What surprised Nova the most was that medicine intended for mortal humans actually had a positive effect on him; he started feeling the effects quickly. He never realized how strong medicine could be.
Maybe the current era's medicine just has stronger effects. It's amazing how tiny tablets have such strong capabilities.
You consumed more than what a normal human would take. Souhait sounded exasperated at Nova's fascination for human medicine.
While he was surprised, the person most surprised about the current ordeal was Arcturus. The moment Nova had finished consuming the medicine, he yelled loudly and then dragged Nova to the kitchen and had him sit down on the dining table. He then requested Sophia and Murphy to cook something for him, to which they made a simple meal of toast with purapple jam spread on top. Nova knew that all of their items were in the Spirit Realm as Souhait had stored all of them in their house; he needed to make sure to return it to them after his meal.
While he had been ravenous with the medicine, that was mainly out of desperation to ease his nausea. In actuality, he was a very slow eater. Twenty minutes have passed since he started eating the toast and he only nibbled through a fourth of the bread.
Arcturus had been sitting next to him, staring at him as he ate. This caused him to be nervous; he found it hard to swallow the bread when he could feel those brown orbs drilling onto him.
"Do you not like toast?" Arcturus inquired; he looked worried about his appetite.
"No, I like bread. I usually have a small appetite."
"Is that so?" Arcturus seemed relieved. His eyes darted away from him and went elsewhere. With a perplexed visage, he asked, "May I ask why you're sitting here, Margaret?"
"I'm old. I need to sit down somewhere." She replied as she darted her eyes from Arcturus to Nova's and then to the table. Silence greeted them as Nova kept eating his toast.
What do I talk about?
Well…since Margaret is here, we can talk about Ras–or rather, his memories. There is something I would like to discuss with her…
Nova froze. You are talking about what you saw in his memories, right? I saw them too. There was something that definitely irked me…and I think Margaret might know the answer as she is also a member of the Leonis family.
Yes…
This caused Nova to start taking larger, faster bites of his toast. Stuffing his face with it caused him to cough, which made Arcturus hand him a glass of water with worry.
"Are you okay?"
Nova nodded. Once he had calmed down, he looked Margaret straight in the eye. Their eye contact caused her to avert her gaze from his. Arcturus took his plate away to the sink.
Once he left, Nova spoke up. "Can we chat? There's something I'd like to discuss with you about."
"Sure…"
"First off, I know you are Margaret Leonis, Carina Leonis's younger sister, which would make you Mebsuta's aunt and Asteria's grandaunt."
Arcturus, who had just returned back to the table, gasped. "You're Asteria's grandaunt?"
"Yes."
"I didn't know…"
"Asteria only keeps me around because I'm her grandaunt. She likes keeping her family members close to her so they'd be of use to her. She only disposes of people she deems useless–that includes family members that she doesn't acknowledge as such."
Arcturus looked as if he wanted to say something, but he clammed up and became deep in thought. He then got out his journal to which he started to write down as Nova continued.
"Second, I know you're aware of what transpired twenty years ago regarding how I killed your niece Mebsuta."
Margaret responded, "Yes. I know."
"I just want to let you know that I don't regret killing her."
"You shouldn't be."
Nova placed a hand to his chest. "As a member of the Leonis family, you must be aware of her fascination with Souhait's Lore?"
"Yes. She always talked about wanting to meet the wish-granting dragon and how she wanted to meet the person who harbored him inside. It was something that her husband Ras strived to accomplish and that's what he did."
Bingo.
"So, you're aware of Souhait's existence?"
"Yes…? It was a tale that Penelope Leonis–my grandmother–once told me about. Mebsuta really liked the story."
"But why aren't Asteria or Bellatrix aware of his existence? Shouldn't the stories be passed down from generation to generation?"
"Mebsuta was a possessive person. Even though she had daughters, she didn't want to pass the story down to them. It was something only she and Ras shared."
Arcturus hummed. "So, that's why Asteria said she doesn't believe in dragons…"
Nova recalled hearing that in his slumber.
"So, what's this conversation about?" Asteria asked with curiosity, startling all three chair occupants with how abruptly she appeared. "Let me in on it too."
"Well, I was going to tell Margaret about how I dreamt about Ras."
Asteria's curious expression instantly changed into one full of disgust. "Why would you want to dream about him?"
"Souhait was trying to grant his wish."
"You can grant wishes for the deceased?"
"All passing souls go into the Spirit Realm." Nova placed a hand on Arcturus's shoulder. "It's thanks to him that passing souls can have their wishes granted now. However, it's a bit different there. We have to wait until a passing soul's wish manifests into them. Somehow, Ras's soul manifested a wish–it was around the time Arcturus met you for the first time. Perhaps, encountering you had resonated something within Ras that caused him to have a wish."
"And…? Did he grant his wish?"
"Unfortunately, Ras's wish was to be with his wife, Mebsuta. However, since we already destroyed her soul, it meant that he wanted the same fate as well, so we had to do the same for him."
Arcturus, concerned, asked, "Does this mean you failed to grant a wish?"
Silence beckoned the table. Nova could sense Arcturus's immediate guilt. Margaret could only gape while Asteria looked confused. Arcturus's words felt like a blade piercing through his chest. While he knew he meant no harm, Nova hated to admit he had failed.
"Unfortunately, yes…" He then heard Arcturus apologizing under his breath.
Nova decided to keep going. "However, I'm not here to talk about my failures."
"What are you here to talk about, then?" Asteria inquired.
"Despite the attempt on granting Ras's wish was a failure, it did give us something to think about. Mebsuta loved the lore, yet she had told me that she was one of the Loreseers who had written false information in order to mislead me."
"She misled you?" Arcturus inquired.
"Her words weren't lies, but what she didn't tell me was that she was conspiring with someone to create false stories about me. There were two Loreseers acting as one."
"She has a co-conspirator…" Arcturus became deep in thought. Realization came to him. "Margaret, it's you. Isn't it?"
Margaret wasn't surprised. Instead, she looked rather happy to be found out. It was a reaction Nova did not expect.
"You figured it out?" She only smiled afterwards.