Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

She still remembered that every time her family made dumplings, her mother would always put a coin in one of the dumplings, and for some reason, the dumpling with the coin in it would always be eaten by her or her sister.

It wasn't until now that she suddenly realized - the reason why they always got to eat the dumpling with the coin in it was probably because their mother had marked the dumpling.

And this is not difficult. Just pinch it lightly and leave a gap, and no one will notice it.

"How about putting a coin in one of the dumplings?"

Rachel thought.

But she quickly remembered that all the dumplings had already been put into the pot.

It’s... too late.

After realizing this, the witch suddenly sighed softly.

Her sigh was so light and the sound of the dumplings cooking in the pot was so loud that no one should have heard her sigh.

Like a wisp of water vapor, the witch's sigh was fleeting and quickly dissipated on the ceiling of the kitchen.

……

Soon, the dumplings in the pot floated to the surface of the water, each one was plump and looked very beautiful.

Lacele first served Charles a large bowl, then served herself a small bowl, then left the kitchen and came to the dining table.

The two sat opposite each other.

Charles had never seen food like dumplings before, so he was a little hesitant.

Lacier picked up the chopsticks, picked up a dumpling, put it to her mouth to cool it down, then took a bite, tasted it, and immediately smiled and said softly:

"This is a kind of food from my hometown, and its name is 'dumplings'. Whenever the New Year comes, we gather with our relatives to make, cook and eat dumplings together to celebrate the coming of the New Year."

"……so."

Ciel followed Laciel's example and picked up a dumpling with chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth. After tasting it carefully, he nodded.

“It’s delicious. I like it very much.”

"If you like, eat more," Lacier lowered her eyes and said, "If it's not enough, there's more in the pot."

"Um……"

Charles said this, but did not continue eating dumplings. Instead, he hesitated and said a little abruptly:

"I've never heard you talk about...your hometown before."

Upon hearing this, Lacier snorted softly:

"You too—I haven't heard you talk about your family either."

Charles's expression was slightly awkward:

"That's because there's nothing to say."

Then, his voice suddenly became low:

"My home is long gone. My parents died in a disaster when I was very young. Not only them, but also my friends, my elders, and the village where I lived..."

"They are all gone."

"Now I'm all alone, I have no home, no family, so..."

He stuffed a dumpling into his mouth to suppress his surging emotions, then grinned at Lacie with a smile that was uglier than crying.

"So," he said, "there is nothing much to say about my family affairs."

After saying this, he waited for Lacie's response.

Whether to quickly skip the topic or express sympathy for him - similar reactions would not surprise him, because it is always like this and he has long been accustomed to it.

But Lacey's reaction was not what he expected.

Rachel neither ignored the topic nor sympathized with him. Instead, she put down her chopsticks, held her chin with her hand, and gave him a very strange smile.

"Now," he heard her say, "we are companions."

"My family members are still alive... Oh, I'm afraid it's hard to say. After all, so much time has passed. Who knows?"

The witch narrated in a calm tone:

"But whether my family is alive or not, I'm afraid it's unlikely that I'll ever see them again in my lifetime."

Hearing this, Charles couldn't help asking:

"why?"

"Why?" Lacie smiled again, as if she found the question very interesting. "Because my hometown is too far away from here."

"…How far is it?"

"How far? I don't know, but...even if I spend my entire life, I probably won't be able to return to my hometown."

"..."

Charles stopped talking, as if he understood something.

——So, Rachel is a homeless person like him?

The news made him both happy and sad.

But he seemed to understand nothing.

So after a while, he said dryly:

"When welcoming the New Year, shouldn't we say this kind of...this kind of things?"

"Huh?" Lacier raised her eyebrows. "It was you, an idiot, who first asked me why I never mentioned my hometown!"

Ciel thought about it carefully and argued:

"But it was you who first mentioned the origin of dumplings, and because of dumplings we talked about our hometown..."

Lacey was a little angry:

"Then I don't care! Putting aside the fact that I brought up my hometown first, don't you have any responsibility to ask me questions about my hometown?"

For some unknown reason, the two of them started arguing with each other.

Just now, Lacie had said that they were companions now, and just now, Charles had determined that Lacie was of the same kind as him.

But for some reason, the sad and heavy atmosphere that lingered around them before quietly disappeared in the midst of their bickering.

Then, suddenly, a loud explosion was heard outside the cabin.

A firework exploded under the night sky, and then countless fireworks bloomed one after another.

Under the fireworks, two homeless idiots, bickering and eating dumplings, welcomed the first New Year that belonged to them alone.

[To be continued]

-

25. There is a ghost

Fuvenna finally agreed with the young elves' ideas.

Thus, the war against the mistress began.

Serlovi told the witch and the hero that the true body of the mistress was located in the deepest part of Lentiheim.

Then, she brought everyone to the center of Lentiheim—

There stood the trunk of a huge tree.

"Mother is inside." Selowei put her hand on the bark and whispered, "But even if we know where She is, it's hard for us to get close to Her."

Lacey frowned:

"why?"

"Because ever since my mother went crazy, the inside has been filled with thick fog, just like the outside. In the shallow zone, lanterns can still disperse the fog, but in deeper places, even lanterns are powerless."

Fuwenna smiled bitterly and said:

"After my mother went crazy, some elves tried to get in and approach her like before, but in the end, all of them disappeared without exception."

"So, there was no fog inside before?"

"Well, the fog appeared along with the abnormality in the mother's breeding room. It can even be said that the fog is one of the manifestations of the mother's madness."

"But I remember you said that the thick fog was the mistress's dream..."

As Lacie spoke, she suddenly thought of the dream of the mistress that she and Charles had experienced before.

It seems peaceful and tranquil on the surface, and there is nothing unusual, but in fact it is full of loopholes, as if all concepts about the mistress in the current Lentiheim were removed, and then the logical loopholes caused by the absence of the mistress were forcibly filled, and finally a weird and incongruous thing was created.

But why did the mistress have such a dream?

Why would He create a Lentiheim without Him?

Could it be that the elves' mistress also has the blood of the Uchiha clan flowing in her body?

Laciel felt that she seemed to have grasped some key point. She felt that the existence of the mistress's dream was closely related to the reason why the mistress went crazy.

But she couldn't say what it was exactly.

So she had to say to Serlovi:

"There will always be a way. Let's go in first."

Seloue obviously agreed with Rachel, so she made way for Fuvenna.

The Archon lady came up.

She raised her arm and placed her whole palm against the bark in front of her, and just as she had opened the door to the breeding room, she used the same motion to open the other door.

——The door leading to the Mistress’s true body.

There was a faint flash of light like flowing water, and then, with a slight buzzing sound, the well-concealed door opened to both sides.

Selowei, Fuwenna, and other elves seemed to be accustomed to this, but Laciel stared at the square door with a strange expression for a while.

It was not until Charles beside her reminded her that it was time to leave that she woke up from her dream and quickly caught up with the others.

Fuwenna seemed a little curious why she was standing in a daze in front of the door.

She shook her head and said it was nothing.

She is lying.

She did discover something, but this discovery... didn't seem appropriate to talk about at this time.

With a wonderful mood, Lacie followed the elves.

The main body of the Mistress is located deep inside the giant tree.

It's a long way from the canopy entrance to get there.

So they need to go down, all the way down.

The trunk of the giant tree was hollow, with a considerable amount of space inside. Under the effect of the weightlessness spell, Lacie, Charles, and the elves slowly fell from a height like dandelions.

It was pitch black all around, with endless thick fog everywhere. In the huge cave, the large army was divided into many groups, each equipped with a lantern.

They were like fireflies, flashing faintly and falling in the thick fog.

As expected, the witch and the hero were grouped together.

But this time the witch didn't hold the hero's clothes, and the hero didn't need to grab the magic wand handed by the witch to stabilize his posture.

Ever since Lacele teased Charles last time, Charles seemed to have deliberately avoided and even distanced himself from her.

Logically speaking, the more he acted like this, the more Lacie should have wanted to tease him, but today she lost interest in doing so.

She also fell into strange silence.

Charles even felt a little uncomfortable - but in order to avoid being teased by Lacielle again, he wisely chose to remain silent.

In silence, they passed through layers of thick fog and slowly approached the mistress's body.

And the fog grew thicker.

Then, Fuwenna's words came true.

As if the signal was bad, the lanterns their group was carrying suddenly began to flicker.