After Liliana left, Crimson looked at Exios with a sorrowful expression.
What was left in the tavern was silence and two people.
Exios gradually stood up.
"You see him in her." Crimson spoke softly as she looked at the pictures by the table.
Specifically looking at the little boy, who is holding her mama's hand.
A little boy who radiated such a warm smile.
After looking at the picture, she briefly looked at Exios, who stayed still, looking at the glass of iced tea, left by Liliana.
Exios did not utter a word for a moment, instead Crimson felt a melancholy atmosphere when she mentioned his little child.
Crimson patiently waited for him to speak.
"She is just a child.
A lost child who needs someone to be with her." He spoke with a deep and low voice.
"Exios… you are the one who is lost and in need of someone by your side." She corrected him, with an amiable tone.
"If what you said the other day is true, you would not be hiding her.
In fact, it seems like you are trying to protect her from something, even you don't know.
And what is worse is that you're keeping a dangerous child in a village where, who knows when, it could destroy the houses of thousands of families living happily inside their warm homes- "
"Crimson, enough." Exios starts cleaning the table, in which Liliana drank her iced tea.
"I… understand that you lost your family, Exios.
But aren't you being selfish?" Crimson added.
"You have to think of the consequences, Exios.
Right now… you are treating her as if she's your child."
As Exios carefully cleans the table, he returns to the counter quietly, with a solemn face.
He puts the glass in the sink and pauses for a moment.
"I am not that foolish.
Her core has weakened by now, you probably did not even notice it.
I am taking care of her, but I will still search for answers regarding my family's death."
Crimson took a moment to think and remembered that not a single energy was felt when she entered the tavern.
"With the amulet on her, the energy won't be visible to anyone, not even to the ones who are strong enough to sense it a mile away." Exios started cleaning the dishes.
Crimson was startled by Exios's words.
She looks at the glass that Exios was cleaning, which was the same glass that Liliana was drinking from earlier.
"You… all this time, have you been decreasing her energy?"
"Only her energy, I do not want to cause her any harm by decreasing her mana.
She doesn't know how to use her mana, yet so she will be fine as long as she doesn't know."
Crimson, in loss of words for a moment, began to speak again.
"Still, you are fond of her.
You didn't deny all of the things I said earlier."
Exios remained quiet, not giving an answer to Crimson nor looking at her.
As Exios finished cleaning the dishes, he pulled out some gold coins from his pocket and put them on the counter.
"Thank you for the items you brought today."
Crimson looked at gold coins, before looking at Exios with a scowl expression on her face.
"As you already know, I do not need these.
I owe you my life, so little shiny coins are nothing." She sighed.
"Then do me a favor and just look out for the kid, instead of being so concerned about me." He said as he turned around to open the container.
Crimson, confused, thought for a moment.
"Why should I look out for that child?" She said, as she emphasized the 'I'.
"You are the only one who I can trust right now, and you acknowledge her core.
What if I am not around her and something happens to her?"
Crimson scoffs.
"That's your problem, not mine.
You decided to live with that child, so it's your responsibility."
"I thought you said that you owe me your life?" Exios started grinning.
Crimson became flustered and stumbled upon her words.
"W-well! This-this is different!"
The atmosphere began to brighten up, as the tension between the two began to slowly fade away.
"Visit the tavern sometimes and don't hate on her.
If you start getting to know her, you would like her." Exios took out tiny bits of petals from the two sacks.
Crimson stood there for a moment, unresponsive.
"I don't want to like her.
I'm afraid of liking her, so no." Crimson turned away and started walking towards the front door, ready to leave.
"Well, I know you will like her either way." Exios spoke, as Crimson reached the front door and left.
-----
"My name is Liliana" I spoke softly as I looked at the girl's eyes and eventually looking back at the other kids.
Behind the brown-haired girl stood two other kids.
A small little girl, whose height was smaller compared to ours, but had long curly ginger hair and dark green eyes, and a boy, about the same height as me, had a dark copper brown hair with hazel eyes.
"My name is Amelyn!" The two braided hair girl suddenly grabbed my hand and shook it intensely, making my whole arm shake too.
As she finished, she let the other two say their greetings.
"Hey, I'm Seifer Pierce, it's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled gently.
"Sei, why are you so embarrassing… don't mind him!" Amelyn gave a disgusting look at Seifer, which made him all flustered.
"H-hi. I am Tata." She spoke in a high and soft voice.
She was timid than the others, anyone would be able to tell by her mannerism and voice.
But I found it really cute.
"Nice to meet you all." I smiled, with immense pleasure.
"We have two other friends, but they could not make it today. You will meet them next time, promise!" Amelyn grabbed my arm, and we started moving quickly.
But I noticed that Tata was having difficulties catching up on us, as she was much smaller.
"H-hey, we should- "I uttered, but then I noticed Seifer clinging on Tata's hand, helping her.
"Did you say something?" Amelyn spoke, as we kept moving.
"Where are we going?" I changed the subject, but I actually didn't know where we were going.
"Oh! Hehe, we are going outside!" She exclaimed excitingly.
"Aren't we already outside?"
"A different outside, Hehe." She continued to giggle.
As we continued to move, Amelyn held onto my arm while Seifer held Tata's, we were getting farther and farther from the open shops and houses.
Instead it showed more plants and trees around.
After a while, we finally reached the destination.
Amelyn stopped and went forward on her own, she turned around and looked at us with a bright smile on her face.
"I told you we'd be going at a different outside!"
The other two ran ahead of her and rolled over the ground, making thousands of petals of dandelions fly into the blue sky.
The sight was incredible.
It showed only an enormous a cherry weeping tree at the center, while it was surrounded by white flowers, which were the dandelions.
The dandelions were tall as my chest, and as I slowly moved my finger to its petals, the strong wind blew over it.
"What is this place?" I asked to Amelyn who was looking at the other two running around, playing together.
"Oh, this is the village's national park! Every village has its unique park, and this is ours." She looked at the cherry weeping tree.
"Ah… this reminds me…" I instantly recalled the meadow filled with the violet spider lilies and the giant crystal lake.
"Is there a village that has violet spider lilies all over the place and a giant lake?"
Amelyn thought about it intensively, putting her hand on her chin and looking at the sky.
"Not that I know of no." She responded.
"Is there a village that has such thing?"
"I… do not know, but this is beautiful too." I answered as I dropped myself into the grass, watching the tiny white dandelions flying all over the place.
Amelyn also fell back next to me.
We both stared at the sky and giggled.
"You know, we knew you were watching us from the windows." She spoke.
I turned my head to look at her.
"But we were a bit scared of playing with you."
I was silent for a few seconds, staring at her.
"Why?" I asked, as I was curious to know.
"Well… about 3 years ago a boy, who had the same age as us back then, was our friend.
He was my crush too- But don't tell it to the others!" Amelyn blushed and turned her face away from mine.
I smiled.
"Yes, I will not tell it to anyone. Promise." I said, as she was still facing the other way.
Briefly she started speaking again.
"We played every day.
He was caring, sweet and funny.
You would have liked him too.
He would make the most embarrassing jokes and not regret saying it." Amelyn smiled, even though her face was looking away from mine, her ears moved, and I felt it through her voice.
"But then one day he suddenly disappeared.
We prepared a funeral for him, but I know he didn't die.
They just… haven't found the body yet."
And to those words, I felt Amelyn's heartwarming voice.
"After that, we were slowly falling apart.
We were all pretty sad back then, as we lost a precious friend."
"I'm sorry, but why were you afraid of me?" I asked, as I didn't know the connection between me and the boy.
Amelyn turned her face towards mine, who seemed to have teary eyes, but she didn't let them fall down.
"Laith lived in that house." She smiled gently, after getting up.
A flash of memories of the picture frames attached to the walls were shown in my mind.
That boy who was smiling so brightly and happily.
The boy who held his mama and papa's hands.
'He is sir Exios's son.'
"So, we were scared of losing another friend."
She stared at the cherry weeping tree for a few moments.
She looked back at me and crouched down.
She pulled her hand and showed her pinky.
"Promise us you won't disappear like Laith did." She looked deeply into my eyes.
I sat up and looked at her, before smiling and pulling my hand to do the pinky promise.
"I promise."