Charmed [✔]

21.2 ▌The Return of Destruction

Year 3988, 28th Day of the 9th Moon
Ember Isle, Fliamma Kingdom, Continent of Humana

DAYS CALMLY passed by and Aricson had recovered, or so Elise had heard. She had not visited ever since her talk with Dryann. She did not even bother about the Harbinger anymore and immersed herself in her experiments.

Yet that was not enough to ease her nerves. Slowly, fear had spread within her. Fear that she would be discarded once they knew everything. She swallowed the large lump on her throat simply imagining what would happen.

She was completely alone and had no one to tell all her worries. From what she had watched, the character who fell into another world was considered the heroine. She was not expecting to be one and was satisfied as a background character but who would have thought that she turned out to be a villain of this world?

"Elise!" Her attention was quickly caught by Faylinn who was rushing to her.

"Good afternoon," Elise greeted.

"Good afternoon. I heard you haven't been leaving the library. Are you that busy?"

She only nodded. The first step to distancing herself was not engaging in conversations. She gripped the stone pestle and pounded hard. She already found a compatible substitute for the light element and was on the verge of finalizing it but all the fleeting notions always distracted her.

It was weird when nothing could disrupt her when she was doing her past research before.

"You know... Is it just me or did I do something wrong to annoy you? I know my mouth could go on and on sometimes that I speak without thinking so did I offend you?"

"No, of course not," she quickly denied. "I'm just occupied at the moment and focusing on my experiments."

"I'm glad to hear that. It's not every day I meet a person I like for no reason at all." Faylinn's lips curved as she sat down opposite her where Aricson's study table was positioned.

"By the way, do you want to go with me to the salon tomorrow? My hair's pretty long and it's hard to train at this length even if I tie it up. We should go to Tide City in Vesfrost. My favorite salon's there!"

"I don't think I can," Elise said and lifted the mortar to display what she meant.

Faylinn sighed and propped her head on the table. "If I have hair like you, I won't even bother cutting my hair. It's so unfair that I did not inherit Mother's feature. Though, your hair's quite strange, to be honest. Why do your roots have all turned black? For an ombre prismatic hair, it usually alternates like Caian but yours is similar to Dryann and it should be consistent."

Elise had already stopped moving when Faylinn was midway through her speech. Her hair was not something she particularly took care of but recalling that this type of hair was for fairies and with Faylinn's observation, her hair was no way normal in this world. 'Maybe I should develop a natural dye?'

That idea was immediately swept off since she won't be staying anyway. She was sure she could dodge their suspicions in the remaining days.

"Oh, so Caian also has colored hair?" Elise pried, trying to swerve the topic. His hair had always been in a tight bun that she failed to notice that particular detail. It would be interesting to see mixed shades of hair in a man.

"You remember Caian?" A deep frown swiftly replaced her cheerful expression.

"Of course."

Faylinn's spine straightened, giving her a long peruse. "Are you cursed?"