"Celesta Arcenite, I want you to stop what you're doing right now."
"Eh?"
Celes lowered her shoulders. Her eyebrows dropped. She doesn't want to understand what it means by saying that. Lumina is never afraid to speak the truth. Even though Celes always knows, hearing directly, it pierced through Celes's heart much more.
"You are way happier when you're cooking. I am not just talking about you. Also, for everyone who eats your food."
Lumina is standing. Her last cup is already empty, and her plan is just to leave after she is done. However, after seeing Argus enjoying Celes' food, it might be better to say everything here.
"Right now, you're being too greedy."
Celes looked down. The girl doesn't brave enough to see her teacher's face.
"It's almost six months, and I have seen no improvement in your abilities. You suddenly hide in this village, trying to make an experiment by yourself. For what? Celes, as a teacher, it's my responsibility to take care of you, and yet you're doing all of that without telling me."
"That's…"
"At this moment, you're just wasting my time, Celes."
"Then why don't you ever teach me magic?" Celes looked away.
"We have an agreement." Lumina folded her hand, making her cloak move. "Until I acknowledge your skill, I won't teach you anything."
Five months since everything began. As she said, Lumina did nothing and only watched Celes's condition. Sometimes she feels obliged to tell her student one or two of advice. And yet, here she is still having no improvement.
"What you're doing right now is just self-satisfaction. You won't get anything from me by doing that. So, I am asking you right now to stop doing this."
Weird. Lumina's voice is calm and gentle. She didn't shout or anything. Still, it hurts.
"No…" Celes' voice was small, but it still reached Lumina's ears.
"Hmm…"
What happened next was Celes's shouting. "No, I don't want to! I want to learn magic. I just want you to teach me magic. Why are you never teaching me? I-I don't want to stop!"
Celes ran, leaving Lumina alone in the house. She left the door open. The girl never looks back until she disappears from Lumina's sight.
"Again." Lumina sighed. "This is why I never want to teach anyone."
This is not the first time Celes ran away after getting scolded and maybe not the last time either. There was no chance she would return soon, so Lumina just left.
....
The wind blowing is so frigid. Fishes jumped several times to make splashes of water in the river. It was such a pleasant feeling to just lay on the grass and enjoy the sunlight.
Celes took a stone and then throw it into the river making a ripple. It's been an hour since she ran away.
"Oi, what are you doing?" asked Argus with a weird expression.
Celes sitting leaning against a tree while hugging both legs. She pick another stone and threw it into the river again. The air is gloomy to the point of making Argus feel nervous. Since he already greets the girl, he can't just ignore Celes.
"You… look kinda pathetic like this."
"Shut up!" Celes annoyed. "I am sad right now. Don't comment on that."
"Well, I can tell you are upset about something just from the surrounding wind. I know I shouldn't ask this, but what happened?"
Like a child, this time Celes draws something on the ground with a wooden stick. Her situation is pitiful to whoever sees her.
Argus walked closer. He sat near Celes and leaned against the same tree.
"I come to your place, but you weren't there. It's difficult to find you when you're not in your usual spot."
Celes speaks nothing. The girl moves the stick, making a line. Then, she just throws away the stick into the river.
"Uh, can you speak? If not, then I will just come back tomorrow."
"Did you meet Lumina?"
"Lumina? When I came to your house, I saw no one. Something happened between you two, huh?"
It's just his guess. Celes seemed to have fun when he left, but now it's all the opposite.
"It is nothing."
She is upset and not even trying to hide it. Again, even Celes told Argus he might not be able to do anything. Forcing the girl to talk seems not going to be that easy.
"Your behavior with Lumina makes me confused. I mean, you act as if she is a scary person. After eating with her, she is not that bad. Her atmosphere is kind of tense for me, though."
Argus felt bad thinking that Lumina was an evil person. He got his lesson not to judge people by someone else's opinion. Lumina even asked about the book he reads when no one ever asked.
Of course, all of that was just Lumina's first impression based on what Argus sees.
"Witch of Destruction. That's Lumina's nickname." Celes' shoulder dropped.
"Witch of destruction? Hahaha, you're joking, right?" Argus just laugh.
"You can go to the capital, village, town, or anything. Everyone will tell you the same thing."
"Seriously?!" His laugh disappeared. "You're not exaggerating it, right?"
"Lumina actually has a bounty on her head. Lumina's bounty is the biggest in the world. So, no, I am not trying to exaggerate anything."
Argus speechless. He still couldn't believe what Celes had said. Why does Celes have such a dangerous teacher?
"Let me tell you a story. This happened two months ago. There was once when I and Lumina explored a forest together. We just tried to take a break and have a warm tea. There was an ambush. Bandits surrounded us, and they tried to kill Lumina."
Argus can tell where the story was going. It might be just one of those stories where you want to brag about how strong someone is.
"It's just bandits, so Lumina has no problem beating them. Bandits have a bounty on their heads, you want to take them to the capital to get money. However, she doesn't care. She just kill them right away."
It surprised Argus, Celes made the story super simple.
"Okay, but killing someone evil, there's nothing wrong with that."
"There is this time when instead of killing the bandits, she broke their finger."
"Wait, she broke their finger? Why?" His face was dumbfounded.
There's no reason behind it. That's just too random.
"There are ten of them. So when she broke the first person, it was only one. For the second person, she broke two. You should know what happened next. She broke three fingers for the next person, and so on."
With a serious tone, Celes tried to make the story more suspenseful and convincing. This is becoming a horror story and is kind of hard to believe.
"That sounds horrible!!"
"You know what the worst? Lumina chose the person at random. So no one knows who the next person will be chosen. When they scream, Lumina is smiling, enjoying everything. Imagine you as the last person who will experience all of your finger being broken after you have seen and heard all your friends screaming and crying."
"Ugh…"
"Even after she broke the last person's finger, Lumina did the same thing to everyone. So it doesn't matter in the end. She broke everyone's finger bones."
"Okay, I take it back. She does sound dangerous."
How did Celes become an apprentice of someone like that? What is wrong with people from outside?
"Breaking their finger is just the beginning."
"You're telling me there's more?!"
Celes just sighed. "Well, yeah. But forget about it. Anyway, why are you looking for me?"
"I don't like the way you tried to change the topic."
"Well, she made me upset. I don't want to talk about her."
And yet, Celes had just talked about her a few seconds ago.
"You're telling me not to disrespect her before? Look how excited you are to speak bad things about your teacher."
"It's one of my privileges as her apprentice. I can bad-mouth her as much as I want."
It's not just Lumina, that's weird. Celes isn't that different either. Both are messed up in their head.
"Okay, that's it. Now it's your turn!"
Celes' reaction tells him that the girl has already gotten used to what Lumina did. Why did she decide to stay with someone like that?
"Well, Nothing important. Just wanted to tell you my parent love your food. Since I've already tasted it myself, so I am sure the others will love it as well."
"Hmm…" Celes didn't move from her spot, but it made her feel better to hear someone say a nice thing about her. "Lumina told me I should stop learning magic and just continue being a chef."
"That must be hard coming from your teacher's mouth."
Why did she tell him this? Argus thought. They are just acquaintances. Now, she has already said it. He needs to respond with something. It's not like he knows their circumstances.
"Do you think it's better if I stop?" Celes closed her eyes and thought. That question isn't just for Argus, but also for herself.
"I don't know," Argus answered. "It's not my future. Also, I've got a problem. As you said before. I already gave up trying to get out of this village. Are you sure you want to hear an opinion from someone as pathetic as me? Compared to me, you're doing your best. You asked the wrong person."
"I just realized. You're useless."
"That's rude! Do you remember who helped you this morning?" Argus feels offended.
"Hahaha… I am just kidding. You have helped me a lot since I came here." Celes cracks a smile. "I guess you were right. My problem. Need to solve it by myself."
"You didn't listen to me. I said you asked the wrong person."
Celes thought for a minute. Lumina gave her the opportunity she wanted, being patient with her all the time. She never teach Celes anything, and yet Lumina always checked Celes' condition from time to time. Now, the girl regretted having run away.
"I think I made Lumina angry. She might gonna kill me the next time we meet. What should I do?" Celes scratch her head feeling puzzled.
"Don't drag me into your troubles. I don't want to die yet."
They are both silent. Strangely, there is no awkwardness at all. Celes' body felt much more relaxed because of the breeze, or maybe because he had just vented.
Argus remembered something. This is the reason he wants to talk with Celes.
"By the way, my mother asked you to teach her how to cook."
"Huh?" Now, Celes' face was just full of confusion. That's not the result she is expecting from cooking for other people. "Why me?"
"I can understand my mother wants to be a bit better at cooking. To be honest, it would be helpful for me if you can teach her. I am afraid she might come to your place starting tomorrow."
"Please stop her!" Celes said in a flat tone. "I don't have the time to teach anyone."