Before dinner, once the stars began to show. Teerom found himself in the bath, reminiscing as he relaxed in the warm water. Tomorrow everyone would be going to school, and he would be working with the dwarves. He felt grief at being separated from his family - even though it's only for the first half of the day.
He was going to turn seventeen next month, April. Time was passing way too fast.
Teerom was the second orphan under Madella's care. Jurie was the first and was related to Madella, consequently taking the most after her.
When Rukae (Teerom's hometown) was invaded, Madella was journeying past and found Teerom unconscious on the grass, injured and starving.
He was twelve when Madella took him in. Rulkae had been destroyed after he'd summoned 5 demons to save his father.
He'd lost his sister, her body burning under the destruction left behind by knights. He should've developed a hatred for them but felt only horror at the sound of their armor and bones being crunched in his demons' mouths. His mind locked away all of those memories, building irrational fears from them such as his fear of heights.
It took him a while to see Madella as a mother figure, but once he did, he couldn't spend any time away from her. He immediately hit it off with Jurie, who finally had someone to play and hang out with.
About a year later came Theedev, the lost child of a noble. Madella took him in with open arms, but he only considered her a means to survive. He was but a fleeting memory, leaving a few months later after beating Madella.
Adimia arrived at the orphanage a few years later. Similar to Paley, he fell unconscious nearby, starving. After him came Bacha, then Reben, then Amasha, and finally Rauba.
"And now we've got Paley," He smiled to himself and dipped his mouth under the water, leaving his nose to breathe.
'I still wonder what your real name is,' He thought. Jurie was named by Madella's loving aunt, Cherie. Teerom, Adimia, Reben, and Bacha were all named by their parents. Rauba and Amasha too, but they had no memory of their parents.
Paley was the only one without a name, still keeping the name Reben gave him long ago. Teerom relaxed in the bath for ten more minutes before getting out and drying himself. He looked at himself in the mirror, tensing and posing.
He lightly laughed at himself before coming out. No one was upstairs. Usually, Jurie would be reading, or Bacha would be examining and experimenting with her herbs. Teerom shrugged it off and went to bed for a quick nap. That bath relaxed him so much that he began feeling sleepy.
He lay in bed for a few seconds, slowly drifting off to sleep, until something hard hit the window. He sat up and stared at the window before getting up and checking it out. No one was outside, so he would've gone back to bed if it wasn't for the front door suddenly slamming.
Now, he realized that the cottage was dead quiet - apart from labored breathing downstairs.
"Guys?" He looked down the stairs and waited for a response. There was still the sound of someone breathing heavily, but it had begun to fade now. Teerom sighed and made his way downstairs to find Paley and Adimia sitting by the fireplace cross-legged.
Adimia held silver silk trousers and a blue tie, and Paley held a complementary jacket and waistcoat - as well as a red rose.
"We've been waiting," Adimia tented his fingers.
"For what?" Teerom asked.
"It's time for you to conquer your greatest fear." Paley stood up and approached him with the suit.
Teerom took a step back. "What do you mean? You want me to wear that?" He asked, gulping nervously.
Beside the lake, Jurie sat at a polished wooden table, fidgeting with her fingers. Two plates lay on the table on which rested freshly cooked salmon, placed on vegetables. She heard footsteps approaching from the cottage and tried desperately to compose herself.
Teerom appeared, pulling at his tight suit. He was blushing uncontrollably, trying to avoid eye contact with her. Adimia and Paley walked with him, pushing him forward. They sat him down on the chair opposite Jurie and left to join Madella and the other orphans, who were watching from the riverbank, hidden by Paley's illusion magic.
Teerom tried to calm down but failed; Jurie wore a dress that enhanced her beauty tenfold. Paley lit small flames around them as he devoured a small cooked rabbit. As he trained his magic more and more, he found that when he ate meat, he could focus on absorbing its mana in a certain sense. So, he had five more rabbits ready to consume.
"H-Hey..." Teerom greeted, and Jurie nodded awkwardly. At that moment, an unexpected guest visited the dinner date. The fireflies from the mana zone - about fifteen of them - emerged from the forest and danced around Teerom and Jurie. One of them approached Paley and rested on his hand.
Paley smiled at the firefly. It felt familiarly warm. "Thank you," He said, "For saving me."
"It's you guys." Teerom watched the fireflies circle the table. They finally settled down onto the grass and flashed their little green lights between the blades of grass.
"Are they the ones that saved Paley and Adimia?" Jurie asked.
"Yeah. I don't know how, but they used Paley's mana to heal them. It seems Healing Magic could bring back a whole foot." Teerom began cutting up the salmon. Jurie joined him, taking the first bite.
"Like Puranima healed Aneros during his battles?" Jurie asked.
"Exactly like that!" Teerom felt all of his nervousness be washed away. Talking to Jurie always relaxed him, and it was the same for her.
Teerom sighed, smiling. "What's with the big sigh?" Jurie asked.
"I'm just gonna miss you a lot. All of you." Teerom's words made her blush with a strange fuzzy joy.
"It's not like you're not gonna see us at all," She reassured.
"Yeah, I guess so,"
"Besides, Paley's gonna take us to your workplace during break and lunch to hang out."
"Really?" Teerom's eyes lit up.
"Really,"
"Then it might not be so bad after all..." Teerom grinned to himself and ate the rest of the salmon. Paley took another rabbit and downed it in one go, miraculously not choking on it.
"Woah, slow down," Adimia said, sitting next to him.
"This illusion and the fire is draining my mana way too quickly," Paley took another rabbit and swallowed it whole.
Jurie thought she heard Bacha exclaim, "Woah!" but it was cut out by Paley's Sound Magic. "The fireflies are turning purple!" Bacha yelled. As a result of using three spells at once, even if it was only for a moment, his mana was nearly completely diminished to the point where he had to use Dyaahn breathing to keep up.
They ate in silence, Jurie trying to muster up the courage to tell him she loved him. The fireflies around them were now a bright purple, flashing crimson occasionally.
"T-Teerom?" She shifted in her seat.
"Hm?" He noticed her cheeks were completely red. Surprisingly, she managed to look him in the eye as she fought to confess.
"I..." She felt her heartbeat quicken and a lump develop in her throat, "I really like... No... I- I think I love you." her shoulders relaxed and her heart loosened. She just lifted a huge weight on her chest but passed it to Teerom doubly heavy.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-You l-l-l-l-love m-m-m-me!?" He stuttered so much he felt like offing himself right there and then, but Jurie didn't mind, simply nodding and making eye contact with her intensely relaxing blue eyes.
He quickly composed himself, took a breath, and said "I love you too, Jurie." with a cool smile. They both suddenly giggled for a few seconds before the illusion broke down and Paley fell into Madella's arms, exhausted. The flames disappeared, but the fireflies kept the area lit purple.
"Kiss her already!" Adimia and Reben shouted to Teerom.
"Kiss him!" Bacha, Rauba, and Amasha yelled to Jurie. Teerom and Jurie looked at each other for a moment, then at Madella, who nodded with vicarious tears of joy in her eyes. Jurie reached over the table and gave him a long kiss on the cheek.
She closed her eyes tightly, and when she reopened them, she saw Teerom passed out on his feet, blushing intensely.