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THEY showed Lille to a small room at the very end of the upstairs hallway. It faced the sun and was immaculately clean. The furniture was a matching set. She got the feeling it was a little too lavish to have always been a guest room; perhaps they had gone to the trouble of clearing it out especially for her.
“Get yourself settled. I’ll come get you once dinner’s ready,” Leo’s mother said, smiling.
“I will. Thank you very much,” she replied, smiling in return.
She had asked to help with dinner, but her offer was swiftly turned down, so she decided to relax in her room instead. Casting her gaze across the space, she discovered it wasn’t all too dissimilar to her room back home. The furniture, curtains, and bedding all had the same feminine charm.
In fact, the decor wasn’t the only thing that reminded her of her room; she felt protected by a warm, calming sensation that also enveloped her at home. Just in case, she’d brought the potpourri Charles gave her, but it seemed like she would have no trouble sleeping after all.
“Oh, right. I should study,” she said.
Charles had told her not to force herself, but she didn’t want to disappoint him by forgetting everything she had learned. If possible, she wanted to perfect everything she’d learned so far—or try to, anyway. Then Charles might even praise her when they finally saw each other again. Not to mention, she didn’t really know what to do with herself when there were no chores or shop duties to attend to.
During her imprisonment in the tower, every day had been full of nothing. Yet, within nearly six months she’d become totally accustomed to her new lifestyle. It was a rather striking transformation.
She sat at the desk, then pulled her textbooks and bundle of notes out of her bag. There was already a quill and a full inkwell lined up on the desk, she noticed gratefully.
The textbooks Charles had picked out for her covered magical history, herbology, and ancient script—probably because he didn’t anticipate her casting any spells at Leo’s house. The book on magical history promised to be particularly interesting; it read like a novel, and Lille was partial to a good story.
“Let’s start with this one,” she said to herself.
She flicked through the book. It looked easy enough to read, and she saw that some of the pages included illustrations. Charles had probably chosen that particular book to match her reading level. It concerned all sorts of things Lille knew next to nothing about: the origins of magic, the history of Leo’s home country…
Naturally, she had a healthy thirst for knowledge, but she had an ulterior motive for starting with this book.
Holding her breath, she flipped to the publication page at the back. It had been published rather recently.
If I’m lucky…there might be a detailed account of what happened when Master Charlie put a stop to that sorcery war.
When she first heard the term, she had seen Charles’s face cloud over, and she found herself unable to ask him about it. It was likely a painful memory for him, and she was sure he wouldn’t want to talk about people getting injured and dying, should such sad events have transpired. Still—if she was going to find out, she would rather research what had happened on her own than accidentally hear it from a stranger.
“Okay, let’s do this!” she said resolutely, turning to the first page with a sense of determination.
The history of a country where magic was a part of everyday life was completely different from what little she knew about her home country. It was a really engaging text, and she felt more like she was reading an adventure novel than a history book. Soon she became entirely engrossed in reading, losing all track of time…until she came across a word she didn’t know. She hadn’t brought a dictionary with her because they were heavy, and Leo had told her she could borrow one of his family’s.
She decided to ask Leo for one—hopefully, his bad mood had subsided by now.
Leo’s mother had said his room was the one just next to the stairs, so she tiptoed to the door and stood in front of it timidly.
“Leo?” She knocked hesitantly. If he was sleeping, she’d be in trouble. “Can I talk to you?”
“…What is it?” he replied from the other side of the door. He sounded a little tired, but otherwise like his regular self. Lille breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well, I was reading my textbook, and there’s a word I don’t understand. Is it okay if I borrow your dictionary?” she explained.
Silence.
Just as Lille was about to give up, she heard Leo click his tongue, then rustling noises from within the room. Unsure if she was allowed to enter or not, she stood awkwardly in the hallway. Finally, the door opened with a click.
“…You can take this back to your own room,” Leo muttered, pushing the dictionary through the incredibly narrow gap between the barely open door and the doorframe.
“Th-Thank you. I’ll give it back later,” Lille said, turning to walk away.
Suddenly, he spoke again, and she stopped in surprise.
“…Hey, listen. Your room…” He trailed off mid-sentence, then abruptly dropped the subject. “Never mind.”
“Oh, yes. It’s a lovely room, isn’t it?” she supplied, guessing at what he was trying to say.
“That’s not what I meant, but…why do you think that?” he asked.
“Because there’s a nice, warm feeling in there. A lot of sun comes through the window, too.”
“Mm… All right,” he replied noncommittally. Lille didn’t know what to make of his expression—somehow, there was a hint of both sadness and happiness in his gaze. “Please take good care of that room, okay? Don’t spill anything or damage anything. Not in there.”
His tone turned far more serious than usual, and Lille could tell he truly meant it.