"Darling… It's past your bed time." Before fully closing the door behind him, Victor winked at Noah giving him a thumbs up.
Noah looked back questioning his unknown gesture, 'What does that signal even mean?' But the thought came to a close when Celia said her fleeting and vague words.
"Noah… Becareful of what you have in your hands." Veiled in a cryptic message, she turned around with quickened footsteps and trembling hands. But suddenly, Noah notices at the peripheral something strange was happening to her hand.
The skin peeling happened again, visually it was curious inducing but, it came off as extremely unsettling. This moment had made Noah stunned for a brief moment, weighting his insides heavy.
A spider glided across the walls with unnatural speed, Noah noticed that. The candle on the wall flickered to a faint gust of wind, Noah noticed that. His senses tingled to an all time high. His mind goes into overdrive, reeling in all the information from whatever is within his proximity. He hadn't been able to take his mind and mental skills to the next level yet, there was no need to. Yet, this strange ordeal truly left a poor and sour aftertaste of unease.
'What does she mean about that… Could it be?!' Noah grasps a scroll with a waxed seal underneath his cloak. He had a ninety nine percent certainty that she was alluding to this bright scroll filled with untapped information.
'Is she referring to this?! No… I must find out.'
"Wait, Celia," he called, his voice firm but steady. He stepped forward, his hand reaching out instinctively, as if to halt her retreat.
"I need to verify something."
"Yes?" She asked with a slight, audible gulp.
He then gripped her wrist and analysed her hand.
"It's not healing… What a strange hand you have here." Feeling the pulse, the blood flow, he wanted to fully understand the state her hand is in.
Celia closes her eyes while biting her lips with acknowledgement. Trembling hands, avoiding his gaze, it all alludes to the restless and fearful persona. As if each second draws an inexplicable desire to run off into the distance, leaving with unsaid embarrassment.
He whisked out a needle from his back pocket.
"This is going to hurt a little, bare with me Celia." Piercing the needle on her wrist, a warm flow of blood leaked out, even if it was a tad bit.
'This doesn't make any sense?!'
This was Noah's second time that he became stumped, unable to comprehend and adapt accordingly.
'Blood flows naturally, her body temperature is slightly increasing but it's not alarmingly high. Her cracked skin feels extremely dull and cold like glass.'
He quietly pondered a bit more, 'It's too inconceivable to be true. I've never heard of an oath-type magic which would affect the user to this extent. She hadn't used grand spell or forbidden spell to cause this problem but a sentence. Wait… her sentence…'
Moving away to his desk, he tapped on it lightly, resuscitating his old knowledge.
'Does Celia have some sort of relation to this ominous scroll?' Breathing out a tired sigh, Noah gestures her to go back to her room.
"Celia. Get some rest. We can discuss about this later." Sleep was a fundamental feature of a human, a primary source of energy and vigour. Without it, the body wouldn't be able to function properly to the fullest degree. Noah thought that today's problems can be solved tomorrow or perhaps another day.
"You should rest up as well Noah." Behind that very door, Celia clutches her pants with an expression darker than the emptiness of the void.
Sitting by the window once more, Noah rests upon his palm gazing upon the multitudes of stars. A serene wind calms his over thinking, 'she should be fine.'
—-
"Noah!" Celia saw a deadpan, darkened Noah, who looked like he woke up from the worst nightmare.
His posture droops, slouching forward as he swings his loosened arms around without clarity.
Swirling his temples with his thumbs, Noah grunted with a rare annoyance.
'I couldn't sleep!' His eyes smear with crimson like the blood of his victims.
"I'm fine." He waves it off, taking a seat within the dark, gloomy corner.
"Hey…" Slamming her fist upon the table, she inadvertently shocked Noah beyond mere shocking.
Truly taken aback, he looked up at Celia asking, "Yes?"
Pinching her nose, Celia then said, "Just go back and rest. And also, you past father's test already, he already told you everything last night."
Wide-eyed, Noah's persona faltered causing him to stumble both physically and mentally.
'I forgot… How can I, Noah, forget?' The situation was inconceivable, it hadn't happened once.
"I think I should take a breather." Flaying his cape as usual, Noah walks out of the tavern before being stopped by Celia, tugging his arm.
"Stop being so self-centred. Can't you take someone else's advice for once?" While she seemed more aggressive than usual, she showed a darkened face carrying a smidgen of guilt.
"Alright. I apologise." He walked back to his room upstairs with grace.
Celia looked back every more wearily and concerned, 'What is happening to you. Did I mistakeningly take the wrong route?'
Her thoughts were clouded as she went back to preparing for the long night.
—-
Tapping the door lightly, Celia opens the door to Noah's room.
She looked at his resting face with a light-hearted smile, warming her heart.
'Fuuu… Atleast he seems to be sleeping soundly.'
Victor was taking both the role as a waiter taking orders and the barrister for the night seeing her one and only Celia had made special plans.
He thought to himself, 'Noah has some good traits. But he does have some bad ones which balances out. Not that it is my line of profession.'
Noah noticed a warm, wet towel wiping across his face, a subtle kiss on his left cheek, and some chopped apples.
He was consciousness enough to note these details and yet he was asleep enough to physically rest.
Mentally, he was in a half-conscious state. There were many things he was lamenting on such as Celia's mysterious hand, her very specific actions that seems too natural to be unnatural but it also comes off as odd when seen in his perspective. It was a frustrating situation he wanted to know answers to. But is it really in his best interest to stick with Celia who helped him over the years without wanting anything in return?
His thoughts waned away as he heard Celia's quiet voice.
"In the future. I will tell you what I have in mind before—' The next few words were extremely heavy, tight across her heart as she holds her breath with indescribable pain. Suffocating under the strain of her emotions. There was something in them that felt incomplete, as though she had wanted to say more but couldn't. His eyes barely fluttered open, but his senses sharpened, aware of the tremor in her voice. It was unlike anything he had heard before from her—vulnerable, fragile, raw.
The breath that caught in her throat, Noah felt it—the agony in the air, her struggling to push the words past her lips. It wasn't just sorrow; it was something deeper, more hidden, something she had locked away for so long that even she might not fully understand it.
Tears glistened in her eyes, but they remained still, held back by a sheer force of will. Not a single sound escaped her as her chest rose and fell with the weight of what was left unsaid. Her hands trembled as they hovered near him, caught between the need to reach out to him and the instinct to pull back, to keep her distance.
Noah remained still, too lost in the growing storm of emotions that surrounded her to fully grasp what was happening. But something in his gut tightened—something told him that whatever Celia was holding back, it was more than just an ordinary confession. It was a breaking point, and it threatened to shatter the fragile equilibrium they had maintained for so long.
—-
A new day, a new Noah.
'I feel a bit off.' Gripping his fist, rolling his shoulder, stretching his neck and wrists, he feels an oddly unsatisfying sensation coursing through his body. His muscles felt like acid had corroded them.
'But it was an alright rest.' With another quick afterthought, he remembered the moments he had with Celia, 'She really holds me to a pedestal.' He smiled, but then again, this smile felt extremely natural.
"It's time to leave." He didn't have many things to pack, everything he collects, he happens to have a spot for it to be stored on his body. Knives, gadgets, even the yo-yo was always kept with him.
As he steps down the tavern, he told Victor some advice of his own. "You should start up an inn for people to sleep here. It's decent."
Victor who was caught up cleaning his ale barrels nodded with a quiet, upvoting grunt.