"Miss Lucy, you're back!"
"Hey Nicolas, how's the smithing going?"
"It's going well."
The young lady was back at the Jaeger household looking somewhat exhausted. Nicolas quickly noticed and offered the young lady a seat.
"Here! I'll clean this up for you so you can sit!" He rushed towards the couch and cleared all the blacksmithing research books that were put on top of it.
The young lady slightly smiled, "Thank you Nicolas. You're very kind."
The young man's cheeks flushed red. Every single one of her gestures made him cautious, but can you blame him? He never in his life had an interaction with anyone of the opposite sex who was close to his age. Being alone with her made him uneasy and with a need to keep the conversation going. Anything to keep the silence from overflowing the room and making things awkward for the both of them.
"How was the stroll? The lake is very nice, isn't it?"
The young lady was looking down at her knees lost in thought, "Yes, it is."
"The water is very clear and when the sunset hits, it's a sight for sore eyes!"
"Yes, it is."
The young man was in a predicament because of Lucy's lack of conversation.
It was not his place to intrude into her thoughts without being permitted to go in. He refrained from asking about the matter, but he did know there was something personal going on in the young lady's life. He knew it the moment she arrived unannounced at the front door, barely able to stand.
—I'm not the only one who has a problem to overcome.
Everyone has their own skeletons in the closet, even Nicolas. He has been dealing with his inner turmoil for some time. Lucy was just like him. Someone who doesn't want to get anybody involved in his business because it will only bring them misfortune. Nicolas wondered what he could do. He wanted to lift her spirits up. To see that smile of hers again. Like the one she showed him the first time they spoke.
—I need something that will get her to forget her worries for just a bit... I know!
"Hey, miss Lucy, take a look at this."
The young lady furrowed her eyebrows as the young man gestured her to open her hands. He carefully placed out the dagger he had made. The young man thought that maybe showing the dagger would entertain the young lady enough to get her out of her mind for a bit.
As a matter of fact, it did. She looked at the dagger amazed, "Mister Nicolas, did you do that? It looks amazing!" She examined the dagger, caressing her fingers along the blade.
The young man puffed out his chest, "Yep! At first try!" He said, lying through his teeth.
Lucy turned to look at the pile Nicolas had promised William to clean up. After the blacksmith left, he decided to leave it be for the time being. He thought he'd clean it up just before his master came back. What he didn't know was that it would backfire on him later.
"That is-um... don't look!" The young man was flailing his arms around to distract her from the pile.
The young lady laughed, "You're an odd one. You know that?"
The young man smiled at her.
—There it is... That is the beautiful smile that I wanted to see.
His emerald eyes would get lost in her smile. It was a smile that was never forced, one that came naturally to her. It brought a weird sensation to his stomach. One that he couldn't put into words.
—What is this weird feeling?
"It's impressive to see something of this caliber being made by you. Didn't you start just a few days ago? —hm?" She sensed the magical flow of the weapon through her fingers, "You even learned how to implement magic..."
"Miss Lucy, are you familiar with blacksmithing?"
"Oh, just a little bit." The young lady averted her eyes from Nicolas.
"I see... Well, I got to thank my master for that. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been able to get this far."
William made Nicolas go through rigorous training. He made him wake up early these last few days to work. He taught him from how to make a bell to how to make a dagger and just recently to turn it into a magical weapon.
--That reminds me!
He looked through the window and saw that it was already getting dark outside. As much as he would like to spend time talking with the young lady, he had other responsibilities.
--I need to get back to work.
He returned to the task given to him by his master. He sat down and started making the rest of the daggers he needed to make. Without taking his eyes off his work, he asked the young lady something that'd been on his mind for a while, "Mind me asking when you met my master?"
The young lady smiled at the back of the young Nicolas. She found it adorable how the young man wanted to know more about his master, "Not at all. Let's see..." Lucy thought back to that time, "When I first met him, I was in a bit of a pinch. There were some kids chasing after me in the town."
"What? That's mean!"
Lucy sat back on the couch and stared at the ceiling as she took a deep breath, "They chased me all the way into the forest. I managed to get away, but I got lost in the process." She twiddled her thumbs in embarrassment, "Then I heard a scream. I ran to see who it was and saw the children who were chasing me. One was badly injured while the other two held a stick against the beasts."
"They were fighting the beasts?!"
The young lady shook her head, "It looked to me like they were cornered."
"Then, what happened afterwards?!" Nicolas suddenly got excited. It was as if Lucy was reading him a heroic story. He hung on to every word, waiting for the conclusion.
"Hmm, I can't remember..."
"Huh?!"
Lucy tried to remember what happened afterwards, but she got a headache from pushing herself so hard to remember. The young man noticed and stood up to tend to her, but she gestured to him that there was no need. "I sort of... blacked out? After that, all I remember is being carried out of the forest by William."
The young man looked amazed, "Maybe my master saved all of you!" He had expected nothing else of his master.
"Yes, I believe so."
It was the only logical explanation. The only thing that bothered her was that she was the only one who went out with the blacksmith. The children that were chasing her, she couldn't recall what happened to them.
She thought back to after the incident. She tried to remember if she had ever seen those kids again around the town, but her mind was completely blank. She recalled looking at every corner of the town for them, but she never found the children. Not even her family members were around anymore.
The only one who could tell her what had happened to them was none other than the man, William Jaeger. He was the one who she woke up to. He was the only one who was around that knew about the aftermath of the incident. Surely, he had to know where these missing people had gone to.
Even though she spent every day beside him ever since that incident, she never got the chance to ask, or rather she was too afraid to ask. She was afraid to know what really happened to everyone. Even if she didn't get an answer, she saw a side of the man that she'd never thought he'd had.
At that time, she was always with him. Following him around as he did his daily task. One would get annoyed being followed around by a kid, but that was not how the man acted. Instead, he always greeted her with a smile. He was the only person who showed her genuine kindness.
She was surprised that he barely remembered her at the bar despite the time they spent together, but that's just how the laid-back attitude of William was. Just thinking about the man made her cheeks red. Her face felt hot, but she had no fever.
--I'm a terrible person. Would he be able to forgive me after he finds out? she thought.
As if the boy had read her thoughts, he said aloud, "Master is a really kind person."
The young lady looked at him with wide eyes. "Huh? Ni-"
"-I don't have a family. As far as I remember, I've always been by myself. Even when I thought I had people around me."
"Nicolas..."
The young man had finished polishing one of the daggers, he looked at himself in the reflection of the blade and smiled. "In the little time I've been living with my master, he is giving me what everyone else couldn't since the day I was born."
The young lady cocked her head confused, "What is it that he gave you?"
The young man smiled at her and said, "A home."
As far as Nicolas can recall, he'd never met his parents. He doesn't know if they are even alive. All his life he felt like he was locked in a room secluded from society. As for the reason he felt this way, it was unknown to him. His company was the same heroic fairy tales and the history books that he always kept beside him. All that he knows is that he was outside one day and decided to walk forward, never looking back.
He could barely get any food or water until he stumbled upon the town of Aoba and met his master.
He never heard of the Jaeger family name until he overheard conversations around the town. He knew that if he wanted to change his life, the man was the key to it. Every day he would go to the man and ask him to be his apprentice. Even when the man refused his request, he didn't give up. He knew that if he did, his life would be set in poverty. He wasn't comfortable with his life ending in such a sad way. In his heart he knew he was meant for greatness.
After being rejected, William always offered to take Nicolas to get food and water. He would sit around and talk to him. He genuinely felt cared for by someone else. That's when he noticed something about William: he was different than everybody else. He acknowledges his existence and treats the young man with nothing but kindness, something that he lacked since the moment he was born. Although, he has a grumpy way of showing it.
--The moment he finally took me in, I noticed he treated me like... family.
The young man clenched his fists at his newly found resolution.
--I will not disappoint my master!
"Sorry that I can't keep you entertained anymore, miss Lucy, but I need to get working on these daggers."
The young lady smiled at the man's determination, "It's alright and thank you Nicolas... for cheering me up."
The young man's face flushed red, and he quickly resumed his work, hiding his face from Lucy.
Looking around, the young lady noticed that some time had passed, and the subject of their main conversation hadn't shown up. "Before I leave you with your work, do you know where William might be? It's getting late."
"Hm? He came here a while ago, but he went out again. He said he was meeting a friend. As you can see, my master doesn't sit still in one place for too long." The young man scratched his head as he wryly smiled.
"A... Friend?"
The young lady turned to look outside the window. The moon had settled in the night sky. She sensed the beasts as they crawled around the darkness.
"Then, I'll be right back as well!"
"Hm? Miss Lucy, wait!" the young man called out, but Lucy had already run out the door.