Chapter 7: The Day She Realized
“WELCOME back, you two. Did you have fun?”
When Lille and Leo returned from visiting his family, Charles and Ark greeted them at the door. Seeing them in the flesh, Lille realized just how much she’d missed them. The familiar smell of the house welcomed her back, and it began to sink in that, finally, she had somewhere she could truly call home.
“We did, thank you. Leo’s mom gave me this scarf, too,” she said, fiddling with its ends happily.
After her conversation with Leo, they had shown the diary to his mother and father. They were overjoyed to see Leo restored to his former self, and then they told Lille all sorts of stories about their late daughter. They seemed more than happy to talk about her; evidently, they had been avoiding the subject so as not to upset Leo.
Lille asked how Charles had known to come find him, but Leo said he showed up at their house before the academy had even given him an official warning. At that time, Charles was already living in the depths of the forest. Why did Charles care about Leo in the first place? Why had he gotten involved? The sequence of events surrounding Charles’s arrival was certainly bizarre.
Either way, Leo’s non-magic parents had no way of stopping their son, so they were extremely grateful to Charles for stepping in before the state magic asylum or police got involved. Like Lille had heard Leo’s older sister say in her visions of the past, Leo was the only sorcerer in their family.
Shortly before they left Leo’s house, his mother wrapped a scarf around Lille’s neck. Apparently it had belonged to his older sister. It was made of unbleached cotton, and intricate lace embellished the edges of the fabric. Leo’s mother said she hadn’t been able to throw out any of her daughter’s belongings, but thought it would be nice to pass them on to other people.
Lille queried whether it was really okay to take something so precious to them, but, with glistening eyes and bright smiles, they told her to consider it a gift from Leo’s sister—because Lille had ensured her dying wish came to pass. That was all it took for Lille’s vision to blur as well, and she tearily promised to visit again next year.
“They took great care of you, huh? I’ll have to write them a thank you letter,” Charles said, nodding to himself.
“What’s gotten into Leo? He’s been all fidgety ever since he walked in,” Ark observed suspiciously. Usually, Leo would have made at least one snarky comment by then, but he was being uncharacteristically quiet, opening his mouth to speak only to snap it shut again.
“O-Oh, right. Well, uh…” He stumbled over his words, cheeks turning beet red as he turned to look at Charles and Ark. “I…fell in love with Lille, and…she’s gonna date me if I get into magic school next year.”
“What?!” Charles and Ark exclaimed simultaneously, their eyes wide in shock. In sync, they turned their heads to look at Lille for confirmation.
“N-No, I never agreed to that!” she denied, shaking her head vehemently.
“Well, yeah, it’s what I’m planning. She might have turned me down this time, but I’m gonna ask her out again once I start school,” he declared.
“Sh-She turned you down…?!” Charles gasped. For some reason, he looked even more rattled by the fact than Leo had been.
“Yeah. I did kiss her, though,” he added nonchalantly.
“Ki—?!” Charles flailed. His face turned bright red, and he clapped a hand over his mouth.
“’Atta boy, Leo!” Ark whooped in admiration.
“It was only my forehead!” Lille protested. “It’s normal for families to kiss each other like that! Leo said so, too! Right?”
“Huh? Did I?” he said, avoiding eye contact.
He did. He most definitely did. That’s the only reason I didn’t tell him off before.
If he kept on making such wild claims in front of everyone, Lille doubted that any of them would be able to resume their old routines and relationships.
“Apologize. Now. We’re apprentices! We’re supposed to act responsibly!” she shouted, balling her hands into fists. “Promise you won’t make any more trouble for Master Charlie! If you don’t, I won’t talk to you anymore!” She glared at him.
Time seemed to slow. No one moved, and Lille’s heavy breathing was the only noise filling the silence.
“…She got mad,” Leo commented unhelpfully.
“Isn’t this the first time? Whoa,” Ark whistled. “Leo, you oughta say sorry right now. Girls can be scary when they’re mad.”
“S-Sorry…” he squeaked, eyes shining in fear.
Lille sighed. She was being childish. When she was little, she had thrown tantrums and argued with her little brother in the exact same way.
“I… I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have been so angry with you,” she said, ashamed. “But I really would appreciate it if you could just treat me like normal.” She hated that it felt like Leo had suddenly turned into a boy she didn’t know.
“All right,” he conceded. “Sorry for not realizing you’re not used to that stuff.”
“I-It’s okay.”
Having said that, it wasn’t a matter of being used to it or not; she didn’t want that sort of attention from him either way. Still, it seemed like Leo would respect her wishes. That was good enough for now.
“You young’uns should wipe the slate clean. Come on, forgive and forget,” Ark prompted.
“We don’t need you to tell us that,” Leo huffed.
“I gotta say, you sure have grown. Not so long ago, you blew up at her for every single thing,” Ark recalled.
“C’mon, please don’t bring that up now. I already regret it.”
“In any case, I bet Master Charlie’s happy to see his two apprentices getting along,” Ark chuckled.
“…Y-Yeah, I am. Yeah. It’s better than fighting, anyway,” Charles replied awkwardly, his cheeks still slightly pink. That he wouldn’t meet Lille’s eyes was beginning to upset her, so she assertively thrust a textbook in his face.
“Master Charlie,” she said firmly. “Thank you for letting me borrow this.”
“Oh, no problem. You don’t have to give it back if you haven’t finished it yet, though. Or…did you read it all already?” he asked, examining the book.
“I didn’t exactly mean to. I had nothing else to do, so…” She shrugged.
She had read the book from cover to cover, but found no more information on the sorcery war than what Leo had already told her. It was odd that the author didn’t go into more detail, considering the war was supposed to be such a significant historical event.
“I thought I told you to rest.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Leo intervened before he could lecture her. “Don’t get mad, Master Charlie. She did lots of other stuff, too. She played with my little sister, helped my mom do some shopping…and she rested a lot.”
“I’m not mad,” he told Leo, shaking his head. “I was just surprised she finished it so quickly.” He turned to face her. “Lille, that’s great. I really didn’t expect you to read the whole book. It’s admirable that you’re working so hard, but today, you will take the day off.”
“Okay…”