Refusing to give any indication of a response, Rolo walked a short distance away from Marjorika’s house before turning round to face Cecily again.
What was he trying to say? As Cecily pondered this, Charlotte tugged at Cecily’s sleeve.
“Cecily, he wants you to follow him!”
“Really?”
“When animals act like this, it means they want you to follow them. It happens all the time in my books, so I’m sure of it. Let’s do so!”
Without even waiting for Cecily to answer, Charlotte took Cecily by the hand and they followed Rolo. He walked ahead of them, sometimes stopping to look back around, and it became clear that he was leading them to the village entrance.
Is this a new game of his or something?
“Look. There’s a crowd gathered near the village entrance,” Maria said.
“You’re right...”
Cecily had been so focused on watching Rolo that she hadn’t noticed all the people standing near the entrance. It was the exact same scene from yesterday, just after her own return.
Has someone come back from a trip, perhaps?
As Cecily tried to peer over the crowd to see who was at the center of attention, a tall figure standing nearby caught her eye.
Zeke!
Zeke was holding some of the children’s hands as he talked to Alphonse. They were facing away from her, and hadn’t noticed her arrival.
Before she could call out, one of the village witches noticed Cecily and stopped her.
“Good timing, Cecily,” she said. “Someone we’ve not seen in a long time has just come back to the village.”
“Who?”
“Oh, Cecily! It’s been a while.”
From the crowd a young man came walking towards Cecily. She had no idea who this was. She blinked a few times in confusion.
Who is he?
Cecily had never seen this young man in her life. He had luscious lavender hair that reached his shoulders and alluring red eyes. His slender and somewhat feminine but well-toned figure was dressed in simple black clothes.
“Do you not remember me?” he asked, with a slightly uncertain expression.
As Cecily stared into his face, an old memory began to resurface. Cecily let out a gasp of realization as the faces of the young man before her and her childhood friend became one.
“Wait a minute... Are you Cain?”
“Yep—so you do remember me.”
When she saw his face break into a smile, there was no doubt about it. Pulling Charlotte along with her, she ran up to him.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it! It’s been so long—what, ten years?”
Cain’s air was different from back then. He had been a charming young boy who could have been mistaken for a girl. He had been smaller than Cecily despite their being the same age, but now he was so tall that Cecily had to look up to see his face.
“When did you come back?”
“Literally just now. I finished my ten-year training and came home. Mrs. Greta helped bring me back.”
From behind Cain, Cecily’s mother gave her a big wink.
So this was the request dad mentioned.
Cecily finally understood the strange comment one of the witches had made yesterday and their slightly odd treatment of her—no one had expected Cecily’s and Cain’s returns to the village to coincide like this.
“Mom, why didn’t you tell me about Cain?”
Greta let out a vigorous laugh at her scowling daughter.
“The answer is obvious, my dear—because keeping schtum about it would be far more fun!”
Cecily knew not to probe the issue any further. Logic wasn’t something that worked on her mother.
Still, ten years of training, huh...?
Returning her gaze to Cain, she let out a small gasp. His eyes weren’t just red in her dreams, but in real life too.
“I didn’t realize you were a witch too, Cain. I mean, your eyes are red, after all.”
All the witches present stared at Cecily in disbelief.
“Just as I thought. It seems like you had no idea that I had magical powers, huh, Cecily?”
Cain smiled awkwardly, and one of the witches who was listening to their conversation piped up.
“Cain is the first and only boy to have been born with magical powers. His powers are a lot stronger than your average witch’s, and so he was sent to a larger witch village to train in order to learn how to control his magical powers. There it was decided that he will be given a special new title—he’s no longer a witch, but a wizard.”
“I-I see.”
Cecily took a moment to process this sudden, important information.
So Cain’s...pretty amazing?
In all of their long history, never before had a boy with magical powers been born into witch society. Cain was the only one of his kind in the entire world.
“It’s just a simple mutation, or something like that. It’s not all that special,” Cain said. It seemed his modesty was unchanged from his childhood.
“I wanted to talk to you about something, Cecily. From ten years ago.”
“From ten years ago?”
Cain awkwardly scratched his cheek as Cecily tried to think back to her childhood.
“Y-Yeah. I asked you to make a promise with me, remember?”
“Oh, Cecily!”
Cecily felt a wave of surprise as she heard a familiar voice call her name from behind.
Zeke and Alphonse, who were standing a short distance away, seemed to have finally noticed her arrival. Turning around, Cecily noticed that Charlotte was hiding behind her, scared of the presence of this new man.
Cecily regretted her ineptitude at how she’d handled the situation, and introduced Cain with a smile.
“Zeke, everyone, let me introduce you to Cain. He’s an old friend of mine. Saying that, the last time we saw each other was ten years ago.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Sir Cain. My name is Zeke.”
“...Hey.”
Whereas Zeke was polite as always, Cain was curt. This upset Cecily, but she decided it wasn’t serious enough to point out.
Maybe he’s just nervous in front of new people?
Cecily thought back on Cain as a child, and recalled vaguely that he had been incredibly shy. He’d even been nervous the first time he had met Cecily.
Cecily coughed lightly.
“Let me tell you about Zeke, Cain. He’s my boyfriend.”
“...What?”
Cain’s face twisted in an expression of discomfort.
“Your boyfriend? This man? Really?”
“Don’t be like that,” Cecily said, frowning at Cain. She’d had enough of the rest of the village teasing her about Zeke. “I know what you’re going to say. About how Zeke is super handsome and wasted on someone like me.”
“Hey, that’s my line, Cecily,” Zeke said. “There’s no woman like you in the entire world.”
“Oh, Zeke, stop that!”
“It doesn’t take much for these two to start fawning over each other,” one of the witches said as the crowd began to gossip amongst themselves, too quietly for Cecily and the others to hear.
However, Cain simply continued to stare intensely at Zeke.
“Um, Cain? Is something the matter?”
“Ah! No, I’m fine,” Cain said, with a shake of his head.
A silence fell over the group. Then, Greta spoke loudly so that everyone present could hear.
“We’ll be having a party at the assembly hall tonight. It’s to celebrate Cecily’s and Cain’s returns, but it can also be a welcome party for Zeke and the others. Oh, and a ‘Time to rest your weary legs, beautiful Mrs. Greta’ party as well. Cecily, dear, you’ll lend a hand with the preparations, won’t you?”
“I think that’s too many different kinds of parties...”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, now!”
Cecily shook her head in exasperation.
“A party tonight, Lady Lottie. Sounds exciting, does it not?” Maria said.