Inside the wooden house found at the center of a huge forest, Luna and Akiro started their discussion with the woman that took Claret away.
"Don't worry, it's not something harmful," Luna reassured. She felt the need to do that because she feared that the woman would suddenly attack them with ice spikes when they said something related to Claret. The thought of it sent shivers down her spine.
The woman nodded and sighed in relief but deep inside, she harbored a glint of doubt. Luna flinched from seeing her sharp eyes as she knew if a person was hostile or not.
"We knew about what happened two years ago," Akiro said and continued, "All of it."
Hearing those words, she knew that he was talking about the incident on which she took Claret away from the burning fire. Her heartbeat fastened and couldn't help but be nervous as she began to imagine what powers he had to be able to dig into her secrets.
"Then?" she said nonchalantly. The woman gripped her left hand tightly inside her clothes pocket.
He did not answer and instead, Akiro stared towards Luna and said, "Luna, tell them our purpose here."
Luna stared back at him with her furrowed brows. He was the one who needed to finish this task yet he did not have any ounce of patience in explaining the entire situation, however, something entered her mind.
'Was he assigning her a task to do?' she said.
'but he was still lazy,' she thought, frowning.
Whether that's the real reason or not, Luna chose to explain it to them but a certain problem bugged her mind so she went closer to Akiro.
"Do I need to include the time-travel topic?" Luna whispered. Akiro nodded and went silent after. He took the tea that was prepared for them and busied himself with it. Luna's face wrinkled by the sight of his actions.
'What's wrong with this man!' Luna thought.
She prevented herself from blowing up and faced the two ladies in front of her awkwardly and faked a cough.
"How do I explain this," Luna whispered to herself and looked at them. "Uhm, the man beside me is Akiro, the wish maker which he already said earlier. We have a task to do about the wish of the man named John. I think the name's familiar to you, isn't it?" she said.
One of the ladies nodded. Claret knew her but the other woman didn't. Her brows furrowed when Claret nodded.
"John obtained a wish from Akiro. He wanted his sister to return back to life. It was obviously an impossible task for everyone let alone the wish maker. Unbeknownst to him, his sister is not dead. You're Claret right?" Luna said.
"Y-yes, I remember now! My brother who I've been seeing in my dreams," Claret answered while her eyes visibly longed for her only family, her brother. It was too painful for the young lady to spend two years without any communication from each other.
"You, for this past two years, I should have been guessing his name if I know that it'll trigger your memories to come back," the woman said.
"If John didn't know about his sister's condition, then how do you know that she's alive?" the woman asked.
Luna had questions too regarding the memories she was talking about however she chose to continue explaining their reason for coming here first.
The woman's suspicion clearly didn't subside completely after hearing her question about John. Nonetheless, Luna thought she would have done the same. Who would have thought that someone was capable of traveling through time?
"Well, he," Luna said and pointed to Akiro who was still busy with his tea.
"He's capable of time-traveling. It sounds impossible but it's the truth. I was with him too. If not, there's no way we should have known how you took Claret away from the raging fire. The people assumed that she's easily burned but we did not. We followed you at that time, I don't know why you didn't notice," Luna said.
The woman widened her eyes, hearing about his overwhelming powers made her baffled. She didn't know what other things he has up his sleeves. "If you really did time travel, why you didn't approach me at that time?" she asked.
"Past cannot be changed and we can't interact with people in the past," Akiro said.
The woman seemed to believe them and lowered her guard especially to the mysterious man in front.
"There's a reason why I took her away. It's because everything that has happened is just a misunderstanding," the woman said.
"A-h, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Mavel Theal, a magic-user," she said.
"Misunderstanding?" Akiro uttered.
The woman named Mavel nodded.
"That's true because the witch they're pertaining about was me and not Claret. I always went to the village at a certain time and it happened that they mistook me for Claret. We have the same black long wavy hair, and coincidentally, we both wear dark-colored clothes especially black, usually trousers that's usually for men,
"Who would have guessed that another woman did the same? It's also night too and that city councilor that I got into a fight and labeled me as a witch mistook Claret as me!"
Her face was filled with anger after talking about the misunderstanding incident.
"And in return, I took care of her. Because of her heavy injuries, the side effect of my medicine gave her temporary loss of memories," Mavel explained.
"Mavel said she'll help me find my family after regaining back my memories," Claret said. Her excitement couldn't be hidden anymore as she kept holding onto her thin thread of hope.
"Not just her, we'll help you too," Luna said as she felt the same as Claret and thought, 'The life Claret had suffered for this past two years will end right here.'
"I'll not let that man after he mistook me for someone else!" Mavel uttered.
"But if you get outdoors, will you be chased again?" Akiro asked.
"It won't be the same. I have shown myself to the officials and explained the incident. They weren't as close-minded as that councilor! They also said that I should show myself when the news about me subsided so I waited for a year although I decided to show up when Claret regained her memories," Mavel explained.
"Then I hope that we can let them meet as soon as possible," Akiro said.
However, Luna thought that he's just hurrying to finish this task.
"That's not a problem. I'm sincerely thankful for your help. You're a blessing. We'll not forget about your kindness," Mavel said.
Akiro didn't respond which Luna expected but she somehow felt something different.
"We'll prepare first before going with you. It will not take too long," Mavel uttered.
Luna took the liberty to respond. "No worries, we'll wait," she said.
'I'm thankful that everything went smoothly today,' Luna thought.
~~To be continued...