saw who was in front of the door, Sebastian calmed down.
"Miss Serena." He greeted her. "Isn't this a little late? Is there something you need with Master Frei?"
"I... I just want to ask where Senka is." Rena tried to make her voice as calm as possible, but she couldn't stop trembling. She hid both her trembling hands behind her body.
"Senka is staying at another place right now because he is one of the contestants. Young Sir Jaunice is part of the prize after all. We want to avoid them protesting."
"Ye-yeah, I guess it wouldn't be fair to other contestants." She couldn't think of anything right now, so she said whatever crossed her mind. "Then, I'll go back to my room now. Thanks, Sebastian."
"No problem, Miss Serena."
"Wait," Frei spoke.
Rena peeked from the space that wasn't covered by Sebastian's body. Frei was sitting crossed legs near the fireplace, wearing a serious expression. Not only Sebastian whose expression just now was unfamiliar to her, the man behind him was also wearing an expression unlikely of him.
Her instinct told her she just got into something really bad.
"Sebastian, let her in. I want to talk to her." Even his tone was unfamiliar to her. Frei didn't order Sebastian with calm and relaxed manner like he usually was, he was commanding him.
She wanted to refuse but Sebastian had moved aside, Rena glanced at Sebastian when she walked into the room, his gaze earlier made her aware he wasn't a normal person. She thought it was given, if Frei wasn't a normal merchant then Sebastian wasn't a normal merchant's assistant either.
"Just sit wherever you like," Frei said. His tone still carried seriousness from his early conversation with Sebastian.
Rena hesitated before picking the short stool that was the closest to the door. When she lowered her body to sit, she stole a glance at the door. Sebastian had left the room. She cursed in her heart.
"I came here just to ask about Senka's whereabouts," Rena said.
"Oh, really? And here I thought you wanted to hear about yourself." He said, showing his naughty cat smile.
"Since I'm here already, let's talk about it." She said, gripping her dress while looking at the man who definitely enjoyed making fun of her.
They stared at each other before Frei making a small laugh, his voice became softer. "Honestly, I thought you wouldn't come."
"As I said..."
But her words were cut.
"Rena, I want you to be my bride."
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