Hug Me and You'll Die

19: Is that something a human should say?!

As the velvety darkness of night slowly gave away to the soft glow of dawn, two carriages departed from the Fairbloom estate.

While the luxurious carriage in front was designed to fit up to six passengers, at present there were only three people seated inside: the two young masters of the Wilton family and the young mistress of the Fairbloom family.

In contrast to the bright and breathtaking of view of warm orange sunlight filtering through the succulent leaves of the trees beyond the carriage, there was a harsh and unforgiving expression on Desmia's face that was colder and darker than the eve of the winter solstice.

"Big sister, are you okay?" Since they were seated side by side, Ferris' soft and delicate voice was right by her ear.

If Desmia had turned to look at him she would have seen that traces of anxiety were visible on every feature of his beautiful little face, but she didn't turn, nor did she reply.

Notably, if she had honestly replied the answer to his question would've been a resounding, "No" as her current condition was the farthest thing away from okay. The primary reason for this could be summed down into two words: sleep deprivation.

In truth, as a personal protest against the Wilton brothers' presence across the hall from her room, Desmia had secretly spent most of the night before refining formulas in her lab instead of sleeping.

Although she knew that it was a childish and ultimately meaningless protest, as she had trouble falling asleep anyways, she figured that she might as well have been productive. And productive Desmia was as she had managed to develop two new concoctions through the course of the night.

Of course, as she wasn't keen on tiring herself out, what Desmia had originally planned on doing was sleeping in until noon the following day; however, her plans were ultimately thwarted when the earl arbitrarily decided that someone needed to represent their family in escorting Feidhelm to school and that that someone would be her.

This decision resulted in Desmia being forcibly woken up, washed, and dressed before sunrise—only two hours after she had finally crawled into bed—and then thrown onto a carriage while still mostly disoriented.

Because he was sitting across from them in the carriage, it was not difficult for Feidhelm to sense that the two children's moods were awful. This made him feel incredibly apologetic. "Ah, I should've been more against letting you two accompany me," he reflected in a low voice. "It's much too early for you two to be up and the distance isn't short when we consider that you'll be going all the way there and back. It'll be tiring. It would've been fine for me to go alone."

Meeting his brother's guilt-ridden gaze, Ferris hurriedly shook his head. "I won't be tired, big brother...I wanted to go with you...really really wanted to.... When school starts you won't be able to visit much so...so I wanted to be with you before you left.... but...." His voice drifted off as he turned back to the figure next to him that was gradually becoming more and more catatonic.

Feidhelm gathered his thoughts as he peered at Desmia. "Is there anything you're uncomfortable with, younger sister Marysol? Are you tired? If so, please feel free to sleep until we get there."

Despite the fact that his questions were met with dead silence, Feidhelm was undeterred in his inquiry. "Is it that you're hungry, younger sister Marysol?"

He gestured to the multitude of decorative silver footed dishes with covers spread out on the table between them. "If you are, then we have many snacks available. There are drinks as well if you're thirsty. In any case, if you tell us what's troubling you, we'll do everything we can to make you feel more at ease!"