When Ed came home that day, it was already dark. Naria stood outside the door, her face full of worry and anxiety turning to joy and relief the moment she saw his figure...... It quickly turned into irritation.

Her face darkened, and she stared at Ed cross-legged, as if he wouldn't let him in if he couldn't give her a satisfactory explanation. Ed struggled to pull the corners of his mouth upward, smiling ugly, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Naria shook her head, quickly relenting. She turned and walked into the courtyard, glaring back at Ed when she saw him still standing still.

Ed, who finally reacted, hurriedly followed.

Candles were already lit in the room, and the dining table was full. The black-haired girl had already prepared a sumptuous dinner - fresh bread, black peppers sprinkled on top of lavender herring, the smell of meat soup still lingering in the air, and a cool beer in a clay pot......

The soup was already cold, and Narya clearly had no intention of reheating it. Ed scrambled to catch the bread she threw over, and honestly buried himself in eating, not daring to say anything.

They sat in silence on either side of the table. Naria's knife slammed into the plate, and if it wasn't wooden, it would have been shattered by her.

But she didn't ask anything. When she finished eating this unsavory meal and cleaned up the table, she seemed to have calmed down. On the contrary, it was Ed, who was uneasy from beginning to end, with heavy thoughts, and wanted to speak again and again.

"Naria ......"

When the girl finished tidying up and reached out to untie her long hair, he finally couldn't help but speak: "I know I promised you that I won't lie to you, and I won't hide anything from you, but if you ...... I mean if, if I have to...... Will you forgive me?"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was so frustrated that he wanted to bite his tongue off - how cowardly and greedy! Even if Nalya unceremoniously slapped him or kicked him out of the house, he had nothing to say. But......

Naria was silent for a moment, surprisingly lifeless. She dragged aside the bench and sat down, and looked at him quietly for a few moments before she spoke calmly: "Speak as if you had never hidden anything from me before." ”

Ed's head buzzed, his mouth wide open but he couldn't justify it—she wasn't right at all.

He shared many secrets with her, but he also hid many secrets. Some for her safety, some for himself...... What would Naria think of him if she knew he had made a deal with a necromancer?

"I hate that. Narya looked Ed in the eye, "Alan always says, 'It's for your good'...... It's the most hated excuse I get. But sometimes I think that if he hadn't lied to me about anything, if I had known from the beginning that Iss was not human at all, and that he could become a dangerous dragon at any moment, maybe I wouldn't have been so happy to think of him as my own brother, and I wouldn't have taken him into Christesburg without any scruples. Maybe he won't meet you at all, and we won't be friends...... That would change everything, and I don't like that change more than being deceived...... So I'll forgive you, Ed, and while I still hate being deceived, I'm willing to believe you...... I believe you have enough reasons to make such a choice, whether I like it or not. ”

She slammed her mouth shut, her face changing, and suddenly she was inexplicably irritated.

"Anyway...... That's it!"

She threw down the sentence stiffly, got up and ran away.

Ed watched in amazement as she ran up the stairs and didn't come back to his senses for a moment.

Then he slowly lay down on the table, buried his head between his arms, and all kinds of emotions boiled in his heart like boiled broth, and so many different tastes mixed together, making him want to cry and laugh at the same time.

- Ed Singal, what a lucky fellow you are.

He spoke to himself silently, full of gratitude.

It was supposed to be a sleepless night—there were too many things for him to accept. But when he opened the bedroom window and prepared to sleep, Ed's heart was unusually calm.

There's always a way...... He's faced many dangers, isn't he still standing here now?

In front of his window was a small laurel tree, with branches that were as tall as his head. In the tiny sound of the night wind as it swept through the treetops, Ed heard the birds flapping their wings.

The careless gaze caught the small black shadow among the dense foliage, and the falling moonlight illuminated its black feathers and dark eyes.

It was a crow.

Ed was stunned for a moment. Crows are rarely seen in the city of Stonbuch, and this one ...... Looks familiar?

The raven, who had carried the message for Is, circled around them twice as they left Christesburg, and flew back to the north with its wings...... But Ed wasn't an elf, he couldn't tell the difference between one crow and another, and this one was still hidden in the shadows of the leaves, so he couldn't see it clearly.

He tilted his head, and the crow tilted its head, staring at him very calmly.

"Uh...... Hello?"

Ed tried to say hello in a friendly way, but felt a little silly.

The crow in Kriessburgh would rattle twice when someone spoke to him, as if to respond impatiently, "Hear me, what are you going to do?" - at least that's how Tess describes it.

But the one in front of him just stretched out his wings again, and stood firm on the branches that rose and fell with the wind, without saying a word.

The wind grew stronger, the moon flickered and darkened behind the torn clouds, and it seemed as if a rainstorm was coming, but the crow stood there and did not fly away.

“...... Are you going to come in?" Ed said in Elven language, and he even stood a little away so that it could fly into the room, "It's going to rain." ”

The crow croaked in a low voice, looking at him like a fool...... But it's not annoying.

Just as Ed thought it would accept his invitation and flapped its wings and flew in, it suddenly let out a hoarse and loud cry and rushed into the sky without looking back.

Ed blinked blankly, feeling a little inexplicable—the crow might have felt the same way.

He shook his head, let the window open as the rain began to trickle, and rolled onto his bed.

Maybe it'll come back......

He thought in a daze, sinking into his sleep as the dull thunder rumbled across the distant sky.

That night, he slept unusually peacefully.

(To be continued.) )