Helen opened her eyes after what it felt like an eternity. Wooden ceiling greeted her sight, whereas the bitter smell of medicine assaulted her nose.

She sat up, pushing away the white blanket placed on top of her.

Multiple drug racks stood opposite of the room, while adjacent to her was a line of empty beds.

Colors had returned to the world, and birds chirped happily outside the window behind her.

Helen knew that the meeting with her mother was over for good.

"Mom…" Helen sat up.

She crumpled the blanket tight in frustration, that was when she suddenly felt a soft bulge from underneath the part next to her.

"Hn?"

Helen quickly yanked the blanket and there it revealed a blonde princess, curling up as she slept soundly.

"Catherine?"

"Hmnn…" Catherine mumbled in her sleep. Her eyelids trembled lightly as if getting annoyed at the sudden disturbance.

She pushed her body up with one hand and used the other to rub her eyes, which slowly parted open to see Helen's amused look.

"Helen!" Catherine quickly pounced to hug her friend tight. "I was sooo worried!"

"What are you doing here?" Helen asked, confounded. "Don't you have a class?"

"Teacher dismissed the class early some time ago after she finished teaching us magic for a bit." Catherine pouted. "Why are you passing out so suddenly like that?"

"Ah… that…" Helen hesitated.

She really wanted to share everything with her, but on the other hand, she was afraid that telling Catherine about it would damage their friendship.

"I don't know." Forcing a smile, Helen decided to lie. "Maybe I was just tired?"

"Hmm…" Catherine stared straight at Helen's eyes. "You're really bad at lying, you know."

"Uhuk-" Helen jerked her shoulder.

"You didn't look like you are tired one bit when you come running at me this morning," Catherine grumbled while crossing her arms. "So… are you going to tell me or not?"

"I…" Helen panicked, her brain turning over quickly in search for an excuse that was nowhere to be found.

The two stayed silent for some time, each second passed raised an unrest in Helen. She reconsidered on whether or not she should tell her the truth.

But Catherine's suddenly interrupted her thoughts. "Hey…"

"I was just teasing you." She began to giggle loudly, breaking off any tension between them just a short while ago. "I know you wouldn't know!"

"Eh?" Helen exclaimed dumbfoundedly.

"Teacher Alison said that you might have a special Mana passage in your body, which was why you passed out the moment you were able to sense them. She said that it's nothing dangerous and you might even have a hidden talent in Magic!"

"O- oh…" Helen just followed along, thinking that a convenient reason just came to help her.

"Hehehe, look at your stupid face!" Catherine squeezed Helen's head to her chest. "So cute!"

"Oof. Jeez~" Helen complained, trying to get away from her friend's clutch. "Stop it."

Height-wise, Catherine was almost one head taller than Helen. Thus, if they both stood up or sat down at the same time, it would be easy for Helen to land on Catherine's chest when they hugged each other.

Which was why…

Helen thought that she must seek every opportunity to hug Catherine while she was the only one standing!

"That's for what you did this morning!" Catherine stuck her tongue out as she let Helen go. "Anyways, that basket is yours right?" She pointed at a small basket covered in a white cloth on top of the table next to the bed.

"Right."

Helen crawled on the bed to fetch the basket. She lifted up the cloth and revealed the fluffy white bread underneath, which was still slightly warm to the touch.

"Wah, that sure is a fine bread! Your grandma made it?"

"No, an aunt from my neighborhood did." Helen shook her head, then proceed to tore off half of the bread chunks and passed it over to Catherine. "Here."

Looking at her friend, Catherine felt an urge to tease her once again. "Eh, you sure? It's okay for little girls should eat more!"

"Just go on and take it!" Helen said, her face flushed.

"Mkay then! Hehehe."

Both of them chatted and laughed together as they ate. By the time they were done, the sun had raised up high, signifying the mid-day.

"Hmmn! That bread was good." Catherine licked her lips with a delightful smile on her face. "What's the aunt's name? I can probably recommend her to my family!"

"Oh, she is called aunt Sera!" Helen replied.

"Do you happen to know her surname?" Catherine asked. After all, good bakeries were usually passed down for generations.

"Hmm… I don't think she ever talked about it." Helen placed a hand on her chin. "But long ago, I passed her some letters under the name Sera Veruff because the delivery bird mistook her address with mine."

"Sera Veruff?" Catherine frowned, she found out that the name was rather peculiar yet could not recall exactly why.

"What's wrong?" Helen tilted her head.

"Oh, it's nothing!" she decided to throw the thought to the back of her mind for now.

Catherine turned her body toward the edge of the bed. But, just as she was about to step down, something cold touched her hand.

"Hn?" Turning her head, she saw a round golden object next to her finger. "A pocket watch?"

Catherine lifted it up by its chain. She did not remember having one, so it must be…

"Is this yours, Helen?" The chains brought about a soft metallic chink as she waved the watch toward Helen's direction.

"Ah, yes!" Helen took the watch from Catherine and grasp it tightly in her hand -this was the only proof about her origin and the clue to her true family.

'I should ask grandma later…'

Helen took a closer look at the watch. It was not different than any other hunter-case pocket watches.

On its lid was a thin engraving of a wide tree, while the back part was nothing but a smooth surface. Weirdly enough, it did not have a time adjustment dial at the top part connected to the chain, only a small spring button was in its place.

Helen pressed the button and the lid popped open. She could not get any more flabbergasted now.

The watch only had one hand instead of two, which pointed straight at 12 o'clock. It did not seem to move either.

At first, she thought that it may be the hour-hand as it matched the current time, but she could not hear any ticking sound even when she put it next to her ear. The watch seemed to be defunct throughout.

"What a weird watch…" Catherine peered over Helen's shoulder.

"Yea…" Helen could not agree more. "My mother left it for me…"

"Ah!" Catherine lowered her head, thinking that she touched a sensitive topic. "I'm sorry."

"What are you getting sorry about? It's fine!" Helen giggled.

Closing the watch, Helen put it in her pocket, then went on to pick up the bread basket and stepped down from the bed. "Let's go! School is over right?"

She dashed out of the infirmary.

Catherine looked at Helen's back, her mind suddenly to wandered off as her face turned morose. No one knew what she was thinking about.

"Come on Catherine!" Helen's shout resounded from outside, obviously oblivious of Catherine's thoughts.

"Coming!"

Both of them proceed to walk out of the school grounds.

…

In a certain dark room at the corner of the city. Three hazy figures could be seen surrounding a person kneeling down to the head in front of them.

"Listen, you lowly thing," the left figure spoke. "We already gave you five men and two Divine artifacts, yet you still couldn't make it on time?!"

"HEEEEAAAHAHA! Shall we offer her as a sacrifice to our Lord?" the right figure screeched.

"Enough!" The middle figure yelled.

Hearing his voice, the other two instantly went silent as if afraid of earning his ire. "Two days… I will give you another two days to control it and tying up loose ends…"

The middle figure stood and lifted up his foot to step upon the bowing figure's head.

"You do know the punishment from a failure of an order at this level right?"

"YES! OF COURSE MY LORD! I WILL NOT FAIL AG-"

*BAM*

The figure lifted up his foot then step down again with a stronger force, causing the kneeling figure to kiss the ground hard.

"Shhh… speak quietly will do." After saying so, the figure took a step back and speak in a deeper voice, "Don't fail us this time."

The three figures vanished into like a smoke just as he finished, leaving the one sorry figure alone in the middle of the dark room.