There was only a bath tub and small sink in the bathroom; no drainages. A magic circle was drawn at the top of the ceiling and by the sink. Clearly, they were for water producing magic circles, whereas the smaller magic circles at the bottom of the tub and sink seemed to be tampered teleportation magic circles that would only suck the water out.
Despite Laris not having been to Sorcerer's Nation for a very long time, he was knowledgeable. He tapped a few runes in the magic circle to change their orientation to activate them. The hot water poured over his tired body, eventually revealing his fiery red hair. He missed taking baths.
He sighed while combing his hair with his fingers; the knots getting stuck between his fingers. After unconsciously staring at this knot for a while, he closed his eyes and took another breath.
Once you stop working, once you stop moving, you can't help but think about the memories that you don't want to remember; the pain in your heart that you don't want to be acknowledged. So you keep busy, just for the purpose of forgetting, even if only by a little bit.
Laris finished his bath immediately and dressed using the borrowed garbs he saw in the cabinet. He took a stone and dyed his hair a light shade of brown. To be honest, he had been extremely lucky ever since he left the woods. Maybe fate had felt bad at him having to leave the only person he did not want to leave.
Regardless, this was an opportune moment for him. Laris careful tugged at the bangs that covered his emerald-colored eye. He'd never really admit that he had an inferiority complex about his eye, which led him to hiding it. He wasn't as confident as he portrayed unlike his twin. In fact, he had somewhat guessed that he liked sticking close to his cousin, Videre, because the insecure and awkward Videre was similar to his hidden self. He unconsciously wanted to spoil Videre in place of himself.
However, they were different people and Laris knew this. Spoiling Videre could not compensate for disregarding his true desires.
He leaned by the window, seeing many festive bandiritas and lanterns all over the street. The Sorcerer-kind loved beauty. It was quite obvious given their rich variety of magic cosmetic items. For a moment, Laris froze before he duck down to hide immediately when a person below suddenly turned to look at the inn's direction.
What's Vihan doing here?!
A legion of thoughts passed through his head. Was he alone for an errand? Did it have something to do with the Lycan guards temporarily stationed by the fortress guards? He'd been missing for almost half a year. What had happened while he was away?
Now that he thought about it, was he really so sure that Videre and Obrecht would travel back to Barred Forest, especially now that he wasn't there to navigate. Were they somehow related to the ban on travel by broom? In any case, he needed to find the purpose of Vihan's visit. It didn't seem like a vacation to Laris. Before he could arrive with the most probable reason—
Knock, knock.
Slowly, Laris moved to grab the wooden chair, his eyes never leaving the door as he crawled to a stand from the window side to the door. He wasn't sure if he had been found out by Vihan. If he was, did he send someone to check the inn?
Knock, knock, knock—
If Vihan really did catch sight of him earlier, then there was no way to escape even if he jumped out of the second floor window. He waited for the next move of the person on the other side of the door, clutching his only weapon—the chair.
"It's Ann. May I come in?"
Even at the sound of a familiar voice, Laris didn't relax his guard, however, he hid it well. Grabbing the knob, he cautiously opened it by a little bit to see the face of Ann smiling outside his door. Just by his gesture, it could be seen that he did not want anyone to barge in his room. Unfortunately, Ann didn't pay him any mind as she clutched the door and pushed it open while chattering.
"What are you doing—you're so slow! Did you just finish taking a bath? You haven't even finished drying your hair!"
Laris completely lost any interest at being cautious. He closed the door after surveying the empty second floor lobby.
"You didn't have to grab a chair for me", Ann cheerfully said as she saw the chair Laris held in his other hand.
Speechless, Laris could only drag it back by the table to sit on it himself as Ann had already sat on the bed.
"You haven't said your name yet", Ann suddenly brought up.
"My name...is Salta."
"That's the first time I've ever heard of such a name", Ann smiled. It's nice to meet you, Salta."
Laris nodded once in her direction, his eyes looking down as if guilty for having used his mate's reversed name.
"Oh, I had these in my room too!" She exclaimed as she grabbed a couple of Dye-a-Little pebbles from the bedside table. "We should make the most of it while we're staying here! If I remembered correctly, then there was a five-day festival that's starting tonight. Wouldn't it be fun to join in? Mina and I could just hide our ears and color our hairs black!"
"The Sorcerer-kind likes rainbow-colored hairs. If you color your hair black, you'd be a bear hiding behind a bamboo pole."
"A bear behind a bamboo pole?"
"You'd likely get everyone's attention instead", Laris clarified for the confused Korrigan.
"Oh! I knew that", Ann grumbled. "Then, let's color your hair first. See any colors you want?"
Laris didn't admit to having already used one of those consumables. He silently let Ann fuss around and go so far as brush his hair. He didn't deny a stranger touching his hair, because he wanted to offhandedly ask her a few questions.
When Laris didn't back away or disagree to her selfish request, Ann was quite happy. She took a stone and compared a strawberry-blonde pebble and nightshade white-streaked pebble side by side.
After a while of watching her undecided, Laris asked, "Why did you save me?"
Ann blinked for a moment before putting down the lighter colored pebble. She fluffed Laris' hair and said, "It wasn't me who saved you. Mina and Felix were also there."
Even if she said that, Laris was aware that if this person didn't really insist, then her companions might not have even bothered. Seeing that Laris kept silent, Ann paused for a moment and began talking once more.
"Mina is just cautious. Being one of the Korrigan-kind and female, we have been through a lot. She only wants to protect us from any...um, she called it, uh... 'risk factors'."
Laris, "If you wanted to reduce risk factors, why did you come go to Sorcerer's Nation?"
"Because of Felix."
"Felix? Because of your debt with Felix?"
"It's not a debt. Well, maybe it is, but, Mina and I are very grateful to Felix." Ann had resumed her cheerful face, stretching her hands to slowly dye Laris' hair a beatiful rich color of nightshade blue, with a few strands of white. "Mina and I actually grew up together. When we'd go to places, we'd go together. One day, when we were picking wild berries at the outskirts of our home..." She trailed off, a hint of nostalgia and pain in her tone.
"We were caught by slave traffickers that day. They had traveled us like cargo to the border and until to the north. They planned to sell us at the underground market of Lycan Kingdom."
Laris' eyes briefly flashed at this new information before hiding his reaction once more. He wasn't aware that an underground market had already been established back at his 'hometown'. He didn't interrupt Ann as she emotionlessly retold their story with a certain detachment; she spoke as if it didn't concern her—as if it weren't she and Mina whom she was talking about.
"Among those slave-traffickers was Felix. I'd seen him a few times but he was always outcasted by the others. They even called him despicable names, as if they weren't the true despicable ones", Ann whispered, softly but firmly defending Felix's name. "One night, when those bad men had a bit to much to drink, they took Mina. I couldn't do anything at that time. I could only watch as they tried to have their way with her." The grip on Laris' hair made his scalp slightly itchy, but he remained still and silent despite his discomfort. "Then that white-haired stranger came and massacred them all."
A white-haired stranger? Laris furrowed his eyebrows.
"He killed every single one of those bastards", she serenely said. "Felix could have chosen to continue with the plan and sell us. We were more or less still bound and he had the right to do as he wished—we wouldn't have been able to resist. If he did, he'd have all the profit to himself, but, Felix—he let us go. He gave us the right to choose for our own future. Many of us chose to hide away and find other ways to go back home, but Mina wanted to stay with Felix to repay his kindness, and I just wanted to stay with Mina." Ann smiled at Laris. "I don't want her to get misunderstood by someone somewhere and anger some people. Given her personality, she just might offend everybody she comes across", she shook her head.
"Hm", Laris hummed just to indicate he was still listening to her.
After a bout of silence, Ann added, "I know I should have been thankful to that white-haired stranger, but more than that person, it was Felix who really saved us. You don't know what it means to have been handed back the right to choose for yourself after being robbed exactly that."