Arnacia looked at Archie with an expressionless face. She wasn't going to listen to his bizarre request of cross dressing. He will be fine since I agreed for now, she thought.
"Thank you, sister." Archie's hands pushed the ground to help him get up, but suddenly his muscles flared up and his butt fell on the ground again. His eyes teared up a little, so he lowered his head. "Tell Lylia that I will be alright for the challenge."
"Let us carry you to bed," Arnacia said.
"Sister, I want to rest in the sun for a bit. You go, and meet Lylia."
"I will go tomorrow," Arnacia turned to walk away and Naomi followed.
Archie heard the retreating footsteps. He looked around before letting out a grunt. The sun had prepped and the gentle warmth finally invaded his skin. It made him forget about everything for a second. He dragged his body to further lie on the ground.
His expression was distorted when he stopped still in a comfortable position. The sunlight made his eyes and teeth shine. A few coughs mixed in laughter left his mouth as he thought about how his sister never lied.
***
In front of the house, Naomi pulled Arnacia's hand. She shushed and peeked inside the door. Leah was still on the sofa, counting the golden coins.
"Come here for a second," Naomi hushed Arnacia and pulled her away from the house. "If you dress in Archie's clothes, then you need help with these." She tried to touch Arnacia, but the latter swiftly evaded.
"I am not doing it," Arnacia plainly said. "We can just go as Archie's sisters."
"That would make sense," Naomi said while looking at Arnacia's upper body. "But we can do something about it." She wiped her lips. Her eyes looked way below Arnacia's face.
"Forget about it," Arnacia tried to pull her hand away.
"There's something else I need to know." Naomi tried to look up but didn't, really. She thought Arnacia's gray shirt with orange stripes looked hot. But she asked anyway, "I wanted to ask where did you get so many coins?"
"Miss Rosalia gave them to me," Arnacia simply said. "Do you know I was stealing money from her?"
"No? Yes, I am not sure. You did say once that you took money from Miss Rosalia. I didn't think you meant you 'took' money from her."
"And I sent that money home?" Arnacia asked. She was glad to have this conversation. In fact, she wished she could pull Naomi away every time she did not know a thing about herself or the world.
"Yes, but I don't know what mom thinks about that." Naomi paused. She stared into Arnacia's eye before asking. "Why did you lie about the incident at the training ground?"
"Mother is already worried about Archie. What do you think will happen if she knew that all the maids fainted because of some Knight training mishap and Queen Afeefa was the one who canceled our exams?" Arnacia decided to open up a little more, so she added. "Don't you think it is odd? The Queen kept information from us. You won't tell this to anyone, but I fainted at the end and I saw a rogue Knight who wanted to kidnap Isabelle. At that time, Knight Rose was the only one there to help."
Naomi drew a sharp breath. She immediately realized the true reason the Queen only summoned Isabelle and Arnacia. However, almost all the other maids had no idea about the truth. They thought Arnacia was the only one severely affected with the gas whereas Isabelle was from a family more important than they imagined.
"Let's go see mother now." Arnacia pulled Naomi's hand.
"Are you not going to tell mom about your memory loss?" Naomi resisted the pull and all other thoughts in her head. This was the most important question, and she was saving it for the last.
"No."
No-No-No, it vibrated inside Naomi's heart. Wouldn't this mean that she was the most important person to Arnacia? When she came back to her senses, she had a feeling that Arnacia told her other things, but wasn't sure what.
"Are you even listening to me?" Arnacia shook her head, then pulled Naomi's hand. "Move, mother is waiting."
Arnacia and Naomi went inside the house through the front door. Leah immediately stood up and moved to meet the girl. Her eyes were dry and a dim smile lit up her face on seeing the girls. The red pouch was still in her hand.
"How's Archie? Did he tell you anything?" Leah anxiously asked.
"He is just too shy to tell you why he got into a fight." Arnacia casually said. "There's nothing to worry about. He doesn't want to go out anymore. I was thinking if we could call a doctor…" she touched her mother's hand that was holding the pouch.
"I wish we could take him to the doctor," Leah sighed.
"We can call-"
"The cursed doctor won't leave the forest until he dies." Naomi suddenly interrupted Arnacia. It was common knowledge among the villagers that the only real doctor around never left his house to attend to patients.
"Did he tell you why he got into a fight?"
"Yes, mother. He said dad also knows the truth. It's only a matter of time before he opens up to you." Arnacia consoled.
"So much has lifted from my shoulders now that you are back. I am sure your dad would be relieved, too." Leah said with great emotion. "Quickly, bath and rest. I will go to the market in the meantime. Who knows when our family will be able to spend another Veon together."
"Ahhh, today is really the third day of the Evernight festival, the Veon. I almost forgot," Naomi said almost mechanically.
"Mother, let us do the shopping." Arnacia looked at Naomi and squinted her eyes a little.
"Yes!" Naomi didn't get a clue. "Mom, let us go to the market. This way Arnacia can come to my house." She looked away from Arnacia and smiled. "I mean, abby would like to meet her too. There's nothing wrong with it, right mom?"*
"But Arnacia isn't feeling fine after the travel. You two rest for a while. I will go to the market." Leah said in a concerned voice.
"Mother, I am feeling fine." Arnacia said. "I will go to the market."
"And visit my house!"