Back at camp, Irra was surrounded by a pile of books and while she was reading a very old book, Lyna poured her a cup of tea.
"You should take a break... It's been already 3 days since you started looking through these books and you barely had any sleep!"
Irra just smiled at the worried Lyna and answered with a calm voice.
"It's alright, I'm fine... you don't need to worry about me. As for me taking a break... I think I'm going to take one now."
Before Lyna could say anything else Alice arrived in front of the tent and called her sister.
"Irra, I'm back!"
Alice entered the tent and approached the table where her sister was sitting. She looked at the dark circles under her eyes then at the pile of books.
"When was the last time when you slept?"
Irra looked like a child that was caught doing something bad and tried to come up with a good excuse but Lyna didn't let her do that.
"Around two days ago!"
Alice looked at her sister with narrowed eyes for a while but finally sighed because she was here with another problem.
"You're lucky that I come here with something urgent! After I leave you will go and take a proper sleep, Lyna, you watch her!"
"Yes!"
Lyna accepted without any hesitation and Alice returned to the problem at hand. She explained what happened and asked Irra about her thoughts on this matter.
"I think Clarissa has a point. Go and follow him secretly tonight and tomorrow and see if he's doing anything suspicious! He can't use magic so he isn't a threat for now."
"I understand! I will take my leave now. Please take care of your body and don't exhaust yourself too much!"
Alice left the tent and Irra looked at her back with a sigh and took back the book that she was just reading.
"Ahem!"
Lyna looked at Irra with scolding eyes and she finally surrendered.
"Ok, ok! I know!"
Irra put the book back on the table and Lyna smiled satisfied.
* * *
Eric come back home when was almost night. He took a shower and fell asleep in a short time because of the sleepless night from before and mana exhaustion from practicing spells all day.
Alice watched all of that and spent the entire night looking at him and waiting for something to happen.
Unfortunately for her, Eric had a good sleep until morning and he woke up refreshed. He played on his phone for an hour then got up and prepared a breakfast that he eat it immediately and went out.
He went to the entrance of the forest and sat down under a tree. Alice keep her distance and also sat down under a tree several meters away because it was very hot outside.
("He is just staying here?")
Eric indeed just stayed here. He tried yesterday to use other spells but because he didn't see any magic circle excluding the sword spell, he couldn't do anything else. Being helpless he just sat down thinking about ways to solve his problem until he fall asleep.
("Did he just fall asleep?!")
Alice looked at him with a tired expression and waited for him to wake up but she couldn't keep her eyes open and fall asleep too.
* * *
Several hours later it was almost sunset. Alice slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Eric staying cross-legged a little further and looking at her with a bored expression. She looked around and finally remembered what she was here and summoned a dagger. Eric was surprised and tried to calm her down.
"Wait! I just wanted to go home and find you lying down here! I didn't do anything!"
Alice looked at him for a while without saying anything. She finally fully regained her senses and asked Eric some questions with the dagger still in her hand.
"How long have you been here?"
"Around twenty minutes."
"Why didn't you wake me up and why didn't you just leave?"
"You had such a peaceful face that I couldn't bring myself to wake you up and also I could leave you here alone either."
Alice looked at him inspecting if what he said was the truth and finally sighed and made the dagger disappear. She looked at him with a somehow embarrassed expression and asked the awkward question that he didn't bring up.
"You won't ask what I'm doing here?"
"If you don't want to answer I won't ask!"
"Eeemm..."
Alice didn't know what to say and Eric didn't talked either. An awkward silence started between them and Alice tried to break the ice.
"So... what are you doing alone in the forest every day?"
("S*it, I just admitted that I'm here because of him, please don't realize it!")
"Oh, so that's why are you here! Please don't worry about me... I don't like to stay too much between four walls so I come out here to sleep, walk or read books. If I'm caught by someone just ignore me!"
Eric, in fact, didn't believe that the cold-looking Alice would worry about him and come all the way here just to check up on him but he needed a common ground so she could explain her presence here.
Alice looked surprised at Eric for a moment but then cleared her throat and followed his words.
"Ahem, if you know that we are worried then don't go out alone anymore!"
"Mmm, I can't do that... If you were in my shoes you would do the same!"
Alice looked at Eric with a colder expression than usual and answered with a voice full of resentment.
"No! I will cherish my family while they're still here!"
Her voice was a little loud but Eric didn't mind and answered with a calm tone while looking into her deep blue eyes.
"I don't know what happened to you and I would be a hypocrite if I said I understand it but I'm sure you can say this because you had two loving parents and I can see that your sister loves you very much too. In contrast with you, I didn't experienced any love or care from my parents. I always felt like I'm some random child that they picked from the side of the road and I feel like I'm suffocating in that house, so even if the world turns upside-down I will still not stay there more than necessary!"
Because of his calm tone, Alice felt a wave of anger going through her and raised her voice.
"Then why are you talking about something like this with such a calm tone!? Why are you not angry at all?"
Eric looked at her teary eyes and realized that she was not talking about him anymore. She forgot about the reason why she was here and just talked about the emotions that she piled up for many years.
"I was angry at first but I soon realized that I can't do anything about it and resigned myself. Although I don't want revenge I don't think that is a bad thing. Because of it, you will grow stronger and it will help you keep going on. All you felt until now is not wrong and many other people will be saved because you didn't give up! As for myself, the anger will not do me any good and only corrode me on the inside..."
Alice didn't know what to feel and almost burst into tears. She didn't know what to say and even if she did, she couldn't say anything. Before Eric's eyes, she teleported somewhere and Eric was left alone at the entrance of the forest.
* * *
Irra woke up after 4-5 hours of sleep and went back to her study room. Lyna brought her a light meal and helped her remove the books that she already read. While doing so she asked Irra with a worried expression.
"You should have slept more, did you rest enough...?"
Irra answered with a calm tone to lessen Lyna's worry.
"I'm alright! You know that I can't sleep more than 4-5 hours a day since several years already."
"I know but even so..."
"Also, someone needs to search for clues about that artefact and since I'm the only one with enough magical power to open these books, no one can do this besides me."
Since ancient books required a large amount of mana to be opened, not many people could read their content. Lyna felt helpless because she couldn't help her more but since she couldn't do anything about it she decided to help her in other ways to lessen her burden.
"Very well, I will go to make you some tea that will help with the fatigue... If I see you overworking yourself I will call Alice!"
Lyna left in a hurry and Irra looked at her back with a warm smile. She knew that everyone was worried about her but she also knew when to stop.
Since young, Irra had an exceptional magic talent and soon become one of the strongest people at an early age. Although she lost in the battle with Kratos from many years ago, she didn't lose because she was weak, she survived because of the sole reason that she was the only one strong enough to escape from that monster. Now, after Kratos was imprisoned in the Ice Palace, the only reason why the people that supported him didn't attack them was also because they were afraid of her. If she became sick, that would be an opportunity for them to strike and she couldn't permit that.
While thinking about many things, Irra opened a book and started to read.
Shortly after, Lyna come back with the tea and Irra spent the next few hours searching through several hundred pages but to no avail again.
Soon the night come and when she wanted to light up the magic lamp, Alice teleported în the middle of the tent with her face full of tears. In the next second, she ran and hugged her sister that was still in her chair. Irra looked at her sister and pat her head without asking about what happened. Alice started to cry louder and Irra waited for her to finish.
It's been a while since she saw her sister crying or even showing any emotions. When she was little, Alice was a kind and energetic child. She often would sneak out of the castle to go to festivals and play or rebel against learning magic. Irra missed her smile from that time. Since her parents and many of her friends died she changed and now was barely showing anything else than that strong and cold expression.
Irra continued to pat her head until Alice finally stopped crying. After she stopped, Irra asked her about what happened.
"Dear... can you tell me what happened?
Alice was silent for a while but told her in the end about what happened. She told her about how she followed Eric all night, about how she fell asleep, and about what happened after she woke up. Irra listened to all of this without interrupting her.
("She was unsure if the feelings that she accumulated until now were right or wrong. Alice was just a normal child until she lost everything and it was too much for a single person to bear. I knew that she was keeping all her emotions tightly shot in herself but I couldn't do anything about it since she didn't wanted to open up until now... Seems like I need to thank Eric for this...")
"Is alright... I know how you feel and I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough to offer you the life that you deserved..."
At the hearing of these words, Alice quickly raised her head.
"No! That's not true! All of us are still here because of you. You did enough already!"
Irra smiled at her sister and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"We both lost all that was important for us, but we are still alive and that's all that matters. We now have friends that we want to protect and a new hope appeared. I'm sure our parents would be proud of you so you don't need to about anything. You did your best until now so keep going like this!"
Alice hugged her sister again and remained silent for a while before speaking in a low voice.
"Thanks...!"
"You're my little sister after all!"
Irra smiled and Alice keep hugging her for a long time. Saying that her sister was feeling a little better, Irra could rest assured too. After some time Alice broke away from her sister's embrace and took some distance.
"I feel better now! It's the time for me to go back... don't stay too late, ok?!"
Irra laughed at her sister's remark and just agreed with it.
"I won't, don't worry! Just go and rest, you need to train Yuki tomorrow too."
Alice was ready to leave but stopped at Irra's remark.
"Oh, tomorrow I'm going to spy on Eric too! Today I was distracted but tomorrow I'm sure I will catch him in action!"
Alice clenched her fist as a sign that she will surely find something tomorrow but Irra stopped her.
"You don't need to do that anymore... I'm sure Eric is not working for Kratos so you don't need to worry."
"Mmm? Why do you say so?"
"You can just call it intuition!"
("He saw through her and solved the problem that even I couldn't. I'm sure he isn't a bad guy.")
Alice was confused but it seems like Irra didn't want to explain. Even so, she still refused.
"No! He is still suspicious so I will follow him tomorrow too!"
Irra looked at her stubborn sister and sighed.
"Very well, do whatever you want..."
Alice nodded and left the tent while Irra looked at her back. Several seconds after she left, Irra wanted to start reading again but looked at the clock and then sighed.
("I guess I will go to sleep too... just this once.")