-Charm's POV-
*Tick tock… tick tock*
The very first thing I heard was the sound coming from a nearby clock the moment I regained back my senses. With all of the force I could muster, I slowly opened my eyes and sat straight on my bed.
My bed…
Wait, where am I again?
I roamed around my eyes to scan the whole place to where I am in right now, and felt a sigh of relief after I realized that I am back in Lucas' place once again.
A few moments later, my ears seemed to twitch the moment I heard someone yawning along with some bones lightly cracking, as if someone is stretching his arms right now.
As I scanned the place to look for the owner of that sleepy voice, my eyes almost popped out of its sockets as soon as I spotted Lance on a nearby sofa, adjacent to where my bed is.
When the lad chose to sit properly and turned to look at me with that sheepish smile of his, he was a bit shocked to see me already awake, as I am also surprised to see him here either.
"L-LANCE?! What are you doing here? And how come you're even here?!" I almost shouted, with my index finger pointing at him hysterically.
I instantly felt my cheeks burning when I saw his presence here!
"Relax, will 'ya? I was here, with Lucas' permission, to wait for you to wake up. But I also fell asleep as I did that." he chuckled upon seeing my bewildered expression plastered on my face.
"If you're asking where the others are, they're in Lucas' dining room downstairs, preparing for our lunch."
From him, my eyes shifted to the wall clock hanging in front of me.
"Woah, it's almost 12 noon! I must have slept longer than what I intended to do."
"Yeah, but that's okay. At least you had a long rest." he responded.
After his last statement, I wasn't able to respond immediately, thus we were soon embraced by this awkward silence for a while. It didn't take that long before Lance chose to break it and spoke again, that made my heart flutter once again…
"You don't have to be awkward with me, nor be afraid that I'm here. As what I've said last time, being who you are doesn't change the fact that you're a kind person and you're my friend too."
He decided to pause for a moment and gave me his sincere smile.
"So can we go back now to being friends, just like before? Pretty please?"
I almost chuckled to the sudden change in his tone of voice. One moment he sounded serious and sincere, then he changed to being childish all of a sudden.
"You're even prettier when you laugh…" I heard him comment which stopped me from laughing. I didn't even know I was already chuckling!
I chose to remain silent and slightly bobbed my head downwards to hide my face heavily tainted with red at the moment. Gosh, this guy!
"Anyway, the very reason as to why I'm here is because… I've already decided to help you out with your mission." My forehead instantly creased upon looking at him once again.
He let out a grin upon seeing the confused look on my face.
"If you wanted to ask how did I know about it...well Aurora told me about your mission of reviving the ancient springs." he said, still grinning.
Aaaahhh that woman!
He continued. "As the heir to the throne, I would like to help you end this on-going Witch Hunt, Charm. I promise that I will do all means to create a new world, where you don't have to hide anymore…"
*Badump… badump*
The moment his hazel brown eyes met mine, my heartbeat started to do a tango. I could feel it throbbing loudly through my chest, like it might come out any second from now.
I wonder if he could hear it too?
*BOGGSSHH!*
This awkward moment was suddenly interrupted by the violent sound of the door banging viciously, like someone did that on purpose. Me and Lance instantly jerked our heads towards the door as it revealed the figures of Lucas and Aurora entering this room.
"Have mercy on the door, will 'ya?!" Aurora screamed at Lucas, who in turn ignored her as he walked towards my direction.
"I'm happy you had a long rest today." Lucas said, smiling, as he looked at me.
"Y...eah. Thank you so much for letting us stay here once again." I thanked the lad whole-heartedly.
"Well, lunch is now being served at the dining room. Let's all go down now, shall we?"
My stomach automatically growled upon hearing that from Lucaas, which earned me a chuckle from the rest of the persons who are now in this room with me. That made my face turn red once again.
***
Later on, we wasted no time and went downstairs straight to where Lucas' dining room is. I can see Johanne already sitting on one of the seats, with my doll Trash sitting on his lap. Baal, on the other hand, is sitting on the wooden floor, with his own plate served in front of him.
My eyes almost sparkled at the sight of delicious meals being served at the table. I hastily went to a chair and took a seat and so did the others.
As we all started to eat, I can feel my heart almost exploding with so much happiness. I mean, a few weeks ago… back when I'm still in Deity Morrel's temple, I only had Baal to accompany me whenever I had my meals.
But now…I can't believe that I finally have these people whom I could call 'friends to share a meal with me at the moment.
No more wasting of my magic energy just to create a talking doll, unlike before…
I wish for this moment to never end…
"Charm, is there… something bothering you?"
I snapped out of my thoughts the moment I heard Lucas spoke to get my attention, who's currently seated right in front of me. And with that, others also turned their heads to look at me.
"Uhh… I'm just being grateful for this moment that I've got to experience sharing meals with everybody else, that's all." I responded while doing a minimal eye contact with the rest of the group.
"Oh! Well, from now on, you'll have us to share meals with you for as long as you like!" Aurora beamed. The others also started smiling at me.
"She's right." My eyes then landed on Lance, who's currently sitting on my right and is grinning at me while flashing his set of white teeth..
"You have us now, so you can forget all your past experiences from now on."
I smiled at him in return.
"Thank you, everyone…"
Again, I wish for this moment to never end…
***
We have just finished eating our lunch and are now busy helping Lucas to clear the dining table when we heard several knocks from the door.
"I'll go get it." We all heard Lucas speak.
I finished clearing the table and glanced over at the lad as he opened the door. We were a bit surprised to see several soldiers of this city standing outside.I was stunned for a bit.
"Are you Lucas?" asked one soldier.
"Yes. Why?" Lucas responded calmly.
"You have to go with us...NOW!"
Before the lad could even protest, two well-built soldiers were now on both Lucas' sides as they made a tight grip on both of his shoulders.
Feeling a bit flabbergasted on what's going around now, I attempted to cast a spell to prevent them from taking Lucas away but Baal gave me a warning look, as if to prevent me from using my powers against them.
When Lucas and the soldiers are now out of our sight, that's the time that I finally gained my energy to speak.
"Why didn't you let me protect him?!" I shouted at the talking guardian animal, who in turn remained calm on his spot.
"We all know that Lucas did something wrong in this city, thus that's the reason why he's being summoned now by the duke" Baal tried to explain, but I only gritted my teeth.
"If you really wish to save him…" the guardian animal continued when I remained silent. "You must go directly to the duke and have a peaceful arrangement with him, to avoid any conflict to arise with mortals."
I remained silent as I weighed my choices here. Yeah sure I could just barge in on the duke's place and forcefully get Lucas out of the dungeon.
But Baal here has a point. The reason as to why we're helping humans is to get rid of our bad image to them. With me forcefully getting Lance back wouldn't do us any good at all.
I sighed "Okay. Fine. I'll do it." I said in a flat tone.
"But if things get out of hand.." I continued.
"I might have to use force then."