Celestine regains her consciousness. She opened her eyes and saw Wilhelm sitting next to her. They were on top of Lagus' forehead. They were slowly approaching the island as he gently swam back.
"You've finally woken up, young miss. How are you feeling?" Asked by Lagus.
Little by little she was recalling what happened. She lost the battle, and she thought that she hadn't put in that much of a fight. She was feeling a bit down because of it.
Wilhelm then told Lagus telepathically,
"Say something to cheer her up"
"But what?" Lagus asked.
"Your opinion about the battle"
Lagus then started talking to Celestine saying, "You fight well, keep it up for a few more years and I will have to trouble myself on defeating you."
An honest opinion from Lagus. It didn't state that she could defeat him after a few years but it doesn't mean that she couldn't. It was an eye-opener for her.
She clearly realized that there were more powerful beings around the world. Her being blessed by mana is not enough to defeat veteran fighters. She lacked experience and was glad about the opportunity to fight a strong opponent.
If she were to just fight Wilhelm it would make her feel powerless whenever he uses his Zero Magic Field, picking a fight with him means utter defeat for a full-fledged mage.
Knowing that she still picked a fight with him a day ago. It couldn't be helped since she was having mixed emotions because of the presence of Runa. But she was nowhere near smiling about it. She doesn't show that she was glad that a strong foe acknowledged the fight with her.
Wilhelm then said to Lagus telepathically, "Lagus tell something nicer it doesn't seem to be working"
"What should I tell her next? I don't have experience handling women"
"Well, neither do I... Just say something nicer"
"I already did... Why is hard to deal with these creatures?"
"I don't know... Women are far more complicated than any magical book I've ever read... Sometimes they just don't make any sense"
They were having a hard time.
"Why don't I just show her my lair?" He suggested.
"Are you fine with showing it to another human?"
"It's fine I could trust her since she's with you."
Wilhelm stood up and went behind her, he placed both his hands on her shoulder and created a bubble surrounding them. Celestine glanced at him and she saw him smiling at her. By god, he was godly handsome at that time.
It was incredibly rare to see that kind of smile he showed her. It was different. Not the smile he shows to his friends or family. He was proud of her for putting up a fight. She had grown stronger the last time he saw her. Even Lagus acknowledges her strength.
Lagus dived under the water. When they were reaching the island Lagus screeched under water. It echoed creating a sound wave underwater. As the sound wave reached the ocean floor the sea plants and corals began to glow.
Under the arch lies a giant pitch-black hole. They went inside it, the water symbol on Lagus' forehead shined, and the blue stones around them started to brim lights.
As they passed through the hole they found themselves inside a large space underground, it was a cave underground, but the place was bright and beautiful, there were fishes and sea plants of different kinds.
They could see a nest at the center.
"This is my nest," Lagus told Celestine. She never would have thought that it was way under the water. A place where light couldn't touch, but there were shining rocks around to give light. It was like a town underwater. The place was shiny but not enough to blind the eye. It was another beautiful place she had seen today.
Lagus shrunk in size, now he looked like a cute sea snake, he was completely different from his intimidating enormous form.
"Does this make you feel happy?" Lagus asked Celestine, she nodded and smiled a little.
"Yes, this place is beautiful." Lagus was wagging his tail he was happy that she found his nest beautiful.
"I'll show you to my garden," he told them and started swimming into something similar to a forest, a sea forest. There were flowers and fruit-bearing plants. Most of the leaves were large and others were long and almost all of them had the ability to glow.
"I keep them alive by constantly feeding them with my mana." He said.
The fruit that took her interest was the strange-looking slime-like fruit. There were different colors and they were sticking on a log-like plant. The center has a darker color while the skin is transparent, you can view the flesh of the fruit just by looking at it.
"This looks delicious, are they edible?" Celestine asked, curious about the taste, they looked like jellies after all.
"I don't know if humans will like it but for sea creatures they are edible" He explained, "Why not have Wilhelm try it first? Just to be sure" he added.
Wilhelm frowned, "What? Why me? Do I look like a food taster?"
"Oh come on Wil, you won't let her have a taste of it first, will you? What if it's poisonous?"
"Excuse me? Do I look like a poison tester? I ain't eating that."
"There's no harm in trying it," Celestine told him.
"Oh? Then why don't you try it?"
"Come on just a bite, knowing you, you won't die" She added, and Lagus nodded as well. The two of them were having a conspiracy trying to tease Wilhelm.
"No thank you!" He refused, he wasn't dumb enough to do it.
"Come on, be the man Wil"
"Well, aren't you lucky you're a worm?" He said with a mocking tone.
"Do I look like a worm?"
"Your current form does."
"You're acting like a chicken. It's just one bite"
"One bite my ass!"
"Just a bite? Please?" She was showing her puppy eyes, it is very hard for him to refuse her whenever she uses that.
He then recalls her being down-spirited a couple of minutes ago, he thought that it might cheer her up.
Wilhelm clicked his tongue, "Fine! Just a bite!" But alas, he couldn't refuse her.
Lagus was trying to hold his laugh, he looked like he was about to curl over and he whispered, Lagus pfft, and couldn't hold it any longer and finally laughed. The calm Wilhelm was not being himself whenever he was with her. Lagus noticed that and finds it laughable.
"What was that wormy?"
Lagus started wheezing, "N-nothing pfft... You do what you need to-- HAHAHA--- Oh God-- HAHAHA--Just eat the damn fruit Wil--HAHAHA I'll just-- HAHAHA I'll leave you guys for a moment so Wil won't feel shy about taking a bite-- HAHAHA--- Damn it, my stomach is hurting-- HAHAHA"
He couldn't talk straight because of his laughs. He swam away from them, he was going to get something from his nest.
The mood became awkward and it was difficult to continue where they left off, all because of a snake that couldn't hold his mouth. Wilhelm scratched his head and took a bite.
He was trying his best to keep his face straight, the fruit tasted very sour, even more sour than a lemon. He didn't experience any form of pain and confirmed that the fruit wasn't poison. It was just a very sour fruit. He made it look like nothing was wrong while eating it.
He handed it over to Celestine, "It's not poisonous".
And without any doubt, Celestine took a bite, her eyes were forced shut due to the sourness of the fruit. The man didn't tell her about the sour taste, he wanted to mess with her. She was showing a sour face. It looked cute. She dropped the fruit while dealing with the flavor.
"Tasty isn't it?" He told her while showing a smirk on his face, he wasn't the only one who got to taste it. It was awful, a single drop could make your mouth drool of saliva.
"It's sour..!"
"Now we are even"
"Why didn't you tell me..?!"
"It doesn't matter as long as I can pay you back for forcing me"
"Then don't let yourself get forced"
"That's impossible. I'm a bit pitiful with small animals."
"Wha-? I'm not small!"
"Says the girl who can only reach my shoulder. Just so you know Runa is taller than you and she's younger than you at that,"
"OH?! So you like tall women huh?! What's wrong with short people?"
"Nothing is wrong with being short. But you being short is the problem"
"Elaborate yourself, mister!"
"You could say that you're missing a lot of points because of your height"
But he doesn't hate it. He likes her enough that her height doesn't matter, all he was saying is for teasing purposes only.
"It's not my fault that my mother is short!"
"But your father is tall and all your siblings are tall. Take Samantha for example, she reaches my chin. And she's the youngest..."
"Just a small difference of inches! Why are you making a big deal out of my height!?"
Wilhelm flicked her forehead. "Because I just feel like it" He gave her another sweet smile.
'For the love of the Holy Elements if I didn't have feelings for you I would've buried you alive for making fun of me! But oh well-- why are your smiles so divinely handsome? That's unfair!'
These are the words she wanted to tell him but she couldn't and absolutely wouldn't, if that came out of her mouth she'd die of embarrassment.
"You're always making fun of me" She uttered and whispered, "But you're so kind to Runa..."
Wilhelm heard it. He doesn't know what their relationship is but they both have mutual feelings for each other. Weirdly enough he had the urge to assure her that she was special for him, even more than his friend Tepht. It was a mystery as to why he thinks that way.
"Runa needs gentle and kind treatment, it is inevitable. I think I haven't told you about her past, and I think hearing it would make you understand that my treatment for her is reasonable."
"How so?"
"You do know that Runa is a slave. Meltiz and Krofder treat slaves as humans and they even have their rights. But in other kingdoms, they treat them however they like. Did you know that Runa was..."
And he started talking about Runa's past. She couldn't believe what she had gone through, hearing her story made her cover her mouth and start feeling bad for her.
She finally understood why Wilhelm was treating her differently why he would initiate some conversation when he usually doesn't converse with other people and the reason why his eyes look kind. He was being careful to not scare the girl.
"I-I'm sorry... I didn't know..." She apologized for being narrow-sighted of the situation and for not asking him why he does that.
"It's fine. She's doing great nowadays and slowly recovering herself"
Celestine was left in silence.
She couldn't find herself to change mood right after hearing the story. She realized how blessed she was, and she was starting to feel bad about it. They don't know how to continue the conversation. As for that, Celestine came up with a way to continue their chat.
She asked him, "By the way, is it true that you and Lagus never fought seriously?"
"It's true... he told you?"
"Yes... Why did people think that you defeated him?"
"Because he swam away without saying anything. That's why it looked like I fended him away"
"That's when they started calling you the Blue Magician?"
"I have many titles but that's the only title that was publicized... It doesn't sound bad so I just accepted it."
"But it's like a false title is it not?"
"Back then it was, but it's different for today's case... I can back the title with my current level."
Celestine was starting to feel sleepy. Lagus showed himself right after their conversation. He was listening behind the plant and was expecting something fun was going to happen.
Their talk started from fun and shifted to a saddening one. It was his first time hearing Runa's story in detail. The last talk was all facts and he couldn't disagree with it.
Lagus swam towards the two and greeted them happily. He was carrying something in his mouth. A hand-sized seed.
"It's a gift from Welrok, he was shy to give this to you personally that's why he asked me to give it to you instead, and also--"
He threw up two more items. "Malak's small floating island and something like an egg from Grama."
They were compressed inside a clear crystal.
"Why the sudden gifts?"
"It's nothing serious, we're just being generous and would like to continue having a friendly relationship with you."
"Don't tell me they want something in return just like how you asked me for the communication crystal."
"You got it right, we want the communication crystal. After seeing how it functions I was intrigued and told them about it. With that crystal, we can show each other some stuff in our area to kill the boredom, also they were asking if you could make a larger crystal. And they were going to ask you to fix some problems in their territory."
"The production would take about a month if I were to make them bigger. Their requests will be attended to after I give the orbs"
"It's fine. We can wait that long. Now that we've come to an agreement I'll inform them about it"
Wilhelm saw Celestine yawn. He forgot about the time. It was currently past midnight. "Should we start heading back?" He asked her, and she nodded.
"Alright then, let me take you outside" His body expanded back to its humongous form and carried the two on his head outside his nest. He left them on the stone arch.
"I'll be waiting for your next visit, young miss"
"Thank you for having us. I'll see what I can do but if given the chance I'd come and visit you"
"Hoping that the next time we meet you'll be a lot stronger. See you later~"
With their farewells, Lagus swam back under the water back to his nest. The two now were left alone. He intentionally didn't suggest that he'd give them a ride back to Wilhelm's house, it was his way of helping out Wilhelm with Celestine. In fact, it's the other way around. It was helping Celestine with Wilhelm.
Wilhelm summoned Dale and offered his hand to Celestine. It was the second time he did that and it made Celestine smile at his simple act of courtesy. Some Harpies descend from the tree with the same siren that greeted their arrival.
"Come visit us again, Lord Magician" It offered a bow. Wilhelm raised his hand and instantly created a magic circle above the tree. The tree started to bloom more flowers and more fruits grew from it. It was a small gift he gave them before leaving, they were joyed by the feast.
Dale flew and began to soar through the cold night sky.
"Now I know why they welcome you warmly"
"It's just a small gift"
"I guess but it made them happy, aren't you glad about it?"
"A bit and also..." Wilhelm sat next to Celestine. "Here..." The Zenovia hair clip he bought from the old lady's stall, was on top of his palm. He wants to give it to her. Celestine was flattered by his actions, it was the first time he gave her an accessory as a gift.
Inside her head, 'A cute accessory! Oh my goodness! He finally gave me something other than a book! This is the most amazing thing that has happened so far! I love him!' She was so busy celebrating herself inside her thoughts that she forgot to receive it from his hands. His hand was left hanging and it made him think that she didn't like the present. After all, she was smiling and staring at it not even giving a reply. He doesn't know what her action means.
"A-actually if you don't like it, it's fine" He started concluding that she dislikes his gift. It was just an item from a stall, compared to the jewelry she received from her parents, it wasn't worth that much. He should've given her something valuable, not just something he thought would suit her but he got it all wrong, it was a misunderstanding he created for himself. The moment he was about to close his palm. Celestine held his hand using both of her hands and said,
"I love it..."
Wilhelm started feeling glad about it, she didn't sound like she was forcing herself and now that he took a good look at her eyes, they were sparkling. His face began to turn red. She looks even more beautiful with eyes like those. Celestine asked him, "Can you put it on me?"
He moved behind her and clipped it on her hair. He imbued his magic recalling what the old lady told him. The outline of the petals, sepals, and the stigma of the flower were highlighted with midnight blue color.
"Does it suit me?" She asked, Wilhelm was left speechless. He was feeling something, a feeling like his heart was being tied up.
"It suits you... It's pretty" His last statement was directed to Celestine but he was unclear on his point which made her think that it was a follow-up compliment to the hair clip but for him to tell her that it suited her was already enough to bring a smile to her face.
Wilhelm sat again after putting the clip on, he was creating a fair amount of distance between them but Celestine didn't allow that and moved next to him.
The space was limited therefore he can't move any further than that or he'll fall. Celestine leaned her head on his shoulder and began to close her eyes. She was happy.
Their relationship improved, and all the time she used with every first move is starting to pay off. Wilhelm allowed her to lean, he was getting so overwhelmed by his emotions that it didn't cross his mind to refuse her advances.