Chapter 73 

“Now, isn’t that much better Miss Livia?” Beth says as she admires her handiwork. Not a single speck of dust or vermin was spared. Her spell of blessings was thorough as always and left the long-abandoned cottage gleaming in ways it had not in years.  

“...” 

“Miss Livia?” Beth turns around to find her lady staring up at the wooden roof. She turns her gaze upwards as well in confusion.   

“Is it done?” Amaya slowly re-enters the cottage with Liliana trailing after her.  

“Wow! It looks almost completely different now!” She compliments as she cuddles her white rat to her chest.  

“Now that I think about it,” Livia blinks, “I am pretty sure I had left those rats here intentionally.”  

Amaya balks, “What?”  

Livia lowers her gaze and levels it on Beth, “You didn’t kill them all, did you?”  

Beth blinks rapidly, “Well, no, Lad-Miss Livia. I just chased them away from this property. It was a spell of blessing, after all.”  

"It was disgusting to see them all scuttle by,” Amaya shudders, “I am going to have nightmares for months.”  

“Why?” Liliana tilts her head, “Because it was so sad to see the cute animals being chased from their home? Poor little guys.”  

Amaya just stares at her, “...no,” she says after a while. 

Liliana pouts, “I thought it was sad,” She then turns her attention to Beth, “By the way, what is a blessing? Was that the name of the spells you used?” 

Amaya replies before Beth can, “Cleanidah and Bani are the names. They are spells made up of blessings that are based on fate. It’s not one specific spell but more of a category of them,” She recites in a tone of boredom. 

Beth nods along and adds, “The stronger the faith, the more potent the spell. Such spells are limited though as they cannot violate the seven deadly sins and can never be fatal to any living being. Not many people proficient enough in magic to even use incantation are overly fond of Spells of Blessings in this day in age.” 

“Why not?” Liliana asks as she walks further into the room and takes a seat at the table beside her sister. She sits her rat, Dalilah, in her lap, “They seem cool! Look how fast it cleaned up this place!” 

Amaya stays near the doorway, stepping a few paces to the side to lean against it, “It's because of the restrictions they have on them. It does not help the fact that you need to have genuine faith in the gods to use them as well. There are much easier and less costly spells now.” 

“Ok,” Liliana obviously was still confused but simply decided to drop the subject for now, “So the little animals aren’t dead,” She repeats to her sister.  

“Good,” Livia says simply before turning her gaze upwards once more. Little Darek is not settled into the sling on her chest with a full tummy, his whole being focused on gnawing at the fabric.  

Beth stares at her in concern. She takes a step forward, her hand reaching out to the woman who seemed too lost in her own thoughts.  

 Liliana's stomach grumbles loudly. Her round chin drops down so she can stare at it in surprise.  

“Oh!” She exclaims, “I’m hungry.”  

Beth reluctantly returns her attention to the other lady in her care, “Yes, of course. It is getting close to brunch, isn’t it? Here, let me put something on. We still have some food leftover from last night.”  

Once she steps foot into the humble kitchen, she gets distracted with cooking. By the time she is setting down steaming plates of food on the table, Livia is nowhere to be seen.  

---

 

“Here you are.”  

Sen glances back to see Livia trekking toward him.  

“Beth fixed up some food,” she says as a way of greeting.  

“Hmn.” 

He returns his gaze to the garden before him. It was a small one with enough crops to feed a single person. It had the basic vegetables, herbs, and fruits, all growing within a season without a care. For all intents and purposes, it was just a normal garden that really shouldn’t have been of note.  

Only. 

“How long has it been since you’ve last been here?” Sen wonders aloud.  

Livia's gaze lands on the side of his face. It was deceivably lightweight.  

“In this lifetime?” She questions back airily.  

“Second,” Sen states.  

A thoughtful pause.  

“It's been some time,” Livia replies.  

He processes this bit of information. He takes a few seconds to translate the hidden, unspoken words before saying, “How is it possible that this garden has been maintained while you had been away?”  

Sen does not jump to any conclusions. Such insights were unneeded in his line of work. Most of his job had consisted of sitting and waiting at the right time and spot. The need to hunt and kill was not always required.  

“What are your other thoughts?”  

Even after all this time, patience was still not a thing that came easy to him. Sen crosses his arms and gives the woman next to him an annoyed side glance.  

Livia offers him a bright and false smile to further ramp up his irritation.  

“Well?” She coaxes.  

“The building...the design is a bit...foreign,” Sen begins in a curt tone.  

Livia nods along and begins to rock gently from side to side. On her chest, Darek starts to nod off once more. His tiny existence filters through four states; eating, sleeping, shitting, and staring intently.  

Sen's gaze lingers on the baby. 

He has had no interactions with the child since he helped Livia bring it into the world a month ago.   

He also has no particular feelings or thoughts for the son she has given birth to. Sen’s interactions with newly created beings have always been very limited, intentionally. Children were given the same treatment. 

Of course, that all ended when he found Noctis in the forest all those months ago. He even somehow managed to sit through all the childcare classes from Beth that Livia had deemed necessary with a straight face.  

Much to his (not) so secret relief, Sen has had no need to put any of it into practice. Between Livia, Beth, Liliana, and even Amaya at times, the child, Darek, was well taken care of.  

“Foreign how?” Livia's questions pull him out of his thoughts.  

Sen's gaze turns to the wooden structure she had just come from, “The windows.” 

Livia nods, “Yes, well, I might have gone a bit overboard with those. I hadn’t meant to make them so big and open. I prefer a more modern design.” 

“There is so much unused space,” he says.  

She shrugs, “Why not? It was only just me. And I always liked having an open floor plan.” 

Sen shrugs as well. It was a minor thing, the way the cottage looked. The triangle and rectangle-shaped windows that took up too much space and let in too much light could be a simple personal taste.  

What really bothered him though was, “The size.”  

“Ah.” 

“The size of the doorway is higher than it needs to be even for a human of higher-than-average height. “Same with the handle,” Sen explains, turning to face Livia. “I glanced inside. It isn’t only the door. The bookshelves, the kitchen, the table, the chair, everything is scaled.”  

Livia points behind him, “I thought we were just talking about the garden.”  

“It wasn’t scaled up enough of that of a true giant,” Sen says, ignoring the plants behind him, “but this cottage was not created to be used by your typical humanoid being.”  

She squints at him, “There are plenty of oversized humanoid beings in this world, Sen. Orcs and Goblins can grow to tower over humans, beast-men, and elves alike. And do not get me started with demon folk-” 

“Were you an orc or goblin, Livia?”  

Her mouth snaps shut. She looks rather offended.  

Sen's lips twitches.  

“No,” Livia says after an affronted pause, “I sure as hell was not!”  

“What then?” He asks.  

“Obviously not human,” She snaps before going suddenly quiet, staring down at her hands.  

“...” 

“Livia,” Sen prods after some time passes in silence.  

“The garden is charmed by a spell I created,” She replies, looking up and past him, “It keeps plants maintained here even when I am not present. No one personally tended it.”  

“Hmn.” 

Sen has hit a wall. He beats down his frustrations with practice ease and swallows his impatience. They will do him no good festering inside him, igniting his temper. At least, not anymore. Not with her.  

“You’re doing it again...”  

Sen looks up to see Livia walking away from him.  

“Come inside,” She calls back, “You skipped breakfast again, didn’t you?” 

He stares at the garden a little longer. A charm she had called it. His senses when it came to Old Ones’ magic were dull at best and absent entirely at worse. But even he could feel something from those plants. Something that was a lot more complicated than a simple charm. 

He frowns but turns to follow Livia inside. 

---