“It is good if you can think like that,” Roland said happily. It seems that he had still underestimated her, with his thought that she would feel lost and confused after personally killing another witch, never expecting that she would be able to adjust to it in just a short time. It appears that in both mind and belief, Nightingale was coming close to reaching maturity.
She swallowed the fish, hesitated for a moment and then opened her mouth to say: “But there is one little thing I want to ask you.”
“What?”
“What were you and Anna doing during these days?” Even though Nightingale’s voice became lower and lower, her eyes kept their focus on the Prince, “…you know what I’m talking about.”
Roland almost knocked the cup over in his hands, “Keke, asking this so suddenly, what do you… during these days I have been occupied with finding a place to settle the refugees, there wasn’t much chance to be alone with her.”
Immediately her eyes began to lit up. “That wasn’t a lie.”
“Of course not, I was —”
Before another word could escape Roland’s lips, Nightingale suddenly vanished into thin air, immediately following which he felt a pair of soft lips on his mouth, after a fleeting touch only leaving behind the light flavor of salty fish. It took him a long while until he realized what had just happened.
“Wait —“
Once more he couldn’t finish what he wanted to say. This time, two slender fingers sealed his mouth, even though he couldn’t see her, but he knew that Nightingale was still standing at his side.
“I know what you want to say…” she whispered next to his ear, “I do not want to change anything, I don’t intend to put myself between you and Anna, I merely hope to be always stay by your side, that’s all. Forgive me for not daring to show my figure to you, because right now, I also don’t know what kind of expression I should show when facing you. Your Highness, you don’t dislike me?”
“…” Roland opened his mouth, but it seemed that saying he disliked Nightingale was impossible. The barrier that kept him from accepting her was not something about like and dislike, but rather ethical, shaped by twenty years of social experience before coming to this world, by now, he could no longer deceive himself.
“That being the case,” she whispered, “do not say anything. It’s not your fault; I only did what I wanted to after all.”
After eating dinner, Anna carried a large batch of Bird Beak Mushrooms into the kitchen.
At her request, Maggie had collected these spotlessly white mushrooms in the Concealing Forest — they were different from common mushrooms, the Bird Beak Mushrooms commonly grows on top of huge trees, it survives by absorbing the nutrients from the trees, but it was also the favorite food of some birds species. Although it had a very delicious taste, and its fleshy umbrella shaft was as delicate as exquisite meat, with its relatively high growing place which made it hard to discover just by standing on the ground, there weren’t many people willing to climb the trees to pick these mushrooms.
Her mother would always gather some for her birthday, sometimes picking more and sometimes less, but always enough to make two mushroom dishes to celebrate her birthday. Compared to the usual moldy and coarse bread and bland porridge, its unique flavor was hard to forget. Although nowadays, she has no longer had to worry about not getting enough food to fill her belly, these days the food was always varied and plentiful, she still wanted to personally make this delicious food which could only be tasted in this small town in the western region and share it with Roland Wimbledon who was recently always so busy.
The flames in kitchen stove had already been extinguished, but to Anna, this didn’t pose any problem. She took some firewood from the side and threw it into the oven, and called her black flame, just a few moments later a vigorous fire already burned within its chamber.
At this time, Nightingale suddenly appeared from the wall, “Hey, what are you doing?”
“I want to make something to eat for His Highness, these days he is always staying up late to work. What about you?”
“Ahaha,” Nightingale began laughing in embarrassing, and touched the back of her head with her hand. “I just came to look for a snack to eat… I’m a little hungry.” After pausing for a moment, she curiously probed, “What are you planning to cook?”
“Well… honey baked mushrooms and mushroom soup,” Anna opened the bundle, revealing the Bird Beak Mushrooms inside, “They are Border Town’s regional specialty, do you want to try some?”
Nightingale nodded and then quickly asked, “Can you teach me how to make them?… I also wish to learn to cook them.”
“Yes,” Anna laughed, “It’s quite easy.”
