Allure Of The Witch

The Weight Of Silence

It was dawn.

The sun was about to set down.

Around a small square dining table, all of them had sat somehow to have their meal. Aria looked around with blank eyes.

She had never been with so many people. It felt overwhelming as well as scary.

Her reverie broke when Rayan put a bowl filled with vegetable soup in front of her.

"Here!"

Aria nodded her head and bowed down her head to eat. She was very very hungry. Rayan was concerned when he saw her stuffing her mouth.

He put a glass of water near her bowl so that she won't choke.

The knights had been serving themselves but a few of them were also noticing their master's different behaviour.

Maxim and Tristan were those few people.

While Tristan looked slightly cold and indifferent to all this, Maxim had pure curiosity in his eyes as he looked at these interactions.

His features that had matured because of his age softened every time when he glanced at Aria.

Hence, when after satiating her hunger a little, Aria raised her head a little to look at the people sitting on the same table, Maxim gave her a very soft smile.

Aria blinked and then looked away hurriedly as if she was afraid of being caught.

In hurry, she tried to stuff her mouth again and hence choked on her food. As she coughed, Rayan shook her head and hurriedly passed her a glass of water while patting her back.

At this moment, except Tristan who had been a witness of such a scene before too, everyone else looked with a gaped mouth.

"Is it only me or His excellency is too gentle and nice with this girl?"

Eden whispered to Lenn in a very serious voice, without moving his eyes away from Rayan and Aria.

Though Lenn himself was slightly surprised, he never encouraged unnecessary gossips so he looked at Eden coldly and replied calmly as he picked the chopsticks to continue eating.

"It's just you."

Eden looked at Lenn with a bored look and then glanced at Tristan who was seated on his other side. With some certainty that Tristan would surely agree with him, he asked the same question from Tristan.

However, Eden was unaware of what had transpired with Tristan in the past few days. Even though he could see, Tristan didn't wish to accept what was going on. Hence replying to Eden's question, the former glared at the latter and said

"If there is a competition of uttering rubbish, you must win first place, isn't that so?"

Eden blinked in confusion, wondering why Tristan got angry at such a simple question. Then a moment later, his lips twitched and he asked with a disgusted look

"Don't tell me you are feeling jealous!"

Tristan's lips quivered in anger and he almost raised his hands to strangle Eden then and there, who smiled at him in mockery after finishing his words.

Fortunately, Magnus who had been silently witnessing this banter interfered and said in a gentle voice.

"You should be careful, Eden. Do you think His Excellency can't hear you?"

Eden's eyes widened slightly at these words and he immediately looked at Rayan. The table was small and being martial artists, they had good hearing and their master was only better than them in every aspect.

Eden wished to deny what Magnus said but he couldn't really do so when Rayan gave him a silent cold glance that said many things.

A shiver ran down his spine and Eden was completely silent after that.

Aria felt embarrassed for choking like that on her food and after that she didn't dare to raise her head again.

Her movements of eating also slowed down eventually.

"Does My Lady find the soup appetising?"

Maxim asked Aria gently.

Aria didn't understand a single word. She just heard a voice and curiously raised her head. When she saw the middle aged man looking at herself, she blinked in confusion and then looked at Rayan like a lost child.

And Rayan helped her out by telling Maxim.

"She doesn't understand our language. Her language is different...from Ulrik people too. Don't bother her."

Rayan said indifferently as he picked Aria's bowl to fill it up again.

She was very weak. She should eat more.

Aria, who didn't understand what he was saying, had another set of worries when she looked at the bowl filled up to the brim with soup.

How was she supposed to eat that much!

She looked at Rayan with worried eyes, who pretended as if he didn't understand what she was trying to sign.

Maxim didn't say anything but looked at Rayan silently for a moment and then said

"That's unfortunate."

Rayan didn't look at him and continued eating his own food.

The meal was mostly silent after that.

After finishing their food, all of them got up. One person washed the dishes, one cleaned the kitchen and two people made arrangements for sleeping inside the hut, knowing that they would be sleeping there only that day.

Maxim and Rayan were talking about something very serious in a corner of the hut.

Standing in the middle of the hut, Aria looked at everyone busy in their work and was confused if she was supposed to do anything.

Seeing that two people were making arrangements for the bed, she wanted to pick the wooden board to help them.

However, she had just touched it when Eden came there immediately and took it from her hands and shook his head firmly.

How could he let a lady work when they were there to do all this!

Rayan, who was silently observing Aria as Maxim told him something, looked at Eden with approval filled eyes.

However, Aria didn't understand these gentlemanly things of knights.

She was just confused as to why he took the wooden boards from her. Not having any answers, she walked towards the kitchen and picked the cloth to wipe the washed utensils. But as soon as she did so, a hand took away the utensils before she could pick it.

Aria stared at the man looking at her with a gentle smile on his lips. He then shook his head and took the cloth from her hand without touching her.

And like that, Magnus took this work from her.

Again, Aria looked at all of them helping each other and felt stifled inside her heart.

They...they didn't wish to include her. She shouldn't disturb them.

She bit her quivering lips and silently went inside her room.

She should just wait.

Wait for them to leave.

Leave her alone, like she was before.